Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1880-01-22

UAla1 AT ~ BLGz1nSSCL oho
scribes 10 0perat.oss Its Re.
suits and Its Promises.--He
10 Evidently a Believer III
Clements Invention, and
En.ighteus the Public up
on this Great Question.
OcoNEE COUNTY, Jan. IL, 1850.
Dear Advertiser: The breezes that
sweep over the tops of my native hills
are no less pure and bracing than in the
days Of yore. The shimmering shadows
of the Blue Ridge Mountains are still
suggestive of a thousand memories as
sociated with song, and with legendary
lore. The hymns of the snowy cascade
continue to fall upon the ear with a u
muring that is mournful; and yet soft,
sweet and soothing as the lullaby of a
loving mother. The rocks, the Woods,
the streams, the valleys, the hillocks and
the fauna greet the eye on every side
like troops of familiar friends. But all
| else, how changed-and all for the bet
ter! Instead of indifference and sloth,
there is taste and energy. Instead Of ig-
norance, there is knowledge; for every
section has a school or a college Instead
| of inconvenience and the want of a mar
ket, there is quite a number Of Railway
| stations, as we'll as rapid transit to the
East, t the West, and to the broad At
lantic at Charleston. Instead of painful
manual labor, there's cunningly devised
machinery to cooperate with the rush
ing streat. lets for the benefit of man
kind. And. thus, I am led to speak Of
our fleecy staple inconDection With mod
ern improvements.
All nations indW use for GOTTEN. The
very word itself, from the Arabic, hoton,
has s magic spell for the commercial
world. Even in Angola, Africa, DIR. Iiv-
ingstone found this plant furnishing / IN
q prolific condition, and the women spin
ming the lint with q spindle and distaf
exactly like those which were in use
among the ancient Eggplant" The
earliest notice of cotton is by the histori-
an, Herodotus, about the year $50 before
Christ. The Egyptian mammies are al
ways found wrapped in linon cloths. The
inference is that cotton goods were un-
known among tho tribes of a remote an
tiquity. From Hindostan, cotton cloth
was brought by degrees into Greece and
Rome; and before the christian era, this
fabric was used by Verres, III Sicily, as
q covering for his tents. The Tity of
Calicut, on the West coast OF the East
Indies, gave a name to the gaudy but
useful article known as calico.
Cotton thread, as seen in the Worlds
Fair, has been made. SO fine in England,
that q pound Of this gossamer stuff would
have reached one thousand and twenty
six miles. The late Rev. William Ward,
missionary at Serampore. speaks of mus
Inns in Bengal of q texture so exquisite
that lying upon the grass and covered
with dew, 1t became invisible. In the
American colonies. according to "Pur-
chas's Pilgrims" cotton seed were first
planted Us an experiment III 1921; the
plant, however, was but little known,
except in gardens, until after the revo-
~lutionary war. In 1884, 8 bags, shipped
to England, were seized on the ground
that so much cotton could not have been
produced in the United States In 1856,
the first sea island cotton was raised on
the coast OF Georgia; the seeds were from
the Bahamas, the species having been
introduced there from; Anguilla, one of
the Leeward isles.
In 1898, the cotton gin was invented by
Eli Whitney, who was born in Westbor-
ough, Massachusetts,, December s, 1865,
and died in New Haven, Connecticut,
Januarys 8, 1925. Whilst reading law in
Georgia(at the house Of Gen. Greene's
widow, lhe drew out some iron wire and
fonstruated q macGine ior eYpsfarTug CO..
ton seedffrom the lint. Cotton that re-
quired a hand a day to clean a pound,
was better prepared for market by his
celebrated gin at the rate of three hun
dred pounds per day. This invention
gave an extraordinary impetus to the
culture Of cotton. As a token Of graft
tude and regard, South Carolina gave
Mr.. Whitney fifty thousand dollars, and
North Carolina allowed a percentage for
the use of each saw for five years, and
collected and paid it over to the patentees
in good faith. But Whitney, involved
In many lawsuits on account of infringe
ments on his patent. and being worn out
by vexations, at last turned his attention
to the manufacture of fire arms for the
general government, from which he REAP
ed q handsome fortune.
The pioneers of all enterprises are apt
to lose money, besides encountering un-
expected difficulties The inventor of
the new process yarn mill is no excep-
ton to the general rule. He never lived
to see his ingenious continuance put into
practical operation. The history of his
patriotic man becomes interesting at this
juncture. Lewis Tresband Clements was
born in 1903. on Stones river, in Ruth
erford county, Tennessee. With a linn
tied education, he learned the trade of a
ginwright and a furniture maker. He
was afterwards engaged in n small facto-
ry for spinning cotton yarns. Whilst so
engaged, he saw he disadvantages Of
manipulating with complex machinery
the tangled and mutilated fibres of cot
ton from the plantation gins. This led
to deep thought, and he soon conceived
the grand idea of his wonderful "At-
tschment," which is destined to make
the Cotton States prosperous and indie
pendent. But just after obtaining a pat
emit for his useful invention, he was ia
tally injured by an accident at Mill Creek
bridge ON the Nashville and Murfrees
boro turnpike, and died 22d November
1850, in the 9th year Of his life. 1t is
said that Mr.. Clements family now share
in the profits arising from the famous at
tachment.
Last week, I went to see the "Clem-
ents' Attachment" at work on Choestoee
Creek, about two miles South of West
minister Station on the Piedmont Air
Line Railroad in Oconee county, s. G.
The stock holders are Messrs. John w.