The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-12-04
Bill Arp.
TELLS OF HIS BoYHOoD AND ITS
TRIALS.

TRIALS.
Iwish was boy and had as much
mans sense as have got now. 1t
makes me right sad to see Carl and his
schoolmates plotting and planning for
their Saturday frolics. I want to 60
with them, but 1 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 1 can't
60. want to climb walnut tree and
shake the limbs and hear the music of
the walnuts rattling down. 1 want to
20 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 I used to do on the old academy hill.
We boys used to take our bundle O.
sticks with us to school and hide them
under the house until playtime. I
want to 60 'possum hunting and hear
the music of the dogs on the track and
the welcome bark when they had treed
one of the dusky varmints up a sim.
mon tree or black gum or under a
clay root. What a 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
another victim. I want to 60 coon
hunting and see the fight. 1 want to
60 rabbit hunting in the snow. l
want to climb muscadine vine and
hunt for black haws and May pops. l
want to go to the mill and run horse
race back and cry "school butter" as l
pass the country school house Oh the
way. Then the boys would lay fer us
the next time and surround US and at
tack us with sticks and rocks and trash
poles and the way we ran the gauntlet
was thrilling. I think of all these
youthful frolics when see these boys
start out and 1 want to go, but can't,
I'm too old, my times out, I 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 corporosity but my arms
are all right. I can chop wood on
wager with most any man and win it.
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 home
made cap or sealskin 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 aristoc-
racy then. Three yards of nankeen
and o shirt and pair Of galluses set a
school boy up pretty we'll for summer,
and suit of country jeans and q pair
of shoes was mighty fine for winter.
Our mothers cut our garments and
made them and it didn't cost more
than five dollars a year for boy, all
told. But now it takes about three
suits a year of store clothes for the
boys. Then there are ten dollars more
for hats and shoes. And there are COL
lars and cuffs and cravats and hand.
kerchiefs and gloves and gold buttons
and so forth. I went into store in
Atlanta yesterday to buy me coat
and a young man measured me and
got out coat and put it on and he
said it fit me beautifully and I said 1t
didn't and he said it was not the fault
of the coat but my shoulders were
awkwardly built. I asked him if he
thought was deformed, and he said
no, not exactly deformed, but out of
the proportion, and so departed those
coasts. tried another store, and they
ierked me into bobtail cutaway, and
said it was just splendid, I looked so
nobby and genteel. told him 1 want
ed 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
what I wanted but had to have the
sleeves cut off little to suit my arms.
atlanta Constitution.
READ AND RENIEMBER.-Mrs. Whit
nov bac we'll said that the great daily