The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1886-04-21
Go UP Hea '.
Some Tall South Carolina Yarns gpan by
the Detroit Free Press.

croWu arOund the stove
in =. hotel in w. Va, "you fellows
have been telling some big tales
here tonight, but you just ought
to go down to South Carolina and
hear them spin'em; why they take
all the breath out of Il man. Just
after Sherman went through they
used to tell big war tales about
burnings, and skirmishing, and SO
on, but they've quit that now, and
ali the lies are very ~peaccablc ones.
When | was down there two years
ago, II night | was at Florence,
and the fellows were all waiting
for the Columbia express, and the
way they did spin the yarns to kill
time was Il caution"
"Unclc Bill" said one Of the
group, "if you don't mind, tell us
n of those stories"
"Wcll," said the old man, who in
fact loved to draw the long bow, 81
don't care if | do. In the first
place YOU must know that down
there tho people aint particular
about the dollars as they are up
here; Charleston man would
rather work for fifty cents a day,
and have his joke, than gcta dollar
in Il dry way. AS | was going on
there was onc in that crowd that
could Quite all the rcst Of us put
together. He was telling about
kcrShaw County COWS; they were
so big that II of them supplied II
whole township. They MIXED
with Il steam mixer, and ram ii in
4 big stone tank, and then every
man in the ncighborhoOd could
connect his house with it, Just like
your house is with the watcrworks.
Folks down there don't drink much
whiSkcy-thcy drink milk and wa
ter more than onc-third of the time.
But that story was nothing to the
story of the Sumter snakes. Down
about SaltCrStoWn they killed one,
and he a so big that the niggcrs
cut him up in rings just like they
would Il watermelon, cleaned out
the hide, sat it up on end, built Il
roof over it, and they had Il house
50 close that cold couldn't get in.
"And talking about cold, that re-
minds me; they have pretty cold
weather down there sometimes.
About six years ago Il blizzard
came along n night and blew all
the fire out of Il farmhouse chin
ncy; the old man waited until the
wind went down, and he built it
up again with lightwoOd knots.
After while the wind camc roar
ing along again, and went rushing
down the chimney. The wind
went down and the fire went up.
nnfl fInN- hal - f,,Ia. IL A..
tusSclcd and tuSslcd, when all of Il
sudden there came II big lump of
fire down ON the hearth, frozen
like 4 rock. The farmer picked it
up, and put it up on the shelf, and
thawcd it out the next morning to
BALD another fir" with. The fell
low said an Edgcficld editor was
responsible for this lie.
"rhc cold down there doesn't
keep potatoes from growing,
though. They've II breed of pota-
toe in South Carolina that grows
SO big that they don't plant but one
Sprout; that makes one potato,
which is large enough to last !.
family all winter. They never dig
EN-; just scrapc the dirt Off the
top, cut off as much as they want,
and cover it up again. They never
can bring those sort Of potatoes to
West Vagina. The reasons they
grow so big and so fast that they
burst the railroad cars open and
fall out ON the track and obstruct
passage for hours. Mules are worn
out things to lie about, nut | don't
care, they have kicking mules
down there, too; and one thing
iunny about south Carolina mules
is, they never die; only one was
ever known t" die in that whole
country, and Il butcher at Camden
Killed him and sold him for beef.
y colonel bought Il shank, and
made ON soup out offt, but the
first mouthiul he took-thc soop,
NINA You, not the shank-projcctcd
nm out OF II tWo-story window, and
he dld not comc to himself in three