The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-06-13
BILL ARP'S LETTER;
An Old PAPER furnishes Bill Arp the SUBJ
foot for His Regular Letter.
Atlantu Constitution.


A last years birds nest is Of no
| consequence but it is an emblem Of
the dead past. It points moral if it
| does not adorn tail. But the most
suggestive and impressive thing Of the
past is political newspaper that is
about fifteen or twenty years old
just old enough for you to remember
the people who figured in it. l
Glanced on one about the house and it
made me sad, for nearly everything in
it was dead-dead issues, dead candi-
dates, dead SANDERS, dead advertise
ments, and even the editors are dead.
Some great men figured in this paper
and the people were as wild about
them as they are now over present is
sues. Ben Hill and Alex Stephens
were before the people then and so
was Toombs, Herschel V. johnson
and Alfred Colquitt and Ex-Governor
Smith and host of lesser lights.
Henry Grady was there, too, power
in politics. These are all dead. Even
the advertisers are dead and most Of
the typesetters. Grant and Garfield
and Arthur and Blaine all figure in
this paper and they are all dead. How
paltry and Insignificant seem all those
issues now. Fifteen or twenty years
from now how will all the present tur-
bulence and violence Of politics seem
to those who then live and look back ?
Most all of the factors will be dead
and there will be new set to jump up
and down and cry ''lo here,' and "lo
there" It is we'll to look back occa-
sionally and learn a lesson. There is
food for thought in last years birds
nest or an old newspaper. Politics is
tiresome thing and we feel relieved
when the issue is over and the ques-
tions settled. I don't blame Mr..
Cleveland for going fishing. Fishing
is the best medicine in the world for
q tired mind. I have tried it and am
tired. / would 60 to Clearwater one
day in every week if it was not so far
away. It is good for man to get
away off on the water where he can't
hear any news nor read about murders
and lynchings and stealing and runa-
way matches and the frailties and fol
lies of society: Watching the cork
does not strain the mind, but it keeps
it from other things. And so would
advise General and Colonel Atkinson
to raise flag of truce and 60 a=fshing.
They might go together and agree that
whoever caught the most fish should
be the Governor.
But there are bigger things than
politics. see the farmers plowing
up the withered, wilted cotton and
planting corn. That looks pretty hard
on the farmers, but maybe it is all for
the best. have noticed that there
is always some good mixed up with
the bad. The mules and the hogs will
have more corn to eat next winter. l
never saw finer gardens than there are
around here. Beans and potatoes and
peas are abundant and my greatest
pleasure is to go with my two little
grand children to the garden every
morning and gather vegetables and
pick strawberries, left from the freeze
to give us small feast every day, and
they are the finest we ever had. They
are the buback variety, the best berry
in the world for home use, but too
delicate for shipment. There is no
greater luxury than homemade ber-
ries with homemade cream to cover
them. I have been thinking that the
blackcap raspberry was the hardest
kind, for sometimes / find them in the
fields and fence corners, but the last,
freeze killed them all in my garden
and did not kill the red antwerps.
This surprised me. The grape is,
after all, Che most certain and reliable
of our up-country fruits. Dame ma
ture locks up the grapes in embrio, for
they are not in existence until the new
shoots come from the old woods. Our
blackberry crop is unhurt and will
soon be ripe and give the small dar-
dies employment. Sugar is cheap,
tariff or no tariff, trust or no trust,
and every housewife is getting ready
to put up the berries. Idon't believe
that newspaper yarn about Senators
being bribed by the sugar trust.
Most of our Senators are millionaires
already and don't need the bribe, and
I don't believe that Senator would
put himself in the clutches Of any
rascal, for, Of course, man who
would offer bribe is a rascal and no
rascal will do to trust. But the ma
tion still lives and there is life in the
old land yet-tariff or no tariff.
PIYr Ann