The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-10-09
AS TO THE CHILDREN.
Bill Arm Is Interested In School. Things
Around Home Which People Should
Look After.

the very lowest price, AM 9o VIC G4o9eo
the contract. AL that money to keep
the children warm. We have just been
bled to the bone to get our new build
ing ready, and dident think much about
how it was to be fired up, and now
comes another big expense. 1t is all
for the children, and they don't care a
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. I am glad. they don't |
wouldn't have mine to know how much
7 am troubled. It seems to me but
little while since I paid about 5000 for
taxes, and now here it is again. Town
taxes, S119; ''pay by the 18th or I'll levy
on you," says the marshal. If you owe
the merchant you can put him off, but
the marshal is going to have your mo-
ney, whether you have got it or not.
Nothing certain but death and taxes.
In a month more the state and county
will want another 500. wish I was
poor and dident have anything to tax.
No don't either, but if I was poor l
would take comfort in lodging taxes.
tt is free school is not free to me, but it
is TO the poor. If was poor man I
would vote for fine public school build
ings, and fine courthouse, and big
tax to work the roads. I would vote
for iron bridges across the rivers. I
would vote for county bonds and city
bonds to raise lots of money, and have
every big road macadamized, and have
good school in every militia district.
If was a right poor man and was
envious of the rich I'd vote for every
thing that would tax him, and that
would improve the condition Of the
people. 1t is the strangest thing in the
world that every negro and most every
poor white man will vote against all
progress; all improvements. The man
who worked hardest against building
a schoolhouse in Rome was liable for
only IS cents Of the cost. I gave him
half a dollar and told him to hush, and
he hushed. The poor people have no
reason to abuse the rich. The rich k. ep
up the government and the courts, and
bridges, and protect society, and make
life and property secure. One-tenth of
cthe people pay nine-tenths Of the taxes.
That shows very unequal distribution
of wealth, but there is some good in
every bad, and the good in this case is
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
Pm afraid they would be scared to
travel on pike. They would go round
it for awhile, certain. There are five
miles between town and my farm that
wore everything out in two winters.
Long red hills and mud hollows, and
deep ruts and turn outs, and gullies
that were awful close in dark nights,
and streams that We're dangerous in
swollen waters.
It is unpleasant even now to recall
the mishaps and breakdowns and mar
row escapes that beset US on that oft
frequented road. How often and how
anXiously would the good mother 60 to
the door and look into the gathering
darkness for her belated children when
they were belated. How glad to hear
the cheerful song they always sung as
the tired team rose over the hill that
overlooked our home
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 ard
years to come. The county won't fix
it, nor charter anybody else to fix it.
In Kentucky you pay nickle every
five miles to roll sweetly over a pike,
but our people would think it south
ern outrage. Twenty miles over a
smooth, level, rock-bottomed road for
- cents. Three bales Of cotton is
good load for two mules from Fair
mount, and it takes all day to make it.
Six bales could be hauled on pike and
with less strain on the team. Twenty
cents toll would save two days team
ing. Just think of it farmers Of Fair
mount and Pine Log, and all along the
line. Don't you think your alliances
can find employment here? Is this not
something better than politics? Ken
tucky has these pike roads everywhere,
and so has Tennessee. Then, why not
Georgia? What will NIr. 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 far
mers contented. I rode over one in
Tennessee with farmer boy for twcn-
ty miles, and we made it in two hours
and half. He Dragged all the way on
his colts 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 no more pitiful spectacle than
a heavy-loaded wagon broken down in
mud hole ten or twenty miles from
home and q cold winter rain meander-
ing around. The wagon has to be un-
loaded, the broken wheel taken off the
spindle. Somehow or other the old
man gets it to blacksmith shop some