The Banner-Democrat., 1901-01-05
BILL ARP'S LETTER
Barlow Man Tries Hard to Put
On a Good Face.
HAS SMILE FOR ALL REPUBLICANS,
But Admits That It Is q Sickly Efrort o.,
"Look Pleasant''-He Discusses
the Election.

| the Election.
The scriptures tell us to rejoice with
those who rejoice and weep with those
who weep. 1 am trying to do it, bu,
it is an awful strain. When I meet o
Mckinley man try to smile, but i,
is only sickly grin and is only skin
deep. They are pretty thick around
here now since the election, and so be.
tween mourning with the Bryan men
and rejoicing with the Republicans
my countenance has lost its normal
and natural condition and it is bard to
tell whether I am crying or smiling.
We did not know that there were
more than a dozen respectable Nc
Kinleyites in the community, but il
turns out that there were scores of
them. Nearly all of the plutocrats
voted that way on the sound money
platform. They lend money and want
it paid back in gold. A good many
farmers who have some cotton on hand
were led to believe that it would go up
again to 10 or IL cents if Mckinley
was elected, but it dropped Is points
the day after the election. But 1t is
all over now and the wheels keep roll
ing on. Let them roll. The million
aires and plutocrats can't eat their
money or wear it out. It is obliged to
60 back to the toilers, the people, in
some way.
The Standard Oil Company declared
dividend yesterday of 40 per cent,
but Rockefeller don't hoard it. He
gives away big slice to education and
utilizes the rest. What blessed thing
it is, that man can't take his money
with him when he dies. If he could /
reckon we poor folks would perish out
in generation. After all, it is not
money that brings happiness. A good
living, a competency honestly earned,
brings far more happiness than riches.
This kind of talk is 1000 years old,
but the people don't believe it yet;
everybody wants money, a big pile of
money; L would like it myself; I want
some for rainy day and some to give
away, but we are not in distress, and
never have been, though for some
years of the war and just after we were
on the ragged edge.
Talk about prosperity, saw it last
week over in South Carolina. There is
nice little town over there called Pros
perity, but / didn't see it. I went to
the old town of Darlington. I was
there eighteen years ago. It was
good old town then, but it has renew
ed its youth and taken on new life and
1 hardly knew the place. Cotton
mills and oil mills and good farming
have done it. The cotton crop of that
county is 80, 600 bales and the tobacco
crop was 100000 pounds and it
brought half as much money as the
cotton crop. Fifteen years ago there
was not pound for sale raised in the
county. They didn't know it would
grow there. Now there are three large
warehouses, where it is auctioned off
every day. attended the auctions
and it was o revelation to me. The
farmers wagons were unloading all
around and their tobacco was piled up
neatly in long rows and their names
and the number Of pounds written on
o card and stuck In the split end of
little white pine stick and that was
stuck in the center of the pile.
For an hour or two before the auc-
tion begins the buyers from Richmond
and Winston and Durham and Liver
pool and other markets went all around
and examined the quality of every pile
and took notes. The auctioneer talked
70 fast I could not understand him,
put the buyers did. I reckon there
we're two or three hundred piles in
zach warehouse and the auctioneer
md the crowd went from pile to pile
md sold each one where it was. / heard
,ome knocked down as low as 8 cents
and some as high as 81 cents.
There is one curious rule about
obacco auctions that does not apply \
70 any other auction. The farmer can
reject the highest bid and keep his
,obacco. If he and his boys have re-
'olved that their crop shall bring 20
,ents pound and it brings only 10
le turns the card down and takes his
obaoco home, or maybe hauls it around
% another warehouse, whore the same
buyers find it next day and maybe bid
,ver 20 cents for it. This is one of the
ricks of the trade. The difference be-
ween the grades was hardly percepti-
lie to my eyes, but the buyers know.
6 was all bright yellow, but some
vas brittle and wormeaten and some
vas soft and plant as q kid glove. |
This was bought for wrappers.
This evolution has come within ten |
'ears. and is increasing every year, for
N acre of good tobacco will bring $100
md it costs only s25 to cultivate it.
Ny friend, Mr.. Williamson, the bank
T, told me he had thirty-five acres
'lanted this year and it netted him
III per acre. There is another evo-
ution in Darlington county. Ten
'ears ago no wheat was grown there.
Tow every farmer sows wheat and a
arge -four mill has recently been built.
{ was the same way in middle Georgia.
Until about five years ago all that re-
ion was under the ban, and the farm
rs did not pretend to grow wheat.
low they make more wheat to the
ere, all around Griffin and Barnes
lille. than we can make in north Geor-
la.
And so evolution and revolution is
oing on, but they don't give McKin-
ey credit for it in South Carolina. It
> amusing to hear them tell about the
rosperous negroes over there. Be-
ween cotton aud tobacco they pocket