The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-11-13
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Arp Takes In Tho Free Parade and He
M0raIzes.
..1tldntH Constitution.

.1Nanta Constitution.
| witnessed the great street pageant
of Buffalo Bills "Wild West show.
suppose there were 10000 people
who did the same thing. That much
was free, and quite enough for me.
Somehow have lost my appetite for
circuscs and other spectacular amuse-
mcnts. The time WAS when | never
missed one if | could help it: but now
| prefer to see things that provoke
thought instead of smiles. The WON
ders of the exhibits in the exposition,
the progress of mankind in the arts
and sciences fill the mind with pleas
ant contemplation. When the tcle-
graph wires first reached our town We
felt sure that there was nothing else
to invent or discover; that nothing
more was needed. But so many Won
derful and useful things have piled up
on us since, that now We live in a state
of expectancy. What will come next?
When | was boy we studied a
philosophy which said that the load
must be near the power. and there was
picture of horse trying to pull a
bag of sand by rope that was 100
yards long-and he couldn't move it.
Now We read that the power from the
electric plant at Niagara is soon to
pull all the boats on the great Erie
canal, and the thousands of horses
and mules are to be discharged from
their monotonous service. More than
this-wc read that this same power
is soon to supcrccde all other powers
in loading and unloading the vessels
in New York harbor. If this power
can reach New York from Niagara,
why not reach across the continent?
How long before all our railway trains
will be moved by it? There is sufl-
cicnt water power right here near Car
tersvillc to operate plant that would
move all the wheels in Georgia. The
children now at school will live to
laugh at the simplicity and stupidity
Of their fathers and grandfathcrs just
as | now smile at the recollection of
the time when my father kept flint
and steel and a piece of punk in a
little tin box and would strike spark
and light candle when he wanted a
light in the night. 1t is funny to
think of the time when there were no
matches. What would these cigarette
bovs do without matches?
Every decade brings cheaper meth
DDS and more comforts. The old rule
that Adam Smith taught us in his
Wealth of Nations was that provi-
dcncc had wisely ordained that the
labor of one man would easily support
eight persons, meaning himself and
wife and six children. But he was mt
counting on Sc shoes for the boys and
so hats and balloon sleeves for the
girls and college education for both.
The labor of the average man will not
support eight persons now, for not
withstanding the cheapness of things
our wants are increased ten-fold.
Stephen Girard said that the way to
get rich was to buy nothing that you
are not obliged to have, but we reverse
the maxim and buy too many things
We are not obliged to have.
While in the exposition | did want
to buy lot Of those beautiful alumi-
mum wares for my wife, for she does
love pretty things and fine things, but
| didn't have the money. | let her
look at them and only bought her a
pepper box Now, that reminds me
of our trouble in the South. That
aluminium clay is all about in our
hills and is being mined and shipped
every day to Pittsburg, and there it is
reduced and manufactured and the
products come back to us with two
frcights and big profits added. Just
so with our manganese and ochrc and
lumber and hides and most of our cot
ton and wool. We have got to manu-
facture our own materials or wc will
never catch up. But we are making
good progress in iron and cotton, and
maybe the other plants will come
along in time. | learn that 50 per
cent. of that aluminium clay is wasted
and thrown away in the process OF
reduction. Just think what saving
of freight there would be if we could
reduce the metal at the mines. We
would soon be the richest people on
the earth if We could manufacture our
own materials. The labor is here, but
it is idle. Our boys are willing but
they can't find employment.
1t is astonishing how rapidly wealth
increases when labor is rewarded.
Look at ruined State like Georgia
was in 1868 and now see what thirty
years have done. Look at the expo
sition that has been planted with the
money from one city and is now the
wonder of the nation. Where does all
this money come from? Verify, it
looks like Aladdins lamp has come
down to us-and yet ahAost everybody
is complaining of hard times. I've
been reading Joscphus again and |
don understand how Solomon got all
his money, for David was at war with
somebody most all his life. Josephus
says that silver was as plentiful in
Jerusalem as the stones in the street.
The temple was overlaid with gold and
cost millions of dollars. IIcrod sent
Il little present of ten millions of
drachmac to Caesar. IIyrcanus sent
ten thousand talents of gold. The
Pharaohs built the pyramids for their
own tombs and one of these took l00,-
900 men thirty-scven years to complete
it and it cost five hundred millions of
dollars and is not worth cent to any
body. The Aztccs. Of Mexico, built
some just as large. The ruins of
them are still there and historians say
they had idols ON their tops that were
thirty feet high and made of solid
gold There is a cathedral now in the
City of Mexico that cost sixty millions
Of dollars
What vast amount Of money has
been made from the beginning down
to the present time. Mankind began
early to hunt for gold, for Moses says
in the second chapter of Genesis that
the gold of that land around Eden
WAS good. and | reckon old Adam dug
fnr If and nodded it and iinglcd it in