The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-05-27
DIll Arp Discus Fes n Privilege Ques-
eiOn.

D.ll Arp Discus E'es Privilege Ques.
ion.
Mr.. EDITOR: 1t is not my DISPOSE
tion to complain much about anything,
but then it sometimes becomes as neces-
sary for an umble individual to set him
self right before the public as it is for
Alex. Stephens, or any other member of
Congress who has to publish weekly
personal card. I therefore rise to q
question of privilege. When was COM
mcnting.in in my last upon the hardships
and severity of the old blue laws of
Connecticut, and mentioned one OF 'em
that fined a man twenty shillings for
kissing" his wife on Sunday, some in
dividual in your Office, instigated by
Satan, made me to say "killing" instead
of kissing; and the idea has gone forth
to your numerous readers that my opinion
is that the fine was too much, that was dis
proportioned to the ofIense. Then, again,
its reasonable inference that if it was
only twenty shillings for killing wife
on Sunday it wouldn't be anything on g.
Monday. I'm afraid I'll never get over
this. That type setter is, I reckon, a
Universalist, and has no fear of the bad
place, or else he's tied to wife in law
that he can't manage no better than he
does his mother-in-law, and is mad be-
cause the old blue laws are out of date.
Now, I think that the intention of the
anti.Sunday wife kissing law was good,
considering that those old puritans
wanted to force man to be extremely
humble and abject on the Lords day,
for if a man has got pretty wife, and
she comes out arrayed in her best
clothes with little touch of cologne in
the hair and sweet Sunday smile on
her lips, he had better not oc,ulate much
if he is seriously trying to be humble,
for there is degree of exhaltation about
that business that knocks up all hu-
mility. Well, the scriptures do say that
when Jacob kissed Rachel he lifted up
his voice and wept, but l reckon that
was because she wasn't his wife right
then, and he was afraid she never would
be. Or it may be she was the first wo.
man he ever did kiss, and it overcome
him so he wept for JOY. I've often won
dered at the poor fellows devotion to the
girl-worked for the stingy old father
fourteen years for nothing, and had to
take the girl in rotation, at that. Miss
Rachel Laben must have been the pref
tiest girl in all the country to have in
spired that long suffering love, for the
like of it don't happen now days, nei-
ther among Jews nor Gentiles. The main
thing now is not how pretty she is, but
how much boot will the old man throw
in. I wish I could see a young man
dead in love with purity girl, and when
he asked for her hear the old man say,
"well, that's all right, you may have her,
but you must set in and pillow and hoe
and dig on my farm for seven years first"
Why he would take it as an insult, and
run away with her in two weeks. I say
seven years He would'n work nary lick,
but he would want the old man to work
for him while he and Angina were
spending the summer at Catoosa Springs.
But | reckon its all right, only I don't
like to hear of a young man examining
the old mans tax returns before he courts
his daughter. One day was called be-
fore the war to help an old man parcel
out his property; l thought be wanted to
make will, but no, he wanted to ad-
minister on his own estate just like he
was dead, for he had an idea that some
of his children were getting a little i'm
patient. He said he wanted to please
'em, but he didn't want to die to do it; and
so he divided his negroes and his lands
and his stock and notes and money all
into six lots, five for the children and
one for the widow, and he gave it to 'em
by deeds and bills of sale, and then he
went home happy and lived with his
widow till he died. I reckon that's
very good way, for when man gets old
and tired, its well enough to cut loose
from care and business and execute his
own will, provided he keeps enough to
make himself comfortable. 1t is a pitt
full sight to see man work as hard as
A. T. Stewart did, and as soon as he dies
some feller, no kin to him, steps in and
gobbles up his earnins, and then some
vandals come along and steal his bones
and hide 'em. That's bad, aint it? I
believe I'd rather be what am, an UNI.
BILE farmer with good pleasant home,
and not enough of this worlds goods to
excite anybody's envy.
I've worked hard to-day, harder than
usual, and I'm tired, and when I'm tired,
I feel honest and happy. I've been
setting out potato slips, and had to get
down to it. It's q back bending and
knee bending business. Mr.. Morton
sent me about 1000 from Vine Hill, and
whole lot of tomato plants, and as the
day was cloudy, me and Ralph, my
twenty-year-old, undertook the job. We
don't raise such slips down here; they
we're nearly two feet long I thought at
first they were some of last years vines
be had ensillated and kept over. I be-
lieve it would pay me to 60 up and stay
q month with him and learn how to do
things. If was young man I would
choose horticulture for my profession;
there's more refinement about it than
farming.
Now, if somebody will tell my wife
how to raise young turkeys she will be
perfectly happy; she has sick one
every day wrapped up in a rag by the
fire and it dies every time, and the chill.
dren dig another little grave and bury
it and stick up two more sticks. My wife
gives 'em black pepper and onions mix
ed with dough, and everything else that
the old women tell her, but they just
keep dying like they did last year. 1t
grieves the good woman to see the little
things suffer so, and it grieyes ME to
think I wont have any for Christmas un-
less I buy 'em. Yours,
BILL ARP.
Gainesville, Ga, May 19, 80.
- Henry Watterson deals with story
long current in political circles that Til
den held a mortgage for S350,000 on the
Louisville Couricr-Journal building by
saying in an interview that he went to
Tilden "as my lawyer" asking him to