The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-11-20
BILL ARP TELLS OF His BOYHoOD
And the Happy Days that are Gone
Now Forever

NOW Forever
Atlanta Constitution.
wish I was boy and had as much
mans sense as have got now. It
makes me right sad to see Carl and his
schoolmates plotting and planning for
their Saturday frolics. I want to go
with them, but I can't. l see them
cleaning out their guns and loading
up their shells, and patting the point-
er dog and talking so merrily about
the birds they are going to kill, but
can't go. I want to climb walnut
tree and shake the limbs and hear the
music of the walnuts rafting down.
I want to go chestnut hunting and cut
off the top limbs with hatchet, or, if
the trees are large and tai, show my
skill in knocking the burrs down with
sticks as used to do on the old acad-
emy hill. We boys used to take our
bundle of sticks with Us to school and
hide them under the house until play
time. I wart to 60 'possum hunting
and hear the music of the dogs on tie
track and the welcome bark when
they had treed one Of the dusky var
miuts up 'simmon tree or black
gum or under clay root. What a
glorious frolic it was to cut. him down
or Gig him out, and then split a stick
for his curly tail and shoulder him and
move on for another victin. I V4r.1
to go coon hunting and see the fant.
want to go rabbit hunting in the
snow. I want to climb Inuscadine
vine and hunt for black haws and May
pops. | want to go to the mill and
run horse race back and cry school
butter" IS 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 thrill
ing. I think of all these youthful
frolics when see these boys start out,
and want to go, but I can't; Pm too
old; my times out; l couldn't keep
up. The S! irit is willing but the flesh
is weak, very weak. Itmakes me puff
and blow to run or fox trot a hundred
!. yards now. Ny gs are overloaded
with corporosiJ !, but my arms are all
} right. I can chop wood on a wager
. with most any man, and win it.
I was looking at the races at Pied
mont yesterday, and it carried me
back to the good old times when we
boys used to mount our nags and
, ponies and slip dowa the Covington
. road to the race etracks-not your round
course nor an oval, but two long
, straight parallel tracks about ten feet
| apart, and the bushes cut away like
, the ri ght of way on a railroad. From
| long use the tracks had worn into two
little narrow paths, and the horses had
t nothing to do but keep them. We,
!, always rode bareback, and it ma
: good riders of US. It was
e young life il. those DAYS LII
j. it. is-aow, forsvc didn't wear SHOES,
}. much,Sfor coats, nor undershlrts, nor
: drawers,>and hone made eapsor a
sealskiu cap would last two or three.
wears, and then be handed down to,
the next boy. Sore toes and stone
= bruises and burrs in the feet OR spin
~ - ters in the fingers were common to
4 every boy, for there was no aristocraey
- then. Three yards of nankeen and .
shirt and pair of galluses set school
bow up pretty we'll for summer, and q
lsuiJ of country jeans and a pair OF
( Shoes vas mighty fine for yieter-SSdF -SdF
r 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 d
5 year of store clothes for the boys.
; Then there are ten dollars more for
hats and shoes. And there are collars
and cuffs and cravats and handker-
chiefs and gloves and gold buttons
aud so forth went into a store in
Atlanta Yesterday TO buy me coat,
and young man measured me and
: got out coat, and put it on, and he
I said it fit me beautifully, and said it
5 didn't, and he said it was not the fault
i of the coat, but my shoulders were
awkwa,dly built. I asked him if he
> thought I was deformed, and be said
10, not exactly deforme2- but out of
the proportion, ard so I departed those
y coasts. I tried another store, and
: they jerked me into q bobtail cuta-
: way, and said it was just splendid, I
: looked so nobby and genteel. | told
. him wanted frock coat-a black
cloth frock coat, and he curled up his
lip aud said that nobody but lawyers
aud preachers wore them now, and
they didn't have my size. So de-
parted those coasts and kept on try,
L inc until | got what l wanted, but had
10 have the sleeves cut Oft a little to
suit my arms. Mrs. Arp told me to
buy her hat-a black velvet hat
e With blight, modest trimming, and so
/, l crowded in among the women, and
. told them what I wanted. They sized
> me up pretty quick, and sized my
e pocSetbook, and showed ME ha.
q that thought would do, and asked
.e me- SlS for it. They hurt my feelings
IL anE departed those coasts. a friend
:. raet me and l asked him ifsuch uhings
u had gone I'D that way on account OF
u the EXPOSITION, and he said he reck-
d oned not, and took me to another
II place, where the same hat, or another
Il one lust like it. was oiersd Tor 50, and
u as didn't think it prudent to so home
o without the haS, ! boughtit. 1t looked
% ike black velvet hat to me, but
l when I got it home it had changed to
bottle green, which thought made
e it all the prettier, but my wife said no,
q q that black would match 6 dress OF any
u color. but green would not. And SO |
e had to take it back and change 1t, and
y now everything is calm and serene. 1t
has been long time since she had a
$ 80 hat, and it does LOOK extray&gant,
/ but she says maybe it is the last one
; that 1 will ever buy for her. tor her
L heart has been futterirs very strange
of late. I told her that niue had too-
l. Il .,ct II. ~, :,