The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1898-05-13
ST. LUKE'S SCHOOL.
FULL REPORT OF THE CLOSING EX
ERCISES INTERESTINGLY TOLD by
A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.
Newberry, s. c., May 8, 1898.

Education of Newberry County, your
tending the closing exercises of St.
Luke's Academy, Saturday the 7th in
slant. Starting from Newberry at
1870 we covered the IL miles in less
than hours going via Prosperity, st.
Lukes Academy being miles below
Prosperity. We passed the famous old
Stony Battery site. This used to be
the old muster ground before the war,
and quite number of interesting
stories have been told of this famous
old place both during the Revolution
and notification days. It Is still fa-
nous as stumping ground of the can
didates for the various state and county
Offices and Capt. Higgins tells me that
the candidates hore face possibly the
largest audiences Of any place in the
county, and tho votes of the sturdy
yoemanry of the Stony Battery section
are eagerly sought after by all candi-
dates. The Captain told me of some
amusing incidents in his experience
when he made his first canvass through
this section, when he was an entire
stranger to the people. One of which
was when he was passing down the
road he came to field of corn where
fodder pulling was going on. He
stopped, hitched his horse, pulled off
his coat, jumped over the fence and
wadcd into that field of corn and began
pulling fodder without asking anyonc's
permission or letting himself be known.
Being an expert ut this business he far
ontstripped tho other pullers who
watched him in open-eyed astonish-
ment. They asked stranger who are
you?". He told them "Oh, just ono Of
the boys, you will know mo some of
these times" and got in his buggy and
drove on. Not long afterwards the
campaign meeting took place Mt Stony
Battery. When he was introduced and
arose, man way over in the crowd
yelled out, 'Say boys that is the little
fellow who did the fodder pulling, and
I'll he gol darned if I amt going to
vote for him." and the boys in that
section just piled in the votes for him
when tho time came .
When we arrived at ST. Luke's I was
utterly astonished at the number of
vehicles. Tho woods seemed to be full
Of them, and I could very readily
understand that Il place that could get
together such @ crowd as that at the
closing exercises of school would be
an attractive place for tho stump
speaker. It reminded me very forcibly
of the old time camp meeting crowd
that used to gather at the camp ground
in this county, and by the way, I no
ticed in returning by the Iilgore road
for the first time in IL years that the old
familiar camp ground has undergone
quite change. The beautiful grove
Of oaks and pines, under which thous-
ands of Newberrians have spread their
picnic cloths and enjoyed such delica-
cies as only the ladies of Newberry
County know SO we'll how to prepare.
The old harbor, with its hundreds of
plank seats, and heavy carpeting Of
new mown hay, where tho people gath
cred by the thousand to listen to the
preachers times u day. The old fa-
miliar sites for the temporary family
tents, are oil things of the past, aud
the beautiful woods have been fclled to
the ground. and the plant with the
fleeoy plumage stands in their stead.
King cotton has won another victory
and captured this sacred territory unto
itself. 1t makes one feel sad and some
what disappointed to pass over the
scenes of his childhood and find that Is
years have wrought such great changes,
that the picture in his minds eye while
approaching is completely destroyed
The exercises Of st. Luke's Academy
which school has been in charge Of
Prof. a. e. 2. Bedenbaugh, assisted by
Miss Lillian Luther (who have shown
by their work that the school was in
good hands,) opened with prayer by
the Rev. G. S. Beardin at 1890 after q
photograph of the school had been
taken. There are 81 scholars enrolled
In this thriving school, quite largo
number of whom took part in the closing
exercises, which consisted CT addresses,
orations, dialogues, recitations, and
tableaus. r ".. .
The opening address was gotten up
In very catchy manner. Tho young
man who delivered it came upon tho
stage, supposed to be in tho woods, re-
hearsing his speech for the morrow.
He was discovered by two schoolmates
who guied him and wanted to know
where the crowd was to whom he was
speaking. They then offered him ad-
vice about how to deliver his speech,
and as consequence when he returned
to deliver tho speech he got it glori-
ously confused. The next pieco on the
programme was Merry l,iay by 20 chill
dren OF this session. Miss Essie May
Moore was the pretty little queen of the
occasion. The following characters
were represented by the children Fun
and Frolic, Jollity, Duty, Publicity,
Ma1ostv pri1a Uon{iv Pao,}u Nou..