The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-03-01
Observations Of jackson Brown.
Grcenuillc Neivs.

come IOr Dis copy Vi Lue Oeul- w eehiy,
which he calls for about as regularly as
clock work. Jackson Brown is seventy
six years old, and nearly everybody in
Greenville knows him. a few questions
led him to talk about farming.
He has been farmer about sixty
years. When he began work here in
Greenville county on his fathers farm
cotton was 6ve cents a pound and corn
thirty.three cents bushel and the mar
ket place WAS Hamburg, hundred and
twenty miles away. When Jackson
Brown was twenty one those were the
prices and conditions and he went to
work for his father as a manager for fifth
of the yield of the fields. Later on be
received q third. When he married q
few years later he had thousand dol
lars in cash, made and saved by working
for the fifth and the third. he has sup
ported comfortably a large family OF
children and all his sons and daughters
are now taking care of themselves. He
owns 240 acres of land five miles out of
town and does not owe a dollar in the
world.
He says there is no business like farm.
ing and no better place for farming than
right here. He has tried it sixty years
aud ought to know. He has never asked
anybody to endorse for him, has never
been harrassed by debts or creditors and
is always the first man to hand in his
property for taxation to the auditor and
pay his taxes to the treasurer.
His face is ruddy and strong; he walks
into town FIVE miles and out FIVE miles
and hopes to live to eighty-6ve years.
Age has made him distrustful of horse,
riding or driving, but he trusts his own
legs, although he complains that at sew
enty six his knees are getting little
stiff.
There are two or three reasons why he
thinks farming here is the best business
man can be in, giving the surest profit
and the most comfortable life. He be
gao, under his fathers advice, with the
rule always to make his living at home
and to depend on cotton only for eur
plus. He has sold cotton at FIVE cents a
pound and at twenty cents pound, but
no matter what cotton was selling at he
never planted an acre in it until he had
provided for bread and meat and feed for
his stock for the year. When that was
secured, 80 far as human foresight could
secure it, be gave some land and labor to
cotton and every pound be sold of it was
profit. The thousands of pages in which
liens are recorded have never had
Jackson Browns name written on them as
lien giver.
He does not believe that Tillman or
national legislation or war or anything
else can make q farmer poor. He bss
been through them all, has abundance
for his simple needs and lives comforta.
bly,. Raising cotton to pay for food and
pay liens will, he thinks, ruin any farm
and any farmer and he has observed
scores and generations of them and in his
hard common sense way has traced out
cause and effect. He has sixteen sheep
and he dresses in homespun, woven from
the wool of bis own sheep. 1t does not
wear out, it keeps him warm, and the big
double blue jeans overcoat be wears,
spun, woven, cut aud sewed by his wife,
turns rain like rubber and he hardly paid
out dollar for it. Plenty of clothes,
plenty to eat, plenty of good land, some
money, good health and no debts is the
condition of Jackson Brown at seventy.
six and he asks no odds of anybody and
whatever happens is safe.
Jay Gould died between fifty and sixty
years old. He amassed between one and
two hundred millions of dollars. he
probably never had comfortable or hap
py day from the time be began to be
rich, he hated and feared and was hated
aud feared and lies dead in big marble
tomb which cost half q million dollars
Jackson Brown hates and fears nobody
He enjoys his life. he cloves" to plow,
be says, because he knows he plows well
and it is happiness to his heart to tramp
between the handles and watch the damp
earth turn up from the plow point just al
the right depth and in the right way
He has all the pride of a master and an
artist in it and is alive, strong, hearty,
hopeful and happy.
DeLesseps is eighty years old. he
dug the Suez canal, riches and decora-
tions have been beaped upon him by all
the kings of Europe and his name was
glorifed around the world. Now he is
in Jail to spend five years. term fol
bribery and is overwhelmed with shame
and ruin. James G. Blaine narrowly
missed being president of the United
States four times, but be died young
man in years compared to Jackson
Brown but far older in fact-a broken.
disappointed, diseased, miserable old man
leaving a great reputation and q mil
lion dollars behind him. Jim Fisk, the
Vsnderbits, Rufus Hatch, Grant, Sher
man-scores and hundreds of men ir
this country and in other countries, have
risen, rolled in riches and died ruined
and unhappy and with tarnished names
while Jackson Brown has been trampinf
cheeriIy between bis plow handles, promo
and happy il the proper lining of hi
furrows and turning of the fresh earth
watching his crops grow and gathering
them year by year, meeting trouble
when it came with stout and hopefu
heart, asking no more than to have hi
toll rewarded with comfortable compe
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