The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-01-11

harbor, and the other to Fortress
Monroe. Thus died the Confederacy
at the home-in the very house-of
hits birth.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
AS the district furnished the "isms''
before the war. it is worth noting that
it still continued to coin them. Mr..
Watson started the first branch of the
Po2ulist party in the South in his
district in 1890, though the Popnlist
party of the country really had Its
birth six years before in South Caro-.
lina,,. when Senator Tillman started
his agrarian movement, the success OF
which: inspired the general agrarianl
movement, of the country, and
caused tthe naming ola Pouplist party
in Kansas. When the Popuiist party
by naEle reached South Carolina,
howeveA. Mr.. Tillman skillfully kept
his people within the Democratic
party so we'll so, that South Carolina
was the only State In the Union that
did not have a delegate at the st.
Louis Populist Convention in 1886
. THE DIsPENsARY.
Tie dispensary system of State liquor
control, now enforced in South Caro-
lima, and destined to play larger
part, was in the municipality Of
Athens, and appropriated by Senator
Tillman. Woman suffrage has more
adherents in South Carolina than IN
any State in the South and its CHIEF
advocates are in this little district.
The district has always dominated
politics in South Carolina and like.
wise in Georgia until recent times.
w. H. Fleming, who is now repre-
senting Watson's and Stephens dis
trict in Congress as Democrat, was
Speaker of the Georgia House. and
leader there for long time, and as
pires to leadership in Washington
THE LITERATURE. rG
Among men of letters, though the
South has been properly productive in
this respect, it is doubtful whether
any other locality of the South has
had continuously quite so many con.
tributors to the higher literature oil
the country as this, Paul Hamilton
Hayne, who competed in the popular
mind with Sidney Lanier (himsel
born just outside the district, at Ma.
con, Ga for the palm as the greatest
poet yet produced by the South, lived
within tiften miles of Augusta, out
among the sands and pines. Richard
Henry Wilde, the author of THAT i'm.
mortal little classic, 'My Life is Like
the Summer Rose" was born and lies
buried in Augusta. James r. Randall,
the author of the South's great wal
poem. "My Maryland" and probably
her greatest war poet (unless Father
Abram Ryan be that one) lives and
works in Augusta. and has done sc
since the civil war. Father Ryan
lived fora quarter of q century, dur.
lug his prime, in Augusta. The ear.
liest piece of Georgia fiction, as well
as one of the earliest of the South.
Georgia Scenes" still standard
was written by Judge Longstreet,
born in Augusta Richard Malcolm
Johnston, the novelist, recently de-
ceased, was born and lived the greater
part of his life in this district, where
the scense of all his "Dukesborough
Tales" are laid. Harry Stillwell Ed
warde lives in the district, at Sparta
There are other poets and writer's OF fiction
| here, who have the atiopal attention
| The peculiar temperament and degree o.
activity of the people of this district are
apparent. Following the fate OF all people
of enterprise and promulgators of new and
original ideas, they have sometimes brought
themselves under the ban of public disap
proval; but they appear, according to the
evidence, TO be nothing dampened by defeats
They continue TO produce "isms," and
| Still hold their bridled steeds,
| And poise their lapces low;
Prepared swift blows to deal
| Or to receive blow.