The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-11-30


says the poet. That's what J. am.
There is no other boy about these
premises. We have had 30 cock tor
two nonths-no man servant nor maid
scrvant-only boy. l rise before
the sun, make the fire, take Up the
ashes, sweel the room, then fire UP
the stove in the kitchen, FIJI up the
kettle, put on the hcminy, grind the
coffee and then ring the bell fer my
female aide de camp, who appears in
due time and make biscuit and broil
the steak and finish up .he breakfast.
So bring in wood and coal, split the
pine, go to the butchers and baker $
and the postofico. I'm the male boy
and the mail boy. Last week was
hard on me, for I had to repot the
greenhouse plants and change the soil
and move them into the pit and water
them and yesterday my female folks
took notion they wanted some OF
the prettiest chrysanthemums taken
up and potted and brought into the
hall, SO made little tubs out Of nail
kegs by saving them down and put
ting rope handles to them and then l
carefully upheaved the plants with a
spade and got them in all right. And
then the boy had to carry them in the
house and arrange them and now they
are beautiful to behold-all gorgeous
in their lovely colors Of white and
yellow and brown and pink and gold.
I am proud of them, for am the boy
that did it. It was heavy work and
hard work and I am sorter rheumatic
and broke down in the lines, but my
folks wanted it done and I'm the boy.
Itisn't every family that's got boy.
What luxury it isto rest when you
have finished your Job and are tired
What luxury is sleep when bedtime
comes! What a wholesome, tooth
some appetite does labor give and
make boy like me relish the butter
ed steak or smothered chicken and
coffee and biscuits and gravy and big
hominy and eggs fried on both sides
and loose in the middle, That's the
fare to say grace over and be thank
full. Labor is good medicine tonic
that regulates digestion. Labor is an
antidote for the little frets and srou-
bles Of our daily life. When | get
clean out of money and the little duns
come thick and fast in love letters [
fly to the woodpile and chops
wood, or I go 60 the garden and fork
up more ground and transplant more
strawberries from the scattering run
ners. have now 800 plants and they
are fine and all came from home and
all have been mulc6ed with stable
manure and; cotton seed and covered
with pine straw, and I am the boy
that did it. am the horny-handed
son Of toll that you read about. My
wife has got sixty-6ve rose bushes
that planted for her and watered
aud nourished and pruned and scratch
ed my hands with the thorps, and she
luxuriases among their beautiful flow
ers and cuts bouquets for the nabors
and visitors. Sometimes when |
peruse the papers and their sentiments
make me mad or fatigue my indigna-
ticn go forth among the flowers and
study them and ponder upon their
innocence and beauty and get calm
and serene. Only yesterday l read an
article in the New York Press, the
leading Republican paper, and it said
the white Southerner was rapidly de-
generating and the negro was coming
to the front; that the white man could
not grow cotton at A cents pound,
but the negro could and that their
race would in time own ali the lands
and the whites be their tenants; that
we have degenerated in statemanship
and intellect and have not got white
man in all the South who will compare
with Booker Washington; that the
ante-bellum types are gone; the times
that produced Calhoun and Toombs
and Stephens and Davis and Benjamin
and Lamar are forever past, and that
our so-called statesmen, such as Bal
ley and Butler and Til!man, are but a
fair sample of our degeneracy and that
this degeneracy all comes from our
inLuman treatment Of the negro and
is negation Of Cod. Then he
threatens US and says the North is
very busy nov sith important con-
oerus growing out Of the Spanish war,
but will attend to US in due time and
see to it that we shall have no repre-
sentation in Congress from districts
where the negro ballot vas intimlda-