The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1899-03-08

Years Ago.
Atlanta Constitution.
/ remember-yes, I remember the
cold Friday and Saturday Of 80,
when I was little male boy-I meaa
a mail boy-and bad to ride the mail
from Lawrenceville to Rosewell,
twenty four miles and back in day.
Friday was my day, rain or shine,
cold or hot, and my mother clied
when father helped me on to the
high dromedary horse that morning;
but was bundled up good, and had
warm, WOODEN socks over my shoes
and pair of home, knit mittens on
my hands and a woolen comforter
crossed around my neck and ears. I
thought I could stand it, for [ was
young and tough, and full of blood,
and had been raised to work in the
c,ld and to chop wood and 60 to
MIL, and my father always said that
boys who were raised easy would be
no account and die hard. I made
the trip to Rosewell in good time,
but it was growing colder and colder.
and the drizzling rain had turned
into sleet. For about an hour [ sat
by the postmaster's fire and got
thawed. He urged me to. stay all
night, and said I would freeze to
death on the ROAD, but knew my
mother would imagine I was some
where dead on the way and be cis-
tressed, and so the postmaster help
ed me cn the old dromedary and 1
gave him the reins for home and held
on to the horn of the saddle. He
was fine traveller, and paced up
hill and down hill at the same. By
the time I got to Gfegory's bridge,
on the C1attahoochee, 1 was pretty
well clad in ice, and the horses main
was solid sheet md his ears were
full. I stopped in the shelter of the
covered bridge a few minutes and
found I was getting colder, for the
sleet had blown under me on the
saddle and got into my socks. A
feeling of alarm came over me, for
my fingers were numb and my feet
too. Desperately I cluckea to the
good horse, and away he went, for
there were yet sixteen miles to make,
and the blizzard was on in earnest
and it looked like the darkness of
night had almost come. Mile after
mile was left behind, and / felt that
we could make il; but all of a sud-
den, when I got to Fairview Church,
Irealized that I had about lost feel
ing, for I couldn't unclutch my hand
from the horn of the saddle, snd I
didn't know whether my feet were in
the stirrups or not. I was only two
miles from home and my good horse
paced on. They were looking for me
my father and mother-and as the
horse rounded up to the back door I
almost fell into their arms, and my
hand was wrenched from its frozen
grip on the saddle. I remember
that, for it was the cold Friday, and
the next day was colder. I was
rubbed with turpentine and oil and
tenderly nursed, and in few days
was ready for another trip. We had
no thermometers then, and there is
no record how cold it was, but I re-
member that birds were frozen in the
woods and chickens on the roost. I
don't know whether these thermom-
eters are any advantage or not. The
other morning 1 got up soon and
made fire in two rooms and then
went out to the coalhouse toget more
coal for upstairs. I noticed that the
back hall floor and the steps ard
platform cracked strangely as [
walked on them, and [ felt that it
was cold-very cold-but I never
looked at the thermometer for half
an hour. and it was Z degrees below
zero. got colder Immediately, for
I had never seen the mercury that
low before. My opinion is that 10
degrees above zero is about as cold
as 10 degrees below if you have no
thermometer. I can't realize the
difference, and that is the reason
why our nothern brethren make so
little fuss about weather 80 or 40
degrees below the mark. ut is like
the engineer who was called in by a
railroad committee to give his opir-
ion about speed. They asked him if
it was more dangerous to run fifty
miles an hour than forty. He said
no. Can you run sixty as safe as
forty?" "Yes," said be. How about
seventy or eighty" Just as safe as
forty." he said, ''for If you Jump Il {