The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, August 29, 1901, Image 3
y
ARP ON OLD FRIENDS
8i!l Says He Receives Letters From
Old Men.
KNEW EACH OTHER LONG AGO
.Likes the Letters and Tries to Answer
Them?Rheumatism in Arm
?ramps His Replies.
N They arc not all dear]. In fact, tiiey
\ fioeni to multiply as the years roll on?
my contemporaries, I mean. I receive
more letters from old men than I ever
did. and they write well and give long
epistles. When a man gets along in the
seventies he feels lonesome, notwithstanding
the near presence of children
and grandchildren. The companions of
his youth are gone, and so some of
these old men unbosom themselves to
me for sympathy. I like such letters
and try to answer them all. but rheu- |
matism in my ariris and hands cramps
my replies. One old gentleman fiom
Alabama says he feels better after he
has written, for he is a native Georgian
and loves her people and her old
red hills and the sweet memories of
^ Emory college and his visits to Athens,
where his uncle Elizar Newton lived,
and he met me there in the forties,
and John Grant and Dan Hughes and
Jack Brown and Billy Williams, who
married my friend's cousin and took
i iih* v;i nit; uiiuu as} liuu?aim ijuw
he heard Pr. Church preach and was
charmed with the music of the choir
where Miss Ann Waddell and Rosa
Pringle and other pretty girls sang,
and how a tall, long, high man. with a
big hocked nose and a huge "pomum
Adamus" on his throat, sang base, end
how be was a roommate of Tom Norwood
at Emory and a classmate cf
Bishop Key and Judge A. B. Longftreet.
the author of "Georgia Scenes,"
was the president: and how he removed
to Alabama In 1S49 and married rnd
has seven daughters and no sons and
has ten orphan grandchildren, and has
to work early and late to support and
educate them, but aever sees and rarcv
hears from any friend of his youth
?nd is at times sad and depressed and
ongs for sympathy. Poor old man, 1
wish that he lived near me. for I
would visit him and cheer him up, and
tell him anecdotes and antidotes, and
we would talk over the times and swap
ollcge stories and brag about the gocd
old days when there were no tele
;raphs or telephonesor bioycles.and we
lid not want any; no sewing maihn~s
or store clothes, and we didn't need
any; no football or baseball or hazing
or suicides or appendicitis. And in
those days came Toombs and Stephens
and Judge Dougherty and Howell Cobb
and Walter Colquitt and spake to the
people face to face, and such eloquent
men as George Pearcee and Bishop
J Capers and J esse Mercer ar.d Dr. iloyt
and Goulaing and Ingles preached to
them. Yes. we would t:lk about the
days of our boyhood, when there was
no g3s or kerosine or friction matches
?nothing but candles to give us lignt.
and no Prometheus to steal fire from
heaven to light them with. Shakespeare
knew how it was, for he wrote:
"How far that little candle throws its
beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty
world."
Tf Shakespeare wrote by candle light,
tvhv shouldn't we? And he, too. used
the flint and steel to make a spark to
light them. "Pick your flint and keep
your powder dry" was G3neral Jackson's
order to New Orleans. When I
was a young merchant gun-flints were
as common as marbles, and I sold them
at the same price?10 cents a dozen.
"Wonderful, wonderful are the changes,
and we old people fall in with them
and adapt them to our use and our
comfort. I wouldn't be set back to the
good eld times, if I could, but I would
-enjoy seeing this generation all set
hack about seventy years, just for
about a week. My Alabama friend and
other veterans would be tickled to
death to see the universal dismay?no
ra'lreads or telegraph, no mail but
once a week?and cents for a s'nele
le::cr. No daily newspapers in the
state and only four weeklies, with no
sensations, no suicides or lynchings.
There would be no cooking stoves, no
coal, no steel pens or envelopes, no
cigarettes. No millionaires or free niggers.
I remember when cotton was
packed in round bales with a crowbar.
The iang bag was made first and was
r.dt ,1 from a hai? in the gin
"hens ' fi.mr 'nd l"nr!c Jack sot down
;n it or. : pa had th? cotton hard as it
d was thrown to hira. He packed two
vnl.-,s a day and they wcigiud 400
pounds each. Two of thorn filled the
(bed of the big wagon and five more
were crossed on top and fastened down
with a long pole. All the little spaces
were filled with corn and fodder, the
big cover put cn and with a four or
six-horse team we were off for Augusta.
It was a ten-day's trip and we boys
were happy to go along and cantp out
all n:g%t and listen to the nigger dri- |
vers ten about ghosts and Jaek-o'- |
Lanterns and witches and raw head
and bloody hones. It wal great fun. We
brought back sugar and molasses in
great hogsheads. It was brown sugar,
for white sugar wasn't invented, except
a kind called loaf sugar, which
was put up in five-pound cones and
covered with blue paper. That kind
was for rich folks and was very preoI
V
ions. It was crystallized like these little
square lumps that are common nc-w.
When our mother would unwrap the
loaf she would let us children lick the
sweet white tissue paper that was next j
to the sugar. It was good. Most any- |
thing was good then. A stick of striped
candy was a rare treat. So was half an
orange, or a bunch of "reesins " as the
niggers called them. Most anything
was good then, for our appetite had
not been surfeited with cake3 and
ou'dotmpats as thev are now. We loved
sassafras root and angelica and sugar
berries and locusts and wild cherries
and the inside bark of chestnut trees
and slippery elm. We were always hungry
and hunting for something. My
Alabama friend is sad. not only because
he has lost his youthful companions.
but his youthful appetite. Even
ginger cakes have lost their relish and
a game of sweepstakes and town ball
and bull-pen their fascination. I envy
the happy children as they play around
me. but I am happy, too. in trying to
make them happy, for I know that
there is trouble enough ahead of them,
for man that is born of a woman is of
few days and full of trouble. The best
we can do is to do the best we can to
fortify against it and take the bad with
the good. Try to be calm and serene,
for life is full of blessings and we
should school ourselves to magnify
them and be thankful. I have not forgotten
the poor little boy who slept
under the straw, and one cold windy
night his mother laid an old dcor on
-1- - ? v.^.i/1 it Hmvn !>nrt hp staid
II1K blian IU iiuiu it UI/IIU, ......
"Mother, I reckon there are some little
boys who havent got any door to put
over them." It is a good way for us to
think about those who are worse off
then we are, and my Alabama friend
knows there are thousands of them.
But I must stop, for it is hard to
write a cheerful letter these gloomy
days. The weather is depressing and
that helps my Alabama friend to feel
sad. Cobe says that a Ions wot lain is
worse on a man than a long dty
drought. We have not seen the blessed
sunshine for four long days and the
wind has blown down my pretty butter
bean arbor flat to the groun 1.?Bill
Arp in Atlanta Constitution.
JOMFORT FROM ELECTRICITY.
How Creatly It Aids Men to Endure tho
Heated Term's Agonies.
The hot weather, to equal which in
intensity the meteorological authorities
have had to go back thirty years, had
many mitigations that were not available
to the last g.iteration; and they
were largely of an electrical nature.
For example, great life was made of the
telephone, enabling men to sit in their
offices or country nomcs uuu uau.-au
bu.-iness at a distance without any necessity
to trudge the Saharan streets,
'l'hey say the ordeal is a trying one at
such seasons to the little telephone girl,
but she does her work bravciy and well.
Then there is the fan motor, bringing
"sea breezes" into the iiottest building.
Their popularity was Immense a?
a relief to weary people, and the market
was soon swept bare of them. We
have heard of one society woman who,
with a member of her family under the
weather, went to an electrical store
and, being told all the fans in sight
were sold, iaid violent hands on one and
refused to be comforted until she was
allowed to ;arry it away tn perspiring
triumph in her carriage.
As for the electric light, that has long
been a familiar boon, but one needs to
get out in the country or by the seaside.
where only oil lamps and candles
are available, to realize once more how
grateful and cool the little incandescent
lamp is. Moreover, in town tiie ice
cream freezer or the electric stove can
lie run from the same circuit as the
lamp, but in the holiday wilds brute
force and fire again arc disagreeably
necessary. The wonder is that electricity
is still so little known and used outside
the towns and cities. It is most
needed by the sad sea waves and amid
the cornfields and potato patclics.
Perhaps the biggest electric boon of
all in such calcining weather as that
which has been the subject of so much
flattering comment recently is the trolley
car. All the street railway companies
report a busy time, and their employees
were worked to tlitf* point of
exhaustion. Any cursory glance at
the cars will show that the travel is
quite largely of a recreative character,
,'n tli/? lint nitrhfs when en
OJJtViailjr III wav ?v. ---n . --tire
families with the latest ailing little
baby board the cars to go for a fifteenmile
swift crni-'e for five cents a head?
for the adults. The sick man does not
mow take up his bed and walk. He gets
relief these summer nights by jumping
on the first trolley car and leaving his
bed behind him. The trolley car thus
does en masse for the suffering population
that which electricity docs more
individually for members of the community
who can each pay for a telephone.
a lamp, a fan motor, and a freezer
for themselves. Great indeed is
electricity in the dog days!
Cnrlmis Kiif;lUli Tpinirm.
Some of the English tenures are exceeding
curious. A farm near Broadhouse,
in .Yorkshire, pays annually to
the landlord a snowball in midsummer
and a red rose at Christmas. The
manor of Foster, is held by a rental
Df two arrows and a loaf .of bread.
An estate in the north of England is
held by the exhibition before a court
every seven years of a certain vase
owned by the family; another, in Suf- i
Coik, by an annual rental of two white
f u-.iS.
?
A TERRIBLE CHARGE PREFERRED.
Young White Man Accused of Attempting
a Criminal Assault On a
Young White (Iirl.
Florence, Special.?A warrant sworn
out by Mr. A. J. Lynch, of Effingham
township, before Judge Smith alleges
that Mr. L. Cook, a young white man
attempted a nameless crime upon the
person of Mr. Lynch's daughter, a girl
about 16 years old. The alleged assault
occurred 14 milos from the city
and a denntv has eone to H'rest Mr,
Cook. The girl states that Mr. Cook
made improper proposals and threatended
force. She refused and in the
struggle that followed her face and
arms were scratched and bruised. Tne
two were returning from chuich in a
buggy at night. Making a supreme
effort, the girl states that she escaped
from the buggy and ran into the
woods. The night being dark she fell
Into a deep ditch. The alleged assailant
did not follow. Relatives found
her a half hour afterward sitting by
the roadside crying as if her hear:
would break.
A Sad Story,
Florence. Special.?Ne^vs has reached
Florence of the drowning near Jocasseo,
in Pickens county, of young
Victor Wilson, son of the Rev. J. B.
Wilson of Anderson. It seems from the
meagre reports, that the young man
was one of a party of bathers in Ke )rt-ee
river. He was caught in the swift
current of the mountain stream and
whirled to his death before the eyes
of his companions, who were powerless
to render any assistance. Miss Maude i
Wilson, a sister, witnessed the distressing
accident from the banks of the
stream. The Rev. Mr. Wilson lived in
Florence several years ago as presiding
elder cf the Florence district of the
Methodist church. Victor, for thus he
is remembered in Florence, was the
idol of the family. He graduated from
Wofford College last year. He took
an enviable stand in his class, and
was very popular among his college
mates.
Two Coroners Needed.
Governor MeSweeney finds himself
confronted with the necessity cf appointing
two coroners in view of vacancies
made by death. A few days ago
Coroner Tuten of Hampton county
pased away in the mountains. Tho
governor has asked the legif.lative delegation
in both the cou?t^e3 to meet
and recommend suitable persons to fill
the vacancies. It is rare that a coroner
dies in office.
A Drowning.
Walhalla, Special.?Victor Wilson,
son of liev. J. B. Wilson of Anderson
was drowned in White Water river ?
Saturday at Jocassee. His body was
not recovPred till Monday afternoon.
His remains left here Monday aceorn
panled by his parents' family.
Assailant Identified.
Macon, Special.?At an early hour
Saturday morning Officer Arthur Johnsen
arrested a ne^ro named Tom Hay.
who is chaiged with criminally issanlting
Sophie McArthy, colored,
aged 70 years, on last Satu day ni.ht.
In VlnArllla U'hnn U . ? ?
clared that he did not commit the
crime. At 10 o'clock Ray was carried
into the p'es?nce oi' the woman an i
she positively identified him as heas.-ailant.
Ray was taken back lo jail
to await the November term of Bibb
superior court. The woman has been
confined to bed since last Sunday from
the injuries infiicted by Ray.
May Be Jones' Murderer.
Rochester, N. Y.. Special.?A negro
giving the name of "John Flagler"
asked for a night's lodging late Tuesday
night at the central police station
and was locked up. Chief Cleary examined
the man and after taking hi3
measurement by the Bertillon system,
suspects the man is Jim Lowry. of
Shelby, N. C., wanted in that city for
the murder August 4th last of Chief of
Police Jones. When questioned by the
chief. Flagler, or Lowry, told several
conflicting stories as to his whereabouts
during the past week or two.
In Paragraphs.
Norfolk is to have a $60,000 plant
erected on the south branch of the
Elizabeth river by the McNally Oil
Manufacturing Co. for the purpose of
manufacturing castor and other vegetable
oils. The plan3 for the main
building and warehouses have been
completed, and are now in the hands
of the contractor, who will submit
bids at once.
Texas cotton seed products are now
only fairly steady. Prime crude oil,
loose, and prime summer yellow oil
are both nominal, while linters are
quoted at 1 3-4 to 2 1-4 cents per
pound, of f. o. b. mill at Texas interior
points: cotton seed meal and cotton
seed cake are $21 to $21.50 per ton,
and baled hulls $5, all f. o. b. Galveston.
narion Butler to Build a Factory.
Clinton, N. C., Special.?It is reported
here on good authority that
Marion Butler has formed a company
to establish and operate a cotton mill
at Elliott, his country home several
miles from Clinton. It is understood
that the capital other than his own
was subscribed by parties in the West
whor.i he met on his way to Alaska.
COL. NEAL PARDONED.
Governor McSweeney Gives His Reasons
For the Pardon.
Col. Wm. A. Neal, the former superintendent
of the State penitentiary
who was convicted in June in the
court of general cessions for Hichlan J
county, of failure to turn over within
20 davs to his successor public funds
In his hands and was sentenced to |
serve four months in the county jaii
and pay a fine of $1,000, has heen pardoned.
The pardon was not a surprise
to the general public in view of the remarkably
strong petinons and letters
that the governor has been receiving
for the past week. When Col. Neal
was informed of the action of the governor
he wept like a child. Soon afterwards,
the man whose case had attracted
the attention of the people o!
the State so much during the past few
months, took the train for Anderson
and went to his family circle, declaring
that he has now to start out upon
life anew and show the world that he
could yet be a man, though he had
gone through enough to kill an ordinary
mortal. Thus ends a case that
has excited universal comment, and
one which ha3 commanded the attention
of the courts to a considerable degree.
Of course the pardon \va3 not granted
until the appeal pending in the
State supreme court had been aba:i
doned an-d the following Dotiee of such
action had been served upon the attorney
general:
To G. Duncan Bellinger, Attorney General
and J. W. Thurmond, Solicitor:
You will please take notice that
Wm. A. Neal, defendant in the abov-':
stated case, his abandoned his inton
tton to appeal iu me suyicmc
notice of which was served on yon on
the first day of July. 1901.
P. H. Nelecr
Julius E. Boggs.
Attorneys for Wm. A. Neal.
Gov. McSweeney gave the following
statement In writing as to his reasons
for granting the petitions in this i-23c:
"In addition to the petitions which
were signed by gnntlemen of the highest
reputation and standing in Rich
land, Anderson. Greenville, Spartanburg,
Pickens. Rock Hill and other
counties and cities where W. A. Neal
was known, I received letters from
prominent men from all pans of the
State urging me to exercise executive
clemency on the ground that the law
had been vindicated, and the defendant
on account of the high position he
once occupied, had been sufficiently
humiliated and punished by hi3 conviction,
and had made good to the
State, prior to his conviction, all the
money for which he was officially lia
ble.
"A pardon was urged by the sureties
on bis official bond, not only by theft
signatures to the petition, but also by
letters and personal Interview. Tht
petition stated that Neal bad paid tht
full amount for which his official bond
was liable, and one of the sureties in
a personal Interview, assured me thai
they had paid up all moneys demanded
by the State from them, and that they
had boen reimbursed by Neal a short
ftmo after eAttlinf? with the State, and
prior to his trial for breach of truai
with fraudulent intent, upon which
charge he was acquitted.
'The petitions male no question bui
that Ncal's trial and conviction ware
regular and technically proper, but
prayed his pardon upon the ground
that the law had been sufficiently vindicated
by his conviction and consequent
humiliation.
"I saw no ieason for withholding
clemency, inasmuch as his conviction
and sentence has shown that the way
of the transgressor is hard, and the
highest as well as the lowest citizen
is amendable to the law.
"Imprisonment under such circumstances
could uot add anything to the
humiliation of one who has occupied
such positions as Neai, but could only
bring sorrow and pain to his wife and
children, und the exercise of that clemency,
which I am authorized under tht
constitution to exercise, may be th*
means of inspiring him to an earnest
ende&ror to redeem his life, and rein
state himself in the good opinion of ills
fellow citizens."
In addition to this statement the
governor handed to the newspaper
men and correspondents the larg*
batch of letters he had received from
prominent men in different portions of
the State urging the pardon of Col.
Neai. Only a few of them can here bf
reierrea to.
Coi. Jas. L. Orr, of Greenville, wrote
the governor thus: "I would respectfully
ask the pardon of W. A. Neal.
upon the ground that there was not
one scintilla of testimony showing any
criminal intent to defraud t he-State,
and 1 do not believe that such intent
exer existed. I think the ends of jus
tiee have been achieved, and the ma
je3ty of the law vindicated and taat
he should be pardoned."
Chairman J. C. Wilborn, of the State
railroad commission, wrote as follows.
"1 desire to earnestly request you to
consider the petition to pardon ex
Superintendent W. A. Neal most favor
ably.
"The conviction of Col.. Neal in this
matter was entirely upon a technicality,
in the matter of not having
turned over within 30 days funds in
his hands to his successor. He has
paid to the State all that the legislative
committee said he was due.
"Col. Neal did not turn over thi*
money while the matter was still ir.
the hands of the investigating commit
tee. but as soon as the case was settled
he did so.
"I truly hope you can feel that it is
* i ; '
/ : I- *
. - * r consistent
with your sense of high
duty to pardon this citizen."
The following Is what the Hon. A.
T. Smythe, of Pendleton, wrote in his
letter to the governor: "I notice In
the papers that the subject of a pardon
for Col. Wm. A. Neal is being
agitated, i write to join in tne otner
requests that you take such action.
The State ha? not lost one cent by
him, he paid the amount he was ascertained
to be owing in full, and his conviction
at most was a mere technicality,
because he did not par in
thirty days. If every one guilty of
tnat offense iy to be imprisoned, we
must build new Jails and import extra
population for jailers. I earnestly
recommend his pardon."
J. A. Mooney. of the Greenville bar.
wrote as follows: "I do not believe in
vicarious sacrifices, hence for that
reason as veil as for other patent
ones I write to join niy voice in the
prayer of thousands of my fellow citizens
asking lor the pardon of Col.
Meal. The people of this section ?re
not satisfied with the result of his
trial, but are indignant that he has
been sentenced to suffer the mortidcation
and shame of imprisonment. I
have never believed that he deliberately
stole the State's money and
where today are the men who got the
State's property for nothing by reason
of poor Meal's great heart and his confidence
in men? Could a jury be found
to convict one of these mighty men
in Israel? i do firmly believe that for
onv insularities in Neal's office these
friends (?) of hi3 and superiors in office
arc morally responsible. To the
sensitive i iind the mere trial upon
such a charge is not only punishment,
but it is torture. The poor fellow is
broken in spirits and fortune and I
believe the good people of the State
would rejoice at his pardon." J
A. the last term of the court the
other case pending against Col. Neal,
charging him with breach of trust with
fraudulent intent, was marked discontinued
in some way. It is not thought
that the discontinuance was requested
by the attorney general or the solicitor.
it is not known, however. *
whether there will be any effort to
push this last caso or not by reopening
it. It may be that in view of the
circumstances the case will be allowed
to 6t.ond as it is now and the
French expression of "the incident is
closed" will be applied.
21,000 Miners flay Become Idle.
Lexiineton. Ky? Special.?Dr. J. T.
Slade, of this city, who was chairman
of the convention of United Mine Operators
of Kentucky and Tennessee,
held at Knoxville last week, and who
is president of the Eagle Coal Company
of Kentucky, predicts that because of
differences between the miners and operators,
which seem impossible to settle,
no new contracts will be signed Sep
tember l.'and that 21,000 miners will
become idle for an indefinite period.
No Ci t at Fall River,
Fall River. Mass., Special.?A thorough
canvass of the situation here indicates
that the plan to cut the wage3
of mill operatives in this print cloth
center la per cent. September 3, will
fall. Eighteen corporations controlling
exactly 1,458.926 of the 3,042,472 spindies
in this city, manufacturing plain
and fancy goods, will not enter into the agreement
which calls for the signatures
of the treasurers representing 1,730.000
spindles in order to make it
operative.
23 Men Killed.
London, By Cable.?Lord Kitchener,
In a dispatch from Pretoria, dated says
that a party of South African constabulary
yesterday surprised a strong
Boer laager near Middleburg, Cape
Colony, killing 23 men. The con3iat-1--"
1 "ft m ATI * hilt A TV1 fl CT
UU I cli y liuauoi^u iww , WV.V, vn>?9
to the strength of the enemy 600 to 800
men, they wero urabl? to follow up
their success, and during their retirement
they lost one man killed and had
six men wounded. Fourteen men are
missing.
? ?
;jK
Fishermen of the North Pacific coast
are undertaking a movement for the destruction
of sea lions, the inveterate
enemies of salmon and other food fishes,
and which annually make incalculable
ravages in the schools of Chinooks,
-teelheads and other varieties of salmon
that hover off the Washington and Oregon
coast.
* *
llie I ?ir?^r h(h1 ."Most C omplete
stabllsliiiifiit ?outh.
6E0. S. HACKER & SON, j
? MANUFACTURERS OP ?
3ash. Doors. Blinds*
Moulding ?n<l Building Material,
Sash Wei (fills and Cord
CHARLESTON, S. C.
Purchase our muke, which we guar- ^
superior to any sold South, and
hereby save caouey.
'Vinu.,w and Fancy Glass a Specialty. *
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