The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-05-13
BILL ARP.
Mr.. Arp Visits Abbevlllc, S. c.
.iAanta Constitution.


These are lightning times TO live in.
That used 10 be an exaggerated idea, and
kind of hyberbolc as the scholars call it,
but it is not now. These are lightning
times sure enough-chained lightning
subjugated MISUNDERSTANDING manu-
factured to order, and in quantities TO
suit purchaser. All of our lives we have
seen natures lightning shoot across the
clouded heavens, sometimes perpcndlcu'
lar, sometimes horizontal or catecornered
and most always with zigzag line 1t
comes and it goes in the twinkling oil an
eye, and always impresses us with awe
and admiration and we watch and wait
iu subdued silence for the next flash.
We speak of fash of lightning or
streak of creased lightning, but we are
always impressed, and always feel that
the Almighty is not afar off and has
something to do with that business.
Folks don't talk much when looking at
such displays. Even the children huddle
up by the parents and look and watch
and wait and are glad that father or
mother is near. He was a bold man who
undertook to play with such a toy, to
draw it down from the clouds and bottle
it up and use it. But it was done and
now it is domesticated and tanned and
driven along wire and made the winged
messenger of the world. was ruminat-
ing about this when read in my morning
paper telegram saying that the N. Y.
Sun of tomorrow morning will say of
Jefferson Davis's speech at Montgomery,
or the Courier-,Journal of tomorrow will
say of General Gordon's speech, ETC., as
though the public could not wait for their
opinions to be printed in their own pa
pcrs and be copied by others, but they
must know the editors thoughts just as
soon as he thought them, and so they
telegraph in advance to all the daily
journals what their great thoughts are.
Well, have never yet seen anything of
this kind that I couldn't have waited for
two or three days without damage or
inconvenience, but still everybody wants
the news now as soon as it can be had.
"What's the news?" is now the universal
question. 1 was wondering when the
notable speeches of Mr.. Davis and others
at Montgomery and Atlanta would get
into the papers. Participated the luxury
and comfort of reading them. l felt
peculiar pride and independence in the
fact that our people dared to utter their
sentiments, and, above all, that Mr.. Davis
was to be honored by these public demon
strations. Time and again we have been
mortified when some of own people have
been fawning at the feet OF Northern
heroes and had no brave words for our
own. But old father Time, sooner or
later, sets all things right, and now the
South can dare to indulge in selfrespect
and to call Mr.. Davis from his long
retirement. I wonder what the North
thinks of all this. l am curious to see
what the New York Tribune "will say
tomorrow" General Gordon sent me
his speech in advance sheets and | read
and enjoyed it two days before it was
delivered. 1t grati6ed me in tone and
sentiment. He said what should have
been said-enough and no more. His
recital Of facts and the truth of history
will dignity US before the world and
increase the self.respect of our people.
Old Father Time is making history very
fast now, and these public ceremonies
and demonstrations make it better than
books. This generation has no time to
read books. Not one in hundred has
read Mr.. Davis's book or any of the
histories of the war, but most everybody
reads the papers now and will catch the
glow of Independent enthusiasm that has
animated our people from Maryland to
Texas. We have asserted our manhood
boldly and freely before the world, and
it will command more respect than all
the trucking and fawning and apologize
;nn of time servers for the last twenty
years.
It was a curious coincidence with me
that on Thursday when these great cere'
monies were going on at Montgomery,
ceremonies that seem like resurrection
of the lost cause, ceremonies that as it
were, touched the dry bones and gave
them life, and that lifted up the venera-
BILE chieftain aud showed him to his
people as the man without fear and with
out reproach, on the same day was
soiourning in the town where secession
had its birth and where its final dissolu.
ton came. These good people in Able
Vile, South Carolina, assure me that in
this town was held the first secession
meeting, and here were the first resolu-
tions that spread from County to County
until the State went out.
And here in Abbeville, S. c., was held
the last formal meeting of Mr.. Davis and
his cabinet. I passed along the street
where stands the houses of Colonel Per-
rim and Mr.. Burt-who entertained Mr..
Davis and Benjamin aud Reagan and
Breckenridge and Lawtor and General
Bragg and Duke and Vaughn, and many
others, and who for two days were here in
council and solemnly pondered the crush
ing weight Of defeat and disaster and
saw the last lingering rays of hope to
fade away into darkness and gloom.
Who would have thought that in the
short space of twenty-one years there
could have been such a restoration of
peace and plenty in this afflicted, desc.
lated land.
To day, this very day, is the anniver-
sary of that last cabinet meeting, and on
this day that dethroned chieftain is lay
| IL oo.aor .fo,o of monument tn