Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Gypsy Smith; Jr., Ends Ser vices But Crowd Cries "Go On." (Continued from Fifth Page) lane he pitched his tent at the end of the lane and then turning to his wife, and putting his arms around her and kissing her, he said "you stay here, dear, with the four children that are well and I will take 'the sick girl in the wagon down to the end of the lane, and we will call that the hos pital, and I will stay with her and nurse her the best I know how. Boy Had Small Pox. When the doctor came in the after noon he examined, those children that were in the tent, and found that the eldest boy already had the small pox. He was carried into the wagon too; so that my grandfather now had two patients. My grandmother would go to the village and get what food she could, and then after preparing it on her camp fire she would carry it half way to the wagon, then laying it on the ground she would call her hus ' . band, or attract his attention in some way, and ask him about her sick child. Sometimes when she called him he didn't answer; perhaps he was busy attending to the children, or perhaps he had gone for a walk across the field, and then in the anxiety of hei big loving heart she would wonder if he was sick, or if the children were worse, and then she would walk up and down the lane in a distracted condition, saying "my poor, children have died." Of course you couldn't keep a mother long away from her two first born children, and there came a day when grandmother was too sick to get up, and when the doc tor came he had to tell them the aw ful news, that she had the small pox too. Now, my grandfather could not keep them separated any longer, and hitching his horses to the wagon he pulled the wagon alongside the tent, and as he did it a little baby was born in the home, so that now, he had mother, baby and two children all down with the small pox, and three children well. For thirty days and nights he never had his clothes off and never saw a person to speak to, save the doctor who made his daily visits and he fought that disease the hest he knew how. The Death Bed Promise. One morning going into the wagon and trying to make his wife more comfortable, she raised herself up in bed and putting her arms around his neck, she said '.>! am going to leave you soon, and before I go I want you to promise me that you will be a bet ter father to the children, that you will not swear so much at them, and that you will not drink so much." He promised her because he loved her and would have 'done anything to haVe helped her at that moment. And, afraid of breaking down in her pres ence and feeling that he could not contain himself any longer he ran out of the wagon and throwing himself full length on the ground by the wag on wheels, he laid there and sobbed like a child, when presently he heard his wife singing, and she was singing, "I have a Father in the promised land. God calls me, I must go to meet him there." If you had shot my grandfather you could not have startled him more, for God was never used in that home only as an oath, arid jumping up he ran into the wagon and said to his wife "Where did you hear that? In all the years of our life together I have never heard you sing anything like that." And then she told him that when she was a little girl her father had pitched his tent and wagon on a village green opposite a church, and on the Sabbath day she crept over and heard them sing. They would not let her into the church because she was only a Gypsy girl, but on that day she had heard that chorus and in all the years of their married life it had not come back to her memory, only on this occasiori. If you are skeptical, will you please tejl me what brought that chorus back to her? Would you say it was a freak of memory, or would you say it was a coincidence? I shouldn't. I should say it was the Holy Spirit, for God said "When the Comforter is come he will bring back to your re membrance all things," and I feel just as sure as I ?m standing here speaking to you that God, in His in finite goodness, saw my grandmother dying in ignorance and superstition, with no one to tell her of Himself and the plan of salvation, and I be lieve He sent back that chorus to her, so that by the means of it she could climb out of ignorance and supersti tion up to the throne. A Gypsy Grave. The next morning my father and his little sister were- playing hand and hand up the lane, for those two little things were ins?parable, when sud denly my father heard his name call ed, "Rodney, Rodney," and when he turned around he saw his eldest sister standing in her night robe on the < step of the wagon and she was say "Rodney, mother is dead," and (father fell with his face to the gre and sobbed out from his little bo romantic heart, "Rodney, you never be like other boys any m for you have got no mother." When the undertaker came he them that- of course, as they v Gypsies, she could not be buriec the day time, but that they wc bury her the next night after d; and that instead of a hearse he wc rent for them a farmer's cart. ' only cemetery in the vicinity was in the yard of the Church of E land,, and when the rector was in viewed he said "What, bury a Gy in consecrated ground? What wo my parishioners think?" But w] the undertaker pointed out to 1 that that was the only public cei tery, and that the English law forb; private burying grounds, he very luctantly gave his consent that could be buried in a corner of church yard where the sexton thi his rubbish, and the next night midnight my grandfather with a 1 tern, followed as the only mourn and my grandmother was laid to r in the rubbish heap of, that chui yard. God in His infinite goodness ca into the home again in a few-di and took away the little b?by, a mother and baby lay side by side. The Change in the Home. That was the beginning of t changes in our Gypsy home. I grandfather came back from that i neral a changed man. Not, of cour in a Christian sense, but in the seri that he had promised to his dyi wife to be a better man, and becau of his great love for her he tried make good his promise. He didn't J ways keep it, sometimes he broke and then after the children were bed at night, and thinking they we asleep, he would sit over the campfi and talk to his wife, thinking si could hear him, and he would tell h how he had broken his promise her and asked for forgiveness. M father used to wear in those da; what we call in England a "smoi frock." It was a loose slip that wei over the shoulders with sleeves ar pockets, a kind of an over-all. We it was an under-all too, because whe it was off it was goodnight, you wei ready for bed. The boys used to lil them because of the capacity of tl pockets, and a few months after rr grandmothers' death the family wei camping on the land of a very fin farmer, and he was noted for ric plum orchard. That morning m grandfather said to the children, ' don't want you to leave the wagon tc day." This meant to the childrer "that this farmer and I are very goo friends, he has confidence in me an I live in his good graces, so I don: want you children to go all aroun the farm seeing what you can find. The children usually obeyed thei father, for a Gypsy father is ver fatherly and he has a way of takin; his children when they disobey acros his knees with their faces downwar and when he makes an engagemen like that he never breaks it. Some times he nearly breaks them. In i Gypsy tent the father raises the chil dren, but very often in this age ii America the children raise the fath er. 1 My father knew about that plun orchard, and he wanted some of thi plums, and he made up his mind tha he was going to have some, licking or T?O licking, and about noon, whili his father's back was turned, he wen to the orchard and picked out what h< thought was the best tree, and thei climbing to the top of the tree, foi the best fruit is always at the top, h< filled both of his pockets with plums and he had one in his mouth that he was enjoying when he looked dowr and saw the farmer standing there The farmer gave him a pressing invi tation to come down, and my fathei said "I am not a good climber," anc the farmer said "well, I will wait foi you," and then he thought he coule get on the soft side of the farmer anc said "You know, sir, I have no moth er," and he thought that did kind ol touch "the farmer so he said it again. The farmer said "I know you, and 1 know your father, he has been camp ing on my farm for years and he has always respected my property, and 1 know he would not allow you to be here in my orchard if he knew it, so you had better come down, for I am going to wait for you until you do." My father came down, but he did not make any haste about it, and there wasn't any joy either, and when he got to the ground the farmer got hold of him by the ear, and I can well re member as a boy when somebody got hold of me by the ear I somehow knew they were glad to see me by the grip they gave me; it was a grip of congratulation and I always wanted to go the same way they were going. Pulling my father by the ear he took him over to a tree, on which was nailed some printing, and he said to him, "Can you read?" and my fal inswered "No sir," he said "all ri, I will read it to you,"' so? he i 'Whosoever is found tresspassing this property will be prosecuted." ' farmer said "Do you know what "1 soever means?" and my father ? Mo, sir," and he said "well, you before I. get through with you." began to lug my father across field, still hanging on to his ear. father was small for his age and sc times his feet were clean off ground ,and he was crying and pn ising and protesting that he wo never go near the orchard again the farmer would only let him Eventually the farmer relented, let him go with a caution, and threw an old shoe at him, but he f got to take his foot out of it. Fur-lined Pants. After this father got tired of ov all. His father had trousers and brother had them and he wan them, and one day going up into i wagon he looked into his fathc face and said "Please dad, can I lil a pair of trousers?" My grandfatl said "Certainly, I will give you a p of mine." My father was very sm for his age, but my grandfather ste six feet and weighed 240 poun Getting a pair of his corduroy troi ers which hung up in the wagon, got a-pair of shears and cut t trousers off at the knee, and th throwing them off on the grass . said: "There you are, son, go and | into them." My fathertook them in his dressing room, which was behi the hedge, and proceeded to get in them. He was having a great deal trouble, while his father and broth were making sarcastic remarks, ai his brother with a piece of string his hand went i ehind.the hedge ai said "Rodney, what time does the bi loon go up?" He said he felt ve: much like a balloon, for he had lo of room and it was a windy day, ai when he came from behind the hedj his father said to him, "Which wi are you coming? Are you coming i going?" But, he saw what they wan ed to do. They wanted to laugh hi out of those pants, and he would m be laughed out of them. A few days afterwards they wei the guests of -the Prince of Wale our late King Edward, only the princ didn't know it. They were cam] ing on his ground and were poachin his rabbits. They had bagged nin rabbits when they were surprised b the Prince's game warden, and c course there was only one thing t do, and that was, to break for cove: My grandfather hesitated for a mc ment. He did not know what to d with the nine rabbits, whether t leave them or whether to be caugh with them, which meant a long peni tentiary term; suddenly he saw m father running towards the wood with those old trousers of his on am he called to him and said "Rodnej come here," and when my fathe came back, my grandfather took th nine rabbits and hung them on hi suspenders inside the trousers. So hi first pair of trousers became fu lined. The Change in thz Gypsy Home. But I want to tell you of the rea change that came into our Gyps: home. My grandfather never got ove: the loss of his wife, and the wintei following her death he made up hi: mind he would go to London, when he knew he would find some of hi! own people, for the companionshii of those who would understand him One day on his way to London he saw over a distant hill coming toward: j him two other Gypsy wagons. Wher i they got closer he found out by thc ' color of the paint and by the build of ! the wagons that they belonged to his two brothers. ^When these three big fellows mel in the center of the road they pul , their arms around each other and kissed each other, and my fathertold them of his loss and they tried tc sympathize with him, and their wives came out from their tents and tried to comfort the five motherless chil dren. My grandfather said "Men, 1 don't know just what is the matter with me. Ever since I buried my wife I have not been able to sleep or eat properly. I have not any heart for my work," and putting his hand on his heart he said "I have a burden here that is driving me out of my mind, and I am on my way to London and I am going to ask everyone I meet what this thing is, for if Ijion't get rid of it I shall go'out of my mind." A Burden Removed. The two brothers decided to turn back and go to London with their brother. On their way to London they stopped one day at a village inn, and as the three men with their two wives stood behind the bar and called for their drinks the saloon keeper's wife happened to come in and understood trjfit my grandmother was not with the crowd. She asked where she was, and my grandfather told of his loss, and then of the burden at his heart, and said to her "can you help me." I ?The saloon keeper's wife said j but, 3ays she, "I have a book up that makes me cry every time ] it, and if 'ou will wait I will ? and get "r- you." And whe came dow handed across tl to rhos- that immortal Bunyar. !m's Progress. Gypsies s.. ia, We cannot mam." A young man who was c ing at the bar said "I will read you," and they went out of th loon and sat down on the hill and the young man began to rei and on until long after he was 1 They were fascinated; they had er heard such a story in their and he read up to the day when of you who are familiar with story will remember, when Chris with a bundle strapped to-his sh ?rs mounts the hill and when he to the top of the hill and kneels ( at the cross the fetters that bim bundle are broken and the bi falls to the ground and rolls dowi hill. My grandfather, jumpinj said, "Men, that is what I war want to lose my burden in that w But the young man who was rea couldn't help him, and the sa keeper's wife couldn't help him my grandfather went to Lor more disappointed than ever. A: ing in London he camped in the end of London-, where there we: number of Gypsies who had c there for the winter, and he \ about his daily tasks; and one soon after camping there he mel old man who was breaking up si on the side of the road. The old i was a Methodist and he had relig and he had the face on him of at a quarter acre of sunshine. My gre father, after a while, began to him of his wife, then of the bur of his heart, and the old man si "I know what you need, you neec be converted." My grandfather s "I don't know what you mean." T the old man said "Well, what ; need is Jesus." My grandfather s "If Jesus will help me, if you will me how and where to find him I i do anything on earth." The old ri mender said, "If 'you will go back your wagon I will come for you night and I will take you and t other of the Gypsies that want to down to our little mission ho where we are holding some service and that night my grandfa"ner a one of his brothers whom he had p suaded to go with him were standi waiting for the road mender to cor and when they saw him approachi &y grandfather turned around to 'cmldren and said, "Goodnight, i dears, I am not coming home unti get converted." My father, who just going to bed, said, "Daddy, w is he?" He had never heard tl word "converted" in his life and h no idea what the word meant. A after the two Gypsy men had gor my father said, "We have np moth and we shall soon have no father, f he is going out of his mind ; I will fi low him." * At the Mission Home. So, my father followed those mi until they came to the Mission Hom where they were taken to the fro seats and my father, a boy of sixtee crept into a church for the first tin in his life, and for the first time ? hear the story of Jesus Christ. I stayed behind the pillar in the rea for he did not want his father 1 know that he was watching him. Th; night somebody told the story < Christ so simply and sweetly that tl Gypsies could understand it, and a ter he had spoken he asked the Gy] sies to arise and chen they sang th little chorus: "I do believe, I now believe, that Ji sus died for me, And on the cross He shed His bloo< of sin to set me free.", There were words in there that th Gypsies did not understand fe months afterwards, but the speak? on that occasion asked all those wh would like to know what it was t have their sins forgiven to come foi ward and kneel at the altar rail. M grandfather and his brother preceed ed by the old road mender, went foi ward and knelt at that altar rail. M; father said that it felt like hours be fore he got to his feet, but of course it was only a few minutes at th most, when, presently, that big fello\ jumped to his feet and from his fae there had gone the look of worry am unrest that had been there saying " am converted." My father took om look at his father's face and grabbinj his little cap he ran home and saic to his brothers and sisters "well whatever 'converted' is Daddy ha: got it and I am going to bed." Those two Gypsy men that nigh' were converted and they went home singing the chorus they had learned and the children were afraid of them for they had never heard their fathei sing before; and when he saw thej were afraid he called his children tc him, and putting his big arms as far around the little motherless children as he could get them he said, "Don't be afraid of me, dears. God has sent home a new father to you," and t fore they knew what was happeni: he had dropped on his knees and w praying that the same experien might come into the hearts of tho children, and he never ceased to pr; for them until each one of them b came a preacher of the Gospel. Tl Gypsy children watched their fath very closely in those days, for he w a new man to them and they grew i in that tent to say, not that th( wanted tobe ..like God, or that th< wanted to be like Christ, because. th< didn't know anything about God i Christ, but they grew up to say, ""W want to grow up like Daddy.' To Preach the Word. My father, some months after h father's conversion was sheltering i a rain storm one day under an oa tree and he said to himself, "Rodne; are you going to be a nobody a your life, or are you going to be Christiari^like your father?" And th? morning my father made his decisio and said, "I am going to be a Chri: tian like my father." The followin night, going into a little Methodii church in the city of Cambridge, h placed his decision before Jest Christ. The next morning he aske his father if he could go to schoo Nobody had heard of a Gypsy goin to school before, and my grandfathe said, "what do you want to go ,t school for?" And my father said, " want to learn to read, so that I ca: read the Bible." And he let him go to school tha winter. But all he got was four ./eek and that is all the schooling he ha ever received, and yet, one of ou London dailies said of him, a fe\ years ago, that he was one of th finest exponents of ths ppssibilitie of the Anglo-Saxon speech since th days of John Bright, and that is ? great deal to say of a Gypsy wit! four weeks' education. In those early days the first word: he tried to leam were those of Kinf James' version of the Bible, and, o: course, the best Anglo-Saxon is to b( found there, so that his diction be came pure and, in his boyish way, hi made up his mind that if the w?y eve'] opened he would like to become t preacher. Just about this time the Rev. Wm Booth had started an organization ir London known as the Christian Mis sion. It was to teach the men and women of the slums of London, and God had so prospered it that they had a number of halls and about thirty five salaried workers. Mr. Booth used to call them together once a year for an all day prayer and it was in one of these meetings that my father made his first appearance. Mr. Booth saw him sitting near the front and he had heard that this Gypsy boy wanted to be a preacher, so calling on him in a hurry, he said, "Our next speaker will be a Gypsy boy." His First Speech. My father trembled like a leaf in a thurder storm, but he jumped to his feet, and Mr. Booth seeing his ner vousness said, "Before he speaks he will sing," and after my father had sung he was clearing his throat, a lit tle nervous habit which young preach ers have, and an old man behind him said, "Keep your heart up, young ster," and my father said, "ft is in my mouth, now, where do you want it?" That gave him a chance, while the audience laughed to recover him self,?nd he said: "I am only a Gypsy boy and lived in a tent and J. would not know how to conduct myself if I were in your home. But I do know Jesus and I have given Him my heart, and I am going to be His boy," and then he sat down: After the service was over Mr. Booth went to him and putting his arms around his shoulder he said, "My boy, how would you like to be an evangelist?" My father said "I don't know what you mean by that," and he said, "Well, it means to be a teacher," and he turned and said, "Mr. Booth, do you think I will make a ? good one," and Mr. Boothe said "Yes, I think you will," and he said, "All right, sir, I will be one." And Mr. Booth arranged for him to leave his tent the following June, tb be an evangelist. He was just seventeen in March, and the following June he started out with Mr. Booth in his mis sion work in the slums of London. Then Mr. Smith related how Mr. Booth afterwards became General Booth and the Mission became known as the Salvation Army, and how his father was used: in the formation of a new cause in the different cities of England ? until, leaving the Salvation Army, he went out into the work of an evangelist. Mr. Smith said that a great many honors had come to his father during his life of usefulness, but that the thing he valued more than ever was the picture of an old Gypsy wagon and a Gypsy tent which hung on the wall of his study, and he said that when his father went home sometimes from a very successful trip and the devil tempted him and told him that it was his own hard work, magnetism: and personal attraction that had made him what he was, Mr. Smith: ?aid that his father would look at the old picture and say, "No, but for the ;rrace of Jesus Christ I would be in. my old Gypsy tent." He closed his appeal to the people by saying that if he were a master artist he would like to paint two pic tures- one of the old Gypsy tent, with a wagon, and a father and five motherless children, with no God and io Christ, and no school; and the oth ?r picture he would like to paint would be of the tent that had been irammed and jammed night after light for a month, listening to one af these boys that had come down from the Gypsy tent, and then under both pictures he would like to read this text: "What God hath wrought."', ONTARIO GOES DRY. Ontario went bone-dry April 18 by an estimated majority of from. 125,000 to- 200,000 on a basis of 600,000 votes cast.' The question on the ballot was:: "Shall the importation' and bringing 3f intoxicating liquors into the prov ince of Ontario be forbidden?" The result of the election will be the application of the Dominion law~ prohibiting the importation of li quor from any province, state or :ountry. It is too early to give definite re turns, but press reports indicate that, some of the cities voted up heavy no liquor majorities. Abbeville-Greenwood Mu tual Insurance Asso ciation. ORGANIZE!' 1897. Property Insured $8,875.36CT WRITE OR CALL on the under signed for any information you may iesire about our plan of insurance. We insure your property against destruction by FIRE, WINDSTORM, or LIGHT NING and do so cheaper than any Com pany in existence. Remember, we are prepared to prove to you that ours is the safest and cheapest plan of insurance known. Our Association is now licensed' ;o write Insurance in the counties of Abbeville, Greenwood, McCormick, Edgefield, Laurens, Saluda, Rich ahd, Lexington, Calhoun and Spar enburg. The officers are: Gen. J. Fraser Lyon, President, Columbia, S.. C., 1. R. Blake, Gen. Agent, Secretary ind Treasurer, Greenwood, S. C. -DIRECTORS IL O. Grant, Mt. Carmel, S. C. 1. M. Gambrell, Abbeville, S. C. 1. R. Blake, Greenwood, S. C. A. W. Youngblood, Dddges, S. C. R. H. Nicholson, Edgefield, S. C. J Fraser Lyon, Columbia, S. C.. W: C. Bates, Latesburg, S. C. W H. Wharton, Waterloo, S. C. J. R. BLAKE, General Agent. Greenwood, S. C. January 1, 1921. Lombard Foundry, Machine, Boiler Works and Mill Supply House AUGUSTA ' GEORGIA . Cotton Oil, Gin, Saw, Grist, Cane,.. Shingle Mill, Machinery Supplies and1 Repairs, Shafting, Pulleys, Hangers, Grate Bars, Pumps, Pipe, Valves and Fittings, Injectors, Belting, Packing1 Hose, etc Cast every day. GASOLINE AND KEROSENE ENGINES Pumping, Wood Sawla? and Feed' Grinding Outfits. NOTICE. On the night of October 19-20th,. 1920,the. vault of The Bank of Tren ton, S. C., was burglarized and the following Certificates of stock cov ering stock owned in the ?Trenton Fertilizer Company, was sto'en and the public is, hereby warned, not to accept any of these Certificates as application has been made for du plicates. Number 16 dated October 1, 1919;. issued to Mrs. Emma Hord for 8) shares. Number 15 dated September 29} 1919, issued to Walter W. Wise for 5 shares. TRENTON FERTILIZER CO.