University of South Carolina Libraries
ESTABLISHED 1844. The Press ancl Banner ABBEVILLE, S. C. H. G. CLARK, Editor. The Press and Banner Company Pubished Every Tuesday and Friday. Telephone No. 10. Entered as second-class mail matter at post office ^ in Abbeville, S. C. *' Terms of Subscription: One year .. $^.00 1 AA Six months i.w Three months .60 Payable invariably in advance. ' FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1910. REFLECTIONS ON CHRISTMAS. Christmas again?and Santa Claus. Last week to the young folks Christmas seemed a million miles away. Today the tiny hands throughout the land ere emptying their well-filled stockings and joy reigns supreme. In spite of all our felicitations there comes occasionally a tinge of sadness through all the sweetness which is hard to explain. It may be that we realize our shortcomings in the year that is closing, it may be that we are wondering whether everybody else is as happy as we are, anyway, the feeling will creep out every now and then, try as we may to prevent it. A fellow probably wouldn't be much of a fellow if he didn't have it; it must at least indicate that you are not all selfishness. Isaac Erwin Avery, deceased, one time city editor of the Charlotte Observer in the days of that grand old seceder, James P. Caldwell, so aptly expressed our feelings about the Christmas season that we are going to pass what he had to say on to you. "One wonders what Christmas means to the other fellow. To the children it is Paradise transplanted, but men and women view it differently. To some it is a time for love and charity; to others a time for envy and discontent. To . some it brings the jubilation that finally came to old Scrooge; to v others it brings boredom. "To a composite element of mankind Christmas i3 a long space relieved from tediousness by a family dinner that provides two helpings of rice and gravy, not mince pie and sleepiness. Your oldest relative once more tells the story of your most youthful folly, and afterward you go into the parlor and pick away at the nuts and raisins and things that rest in a bowl and decorate the center table. The youngest child in the house brings you a fresh, smelly story book, to read upside down; everybody resists ari inclination to stand up in front of the grate and stretch; and somebody goes over to the piano and plays "The Blue Bells of Scotland" with the right forefinger. A man from a distance has sent the daughter of the house some American Beauty roses, and she busies herself by carrying these from room to room, humming as she walks. Out in the hall you hear children from over the way bragging to your children about the superiority of the gifts that were in their stockings. When you go to bed that night you feel aa if you hfid spent the day at the circus where they didn't have any clowns; and, moreover, your sheets feel chilly and dampish. Sheets always feel like that on Christmas night, somehow or other. "Christmas is like any other gala day or a big reception. To find pleasure you mast have it inside yourself. This statement might seem unnecessary if it were not for the fact that in the mat ter of happiness the vast majority of people are utterly without personal resource. They must have happiness thrown at them, or absorb bits of it here and there; and when they are forced to subsist only on the lights and thoughts that God has given them they very properly perish with ennui. The empty fool in search of amusement touches you at N every corner. "You see, there is such a hue and cry over Christmas, and when the day comes it may easily bring unsweetness?that let-down feeling of disappointment. No one is allowed to approach Christmas soberly or dispassionately. A few weeks beforehand life may be in placid waters, but as the time of celebration draws nigh the stream becomes a swift cuiTent and then a vortex that whirls to and fro, the universal multitude clutching holiday gifts. When the storm ceases, if you are a woman and are satisfied with what you've got you are a miracle; if you are a man and can pay for what you have given you are a blessed exception. This is Christmas with the varnish off?Christmas described in remembrance of home-knit socks that didn't fit; inevitable indigestion; wet fingers that plastered pink candy; useful donations that weren't useful; and the same old snowbird on the same old white card." WHY THE HIGH SCHOOL? Education consists essentially of two elements, a trained mind and an accumulation of ideas. Our public schools from the first grades through the Viirrh cphnrVI should hp Hesifrneri nhieflv t.n train thp mind, and while college work does this also, the accumulation of ideas becomes a more important work in a collegiate course. In our age of books, periodicals and newspapers, ideas crowd in on us from all sides, but all of this is of no avail unless our minds are capable of digesting them and giving proper weight and value to the information that comes to hand. It requires systematic mental drill to enable one to think logically, clearly and ably. Ingenuity comes from within while the swift ac cumulation of facts may be obtained from without. The demand of these progressive days is for men who can do things which others have not done, or at least do things of their own initiative, which they have not seen done before. Unless one has become .a regular human machine, performing automatically certain things, he will in the natural course of events come in contact with new circumstances and new problems in the routine of the most ordinary work and it is the man who can solve these problems intelligently that. oomes to the top / while the ignorant workman is left to form the mudsills of society. A man can be a genius without being an Edison. A thinking man will see how to overcome obstacles that come in his way, even though he has never seen the like before, while a man who has not been trained to think may absolutely fail. It is the man who does his work just a little better than his fellows who becomes the foreman while the really capable man becomes superintendent or manager or president of the concern. A few years ago a great political economist of England said that the EngHsh industries suffered more from lack of educated workmen than from any other cause, and added that the large number of unemployed in that country was due to the fact that there was not a sufficient number of intelligent men to act as foremen to operate the industries. The hope of any nation is in its intelligent masses and not in the cultured few. Great leaders are necessary to blaze the way, but if the nation is to be truly great the masses must be able to follow and utilize the leaders' ideas for the interest of the people. i It is the function of our schools to build up the minds of our boys and girls to make them keen of intellect and resourceful in thought. A little advantage in all things will aggregate far more in the cause of prosperity than a few great inventions even though these little things never appear in writ ten history. But those little advantages plus great inventions are still better. All. of this comes, and | cones only, with the building of the mind. The ends of the various grades form landmarks which the chlidren endeavor to reach, and they frej quently look forward to the end of the seventh grade as the end of their education. Unfortunately some parents right in our midst and whose keepers v/t are, look forward to the fourteenth birthday as the end of their child's education. Those who stop before finishing the high school stop too soon. The mind is not sufficiently drilled. The body is not yet fully developed and if the body is allowed to develop while the mind stands still, the child gets into an intellectual rut out of which it will probably never get out. Statistics show that one child out of each one hundred first grade children finishes colllege. We have in the first grade of the city schools (white) one hundred and twenty-seven children, which means that less than two of our nrst graae pupus wui nmsh college. Then take the present eleventh grade. Ten years ago this grade had more than 50 pupils. Where are they? We know that the death rate has never been so high as to take away eighty percent of the children. Yet the present eleventh grade has lost eighty percent of its strength in ten years. The high school forms the most important part of a child's development for after these four years of careful training, the mind has reached a stage whure it will continue to grow even if no higher course is ever taken. If one stops at the end of the grades, his education is frequently forever finished but if he "goes thru high school he will continue to augment his education all the way thru life. It is no argument to say that we are better educated than our fathers and that they were successful, for we are not only competing with our fathers but with a generation that is much wiser and keener than those we are to succeed. The indications are that educational improvement will continue and it behooves us, if possible, to place our children in such a position that in their declining days they will not be cast into the scrap heap when they have to compete with the generation that is to follow. Any fool may be a descendant but it takes a real man to be an ancestor. THE EDGE BILL. What is known as the Edge bill to facilitate the foreign trade of the United States has passed both houses of Congress and has gone to the President for his signature. This measure, by an amendment of the Federal Reserve act, provides for the incorporation of concerns to finance the export Dusmess ot tne United States so that impoverished foreign customers may buy American goods and the American producer or exporter can get actual cash in payment for his commodities. Such corI poration will be under the supervision of the Federal Reserve Board, but there will be neither government participation nor underwriting nor guarantee. The object of this measure is commendable and its limitations are safe. It permits private parties to organize corporations to loan funds to foreign institutions or customers for the purpose of purchasing American goods on long time credit. It is not compulsory but permissive. It aims to extend the American banking system under the control of the Federal Reserve Bank to all parts of the world? provided private parties are willing to organize a banking corporation and extend credit to foreign customers. The measure will permit discounting of drafts and bills of lading on long time credit, giving foreign purchasers a long period in which to pay their bills and at the same time permit American producers to obtain prompt credit for such bills. This machinery will carry foreign purchasers without crippling American producers, it is expected.?New York Herald. \ a -win? <? ?? I t 1 1 2k , I To My Frienc ' Appreciatir business re the past w( complimen C son and t cominer N( bring the t ever knowr and Prospe Very tr i lV^rc lac 1 JL1 0? JUU? I Abbeville, : ?'v. f> > * F Just R a THOR vrm WE, HAV,E r * * of a car load c ?the wagon made hardwooa region of and hickory. i These are the Ion many patented feati old standard track. 1 Not the lowest priced \ the end the cheapest. R. C. BROWNLL i Is and Customers | 11,1 I lg our pleasant I ilations during 1 iJ ; wish you the 6 ts of the Sea- - . I rust that the . I sw Year will 9 ?est vou have I i in Happiness f * *V ;nty. uly yours, . I S; Cochran * Si 'II South Carolina 1 ; I - i I I H t .eceived Load of t received a shipment *-t ' I UV%?11 Wfnrmrto PI X J.1VJ1 IJlllll TT Ugv/titf in the heart of the tough highland oak . g wear wagons with ares. Made with the . ? ?'? L..?- Koof onrl in Vd^UllO UUl U1V. IJViJI. [611-N] IE, Due West, S. C. \ ff