University of South Carolina Libraries
Nobody's Business Written for The ChrouieU by Geo McGee, Copyright, 1828. TODAY AND YKHTKHADY .. I watched a ,hunch of small boys at play twiafPacrosa the street from my office. There were 4 of them; one was smoking a cigarette; he was about <i years old; one was shooting an air rifle and the other .two had parked their bicycles on the curb and were punting a football that .fiust have cost $3.00. ..When I was about the age of these boys. I was playing, no doubt, with 3 companions. Our principal Mtyort was catching grass-hoppers, chasing atmki' doctors, killing lizard.-, climbing tree.', digging doodles, scooping up smell-bugs, climbing trees, lighting yellow jackets and going in a< washing. . ..We had "trophy" contests back then, but we didn't know that it was "trophy." We called it a race to see who could get the most. I led the crowd in getting grasshopper legs; I have had as many as 375 in my, pockets at one time.. None Were counted except the big saw-leg types. Only 'babies caught little graswhoppers. C ..We gathered lizard tails, frog toes, snake hides, eel eyeballs, and rabbit tails; by the way, we wore rabbit tails pinned onto our shirts with a thorn for breast pins. Streakfleld legs were very valuable; those insects were hard Jlo catch. All of us generally kept fa large supply of June bugs in season. We had plenty mudturkie snouts also; we u%ed them to scratch cross marks on the bark of trees, barn-walls and so on. , . My father ran a blacksmith shop as a side-line to the farm. I never carried less than 2 pounds of horseshoe ends, 3 pounds of old nuts and washers and 4 pounds of nails, screws and harness buckles in my pockets when roaming around. All of the boys learned to smoke cross-vine on the sly wheh rabbit tobacco was scarce. We had no matches, and had to tote a chunk of lire around with us all day if we wanted to do any smoking. Fire was mighty scarce when I was a kid. ..Our "specialty" collection consisted of fish fins, fish bladders, fish scales and gar-fish heads. We were fond of owning .squirrel tails and the wings of the leather-wing bat. Most of us . carried a bottle of hornets around with us when we could catch them, but that was for bravo boys only (like me) and it was considered dangerous business. The aforementioned items constituted a goodly portion -of. the playthings children enjoyed when I was neaiing school age. MY FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL ..I started to school when I was nearly 9 years" old. We lived so far from the school house" (7 miles), me and my brothers and sisters had to wait till we got big enough to walk 14 miles a day before,we could seek 1 an education. ir* . .1 remember my-first day at school. Me and Hud and Mary and Jennie and Sadie got our dinner buckets filled with 4 biscuits each and a little bottle of molasses each, and we set out for school about daylight on that memorable Monday morning, and arrived at the ohi log school hoyse about 8:30. .. 1 was trembling from one end to the other. I expected the teacher to meet me out in the yard and whip the hound out of me. I had heard of his reputation for chasing his pupils. My little jeans britches were as stiff as a stove pipe, my lindsay shirt was red-striped and my feet were bare. 1 went on in with the other children. . . The teacher spied me shortly after he took up books, lie walked over to t and gazed at me over the t<>p of his specs and said?"Who are you 1 ?.ouldn't u.lcr a sound. I was so scared. My mouth was d-y. my slummick was aching and my feet had gone to sleep. Hrotrter told him who 1 was and that -ecnud to satisfy him. ..He called me up in a short while and 1 knew that I was going to get Worn plumb out, but he saw me" trembling and said?"Little man, don't be a-feared; nobody ain t going to hurt you." (He didn't have any too much education himself). He started me off in my ABC's and I learned all of 20 of them during that session of 3 months. ..Little recess came; I slipped over to my lunch bucket which had no lid on it, got out a biscuit, blew the red ants off of it, poked a hole in it with my finger, poured in some homemade sorghum molasses and thusly saved my backbone from becoming a portion of my chest. I was never so hungry in all my life. V ..I recited roy^AlBC's on the book during that day and got as far as B, Wo had a big recess of nearly 2 hours. We played stink-tbaae, hop notch, leap-frog, roley-hole, mumblepeg there was only 1 pocket-knife in school?fox in the war, 2 holey-cat, marbles and standing on our hehds (boys only). 1 enjgyed my next day better and finally got where I liked going to school. We had a 3-month's school every year. And the teacher got (sometimes, when the folks would pay him) $16.00 per month-*~ahd that eln't been so long ago either. Armed Irish police on Friday rounded up gjf leaders of the Irish K^ublican army in a s^yprlko move. ^ | Admits Sacks Were Concealed By. Him Wilson, N. C., Oct. 20.--Police to* day said 'Hugh Hawley, 20-year-old mail truck driver, had confeaaed his Htory ho was robbed of three mail pouches containing $50,000' was/A fabrication and that he hid the pouches in a .woods himself. ^ , The officers announced Hawley's confession was made to a group of postal inspectors and local officers during last night after he had stuck to his original story of the robbery through hours of questioning. After making the announcement -4?. ' a Hawley had confessed, the officers took him before United <8taUa Cojomisaioner G. L. Parker and he -waived examination on a charge of tampering with the mails and asked an immediate trial. He w*s bound over to the term of United States district court beginning at Wilmington Monday. Bond was fixed at $1,000. lie wae unable to make it and was returned to jail. Hawley reported to police early Wednesday that a lone bandit held him up at the railway station, forced him to drive to a wooded section near Wilson where two other men joined the bandit and took the three pouches of registered mull from him. He appeared at a farm Wise with his hands bound and aaid the bandita had left him tied up. The youth ia not married and has borne a good reputation here. Tin- mail pouches ware found by police several hours later in the woods with the money safe in them. j aVaft' i > Arabs of Jerusalem and Palestine are trying to prevent immdgation of Jews to the Holy Land^mnd Holy City. In a demonstratlonWriday a dozen or more persons, including two British policemen, were ihjured. Three persons were killed and property damage totaled $5,000 when la tornado hit Sayre, Kan., Sunday. '" - >| & broken cylinder forced down an army airplane in a cotton field five miles north of Oaflfney on Saturday, as il was carrying two officer* from Washington to San Antonio, Tex**, Its landing gear and propeller were damaged when it struck the rough ground, but nobody was hurt. The plane was shipped to Fort Bragg for repairs, and its oocupants rode into Spartanburg in a bus. Victor Ucata, supposedly insane and a drug addict, killed his father, mother, sister and a ijj&thar. at Tampa, Fla., and perhaps fatally, wounded a Second brother. II? did his bloody work with an axe. He was a persistent smoker of marajuanu. I Sensational 10,000 Mile Drive! I I OF THE I I NEW SILVER FORD V-8 I We,\:itlong with the Ford Dealers at Hartsville, Florence, Lake City, Timmonsville, Sumter and Colum- I I ?> I hia, are sponsoring this remarkable drive to definitely prove the astonishing performance and marvelous i economy of the New Ford V-8. This drive started on last Thursday, October 19th, with a stock model Tudor Ford Sedan and will be } I driven continuously for 10,000 miles over this section of the State, demonstrating, at the end of the drive, I j B just what you may expect of YOUR new FORD at the end of a year's driving. To prove the actual fuel consumption, the oil filler and gas tank were locked by the Mayor and Chief I I I of Police at Florence, S. C. The re-fueling of this cat is under their supervision and at-the expiration of I I I the 10,000-mile drive a sworn statement from them, or their designated representative, will give the ac- I j I tual amount of fuel used. * This Car Passes CAMDEN Four V , ' '^ ' | || Times in Twenty-four Hours And Will Parade Broad and DeKalb Streets I We ask that you notice the smoothness with which this car performs, on open road or in traffic; also ; i I the fleetness, case in handling, its quick yet-away and speed. ? -----1 * i?~ We are offering $50.00 on the purchase of a New Ford to the person who makes the nearest estimate lv I I of the gasoline and oil consumed in this 10,000-mile run. For further information ask at our office. The l-fl continuous route of this car from Camden will include Hartsville, Darlington, Florence, Lake City, Tim- I I monsville, Sumter and Columbia. ftfl A THRILLING 10,000 MILE TESTlH I Further announcement will he made as the drive progresses, but in the meantime "Keep your eye on I?I REDFEARN MOTOR COMPANY (1 I Camden, South Carolina yli j J , j s | BROAD ST. PHONE 140 |H