The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-08-04
SAM JONES
Thinks the Present Year has been Phe.
nomenal up to Date.

Thinks the Present Year has been Phe.
nomenal up to Date.
atlanta Journal.
The year of grace, 1897, has been an
eyentful and phenomenal year in the
first six months Of its history. There
have been foods and cyclones, intense
heat and electrical storms. The stars
seemed to fight US. All this may be
natures protest; for we are a nation
of GROWERS, and when a bunch of
GROWERS stand in the presence of flood
and cyclone or find themselves in the
heat that touches 104 in the shade
they don't talk much about hard
times; they have something else just
at that moment to talk about.
But in spite of the fact that these
things come upon us, We are yet liv-
ing and still have hope. This is a
great country of ours. It's resources
are almost infinite. What if the
Mississippi delta is overaowed? What
if cyclones and hail storms devastate
the crops for a few square miles?
What if Missouri and Illinois and Iowa
fail largely in their wheat crop? What
if cattle die out in Texas, or hogs
by the thousands in Iowa, with chol-
era?
As the boy says, hal fact "cuts no
ice."
When California, Kansas, the Da-
kotas, Minnesota and Nebraska, to say
nothing of the other States, roll in
their wheat crops we have hundreds
of millions of bushels to spare. Let a
man board a train at Boston and ride
through to San Francisco, either via
New Orleans, Omaha or St. Paul, and
he wonders as he passes through the
great cities how are these millions of
people fed2 And then when he rides
through the country districts and sees
the waving harvest fields, the green
lori fields and the cattle upon a thou
sand hills and prairies, and hogsinnum-
cradle, he wonders where car amarket
be found for all these products2 fit
is dry in one locality they have sea-
o n in another. If the crop is afail-
ure in one State it is abundant in 9TH
ers.
But, after all, what we shall eat and
wherewithal shall we be clothed are
not two of the greatest questions in a
human life, 1t seems that overpro-
duction has cut down the price of ev-
erything that a man eats and wears;
and yet is fearfully true that in the
midst Of plenty the spirit of genuine
independent manhood is dying out in
this country, 1 verify believe. Indi-
vidual effort, personal ambition, mas
terly striving are almosta thing of the
past. We 60 it now in crowds and
groups and schools. Capital is organ
ICED, labor is organized, and whatever
one does all must do. We have now
a general strike of the miners, and the
prophet or philosopher does not live
who can tell what the end will be.
Capital organizes itself; millionaires
and corporations and banks are uni
ted. You hit one, you hit them all.
The individual man is absorbed in the
lump. Parkhurst said a crowd has no
conscience. It is very easy for a hun
dred men to do a thing a single man
dare not do. It is one thing to be a
man by yourself. 1t is quite another
thing to fall in line with a mob or
crowd and be one oe many and one in
many.
It is a real tonic occasionally to
meet up with a fellow that is toting
his own skillet and not leaning upon
any arm except the Almighty Arm.
I have no respect for politician or
preacher, millionaire or miner, lawyer
or doctor, who has no personal indi-
vidual manhood outside of the circle
of the gang with which he runs. To do
things because others are doing them
or are going to do them, and to do
them like others do them simply that
one may follow the procession, is des-
picable to me. But Capitalization
seems to be the word now. Let's all
get together and go together and do
together. I am like the preacher
when he announced that every tub
must stand on its own bottom. An
Irishman spoke up and said: Gath,
if it's got no bottom, what then?'
''Then it's no tub" says the preacher.
There are too many tubs without bot
toms, and too many bipeds without
personal, individual ambition and in
dependence. I admire a man. Many
a woman in this country thinks she
has a nice man for a husband when
she's got no man at all-she has got
a pair of old breaches waddling around.
The boys initiate their daddies;
they go in groups and go to the devil
in groups. You show me a boy run
ming with the gang and I will tell you
what his future will be. | like the
fellow that gangs by himself. "Birds
Of a feather flock together" but like
birds of one feather that don't flock to-
gethar. I had rather be by myself
rather than to be with some rascal;
but some men are in bad company
when they are by themselves. It is
true that a mans associates in this
life fix his character, and | believe
his character fixes his destiny. There
are too many men in this country
good simply because they want to so
to heaven when they die, but I doubt
capitally if a man ever gets to heaven
on such a program, for when he gets
there his end will be attained and his
motive for being good is gone. I like
the fellow that gets off to himself and
does right because it is right and won
do wrong because it is wrong. The
motive of such a man will abide for
ever. Give me the fellow who does
his work unmurmuringly; carries his
burden uncomplainingly and makes a
good citizen in this world and bases
his hope of heaven hereafter on his
good citizenship here.
But to go back again where we be-
gan. These are phenomenal times
times that defy analysis, mystify the
prophets and confound philosophers.
Congress cannot agree with the tariff