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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1948 THE NEWBERRY SUN Seen Along The Roadside By J. M. Eleazar Christmas Week! Will all else, it brings me a birthday. And that’s about all I don’t like about it. For those things begin to add up too much. 1 was 53 on the 19th. For the young folks, it is the full joy of the present. For us who are getting along, there is also a lot of joy in the present. But we have our yesterdays too to recall. Christmas was the greatest time of the year for us in the Dutch Fork when we were kids. That was when those who had strayed to far places came home for a glorious week. The men hunted by day, the women visited about and cook ed great meals, and the kids ate fruit and shot firecrackers. Then for supper, groups gather ed for a big meal. And after that all walked down to “T{ie House” (the ancestral home where the stagecoaches stopped in their day and the drivers from Tennessee rested their herds on way to market at Charleston), where my great- aunt Vennie lived. We all felt perfectly at home there. Her large living room with the immense fireplace was so comfortable and livable, and the cnly one large enough to hold our flock. Several gener ations had hallowed that threshhold. And what a party we had there every night! The men always had the hottelst set-back games you ever saw going un til midnight. The women cir cled the wall, watched and talked. And the children play ed on the floor and occasion ally ran out in the cold for a few minutes to shoot some fire works. At midnight then the party would break. Up the frosty lane we trudged homeward. The kids, sleepy and full of re freshments, wanted to be toted. Sleep was heavy, and morning soon came. Then another round of it started. Oh the joys of yesteryear! I hope the young folks of to day are building such treasures too. thing. It might have been a bag of candy, a plug of tobacco, or even a wool hat, if it was a fertilizer bill or the like that you were paying. And I still think that was pretty good business. Sleeping sickness broke out among workstock in Beaufort in the early fall. The Clem- son College Livestock Sanitary office hopped in there and vac cinated 475 horses and mules and checked it, according to County Agent Abrams. Lice have given winter graz ing a rather serious setback in the Low Country in recent _ _ __ , years. Bu.t apparently the rem-(Tew ~of the far places, it “was edy is forthcoming now. I once in our midst. And maybe aginative in the far back places to which the last of their kind have been driven. 'And who 'are we to invade the last soli tude that hides them? And the only glory that comes to the one who wields the fatal rifle is that of making a batch of carrion out of one of Na ture’s great creatures that’s try ing to survive. There they are, in their last retreat, harm ing no one. It’s a pity they were not th^ ones that had knowledge and high powered rifles when some nit-wit vio lated their sanctuary there in the jungle. Although the frontier of big game is now left at only a Abrams in Beaufort reports control of this pest by grazing and then applying nitrate of soda, and also from spraying the affected grain with one per cent Isotox. ' And talking about the past, I wonder if you can remember when things were six for a nickle. And any five cent stuff was always six for a quarter. And when you paid a bill at the store or made a size able cash purchase, the mer chant always gave you some- I have told you of successes with shatter-resistant soybeans following potatoes in Beaufort and following grain on several thousand acres in Calhoun. And in Saluda, County Agent Kearse says the Wheeler boys made 30 bushels per acre of the Clemson nonshatter variety that John Wlannamaker of Cal houn county developed. There are several sorts of these nonshattering beans of the crushing type that are promising here. They follow grain and leave a rich residue on the land. The first application of 2,4-D last fall to a heavy growth of water lilies in the pond of Ilia Smith of Aiken county killed three-fourths of them, ac cording to Assistant County Agent Thompson. The second application the last week in September got the balance of them, he states. And now the pond is clean for fishing. This is good news, for lilies are sure a pest in most farm ponds. He mixed one pint of the material with 5 gallons of water and sprayed it on the lily leaves from a boat. d maybe it was necessary for man to push it back as he possessed the land. But there is small reason for him following in on into the jungle and far places that he has no use for. The great elk once inhabited this land of ours. I learned at the Charleston Museum that the last one in South Carolina is thought to have been shot in Fairfield countj years ago. Now they have killed out un til a few remain at protected spots in the far West. Conservation is needed. That’s why I speak often of the great thing Lockhart Gaddy of Ansonville, North Carolina, twenty odd ipiles above Ches terfield, has done in giving wild geese a chance. They too looked as if they v/ere on then- way out some years ago. Then a few kindly souls started giv ing them a safe place to light in this land of ours. They ac cepted the courtesy and return seasonally in growing numbers. I had a letter from him the other day. Many came during light nights in October. But full moon came rather early then for them. So most of them waited for full moon in November to make their South ern flight. For, coming South, you know, they have the young one with them that they rais ed in the Arctic Circle the the past summer. And they have to stop to rest them. So light nights are required for needed landings. He says that at 10:20 a.m. on November 17 he watched sev eral hundred in a flock land. In it he spotted the lone blue goose that has come now the fourth year. Last year it had a young one with it. They stayed together and left to gether. But the young one did not come this time. And Mr. Gaddy said the old one wan dered all around, honking, as though hunting for it. Inter esting speculation surrounds what happened to that young ster of last year. It was prob ably shot at some '“point in their southern flight when they came down for the young ones to rest somewhere. And more interesting specu lation has centered around that lone blue goose that comes with these Canadian geese. For two years it was alone. The third year it brought a young one along and they were in separable. Where did it get that young one? No mate came along, and geese mate off. What interesting things are these wild, cunning creatures of Nature that battle with no thing but their wits against millions of men with high powered guns! We lure them with decoys and then shoot. To survive, they have been made keen in detecting these. And with a few safe havens like the Gaddy pond, where they can land in safety, rest, and feed, they will likely hold their own against a world that’s at war with them. And th e wild geese must have told the wild ducks about Mr. Gaddy’s hospitality, too. or he writes me that some mal lards, ringed-necks, black ducks, pintails, canvass-backs, and one red-head duck had al ready come on November 19. And up to then it hadn’t been cold enough to bring them in great numbers. If you like such things, you’ll have a feast for the eyes thers. That would be a good short trip from anywhere in South Carolina for Christmas week. PROSPERITY Hawkin*-Frick Miss Rosalyn Hawkins and Heyward Frick wer e married in M)t. Pilgrim church Satur day afternoon, Dec. 18, at five o’clock with the bride’s pastor, the Rev. (E. B. Heidt, officiating. A few relatives and , close friends witnessed the ceremony. The bride was attirea in a grey suit with black accessories and wore a corsage of red roses. She is the daughter of T. C. Hawkins and the late Mrs. Gerlie Shealy Hawkins. She is a graduate of the Pros perity High School. Mr. Frick is the son of Mr. and Mlrs.John G. Frick of Little Mountain. He received his education in the Chapin School. He is employed in Joanna. The couple will make their home with the bride’s father. Amick-Wilson Miss Erin Mae Amick and Claude Wilson were married Saturday afternoon at four o’clock at the St. Paul’s par sonage by Rev. Ballentine. Mrs. Wilson is the daughter of Mrs. Bennet L. Amick and the late Mr. Amick of the St. Luke’s community. Mir. Wilson is a farmer of the Bachman Chapel communi ty and also Magistrate at Pros perity. Crepe Myrtle Club The Crepe Myrtl^ Club held its Christmas meeting Tuesday afternoon with Mrs. Raymond Ruff. The holiday decorations in the home gave , the guests the Christmas spirit. The program began with the Christmas carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Then “Lady Santa to Lonely Chil dren,” a Christmas story, was given. The gleaner, Mrs. Cole Wessinger read the poem, “ ’Twfes the Night before Christ mas.” During the business session the club voted to help CROP and to buy Christmas seals. For recreation Mrs. Elbert Shealy conducted a Yes and No contest. During the same time gifts from the tree were exchanged. Mrs. J. A. Sing- ley won the contest prize. The hostess served an at tractive and tasty salad plate, fruit cake and coffee. From somewhere comes this Christmas sentiment to our mind, and which we think exceptionally appropriate because of its simplicity. The charm of the Yuletide Season lies in the thought that we live in the memory of our friends, A Afewut CAsU&tmal w ta ZacU of Ifau Drug Store Saw some rather sickening pictures the other day of a teenage girl standing by several of the vanishing wild animals of' Africa that she had shot on a stacked hunt that some rich folks had staged. Why anyone would want to go to Africa or India or anywhere else and employ all of the cunning and trappings of an atomic age to slay the few remaining specimens of big wildlife that still inhibit this globe is beyond me. Elephants, lions, tigers and the like are beautiful and im- . / ; ,4 . 'at. L^Ltututa^ 'at 'ew 'eat* *7 . v % 'at vet r r s . n. X" ,8 • Y. .. For those pleasant friendships in the past we say, "thank you" . with a genuine sincerity. / R. M. LOMINACK FORREST LOMINACK HENRY LOMINACK KIRBY LOMINACK CHARLIE FORCE J. W. LONGSHORE IDA DAVENPORT GEORGE WILSON, Porter id iR. M. Lominack, Hdw. J r 9 f As we look about us and give serious thought to what has trans pired the past twelve months, we welcome the Christmas season with j • even more enthusiasm than ever before. We have much for which i . : . *■ . * • • * ... to be thankful—a host of friends, a fine community, a spirit of loy- alty that makes us proud to call this our home. It is good to be among friends at Christmas and to send you our annual message of "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" NEWBERRY TEXTILE MILLS