Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Bowser and Tke Country The Advent of Wa.rm Weather Makes Him Wish For a Life on the Farm, but the Butcher Saon CI s It. (Copyright. 1CU4. t y C. L Lewis.] MIL BOWSE It had been reading and smoking lor half an hour when he laid down his paper and said: "Mrs. Bowser. I should like to have a little talk with you this evening if you have time." Why. of course I have time." she replied. "I hope business has not gone wrong with you." "Not at all. The sight of flowers, the vrru-ai nf tlm mirth, the irreen crass. re mind me of the country." "Yes,'' she replied. "In fact, I've been wishing for the last week that I had a farm." "I thought you had something of the kind on your mind." "Yes. When I think of the glorious country and the free and independent life of a farmer I can hardly hold myself here in the city. Only this afternoon while thinking of the songs of the bluebirds and the lowing of the kine I felt like starting right out and buying a farm." "Well, if you want to turn farmer there is no reason why you shouldn't." "Do you mean that you would be willing for us to sell out and go to the country?" he asked, with a touch of excitement in his tones. "Of course I would." she replied. "If you prefer the country to town and the work of a farmer to your present occupation I shan't raise an objection. Why should I ?" , "And von are in earnest?" : "Certainly." , "And I can buy a farm?" | "You can." "Mrs. Bowser, you arc one of tbe f best little women in all this world, and if I have ever said a word to hurt I J "I SHALL KEEP ABOUT THIT.TT COWS." your feelings I am sorry for it. By John, but I feel relieved! I just imagined that vou would kick up a great row about it and call me a fool. A doctor told me a few days ago that life in the country would prolong my years by at least fifteen, but I thought you would call him a quack and fling out about fads. Say, now, but I'm delighted. I believe I'll start out tomorrow and look for a farm." "Yes. you can. but let us talk a little more before you quite make up your mind. Your idea of getting a farm, as I understand it. is not altogether to prolong your life. You could prolong that, you know, by boarding with,some farmer instead of buying a farm. You would expect to farm for profit, would you?" ' "Of course, and. although I haven't made very close figures on it, I've gone far enough to be satisfied that I cau do at least $o00 a year bettor than now." "In other words, the songs of the robins, the lowing of the kino and the dreamy drone of the bumblebees are thrown in free gratis." - "Y-yes," he stammered as he thought he caught a sarcastic inflection of her voice. "Well, let me have your figures as far as you've gone. Perhaps your profit will be more than you count on. If you can make a good thing of this financially and add fifteen years to your life at the same time it will be the best move you ever made. .lust give me a few of your estimates." Mr. Bowser had 110 figures on paper. but he carried a few in his head, and after a moment's thought he said: "i shall keep about thirty cows to begin with. The sales of milk and butter from thirty cows ought to be $50 per cow per year." Mrs. Bowser dared not smile, and that was one of the regular evenings when the family cat attended a club on the next block. "That's $1,500 income alone." said Mr. Bowser as he rubbed the top of his he?d and gazed at the ceiling. "Then I ligure on having 100 hogs to sell every fall. 1 don't exactly know what price pork brings, but i think I * a i ? .* ?> i r"i \i\ can safely ngure on ai lease o?..jw more for pork. There ought to he at least twenty calves to sell every spring. saying nothing of lambs ami fowls. 31 y general figures as to the dairy and live stock give me an income of about So.OoO a year." *T see." nodded Mrs. Bowser. "Then I figure that I ought to raise about $2,000 worth of wheat and .$1.1*00 worth of corn and $1,000 wortli of potatoes and other vegetables. The sale of oats and hay should bring the grand total of income up to $10,000 a year, j I ?????? It may fall o thousand short or run j over by that amount. Say that the expenses take half the income, and we have a nice plum left. Yes. my dear: I have no sort of hesitation in saying that we get the pure country air the j year round, with sliding down hill on a hand sled in winter and listening to the lowing of the kine in summer, and come out $">,<>00 a year ahead of the j game. A Cripple Creek gold mine may j pay a little better, but 1 shall be satis- j tied with the farm." "Yes: it looks like a good thing," mused Mrs. JJowser. "Of course it docs, and can you j dnnht it will ltl'OVO SO? I llia.V I have picked up a few fads in my time, but can you call this a fad7 You were a country giri. and you know a good deal about fanning, and you must acknowledge that tins is a straight business deal. Ilave 1 got the income too high?" "Perhaps not." "Do I figure the profits too high?" "I can't say that you do." "Then there are the fifteen years added to my life. One doesn't like to figure dollars and cents against his life, but shouldn't we set it down that my life is worth at least $2,000 a year to the family?" "You might figure it at far more than that if at all." "Well, then, let us sum up, as the lawyers say. Here I am, past the prime of life and afflicted with rheumatism and bronchitis and asthma. T.ifo on a farm renews my vouth and eures iuv complaints. Isn't that a pleasant beginning?" "It surely is." "Then we have the free and independent life of a farmer, the glorious sunrises, the gorgeous sunsets, the flitting of the bluebirds by day, the hoot of the owls at night, the gentle rains, the balmy breezes, everything that one can ask for in life. Mrs. Bowser, it gives nie thrills when I think of it. I can hardly wait for morning to come that I may be off and buy me a farm. Would you like to go along with me?" "We will see when morning comes," she answered. "I think you will get up with the same enthusiastic feeling I have and that by night we shall have things all settled. Now. iben. have you got any criticisms to make?" "None at all." "But I expected you'd have a hundred. \ You generally get at it and tear all my plans to pieces and try to make out that I'm a fool. So you've nothing to say?" "Just a word. Our butcher, as you know, came in off a farm last ye''\ after rilling the soil for at least fifteen years. He must know all about a farm and can give you lots of pointers. The evening is early yet. and why don't you go over and talk with him for a few minutes?" "By John, but that would be a good idea:' "It would be a good idea, Mr. Bowser. Just give him your figures as you gave tbeui to me, and let him go over them. They say he's a smart, shrewd man." "Of course he is. I'd rather have his opinion than any other man I know of. Yes, I'll go over and have a little talk with .him, and if he backs me up, which I'm sure he will. I hope you'll try and get up a little more enthusiasm over the matter. Where's the cat tonight':" "He seems to be out." "If he was home I'd hug him and beg his pardon for the many times I've threatened to knock his head off. He goes with us to the country, and who can say how many years his life will be prolonged? I'll be back in an hour, and perhaps you'll want to begin packing tonight." Mr. Bowser set out with the springy step of a man of thirty, and his rheumatism and bronchitis were forgotten for the hour. The butcher was about to close his shop for the evening, but ! be took Mr. Bowser into his private j office and listened to his story. He neither sighed nor smiled. He simply sat aim siareu at a sainpic sau>aj,c j stuffing machine left him that (lay for ; trial and did not open his lips until the J story of life in the country, illustrated with cuts of bullfrogs, bluebirds, haystacks and cornfields, was related. Then he rose up and asked: "Mr. Bowser, do you want my honest opinion 011 ah thiaV" "Why, of coursed "Then I'll give it to you straight. It is the dream of a jackass! If it wasn't for the good sense of your wife as a counterbalance you'd be in an idiot asylum!" What Mr. Bowser said In reply and in as many languages as he could think of took some little time and was j worth the price of admission, but the butcher had nothing to retract and finally got the door closed on his caller, j Five minutes later, as Mrs. Bowser peered from the front window, she saw Mr. Bowser returning. His gait was \ wabbly and his arms flinging about. He arrived at the gate to kick it open, ! and his feet dragged as he ascended } the steps. The cat had returned some j minutes before, the club having ad- j journed after two lively scraps, and as i the door opened he ran forward to i meet Mr. Bowser and be hugged. In- I stead of that he was seized by the tail, j and as he was being swung around the ! head of the indignant agriculturist j Mrs. Bowser was greeted with the ! hoarse exclamation: Woman, I see through your little 1 game! This is your sixteenth cold blooded attempt to assassinate me. and before 10 o'clock tomorrow morning the question of divorce and alimony shall be settled forever!" "Is?is anything wrong?" she asked. "Traitress! Speak not to me!" he shouted as he dropped the terror stricken cat and ascended the stairs to sit down on his bed and listen to the lowing of the kiue. M. QUAD. DO YOU GET UP WITH A LAME BACK ? Kidney Trouble Makes You Miserable. Almost everybody who reads the newspapers is sure to know of the wonderful cures mace by Dr. '?L Kilmer's Sv/amp-Root, g ij the great kidney, liver F J A and bladder remedy, "ft *! \r\Sl !.< - It is the great medi l-jtV r ca^ tr^umP'n ?f ike nine\ V*i n jlp|k teent'n century; disijjlll covered after years of c rjrm scientific research by f4 Irl ( ^r* Kilmer, erni_ [j * L - ~ nen* Sidney and blad <jer specialist, and is wonderfully successful in promptly curing lame back, kidney, bladder, uric acid troubles and Bright's Disease, which is the worst form of kidr.ev trouble. Dr. Kilmer's Swamp=Root is not recommended for everything but if you have kidney, liver cr bladder trouble it v/ill be found just the remedy you need. It has been tested in so many ways, in hospital work, in private practice, among the helpless too poor to purchase relief and has proved so successful in every case that a special arrangement has been made by which all readers of this paper who have not already tried it, may have a sample bottle sent free by mail, also a book telling more about Swamp-Root and how to find out if you have kidney or bladder trouble. When writing mention reading this generous offer in this paper and | send your address to Dr. Kilmer & Co., Binghamto.n, N. Y. The regular fifty cent and Home of Swamp-Root'dollar sices are sold by all good druggists. AN ABODE OF THE DEAD. Kot a Cemetery, bnt the Great British .Museum. To say that the Ilritish museum is a dead museum may sound like flat blasphemy to those old habitues of the institution to whom its atsmosphere is almost the breath of their life and to whom its treasures of antiquity and art are certainly tlit? nourishment or their minds and souls. Hut apart from this little hand of devout worshipers at the shrine of learning the British museum seems lo me quite dead?as dead as a door nail. 1 have been there many a time, and I went there again and walked throng!) long and silent, galleries peopled only by the gods of Egypt. India. China, of ancient Greece and Koine and thronged only by those wonderful works of sculpture wrought by cunning hands long crumbled into the dust of past ages, but whose spirit of beauty and reverence still lingers in these heroes and heroines of old renown. In some of the rooms one may see a few nursemaids relieving the tedium of their daily walk through I?!oomsbury by bringing their little charges to the museum, where they may amuse themselves and get material for bad dreams while the nurses themselves have a quiet gossip. In the holiday season also one may see troops of Americans passing swiftly through the galleries, "doing" the museum with wonderful dispatch and commenting with western levity upon the relics of ancient civilization and the bones of prehistoric men. Hut the Londoner does not come. The time that he can spare from lunch hour ho devotes to a walk up Cheapside. the Strand or Holborn. "to look at the shops." The day's work done, he takes the first train home. On a Saturday afternoon he prefers a matinee, a game of tennis or cricket or a few hours on the river. I do not blame him altogether. but the fact remains that the British museum is to him an abode of the dead, which he regards with 'the same repugnance as a tomb.?Philip Gibbs in London Mail. \? Extra Trouble, It was in the dead of night, and a sold night at that. Mr. Smith was away, and Peterson Smith, aged six, was getting over the measles. "Mother, may I have a drink of real cold water':" he asked, waking Mrs. Smith from a refreshing slumber. "Turn right over and go to sloop," commanded Mrs. Smith. "You are a naughty boy to wake mother up wheu she put a pitcher of water on your table the very last thing before you went to bed." Ten minutes later the small voice piped up again, "Mother, 1 want a drink of water." "Peterson," said Mrs. Smith sternly, "if you say that again 1 shall get up and spank you." There was five minutes' silence, and again Peterson spoke. "Mother." he said cheerfully, "when you get up to spank me may I have a drink of water':"?Youth's Companion. By Unanimous Consent. Samter Item. The card of Hon. A F L*ver, announcing that he will be a candidate in the Democratic primary for the nomination to eucceed himself as the representative in CoDgress of the Seventh District, appears today. Air. Lever will have no opposition for the nomination, which is the highest compliment that the Democrats of this District could payfcim. It shows that his strength is so great with tbo voters of his district that those who have Congresssional ambition? realize that opposition would be fruitless. Mr. Lever's course ia Congress aud the business like aud prompt attention he has given to all matters pertaining to the interest or his district as a whole, or of any city, town prej cinct or person ha3 met wbh the unqualified endorsement of hiecoostiruents and he will be returned to Congress by unanimous consent. Albert M. Boozer, Attorney at Ltr, ? OOLTJMBXA, !*. C. Especial attention g:ven to business entrusted to him by his fellow citizens o Lexington county. Office: 1310 Main Street, upstairs, opposite Van Metre's Furnitaie Store February 28 ?tf. Surveying. To the People of lexiDgton Count?: I AM NOW LOCATED AT LEXINGton, S. 0., and vvi!l oe glad to do any L.nnr/n:H,o f/>T t)\?k f f*\T\ H f\ ?11 (* h DUJL > SjV J I Ig i Vi ? UV. A. VU.H ?4V f'?vu work in a competent manner and will obey any calls with promptness. J. F. Ll'LES. April 19, 1901.- 3in. iillSll Will Practice in all Courts, KAUFMANN EUILDIXG, LEXINGTON, S C On the JHth day of October, we formed a co-partnership for the practice of law. We will be pleased to receive those having legal busine-s to be attended to at 'nr office in the Kanfmann building at a_/ time Respectfully. J. WM THURMOND, G EELL TIMMERMaN, October 22, 1902.?ly. BR. F. C. GiLMORE, 1510 Main St, Columbia, S. C. OFFICE HOURS: 9 a. m. to 2 p. m., and irocu 3 to 0 p. m. Jarnary 23, 1901?tl. SEWING MACHINES! Wheeler & W ilson Horn 8> BALL BEARING Ifarvelonslv Light Banning and Noisle^s (a No. 10>') spool cotton thread 'or h belt will run it). One third faster: one third easier than any shuttle machine. Save about ONE DAY EN THREE. A OPE \T FWORITE ^ITH DRESS MAKERS. AND BECOMING MORE POPULAR ALiL THE TIME. XEEDLEC FOR ALL MCMXIS, REPAIRING A SPECIALTY. WORK GUARANTEED. ATTACHMENTS, SHUTTLES, ETC. In bringing Machines to be repaired it is only Deeestary to bring the head?Leave * the table at home unless it needs repairing too. 1900 Washers and Wringers. The most perfect Washer ever invented. I can sell them at my store for less than tbey will cost you ordered direct from the factory. Write fof circulars and prices. T. EE. 33ESKEB"2\ 1*01 MAIN ST., COLUMBIA, S. G. April 1, 1903 3ia Alfred J. Fox, i . Life and Fire! Insurance and 1 Real Estatej j Agent, i Lexington, S. C j j Only First Class Companies Rep:re- j seated. Mv companies are popular, stronpr ^ -/OirtXIo \Tn Arm <<nn VfiriT ' UUU ICUAl'U* \s vuu V? h.. - J business better attention; no one can j I j give you better protection; no one can ; give you better rates. Prompt and careful attention given j to buying and selling Keal Estate, j ; . both town and country properties. | , I Correspondence respectfuly solicited. j 1 ' DRb C,J' 0l,VEfl0Sj EAR, xose Throat and Lungs, GUARANTEE Gfhoe and Residence, ' FIT OF GLASSES H24and 1426Marion. St, March 15? ly. COLUMBIA, S. C. "UTT1N lllOP COLLEGE SCHOLAR VY S1I.PS AND ENTRANCE EXAMIN VI ION ?The examination lor the award of vncnt scholarships in "Wintbrop College and for the admission of new students will be held at the Connty Court House on Fn day, July Nth, at n a. in. appuwnw ujum, not be less than litteen years ol age. When scholarships are vacated alter July 8, they will be awarded to those making the highest average at this examination Scholarships are worth 3100 and tree tuition. The next -e.RRion will open September 21, 1904 For further information and catalogue address. PRESIDENT D. i>. JOHNSON, Rock Hill, S. C. 3w35. n II iMt \ -/C ft J. P. ABLE,; ff ! i V":A 1 DtiL?:? 1 QrTIoo^ | . _ - H CLOTIIIKG, ik I ff STABLE AM) FAM'V fiBQCERIES, W 7 hardware, fog /^s* & m m WOODEWVARE, ETC,, # ft LEESYILLE, S. C. j g| 0^ 0$? im -w- ? WM. PLATT, * 4 DEALER IN Dry Ms, Millinery and Notions, ; NEAELY OPPOSITE POST OFFICE, I - - . S. C. I TVIAITV STREET. j We have received and have placed on oar shelves one of the most teaatiful as well as the most eoraolete line of i ever shown in the city. These are all standard goods trom the most reliable manufas| turevs aud are recommended for their stylish and nobby appearance and the beauty of pattern. A fnli hr.e ot Ginghams and dress goods or all descriptions, as well as level v creations in fashionable spring a ad summer millinery.* Come and see tiiese goods before purchasing. J will make it to j our interest to do so. ! October, 9.?3n< | We Have j RECEIVED OUR ; mm mmm shoes i i *i I and are now re-.dy to serve our Lexington friends with the best shoes at the 1 lowest price they ever bought Three (3/ points we were carelul in select? *!? ? a)? ing iiiio ."tuta . STY2.E, COMFORT AM) SERVICE. j We will only *how yoti Good Solid Leather Saoes and guarantee every pair. E. P. <fe F. A. DAVIS, I 1710 MAIN STSEET. I COLUMBIA, - - - S. C. \ 1 1N. A. Young | j # CALLS SPECIAL ATTENTION TO HIS IMMENSE / STOCK OF NEW SUMMER GOODS. I * White Goods. White Goods, i cPf *5$ '~v 1 - - ? ^TT L ! l . T*\/1irt T.ir?nwfl \A7 4jg> uar SIOCK Ol niiue uuuue vuuMoio ui iuuw uiucuo, ? uiiu SHI xMails, Cotton Chiffon*, Mercerized Goods. Peqaes in Welts yE A and Figures, at popular prices. X/' HP C?lor<Ml Lawns. Colored Lawns. v HP? Onr stock ot Colored Lawns is complete in Figured Stripes iffiand Polka Dots ranging in price Jrom 5 tol2$c. Solid Colored Lawns in all tne leading shades, the kind usually sold everywhere for 12A cents, our price, 10 cents. :Jj[k We call sp?cial atteut on to our immense line of LACE EMBRODERIES AND RIBBONS Ask our clerks to -V jj$f show you onr 15 cents Ribbons. They come in all the pop- ^ ular shades and are big values. j|p* | Gents' Furnishings. | 50 Dozen All Silk Four in Hand Ties lcr men. only 25c. '' Pp? Eclipse Shirts, equal to any SI.25 shirt on the market, jffi] our price, $1.00 Leg 50 doz Men's SI 00 Shirts. to close out. in all the pretty patterns, dots, stripes and figures, at *5c. jAt && 25 doz 75c. Shirts at 49c , on center counter iW * 11!^ 25 dozm Men's Shirts .something special, at 29c. pK Hosiery to suit all feet and all parses. Dont tail to call at 1603 Main street when in search of ^4 p drv goods, mm mam mmm i f! =- ? i $ ~~ m ^ :w. .A.. "^OTJisra-, ^ pj& 1633 Main Street, Lever's Old Stand, ^ | | COLUMBIA. - - s. c. |