Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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eUOGV, WHIP BUSINESS IS THING OF THE PAST , uy Conrad Frederick Smith In The Charlotte Observer) jyn insignificant little Item In the pupeh# the other day probably brought nigha and perhaps a few crocodile mara from old-timers who did their courting In bugglea and thought that those high-wheeled vehlclea were the supreme means of covering the ground in a stylish manner. I refer to a news story that said (4 dealer In some Eastern State had hold his last buggy, the remnant or a carload that he bought fifteen years it go. Ho aoM tll? knggy ut a largo discount, but fondly patted It farewell, as it meant the severance of a business that had once mado him a fortune. The buggy and whip business isn't what It used to. be. It Just does exist, and the sale of a buggy 1b rare enough today to warrant a flash over the wires and the clicking of newsreel camera. \A few mall carriers In ro? ..art# of this country still cling to the buggy with, the faithful horse plodding along before It, but In the main the buggy has gone the way of ,he buffalo, the passenger pigeon, and the bustle. You can blame the automobile, the natural craving for speed, and the tilling station for the decadence of buggy transportation. It Just Isn't fust enough for a fellow who wants to whiz along at 70 miles per hour. What matter that the horse will take you home if yau fall .aBloep in a man. CT mndnrii car can never do? What matter tht^t oats are cheaper than gas, and a little grazing on the roadside will replenish a steed with enough energy for the trip home, whereas filling station managers have not yet gotten to where they hand out free fuel? As a toddling tot, I remember that buggies were in the majority; in fact, the sight of a motor car with its bulbous horn, its shrieking brakes, and barking exhaust was enough to throw all the nags and real horses Into a tough house panic. But cars improved with the years so that a man could get ten miles from town and depend on getting back home with some degree of certainty. Roads Improved along with bond issues and taxes. Horses no longer reared in terror and took the strange creatures in their stride. The day of the automobile had arrived. The buggy and wagon dealer back home was about the richest man in : jwn. On a busy Saturday or trade day he might sell as many as a dozen buggies, some complete with harness, robes and whips. There were trade_ ::ih-uc Lh.aU day, too.?TluyJmckluLol iho store was always filled with second-hand buggies, for which thero was a fairly good market for young married men Just starting out, who didn't .are whether their equipage were shiny or not. A man with a horse naturally progressed from the saddle stage to a road cart or two-wheeler, then to a topless buggy. After this came a stylish rig with top. fancy dashboard, pearl-handled whip and brass-tipped harness. Then came the various phaetons and surries wjth tassels and the like. Such were the height of luxury and denoted influence and wealth. If a young swain without a buggy of his own wanted to take his gal out for > ,:ne rural air. he could always rent an outfit at the livery stable, provided In- had the cash. Dr. Oren Moore, of Charlotte, tells with delight about some of his horseand-buggy days while he was a stu<i nt at Davidson. He said that h? slapped the reins on many a fancy iohcp of horse flesh in his day. and that for courting a buggy has few f quals. even among streamline automobiles. The going was slower, but surer. There were no blow-outs or empty gas tanks. And the horse gen (rally knew the way home if you slacked the lines. Truly the horse-and-buggy days are pf another generation, but they hold fond memories for those who used tins means of transportation when life was in its spring. The horse and buggy had their merits. Maybe they will (otne back. Bishop Finloy Dead Hendersonville, Aug. 87. The Right Rev. Kirkman O. Ftnlay, 60, of Columbia. S. C., bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Upper-South Carolina, died at Kanuga lake, Episcopal conference (enter, at 8 o'clock tonight after auf fering a heart attack a few houra earl-J ier. He was the~flrst and only clergyman to serve as bishop of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina, 1t being one of the hewer denominational unit*. He was the central figure behind the organization of the Kanuga con ferencea eleven years ago and had served as president of the conferences mnce. He gave of his time and energy without stint to the work at Kanuga ar.a In his diocese. The eitra burdens that he assumed are believed to have contributed to his death. Six Frenchmen were killed In the collision eff two iwmMai plaaee -oee* Ryons, France, It ond^r nifht. A ITS TRA LI7T Dr*vu:? Aus. rattan Sheep lo Pasture. Australia is almost as big as the United States, but j its vast face presents a striking contrast to the American landscape. This ancient eroded land mass lias no extensive mountain ranges, no great river systems. The granite ridge of Mount Kosciusko, 7,330 feet above sea level, in the southeastern corner of New South Wales, is the highest point on the continent. 1 For 900 miles along the southern coast there flows not a single river. Many other miles are little better served, as existing stream beds are often dry for many months. The Murray-Dafling is the one large river system of the continent. From its source in the Queensland highlands, less than a hundred miles from the coast, to its mouth at the sand reef of the Coorong, southeast of Adelaide, the stream travels 2,310 miles. Except for length, however, it Is no Mississippi. Its drainage area is much smaller, and much of the water is lost before it reaches the main channel. Where American pioneers in their westward march from the Alleghenies progressively found wellwatered fertile lands awaiting their plows, Australian pioneers were baffled by sterile inland areas where they could find not even water to drink. Lakes that were only colossal salt pans; rivers that were dry or stagnant with brine; and vast rocky and sandy wastes?such were the reports that Sturt, Eyre, Stuart, and other Australian explorers brought back from the interior where their parties had suffered untold privations and harrowing hardships. Leichhardt marched inland and vanished. Burke and Wills perished of starvation on Cooper's creek. -GeastaHBelta Are Ferttter But Australia is by no means entirely desiccated. Indeed, along the coastal belts and extending for several hundred miles inland the land is flushed with fertility. A broad band of vegetation extends along the north, east, and southeast edges of the continent, covers a wide triangle in the southwest corner of Western Australia, and blankets most of Tasmania. Its development is a fascinating story. Here, within the short span of a century, resourceful Australian settlers have carved out farms and pasture lands so big and productive that they help to fix the price of the world's bread and meat and clothing. Here they have reared bustling commercial marts with world-wide interests and growing population? Sydney and Melbourne claim more than a million people each. Frontiers move farther inland, but even the most conservative authorities estimate that, in already developed lands, the present population could be quadrupled without congestion. A striking feature of Australia today is the concentration of more than 62 per cent of her entire population in the six capital cities and the urban- centers. Yet, paradoxically, beyond the cities and extending to the far horizons of "way out back" are found the commonwealth's chief resources. Mobs of sheep are grazing across endless plains; cattle are bawling beside water holes and kicking up long banners of dust as they move on muster; seas of golden wheat ripple beneath sunny skies; in eucalypt forests axes ring; and from molelike burrowings in the earth men are bringing up minerals to feed factories and gold to be stacked in the world's treasure vaults. "An improbable dream of a visionary enthusiast"?such was the libel that Australia's first settlers attached to the idea that the country might become a prosperous sheep land. Some were positive that the flocks could not thrive on Australian grasses, which are dry during the summer months, and, even if they did, the wool would deteriprate to scraggty hair in the hotter climate of the continent. How It Became a Sheep Land. But Capt. John MacArthur, onetime of the New South Wales Corps and somewhat of a political1 firebrand in the in/ant period of Australia's settlement, thought otherwise. Therein lies the romance of an industry that has few parallels in commercial history. Wool has been to Australia what cotton has been to the American South. Today a fifth of the coun-. productive wealth is carried ' ; " " ? on the backs of tier sheep. From j the meager flocks with which MacArthur unci other pioneers began their systematic breeding, there has grown the amazing total of more than 114 million animals, which supply between a fourth und a third of c world's wool roquirow.cr.tr. The generations of sheep breeders I that followed Macarthur's footsteps | have taken their flocks over wide areas of the continent. Through increased watering facilities, by means of artesian bores, millions of animals now are ranging in regions once considered useless. As the world's wool-hungry mills have increased their demands, so station (ranch) owners ulso have increased the weight and quality of the fleeces. Today the average clip (including lambs! has risen to eight-and-a-naif pounds, twice that of pioneer days; but you see some wrinkle-necked old merino rams that are carrying the equivalent of seven suits of men's clothing 011 their bodies. In length, fineness, and strength of its fiber Australian wool is unsurpassed. Life on the Sheep Ranch A sheep ranch is a complete community in itself. It usually has its I own post office, telegraph station, and power plant. Although not on the sumptuous scale of some of the I palatial residences of the Argentine j pampa, many of these commodious station homes, surrounded by flow| ering gardens, are perfect in every I I appointment and convenience. In some respects they are the Austra! ban equivalent of old English 1 manors. Beyond each central residence is ! clustered a full complement of barracks and houses for the station hands and families; also stables, blacksmith and machine shops; laundry, butchery, and baker>4 And out-lying those are the long corrugated-iron woolsheds and stock pens. Life is unhurried in these nerve try. The manager seldom assigns more than one task a day to his men. Some days they do little, but they are always ready to work long fatiguing hours when the occasion demands. By the sweat of their own brows most owners have built and managed their own estates. While there are some absentee owners, by far the majority know the meaning of work. Sons, too, grow up in the business. On many stations one finds these young "jackaroos" working to fit themselves to become station managers. With perhaps forty men under his direction, a manager's life is a busy j one. There are always inspection trips to see the condition of water and grass on the runs, repairs to be maintained, and a multitude of other tasks to keep the station going. Here in the saddle most of Australia's polo players gain their training. The men also find recreation i in hunting or tennis. Culture Is Not Lacking. The wives of the managers are cultured and many have traveled widely. In the outback it is rather surprising to find people so conversant with the latest books, music, and, of course, the races. Before telephones and radios came, station life was more isolated. Motorcars and even airplanes in many places have brought distant towns next door. One of the most remarkable things, as you travel through the sheep districts, is the comparative absence of sheep on the landscape. When you cpmment on it up in Queensland, a station man explains that he has traveled a thousand miles through one region where there were a million sheep being pastured, yet on the whole trip he has not se^n a single sheep! At EJoonoke, where there are about a hundred thousand animals, the plains seem empty, The flocks are broken up into smaller groups and have their own separate runs, but even on the fertile grasslands of that station there is less than one sheep to the acre. In more arid regions the acreage is considerably greater. As you speed across the rolling plains of one station in an Amercao truck, you see dozens of kangaroos rise up like posts above the grass and then take to their heels as you approach. Propelling themselves with only their powerful hind legs, with their tiny undeveloped front legs held high, their running seems uncanny. But as your speedometer touches 4ft miles an hour, some old kan] garoos keep pace beside "the car. ^ * A Few of Many Thing* to Ponder Over This is the "Machine Ago," actual as well as political. The latter has put ever a million people on the federal payroll, all told. The former has thrown many thousands out of Jobs, and ihe number will Increase rapidly A weaver In a textile mill can now bundle many times the looms as formerly It used to take thirty times as many men to make bricks A lino type machine in a printing establish mailt bus supplanted at least a halt doien or more prlntor "devils." ( hum stores have put many a little shopkeeper on the scrap heap. The radio has closed most of the theaters A great combine harvester and threshing machine has put many a poor sinner 011 the relief rolls. Hundreds of others could be mentioned. You can drive through this little county and see in every direction one man and ohc mule doing what two of each did before. It would he Interesting to know the number of women In this country, holding white-collar Jobs, that men once negotiated. In llfty more years, at the proaont pace, there will be little need of half the bipeds that will he meandering around in breeches. The "hubbies" now pushing their legs ixpder the tables of their wives for provender are a mere bagatelle, compared to the army of Jobless and mated roosters In the future. Hard manual labor will be the main hope for bread and pudding with a large percentage of men and boys In days to come: h?t, present training, automobiles and extravagunce. the outlook Is not hopeful. Then what? Sufficient unto the day Is the ?vil thereof." This may seem an overdrawn and pessimistic picture, but the drift Is pluln. A numbskull ought to see that with present Increases in taxes, easy Jobs, and expenses, In so short a period as the lust ten years, if it keeps the pace, it is not hard to predict the outcome. And when it comes to taxes don't let the county and state levies fool you. It is hard for you to cipher out anything In your possession that has not some kind (ami often many kinds) of a tax upon It. that you know little or nothing about. It is what Is called the painless tax. And it seems to be endless. You heurd much about all sources of taxation have been dried up, and nothing more to tax. But jou : noticed that our perennial and longlived legislators added a .million and a half Tor old ago pensions. In ten years It will bo Ave millions. But, J you are wise to souffle for u white-1 collar Job.?Calhoun Times. Bruce'* All-Star* Dofeated Sinclair* latd by (he two-hit hurling of Basil Bruce of the Wolves team, a potpourri squad made up mostly of K end a. 11 Mill talent, defeated the Blntlalr OUers in an exhibition game at the lauirens street pastime pasture Thursday by a score of t? to 1. For four frames the kuiuo was air tight with the oilers taklnK a one run lead in the third on Nolan's triple utv*! ex uunui fiAu fill Ku lUxlL t*\ ilautt left. That triple plated smash together with a scratch single in the fourth by Oaskin constituted the loney collection mado by the Oilers. >. The Bruce crew struck in the t'lfth when singles by Tommy Bruce, Can Id or hiiiI an error by Hulaull oil Beanie Robinson's drive to left field tutt two runners home. Robinson cored later on an Infield out. Again in the sixth a single by Taylor. a walk to llioks and then after - ^ two had passed away, a blow by Tommy Bruce scored another run. In the seventh two more runt came In i :;Vj for the Bruce all-star outfit. B. Robinaon was safe on Babln's error. He Htolu Heconil and was sacrificed tQ ,dL third by \V. Reevos. A, Hoblnsou got a hit scoring B. Hobinson when Hicks flow out to Bell in short center. The score: R H E Bruce All-Stars 6 9 3 Sin el airs 1 2 3 "TI-~ Batteries. Bruce and lteeves, Russet and Nettles. , Wedding Flowers Cut Flowers J Funeral Designs FLOWERS FOR ALL OCCASIONS The Cumden Floral Company CAMDEN, SOUTH CAROLINA Kershaw Agents: MRS. KATE GARDNER MR. D. M. GIBBONS * To The Voters 1 I greatly appreciate the vote that the people of this circuit have given me for Solicitor. I have conscientiously presented what 1 have thought was for the be^l interest of law enforcement. Signed: WILLIAM P. DONELAN. i I A CHALLENGE | j . ' : .|| - ^ --|a Can the God-fearing and law-abiding citizens of Kershaw County i - vote other than for Wyndham Manning for Governor?he who has promised fearless and impartial enforcement of the laws, as a protection j # to the youth of our beloved State? . 1^3 I M Can the farmers of Kershaw County afford not to elect Wyndham Manning, a farmer hfmself, Governor of South Carolina at a time when their need is paramount and their suffering acute ? Can the laborer vote against Wyndham Manning when he has pledged impartial protection of their rights ? * Can the aged and needy strike Wyndham Manning when theif* wants are ever present in his program for the betterment of the people ' of this State? ? ; - - ' * - -- t :L VOTE FOR ?:S MANNING 'J FOR GOVERNOR (Contributed by Frftftda of Wyndhsm Manning In Kershaw County) j