The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-06-21
BILL ARP.
He is Tired of BEING Made q Target, and
Calls q Halt.
-itlanta Constitution.

Judge Clark had to rise and explain.
The young people had engaged o hall
wherein to have a little dance, and it
seems somebody who didn't approve of
the business filed a bill of Injunction,
which came up for hearing before his
honor. Now the Judge Is scholar and
has long perused and enjoyed tae gifted
poets, and after hearing argument he re-
fused the injunction, and calling to mind
the beautiful lines of Byron he carelessly
said: son with the dance let joy be un'
confined p All of this got into the pa
pers, of course, and the Judge received so
many letters from his good brethren in
the Church that he had to rise and ex-
plain in very pretty letter to the press.
1t seems that I and my family are in a
dancing scrape and I wish that I could
get out of it as pleasantly as did his
honor. Ours occurred nearly FIVE years
ago and ought to be barred by the statute
of intimations, but ever and anon ne hear
of it from far away like the sound of a
tinkling cymbal, and my Christian
friends feel constrained to write me or
send the papers that tell about it. 1t
wasn't much of an affair, but grows big
ger and bigger IS the years roll on. I
have recently received the Dal1v Neaos,
which q kind lady sent with the dancing
paragraph marked, as usual. II was in
sermon preached there few days ago
by the Rev. George Stewart, the partner
of Sam Jones in missionary work, and in
it hs said
A decoy duck is thing that proposes
to be q duck and is not ducr. The
devil decoys by painted membe: of the
Church that has not life. The dsvil can
tie them anywhere.
Here he related how he was caught by
one of these decoys. He was invited to
q birthday party given at the home of a
Presbyterian elder. The Presbyterian
pastor went with him. They had good
supper and pleasant evening and left at
10 o'clock. The next morning ahe 1T.
lanta Constitution had glowing account
of it and went on to say that at IL
o'clock the dining room was cleared and
from midnight to day the jolly party
tripped the light fantastic, and among
those present appeared the names ofRev.
George Stewart and DR.. Hillhouso.
I haven't got over that smirch yet.
Letters and postal cards poured in say
ing: "George Stewart, what is the matter
With you"
Somehow or somehow else whenever
and wherever the Rev. Mr.. Stewart tells
that in his sermons it gets out thst I am
the duck-the decoy-and hesr of it
from anxious friends. If he told it as a
fable or an allegory and named nc names
I wouldn't care. 1t is right good fable
and there was enough foundation in fact
for him to build on, and he built. It is
now copyrighted and stereotyped.
The facts are that when one of oar boys
attained his majority in 1888 We did give
him birthday party, and he invited his
young friends and we invited some of
ours who were older, and among them
was our pastor, Mr.. Hillhouse. 1t was
goodly com pany of good people who were
we'll raised and we'll hammered. Rev.
Mr.. Stewart was not invited, but some
how he came with our preacher ind re-
ceived cordial welcome. He vas not
decoyed hither by any of us. Ny wife
and daughters had provided bountiful
feast. There was big, fat turkey COB
bier at each end of the long table and all
the space between was filled vita good
things. Mr.. Stewart enjoyed it, l know,
and was given place of honor and he
partook most heartily and dispenaed his
wit and his wisdom with abundanG free
dom. Our pastor enjoyed it, to-, and
joined in the general hilsrity. There
were none to modest or make them afraid.
About IL o'clock, after the fesst was
over, Mr.. Hillhouse said to my wife that
he had reason to suppose that the young
folks had planned little dance, to which
he had no personal objection, but as
many good people had q different opin-
ion, and as he was minister, it would
be better for him to retire. And so he
did retire and took Mr.. Stewarf with
him.
The young people did have dance
and we all enjoyed it, especially my wife,
who was raised that way, but now, alas,
can only look on aud pat her little foot
to the music. The festivities closed 8
little after midnight and we SAID our
prayers and went to bed.
This is all of it that I know. TIE edi.
tors of the Constitution have searched in
vain to find any mention of the party in
their "next morning" paper or any other
paper, and hsw it got out on Mr.. Stewart
We are at loss to know. It never got
out on Mr.. Hillhouse, nor did anybody
ever call him to account in letters or
postal cards.
We are all truly sorry that Mr.. Stewart
got smirched at our house and as be
seems to have never recovered from it,
will do all he can to relieve him.
"Touch not mine anointed and Go my
prophets no harm," is cardinal n,ext at
our house. Certainly we had no inten-
ton to decoy or to smirch him, and hope
he will have charity and cease making US
a target. "He that hath no charity is as
sounding brass and tinkling cynlbal."
That is the cymbal that we have heard
ever and auon from Roanoke, Va, to
Dallas, Texas, and its disturbs our family
tranquility for it does not seem an,iable