The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-10-31
BILL ARP.
he tells of His Boyhood and Its Trials
atlanta Constitution.

atlanta Constitution.
wish VAS a boy and had as much
mafi's sense as I have got now. 1tmakes
me right sad to see Carl ana his SCHOOL
mates plotting and planning for their
Saturday frolics. want to go with
them, but can't. I see them cleaning
out their guns and loading up their shells
and patting the pointer dog and talking
SO merrily about the birds they are going
to kill, but can't 60. I want to climb a
walnut tree and shake the limbs and hear
the music of the walnuts rattling down.
/ want to go chestnut hunting and cut off
the top limbs with hatchet or if the
trees are large and tall show my skill in
knocking the burrs down with sticks as [
used to do on the old academy hill. We
boys used 10 take our bundle of sticks
with us to school and hide them under
the house until playtime. I want to go
'possum hunting and hear the music of
the dogs on the track and the welcome
bark when they had treed one OF the sui.
ky varmints up a 'simmon tree, or a
black gum or under a clay root. What
glorious frolic it was to cut him down or
dig him out, and then split stick for his
curly tail and shoulder him, and move on
for apother victim. want to 60 coon
hunting and see the fight. want to 60
rabbit hunting in the snow. I want to
climb muscadine vine a6a hunt for
black haws and May pops. I want to 60
to the mill and run horse race back and
cry "school butter" as l pass the country
school house on the way. Then the boys
would lay for US the next time and
surround us and attack us with sticks and
rocks and thrash poles and the way We
ran the gauntlet was thrilling. [ think
of all these youthful frolics when SEQ
these boys start out and want to go, but
can't, I'm too old, my times out, l
couldn't keep up. The spirit is willing
but the flesh is weak, very weak. 1t
makes me puff and blow to run or fox trot
hundred yards now. My legs are over
loaded with corporcsity but my arms are
all right. I can chop wood on a
wager with most any young man and win
it.
I was looking at the races at Piedmont
yesterday and it carried ne back to the
good old times when we boys used to
mount our nags aud ponies and slip down
the Covington road to the race tracks
not your round course nor an oval, but
two long straight parallel tracks about ten
feet apart and the bushes cut away like
the right of way on q railroad. From
long use the tracks had worn into two
little narrow paths, and the horses had
nothing to do but keep them. We al
ways rode bareback, and it made good
riders ofus. 1t was rough young life in
those days-rougher than it is now, for
we didn't wear shoes much, nor coats, nor
undershirts, nor drawers. and homemade
cap or seaIskin cap would last two or
three years, and then be handed down to
the next boy. Sore toes and stonebruises
and burrs in the feet or splinters in the
fingers were common to every boy, for
there was no aristocracy then. Three
wards of nankeon and shirt and pair
of gallusse sst school boy up pretty
we'll for summer, and suit of country
Jeans and pair of shoes was mighty fine
for winter. Our mother cut our garments
aud made them, and it didn't cost more
than FIVE dollars year for boy, all told.
But now it takes about three suits q year
of store clothes for the boys. Then there
are ten dollars more for hats and shoes.
And there ara collars and cuffs and
crayats and handkerchiefs and gloves and
gold buttons and so forth. I went into a
store in Atlanta yesterday to buy me q
coat and young man measured me and
got out coat and I put it on and he said
it fit me beautifully, and I said it didn't
and he said it was not the fault of the
coat but my shoulders were awkwardly
built. asked him if he thought I wss
deformed, and he said no, not exactly de.
formed, but out of the proportion, aud so
I departed those coasts. tried another
store. aud they jerked me into bobteil
cutaway, and said it was just splendid I
looked so robby and genteel. I told him
wanted a frock coat-a black cloth
frock coat and he curled up his lip and
said that nobody but lawyers and preach.
ers wore them now, and they didn't have
my size. So I departed those coasts and
kept on trying until I got whatI wanted,
but had to have the sleeves cut of a little
to suit my arms. Mrs. Arp told me to
buy her hat-s black velvet hat with
bright, modest trimming, and 80 I crowd
ed in among the women and told what
wanted. They sized me up pretty quick
aud sized my pocket-book, and showed
me hat that l thought would do, and
asked me S18 for it. They hurt my feel
| ings and I departed those coasts. A
friend met me and I asked him if such
things had gone up that way on account
of the Exposition, and he said he reckon
ed not, and took me to another place
where the same hat or another one just
like it, was offered for 50, aud as didn't
think it prudent to go home without the
hat, / bought it. It looked like black
velvet hat to me, but when I got it home
it had changed to bottle green, which
thought made it all the prettier, but my
wife said no-that black would match s
dress of any color, but green wouldn't
And so had to take it back and change
it, and now everything is calm ane
serene. 1t has been long time since sht
had nine dollar hat, and it does lool
D