The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-03-20

-1HlIttd Constitution.
Two cents-only two cents. When
look at q postage stamp it carries me
away back Back TO the time when nv
father was postmaster and was his clerk,
and had to make up the mails in cnun.
,ry town. The difference between now
aud then shows the worlds progress in a
privilege and pleasure that is hardly
cxceiled in any other branch of improve.
ncnt. We couldent bear to be set back
acain in that line to the old ways that
our fathers thought were pretty good
There were no stamps and no envelopes,
and no muciage. The paper was folded
up like thumb.paper, and one side
sIippcd in the other and sealed with o
wrapper. The little school boys, you
know, had to use thumb papers in their
spelling books to keep them clean where
tncir dirty thumbs kept the pages open.
Girls dident have to use them, for they
were naer aud kept their hands clean,
and dident wear out the leaves by the
t!iclinn of their fingers. Boys are rough
things anyhow, and | don't see what a
nice, sweet, clean, pretty girl wants with
one Of 'em. Girls they say are made of
sugar and spice and all that's nice, but
boys are made Of snaps and snails aud
puppy dog tails. Josephus says, that
when the queen Of Sbeba was testing
siolomon's wisdom, she had fifty boys and
fifty girls all dressed alike in girls
and asked the king 10 pick out the hDys
from ihe girls, and he called for a basin
of water and had it carried around .e
each one and told them to wash their
hands. The girls all rolled up their
sleeves n little bit, but the boys Just
sloshe. their hands in any way and go.
water all over their aprons, and so the
king spotted every mothers son of 'em.
The postage used to be regulated by
the distance that Uncle Sam carried the
letters. 1t was 124 cents anywhere in
the State, and lS} cents to Charleston,
and 25 cents to New York. It was never
prepaid. A man could afflict another
with pistareen letter that wasent worth
five cents. A pistareen, you know, was
1S3 cents-that is seven pence and a
thrip. We had no dimes or half dimes.
The dollar was cut up into eights instead
of tenths. When q countryman called
for letters and got one he would look at
it some time and turn it oy er and medf::
tate before he paid for it, and very often
they would say, ''where did this letter
come FROM" Well, would say for in.
stance, ''it come from Dahlonega-don't
you see Dahlonega written up on the cor
ner" Then he would say, swell,
reckon it's from Dick, my brother Dick.
lie is up there digging gold. Don't you
reckon it's from Dick ?" II reckon it ia, :"
said | why don't you open it aud see %
mo, I'll wait until | get home. They'll
all want to see it." When he got home
that letter would be au event in the fami-
ly, and perhaps it would take them half
an hou' to wade through it and make out
its contents. Nine out of ten of those
country letters began, 81 take L,y pen in
hand to let you know !ba! am we'll, and
hope these few lines will find you enjoy
ing the same blessing" My father kept
store and his country customers used to
ask him to write their letters for them,
and he always sent them to me, and most
of them told mo to begin their letters
! that way. There was not more than one
4 in five that could write, but they were
good clever, honest people, and paid
] their debts, but they hardly ever paid up
8 i'll full at the end of the year, and so they
4 gave their notes for the balance and
4 made their mark. My father used to say
that he had known cases where a man
4 swore off his written signature, but he
8 never knew man to deny his mark.
a Our big Northern mail used to come in
3 n stage from Madison twice week, and
| used to think the sound of the stage
4 horses, as the stage came over the hill,
was one of the sublimest things in the
/ world, and thought that if ever got to
be n man would be stage driver if I
j could. Well, | come pretty near it, for
Il my hther had hired a man to ride the
4 mail to Roswell and back twice week,
and the man got sick aud so my fathe-
D put me on drumcdary of q horse and
4 the mail in some saddle. e.bags behind me,
4 and had to make the 4S miles in day
j and kept it up all winter. liked to
4 have frozc several times, and had to be
4 !!hed of the horse when got home and
q it nearly broke my mothers heart, but
q was getting dollar trip and Ut was my
money, and SO wouldent back out
q The old women on tie road used to
crowd me with their little commissions
q and get me to bring them little pepper,
q or coPperas, or bluing, or pins and nee.
& dies, or get me to take along some locks
4 and sell them, and 80 made friends and
aacquainlances all the way. The first trir
3 ! made an old woman hailed me and
8 said, Are you mail boy2" "Wby.
a yes, man," said I, "you dident think
. was female boy, did you ?" thought
that was mighty smart, but it wasent very
civil and it made her 30 mad she never
q told me what she wanted, and as she
4 turned iief back on NE heard her say,
q "llI bet he is little stuck up town
j boy"
My father was postmaster for nearly
4 thirty years. It didn't pay more than
a about $500 q year, but it q ade his store
more of public place lie didn't know
] that anybody else hankered after it or
4 was trying to get II, but ali of q sudden
ne got his orders to turn over the Office
a to another man, an old line whig and q
u competitor in business. 1t mortified him
y very much and made ue ell mad, for there
was no fault found with hi. manag g ement,
apd ne never took much interest in poll
Tics but voted for the man he liked the
oeSt whether he was whig or demo-
clat When he found out that Alex
s!ephens had 1t done he waaent q Ste.
Pnens man any more, and grew up
WIN an idea that Mr.. Stephens was a
political fraud. l diden. understand the
81 science Of politics rs we'll as LIDO now.
! told Mr.. Stephens about it one night at
aii!edgeville when we were ali in good
s numor and were talking about the old
times of wings and democrats, and he
smiled and said, Eyes, we had to do those
nlngs aud sometimes they were very