Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Maf? ; ; W''C-n-' 1 3 I union and suburbs has 5 pr Y Y Y""^ Y T Y T "V * HT T m Y Y Y YY 2 UN,0N AND M,BURBS H*s I ISSSSS i I H H I \ I I 1 \ I I \/| H s KHti- capital of $260,000. Manilla- H I I H i H I I I H VI H H I m/ H H ? . . m Oil Mill, Furniture Mauuluclurlittr m ruizccl ot recta, Population 12,000. A A ^ ^ ^ J Jl_ ll A Jl V A. A X A M. A L JV * ??<? I'??^r Yard,, Water Works, 2 S' ' * VOL. LY. NO. 42. UNION, SOUTH CAROLINA, FR^AY, OCTOBER 20, 1905. ~ ?1.00 A YEAR: i Fia >k. Poake IB ? I ? Wm. A. Nicholson Union, Soutl PAY INTEF ? Time Certificate "THE CLANSMAN." ; Dramatic Delineation of 1 the Stirring Times in j South Carolina ? Dix- \ on's Historical Play < Dealing with nu mux : Days. | ''The Clansman,'' the dramatic \ <"> and soul-stirring story of Ku < Ji) Klux days in South Carolina was ] ~ played in Spartanburg last Friday \ night, and there were many ( Union people there to see the \ presentation of this much talked ] of play. The papers have been hilled i with commendation and con- j demnation of this play, and in , Columbia, when the play was j Presented there Saturday night, j isses greeted the author, Thomas j Dixon, when he ?came out in re- ( sponse to curtain calls to address \ the audience. The play has been , denounced as indecent and wrong in motive; and it has been called } an untrue picture and an over- ^ drawn statement of conditions as , they were in the times that tried , men's souls. \ INevertheless, to the spectators \ PRr' Df another generation tnart' that , which participated in those ter-. \ rible days of reconstruction, riot j and ruin, it was an impres- ^ sive lesson, rathe? than an appeal j to passion or prejudice. "The j Clansman" may be incorrect in \ historical details and in some ^ particulars it may be overdrawn; } but it is a powerful picture. It j shows vividly to the spectator ] the times and conditions which j necessitated the existence of the j Ku Klux Klan and it makes clear the fact, so often disputed, that . the Ku Klux was an organization , which upheld the law, instead of undermining it. No written his- 1 tory could so vividly explain the . cause of the creation of that ' wonderful band that saved the , A south from ruin and race war. 1 And even if the play be detri mental in certain elements let . this be said: above and beyond , all these things, it teaches the southerners of another generation to respect and revere the 1 calm courage and splendid self- 1 control of the men who risked 1 their lives to protect the honor 1 and integrity of the race that 1 had been trampled down by the 1 iron heel of tyrannical law and < cursed with the damnation of i negro domination. "The Clansman" teaches this ' generation of the terrors and of 1 the black horror that surrounded ( the people of the South as well i as of South Carolina in those dark days after the fortunes of i the Confederacy had fallen. It teaches them the lesson of remarkable self-control which restrained their fathers in the hour of persecution and kept them from exterminating the entire negro race from southern soil, and it proves beyond doubt that the Ku Klux Klan was not a gang of lawless, blood-thirsty, hot-headed men, but a body of law-abiding, peaceful and calm citizens who joined themselves together in a successful effort to restore law from chaos and to 8 natch away the white race from the grasp of the scalawag and the leopard. The story of the Clansman be^ gins with the election of Novem* ber 20, 1867, in the village of Piedmont, South Carolina. A motley crowd of negroes and carpet-baggers has gathered in the yard of the Cameron house. The returns from the election are brought in and the negroes exult' X- - ' & Son, Bankers, I | i Carolina, I c ?EST ON | ! :s of Deposit. ! * IS r s nver the fact that they have car- { ried the election by a large ma- \ jority. One of the negroes car- t ries around a ballot with a pic- r ture of a rat on it and another \ negro asks him what the rat v stands for and the old fellow as- { 3umes a grand air of knowledge \ and says, "Why, nigger, you } ioan no nuffin. Dat air rat stands c fer de raterfercation of the con- f stitution." William Pitt Shrimp, 0 -> ? ?u:i-_ ? -i - e a inilc ui <% Willie man, anu as a small in his principles as in his j 3tature, is elected governor and n Silas Lynch, an educated mullato, iieutenant-governor. Lynch con- t :rols Shrimp through threats of r sxposure and in that way holds ^ :he state government in his own lands. Shrimp, the. governor, ^ s evidently a representative of j, Pranklin J. Moses, governor dur- j ng reconstruction days. Stone- s nan, the radical leader and secret j, founder of the Black League, ^ really the Thaddeus Stevens of f] listory, is in the town in search a )f health. With him is his daugh- v ;er, Elsie, and they are boarding ^ svith Dr. Cameron, formerly a j very wealthy man. Elsie, who ^ lursed Ben Cameron during the r war, loves him, and when Stone- ^ nan discovers that the young r leople love each other he offers s Ben whom he greatly admired [ ;he leadership of the carpetbag t larty in the state. Ben takes j, ,he offer under consideration as le thinks that this may open the ? vay for him to best serve his t leople; but the posting of a proc- j amation by Stoneman announc- c ng that the United States troops a vere ordered to uphold marriages a between blacks and whites opens ^ lis eyes. He tears the procla- a nation into shreds and casts it r nto the teeth of Stoneman and ? Lynch. A very dramatic situation in ^ :his first scene is where Ben I Lameron, the young white man, t neets Silas Lynch, the negro r lieutenant-governor. They stare a it each other and slowly as if t jompelled by some instinctive f working of the soul the negro lifts Tiis hat to the white man as s if he knew in spite of himself g that the white man was his t superior. The second act is laid in the s parlor of the Cameron house, t Lynch has ordered that the house t be sold for the excessive taxes 1 that have accumulated during r the year just past. He intends i to buy it and turn the Camerons c out. The auction sale begins and a swarm of dirty negroes crowd t into the house. Elsie hears of a what is happening and comes in t time to outbid Lynch. Shrimp r enters with his colored troops \ and prompted by Lynch orders a that the white companies in the I c state disband. He demands the ? surrender of Ben's sword but Ben threatens to run it through him. General Forrest, the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, is present incognito and he whispers to Ben to submit as there is a better way. Shrimp then grandiloquently announces to the assembled blacks that they are the equals of white men. Old Nelse, the faithful servant of the Camerons, walks up to Shrimp and says: "Is I your equal?" He is assured that he is. Whereupon he promptly knocks down the governor, saying, "Take dat from your equal, den." ' [ The first scene of the third act j < is again in the yard of the Cameron house. It is the thirteenth j birthday of little Flora Cameron,11 a beautiful little girl with blue 1 eyes and the breath of roses in i her face. She is happy with her < gifts, playing in the garden.. j Behind the hedge is seen the, j slinking figure of Gus, the cap- 1 m :ain ol the black Guard. Quickly disappears as Ben comes on :he scene. Ben tells Flora to >tay in the house. A pretty love >cene between Elsie and Ben follows. Stoneman has told his laughter that Ben is the leader >f the Ku Klux Klan. She begs lim to give up the Clan, but he efuses; so that they say good)ye forever. Flora in the meanime has wandered away from he house and cannot be found, ier old mammy, Eve, goes to he spring and returns wailing vith the bonnet of the little girl. The alarm bell is rung. Men mrry to the search. On? of the nen tells Ben that Gus had been leen skulking along the river >ank and running, without cause, nto the woods. It is agreed that wo shots shall mean that the cirl is found alive; one, that she s dead. There is an agonizing vait. The old father prays on >ended knees that his baby shall >e be spared. A single shot is leard in the distance and the :urtain descends as the wretched ather falls prostrate upon the pound. The curtain rises again ind the shrouded figures of the Cu Klux on horseback dash cross the stage. The next scene is the cave of he Invisible Empire. In the nidst of the impressive ritual, he prisoner, Gus, is brought in, lowling with terror. The cave is lark and gloomy and everything 5 silent and weird. The Ku Clux stand there, silent, impasive, motionless, hidden utterly n their white shrouds across the ireasts of which are painted laming crosses, and their faces re concealed under high hoods vith eye-holes. Gus squirms on he floor before the white figures, n the weird light he grovels at he feet of his captors. His old naster steps forward, throws off lis hood, and exerts his old hyplotic influence on his former lave. The leader of the Ku Clux announces in impressive ones that absolute and convincng evidence must be had before he death of the accused can be irought about. Under the spell he negro tells how he followed i'lora to the spring, and how, beoming frightened at his appproach, she ran over the cliff nd was drowned. He is conlemned to death and Ben sends i courier on horseback to sumnon the Clan, so that every nefro in the State shall badisarmed. In the final act, which takes dace in the library of Silas jynch, Ben is placed until miliary arrest and Stoneman sum/X *-? n Kin ' rl r\ l ? r> r, r? i?* uUIID 1110 .uau^iiiui ad a wiLiie&s igainst him. When he refuses 0 listen to her pleadings, she reuses to testify against her lover. A very amusing feature of this cene is where two young negroes who have been placed in he Ku Klux cave as spies are irought out to tell what they aw. They are still scared and remble at the faintest sound, hough it is broad day time. Phey finally say they saw "white nens, more than ten feet high, 1 sitting on hosses higher dan le court house.'' Stoneman produces a proclamaion of martial law. Ben is led iway to prison and is condemned o death by a drum-head court nartial. Elsie returns to plead vith Lynch to grant a reprieve i is Shrimp has temporarily abdi-: sated and left the State. Lvnch I igrees to do so, but encouraged : >y her father's protestations of lis belief in the equality of the aces, he starts to ask her to narry him. Divining ^his pur>ose, she rushes to the door. It s locked, and she faints in her terror. Lynch summons his nefro guard. A violent knocking s heard. Elsie is carried into the adjoining room. Lynch )pens the door and Stoneman enters. He asks where his daughter is and Lynch tells him that jhe has gone. He then tells Itoffeman that he wishes to mar-1 L' J 1_A. CiA. _ y ins uaugnuer. oioneman s theories desert him and he becomes a living fury. i Elsie's scream is heard, and ;he old abolitionist draws his pistol and starts to shoot Lynch, but the negro tells him that a 3hot will be the signal of his daughter's death. He then tells the old man that his negro troops ire coming and that he will use them to force Elsie to marry him 0 \ iii ' t, " -^?2, a - | accMHng to the proclamation | whip in the first act Ben Cameron sore down. The troops are heattaiid in his despair, StonemaArns to shoot Lynch, althoiwh it means his daughter's deafly better than a worse fate. The?Saor busts open and the Ku Kluraavith Ben at their head, rush^iflto the room. Elsie and Ben-alfcreunited, and Stoneman says tjWt he will make one more appefflto the government at Washington. " 'Tnat the army be withdrawn and water be allowed to see its level." Thus ends the is a powerful and dramatic p|<mfrre and one that will never be ^rgotten by the spectator. (jjftyprnnr Upiiu/^nH n?ec_ ? ? T,?.. ?1VI TTUI U f UJO" es Through. Accompanied by Mr. August Kohh of the News and Courier, Governor D. C. Heyward cafne through Union on Saturday morning on his way to Greenville to attend the meeting of the Standard Warehouse Company of which lie was elected president. The governor is the same affable <ind pleasant gentleman that he hies always been andia emiling in the same old way. He shook hands with a great many friends and the by-standers noticed that he ^ras just as friendly and pleasant to the cotton mill operative who came up ?to greet him as he was to the banker who was standing by. The governor does not think that the presentation of "The Clansman"' will do any good and it is certain that the play will not receive his commendation. The many who have watched Governor Heyward's successful political career will regret to know that after all it promises to be meteoric, for it has been stated on good authority that he will' retire at the expiration of his tcsm to enter into the more lucrative pursuit of business affairs. In different quarters it has been asserted that the governor would.-make the race against either Tillman or Latimer for the United States senate and there have been many who believed that he would win the battle of the ballots. Heyward is a strong and popular man and the circumstances are not favorable to either of bis OOSsihlA nnfamY\r?iafe at this time. It seems now, however that politics in the Palmetto state will lose a strong figure and commercial life gain an excellent and successful business man. "Malonev's Wedding/* The local theatre season opened iast Thursday night when Murphy and Mack and company presented Maloney's Wedding, a ridiculous farce which kept the house laughing the greater part of the time. Several of the topical and popular songs made hits and there were many funny situations in the play. The opera house was crowded. Killed With a Stick. Friday morning, the 13th inst., Orange Smith and Burris Bell were picking cotton in the field of Mrs. A. E. Pruitt near Fair Forest creek. It seems that these two boys got into an altercation about a small matter and Orange Smith lin a omoll ofJnl-r Miiovi* |yaw?kv\4 Mf/ U OIIIUI1 OtIVI\ and struck Burris Bell on the back of the neck and killed him. Orange says that they were playing and that the killing was an accident. Magistrate Wade H. Howell held the inquest and issued his warrant for Orange Smith. Smith is now in jail. The Bell family ^feems to have been unfortunate this year, as there has been several deaths in the family. Jim Bell the father was shot some weeks ago by one , of his own sons, from which wound he has not yet recovered. .Tim Rpll lnuf hia luifo onrl tV\?no -vmv aasw n ?iV MUU VIII ^ daughters all dying in a short time of each other. This family of negroes have always been .considered good tenants and have been working on the plantations of Col. Glenn D. Peake and Mr. C. H. Peake for several years. The loss of good tenants these days is a great loss to the land owners, because this class is scarce in this county. g?-? F. M. FARR, President. T 1 Merchants and Plai Successfully Doing Busi is the OLD K8T ltunk in 9 G Iiuh n capital ntul sui-plt fl 9 is the on'NATIONAL J B has pai . dividends am SB 3 pays rODK per cent. is tb j only Ilanlc in Unl I has Hurtflar-Proof vaul V pa ,8 more taxes than A WE EARNESTLY SOL Miss Grimball's Recital. The recital given by Miss Elizabeth Grimball, who was in the city on Friday night, was an eminent success in every way, and all who heard her were delighted as all her audiences have always been. Miss Grimball is a graduate of the Boston School of Oratory and Expression and is without her equal in South Carolina in her work. At one time she held the chair of expression at Converse College and won an enviable reputation for herself I fV^AV/\ The selections rendered were beautifully done, and with that art which reminds one of the saying. "It is an art to conceal art," and so natural was her delivery and her manner that this was very evident. Her first number was ' 'An Old Sweetheart of Mine'' by James Whitcomb Riley, and she rendered this masterpiece of reminiscent sentiment with rare charm and exquisite grace. The other numbers, equally as good, were "The Woman in the Shoe Shop. " "The Sisterly Scheme," "The Night Run of the Overland," and the "Bird'sBanquet.'' The Union Choral Club assisted Miss Grimball, accompanied by piano and violins. Two choruses were well rendered and there was a duet from "Isabella" by Mrs. J. W. Hunter and Mr. Ben F. Townsend. The male quartet, Messrs. Thos. McNally, B. F. Townsend, Jas. Powell and G. K. Jordan, and the violin duo by Misses Marie Clifford and Annie Rodger, were attractive and excellent features of the evening's entertainment. The proceeds, which netted a nice sum, will go to the fund raised to erect a Confederate monument in the city. Blind Tigers Burn the Wind. Policeman Ward saw two negroes getting off the train Sunday night with some suspicious looking jugs, and he started after them but could not catch up with them. They saw their pursuer and started Hying. Policeman Ward, to scare them, fired his pistol over their heads, but the frightened negroes fled, and judging from the police reports in regard to being unable to find the negroes, they must be running yet. New Restaurant. Messrs. Douglass Harris and Jack Smith have opened recently an up-to-date restaurant and oyster parlor next door to 1*. W. Tinsley's store and they are serving there the very best of oysters and other good things to eat. Everything is kept clean and neat and the restaurant is a welcome addition. Manager Pant. The campus correspondence from the South Carolina College to The State announces that Mr. ! J. Roy Fant of this city, has been I chosen manager of the senior class football team at that institution. Union Men Honored. Messrs. W. E. Thomson and| J. D. Arthur of this city have j been appointed by Governor Hey- j ! ward as delegates to the Ameri | can Mining Congress which meets at El Paso, Texas, November 1418, inclusive. Quite a number of other prominent South Carolini-1 i ans have been similarly honored. ?????a J. D. ARTHUR, Cashier. I 3 E g liters National Bank, ness at the "Old Stand." i Union, is of SltfJ.ono, i linnk in Union. onntiiitf to $3*1.400, interest on deposits. on inspected by an oiJieer, t, and Safe with Time-Lock, LL the Hunks in Union combined. ICIT YOUR BUSINESS. en annonDnMnHi South Carolina Day. Sometime ago. at the request of a gentleman deeply interested in educational work in the city and county, we investigated the date of South Carolina day and the object which it commemorates and a letter from Secretary Salley of the State Historical Commission, declared that the day was June 28, celebrating the battle of Fort Moultrie, the first victory of the Revolution. Some doubt still remained as to the nature of the day, it being claimed that it might probably be the South Carolina memorial day, and the matter was again referred to the ^FTlT'lripi i inUii , dent of Education for his decis- ?. ion. The question has been asked on the county teacher's examinations all over the State. Superintendent Martin concurred in the opinion of Secretary Salley, but referred the matter for final decision to Editor Ilartwell M. Ayer, of the Florence Times, who as a member of the State Board of Education had prepared the questions. A letter was written to Mr. Ayer and we append an extract from his courteous and decisive communication. "I have been really surprised to find out how many of our teachers, whom I thought in a position to know well what was called South Carolina day did not know. The day is June 28 and celebrates the first signal victory of the American revolution. The day is celebrated in most sections of the State, and by South Carolina societies generally. I was under the impression that Mrs. Leq in her history so called the day, but she does not and has the date wrong." ^1-- ?*1 * .Lino acttics uie matter unci proves that South Carolina Day is June 2s. Financial Condition of Union County. The following statement will 1)2 of interest to whose who are keeping up with the financial welfare of the county. It was furnished us by Mr. G. B. Wilburn, Chairman of the County Board of Commissioners. Statement of financial condition of Union County for 1904 after annual settlement. Roads of 1904 paid up in full amount of ordinary county indebtedness carried over from 1904. Notes of J. I). Graham ^ J j 1. /In-* / /*A /V/v mHI interest Notes of Sinking Fund, (County) 3,00^.00 Notes of J. M. Bennett 1,509.00 Notes of Miss Sue Jeter and others 2.918.71 Total $9,578.71 To amount of ordinary county funds on hand at time of settlement $3,971.98 Amount of indebtedness ordinary county $5,606.73 Unusual Intoxication. j It is said that a negro who was ! recently arrested for intoxication used a very unusual plea, declaring that he had kept shy of the blind tigers and the peripatetic booze porters, but that he had taken an overdose of the new medicine "Checkers" which caused him to get a heavy fall joft the water wagon. His was indeed a checkered career.