The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-06-20
A Trip to Charleston.
Ep1roRs ISrELL1oEScER l wish

and pleasures of Mr.. l.. p. Smith 5
excursion to Charleston last week.
The Ncws and Courier was compli
mentary of us, justly SO of course.
and there is no possible reason why
we may not treat Charleston with the
same courtesy, and at the same time
place on file our sense of obligation to
Mr.. Smith, assisted by Mr.. r. T,
Smith, himself an experienced rail
road man, for his constant watchful-
ness for our comfort and all possible
enjoyment, from start to finish. 1t is
big job to handle successfully a
party Of five hundred excursionists
when it is dry and dusty and hot, cs-
pecially so when the haul is long
one, but Mr.. Smith did it, and this
trip adds another and bigger and
brighter feather to his cap Of popu-
larity. While the behavior Of some Of
the men was not the best, still it is
not claimed for men that all of them
are saints, yet we are sure that all the
ladies who went along are angels.
Everything considered, the behavior
was very good, and, so far as I know,
no arrests were made. These annual
excursions are boon to the nontrav-
elling population in town and country,
enabling them to 60 on summer out
ing at paltry cost, and they are bound
to grow>in public favor. Our train
was made up of eight coaches and a
baggage car, the eighth coach being
added at Columbia to clear the aislcs.
It was found necessary to leave be-
hind large parties of volunteers from
Greenwood and Newberry. The run
from Columbia over the Coast Line as
far as Sumter was made in the cool Of
the evening, and was very pleasant,
affording such as had never been over
the route the opportunity to enjoy
the alternating survey Of cypress
swamp and well-kept farms, the land
scape being absolutely level for miles
and miles. The farm of Mr.. j. A.
Aycock, at Wedgefcld, was indeed an
inspiring spectacle. From the road
could be seen in one body seven hun
dred acres in the highest state of cul-
tivation, and from this seven hundred
acres Mr.. Aycock has in one year
gathered seven hundred bales of cot
ton. He is North Carolinian, and
bought this land just after the war at
four dollars per acre, and by the in
tensive system of fertilization he has
made it worth fifty dollars an acre.
One rarely sees a horse hitched to a
plow down there, the rule being mules
and steers. On one farm just below
Columbia ten convicts, in bunch,
were seen ploughing, each driving a
mule.
Just before reaching Charleston at
IL clock at night one of the passen-
gers, Jim Broyles, of the Fork, l
think it was, stuck his head out and
yelled ''herc's the ocean, and in
stantly, since old ocean was what
many were "a gwine fer to see, the
windows of that coach were filled with
eager eyes peering into nothing but
the ghostliness of interminable woods.
They were sold.
The time in the city was fully occu-
pied with going to Sullivan's Island,
the excursion around the harbor,
strolling through the market, the big
game of baseball. which was some
thing OF a revelation to the amateurs
in the crowd, and ride to Magnolia
Cemetery. Then, too, crowds would
gather about and discuss places of Co.
lonial and Revolutionary interest.
The numerous points all around, made
memorable for all time by Carolina's S
sons in the magnificent defense of the
old Getty by the sea in the late war,
were revcrently gazcd upon. Charles
ton is rich in cnnobling memories all
the way from the humble beginning at
Oyster Point, and though she is pos
sibly behind her sister cities OF the
South in matters of commercial enter
prise, yet what with the devastations
Of storms, Of wars, and winds, and
waves, and earthquakes and flames,
she holds, and is destined to hold her
prestige as the metropolis of the South
Atlantic States. u.
Oconcc County.