The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-06-27
BILL ARP.
What he Thinks of Binding the sheaves.
From the Atlanta Constitution.

What He Thinks Of Binding the sheaves.
From the Atlanta Constitution.
Mr.. EDITUR: The harvest is over.
Great expectations have not been real
lied. Farmin' is good deal like fishin'.
Every time you start out you can just see
yourself catchin' EN-; but after tryin'
every hole in the creek you go home sor-
rowfully, with a. fisherman's luck. But
we are not complainin' by no means, for
we've got wheat enuf for biskit every day
and light bread on Sunday, and a few
bushels to spare for them angels that is
to cum along unawares sum of these days.
We finished cuttin' the oat crop this
mornin', and what with them and the
clover already housed, the cattle are safe
for another year. 1 imagine they look
sassy and thankful; but as for me, Mr..
Editur, I am a used up individual.
Durin' harvest have had to be binder,
and if you don't know what that is, ask
Harris. The ends of these fnger, which
.are now inscribin' this epistel are in q
bad fix. Skarifde and stuck up with
bull nettles and briars, they are as sore
as school-boy's bile. There was sum
variation to my business, such as catchin'
young rabbits, and fndin' partridge
nests, and pickin' dewberries; but the
romance wore off the first day, and by the
end of the next my wife says l was hum
BILE man as any woman could desire.
Its nifty purity thing to write about and
make up Dads and PONIES. The golden
grain, the many reapers, the struttin'
sheaves, the song of the harvesters, and
purity Miss Ruth coquettin' around the
fields of old man Boaz, and chow jokin'
did they drive their team a6eld," is all
so sweet and nice to a man up a tree with
an umbrel, but if them poets had to tie
wheat half day in a June sun, their
sentimentality would henceforth seek an
other subjek. l tried swingin' the cradle
awhile, but somehow or somehow else, /
couldn't exactly get the lick. 1t wasent
the kind of cradle I've been used to,
and Pm too old dog to learn new tricks
now. The swing of the reapers cradle is
very peculiar motion-very regular in
its irregularity, and goes for the weeds
and bushes and briars and the whcat-all
the same. Somehow or other it reminds
me of an independent candidate side
wipin' around To get offs in twistifde
way. Well, I like independence, and
that's why I like farnain'-nobody to look
to for livin' but Providence. like to
see man independentin opinion and in
action, too, and if he suckseeds, it shows
that there is gum in him-bus it won't
do to run that skedule too long or too
fur, in politics or religion. Bonapart and
Beecher tride it, and if they couldn't
keep it up, nobody can't. Everybody
has got to fall into line some time. For
q while all sorts of people will pat an in
dependent on the back and say "go it,
my larkey, bully for you," but before
long they'll begin to think over what a
good, fat thing he's got, and then human
nature, which you know is as mean as
the devil, will crop out, and the next
time they'd drop him so easy he won't
know it. On the whole, the aspirin man
had better go along smoothly with his
party or his church or his copartners, as
the case may be. General Black says he
to me, says be, "Bill, as you are goin' to
farmip' let me give you q piece of ad-
vice: Don't go of on new lines, but
watch your nabors and do purity much as
they do" Well, he didn't mean that if
the nabors went bar footed in the sum-
mer time and slept in shirt and washed
their feet in skillet, and their darters
worked in the field and dipped snuff, we
must do so toby no means. But he
meant to say that the kind Of farmin'
that is sustained by the majority. of far
mers was nifty apt to be the best.
Jesse with gittin ofis-the best way is
the old way. 1t may be, however, that
Providence does raise up man as an in
strument to reform society, but the in
strument is very likely to think he is
doin' it all on his own hook, and he'll
keep on reformin' till the millennium if
che people will let him. think it
would be well enough for him to report
progress sometime, and may be the good
Lord would let his servant depart in
peace. But you let feller git taste of
Washington and it does look onpossible
to ever get him away from there. 81
aviR stand for reelection" OF course he
will, but it does seem to me that if / had
held a rotaten Office right straight along
for forty years would hunt the shade of
Liberty Hall and quit. Why, sur, there's
forty men in that district been patiently
waitin' twenty years for his chance, and
he's now proposin' to outlive 'em all and
himself too. Spose he does want to die
in harness, whats that to Berry Houck z
There's sum other gentlemen worthy and
well qualified who would take the gear
kindly, and work in 'em, too. But if l
had q horse that wore out his breechin' q
holdin' back up hill, and hadent pulled
nary pound in seventeen years, he
woulden. die in my harness, shore. He
mout hunt another wagin. Pye no idee
of todying a man who toadys everybody
and everything 1 don't like, from Gen.
Grant down to a patent medicine, and
there's heap of folks my way of think
in. Everytiine I think about it I hear
myself exclaimin', "Time's out-Next." ="
Yours, BILL ARP.
PSI want to know how to git shet
of moles. The castor been grows all
round here and don't seem to do any
good. Can't you put somethin' in your
tarmin' column about it? b. a.
N. B.-Ax Harris whether snakes lays
eggs or has their young 'uns jusso.
B. A.