The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1886-05-12
!, FATHERS LETTER.
some Paternal Counsel Given in Very 0risi'
nal Manner.
(Bi!l Nyc in The Graphic News

(Biil Nyc in The Granhic News
My DEAR SoN-Yorn. letter of las
week found your mother and me fairly
well, though can see that I amt the
same man I used to be by any means
Every Spring I have trouble with my
lungs. One OF my lungs is eEtircl.
gone, and the other one is hepatizcd, SC
the doctor tells me. I've tried mos
everything in the way of medicine for tc
renew my lungs, but they get worse an6
worse all the time. But still eat goo(
hearty meal OF victrlals. You refer
casually, in your letter, to a misspelled
word in my last communication. You
speak Of grammar also in reproachable
way, which is annoying to a man like
me- am not great on the spell, I ad
nit, Henry. for when ! ought to been
learning for 70 spell at the spelling
schools and great photographed retorts
OF our section OF country, | was licking
the smart ilecks from town that seemed
to be smarter than their parents.
No, Henry, never got a meddle fol
spelling long hard words with great
fucncy, but I've tried to be well-be,
haved parent. In my poor weak way
I've aimed TO be u good father to you,
Henry, and so has your mother ! think
may say, with pardonable pride, that |
have been more successful in that line
than she has.
We have both tried, in season and out
OF season, to so live that We would not
bring Your gray hairs with sorrow to the
grave. I, for one, have tried to shun the
demon rum for Your sake. I have come
home early nights, SO that You could
know where I was, and have always
been willing that You should smell of my
breath if you felt SO disposed. have
never filed a drunkard's grave OF
brought rcproach upon you.
Spelling is not always my best holt,
but aim to please as parent. I have
tried not to bring the blush of shame to
your iuzzy cheek, and wish YOU would
try to do as much for me sometime.
When 7 was boy, they didn't sugar
coat education and make it one long
drawn halleloogcr to so to school as they
now Go. On the contrary, the struggling
ideas of the roodiments which [ now
have, was socked into me by main
strength and awlwardness. To get the
roodiments of an education we had =
possess great physical strength and p
MAJ courage.
When I see the student to-day with a
big picture book done up in a shawl
strap. wearing one OF those little cigar
cites in his mouth, and riding on the
hind end OF a loss car towards the big
red female seminary, I often think Of
the days when did days work before
breakfast, and then walked two miles in
order to be ready to get licked when the
old cast iron crss that presided over our
school felt like it.
He was noble brute. He taught our
school. I reckon, because he hadn't elju-
cation enough to engage in other manual
pursuits.
He is now dead. I do not go over to
the cemetery every Spring to decorate
his grave. Spring is very busy season
with me. If he had died in the Winter,
about forty years earlier than he did, l
would have gone out OF my way to dec
crate his grave. It would have been a
pleasure to me.
When he died, your mother asked me
if I was going to the funeral.
No." says 7, speaking up in that
droll way Of mine-"No, says IL shant
go to the funeral, but, as the feller says,
l approve of it." That's the way 1 am
about everything. l speak my mind
right out aud nobody ever knew me to
hesitate about saying what I thought of
man, even if he was dead
With better educational advantages,
always thought our schoolmaster would
have made good pirate; but his parents
was poor and SO he had to hustle for
himself. He had an earnest desire to
advance in his profession, but he did not
succeed in carving his name on the
heights OF fame. He yearned for glory
and grub. I cmember that lie used to
teach school Winters and work ont Sum
mers on farm. In this way he kept up
his muscle all the time; and though he
frequently got mixed up in long division,
he was never successfully licked, up to
the time that old Mr. Bright came along
with his Justly celebrated disease and in
troduced it into the schoolmasters daily
life. Then he yielded gently. Like a
flake of ice cream ON the bosom of fat
man, the schoolmaster began to subside.
One by one his kidnies began to fade.
Paler and paler grew the great educator,
till at last, one evening in Spring, just as
the bull-frogs over in the north medder
had llnwrapped the red flannel from
their throats and sounded a." our old
schoolmaster skun out for the sweet ulti-
nlately. Hundreds OF his old pupils all
over the State telegrafted their consent.
1t was the most harmonious thing | ever
knew OF. regarded it as 4 great sue
cess.
SO you can see, Henry, the kind of a
tooter I had, and that is partly Willy |
sometimes spell words eroneously if the
| ink has been froZe.