Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1901-08-28
ARP ON OLD FRIENDS
Bill Says lie Receives Letters From
Old Men.
ANEW EACH OTHER LONG AGO
Likes -he Letters and Tries to An.
swer Them Rheumatism In Arr,
Cramps Ills Replies.

ihey are not all dead. In fact thev
seem to multiply as the years roll on
my contemporaries. | mean. receive
more letters from old men than | eyer
"iu' aud they write we'll and give long
'PlSteS' hen man gets along in the
seventies he feels lonesome. notvitb
S'ahulnS the near presence of childron
ana grandchildreh. The companions of
ms youth are gone, and SO somc os
.neSe ola men unboSom themselves IN
me Tor sympathy. | like such letters
ana try TO answer them all. bur rhou-
uatlSn in my arms and hands cramns
my replies. One old gentleman from
Alabama says he feels better after ba
mas written. for he is a native Georgi-
an and loves her people and her old
! req nils and the sweet memories op
Emory college and his visits TO Athens
| Where his uncle Elizar Newton livod
ana he met me there in the forties
ana John Grant and Dan Hughes and
Jack Brown and Billy Williams who
married my friends COUSIN and t,oI
,harSe OF the blind asylum-and how
ne heard pr Church preach and was
charmed with the music OF the choir
"here Miss Ann Waddell and Rosa
/ FFlnsie and other pretty girls sang.
ana how tall. long. high man. with 4
pig hooked nose and a huge "pomum
AuaruS on his throat. sang base. and
now ne was \ roommate of Tom Nor
wood at Emory and classmate Of
nlSHop Key and Judge a. B. Long
street, the author of Georgia Scenes ="
MAS the president: and how he ren,o,.-
~ to Aabama IN 1919 and morricd oni
Las seven daughters and no sons ana
I.,t,;
10 work early and late TO suppor; and
educate them. but never secs ami rorn.
Y hearS from any friend Of his youtb
ma is at times sad and depressed ani
.oNes Tor sympathy. Poor old man
wish that he lived near ne. for
would visit him and cheer him I'M. and
ell him anecdotes and antidotes. and
~e WoGld talk over the times and swan
,olieee stories and brag about the good
Dld days when there were no te!e-
traphs OF telephones or bicycles ana we
M not want any; no sewing machines
)r store clothes, and we didn't need
any; no football or baseball or haZing
" suicides or appendicitis And in
hose days came Toombs and Stephens
ana judge Doughcrty and Howell Cobb
ana Walter COlquitt and spake to the
people face to face and such eloquent
men as George Pcarcee and Bishop
CaperS and Jesse Mercer and Dir. How
and Goulding and Ingles preached to
them. Yes. we would t,lk about tho
days Of our boyhood, when there wa,
no gas or kerosinc or friction matches
nothing but candles 10 give us light.
and no PrOmctheus to steal fire from
heaven TO light them with. Shakespeare
Knew how it was. for he wrote:
How far that little candle throws its
beams,
So shines good deed in a naughty
world"
If Shakespeare wrote BY candle light.
"hy shouldn't we? And he. too, used
:he flint and steel to mako a sparl to
light them. pick your flint and keep
your powder dry" was General Jack
sons order To New Orleans. when
WAS n young merchant sun-nints we're
as common rs marbles. and sold them
at the sane price-I0 cents = Go,en.
Wonderful wonderful are the changes.
anl we old people fall in with them
and adapt them 10 Our use and our
comfort. | wouldn't be set back to the
good old times. If could. but would
enjoy seeing this generation all set
back about seventy years. just for
about a week. Ny Alabama friend and
other veterans would be ticillcd to
death TO see tho universal dismay-no
railroads or telegraph no mail bur
once wcek-and - cents for sncle
letter. No daily newspapers in Che
state and only four weekncs. WITH no
sensations. no suicides or lynchiags
There would be no cooking stoves, n
coal. no steel pens or envelopes. no
cigarettes. No millionaires or free mig
gers. ! remember when cotton was
packed in round bales with a crowbar.
The long bag was made first and was
suspended from hole in the gin
house floor and Uncle Jack got down
in it and packed the cotton hard as i,
was thrown to him. He packed twC
bales a day and they weighed SOC
pounds each Two OF them filed tho
bed OF the big wagon and five moro
were crossed on top and fastened down
with a long pole. Al the little spaces
were filed with corn and fodder, the
big cover put on and with n four or
siX-horse team we were of for Angus
ia. 1t was ten-days trip and we boys
were happy 20 so along and camp out
all niaNt and listen u the gSer Grl
vcrs ten about ghosts and Jack-o'-
Lanterns and witches and raw head
and bloody bones. 1t wal great fun We
brought back sugar and molasses IN
great hogsheads. 1t was brown sugar,
for white sugar wasn't invented, eX-
| cept a kind called loaf sugar, which
was put up in dve-pound cones and
| covered with blue paper. That kind
| was for rich folks and was very prec-