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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Editor Criticizes Rich "Human Vampire" in High Point, 1914

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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