The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-03-01
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Talks About the Cold Days Of Sixty Years
Ago.
Atlantic Constitution.

l was little male OCy-l mean NAL
boy-and had to ride the mail from
Lawrenceville to Roosevelt, twenty
four miles and back in day. Friday
was my day, rain or shine: cold or hot
and my mother cried when father
helped me on to the high dromedary
horse that morning; but I was bundled
up good, and had warm woolen socks
over my shoes and pair Of home-knit
mittens on my hands and wooden
comforter CROSSED around my neck and
ears. I thought could stand it, for
was young and tough, and full OF
blood, and had been raised to work in
the cold and to chop wood and 60 to
mill, and my father always said that
boys who were raised easy would be
no account and die hard. I made the
trip to Roosevelt in good time, but it
vas growing colder and colder. and
the drizzling rain had turned into
sleet. For about an hour sat by the
postmaster fire and got. thawed. He
urged me to stay all night, and said I
would freeze to death on the road,
but 1 knew my mother would imagine
was somewhere dead on the way and
be distressed, and so the postmaster
helped me on the old dromedary and /
gave him the feins for home and held
on to the horn Of the saddle. He was
fine traveller, and paced up hill and
down hill all the same. By the time
I got to Gregory's bridge, on the
Chattahoochee, was pretty we'll clad
in ice, and the horse's main was a
solid shees and his ears were full. [
stopped in the shelter Of the covered
bridge few minutes and found [ was
getting colder, for the sleet had blown
under me on the saddle ana got into
my socks. A feeling Of alarm came
over me, for my fingers were numb
and my feet too. Desperately I
clucked to the good horse, and away
he, went, for there we're 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 I
felt that We could make it; but all Of
sudden, when [ got to Fairview
Church, I realized that [ had about
lost feeling, for I couldn't unclutch
my hand from the horn of the saddle,
and I didn't know whether my feet
were in the stirrups or not. was
only two miles from home and my
good horse paced ON. They were look
ing for me-my father and mother
and as the horse rounded up to the
back door / almost fell into their
arms, and my hand was wrenched
from its frozen grip on the saddle. /
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 q few
days was ready for another trip. We
bad no thermometers then, and there
is no record how cold it was, but [ re-
member that birds were frozen in the
woods and chickens on the roost. /
don't know whether these thermom-
eters are any advantage or not. The
other morning got up soon and made
fire in two rooms and then went out
to the coalhouse to get more coal for
upstairs. I noticed that the back
hall floor and the steps and platform
cracked strangely as I walked on them,
and [ felt that it was cold-very cold
-butI never looked at the thermom-
eter for half an hour, and it was
degrees below zero. I got colder i'm
mediately, FOR I had never seen the
mercury that low before. Ny opinion
is that 10 degrees above zero is about
as cold as 10 degrees below if you
have no thermometer. can t realize
the difference, and chat is the reason
Why our northern brethren make so
little fuss about weather 80 and 40
degrees below the mark. ut is like
the engineer who was called in by
railroad committee to give his opinion
about speed. They asked him if it
vas more dangerous to run fifty miles
an hour than forty. He said no. Can
you run sixty as safe as forty =
Yes sad he. How about seven
" or eighty?' ''Just as safe as for.
.y,' he said, 'sfor if you jump the
track at forty you will go to the devil,
and that is as far as you can 60 at 100
miles an hour" just so | don care
much where the mercury goes to after
it gets below 20.
was talking to an old friend from
Maine about the weather, and he said