The Van Buren press., 1897-04-17
ARP AS A PROPHET.
Many Appliances of To-Day Pre-
dieted Fifty Years Ago.
Writes of Old SchooImntcs - Con.
ciudes Florida Is Good for Uud
Kernodie, hut Poor for
Mai. Warren.

began lie early IN the century and nave
lived to close it. No such period of
progress has transpired since the world
was made. Progress in art and science,
the diffusion of knowledge and the
spread of Christianity; progress in in
yention and contrivance for better liv-
ing and the comforts and pleasures of
life; progress in mental and moral in
telligenee. There is no equal COMPARE
son between the last sixty years and any
that preceded them. Progress has made
great leap forward and seems to have
come to halt. We cannotimagine that
the world needs anything more in the
way of invention, but it will in few
years, and then it will come. A kind
Providence never fails us. One by one
the doors are unlocked-the mysteries
of nature are revealed.
just so years ago l was chosen q
junior orator from the Phi Kappa So
ciety in Franklin college. 1t was
esteemed a great honor then to be one
of the four, and | am proud even now
to tell my children and grandchildren
about it. There were a of us in
my class and ! was one of the four.
The honor was not for my oratory, but
more for my scholarship and popular
iiy among my society members. | did
not expect it, I did not deserve it, and
| was grieved that some of my low-coun-
try classmates whom / loved were left
cut and | was chosen. In that day the
Savannah boys were not popular In
college. They were looked upon as
swelis and arstocrats, and from then
until now nothing in the way of honors
or offices has been given to Savannah.
! have lamented for this all these years.
There are no nobler people in all the
state than Savannah people. | admire
them and respect them, and whenever
enc of them offers for office am for
him on general principles. The good
principles, the integrity of the old
lluguenots and Caroinians who set
tied in that region had descended to
their posterity and they are still the
best people we have in the state. The
cradle of liberty was there, and if ever
~ hdNO " iull Dtith vi DItD ~ Dtlu-
ate our revolutionary principles, l had
rather depend upon the old-time peo-
pie Of Savannah than any others. ] was
in college with John Screven and
Charley Hardee and Henry Law and
Monroe McIver and many from Savan-
nah, and they were the best boys we
had.
But l started to tell that the subject
of my junior orators speech was "a
Hundred Years Hence" 1t was pro-
phetic speech, and, of course, got my
father to help me TO write it. All the
boys do that. 1t was good speech and
made an impression. but l have often,
thought of how little we then knew Of
what was to happen in the next so
years No telegraph, no telephone or
Photographs, no air-brakes on rail-
roads, no antiseptic remedies in sur
gerry, no X rays, no electric lights, no
oil stoves, no refrigerator cars, no fruit
or vegetables from Florida or Califor-
MIA, no ice factories, no elevators, no BIZ
cycles, no manufactured fertilizers. Ny
prophetic speech was not prophetic,
though it did tell that in less than so
years people would travel in the air on
flying machines. just SO years ago |
travelled to college at Athens on mule
train from Union Point and thought
was doing pretty well, for we were
perched on the top of caboose and had
ample time to peruse the country on
both sides as we logged along. 1t was
only 40 miles, but ittook all day to make
it. / remember that | had on boots
homemade boots-and wore straps to
keep my pants down. That was the
fashion thcn-leather straps that were
buttoned on the inside of the pants.
They kept the leg of the pants down SO
straight that the knee pan made de-
preston and looked like a goose had
laid an egg in them. What momentous
event it was for boy to enter college.
At that time it took three years to 60
around the world, but this was bigger
thing than the world-bigger to me
bigger to my dear mother who had long
cherished the idea that l was to be
either preacher or president. But
now | am almost alone and have been
neither. Almost everybody l then knew
is dead. Briscoe and Cody and Terrell
and Thornton, and Montgomery and
Henry Law and Grant and the King
boys ard not long ago Willoughby
Lumpkin died-the boy whom l cspe-
cially loved, for he was always lovable
and true. Chess Howard and Jim War
rem are still in the land OF the living
where peace may be sought and par
don found. Chess is always genial and
kind, and l had hopes of Jim Warren,
for he is as solid as q rock and has been
governors secretary for about 20
gears. With pride have pointed to him
as one among the few who have pros
pered and maintained their integrity.
But of late a change seems TO have
come over him. lie has been to Florida
on vacation and has fallen from grace.
But few men can go TO Florida and tell
the truth afterwards. | see by the pa
pers that Jim-the steady. unexcitable
Jim-has gone off after Florida gods
and writes back that he caughta string
Of sheepshead and cungcr eel in a
fog-just threw out line in a Tampa
bay mist and caught a whole string,
thinking that he was fishing in water,
but found out when the mist lifted that
he was half a mile from the inlet and
had been fishing in the fog. II beats
Bud Kernodle, who syore that the
fish were so eager that he had TO get
behind tree to bait his hook. expect