The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-07-10
The ..Fourth'' at the saluda Factory.


while to take drive to the Saluda
Factory OF any time, but especially
now, when you get not only drive,
but sail; for, since the sad 18th of
February, 1866, when the noble
Congaree Bridge was burned, one
has to be 'ferried across" the river,
and it is now as in primitive days,
when the college student, in poetic
inspiration, exclaimed:
"Hail to the time when I shall see
Thy smiling banks, sweet Congaree!
And when | shall be ferried across,
And SEQ thy trees all covered with moss"
By-the-by, that boat landing has be-
come classic sinceMHilliard, in his
"De Vane," has so graphically por-
trayed its picturesque beauty. An
other who ''lisped in numbers along
that rivers romantic shores has said
of it:
''My Abana and my Pharpar,
Is nay sweet Congarec!"
Yes; it is worth seeing and sailing
across, this beautiful river, with its
Indian name, and for that alono /
would have given up all the attrac-
tions of the 4th July in Columbia
"the tournament" and what not-all
but the anniversary celebration of
the "NIarion Street Sunday SCHOOL,"
that did find hard to relinquish, for
bad witnessed the one of the pre-
vious year, and its moral benefaction,
knew, would be more to me than
even nature's-such nature, even, as
l would find on the shores of the
Congaree and Saluda; and but that l
anticipated moral benefaction, along
with the natural, from my excursion,
think "Marion Street Sunday
School Celebration" had detained me
in the city. 1t was not only for the
drive and sail, but also for Sunday
school celebration, that was to
spend the Fourth in the country,
and most gratifying to the Christian
philanthropist such an occasion-the
celebration of the Factory Sabbath
School, the first since the burning of
the factory, February II, 1865. The
faithful Superintendent was at his
post; the children, smiling and hap
py, clean and neat were there, and
large number of persons-some two
or three. hundred-all assembled in
the umbrageous grove, where were to
be conducted tb" exercises OF the
day. beautiful l.. AIS were sung by
sweet young voics; nice pieces, III
prose and verse, were spoken by
little boys and girls, and then there
was an atfecti, nate address by the
clergyman who had been invited for
the occasion, and who, among other
things, told them that when he was a
little boy Of about six or seven years
of age, he first came into possession
of Bible. 1t was tho first piece Of
property he had ever called his own,
and that he still possessed the dear
old book; that his mother was a
widow and poor, and she had only
one Bible; so he, young child rs he
was. walked from the country several
miles into the neighboring village,
where there was Bible depot of the
American Bible Society, and begged
there Bible for himself: that he had
through life tried to make that book
the man Of his counsel. and had
taken for the motto OF his life this
text, ''In all thy ways acknowledge
Him, and He shall direct thy paths.
After the religious services of the
day were over, the large assemblage,
i'll procession, appeared in front OF
the residence of Colonel Palmer, one
of the proprietors of the factory,
and there, in rural style, were boun-
tifully supplied with refreshments;
when, after grateful acknowledge
ment by speaker selected for the
occasion, and n kind reply from Colo
nel Palmer, the happy company dis
persed for the day.
That the factory burnt to the
ground, little over two years ago,
with all its machinery destroyed and
its hundreds of operatives thrown
out of employment, should be thus
soon rebuilt and Mt work, giving sub
sistencc, during this famine year, to
hundreds of people-giviug these
people not only food and raj
mcnt, but nutrition for mind and
soul by its excellent Sunday school
instruction, and making SO many
hearts happy by this rural festival
reflects the highest honor on the in
dustry, energy and philanthropy Of
its proprictors. 1t is no small mat
ter, these times, to sec so many we'll
clad and, evidently, well-fed peo,'o,
rs we saw on the 4th at the factory.
1t was remarked that day, to one OF
the proprietors, "If you do not make
4. a.