The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1896-10-28
Bill Arp's Letter.
He Finds Food for Thought in the
Thoughtful Camera.

thoughtful Camera.
Atlanta Constitution.
The photograph gallery in a
country town is one of the most
pleasing marks of Christian civiliza-
ton and the advancement of modern
science. pass by one every day
and it is gratifying to see its patrons
awaiting their turn or coming out
with smiling faces and all arrayed in
their. best apparel. 1t is a family
discussion before they come what
dress to wear, what ornaments, and
how the hair shall be arranged, or
whether to sit or stand, whether q
side view or front or whether the
baby shall be taken alone or with its
mother. All classes are on an equal
ity before the camera, for the sun
light cf nature has no favorites. So
far as faces and features are con.
cerned, the camera tells the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the
truth. This morning when I passed
1 saw a countryman sitting on the
steps with child in his arms. His
wife and little girl were inside await
ing their turn. I used to know him
before he was married, and 80 l
stepped and gave him my hand.
His folks were poor, honest and in
dustrious, and I have great respect
for all such. The women do the
housework and have the care of the
children. The men cultivates their
little farms, work the roads, sit on
juries, nurse their sick neighbors,
bury their dead, 60 fishing on Satur-
days and take the family to meeting
on Sundays They are generally
Populists, not because Of any politi-
cal principles involved, but because
of afiliation and association. Most
of their kind are Populists and there
fore clannish. They stick together
because they are either poor or less
than rich. Their fathers fought in
the late war, and these will fight in
the next if it comes in their days. It
may be rich mans war but it will
be poor mans fight.
care you going to have the baby's
picture taken" NO; not this one,"
said he; II wanted my wife's and
other little girls. They are in there.
I thought I would like to have them
about the house, for life is uncertain,
you know. Jim Moore's wife died
last year and Jim says he would give
the world for her picture, and Jack
Brown lost his little girl in June.
She was mighty purity little thing,
but Jack hain't got no picture and so
I concluded to have some taken for
fear of accident. -
"That is all right" said ], "but
suppose you die; wouldn't your wife
like to have one of you!"
81 reckon she would. She men
toned that, but pictures don't be-
come rough man like me, and, be-
sides, it would cost more money than
I have got to spare. The winter is
comm and we all have to have shoes
and stockings and the like, and my
cotton crop was powerfully short,
but I will have mine taken sometime.
I reckon all you folks have got em,
haven't they"
Love of wife and children is the
best virtue of human kind, and poor
folks have as much of it as rich ones.
Yes, more. Many of them haven't
anything else to divide their atten-
tious. It is a pleasing thing to see
them at the picture gallery and to
witness their pride when the work is
done and the faces of their loved
are before them on enameled cards,
fresh and clean from the artists
hand. What wonderful art it is.
I remember we'll when the first
daguarreotype was taken in our
town. 1t was only forty years ago,
and when our first little girl Was
four years old we had her picture
taken. She was a little beauty then,
and thought the picture was the
sweetest gem on earth. We have it
now in it's old fashioned case. That
little girl is long since mother and
has pictures of her own little girls,
and they are much finer in finish,
but prize the first one most 1t
carries me back in memory to the
days of my sweetest, fondest, proud
est paternal love. I idolized that
child and I love her dearly yet, but
she left us for young man she was
no kin to in the world, and who had
never done anything for her but to
give her ring and books Of poetry
and little French candy now and
4bon Wo bod 70 ,,iye her nm fO him