Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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¥> •- ' ' >> , ,W . .. ,... . ( . ,,, ,. . ■p* v. • .. *• t I : * v .. yi: mm Dll. JACOBS AND < By James Henry Rice, Jr. iaa. flf .thfl aqualoi. Jgi'ilgh£la£g9^.^’.ll>: The Life of William Plainer Jacobs. By Thornwell Jacobs, A. M., L. L. Or Fleming H. R^vell Company, New York and London; pp. 277. Prom the publishers. -44r, -Jacobs- Jet+er-ved t-o- hav^dtrs ltfe written. On the whole, it was well that the first attempt should tiave come froin lijs son, who bus made a readable vol ume, albeit he might have made a better by stuffing it with more facts from a life, richly freighted, with them,’‘and by Remitting deductions and observations which an intelligent reader can best niaike for himself. Dr. Jacobs of all men needed no literary adornment to recder his life interesting.- In itself it is more'/aaeinating than romance; or, one might say, it is itself romance, emanating from the heart and brain of a tireless worker, who sought resfilts and got them -in the noblest field to which man can devoffe l,iis attention, that of doing good to the helpless. The Apostle says: ‘ ‘ Pure religiW Mid lence', of the little village arjiur the fed hills, as if whs then. Today there is no c’eaner, saner, healthier t<vvu within tUfi-confiiK's of/the country. Coiiditlons at Cliatoiv Forty-Odd Years .. Ago. • The coiam(unity was, poor; the coun- tywas poor; the whole State lay under n °A satisfied that* she had dom* a ban of poverty and oppression.. Men scarcely dared call- their lives their own. The cftmet-bf ggCTS and the negro State, backed ruled the State, backed by Federal bayonets, supported by ebullient fanati cism at the North. ""Only those old enough to remember a Laurens crowd in action forty-odd years ago; when the fixes of patriotism and the pride of race were set ablaze with whiskey, can understalid the coifdition Dr. Jacobs fouiM at Clinton.' If there were a place in the whole world le** fitted for the esfabrisliiiH 7 fir-^Tf : 'n^~ntTtih y '-(dTm'hy mr man-could'nanuv it. But here he came ; here ho-stopped; and licru- liu_fmauled noble and ns fertile in good works as any .the world can boast. ' : Among the visitors’at Locust Grove, our faihily ’a % ifp?Ountry home forty-five years ago, was. a rpiief m in v who drove J in from Clintoii, jogging almigAhe roads in his biiggy, aLvnys on business and i« tins, to visit -tTi’e fatherless'aiuT'wuFt o”s iii their affliction* and to keep him self unspotted from the world. * * Here, in modern times, is an example worthy of the putrinrebi#! ages, . 1; M-th—HW-tinvell Jacot'S hrfs cur- tailed where he might have expanded, nevertheless, he has done a fine thing and done.it well. His devotion to his oistingmslicd father shines through his work. The book -is rforth anybody's Miile to read.. T); rar ■st lunar.:r quality.,is nnselfis’ (ivo'ion: it was-pever rarer than .now, --range as it seems, when charities are carried on wholesale. But modern ctfarities have q commercial substratum — a liab.ylcmish garment, tucked away iu the tent. We feed the Gtninaus that they may pay. We entered the war to make the world safe for ourselves, then safe for democ-incy, mrr doctrines, ft nth alvavs welcome. Ho came like a zephy, bringing peace and rest, and leaving an influence v that stuck. Sometime?-ho preacked for us.in,the little church at Ninety-Six, wkeje, now all the elder's sleep, awaiting "the Resurrection. He was notmyi eloquent preacher-^—far oth- baopened. Just w^at,nobody knew, but i form .was-doneulsed, the voice, grew deadly in earnest. U'was, as we knew afterward; when the subject had* long pondered and discussed in awed tones,, k.SMM.Wfl.A ■iho *T- *+- nM>M' With his G<>d. talking face ' to, face 1’fotcstant, tk^olic, belie/er'und i nbeliever, conressed earned to the or Sirs: rphanage. mr ormiCK, 0/ Chicago, jr.Trned through her pastor, yho had visited South Carolina, of the work and she sent down her architect to erect a building; which was done. Being in vited to come down, she expressed her self satisfied with'what had .been done, enough; so another building was built, Yet later, (When her son married Edith Rockefeller; she had a,building erected, as a wedding gift, kuown as the Home for - Girls. In the dedicatory ser mon Dr. Thornwell called it ■*‘ A wed ding gift more enduring than the ages. ’ ’ The Work Continued to Grow. • Anri so the work grew, building fol lowing building, nnd^ver more orphans being cared for. Dr. Jacobs was ‘the originator of this idea, at least in the Souths qtamej^; that •orphans were en-, titled tq-tbe bestr They were GcwVv wmbv and it was a debt we owed to Him; it must 1m' discharged to tTie ut- PMi , The love the children bore to Dr. Jacobs vvas'woinleirfiiL ' lie was a father ta'thom ( all. In course of time a college grew out of the oYphanage, and is now the Pres byterian College of, South Carolina, a flourishing institution. Would Sake Volumes to Tell the , Story. One might go on and on. Not 011c, but nvmy» volumes wopld be required to give the whole story, ‘but this is show what manner -of-mau Dr. Jacobs' was; and some day there will by another biography, for men most. In season ami untof season Dr. Jacobs called for what a man had to give. In ally event the man could give hitbself, and he shouted. Having preached a sermon along thin line one night, -and laying stress on the point, he found a tramp next morning awaiting him at Doctor, you said last night the door. that n man could 'give* himself, if he had nothing else: That is my case. I come for orders, ’ ’ / Orders he got forthwith, without a minute's lost .time. The man was Tom Sseott, a native of London. . He be opwisfr-—but when, he prgyed samethiug jiuuiager of the faria aiuL of the >gronuds, and a wonderful manager he ■iswFWWl^ sage, smote'through the ragged breast of the tramp and reached his heart. Oik* might truly'say that-the hand of the Lord reached out and took him in, VttsHg" hrir to ivuik in 'Hip vliii'yitr'.T.' At first, and for long years, Mrs. lew quid Gentile, j Jacobs became matron to the orplianage ikt I until her sweet life ended. that here was a man, serving his Maker, j Dr. Jacobs was dev( ted his church,. but in his work he knew no sect, and* he was trusted implicitly by all. The “Story” of His Work. T.Venyv-five years ago Dr. Jacobs, in his study at Ciinton, tohl me the ssory of his work from end to end, which ; now *his son has repeated with loving care, (although he might have said much more, for there is nmeh morc' to tcil,)- Weed such astory fold in fullf hnd it can not be told too often; especially at a trtne when greed has gripped the world so-tight and hard that there is a harvest of blooW and flame swathing the globe, followed by hate and fury and unbridled passions, whose end man -may. not foretell. ■ . The conflagration, quenched on .the battlefield, may break'*out any day in any part of the world. We do not know, indeed is breaking out. • Since Dr. Jacobs began his work, the stalwart yeomanry -of the up-c6untry has given way* to the tradesman and the manufacturer.. The -Piedmont is not.producing great'thinkers as of old; of which there are sinister signs. Tlig churches appear to have gone daft and wander ui stronger fields, bowing be fore strange gods. The horizon is clouded, Strange portents! Cryptic signs! dnriOjiis wall writing, with no Daniel to interpret. It seems to'have been forgotten that the old prophet and the little lad, shut up in the eitv, have, with them mofi about. Democratic formulas can not stop the witches’ dance amohg the nations; nor are they antidotes to the devil’s brew owMiinuTd 'bV’TTie. enmiren firWiTT TKe end of all which, we say, no man knows. What we do know- is that the faith of the ages is just as potent as it ever m*mm was. God [ ^ Vord iike^sg.glfl IXtttel, -The wonu has owed its safety event. : ppnMp^ ov more thafi once to a return to the altar and to humble contrition before .thv Judge of all the earth, who Spares us yet. ■ ^ “The tumult .and the shouting dies:"" yea, ‘ verity! Nullification, secessien, rccon.st rm t ion, political- upheavals among us.* e 80 also shall pass aveay this fallowing after; the-“traditions^ of men." . Tjie awful necessity—the BffMftlftf of self-preservation laid on the' world -^-will yet compel a return to reliance on the promises of Qod r to an observ ance of- His laws, to a. .study of His written word. There is no escape from it. Well that there is not. If left to man' and his devices the world would soon, within an incredibly short time, become a shambles, jia much of it now ist, o ' Tty.ds neither'from the tyranny of kings nor from the rascality of mobs that deliverance’ is to be had. Not in the form, but in the spirit insist thc.re be change. -\ ~ ' His Life Shines Like a Star. ' So, shining like a star amid the gloom of the dark time of reconstruction in South Carolina, is the life of the genUe preacher, who, led by faith and fed on prayer, did so noble 4 work-for the widow and the orphan; set so splendid an example to his own and other churches, and to the people throughout the land. . Of all that he collected, he would, retain not a cent for himself, and to the end ref used- tu accept a salary above what lu-ia-l (iyst.rerpive.l as paatoi- artffi'iflr connfry rlmreh. Call after call » - - - After these years he sleeps beside the wife of his youth. The record is finished,'glorious, beautififl, beyond any mgu’s language to express; for there -was that in it that shdne out from a land to which we journey and on which our diopes are set. . “Fast by that city, where, tideless, sleep the Saints of God,’’ South Caro- liua has no prouder claim on the affec.- tions of manknid than that it produeed dates. tiu’Jt-fwJm .that' William Plumer Jacobs. James Henry Rice, Jr. • EDITOR’S NOT^l—Th!#- interesting sketch life of the late and be loved “Dr. W. P. Jacobs, appeared in Sunday’s issue of The News & Courier. The author, Jarue^llenry Rlee, resides in Beaufbrt and is one of^the State’s most fluent -Writers. When you iifcal any thing. in the tine of neat and attractive Wamili & cairn 1 to hLm N ' Time and again hia con- gresmtion, grown, in wealth under his guinauce, sought to force something on him^pnly to met bv stern refusal unfil on pne, momentous occasion hq poured out his, heart in passionate pro test that he should be rated in terms of money; and the offense was never re- Flies Cured In 6 to 14 Days Druggists refund money If PAZO OINTMENT fail*, to cure Itching, Blind, Bleeding or Protruding Piks. Instantly relieves Itching Piles, and you cn'f gat restful sleep after the first application. Pi ice 60c. lastly, fpf humanity—two-thirds of the -footivo selfish. Mettemich said Napo- leofi could not believe man ever acted from any motive" but self-interest; he fmrrrTLit a working theory.—It was his best to ser.ve the institution, and, lack ing menus to give-itAvlud- l ■wiohed, de grievous loss that he failed to meet and recognize .-the higher qualities of men and women. It must be remembered that Napoleon aruso amid the spasmodic .oiUworkiiigs of democracy and was in- ifeed the' high priost of inodcrn ileuioir" racy: the foe to monarchy jind aristoc racy, and the world’s experience shows that de i;jk racies breed selfishness. “ Ri-piildics fi+e miyratefid” is Iftit’au- otlu .- fon.i of the expression. But; on Ids lein-ly islan 1 prison, ,when ‘he was forgotten-, by his deitt'o- evat ic a^soeia-t-e^ a noble - English wom an and* ce.taiii nobie -Fi-epeh.ifen, with an equally ii dile It'.slr nhvsician; taught him. at last that unsclfishmss did ex ist. It came about in this way: As (’hrist- nms drew near 1 was thinking of how termined to bend the power of the press, as far as I could wield it, to the service of the orphanage—an idea that met the approval of Dr. Jacobs. So I went to Clinton and put up with him, going over it all, hearing the tale, seeing the sights and then,came home with what the newspaper men'call “the story.” ^ It hnioght responses from far and near and th*e orphanage received far more than it would ever be in my power to give, though less than it deserved. In reproducing the article i)r. Jacobs insisted that all-reference to himself 1tc~ d cl ct cd. *a tid frtntHy had_h i* way. Mr. Thornvvcdl Jacobs has omitted {Tome details, as related by Dr. Jacobs. jemm ■ Bora in Charleston.—-j .. Dr. Jacobs was bojn in Yorkville, but —spent btsyotrt-h hrl'haiiestoii, girt about -byacH up under y. lUgtew. shadow of St. bred within the the very Michael’s. He was pale of the sternest of all aristocratic churches, the Southern Presbyterian, whose unbending will did more to make a breach with the North than all other causes; a church, moreover, that fur- fe ns8hcd the strongest writers and most &*pa88ioned orators, whose training had J b. r '®ncd.-Calhoun .withJiis. logic. _ T \. Again, no city of its size in America, perhaps none of equal size ih the world, carries on so much work for pure char ity, than this same eity of Charleston. - • None has ever furnished more men per capital to the defense of the.country. No city iii the country has suffered more; one has risen from suffering and trial -with- more self relmut dctermiiiw tion. Vilmjed, abused,- her name band- From Ids relation, as pub’fcdiod ad the tilin' in The State, January 10, 1807, the following is quoted: (In L872 he had written to Dr. John B, Adger for atlviee as to the care of orphans). “The’reply was characterV tie of Dr. Adger *a broad mind, ije “The man who feels the need w-rote: rrf any .work; be- drimsHf is the one to d othat work.’ Dr. Jacobs modestly says this set him to thinking. Until the 8th of January, 1873, all the work was carried 011 by the session of the Clinton church, but the board" of visit ors of the Thornwell Orphanage was organized at the first meeting (Jan uary 8, 1873).“ . lir. Jacobs says: — “I remember as though if were but yesterday the assembly of the band of workers in my parlor. The plan was presented. The time came, to vote on it. It was a s.Join'll moment. I told the brethren present that if they voted aye it meant that 1 and they must cast iff our lot, together for life; that we were the / least among the thousands of tsrnrtr"that neither pastor nor peft* \ iltlMK Coat Suits, Dresses, JeiI"’aboiit7 snffeFihg" for the sins of - aliens that took possession of her when most of her defenders wore dead and kit her people prostrate: Charleston * sur vives as a cheerful auirtcSsmlerfifl il lustration of the cavaliers that founded it and of the Huguenots that later en riched its life. In this city, when its glory* was brightest, its prosperity ' greatest' and its culture most persuasive and uplift ing, William Pltamer Jacobs was horn. $is first education was received there, and hence his deepest impression?. My father said to me once: “Taking them at their best, the citizens of Charleston are the noblest body of citi zens on the continent.” This was a good whiW ago and thel'standard may have suffered in the hwsages of mod ern life; but the standard waves, and iile4t does there is always hope that Jharleston will equal again her fairest' record of the past. . Reported the Democratic Convention - .of 186a — 1 _.L now open 7 Our showing of Spring Coats is complet e in all colors and in repsi serges and crepe effect Price J2ft to &S5. * On the eve of the great War Between the States* Dr. Jacob had attained man hood. ’He reported the Democratic £on- venfion of 1860, the meeting of the State • -“Legislature later and lastly the Seces- sion convention—rich experiences truly. All the while he was quietly studying problems that arose. In 1858 he had beeome convinced that slavery - was wrong* and at.first his sympathy was altogether with the Union, only to th&nge later, on hearing of divers atrocb ties; all which belongs to the.history of the time. Following his bent (.he had joined the church some time before , be pie were known -to.-tlnr church; that our poor little congregation was strug gling for very life, having just called its pastor for- ali his time, an'd that we must look forward do years of unremit ting toil. There was this’to.encourage: The cause was one upon which we could ask Goil’q blessmg, and, assured ly if*we asked, we should receive. The vote . was taken. Each ~one present voted aye, and our dear Brother Bell said: ‘Now, Brethren, forward.’ “ One of the earliest circulars for help contained the following:. “Dear Friend: Wherever you may i be pray for the success of our orphanage. If you, cannot give silver and gold, give at least your prayer. If you pray aright God will turn these prayers of yours to silver and gold, for He has the treas ury, and He is the God of the father less.” . “ * v . Jacobs’ Folly Kuown at first as “Jacobs’ Folly,” the institution thus founded hafc amply 1 vindicated the foresight df its founder and the faith by which it lived. . From the first if TivCdby faith; to the last it lived by faith, of which there are thous amis of examples; scores of which are «aa Spring Suits to please your taste, a serges, and crepe effects at ft20 to &40. _ erent m reps, *F kuown to me. When Dr. Jacobs returned from Eu rope, where he had been sent for his health, he found the treasury empty and the institution in debt. k The board was in session; they had reached an impasa. *N.. ‘ ‘ What • on earth are you going to do, Dr. Jacobs!”-the president asked ><T am vSLht almas! > > *aa wl I A full line of Skirts in the different to . shades, Silks and Wool at •, i ... • • . Silk -Presses that are different in S18.50 to &40.00. effect and jn. different colors, Waists in Georgette and crepe-de-chine, different shades at S4.50 toMOO. LWash Waists L5Q to J4.50, - Silk Petticoats in taffeta to S7.50. \ jersey, all the different shades at :$2.75 .,1 passed through the Southern Theologi- . Whereupon Mr. Bailey offered to ad- ftcminarv in fiolumhia. ami wnn »a/r vanre m< , ne y for a month’s maintenance •7 fm ca\ Seminary in Columbia, and was ad/ Bitted t6 the ministry. * Long before this, however, he hqd Spent much Of his youth with friends Ott Edisto and rated his experience' as amongst he mnat fnq^fnl nf hi« Ilfo, fta well he might. A youth who had the - Tvei, one incident fraught with pathos; J] Ma-a Vk 1 ••• 4 • ml A. 1 A. — J! A 1. _ ^ \ ' AAl _ ** 1- I ' V f i * 1 t ? _ double privilege of being bred in Charleston and of associating with the planters on Edisto in their hqbies was surety, well equipped, for any conflict in tht world outside. , Hence, beyond (question, was derived jhis gentleness of Banner and speech; he Went forth a rinan as well as a Christian (and I am going right ahead,y'said P*., Jacobs. “This is God’s work and He) will provide for it. on Dr. Jacobs’ note. At the end of the month the debt was paid, the treas ury contained eight thousand dollars and the work went Jn. Dr. Thornwell Jacobs does tell, how- New shipment of Wash Skirt Goods, Ginghams, figured, voiles, laces* and Dove Uttdermuslins. Visit ourJ)ry Goods Department. are truly the same thing). • / b, led tgr a faith , due course .of time aever faltered, he reached the of his life work,'Clinton, in the of Laurens. He has often told that of the little orphan boy, Willie Anderson, who standing at his widowed mother’s knee, when.the orphanage was being discussed, came over to Pr. 1 Jatqbs, put his arni around the doctor’s neck and extending his hand, opened it, showing a silver half dollar. It was his worldly possession in those days,! even among men, and he gave it to the orphanage. -d,‘It was the first drop 6f\ the silver shower,” said Dr. Jacobs.| The boy became a mill president in Ala bama and continued^to give \ half he I Special Prices On Winter Coats .Clinton, Winter - Goat Suits Half Price A South Carolina, i , - ONE PRICE TO ALL Phone 47 tti A S' - V jv, V * .. y • V -F.' vVa ' -4 > N. 1 A „ ’V