The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1890-10-22
Bill Arp.
[-4tla,eta Const;t.dton.l

building. Mr.. Hunnicut said that
was the very lowest price and so we
closed the contract. All that money
to keep tie children warm. We have
Just been bled to the bone to get our
new building ready, and didn't think
much about how it was to be fired
up, and now comes another big ex-
pense. 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. l
am glad they don't. I Wouldn't have
mine to know how much am
troubled. It seems to me but little
while since I paid about 5000 for tax
es, and now here it is again. Town
taxes, Sl19; ':pay by the 18th or II
/ levy on you, says the marshal. If
you owe the merchant you can put
him off, but the marshal is going to
have your money, whether you have
got it or not.-Nothing certain but
death and taxes. In a month more
the State and county will want anoth-
er 500. I wish 1 was poor and
didn't have anything to tax. No I
don't either, but if I was poor would
take comfort in lodging taxes.-This
free school is not free to me, but is
free to the poor. If I was a poor
man I would vote for fine public
school buildings, and a fine court
house, and big tax to work the
roads. l 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 macadam:zea, and have a good
school in every militia district. If I
was a right poor man and was en-
vious 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 Improvement. The
man who worked hardest against
building a school house is liable for
only forty-fve cents of the cost. I
gave him half dollar and told him
to hush and he hushed. The poor
people have no reason to abuse the
rich. The rich keep up the govern
ment 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 distribu-
ton OF wealth, 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 poll
tics. a United States Senator can't
give US either. Our people have en-
dured bad roads so long that I'm
afraid they would be scared to travel
on a pike. They would go round it
for awhile, certain.-There are FIVE
miles between town and my farm
that wore everything out in two win
ters. Long red hills and muddy hol-
lows, and deep ruts and tnrnouts,
and gullies that We're awful close in
dark nights, and streams that were
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 bow
anziously would the good mother go
to the door and look into the gather
ing 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 Paramount, aud 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 anybody else
to fix it. In Kentucky you pay a
nickle every FIVE miles to roll sweetly
over the pike, bat our people would
think it Southern outrage. Twenty
miles over smooth, level, rock-bct-
toned road for twenty cents. Three
bales of cotton is good load for two
mules from Paramount, 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 teaming. Just
think of it, farmers of Paramount 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
lucky has these pike roads every
where, and so has Tennessee. 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. [
rode over one in Tennessee with a
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