The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1897-10-08
ARP TALKS TO BOYS
HE TELLS THEM THAT KNOWLEEGE
.NOF EvERYTHING Is ESSENTIAL. = :. .
Here is a letter for the boys.

knowledge of many callings renders
man happier than perfection in
any one and comparative ignorance
of all tho rest. Great scientists,
discoverers and inventors seem to
be necessary for the worlds progress
and the good Of mankind, but their
work is generally at the expense of
their health and happiness. Sir
Isaac Newton in his last days OK
claimed with sigh, "I have made q.
slave of myself" His great mind
was always on strain in one direc-
tion. 1t is said Of him that he Dad
a hole ont in the lower part Of the
door for his favorite cat,to enter and
exit, and when n7she had pair of kit
~befB'he had two smaller holes cut for
them. The mind is like the body.
It must, have a variety of food. 1t
is like the muscles in the arms or
legs. If only one set are used the
others become weak and will grad
ually perish away.
1 was talking not long ago to
learned judge, q man of fine judicial
mind and literary attainments, but
who acknowledged his very limited
knowledge of nature and natures
laws. 81 hardly know one tree FROM
another" said he, Excepting, Of
course, the chestnut, hickory nut
and walnut. Yes, of course, 1 know
the pine and the oak. Indeed I
have never had any occasion to know
moro for was raised in town and
books have absorbed me-"
y l was ruminating about this be
Cause our little girls mother is
teaching her to draw and to paint,
and I asked her to draw mo a Ghost
nut tree, an oak tree aud maple
tree. She is working on them now
and has TO go out and look at them
and examine the bark on the trunk.
and the shape of tho limbs and the
leaves. | wonder how many boys
&aand girls can draw hickory leaf
without looking at one. I should
like to see their specimens. Thous-
ands of boys, especially country
boys, know all the common trees of
their neighborhood, but it requires
close and careful observation to do
scribe them ID point out the differ
ence. Now there are ten different
kinds of o2ks in this country, but
very'rtew town raised people can
name half of them. Then there are
different kinds Of hickories and pines
and ash and elm trees, besides the
blackberry, box elder, poplar, beech,
locust and cottonwood. Eugene lie
Hardy was very learned and scien-
titic Frenchman, but thought that
American cotton grew on the cotton
wood trees and that we gathered it
!by using ladders. It is said that
Mr.. jackson, Of Atlanta, is trying to
introduce the ladder kind now and
has got the trees up to fourteen feet
high.
The study of the trees and shrubs
OF this southern country is delight
full and instructive recreation for
young people, and wish they would
pay more attention to it. Of course
this study requires some knowledge
of botany, but that is easily ao-
1uired. This kind of knowledge ls
more useful and moro comforting
than college smattering Of calculus
and yonic sections and rhetoric and
sgatHid. l do not believe thero are
ten mon in Barlow county who
would know ginseng if they wero TO
see 1t. Not many moro know what
is father grsybeard or white ash,
the medicinal shrub from which old
A. q. Simmons first made the origi-
nal Simmons liver medicine in g win
nett county. l know about that,
for when I was n young merchant I
sold the first no ever made and con-
tinued to sell it for him for several
years and he told me what it was
made of. think, though, that tho
father graybeard gave out about the
time tho old man died.
I wish that our young people
would acquire habits of observing
things more closely as they journey