The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-01-15
BILL ARp,s VIEWS

BILL ARP'S VIEWS
On the Training Boy Gets In College.
Atlanta Constitution.
It is right, I know, for man to be
conservative and tolerant and respectfully
considerate of other peoples opinions,
but how can man be 30 and take the
papers. When he reads the nonsense Of
men claiming to be educators he gets
disgusted with fools, and when he reads
the venemous lies and ISLANDERS of politi
clans he is equally disgusted with knaves,
and so between the two their utterances
in the public press keeps him vexed
about half the time.
Nevertheless, it is the duty of good
citizen to keep up with the age in which
he lives, for be can do something, and it
is his duty to read and be prepared for
coming events and raise his voice on the
right side. 1t has been great drawback
on the South that her people did not
read enough and were too contented
with their ignorance; but they are wax
ing up now, and you can hardly find
family in this region that does not take
some paper. I mix with our common
people a good deal and Iknow families
who take paper for the children to read,
although the parents cannot. This is all
right and it is encouraging. After q
poor farmer boy has learned to read and
write and cipher, he can get right good
education from the papers, and he can
get it cheaper than any other way. I
would rather my boys wonld depend on
three. or four good papers, that would not
cost more than ten dollars q year, than
on Fifty dollars worth of Latin and Greek
and algebra and geometry, They will
be of more benefit to him in the practi-
cal business of life. Of course, If he is to
be professional man, be must study the
sciences and go to college, but it is a
hazzard-a great hazard to send boy
to college, and the reason is plain. -Four
years at school and four more at college
takes eight Of the best years of boys
life, say from IL to 20, the very years
that his physical system needs physical
exercise and physical training; the very
years when his habits Of life and for
life are fixed the very years when he
should mix labor with study and let his
brain and his muscle all work along to-
gether and sustain each other. College
habits are habits of physical iudolence.
A college boy has no education to work
ANYTHING but his brain when he comes
away, and looks around for business.
His physical nature abhors work-he
can't stand it. His habits are fixed and
habits are as binding as fetters, and he
sees no agreeable opening except the law
or medicine or politics, and so the land
is full of quacks, pettigoggers:and small
politicians who afaict the people and do
no good for themselves. These small law
yers sit around town and watch for strife
among nabors like a buzzard watches for
a carcass. They nurse and encourage all
sorts Of petty litigation. The doctors
gallop off to see a sick patient and keep
him sick until it takes his little crop to
pay the bill. The politicians get up
rumpus in the newspapers and slander
one another until the people don't know
who to vote for, and they don't care.
And SO it goes, and it would have been
better, far better, for the whole batch to
have stayed upon the farm and married
clever country girls, and gone to raising
children and chickens in an honest and
honorable way. Now if, I say if, the
college boys would 60 to farming would
rejoice to see the boys 60 to college, for
the higher the education the more refined
is the happiness that knowledge gives
and the better farmers they would make,
but they will not. And for like reasons
I have never favored the higher educa-
tion OF the negro. His race is physically
ordained for labor, muscular labor, and
he likes it. A college life is his utter
ruin as man and citizen, and he comes
out genteel African vagabond. I re-
ceived letter from one of them in
Atlanta the other day that was full of
profane abuse and blasphemy for the
views expressed in one of my letters, and
he demanded the name of that Boston
traitor, as he called him, who said he
pitied US when he saw the ignorant horde
that had been entrusted with the ballot.
Well, that iarkey has been to college,
aud is now an educated vagaboud. The
trouble with Mr.. George w. Cable is
that he does not consider the negro as
race but lets his large philanthrophy con
sider-them individually. He finds case
where negro became an expert from
having the advantage of high degree
of culture, and he makes him type of
the race, and puts demand upon US for
a like civilization to all. It reminds me
of the educated hog that, few years ago,
was exhibited over the South, aud could
play cards and tell the time of day upon
a watch, but i don't think it follows
that we should, therefore. educate all the
hogs in the country. The exceptions
always prove the rule. No negroes have
made any progress in arts, or science, or
politics, or the pulpit except those who
bad Caucasian blood in their veins. The
cross does we'll for time, but it is
natures last effort, for nature abhors it,
and from the unnatural union comes
feeble posterity or none, after the first
generation. Some of the noblest colored
people / ever knew we're of this kind.
Fred Douglas and Senator Bruce and all
the colored men of note are among them.
The BARRIERS of the South are Of them,
and almost without exception they are o
law. abiding, intelligent and well.man.
nered class of citizens. have great re.
spect for them, for they attend we'll 10
their. business, and are entitled to more
respect than some of their customers.
Mr.. Cable seems to think that justice to
the negro requires that we should mix
with them on equal terms in our churches
and schools and cars aud hotels and
theatres, and this shows his utter igno.
rance of the race as q race: for they will
tell him almost uniformly that they do
not want to mix. They want equal privi.
leges, but they do not like to mix. The
race instinct is against it. Your recent
editorial on this subject was most admira.
Bile and most true, and this reminds me