The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-05-13
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Arp Thinks Father Time Is a Horrible
Looking Creature.
atlanta Constitution.

but he is a good doctor. Long De1ore
he cuts us down he begins to softer
and soothe the passions and asperities
of life and to prepare our better nature
for the only solution Of life s problem:
which is love to God and to our fellow
men, but very few old men carry bit
terness to the grave. One day | OBJ
served an old man for whose talents
the community had great respect talk:
ing to a friend. His eyes flashed and
every liniament of his face betokened
anger. As he struck the end Of his
cane to the pavement he said: 81
ought to have killed the scoundrel.
Cautiously I approached and inquired:
clad a difficulty with somebody, colo
nel?" "Oh," said he, II was just
telling Brown about a little affair that
happened-let me see-yes, just forty
five years ago." But even he mel
lowed down some years before he died.
Now, if we lived US long as Noah OF
Methusaleh, or even as long as Abra.
ham, we might feed and cherish bit
terness for a hundred years, but three
score years and ten is too brief a time
to be wasted in passions.
Thirty-one years have passed since
the war, and I was Illuminating over
the difference between now and then.
We veterans remember when We were
all accused of treason and many Of oul
leaders had to fee the country for fear
of arrest and trial and condemnation
and death. When to possess or ex.
hibit a Confederate flag provoked i'm.
prisonment; when we had to defend
the lost cause or lament it's failure in
whispers, and when every nan who
was worth $4,000 had his property
confscated unless he petitioned fol
pardon and paid we'll for it. The par.
don brokers at Washington made mil
lions out of our wealthy citizens.
But time has diluted the bitterness
Of those who were u most malignant
enemies. Reflection has tempered the
prejudices of our northern brethren
and now we see General Gordon and
General Lopgstreet given glad and
willing welcome as they discourse
temporarily and truthfully of the war,
its causes and it's results. Nowhere
is the carpet-bagger who figured in re-
construction times more denounced
and despised than. at the north. More
than all this, a monument has been
built on northern ground in memory
of the Confederate dead. Brotherly
unions of the blue and the gray have
been held at various times and places,
and thousands of the grand army are
moving southwark and fraternizing
with our people. There is only one
sore that does not heal, and that is
the hard fact that while we pay our
own pensions we have to help to pay
theirs and get, nothing back. The es-
innate is that it takes half a million
annually for Georgia to pension her
Confederate widows and disabled SOL
diers, and ten times as much to pay
her part Of the union pensions. This
FIVE millions goes into their hopper
and we get no toll. But even this
will pass away. Old Father Time
is slow up there, but he is sure. I'm
pensioned soldiers don't live as long
as those who feed on government pap,
and there are not near as many OF
them. We see it stated that there
are now less than one hundred thous.
and Confederate survivors. l told
that to a Federal general in Flori-
da not long ago and he ruminated over
it some time and said: "You rebels
fought so hard and endured SO much
you broke down your constitutions.
Stonewall Jackson's fool cavalry, |
know, must have worn their legs of
up to their knees, like Munchausen' s
famous hunting dog"
But after so long a time the herolsm
of the South is looming up and the
lost cause shines before the world in a
clearer and more lustrous light. No
sane man speaks of us as traitors now
and we are permitted with a kindly
grace to honor our dead and build
monuments to our heroes. Patriot
ism and courage are honored every
where. There are, Of course, a few
heartless souls in every community
who care nothing for the sacred mem
cries of the war, and with pious unc,
ton exclaim: "Oh, let the dead past
bury its dead. Look not back, but
forward. We have no time for senti.
ment." Such men will never defend
their country nor help to save a State.
A people without sentiment will never
have any heroes. DR.. johnson, the
greatest philosopher that ever lived;
said: "That man is little to be envled
whose patriotism would not gain force
upon the plain of Marathon. Even
religion, which is animated only by
faith and hope, will glide by degrees
out of the mind unless it be invigor'
ated by calls to worship and the salu'
tary influence of example" Never
was anything more truthfully said
The good citizen must keep his patri'
otism alive by ch%erishing the memor'
les of the war in which they or their
fathers we're engaged. Over two
thousand years have passed since the
Athenians defeated the great army Of
Darius, but Marathon is still memora'
Bile in song and story. tits the watch
word of patriotism. A generation has
past since the battle of Gettysburg,
but the valor of the American soldiers
of both armies, as displayed in that
bloody fight, will shine in history as
long as there are people to write, OF
people to read. We are glad that
Colonel Garrett has come South te
work for the memories of the lost
cause, and to tell us about Gettys'
burg. Did not u heart burn within
US as he described the thrilling scenes
that absorbed his vision and magnet
lied every fiber of his being? Who
can ever forget the exalted emotions
that a great battle inspires? Then,
let every veteran 60 to hear this elo'
quent Virginian, and for a time CULVER
with unsurpassed emotions. Let every
young man, yes, every lad and lassie
90 to hear him and have their patriot
ism q~uickened and made stronger.
Henry Grady won the applause o.
New England and the mighty North
when he dared to say in his great
speech, "The South has nothing fol-
which to apologize. The late strug
clio hotutenn the States WAS war anC