The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-01-10
The Old Rail Fence.


around farms, usurping the place of the
old rail fence, destroys half of the pleas
ure. of farming. There is something
about the old rail fence that is real COM
Portable, and the barbed wire fence is
forbidding, cold, repulsive. Until you
come to think of it, there does not seem
as Though there was great deal Of solid
comfort in rail fence, but there is. Did
you ever see two old farmers leaning
against rail fence, whiting and talking
politics or horse trade for hours togeth.
er? They are more comfortable, and
rest more than if they were occupying
the softest sofa, or the best stuffed arm.
chair in the world. There are so many
shapes q man can get into, to rest, about
rail fence. First the farmer will fold
his arms aud rest them on the top rail,
and lean his breast on the fence, and talk
for half an hour, until his legs are tired,
and then he will step one foot upon the
second rail from the bottom, and stand
and whittle for half an hour, until the
top rail is as polished as piece of ma
hogany. Then he will change feet and
lean one elbow on the second rail from
the top, and sharpen his knife on his
boot, and talk for half an hour about how
he is going to pay the mortgage on his
farm next year. After that position be.
comes irksome he will turn his, back to the
fence, stand on his heels, and place his
two elbows on the top rail, and lean
against the fence, and for half an hour
he will tell about how the old mare that
he Was trying to trade of, cleaned out all
the teams on the road coming back from
the celebration at town, after the fire.
works on the 4th, and how, if be wasn't
fixed just as he is, and wanted the twenty
dollars boot money to send Nathan off to
the select school, there is no man on
earth that could buy that mare. Then
he will get tired and stand around side.
ways, put his left arm upon the fence,
and begin to whittle again, and swear the
man that runs the cheese factory down at
the corner is skinning us farmers out Of
our eye.teeth. Withou! going into details
as to ninety-nine other combinations by
which 8 farmer can rest on, about or
against a rail fence, it may not 1e out of
place to speak of sitting on top of
fence. The farmers, after trying several
positions, will instinctively climb up the
fence and rest on the top rail, their feet
resting on the third rail from the top,
which is always laid with projection
enough to make good footing, and an
hour will pass as the fellows talk of the
times when they settled in the country,
and the hardships they have endured,
and how the children have grown up and
gone away, and the conversation will
drift in sleep channel, and the sun will
begin to sink in the west, and the horny
handed sons of toll will suddenly remem-
ber. that the chores are to be done, and.
with Goodnight, Lige," and q 'Drop
around again tomorrow, IAe," they will
separate and one will take milk pail
and one.legged stool and go towards the
lot where the COWS have come home,
while the other will go across the road to
his barn and throw down some hay for
the horses, and they will both go to bed
at eight o'clock as tired as though. they
had been moving. But they had
splendid easy visit on the old rail fence.
Peck.