Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1878-06-27
From the Atlanta constitutional
BILL ARP.
ARCHs.


lie DwELLs A SEASON AMONG THE pATRI-
ARoHs.
Recollections Of Old Folks Home The Grand
Rush to Please tie CAildren-IAe Chief
End and Glory Of Man-A Fe,o Questions
Of an Embarrassing Nature.
Mr.. EDITUR: This is most blessed land
where everything grows that man is
Obliged to have, and power of good things
throw'd in just to minister to his pleasure.
The summer sun is now ripening the fruits
Of tho earth, and when I see children and
grandchildren and nefows and necses re-
joicin' in their wanderin's over the field
and orchards, it carries mo back to tho
blessed days of childhood. The old-Geld
plums aud the wild strawberries, aud cher
ries, mulberries and blackberries were worth
moro then than gold, and it made no differ.
ence who was priest or president, or how
rich was Astor or Girard or any of the
nabors, or whether Sal Jackson;s bonnet
was purifier than Melyann Tompsons or
not. What glorious luxury it was to 20
barefooted and wade in tho branch and 90
sainipg and climb trees and hunt birds
nests and carry the corn to mill and loavo
it, just to get to run hoss race home again.
know now that those days were tho hap
piest, and 80 wont to rob my posterity of
tho same sort, if can help it.. want 'em
to love the old homestead, and 1 want child.
rens' children to gather about it and cherish
it's memory. What burlesquo on child
hoods joy it must be to visit grandma and
grandpa in o crowded city, penned up in
brick walls with few siokly flowers in front
and garden in the rear about as big as
wagon sheen. But that's the way the thing
is drifting. Them calculatin' yankees have
long ago done away with the sold back. log''
and the blazing hearthstone and substituted
furnice in tho basement and few iron
pipes running around the walls and hole
in the floor to let the heat in. All that
may be economy, but in my opinion man
can't raise good stock in no such way.
They'll be picayunish and pice and sharp
featured and gimlety, but they wont do to
bet on like them children that's been bro't
up round fire place on hundred acre
farm and had plenty of fresh air and lati-
tude.
Mr.. Editur, pleasin' tho children is about
all the majority of mankind are livin' for,
though they don't know it; and if they did
they wouldent acknowledge it. 1t is em-
phatioally the great business Of life. We
look Oh with wonder and amazcment at tho
busy crowds in great city that are ever
goin' to and fro like fddler's elbow, and
eight out of ten of 'om arc workin' and
strugglin' to please and maintain the child
rem. It's tho excuse Of all tho mad rush
of business that hurrics mankind through
tho world. It's tho apology for nearly all
the ohoatin' and stealin' and lyin' in the
land, and in heap of such cases I have
thought tho good angels would drop tears
enuf on the big book to blot 'em out forever.
The trouble is, Mr.. Editur, that most people
are always liyia' on G strain, tryn' to do a
little too much for their children, and scuf-
fin against wind and tide to git just a
little ahead of their nabors Some Of 'em
wont let a ton year old boy 60 to meetin'
or to Sunday School if he can't fix up as
fine as other boys. They won't let him go
barcfootcd nor wear a patch behind nor
before nor ride bareback nor go dirty, and
so the domestic pressure for finery becomes
tremendous. Jesse with bonnets and para
soils and kid gloves and silk dresses and
ohanyware and carpets and winder ourtius
and a thousand things that cost money
and run up the outgo heap bigger than
the inoum. Generally speakin' this homo
pressure amt noisy one, but, on tho con-
trary, is very silent and sad-so sud that
body would think there was sumbody dead
in the house, and SO after awhile sumhow
or somehow else the fnery comes and thus
for awhile all is screen. But tho collapse is
shore to cum sooner or later, and the child.
rem amt to blamo for it. Sometimes when
I ruminate upon tho meanness of mankind
L wish the children never got grown for they
don't got mean or foolish until they do
Just think what sweet time Of it old
mother Eve and Mrs. Commodore Noah
and aunt Mothusaler had with 30 or 40 of
'om woarin' bibs and aperns until they were
80 years old, toggin' along after their dadios
until they were hundred. don't think
old Father Woodruff could have stood that.
When man who ain't no yoarlin' gifts
married, and ton or dozen Of 'om cum
right straight along In row, and by tho
time he gets on tho piazza, tired and grunty,
they begin to climb all over him and under
him and betwixt him and oo the back Of
his chair and the top of his mead, its little
moro than his venerable natur can stand.
On suoh occasions, it ain't to bo wondered
at that he gently shakes himself alooso and
oxolaims, SLord have moroy upon me-"
But then, the like Of this must be endured.
/, lis d part Of the bargin, implied if not