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SALESDAY AS MSHTUTiON Vanishing from laurens First Monday In December Formerly Was High Spot' Now Merely Routine and Attracts Little Interest Laurens, Dec. 5.—Salesday in Lau- tbf first Monday of each month of the year, is a local institution as old as the county itself and formerly an important day on the calfen« r, politically, pORi- UstkaBy and socially. A companion ^institution” equally as popular and oftthaes more attracthre to the crowds that (adhered for the monthly semi* holiday, was the “bone-yard” or horse- swappers’ bailiwick. - But the whirligig of time has brought changes in the system. Of course, the legal salesday comes and goes, with a number of public auc tions by the sheriff, clerk of court and probate judge; but the whole thing is merely routine and perfunctory. Likewise, the Aorse-traders’ quarters down town oif the spacious depot lot has retrograded from its former pop ularity knd prestige, Although it is still intact. In the years or had roads, five-cent cotton, barrooms and dispensary; in the days of no automobiles when ev ery had a good horse and buggy, or a spanking double team, or still better, a saddle nag that could follow the bypaths and thus shun the impas- very few mail' order houses,rural mail delivery and rural police, no ca fes and movies; yet everybody was reasonably happy and contented to stay at home and work aix days in the week and spend the Sabbath with his family at ’church and at home. Cotton ginners were willing to run all night in order to favor m customer who had to meet a bank note due the next day; men and boys wore boots and. women and children high-top dhoes. So, when December salesday came around, all the mem hands, hors es, and dogs found their way to the courthouse. First Monday in Decem ber wqs a bigger event than court week—next thing to a circus or a county political campaign meeting. But the glory of all such simplicity as a horseback ride to the courthouse once or twice a year, particularly for a public salesday in December, has long since departed, and horse trading has lost its art, the craft that now holds forth on the “boneyard” having dwindled to a mere handfull. As salesdays go nowadays, next Monday promises only a dull repeti tion of its predecessors during the past dozen years or more Some pretty stories have been treas- muddy roads in the winter sea- ured and passed^along in connection RoqfL salesday brought the crowds to.with horse-swappers’ paradise, its tra- Past ] town—for business—and, incidentally, 1 ditional fortunes, misfits, nothing left, for a little fun and fr&lic on the part but the saddle and the bridle and so cf many. The first Monday ia December was the “red letter” day, usually in the “good old times” before the new era.perhaps. The principal and benefici- of Progress strode across the country! ary who evolved the scheme is author- on. It was on a salesday in December that one of the best stunts of “bone- yard” production was ever staged. *> and put banks in every town, took mule teams out of the mud, bonded school districts, municipalities, coun ties and states to the limit, placed mortgages on every conceivable thing, from a Ford to a church edifice; built new courthouses and jails, schoolhous- es in every district, constructed paved highways, bought limousines and em ployed speed cops. i. ity for the tale. Early in the morning he joined the crowd on the depot lot, bought a plug horse, saddle and all at a nominal price. Before he could get into the game of trading, he was called to the courthouse for jury duty. The animal was hitched to a post, and to the post was nailed a little box on which this banter was scrawled: “If you like The books of the County Treasurer will be open for the collection of Tax es for the fiscal year, 1926, jst dm Treasurer's office from October 16th to December 91, 1926. After Decem ber 81 bne per cent will be qdded. After January 81, two per cent will be added, and after Feb. 28th, seven per cent will be added until the 16th day of March, 1927, when the books will be closed. " All persons owning property in more than one township are requested to csH for receipts in each of the sev- eral townships In which the property is located. This is important, as ad ditional cost and penalty may be at tached. . ' All able-badied male citizens be tween the ages of twenty-one (21) and sixty (60) years of age are liable to pay a poll tax of $1.00, except old soldiers, who are exempt at fifty (50) years of age. Commutation Road Tax $1.50 in lieu of road dut^. All able- bodied men between the *qges of 21 and 55 are liable to road duty except those in military service, school trus tees, school teachers, ministers, and students. Dog Tax $1.25, which must be paid not later than January 31, 1927. Proper attention will be given thoee who wish to pay their taxes through the mail by check, money order, etc. The tax levy is as follows: State Tax — — — 5^4 mills Ordinary County Tax — 5^4 mills Road and Bridge — 6% mills Railroad Bond — — 1 mill Jail Bonds 14 mill Bonds - 10% mills Indebtedness — — 2 mills SUtewide School (6-0-1) 4 mills Weak and High Schools 14 mill Constitutional School 3 mills Salesday in December in ye olden my horse better than yours by the dif- days, as stated, was the premier fes tive day as it was, also in large meas ure, settling time—the squaring of ac counts, paying taxes and trading for another year. The crops had been harvested, bog-killing time was on in full flower and the grain crop had been sown—the close of the year was approaching and a big Christmas was at hand. There were no marri- and automobile licenses to buy; no tax executions, no duns in the mail, ference of a dollar, you’ve traded And the “silent swapper” did a land office business, for when the owner returned to the yard late in the after noon he found the same horse at the rack and 40 silver dollars in the im provised depository, showing that two. score exchanges had been made and that the last owner of the popular Total .... 38 mills Laurens School Districts No. 1 — 1614 mills' No. 2 16 mills No. 3 1614 mills No. 4 7 mills No^ 5 8 mills No. 6 6 mills No. 7 .... * :... 8 mills No. 11 -.. — 22 mills No. 12 11% mills Youngs School Districts No. 2 ... 8 mills No. ^ 16 mills No. 5 17 m>Us No. 6 10% mills No, 7 17% mills No. 8 15 mills No. 10 .... 22% mills No. 3B 24 mills Dials School Districts No. 1 8 mills No. 2 .... 12% mills plug probably decided he wanted a safer saddler on which to take his jag home in the night. ■* CHRISTMAS GIFTS THAT COUNT MOST Tfck EXRY came home from U'vrn the day 'before Christina* and handed Mrs. White a putkage. saying with a grin: “Grandma Cook sent you a Christ mas present.” “Why. bless her dear old heart,” lira White cried, “what in the worM is «tr •Well." answered Henry, “she said she had made some soap, and that the batch turned out so well she wast ed you to have some; she said It made a flue suds, and that she wished you a Murry Christmas." And sure enough, when Mrs. White unwrapped the clumsily tied package, a brick' of home-made yel- soap, smelling strongly of snssa gaudy red and green paper, put on with many ■ glaring stitch and smear of gtoe. It contained several piece? No. 1 No. 3 ,... .... 12 mills No. 5 20 mills No. L-3 16% mills No. 8 — 12 mills No. SB 484 mills Sullivan School Districts 18 mill* of hard, striped candy, a home-muie yarn ball, some broken nut meats, la borloualy picked out with paOeut little fingers, and a broken blade d jackknife, doubtless his most cherished posses sion.—Frank Heritert Sweet UEk 192t. Wrrt< r» Newspaper Datoa.) friend of the family who was it was Inclined to take the mat- ter a* a joke. •What a funny thing,” she laughed. “1 didn't suppose anyone nwtde soap at hoebe. nowadays." But the blur of aromatic cleanser meant more te Mrs. White than a mere piece of soap. It stood fOr friendship. It was a symbol of serv ice gladly given. Grandma Cook’s nap was a real gift, something she thought was extra nice and therefore ited to share with one she liked. Oh. when will we get away from the gifts must represent money, tfiri we caunot give unless we have rh* wherewith to purchase the glittering wares displayed in the window and aa the counter, during the holiday sea- ara? Last Christmas a friend hap te look out of a window and a neighbor’s little boy comint In the gate: hi* secretive air and care fh! tiptoeing op the walk made the friend step behind a curtain, where he cocld see without b^ng seen. Cau tiously the boy crept upon the porch ■ad, hts little face breaking into deposited a newspaper bundle at the door, then still be hurried down the walk and oat cf the gate. Waiting aatH he was out af sight, so as uot to spoil the “surprise,” my flrirad opened the doer and, the parcel, ftrautf a af cardboard and covered with , NATURE’S GIFTS N ATURE, Is busy at Christ mas time getting ready her presents. Sometimes she Is de layed a little, again she is ahead of time, but invariably she be stows exquisite gifts upon peo ple. There are the trees and the fields, bare, bleak and ugly after the radiance of autumn has left them. Nature garbs them for Christmas as part of her lavish gift* to human kind. The trees ore covered with «now, and - icicles of crystal beauty ornament led :es. eaves and,r»*ek*. Sometimes the trees are glittering with nature's ar tistic blending of snow and rain and ice so that they gleam as »jj jewels upon the winter scene. Fields are <*overed with snow which rests softly and kindly ujmn their great, brown surfaces and many colors dance In spar kling reflection between the sun’s n>ys and the white snow. Nature wishes us a Merry Christmas In so lovely a way!— Mary Graham Bonner. ft 1924. WcMtera Srwrpuv+r Union.) • -sfr tf Jm' » s' Ms 4 a 1 ■ * 1: No. 2 8 mills No. 3 20 mills No. 7 16 mills No. 8 .... 12 mills No. 17 16 mills Railroad Tax 3 mills Waterloo School Districts No. 1 12 mills No. 2 .... 9 mills No. 3 20 mills No. 4 — 14 mills No. 5 8 mills No. 6 13 mills No. 7 16 mills No. 14 8 mills Cross Hill School Districts ' No. 13 21% njlls I No. 16 — 16 mills Hunter School Districts 6 mills 8 mills 22 mills No. 3 .... No. 4 .... No. 5 No. 6 .... iNo. 7 .... ' No. K-9 No. R-42 No. 16 ... Jacks School Districts 4 mills 5 mills 8 mills 13 mills 16 mills No. 1 .... 4 mills No. 2 .... 11 mills No. 3:... No. 4 .... •••• - - a— «••• - -- — Buk No. ff 8 mills No. 7 .... No. 15 ... ••• •• ••• •• *••••« Wrap Gifts Attractively A great deal of the charm of a ChrisFnms gift Is In the way It I* wrapped up, and this year there an any number of new and attipcflvi boxes, palters and ribbons. Quite th« most unusual way of giving silk stock tags Is to enclose three pairs of cbif for hose In a box of !g?qoer in a shadt of Chinese red^ eld gold or black The* am Bed. with- hsight^oiored ot gold cord and the elfrct is delightful Scuffletown School Districts No. 1 .... — 8 mills No. 2 8 mills No. 3 3 mills No. 4 .... — 4 mills No. 10 i - 22% mills No. 12 11% mills Persons sending in lists of names to be taken off are requested to send them early and give the township of each, as the Treasurer is very busy ’."j C*""'* during the month of December. . ROSS D. YOUNG, County Expert phonograph re pairing done atO’Daniel and Reid’s. S', /■ ■L pickup/ That is Esso. From a standing start you shoot ahead. Then a steady purr of power th$t sweeps # you over the Kills—that keeps you out ahefcd in traffic. With Esso in your tank your motor The Giant Power fuel costs 5 cents more-wtxm it STANDARD • OIL • COMPANY • (N.J.) Gifts long remembered Think! wm the gifts you give soon be gone and forgotten? If they are beautiful Hotpoint gifts, they will be reminders of the giver every day through long years cf usefulness S OME gifts you might give loved ones at Christmas would last several happy days. Some would become old, or worn out and for*, gotten, in a few months. But Hotpoint gifts are permanent. When they are treasured heirlooms they will still be beautiful and useful. Yet Hotpoint gifts may be quite economical. There are suitable Hot* point girts for as little as $2.95 — or as much as $455.00. Each is an unequaled value at its price and of a quality famous for over a genera tion. Each will be a token of your affection not alone on Christmas day, but every day for long years of enduring beauty and usefulness. A few popular Hotpoint gifts are bhown below. Wc have many others on display. Come in early while our stock is complete. Parrott-Electric Phone 33$ rkthomt GIFTS $1050to 836^0 . t M HEM - *• j 4'. .• »-