T May, 1923 Nemesis BY MARY JOHNSTON HEY said that the man, a black man, had done the crime. Perhaps he had, perhaps he had not. The probabilities seem to indicate that he had, but it is not certain, was not certain then, and is not certain now. Those who conducted the lynching proceeded, of course, upon the assumption that he was guilty. His guilt might make a difference, and then again it might make no difference at all. In the way you take it, I mean. Cottonville, top crust, middle, and bottom, is a place of something like two thousand souls, counting in dogs. There are the big mill and the operatives' houses, long rows of them all alike and jammed together. There are the stores and two churches and the school and the doctor's office and the Y, including moving-pictures, and the nurse and the welfare-workereverything that the company puts in. If there were n't any company, there would n't be any Cottonville. Cottonville runs into Pleasantly, which was an old, out-of-the-way village when the Civil War armies manoeuvered in these parts. It is the No. 1 county seat, with an ancient brick court-house and jail and three churches and an old tavern-Bell's. The company's officers, with the doctor and the preachers and the lawyer and so forth, live in Pleasantly, in the old brick and frame-houses under big trees, sycamores and live-oaks and magnolias. There's a lot of crapemyrtle, all rosy pink in midsummer. The owners live neither in Pleasantly nor in Cottonville, but somewhere up North. But the upper crust, salary folk, live in Pleasantly. The country is flat, though on a clear day you may see hills in the distance. It is rich earth still. Cotton gets a big growth. The Choccawalla goes winding by and gives pretty good fishing. There are bayous, Big Bayou and Jessamine and Laurie's. The railroad is the X. & Y. It's a good enough country, hot in midsummer, frosty in winter, with often a skim of ice. It has its good points and its drawbacks, just like the rest. Once this region held big plantations, but they 've been cut up and sold. Every three or four miles you may come upon some old, rambling, Copyright, 1923, by THE CENTURY Co. All rights reserved. 3 |