From the Thursday, July 16, 1914, issue of the
High Point Review
By W.L. Stamey,
Editor and Publisher
The vampire fattens on the blood of its victim, so does the
human vampire, but of the two the human vampire is 10 times the worse, because
he knows better. Take the town vampire and look him over and think what a
terrible thing he is, how loathsome to look at; think of the widows and orphans
he has drawn the life’s blood from by his strategy; of the homes he has
destroyed because his money-fingers clutched unmercifully at the throats of
those who could not help themselves at the time but who could have come to the
surface had they been given an opportunity. Think of the deep stabs inflicted
by the backhand movement, of the heartaches and desperation caused by this
heartless wretch, the fiend incarnate, who strolls the streets by day and lays
awake at night scheming to rob and destroy his fellow man, to get an undue
advantage of this or that fellow. He becomes rich, yes, but he fattens off of
his poor unfortunate victims; he prospers and is looked up to by those who
consider money the standard of character, but there comes a time, a time when
the scores of people he has sent to an untimely grave, of those whose lives and
homes have been made desolate by his iron hand, all of whom rise up before him
like a thousand ghosts to destroy his soul and he retired from the state of
action and sinks into the bottomless pit of destruction, to add his gnashing of
teeth to the countless thousands that have preceded him. There is retribution
in life just as surely as there is life itself and it comes sooner or later and
if one included to such dirty tactics could stop for a few moments and take
inventory the tale would perhaps be different. The question resolves itself
into a solemn fact, “what’s the use of it all, what’s the use to destroy your
fellow man when God put you here to help mankind” not simply to eke out a
miserable existence but to be of real service. As in all other towns of any
size High Point has a few such vampires and they are marked and sooner or later
will reap the same reward.
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