The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-07-12
SARGE PLUNKET.
The Old Man has Been Laying by his crop
This Week.
From the Atlanta Constitution.

From the Atlanta Constitution.
! got home from short run down
to the coast on Monday last, and
at once rolled up my sleeves to clay
by"
I had been laying of for good long
while to go with Walter Culver, Of
West Eid, iii visit to lis plantation
on an island of from Brunswick, and
SO last week I took run down there.
I studied this Island resort Of Mr..
Culver's while I admired it's many
beauties in the way Of sea shells and
ocean birds. The delicate tints Of the
drifted sea shells We'd in beauty with
the pretty plumage Of the birds among
tie iiioss-draped live oaks. These
things are charming to the eye, but it
is Of useful rather than pleasing things
I wish to speak.
When Mr.. Culver invested in this
island and after much trouble found d
family to settle there, it was his in
intention to put upon the market d
peculiar water that gushes out from
among the hills of sea. shells, little
thinking that the good wife Of this
Rip Van Winkle sort Of old fellow
whom be had settled there would start
"a little industry that might be sug-
gestive to all the southern country
silk culture is what [ mean. The good
lady upon the place, who is French,
and not word of United States. can
she or her old man utter, conceived
the idea Of planting a grove Of mul-
berry trees and going into the culture
Of the silk worm on a small scale. She
was sd successful With her experiment
shat Mr.. Culver became interested and
now the good woman is the superin-
tendent over score Of hands and a
lucrative business. I have not the
knowledge, and my stay was too short
to 20 into details on this silk worm
culture, but from the quantity and
quality of the silk thread shown to me
by this lady I am convinced that many
southern women might engage in it
with profit to themselves and the
building up of another industry for
our section.
The husband Of this enterprisipg
French woman is just the sort Of fel-
low to take things easy and study out
the easiest ways Of living on an island
plantation. One of his successes in
this way was so unusual and seeming
ly so unnatural that I make mention
Of it here. Fishing is the only 'work"
that this old fellow will deign to soil
his hands with, and he has perfected
methods that makes this "work' re-
lieved of all the labor attached 10 it:
He might be called an alligator charm
er, think, so completely has he
control over number of them and so
happily has he turned them into things
of usefulness. To get out Of the fa-
tigue Of padding his canoe was a study
to the old man. After much thought
and plenty of leisure he had raised
ahdtamed and trained a number Of
alligators to work in yoke as well as
you ever saw oxen work. He has a
pole attached to all his boat and at the
end is yoke to fit the alligators'
necks, with keys and bows the same
as in working oxen; when he wishes
to travel in these boats he bitches up
his "gators'' with as much unconcern
as ever bridled OK was hitched.
Sometimes he works one yoke, some
times two, but in our ride with him,
as be had to use his largest boat, for
there were seven Of us, he. yoked up
eight couples Of the reptiles and they
carried us over the water as swiftly
and as bidding to the touch of the
reins as ever the tallyhos went over the
the asphalt Of Peachtree street. l
wish the old fellow had been industri-
Gus enough and English enough to
have told me all about the raising and
training of these "gators,' but he
was not, and SO I will leave it to the
Imagination to figure it out. Anyhow
it is great success, and. could have
only accomplished by man constitu-
tionally opposed to labor himself and
perfectly content to rest with patient
resolve to solve the problem.
This old mans ingenuity in secur-
ing a mode of locomotion reminds me
of a sight I saw the other day and of
the tendency of the age to depart from
the old way of travel. The bicycle is
in this. / have been watching the
steady advance of this machine. The
fat man, the lean man, the stout
man, the long man, all sorts Of men
and the girls are riding these ma
chimes. 1 studied a right smart to
figure out how the girls were going to
straddle these bicycles Inever once
thought of its being rode anyway but
a-straddle, but it has been accom-
plished, and / must say that the girls
have safer and just as nice manner of
taking ride as the old way Of horse
back and side saddle. But what 1
started to tell was the mannerin which
I saw an old soldier who had lost both
his legs at Chickamauga sailing along
on one of these bicycles. You may
think it strange that a man with nci-
thnr 1nr could rido .nnn of these ma