Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1873-07-24
THE ADVERTISER.
Edgefeid, S. c., July 2f, 1873.
The Chev:s, Creek Tournament.

Edgeae,d, $. C., July 2f, 1873.
s'Ths Chev:s' Creek TOURNAMENT.
To the lovops. otflnanly ;sport-and to
all sympathiaers with youth, beauty,
gaiety and gallantry-the Tournament
on Chevis' Greek. fifteen miles below us
on Friday last, was of the highest inter-
est. The healthy mind in the healthy
body should be The ideal OF every young
man, and nowhere more than III the
South just now should this spirit be
lostcred and encouraged. The young
men who study Greek and Latin have
every scholarly inducement to cultivate
their bodily strength, if they can only
picture TO themselves the competitors in
the Olympian games Of which Pihdar
has so sweetly sung. The building mp
of that muscular and agile frame and
that bold and quick spirit which make
man so self-helpful in his battle with
the world, was the motive OF all these
games, as it should be with our young
men to-day. The long training to which
the Greeks subjected their athlets, and
the perpetual muscular education which
the Romans bestowed on their gladiators,
show that this high cultivation of the
physical forces is not to be reached with
out care, perseverance and seli-denial.
Quickness Of eye, readiness Of hand,
fine horsemanship, and a quantum OF
trained physical forces, will often help
out the brain when difficulties accumu-
late or danger is ahead. Coming to shape
in large degree the dostnics Of gen.
Grafton, our young men will find Nemean
lions, Lerncan hydras and Erymanthian
boars in their path, which mere book ac-
quirements will never master.
The South is ours, young men, and
we need every manly quality of hand,
head and heart to make it again, as it
once was, the prosperous homo Of great
and free people.
And now, since the dog-days are upon
us, and politics are in lull, and local
newspaper matter is scarce, let us give
running account, cmrente csiamo, of our
,jaunt Clerk would he better name y to
the Chevis' Creek Tournament.
On Thursday afternoon, driven Ivy our
generous and happy -go-lightly friend,
Capt. George Lake, in his fo"r-scated
Life Insurance ark, and accompanied by
a keen and stalwart young lawyer of our
community, we ierked out Of town i'll
tumultuous manner, round the Ryan
Hotel corner, bound for "Fairview," the
elegantand hospitablehome of DR.. James
A. Devore. In that ark, Of course, were
three clean shirts, three clean lawn era
watts, and three pair of lavender. pants,
for the morrow's conflict. On the hill
above the Beaver Dam, we began to look
and to talk cotton. OF one or two fields
just here, Capt. L. dryly remarked, 1t
would be well to cover that cotton with
pine bark, and turn in the cattle to
Craze" And truly from this point to
DR.. Devore's pretty much the same thing
might have been said. Had we not seen
the cotton along this road with our own
eyes, we could not have been made to
believe how unpromising it is. And OF
corn we can scarcely give better report.
Arrived at our destination, and ushered
into the beautiful parlor of "Fairview,"
we were examing some beautiful bronzes
of Goethe, Shakespeare, Dante and Tasso,
when our bluff but hearty welcoming
host strobe in, and Immediately over
came the great poets with an energetic
discourse upon "crops," and weather"
and grass" and "wages-hapds," and
''tcnants," and niggers, and cotton do
ings generally. We were equally amused
and edited And as DR.. Devore is one
Of the grcatrepresentative planters of our
County, it will be perhaps a matter of
general interest (and of comfort to those
whose misery likes prominent company
to know that he announces his crop as
the poorest he ever had in his life, and
seems discouraged with the Labor, and
| with the "times. In fact he VOWS that
he will plant no longer-not even one
season more. And now if we do wrong
(as perhaps we do) in making the Doc
tors views thus public, he is good with
his pen, as with his tongue, and can soon
set iis straight.
After q pleasant evening with this
family Of uncommon mental culture and
decided originality of thought and char
acter, and peaceful night amid luxury
and refined hospitality, we drew on our
clean shirts, and girding our loins i'll
lavender, started for the battle field.
And oh! what trip! What roads!
What lengthy miles! What sun! What
ghastly cotton! What grinning and rat
tling corn stalks! The sun drank our
blood, the roads broke our bones, the
crops caused MS to weep, and when we
stopped to get drink of cool water, bull
dogs ate the flesh off our legs! 1t was
horrible, awful, delightful! at Mrs.
Col. Lanham's, at old Mr.. Lanham's, at
Mrs. Bosvell's, at DR. Patterson's, at
Mr.. Adams's, we begged to be put out
to die. But the young lawyer, with all
the freshness of three and twenty-and
asweethearta at the tournament-restrain
ed us, eXhorting us to exhibit more
"bottom'' and to hold out to the end.
And at eleven A. NJ, the end came
or rather the beginning of the end. At
this hour vast, unshaded, and abnor-
mally festive cotton field broke upon our
view. We travelled not Il foot further
made no further eXplorations-bu we
shall ever believe that this s2me field
was only stones throw from Schultz's
Hill.
At the entrance gate of this field stood
huge clump of thick-leaved trees. I'm
der these were gathered the gallant Sa-
breurs, making ready for tho tilt-some
already mounted--some still struggling
all young, brave, excited. From this
point, across the field to beautifully
shalnd hillside onpoSite some ouarter