The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1901-09-12
BILL ARP'S LETTER
Sad Experience Of Young Ladies
Attacked By Yellow Jackets.
HE TALKS OF Ills B0YH0OD DAYS
Mrs. Arp Reminds Him Of Repairs and
General Work Needed, and
He Humby Obeys Orders.

My wife said she had premonition
| that We would have an early fall and
l had better prepare for it right away.
She reminded me that there were some
broken glass on the roof Of the flower
pit and the sash needed repaintlng
and the shelves renewing and / might
whitewash the brick wall, and so forth
| and so fifth. and so on. Well, l have
, done all that ard was humbly waiting
for the next order, when she told me
that Sam, the darky, wasent coming to
run the lawn mower over the grass IN
the front yard and maybe could do
1t and save Is cents. Well, I have
done that, but nobody paid me the
Is cents, and next thing l knew
she sent one Of the grandchll-
dren to me for Is cents to pay her debt
| to the aid society. These women have
got nearly as many clubs and socie-
| ties as the men, but they stay at
home of nights and that is better than
! the men do. There are the Masons
and Odd Fellows, and Nights
of Pythias and Nights Of Da-
mon and the Royal Arcanum and
the Elks and the Nights of Jericho
and Nights of Labor and they are all
nights, or midnights, and the women
| have to stay home and nurse the chill
dren. If l was a marrying woman l
would strike out the word obey and
put in a promise for the man that no
wouldn't join anything that took him
away from home at night. It's bad
enough for young folks to tramp
around at night hunting for the moon.
| They are crazy about the moon, and
that's why crazy folks are called luna
tics-for luna means the moon, and
the ticks are not far off on moonlight
walk in the woods. Last Tuesday
night there were six couples OF our
lunatics who went up the river road
In search of the moon. They wanted
to see It rise from out the water and
they had to get out to the big. fiat
rock in the river to see it, and they
had to slide down the bank to reach
| the rock, and the young men cooned
It down first 70 clear the way, and the
yaller jackets were waiting for them
and by the time the girls were on the
slide the little devils began the attack
and they took 'em on the slide in the
flank and in the rear, In the face and
shirtwaist and arms and legs, and took
the young men, too, and such scream
Ing and scrambling was never heard
or seen In that, part Of the country.
The young men did not desert their
partners, but showed them up the
slide again with great alacrity. The
whole party was bunged up amazingly.
Eyes and ears and noses and hands
| aad legs began to swell, and they nev-
er got to see the moon at all. The
girls cried with anguish and the boys
moaned and groaned, and there was
no ammonia, no soda, no doctor and
no house within mile. They could
just see enough to find the horses, and
by the time they got back home some
were blind in one eye and some in
both, and you couldent tell a hand
from foot, nor a nose from turnip
beet, nor the ankle from the calf-calf
OF the leg, 1 mean. Well, they got
home about midnight and that five
mile ride was the longest and most
miserable Of their lives. The young
men have not yet reported for duty,
nor have the girls dared to look into
| mirror, for fear Of breaking it. 1t is
a wonder that those girls with such
thin apparel we're not stung to death,
| but l suppose that the stufing and
padding about the breastworks saved
| them.
We old school boys know something
about yellow jackets. It is bad enough
to tackle nest in the daytime in open
ground where you can run and fight,
| but to slide down into one near the
water on dark night must be awful
In the extreme. The last time came
In conflict with the spiteful things I
| located the nest and went to the house
and got the wire fly catcher and set it
over the hole. It worked beautifully
and was fast filling up when an outsid-
+ er took me 'ker-bim" on the back OF
the neck and l departed those coasts
| with alacrity. By and by the boys
came and built little fire not far
away and set the fly catcher over the
smoke and killed the whole concern.
But you must look out for the outsid-
ers-the scouts and sharpshooters.
Bees can't sting but one time, but a
| jacket can keep up as long as the poi
son lasts. The sting Of bee is bad,
that of jacket is Bladder and a wasp
is the baddest of all. except hornet
or, perhaps, the devils packsaddle on
a fodder blade. They do say in Texas
that a tarantula is worse than all the
rest put together and frequently
proves fatal. They say, too, that any
sting is a cure for the rheumatism,
but never found a man that had tried
1t. Some poisons affect one person
more than another. A good citizen of
this county died in "a hours from bee
sting, but my faithful servant, Tip,
can take them up in his hands and let
them lite" on his neck and face and
sting him furiously, and he brushes
them off and laughs and says they
tickle him. l have picked the stings
of his flesh by the dozen, and he has
never had rheumatism. A colony OF
honey bees number 5000, yellow jack
cts 500 and hornets 200.
But this is enough about such pesky
things, though the sting of mosquito
seems to be attracting much attention
from the m@ Of science.
But I was ruminating about things
that have to be done before long. My
wife says 1t is about time to make
1oftuoo bod FOR tho winters SnnD1y and