The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-05-02
SARGE PLUNKETT
The Pretty Weather has Cheered the Par
mers and Everything 10 Bright.
atlanta Constitution.

No matter how much harm the cold
snap has done US, me and Brown pro-
pose to
"Just let the wide world wag as 1t will,
Well be gay and happy STILL"
Everything is bright and cheerful
on the farm, now that we are sure the
winter is over. The roosters crow
louder, the hens sing all the day, the
turkeys strut and the guineas are look
ing for nests-there is nothing to mar
the delights but the withered flowers
and the backward garden truck. The
countryman has many things to charm
him as he carries on his work. The
fresh plowed ground is soft to his
tread and sweet to the smell, and it is
delightful to watch the young plants
breaking through the crust and show
ing up along the rows. And it is
charming to get hungry as the plow-
man does and to eat with the relish
that he does. Brown turns his eye
toward the kitchen chimney about 10
| o'clock on these days and a spell Of
anxious care spreads all over his
brown face for quite while some
times, but when little wreath of
smoke curls up from that chimney
| such a reaction comes in his looks and
his actions that would impress you
that he is well paid in joy for all his
| anxiety. he knows that the smoke
from the chimney means dinner. He
smiles along to the end Of the row and
bobs his head as if keeping time to
the churn dasher. At the end he
throws his plow stock away round
before old Kit has had time to grab a
mouthful of grass, and bawls with
strong voice and a slap of the line for
her to ''Get up, you lazy thing, don't
be 80 slow
The countryman is all right. He
can manage to have something to eat
and an appetite to relish whatever it
is. He may get to the house at night
with wearied limbs, but his rest is
sweet and refreshed in the morning he
goes again to his field in cheerful
mood. There are many in the great
cities to-day who pine for the rest and
health of these countrymen. Many
of them know what it is, but they lost
it in their greed for gain, or lured by
the glitter of city life. Some have
grown poor by the change-so poor
that they cannot return-while some
have grown rich and weighted down
with business they cannot return.
Many of these would like to come out
with me and Brown ard walk bare
footed in the fresh plowed ground, or
walk over the woods, breaking off the
dogwood blossoms and pretty honey
suckles, but they are too poor, or too
rich and busy, or else too fashionable.
We sympathise with the poor and are
sorry for the hard worked business
man who has not time to relax, but it
is the fashionable who need most our
pity. The poor may be forced, a
blessing in disguise, to come out and
taste of these country sweets; the
business man may learn that he should
relax and come out and romp over the
fields and woods and drink buttermilk
and other wholesome food, but for the
fashionable, poor things, they must
follow fashion. They must go off to
the seashore or watering places and
strain to keep in the swim. / used to
steal off fishing on Sundays along with
Brown, and the thoughts Of taking
our whipping when we returned home
was anything but pleasant, and l
think that these people who live in a
strain to be fashionable feel somewhat
as me and Brown felt--it is worse
than taking whipping with many of
them. If these people would only
have the nerve to break away from
their sets and come down to cheap and
healthy recreation somewhere in the
country near home, there would be
falling off in suicides and many a
home made happy.
Business, business, and fashion,
fashion. The world is running wild
on these things. 1 heard good man
say few Saturdays ago. "God bless
Sunday p He told me that were it not
for the rest he gets on Sunday he
would be in the asylum in less than a
month. I believe him; the world is
overworked. Night must be lit up
and turned into day. The great
wheels must turn and the clatter Of
machinery go on. It takes millions
of dollars to satisfy now where hun
dreds used to satisfy. The richest
man I knew in all of Georgia before
the war was reckoned to be worth
s2O0, 900. This man was a wonder in
those days; he stood higher than
Vanderbilt stands now. Aman start
ing out to get rich now wouldn t think
about stopping at 100000. Strain
all the time, overwork all the time,
never time to 60 out in the country,
never day to rest and all for more
money than they know what to do
with-money to make them the more
| anxious. The man of million can
not rest nor can the man who has his
heart set on making a million rest.
No artifce can take the place of the
relaxation needed. Peaceful rest can
find no substitute in excitement.
Prize fighting, ball playing, theaters
or whatnots, can not give the rest.
You may go on till you have the
| Spanish bull fights or anything else,
but it won't ease the tired brain nor
| it won't improve the morals. Brown
says, and I say, put out the electric
lights when night comes on shut
down business, go to bed with the
chickens and lay there without schem-
ing to make more money. Do this,
and once and awhile go out to some
good country home and spend week
or month would be better. This is
what the busy town man needs and
the fashionable had better do likewise
at least live within your means
without strain.
Brown wrestles with the weather all
the time. When it is cold it is
mighty nigh impossible to get him uE
in the morning to make fire, and
then he shivers all through the day.
but when the earth begins to gel
warmed up he takes upon his face 6
grin that continues there more or less
till time to go to shivering again: Ht
L L.