The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1896-02-19

those Of the youth. No tottering,
no crutches, 10 walking stick in his.
His physical and mental strength do
not bespeak his age. Nothing but
the unmistakable evidence of the old
family Bible would indicate the num-
ber of years that he has spent in the
service of his country and God. He
is in many respects the most remark
able man in the State.
Industrious and energetic in his
youth, the burden and care Of ninety
four years have not cooled his ardor
nor lessened his love for work. He
is yet working man, and it is only
recently that be consented to cease
field labor. Even now he does many
odds and ends about the place. He
is a useful man at ninety-four.
He was crack axeman in his
prime days and he yet dotes on his
skill. Only a few days ago, be
challenged the writer to bout at
axemanshir. OF course, the writer,
not wiching to unusually exert him
self nor unduly disturb his three hun
dred pounds of corpulercy, de-
clined the challenge for considera-
tions entirely satisfactory to himself
and, he hopes, entirely unknown to
Uncle Jake and the public.
His great age has impaired his
mind but very little. His memory is
remarkably clear and distinct, and he
delights to 60 back in memory to the
time when this part of the country
was a vast wilderness of tall grass
and pea vines, amid which immense
quantities of deer and other large
game roamed and found pasturage.
Turkeys were abundant in those
days and he relates with youthful en-
thusiasm, how he has set in his door
and shot them out of the woods and
how upon one occasion he threw his
axe at wild deer. All this hap
pened in the morn of this century,
now it is the "dewy eve"
How many and what wonderful
Transformations have occurred since
then-since "Uncle Jake Eargle" was
boy? How many thousands have
"gone down in the vile dust from
which they sprang?" What maonif-
icent history "Uncle jake would be
if he could remember all the events
that have happened since 1s02-tbe
year of his birth? Thomas Jeffer-
son was President. The founder of
the Democratic school in this country
had just come into power. Chief
Justice Marshall had been in Office
only one year. In 1903, the Louis
lana purchase was made. The
United States was then in it's young
infancy. Republican form of gov
ernment had not yet undergone the
crucial test of stability. Only one
great war had engaged it's genius
and patriotism. No railways made
travel and transportation easy and
rapid; no telegraph made converse.
ton possible at thousands of miles
distance; there were no schools on
every hill top sending out their elevat-
ing and enlightening influences. The
country was undeveloped and wild.
Columbia was a mere hamlet.
Charleston was the market of this
State. These facts read like To-
mances as the idle fiction of some
idle brain. We can hardly believe
them, yet the testimony of actual
knowledge ought to be convincing
and we have that evidence in "Uncle
Jake" How few the men who can
testify likewise? Uncle Mark"
Boyd, who recently celebrated his
Goth birthday, can cone the nearest,
yet Uncle Mark" was in his cradle
when Uncle Jake" was wearing
breeches and killing deer. Wonder
full old age! How pleasant it must
be for him to recall the incidents of
bis boyhood days? How gratifying
to look back over a century of time
we'll spent! How beautiful and grand |
to be in his old age the idol of his
children and the pet of entire COM
munity? Heaven bless him, is the |
wish of A. F. L.
Wallaceville, S. G..