Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1873-01-23
Letter From the Mountains Mountains.
For sbe Advsrtlser.

Letter From the Mountains.
.tsr ae ADVERTISER.
EibHAY s. e., Jan. 6, 1873.
Mr. EbIToR: The Christmas holidays,
with their festivity and rejoicing-with
their scenes of hilarity and amusement,
turkey dinners, parties, chops" etc,
have passed aways &eAHe entere9upon
the duties and labofs of'thetNsw Year,
and the good people of Walhalla, like
the rest of mankind, have addressed
themselves with sober earnestness to the
business and cares before them. sup
pose the people in this seGtion enjoy life
and amuse themselves about as well as
they do in a2y other portion of the coun-
try, II we are to Judge from the number
Of social gatherings and rsrf .malIings
that they havein the coutseEof she year,
and especially during the Christmas holi'
days. 10.
1t is not at an strange that we should
celebrate the birth. day ofithe blessed
Savior OF the world with festtyity and
rejoicing, but it is Singular in indeed Fed that
any one should take such. q time for dis- y :.
sipation and excesses of any kind. But
the custom has grown up, and seems to
be as deeply fixed and rooted as any 9TH
er Institution Of our Christian civiliza-
dop, !aad 4 do not Enpposel thAt any
smpnnt of moralizf1g tnt tie Hhbjeet
would1weigh feathertowafd its abate-
ment or removal. can say one thing,
however, for Walhalla in this respect.
which ought to be placed to its credit.
Although itGbass , .bes$erywithin its
limits. and good many of the inhabi-
tants drink Lager beer, and some no doubt
take something stronger. for the town
has the usual number of bar rooms, there
is less drunkenness here than in any
place of the same size in which have
| ever been It is true, the colored gentry
from the Air Line Railroad. gather here
| oceasidn,alfy, and becbmiugtipsy, some
| times make night hideous with their
| maudlin songs and quarrels; but we do
| not consider these negroes as inhabitants
of the town, and they are only tempo
rary nuisance that will soon pass away.
While you I'M the, middle end Tower
portion OF the State were favored with a
beautiful snow short time since, we
were visited with heavy sleet. On
Christmas morning, there was more ice
on the ground and longer icicles on the
trees in Walhalla than I ever sew in any
place at one time. Many ofthe shade
trees on the side walks were bro
ken down, and the fine orchards in the
town and its vicinity, suffered considera-
bly, When the thaw conmenced, the
streets were in a sloppy condition indeed,
and pedestrianism was about as disa-
greeable as ithad been dangerous during
the continuance of the ice and sleet.
TAetax which the Legislature has lev
led and which we are now paying is a
heavy one, but having made pretty fair
crops last. year throughout the State, 1
think the people will be generally able
to pay 1t. AS Ben Franklin wrote to the
Secretary of the old Continental Con-
gress, when he found there was no chance
to get repeal of the stamp tax, we will
have TO yield to the inevitable, and dlight-
ing the lamp of industry, wewill have
to redouble our exertions to develop the
material resources of our State and ad-
vance our industrial interests, if we are
ever to work out of our present deplora-
bic condition. ''''''' . - '''-'l ''=''' -.
I While we continue to raise our great
staples, let us invite more capital and en-.
terprise, open our mines, construct more
railroads, bring our vast supplies of tim
bertnto market, build up more factories
and manufactures of all kinds, and di-
versify our husbandry. Heretofore we
have been too exclusively an agricultu-
raj people, No people can become per.
msnently rich-gor highly prosperous,
whose energies are chiefly devoted to
one pursuit, however profitable that may
be. The farmer may extract wealth from
his fields IN the shape of large crops, but
If the greater part of the money he makes
goes out of his section to purchase his
domestic supplies of almost every kind,
which for the most part perish in their
use, he is becoming poorcr,!every year.
and the country is deriving no perma-
nent gain from his labors. We must
change our policy in this respect. Let
us devote more attention to other inter-
ests and pursuits, and seek to retain as
much as possible of that great woalth
which is annually extracted from the
farmers of South Carolina by diverting
it into other channels of Industry in our
midst .,
The present eMnss,Alss s,Alss IS prc-cminently one
of scientific progress and material de-
velnpmant, and our great and growing
country is flst pushing into the van ib-i
the race of advanceincnt. The Atlantic
cable, the P.uiiic railroad, aid the Srez
canal arc among. the great at:hievem ents
Of our tlay, and now the proposition of
Com. Maury 10 hold sConsress OF na-
tons for the purpose of establishing a
uniform SYSTEM of meteorological OBJ
aud weather and crop reports
the world, is the next grand
step in the path of progress, which is
destiped 70 mark the great achievements
Of but times. Maury is beyond all ques1
ton the foremost man II the, age in, mat
ters Of this sort, and his project will no
doubt be consumInatod before the close
of the present decade .andi it accom-
plislies the great results whieh'hGtfinks
it will, tho iarmor, mechanic, laborer,
and mankind. at large, will have apse
10 bless the memory Of the man. whose
genius, labors and researches will have
such lasting benefits upon our
race. Maury's views on this subject are
fully set forth III the admirable address
which he delivered before the National
Congress, which assembled
IN, May last in the city Of st. Louis. 1t
IS the best production of the kind that II
have seen in many day, and like every 7
hing from the tertile- pen of that distin-