The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-03-30
BILL ARP'S PEAFOWLS
s Cause the Neighbors Trouble, and He Gets
an ANONYMOUS Letter.
Atlanta Constitution.

and diamonds and other jewelry. That
is her nature aud she cannot help it..
She loves the beautiful and would be
miserable in room without mirror,
though have seen some who never
had but one admirer. I wonder who
were those sons Of God who saw that
the daughters of men were fair and
took wives from among them and
raised up giants and mighty men Of
renown. wonder if the women Of
that day were so beautiful that the
angels came down to mate with them.
There is no telling what men or an
gels will do for beautiful woman. /
have never ceased to be sorry for
Jacob, who worked seven long years
for Rachel, and then had to take her
homely sister, and had sto work seven
years more to get the girl Of his
choice. But the sacred historians
say these seven years seemed to him
but few days to the love he had for
her." Was ever love like that? Not
in these days. Men must have been
scarce in that country, or Rachel
wouldn't have waited that long for
Jacob. Old Laban was sheep
raiser, and Ireckon his nearest neigh
Dor was another about fifty miles
away, and those poor girls never saw
a young man once year. Rachel let
Jacob kiss her on sight before she
knew his name or where he came
from, and that historic kiss has come
/! down to us through all the corridors
Of time for 1000 years. 1 remember
that away back in the dos, when I was
/! young and fairly handsome, my father
sent me on business to Mississippi,
and as there were no railroads bought
a horse in Mobile and rode across the
country to Vicksburg. One night |
found comfortable lodgings with big
cotton grower on the Chicasaha river.
he had emigrated from South Carroll
ma many years before with his wife
and little shildren and about 200 ne
groes. His name was Calhoun, and
he was cousin Of John G. Calhoun.
There he lived outside of civilization;
not school nor church within
miles of him, and he kept putting off
moving his family to where there
were some. His Oldest daughter, a
lass Of eighteen, was as shy Of me as a
fawn, but she brushed her hair and
washed her face and changed her dress
and shoes and gazed and fingered on
the sly long and sweetly. l made ad-
yances to her that night in the parlor,
and pleased her father and mother
and bewildered her, for | soon found
out that she was a flower born to
blush unseen. When I left the next
morning the old gentleman followed
me to the gate and begged me to come
back that way. "'Maybe you and Sal
might fix up things to your notion,
said he, sand if you do I can spare
you 200 or 800 acres Of the finest land
in Mississippi and as many niggers as
you want to tend it, and he laughed
in half serious and half joking way.
There were no fourteen years about
that, but I never saw Sally any more.
Poor girl; I have often wondered what
became Of her. She was Of good old
Carolina stock, but was smothered in
/! the woods. No companions, no books
or newspapers, no nothing but niggers
and cotton-much like Rachel, 1
reckon, who saw nothing but sheep
and longed for nice young man. [
remember that two negro boys held
torches for us to eat our supper by,
and everything else was Of the same
primitive style.
But what has this little episode Of
mine to do with peafowls and anony-
nous letters? don't know how my
thoughts drifted that way, but they
will drift. To go back to them, l will
say that woman did not write the
letter, for she is too fond Of the beau
tiful to want to kill peafowl. And
| if the man who wrote it had have
known their ancient, historic renown,
he would have taken off his hat to that
beautiful bird and said: "Good morn
ing, sir, j hope you are well?'
BILL ARP.
P. S.-Some Georgians in Texas
and Indian Territory have sent me
some mule-eared rabbit feet and rab-
bit ears. They write that the feet are
for Colonel Gambler when he is "hard
rum" My daughters are wearing the
ears on their hats and I will keep the
feet till later. B. A.