The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-10-10

An OPEN LETTER FROM BILL ARP
no DIR. 1LEXANDEK.
Times When They Were School Boys-Arp
Tells About How Close Friends They
Were and Are Yet-Etc.
To my old friend DR.. Alexander.-De

me TO call yOu-tue olu i''"'ii'''h
name, Jim Alex and love
to hear you call me Bill rs you ana Ill
the long ago when we were boys. We are
not as notable as Toonbs and Stephens, but
they called each other Bob and Alex be-
cause they began that way, and the names
grew dearer as they receded from their
youth Jim is a good name anyhow and
| do believe there is something in 1t. There
were five presidents named jim, and sever
al governors and all the Jims we knew at
school were boys of character-strong i'll
force and will, though not overly pious.
You remember Jim Wilson and Jim Malt
bic and Jim Craig and Jim Smith and Dls
Jim Dunlap, who still lives as the typical
son of old Gwinnett. He was older than
our set, but we looked up to HIM ana cOulu
always hear him before he came Ill sight.
lie was Il Jim dandy then and he IS yet.
/ know u nice lady, a preacher wife,
who Says she married her husband only pc
cause his name was Jim, and she still calls
him Mr.. Jim with conjugal JUNCTION. Jun
ought to be Il preacher $ name Tor St.
James was one of the twelve ana Mig
James gave us our version OF the sacred
scriptures.
1t was with mingled feelings of pleas
ure and sadness that l. read your late BIO
graphy in The Constitutional pleasure
because of the well-deserved tribute that
the writer paid You as time honofeo
citizen OF Atlanta, and TOR your long pro-
fessional service there. OF sadness be-
cause it reminded Inc how few of us there
are left and how seldom we meet to talk
over the rosy days of our childhood
Then | read today the charming Fox
hunting story of Joel Chandler Harris IN
Scribner, and that carried me back and re-
called the times when we too used to get
ND an occasional fox chase, and sometimes
80 deer hunting with the old-fashioned long
cared hounds, and run him for miles and
miles and never catch him. And how you
and | and Tom and half a dozen darkles
used to hunt coons on Shoal creek, and cut
down the trees and see the fight with the
dogs, and how we used to go digging IN
that same creek and shoot the fish by torch
light, and how we used to sein In Yellow
river and jump off the springboard at Mont
gomery' mill pond. We had as much good
fun, | reckon as Uncle Remus, even II we
never caught Il red fox with BlrdsonS dogs.
The world was very beautiful to us all
then. We had jolly companions, too
schoolmasters with whom we troilcked at
recess and at noon. Good gracious, how we
used to knock that town ball out OF sight
and play sweep stakes, and rolly hole ana
bull pen. How we used to pick chlnqua-
pins and top trees for chestnuts. How we
used to run foot races, and jump halt
harmon and turn summerSetS III the Sand-
Let's talk about the dear old times
and l and Tom. Are we an that are lett
of the boys we mingled with in our early
youth? Sad isn't it. We had scores of
playmates, but old Father Time has cut
them down. the old rascal. The Maitbries
and Wlnns ana Cralgs and Wilson's ana Ier-
rels and Shaklefords and oungs and Ram
hos, are all dead. And the boys who came
from abroad to the instltute-are there
any left but Tom Norwood? The
Lintons are all dead, L know; sam and
Il. Ina fyJ., 81 u sls
boys, and Ed and John Goulding and the
Holts. HlI except Thad, the mischieyous
rascal He is living yet in Alabama, not
far from Montgomery. DM ever tell You
that it was Thad and Jim Linton who stole
your fathers bee gum one night and got
stun& so bad they had to drop it and run
for their lives? The Hoyles are dead, TOO,
and the Allans-Thomps and Blll-What a
glorious fellow was Thompson Allan. Don
you remember how he licked Martin del
Gardo because Martin licked mef Martin
was a big boy and | was q little one, and
Thomps dared him to tackle boy OF his
size, and he tackled. / could just go on
and on and say dead, dead every time.
And all our teachers are dead. Dr. " IL
son and John Norton and Cargill and DR..
Patterson and McAlpine and John Gray
They were all good men: jim. don't you
remember Penelope McAlpine? What Il
sweet, pretty girl she was and how she was
my sweetheart, and one day when ION
Slleggs called her Penny-lope bounced
him and we tit and tore hair mazlng,
What makes everybody die, DIR. Jim-die
before they have seen their three-score
years and ten? Are there only three or
four in hundred who pass the Rublcon:
Can't you doctors do nothing! NO, reckon
not, for the doctors die. too. All the doc
tors we knew when we were boys are dead
and those boys who became doctors are all
dead but you, my friend May the good
Lord preserve you for many years to honor
your calling and help the suffering just
think how many have gone to JOIN their
patients in the spirit land. DR. Gordon,
who so nobly braved the yellow fever in
Savannah, and Drs. VIM and Maltbie and
Craig and Wilson and Alexander ana my
brother. Dear, good, gentle Tom wilson.
How we all loved him. He caught me
aud Bill Matbie and Overton Young play,
ing old sledge in q gully one day and talked
to us kindly, but never told on-us, and We
promised to quit but dident And don't
YOU remember that Jim Craig had one short
forefinger? One day while one of the boys
was carelessly hacking on a log with lit
tle hatchet jim dared him to cut his I'm
ger off. and would slip it onto
the log while the Ratchet was raised and
pull it away quickly before it came down.
but he tried it once too often and lett
Joint of his finger on the log
What a big time you young doctors had
when Won were studying medicine, and had
TO hunt up your own stiffs and bon them
down for skeletons. l went out WITH you
MI one night to Redland graveyard and
helped TO DIG up IL negro and we heard
like the click of a gum lock, and
such Il stampede~l never was III before.
We left our shovels in the grave and the
little wagon III the bushes and never
running for quarter OF mile;
But we went back and reconnoitered and
found it WAS a false alarm and we got che
body and hauled it TO an old house in the
rear of DR.. WildmanS shop Another time
some of YOU went down to Monroe after
negro who was hung and he was cut up III
an old clubhouse on the park LOT You re
member that | bought that lot and moved
there lust after my marriage and when
my wife found out what was done there
she made me tear the old house down and
burn it I'D and even then the servants
heard the haunts all night long. My wife
has great confidence i'll me as q protector
from earthly foes, but when it comes TO
snirits of unjust men not made perfect
she is NOT so sure When house gets the
name of being haunted it diSturbs all te
male serenity and so | sold out and moved
to Rome, and we hadent been in our new
abode II week before Il naboring woman
came to see us and said, Folks used to say
that this house was haunted, but L reckon
Won Amt afeerd of haunts.'
And don't YOU remember when mesmer-
ism first came about and how you and your
Joc;or cousin. John Alexander used to
ctice on that little monkey of Il niger
lobe Russell, and could put him to sleep
in half a minute aud stra1ghten his arm