The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1896-10-21
Arp On Aaron Burr.
Atlanta Constitution.

| Atlanta COQSlltutlOu.
I see that my old friend, Sam Car
nochan, of Rome, has recently ele-
brated his eighty-sixth birth day.
He is It'll hale and hearty and loves
to talk to his friends about the good
| old times. He is harness maker by
trade, and perches on his stool and
talks while he works and feels the
feeling of an honest and industrious
man. Apprinticed to the trade when
he was fourteen years old, he has
continuously pursued his calling for
seventy years, and in all that time I
do not suppose that he ever de-
frauded any man. I have never
him complain Of his lot or Of
heard hard times. I never heard
him abuse anybody more than to
say, ''He should not have done that.
It is wrong. What pity; what q
pity" And yet he is a man of opin-
ions and convictions and does not
hesitate to express them.
How came old Father Carnochan
to be so industrious and work so hard
and live so long and enjoy life and
enjoy good health? He says he
reckons it just happened so, but my
opinion is that his early habits had
much to do with it. For seven years
he was ''bound out, as We used to
call it. Bound to a saddle and har-
ness maker in New York city to learn
the trade. That used to be common
at the north, and I have know some
cases of the south in the long ago,
but not many. My father had an
orphan boy bound to him for seven
years years, and the covenant was
board and clothing and two months
schooling every year and 5000 in
money at the end of his time. He
was smart, handsome and willing,
made good merchant and married
we'll.
MIR. Carnochan says he had to
work diligently, and by the time his
term was out, the habit of work was
fixed upon him and kept him out of
mischief. There is the secret. But
few of our boys have formed habit
of work. If they do any at all, they
look upon it as hardship.
The old man says that Aaron Burr
traded at their shop, and he remem-
bers him we'll, handsome, courtly
old gentleman dressed in tip top
fashion and with manners like Lord
Chesterfield. Years before he had
been forced to leave the country and
lived in exile, but he came back when
the storm blew over and he was such
a great lawyer that he soon got lots
of practice and made lots of money.
He drove fine horses and was high
born aristocrat and never lost min
ute's sleep about killing Hamilton.
I was terminating about that, for
there is no story like it in American
biography. His fathers name was
Aaron Burr and he was a very learned
and pious preacher and teacher. He
was founder and first president OF
Princeton college, andis buried there
and six other presidents are buried
near him. He married Esther, the
only daughter of Jonathan Edwards,
the great preacher and profound
thinker. A man whose sermons
made the people tremble and cry out
and beg for mercy. The younger
Aaron had a sister named Esther,
and these two were left orphans at
an early age. They had a good es-
tate and the best of guardians, and
received a good education. Aaron
was sent to Princeton, where he
graduated with distinction. It was
expected that he, too, would be a
preacher, but he suddenly astonished
his friends by denouncing Christian
ity as humbug, and declared bis
admiration for Lord Chesterfield,
whom, he said, was the finest gentle
man in the world. Then he studied
law, and soon became the top of the
profession. When the Revolutionary
war was impending he was given a
high position, and became an inmate
to General Washington's family; but
he did not like Washington's steady
habits and religious principles, and
left him. At the close of the war he
married wealthy widow-a Mrs.
Provost, an accomplished and plus
Christian woman. She became the
mother Of Theodosia, celebrated in
her day for her beauty and her
graces of her mind and heart, and
universally lamented for her sad and
mysterious fate. Her only son died
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