Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1859-06-16
Correspondence of the Yorkviae Enquirer.
LETTER FROM THE PEE DEE.

Correspondence" Of the Yorkvile Enquirer.
LETTER FROM THE PEE DEE.
The Weather.. Cotton Fields Grave Yards
Ignorance u.s. Itelligence-Fansily nee
essaries-Marion and has Men-Hany-
mans Oak, etc., etc.
The weather, good old theme! Hackneyed
tits true, but serving ever as the medium of
of Introductory discourse, must help US out
with sentence or two. Did you ever know
it so cold on the 9th of June? The writer
took the air at Little River in Horny Dis.
trict, just near the rolling surf of the stormy
Atlantic. To this he attributed the sudden
change, but intelligence from other quarters
shows twas general.
Alas! the cotton fields. Well-to.do.plan.
ters shake their heads gravely, and feel a
sensation pocket-wards. "Cotton is king" I
fear sometimes tits more; and for US, idols
need not be fashioned in human form. To
suit the proclivity of this age, cotton bales
were better. Strange that men should so
worship the good, and so entirely forget the
giver. Man needs often to be convinced
that his Gods can't help always, and blight
and mildew are among the teachers Heaven
sends to instruct him.
A rapid movement of some sixty miles,
across the Little Pee Dee, by Galivaut's fer
ry, through section of the "Independent
State of Horny" brought the writer to Little
River. On the way passed through Con-
wayboro', a town of not much commercial
Importance. Three miles from the village,
crossed the Waccamaw River, at Hemming.
ways ferry. Paused while to look at a
grave yard, in which many of 'the rude
8srefsthers Of the nam1et sleep. Here rests
unmarked by monumental marble, the dust
of one somewhat famous in his generation !;
the Rev. John Gauewell, long ago mem
ber of the South Carolina Conference. Many
of these worthless, self.sacri6cing and labori-
Gus, who have >helped to form the religious
character of whole communities die, and in
some lonely graveyard moulder, no marble
telling of their worthy deeds. Ought this
to be? -l
The religious conditions of this country is
not as elevated, as other more favored sec.
tions of our State. There is a dearth of
school-houses and post, Offices and as mat.
ter Of course, great lack of intelligence
Ignorance is once said to have been the
mother of devotion. So it might be under
the iron rule of the church of Rome; but
Professionalism needs and must have schools
and the press, as the necessary adjuncts Of
the pulpit, to advance civilization and to
christianize the nations.
Where intelligence is lacking, the tempo
raj as we'll as the spiritual interests Of a
community must suffer. Men of intelli-
gence and enterprise are valuable, and in
proportion as they advance their own inter-
ests, they also help their neighbors. For
instance, well cultivated farm, making gen.
erous returns for the outlay of capital and
labor, stimulates the industry of others, and
one such will produce another and another
School-houses, churches, post-oaices, are es-
tablished, and the whole country is impro-
we'd. l never look upon man of enterprise
and energy, but 1 thank God for his exis.
tence, and pray for the increase of such a
thousand fold. Sluggish drones, knawing
their finger ends, enviously, may croak con-
cerning this "fast age," content that the
world should last out their time as 1t Is,
but every true man wishes for its advance
ment and hopes to leave it better than he
found it.
I regret to say, but little of this improve:
ment exists in Horny. But little corn and
less cotton is grown-the lumber and tur-
pentine business obtaining mostly, carried on
by men of enterprise from abroad. When
this fails, as fail it must, what shall replace
it? Good lands exist in portions of the Dis
trict but enterprise is needed to develope
their fertility.
Alas ! for the barren sand-hill population,
prolific in children, but nothing else; living
in ill-constructed cabins, ploughing ill.fed
oxen, and reaping the scantiest harvest
Not unfrequently, the traveller meets an
ungainly specimen of humanity, in rickety
cart, and the poorest of horses-Hail him:
"Whither bound, my friend" Going to
Market" he replies. "What have you to
sell ?" 90 nothing, only going for family
necessaries, whiskey and tobacco!'
Such field would seem to hold out slight
inducement for religious culture; yet, year
after year is the gospel preached, though
there be small hope of earthly recompense.
Homeward bound !! the ferry re.crossed.-
Once more we enter the District named in
honor of the renowned Marion. This, as
you are aware, is classic ground, famous in
revolutionary story. Not unfrequently is
pointed out to the traveller, embankmerts
and redoubts, where Liberty ertrenched her
self to live or die. Not far from the spot I
write is the Bowling Green, one Of Marion's
stations for his troops during the war.
Mariou's Camp, opposite Shows Island, is
still clearly traceable, and Shows Island it
self will we'll repay a visit, as the last and
safest retreat of the heroic partisans. Though
man of peace, love in my lonely rides
through the grand old woods, to conjure up
oome daring adventure. in which those he