Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Daring Dee By James In the winter of 1861 and 1862 while we were in winter quarters, one of the favorite pastimes was target shooting with our army rifles. At the time we thought it was nothing more than pastime and recreation for the soldiers, but the sequel will prove that we were getting ready for business. There was a young soldier in Com pany A. of the 13th S. C. regiment who always went to the target shoot ing. He seemed to have a keen relish for anything that would enliven the monotony of camp life even if it smacked of a little danger. While he was not a crack shot at the beginning he soon made one of th' best long range target shots in the regiment. As time rolled on and the summer campaign opened the target shooting was forgotten until one day the Col onel received an order from brigade headquarters to send them one of the best marksmen he had and a good trusty soldier also. This was an easy matter settled. Every one said send T-. he will just fill the bill. This suited T-, he was in for anything new, even if there was a little fight ing mixed in. On short notice T. reported to bri gade headquarters and from there he was sent to corps headquarters. He was put on what we call the army de tached service, and was made a spe cial sharpshoter and given a Whitsworth's rifle, one of the finest long range gins that we had. It also had a globe sight. . Now, with this globe sight a man 'could take as ac eurate sight at a half mile as he\could with the naked eye at a distance of 75 yards. With the aid of a graded guide sight and a certain number car tridge a good marksman could hit the bull's eye at'800 yards. Now to give some idea what a sharpshooter with one of these guns could\ do. While we were in line of battle not far from Spottsylvania, our videttes were in a body of woods on one side of a ifield and the federal vi dettes were in a field of woods on the other side at a distance of 700 or 300 yards. A sharpshooter on our Sside noticed a yankee officer in the .woods on the other side with his field glasses, going from one point to an other, examining our line. He came to the nearest point to this sharp shooter, took a position behind a large tree, adjusted his glasses, with his shoulder resting' against the tree and his head stuck out looking at us. This sharpshooter took aim at his head 'and fired, striking his glasses and killing him. Tom Paysinger, who was an independent scout in'the yan kee lines, that night brought the news that one of our sharpshooters had killed General Sedgwick, a Major General commanding a corps out on the vidette line that evening. 'Our man, T., made a fine sharp shooter, but they did not keep him a sharpshooter long; for he was promot ed to an independent scout whose bus inmess it wds to get information from the enemy, even if they must dis guise themselves and go into the en emy 's camp as spies, which they very often did. But before I go on and tell you about T., I want to tell you of another scout, and one of his trips into the enemy's line. It was down below Richmond in a piece of country that our scouts were all familiar with. And they knew every unionist fami ly and every secessionist and knew who was friendly to them. This scout was William Farley. In telling of one of his trips into the yankee lines, he said that he was hid ing near the road when he saw a lady passing that he knew and he came out -from his hiding place and spoke to her. She told him that some yan kee officer had made her house his headquarters. Farley made arrge ments with her that he would come af ter dark and get into the gardens and would throw some gravel against the window. If she heard this, and ev erything was all right, she was to pass the window three times with a light ed candle. Everything worked all right. She led him in through a win dow from the garden and put him~ into a closet next to the room where the yankee officer stayed. He could see them, but could not gain any in formation. He could see that they had some maps and papers and were doing some writing. He wanted those papers and was determined to gel them if they did not carry them out when they went. After a long time, the officers went out and went up~ stairs to sleep. He thought now was his chance, so he slipped into the room, gathered up every paper he oul find in the dark, walked boldl3 lof a Scout Mitchell. out of the frunt door and by the -uard at the gate. and asked him if he knew where the fellow was that attended to the horses. The guard volunteered to go with him and they found the fellow at the stables. He told him to bring him out one of the best horses as he had a dispatch to carry and had to go a good long ways. He did not know whether he would try to come back before day or not. He mounted his horse and rode for the Confeder ate camp with all his might. Next morning at daylight found him riding up to Gen. Lee's headquarters with those papers in his pocket on as fine a horse as any yankee ever owned, which he called his own, but he did not enjoy owning him long, for he rode him on one of his trips and tht yankees came so near getting him that he had to leave his horse and let them have him. I Now, this was the sort of work thai T. was expected to do. He was'brave and daring and a great many of tht boys felt uneasy for him: they were afraid he was too daring and would expose himself unnecessarily, whiel I think he often did, but he alway came out right side up, and weni through the whole war, with the ex ception of a severe shock of a shel] bursting near his head, without E wound. In the summer of 1864 as we were fighting Gen. Grant, as he came fron the wilderness, I think it was nea> Deep Bottom that T went out on z scout down on the Chickahomini I river and was going through a wheal field. The wheat was in full heai and nearly as'high as a man's shoul der. He was out between the line4 close to the yankees and was in a lit, tle path when he saw two yankes com ing toward him. They did not se( him, so he got out to one side behind a large rock and waited for the yan kees to come thinking he would keei quiet 'and let them go by. But as they drew nears he saw the one in fron' was a lieutenant and the other a cor poral and but one of them had a gun He decided that he would try to cap ture them, so as they got right up t< him he jumped up and drew down or them, commanding them to throw ui their hands, at the same time telling his own men to keep them covere< with their guns. This was a ruse t< fool the yankees and it worked lik< a charm. But to his surprise there was another yankee right behind thes' two, but he had no gun and surrend ered without a word. The lieutenan' had a saber and a pistol. T. mad< them throw down their arms an< marched all three over into ou: lines. In my next letter I will tell yoi more about this lieutenant and o: kind treatment to him by T., and th< fruit it bore in the days of reconstruc tion, when T. and a good many of hi' neighbors were arrested as Ku-Klux. Taking No Chances. A Glasgow steamer was laboring i] a heavy sea, the waves sometime sweeping her decks, but the officer had assured the passengers that ther was no danger, and all seemed rea sonably quiet with the exception o one meek-appearing little man, whc every few minutes, would approach ai officer, and anxiously inquire if h thought the ship would founder. "No, I tell you!'' one of the offi ers fin ally exclaimed, with .impa tience. "What is the mitter wit] you?'' Look at those other people they are not scared to death.'' "Oh, I'm not scared'' the man re plied; "but if the ship was goin; to founder, I wanted to know a lit tle ahead of time. ' "Oh. wanted to tell your friend good bye, and all that?'' "Well, not exactly,'' the man said hesitatingly; "the fact is. my moth er-in-law is along with me, and if th ship wvas quite sure to sink, I wante< to say a few things to her.'' The supremacy in English histor; of little Prince Edward of Wales i a matter of justifiable pride to his pa rents and tutors, but, according to; story in the London Telegraph, hi knowledge of periods and personage isT healthily tempered by the uneon sious humor of the average school boy of eleven years. He was being examined recently o: the time and reign of Henry VII. "Who was Perkin Warbeck?''" h was asked. "Perkin Warbeck was a pretender,' replied the prince. "He pretended t be the son of a king, but he wasn '1 He was the son of respectable paz Farmers' Union Bureau of Information. -Conducted by the South Carolina Farmers' Educa tional and Go-Operation Union. a ommunications intended for thiE department should be addressed to J. C Stribling, Pendleton, S. C. The Way We Size It Up. The prices for your cotton next fall is just what cotton producers make it. Your work now is about all directed, indirectly or directly, towards mak inr the conditions that are to rule or control the prices of your cotton for this crop and to some extent the next Crop, too. If you help do a thing yourself then don't go about blaming some other fellow for doing it. If you can buy your grain, hay and other farm products cheaper thar you can raise these products, then you are not as good a farmer as the othei man that does this for you, and you can also buy your cotton cheaper than you can grow it, -too. Few people can realize how sicl they have been until they begin to gel over it; few farmers realize vhat a fool they are about cotton until they begin to buy high priced farm pro ducts with low priced cotton. If it takes a wise man to act wise and a fool to act a fool, then it is a natural thing to expect none but good business men to succeed in buying many farm products with which t< grow the one product, cotton. How many of these so-called "bus iness" farmers do you know of thai have been up against a businesi proposition like this for many yearc that now have nothing to show ui their business qualifications in an3 form of accumulations excepting, per haps, a family of ragged and ignorani children and a mortgaged mule oi two? No doubt you've heard of the "bus iness woman' that borrowed a sitting of eggs from one neighbor and i brooding hen from another-she saii she had the nest. Well, now, we ar( betting on this woman coming ou ahead of the man that buys every thing on credit that he uses in grow inz his crop of cotton. Now, this is the class of cotton pro ducers that control the early cottor market. These are the real dumpers and the men that furnish the supplie: of all sorts to such unbusiness like, in competent managers of such an im portant industry as cotton growing are the real responsible parties. Thes< never-do-wells could never rule the cotton business unless the supply mei and the landowners put this import ant business in the hands of such in competent parties. These business men and the land owners are now coming together t< control this matter; they are requir inz each of this class of cotton pro jducers to diversify his crops, whie] is the only way to enforce the neces sary fundamental principle or sys tern upon which the south can eve: make her prices for her cotton an< maintain profitable prices. Now is the time to prepare, for har vesting the small grain crop. Of a) t he busy months in the cotton state the .harvest times are the times of th, most work and the shortest time to d< it in. Cotton and corn crops and sinai train all need attention about thi same time. Farmers' Unions can aid eaeh othe: Sthrough these extremely busy week by clubbing together and buyini binders, threshing machinery and oth er costly farm machinery, that per haps may be too much outlay for on< farmer to foot up; and if the Unio2 does not see fit to buy this machiner: tehey can combine and contract wit] some member that will do all this liar vesting machine work for them at thi proper time, and thus make it possibli to guarantee sufficient work to justi fy a progressive young man to inves in an up-to-date.outfit. This kind o: work is right along the straight roa< with the true principles of the Farm ers' Union. Farm labor is now to< high to use only behind the best fart machinery, tools, team and imple Sments. If one farmer cannot affor< to get' the best of all these, the far ers must combine their efforts an< help each other, so a to obtain thi important help just at the time whei Simproved machinery is most neede< upon the farm. Union men, take hol< Sof this harvest question now and ge Sready for hot times ahead. Cheap Hogs. If you were to m'ake a cheap coa you should have cheap material to be gin with. But when it comes to hogs a cheap, ill-bred animal is not th Skind to start with! You should hay a well bred animal, cheap food and; good, smart chance of good hog sens to start with in order to grow chea] pork ! We can show a fine, thrifty - growing lot of hogs that has eate nothing but a food of one pound cot ton seed to four pounds ruta baga turnips boiled together, from first of November until April. In April the clovers, alfalfa. spring turnips, bar lev, rye, sorgliuni, with good bermuda and other good pastures, with a little bran slops and surplus garden truck, i keep shoats, sows and pigs grow uin until August, when early cowpeac and suga beans will come in. You should fence in these beans witt cheap hog wire fence, moving it aboui to suit; as you cannot afford to picl peas for hogs! We are not stuck or the plan of turning hogs on ploughed land, 'n spring or summer to gathei potatoes, pindars. etc.. as their root ing Up the soil in wet weather doe; dama:e-besides you want rings ir their noses while on pasture and th< pea fields. We have planned to plani 12 acres of soga beans and will graz( these with hogs. as well as 12 acres ol cowpeas and finishing on a litth corn. Some farmers do not seem t< know that the days of 'root hog oi die" has gone, and we cannot expeci a hog to root his living out of th( ground unless there is something ir the ground to root for! A profitabl( hog must be kept growing from star to finish. Not being sure about our propor tions of cotton seed and ruta baga! being a well balanced ration for sows pigs and shoats, we called on Prof Newman. of Clemson, who has en dorsed our ration as being about righ in his letter following this. Clemson College, S. C., Feb. 24,1906 Mr. J. C. Stribling, Pendleton, S. C., Dear Sir:-Referring to your in quiry concerning the feeding of cot ton seed- and ruta baga turnips t< hogs, will say that assisted by Mir Burgess, I have looked up the nutri tive ratio of these two feeds and fin< that using them in the proportion tha you have practiced, that is 11-2 bush els of cotton seed in a sixty galloi boiler, the boiler filled with turnip: and then the whole mass boiled makes an excellent feed for eithe: brood sows or young pigs. I do no know whether you compounded thi ration for the especial purpose fo which it is used or not, but you hay' hit upon the exact nutritive ratio fo: brood sows and pigs, which is-1-4, an< you could 'not well improve upon it For brood sows without pigs, th Scotton seed meal should be decrease< and the turnips increased, since it i ,not necessary under such condition to use feed so rich in protein. Trnlsting that this may answer it purpose, I am Very truly yours, C. L. Newman, CARDOZO SCHOOL IN NATIONA] - CAPITAL. -Representative Aiken Calls Commis -sioner West's Attention to Re i cent Article in "The State." -Feeling that South Carolinians hat an interest in the naming of a schoc building in Washington after the ne gro state treasurer and convict Car dozo" and thinking that the distric -commissioners would be glad to knoa any adequate objection to such thing, Representative Wyatt Aike: Swhen he saw the story on the subjec in the State some days ago wrote letter to Mr. Henry L. West, one o the district commissioners, protestin against the contemplated coiurse. M1 rWest is a democrat. He has replie to Mr. Aiken 's letter. The whole lel ter may interest 'the readers of th -State. It is as follows: -Hon. Wyatt Aiken, House of Representatives. SDear Mr. Aiken: I beg to at ~knowledge receipt of your letter ir closing clippings from the "Columbi State," with reference to the namini of a school building in Washingto: after the late F. L. Cardozo. I hay examined . into the records and fin that the recommendation as to th name was made to the commissioner by the board of education "in viei of his long and eminent service to th colored race and more particularly o his work in the cause of educatior as principal of the M Street Hig school." I did not know-and I ar quite certain that the other commis sioners were equally unacquainte, with-Mr. Cardozo 's record in Sout: Carolina. -As far as we had an: knowledge, Mr. Cardozo was a goo, citizen in the District of Columbi and, unquestionably, is held in es cellent repute for his work in connec tion with the colored schools. In thi connection I note that the corres pondent of the "Columbia State accepts the statement that Cardoz "bore a good character here," an that "there is nothing that I ca learn which would indicate that h ever managed to get hold of any put lic moneys or sell any State or natior al bonds, appropriating the proceed to his private uses, as in the good o1 riday of yore." In other words, thier was nothiing upon the records here to lead the commissioners to veto the recommendation of the board of edu cation, and no reference was made at any time to the events occurring in South Carolina. Very truly yours, Henry L. West. News From Excelsior. Excelsior. April 2.-We have had a chance of rain in this section and very little farm work has been done the past two weeks. The farmers will have plenty of time though to get in their crops from now on. A large amount of fertilizers have been haul ed in this section but a good deal of I it will be put under corn. The farm ers are beginning to learn that it doesn't pay to raise all cotton and de pend upon buying their corn. In crease your corn acreage and cut down your cotton crop again this year and you will reap the benefit of it next fall. This ought to be the motto of every farmer this year. Glad to learn that our friend Chips is improving from his recent illness and hope he will soon be himself again. Mr. E. M. Cook spent Wednesday night in Columbia. Mr. Otis Kibler, of Newberry, is visiting in this community. We still have a few cases of mea sles in this section. They hang on well and are no respecter of persons, so if you have not had them, look out. Miss Bettie Werts, of the Saluda side, is visiting Mrs. H. J. Kinard. The fruit crop has been badly in jured, but still there is some left for us. A number of our young men met on the school ground Saturday after noon and practiced playing ball. They show up a pretty good team and will soon be able to play Newberry or some other team. Mr. J. W. Watts, of Newberry, spent Wednesday night with his mother's family. Mr and Mrs. Rufus Crumpton r spent Saturday and Sunday in New berry. The grain in this section has a nice Sappearance but on lowlands has too Smuch rain. The R. F. D. mail service is appre e iated by our people and we hope Un c le Sam will not discontinue any of e the routes whatever.~' SMr. G. W. Kinard is spending a few Sdays down at Ballentine on business. SQuite a number of the citizens of Mt. Pilgrim section met last week Sand partly opened up a public road leading from Mr. John Long's resi dence to the church. We are told the road is now in good condition. The roads should all be improved soon as Sthe farmers can spare the time. Rev. W. H. Whitaker, paistor of the Methodist c hurch in Prosperity, - preached a good sermon Sunday af ternoon to a good congregation from the theme: "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.'' I Sigma. - The Habit of Blaming. -Medical Talk. Some people spend most of their time in blaming other people. They Sblame this one for one thing, and that one for another thing. 'All day long they are blaming somebody, accusing some one, bringing up a list of dam aging accusations against various peo ple. The practice reacts upon the one YOUR PRESEN TO IN Our Weeders, Planters, Farm Fencing, Poultry Wire, Barb Wire, We YI - Wealso have a corn Lime,lCement, Extra and Poles, Carpentei aImplements, Screen Screen Door Paints, ture Polish, etc., And We Can That you makem .!SUMME who (oes it. It is disagreeable ti all who hear i. There is no good in it whatever. it is nearly always unjust, and witioutt exceptiin. uncertain. It is veri di-eult to be sure when IIV(e is to b1lme tor anvthiig. It is muchi safer to as-sume that no one is to blame. Why blame anyone? The matter is past. The thing has been done. The iiext thing to do is to try to prevent a repetition of the occurrence. Bla ining children. blaming scholars, bla ing c,-workers, or superiors, is very bad busiess. If scmathing has hap 1,ened that is evidently wrong or uin Ileasant, maybe something can be done to prevent the thing happening To go about it in a vigorous but judic us way, to fix it so the se thin shall not be repeated, this is sensible. But to waste time in bla min, each is foolish. The u-se of perfumes is as old as civilizz t i( n. A man is usually judged by the company ie keeps, but it isn't fair to judge a woman that way. Her com pany is frequently forced upon her. Wood's Everoreen Law in Grass. The best of Lawn Grasses for the South; specially prepared to withstand our summers and to give a nice green sward the year round.. Special Lawn Circular telling how to prepare and care for lawns, mailed free on request. Pant Wood's .Garden% beeds for superor Vegetables and Flowers. Our Descriptive Catalogue tells you how and when to plant for best success. Mailed free. Write for it. T,W, Wood& Sons, Seedsmen, RICHMOND, - VA. If you want the sweetest and best Water Melons and Cantaloupes grown, plant Wood's Southern.grownl seed. Our Descritiwe Cataogue tell all ON YOUR . HUNTINO TRIP Be sure to be properly e,uinned--obtain the STEY ENS and you CANNOT G.. wlxoNG. we naake RIFLES . . . from $2.25 to, $150.00 PIsTOLS . . . from 2.50 to 50.00 SHOTGUNS . . from 7.50 to 35.00 Ask rour dealer and insist'i Send for z.:o-pag e inus $.,,annoti, e ship eitdI HOTNG -o 'a re,:t, carriage charge ought tohave It. Mailed pre.^aid, upon receipt of for four cents in stamps to catalog price, cover postage. Our attractive three-color Aluminum Hanger will be, sent anywhere for ro cents in stamps. J. STEVENS ARES ANDh TO0OL CO.. Chicopee Falls, Mas., U..A E REQUESTED SPECT Buggies, Wagons, Harness, Summer Robes,. The Prettiest in town. Whips, Guaranteed not to break. plete stock of Nai[s, Buggy Tops, Shafts s' Tools and Farming. Doors and Windows, Floor Stains, Furni Conince You oney by seeing us. P BROS.