The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-09-05

HOOQS 20 CQelr CuSGOueTS, 1OE Ill Cual
day every respectable merchant went
to market twice a year and selected
their goods. When the season was
over, Vanderzee started out on his
tour to see and cultivate his customers
in their own towns. He was fine
talker, and I remember that one night
he stayed at my fathers house and
told us about that wreck and how he
was in the water on chicken coop for
seventeen hours, and at last swan two
miles to shore, and when he told Of the
cries and struggles of the women and
children, my mother kept her handker-
chief to her eyes and we children sob
bed with grief. Vanderzee had pc
culiar habit of humping flies from of
his pants while he was earnestly talk
ing to you. If a fly happened to light
on his knee his hand would slip eau
tiously forward, his middle finger cou-
chant, and as quick as thought he
would send that fly to purgatory. But
he never stopped talking moment.
The only sign that he knew what he
was doing was a twitch of the right
eye, when the thump was successful.
When Vanderzee came to town the
news soon spread around that the fly
thumper had come. The first time I
ever went to Charleston to buy goods,
old Van selected them for me, both in
kind and in quality. Our credit was
abundantly good, but hewould not let
me purchase more than he thought l
could sell. I respect his memory.
AS Judge Clark says, 1884 is long
time ago and it seems like We are now
living in another world. Those long
stage rides would kill us now, and
those long car rides to New York be-
fore sleepers were invented were just
awful. Sitting up in a seat all night
long with your head humping around
and your neck as timber as greasy
rag-the cars without easy springs
the roadbeds rough and the rails made
of bar iron and laid on stringers, and
it was click, click, click as the wheels
rolled over every joint. Judge Clark
knows all about the old hard times,
and so do I, and afew more, not many,
It is a blessed privilege to have the
memories Of sixty years in the world 8
history. I love to think about the
changes, the incomings from the time
when there were no railroads nor tele-
graphs nor telephones-no cooking
stoves nor steel pens nor matches
when steel was 28c. a pound and now
is $28 ton; when the spinning wheel
and the country loom gave us our
clothing, and there were blacksmith
shops and wagon shops at the Cross
roads, and little gristmills on every
stream, and strong arms hewed the
sills and plates and corner posts for
our houses. remember the house
where was born, and the little shed
room where I slcpt-a room without
ceiling, and the patter of the rain on
the roof was the sweetest music in the
world. The good and the bad has
come mixed all these years, and smiles
and tears, joys and sorrows have min
gled together and chastened us, re6n-
ed US and prepared US for a better life
in better land. Old Jacob said "few
and evil have been the days of the
years of my pilgrimage" Poor old
fellow, he did have a hard time-work-
ing fourteen years for the girl he loy-
ed. Hated and pursued by his broth
er Esau, worried by bad children and
nearly perished by famine, but at the
last he died in peace. His last days
were his best days, and that is the
greatest of all blessings. May your
last days be your best days, is my
prayer for those [ love.
"How blest tho righteous when he dies,
Whom sinks the weary souls to rest"
BILL ARP.
P. S.-A poor confederate veteran
sends me letter and encloses some
confederate money and confederate
postage stamps that have not been
used, and some State bank-bills and a
one-pound note of continental money,
and begs me to sell the relics for him.
He says the wolf is not right at the
door; but is bowling at the front gate.
Who wants the money? Send me
bid, for have no idea Of it's market
value. b. A.