The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-10-09
BILL ARP
Talks about Things around Homo Which
People Should Look After.
At11nfn Constitution.


One thousand and ninety dollars for 9
heating apparatus for the school building
Mr.. Hunnicutt said that was the very
lowest price and 80 We closed the contract
All that money to keep the children warm
We have just been bled to the bone tc
get our new building ready, and didenl
think much about how it was to be fired
up, and now comes another big expense
It is all for the children, and they don't
care cent what it costs US. They don't
know how We have to turn and twist, and
plot and plan to keep up with expenses
and taxes. ] am glad they don't. ]
wouldent have mine to know how much
am troubled. 1t seems to me but lit
tie while since I paid about 5000 fol
taxes. and now here it is again. Town
taxes, Sl19; "pay by the 18th or I'll levy
on you," says the marshal. If you owe
the merchant you can put him oil, but the
marshal is going to have your money
whether you have got it or not. Nothing
certain but death and taxes. In month
more the State and County will want
another S100. I wish I was poor and
dident have anything to tax. No I don't
either, but if I was poor I would take
comfort in lodging taxes. This free
school is not free to me, but is free to the
poor. III was poor man l would vote
for fine public school buildings, and fine
courthouse, and big tax to work the
roads. I would vote for iron bridges
across the rivers. I would vote for coun-
ty bonds and city bonds to raise lots OF
money, and have every big road macada.
mized, and have good school in every
militia district. If was a right poor man
and was envious of the rich I'd vote for
everything that would tax him, aud that
would improve the condition of the peo-
pie. tits the strangest thing in the world
that every negro and most every poor
white man will vote against all progress ;
all improvement. The man who worked
hardest against building o schoolhouse is
liable for only forty-fve cents OF the cost.
T gave him halfa dollar and told him to
hush and he hushed. The poor people
have no reason to abuse the rich. The
rich keep up the government and the
courts and bridges, and protect society,
and make life and property secure. One
tenth of the people pay nine tenths of the
taxes. That shows very unequal dis
tribution ofwealth, but there is some good
in every bad, and the good in this case is
that the rich have to pay nearly all the
taxes, while the poor receive an equal
share of all public benefits. Our State
press is on the right line now. Good
roads and schools are bigger things than
politics: a United States Senator can't
give us either. Our people have endured
bad roads so long that I'm afraid they
would be scared to travel on pike.
They would 60 round it for awhile, GER
tain. There are FIVE miles between town
and my farm that wore everything out in
two winters. Long red hills and muddy
hollows, and deep ruts and turnouts, and
gullies that were awful close in dark
nights, and streams that we're dangerous
in swollen waters.
1t is unpleasant even now to recall the
mishaps and breakdowns and narrow es-
capes that beset US on that oft frequented
road. How often and how anxiously
would the good mother go to the door and
look into the gathering darkness for her
belated children when they we're belated.
How glad to hear the cheerful song they
always sung as the tired team rose over
the hill that overlooked our homo.
That five mile stretch is>the worst part
of the road to Fairmount, and it could be
made perfectly level by easy grading
around the hills and would be shorter
way. But I reckon it will be where it is
and no better for years and years to come.
The County won't fix it. nor charter any.
body else to fix it. In Kentucky you pay
q nickle every Eve miles to roll sweetly
over pike, but our people would think
it q Southern outrage. Twenty miles
over a smooth, level, rock bottomed road
for 20 cents. Three bales of cotton is q
good load for two mules from Fairmount,
and it takes all day to make it. Six bales
could be hauled on a turnpike, and with
less strain on the team. Twenty cents
toll would save two days teamiDg. just
think of it, farmers of Fairmount snd
Pine Log, and all along the line. Don't
you think your alliances can find EN-.
ployment here? Is this not something
better than politics? Kentucky has these
pike roads everywhere, and so has Ten
nessee. Then, why not Georgia? What
will. Mr.. Burge and Mr.. LeConte do about
it when they get to the legislature? What
will anybody do about it? Good, smooth
dry roads in the country will keep the
young farmers contented. I rode over
one in Tennessee with farmer boy for
twenty miles, and we made it in two hours
and half. He Dragged on his colts all
The way and was happy. They are not
happy when hauling cotton or wood over
our roads. They break down sometimes
and use cussory language. A bad road is
the nursery of profanity. There is not q
more pitiful sic ght than heavy.loaded
wagon broken down in mud hole ten or
twenty miles from home and cold win.
ter rain meandering around The wagon
has to be unloaded, the broken wheel to.
ken off the spindle. Somehow or other
the old man gets it to blacksmith shop
somewhere, while the boy shivers for hall
q day by the campfire. They travel in
wet clothes and mud and get back home
sometimes in the night, and would swear
off from farm life if they could. OF
course they would. Such things take
away the farmers boys spirit and be longs
for a brakesman's place on railroad
where he can ride high and dry at twenty
miles an hour, and take the chances o.
breaking lis neck.
Yes, the two best things for the farmer
are good roads and good schools, and they
can be had if the Alliance says so. Vote
for a tax large enough to secure good
teachers-Christian teachers who vii
give moral training, and lift the children
up to higher and more hopeful view Of
life. Moral training, good habits, good
principles, sre of more Importance thar
maps and figures, but let us all 60 along
together. A youth had better not learr
to write if be has no moral training To
keep him from forging 3 note. He hae
better know no bookkeeping if bis prin
ciples incline him to false entries ane
embezzlement. There is radical defec
in the public school system, especinlly il
the North, where teaching is au ice-clat
and ironclad business-all mind and NJ
heart. They have only 4 per cent of il
literacy, while the south averages p, bu
their convictions for crime outnumber;
ours FIVE to one, according to white pop
ulation.
We are proud of our pablic school il
| Cartersville because our teachers ueye