Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-05-18
Correspondence of the Yorkville Enquirer.
Y0RKyILLE NOTES AND IMPRESSIONS.

KINARD's, S. c., May 11.-Suggestions of
mutual friends have prompted me to write
some notes and impressions incident upon my
recent delightful visit to your charming little
town.
Truly, time works changes, and this is
land of development and progress. My only
previous visit to Yorkville was about twenty
five years ago, when, in my young, impulslve
manhood, I was just merging upon the arena
of active and responsible life. But even at
that age and at that time, Iorkville made I'M
pressions upon my mind which have never
been effaced My visit was of character
which permitted me to see much in short
time, of the good people of the little up-country
village. as thought it then, and as it certain
ly was, when compared with its present di-
mensions in population, buildings, business,
etc. l was present then as delegate from
the Sumter Bible Society (then in active ope-
ration, and / trust not now suspended IN Its
good work. to the State Bible Convention,
which assembled at Yorkville about the time
Indicated This put me, on this my first In
PRODUCTION, into the homes OF some OF the
noble-hearted Christian families of the place.
And in this connection, many cherished re-
collections still linger on memory's tablet.
My home, during that visit, as it had been as
signed me, was at the hospitable residence OF
Mrs. Witherspoon, then widow, who sup
pose, was the mother of your distinguished
fellow-citizen (so recently and so worthily ele-
waited to the bench of the State} Judge [. D.
Witherspoon. Her residence if my memory
serves me right, was then fronting the Presby-
terian Church, in which edifice the Convention
held it's sessions. The them Districts of the
State were nearly all represented, and the
body was presided over by that pure-minded,
graceful and affable Christian Judge, Cham
cellor Ingliss, whose memory is as sweet
smelling SAVIOR in South Carolina.
Comparatively speaking, the business houses
and residences were few and far between. We
remember the location of the ENQUIRER 0ust
where it now is we beleve) was somewhat
isolated. 1t was here that our first acquant-
ance was formed with Sarn1 w. Melton,
ESQ.,, then, we believe, one of your editors.
Should Yorkville grow in no greater ratio
for twenty-five years to come-but when we
take into account the new life and vigor this
country is now taking on, and the accelerated
speed with which its industries must increase,
on the more substantial and enduring sub
stratue upon which they are now being build
ed, should the revolutionary spirit be kept
down, and should there be no more interne-
cine struggles for that period, we must con-
clude its growth must be in much greater
ratio-it will then be a city of no mean pro-
portions. The world moves decidedly, de-
spite all the croakers and their croakings, and
he who, at this day, especially, does not get
up and move with it, but seeks to run along
in the old ruts and grooves. will as surely be
left behind.
Yorkville is beautiful for situation, with
a climate in it's mean temperature and salu-
briousness as desirable, we take it, as any in
the world. Situated at general attitude,
to he reached by the pure and invigorating
currents Of atmosphere which come from the
mountain brows, and still on ridge which
rises between the valleys of the Broad and
Catawba Rivers and in view of the classic and
heroic Kings Mountain, the wisdom of the
fathers who first surveyed the ground and
pitched their tents there, is fully demon
strated.
AS the change of temperature and atmos-
pheric buoyancy has been sensible to us as
between Newberry and Sumter, so thought we
it was manifestly discernibe as between New
berry and Yorkville, and the comparative
health and vigor of those who have had tenn
porary residence at Yorkville and changed
their location to lower degrees Of the State,
show that their distinctions are not without
their effect on the human body. Yes, York
vile is beautiful for situation, and fine for
health, and then the grateful social and
religious atmosphere which one breathes IS
healthful to the lungs of the soul. Born and
reared in lower Carolina, where, more, espe-
cially in ante Jellua days, social lines were
taughtly drawn and social eXcluslveism, III
the circles formed, practiced to degree
not scarcely found even in Old England, the
social freedom experienced when first we visit
ed Yorkville was much more agreeable to our
innate sensibilities, for we were born Demo
crat in the radical and fundamental signiica-
tions of that term. Not that society does not
inevitably resolve itself into distinctive ele--
ments, as the result of the inscrutable laws OF
our aesthetic nature, but that these should be
graded and based upon the length of the purse
or the extent of acres and houses and not
upon the solid principles of worth of charac-
ter and cultivation of heart and head.
We found the social atmosphere of York
vile sufficiently removed from conventional;
ties to make it easy and unrestrained, and
still sufficiently hedged about by the we'll,
grounded law of propriety and fitness to afford
it the necessary safeguards and protection,
and withal, Christian genialty and unity OF
the spirit in the bond of peace, in so far as
denominational distinctions are concerned,