The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-11-11

M AXE a plenty Of milk and butter
feeted -thaJAeesa--ara "7ggif smart to
sell, "if they could only get anything
f0I it" they will say. Just the re-
ve@e, go among the town people and
they will grumble about the high
prices of eggs and of butter-of
everything.
We soon got discouraged among the
old people, and prosecuted our investi-
CATION among the young folks.
Young folks are no more satisfied
than the old. We met a couple of
young fellows with three big 'possums
on a pole and a whole bag full Of
small ones, and we thought for certain
that we would find contentment there,
but they were jawing about how the
money was to be invested and they
complained that sweet potatoes were
nothing this year. We had such a
contempt for these young fellows, for
whoever will grumble with three fat
'possu.ns on pole deserves contempt,
but, anyhow, we left them and hurried
over to where we saw some children
playing.
It was as pretty set Of children as
you ever looked upon and dressed well
and were healthy, but not a one Of
them but what had some little COM
plant. Some had one thing and some
another, but the most lay in the an
ticipat:on-all of them were crossing
bridges miles and miles and years and
years ahead of their young lives.
What pity that these sweet children
should borrow trouble. They will
have it soon enough without hunting,
but I doubt if ever our troubles are as
bad as we thought they were. We
have decided that there is a cause for
people, especially young people, being
grumblers, and that it could be cor
rected to a great extent, at least.
Grumbling has come to be almost uni
versal and much of it is just habit,
without doubt. In a whole week of
walking we found but one little boy
that we thought had a just cause to
complain. He was a little school boy
and we walked along with him to his
school. The bane Of this little fell
low life lay in his capacity to master
the multiplication table. He has
eaten up nineteen arithmetics in his
young life and from what he says has
had about seven cords Of switches
worn out on him, and yet he has only
mastered the 5s, the los and the lis.
At last the little fellows teacher has
had the table printed and CLUES it on
to paddle, and at last it may be beat
into him, but in the meantime we will
be sorry for him and put him down as
the only one we found in week
travel with a just cause of complaint.
am mostly interested in the coun-
try people and spend the most Of my
investigation among them. There is
not doubt but what the complaints
of old people are raising up genera
tion of grumblers. Never a country
man in our county could be made to
acknowledge that he is blessed in the
good things of this life. They forget
to talk about the hogs in the pen, the
COWS that pour down the good milk,
the corn that fills the cribs, the sweet
hay and fodder and shucks and the
health of their families and the joys
of rural life. No, the low price Of
cotton, the burden of taxes, the hard
lot of the farmer, such as this, is what
they most like to talk about and the
young people around them catch it
and we have come to be race Of
grumblers. | believe in my heart that
this habit Of grumbling is what has
given so many young people distaste
for the farmers life. These good
people did seem 70 have the fates
against them for time, but they are
blessed now, if they only knew it. Il
there is one class more than another
that should feel cheerful and talk en-
couragingly it is the farmers. Espe
cially should they give country lift
the full measure it deserves in the
presence of young people. A genera
tion of young people had right tt
have distaste for country life, ant
the world has suffered thereby. Yol
all know that it has been eternally
rung into the ears of the young people
| that life on the farm was burden