The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-03-19
BILL ARP,S LETTER.
The Sage Smoking the Pipe of Peace.

love to meet q nabor and hear him
say "how's craps? ?" l continue to like
farmin. like itbetter and better, except
that the wheat is somewhat doubtful
about making crap. A little long bug
with tail at both ends has got in the
Joints and sucked the sap out, and it's
fallin down in patches. Looks like there
is always. sumthin preyin on sumthin,
and nuthin is safe from disaster in this
subloonary world Flies and bugs and
rust prey on the green wheat. Weevils
eat it up when IT'S cut aud put away
Rats eat the corn-moles eat the gubbers
hawks eat the chickens-the minks
killed three of our ducks in one night
cholera kills the hogs-and the other
night one of my nabor's mules cum along
with the blind staggers and fell upon a pair
of seven steps right into my front gate
and died without kickin. Then there is
oriars and nettles and tread salts and
smartsweed and pison and Spanish need
les and cuckle burrs and dog fennel and
snakes, that's always in the way on
farm and must be looked alter keerfully,
especially snakes, which are my eternal
horror, and shall always believe are
sum kin 10 the devil himself. | can't
tolerate such long insects. But we farm.
ers have to take the bad with the good,
and there is more good than bad with me
up to the present time.
wonder if Harris ever saw a pack
saddle. Well, its as putty as rainbow,
Just like most all of the devils contrivan.
ces, and when you crowd one of EN- on a
fodderblade you'd think that forty yaller
jackets had stung you all in bunch aud
with malice aforethought. And there's
the DEVILS race horse which plies around
about this time and, Uncle Isam says,
chaws terbakker like gentleman, and if
he spit in your eyes you'd go blind in
half second. And one day he showed
me the DEVILS darning needle which
winds up the old fellows stockins, and
the DEVILS snuff box, which e1plodes
when you mash it, and one ounce of the
stuff inside will kill sound mule-before
he can lsy down. Then there's some
flowers that he wears in his button hole
called the DEVILS shoestring and the devil
in the bush.
like farmin. It's an honest, quiet
life, and it does me so much good to
work and get all over in SWEET of per.
spiration. l enjoy my umble food and
my repose, and get up every mornin
renewed and rejuvenated like an eagle in
his flight, or words to that effect. /
know | shall like it more and more, for
we have already passed-over the Ruby
con, and are beginnin to reap the rewards
of industry. Spring chickens have got
ripe. and the hens keep bloomin on.
Over 200 nov respond to my old 'oman's
call every morpin, as she totes aroun
the 'breadtray a.singin teheeky, teheeky,'
teheeky. | tell you, she watches those
birds close, for she knows the valne of
'em. She was raised Methodist, she
was, aud many a time has watched
through the crack of the door sadly, and
seen the preachers helped to the last
gizzard in the dish. There was 81 chick
ems, ducks, goslins, IL turkeys and
Z pigs hatcbed out last week, and Daisy
had calf aud Mollie colt. besides.
This looks like business, don't it.? This
is what / call successful farmin-multi
plying and repenisbing according to
Scripier. Then We have plenty of
peas aud potatoes and other garden verbs,
which helps poor man out, and by the
4th of July will have wheat bread aud
biskit and blackberry pies, and pass
regular declaration of independence.
| like farmin. like latitude and
longitude When we were penned up in
town my children couldn't have sling
shot, or bow and arrow, nor chicken
fight in the backyard, nor sick dog on
another dog, nor let of a big lnjun
whoop, without some neigbbor making q
fuss about it, And then, again, there
was show, or dance, or bazar, or
missionary meeting most every night,
and it look like the children were just
obeeged to go or the world would come
to an end. It was money, money, money
all the time, but now there isn't q store
or milliner shop within five miles of
us, aud we do our own work, and have
learned what 1T costs to make bushel OF
corn and barrel of -four, and by the
time Mrs. Arp has uursed and raised q
lot of chickens and turkeys she THINKS so
much OF 'em she don't want US to kill
'em, and they are heap better and fat
ter than any we used to buy. We've got
great big fireplace in the family room,
and can boil the coffee, or heat kettle
of water on the hearth if we want to, for
we are not on the lookout for company
all the time like we used to be. We
don't cook half as much as re used to,
nor waste q whole parsel every day on
the darkey, and we eat what is set before
US, and are thankful.
It's q wonder to me that everybody
don't go to farming. Lawyers and doc
tors have to set about town and play
checkers, and talk politics and wait for
somebody to quarrel or fight, or get sick
clerks and bookkeepers figure and multi
ply and count until they get to counting
the stars, and the flies on the ceiling, and
the peas in the dish, and the fnwers on
the papering; the jeweler sits by bis
window all the year round, working on
little wheels, and the mechanic strikes
the same kind Of lick evey day. These
people do not belong to themselves
they are all pepned up like convicts in
chaingang; they can't take day nor
an hour for recreation, for they are the
servants of their employers. There is no
profession that gives man such freedom,
such latitude, and such variety of
employment rs farming.
While l was ruminating this II orning,
boy come along and said the dogs had
treed something down in the bottom.
So me and my boys shouldered the guns
and an Ak, and took Mrs. Arp and the
children along to see the sport. We cut
down hollow gum tree and caught
'possum and two squirrels, and killed
rabbit on the run, and had good time
generally, with no loss on our side. We
can stop work most any time to give
welcome to passing friend and have a
little chat, and our nabors do the same
by US; but if you 60 into one OF these
factories or workshops, or even aprintlng
Office, the first signboard that greets you
aars "Don't talk 10 the workmen." So