The age-herald., 1901-05-03
 MeDuffie and Toombs.

reer. IT female, rather fortunate III marriage"
 McDutfe and Toombs.
 Said a man yesterday who comes again:
 T was about to tell you the other day what now add, but you took on sleepy look and I put it off to a more conven- lent season. After the review of the militia (there was no sign of National Guard in those dim days of the empire), Governor McDuffie went to the residence of a planter near by to spend the night. That planter of South Carolina then. it may be remembered, is now resident of Birmingham, ninety years old, yet walks mile or more of streets daily, disdain- ing support of cane. About dark a com mittee of citizens of the court house vil- lage in the vicinage waited on the Cover nor to invite him to speak from the court house porch the day following. Runners were dispatched over the country and a great crowd came to hear the speech Now. in those times an active overland commerce prevailed between South Caro- lima country merchants and North Caro- lima and Virginia farmers in flour and peach and apple brandy. There were no railroads but in lieu thereof trains of white-top wagons. each drawn by four horses of high blood. Indeed, hardly any flour was then consumed in the cele- brated Old Cheraw' region of South Carolina, where the greater cotton plant CTS lived, along the Pedee, that did not come from one or both of those two fn hA A4A lxv Ax.I such fouri Except the peach and apple brandy, there was nothing so good for man: no chalk or corn dust or adultera- ton of this base age at all. The wheat farmers, who were also distillers, drove their own wagons They were splendid yeomanry, only one generation removed from the time of George Washington. The wagons had various side line ex- pedients for making remunerative winter trips South. They brought apples to sell by the dozen to travellers along the high ways or to the children at the homes they might pass, like our Greeks of Bir- mingham A favorite gain-producer with them too, was the quarter-horse race. On the streets of Cheraw once wagon we'll loaded, drawn by four horses, the cargo fresh from Virginia, drew up to find a market.
 Glory of the Quarter Race.
 The wagoner heard some of the young planters. lettering about the stores, ar range for a quarter-race, between their own saddle horses, later in the day He took his cue He attended the race, riding a little gray gelding that had helped to pull his wagon down from Virginia. full of good blood all the same When excite ment on the track had lulled. the wagon CT let fall a careless rather thought he would like to try his gray against the saddle horse that had been just beaten Certainly! The hat was dropped the wag- oner's gray leaped, like a pugilist's punching bag, to the front. The race over, the wagoner put the $50 stakes in his pocket. Could the wagon horse beat the winner in the saddle horse trial of few minutes before. since he had so easily beaten the loser? The wagoner thought it doubtful but would put up his money to see the question settled. The wagoner won two fifty-dollar stakes that same afternoon!
 By the way, In these old times, two young gentlemen of the vicinity, who finally emigrated to Alabama, opened a mile circular track on the suburbs of Cheraw. where they kept some of the best-bred race horses in the United States in full training. One of the best of these horses was bright sorrel geld ing, a two-mile heat runner. No horse of less capacity than one mile heat was known One of the owners of the track happened to see the four-horse stage from Columbia drive into Cheraw with blood-like sorrel in the lead of the team. Following the stage to the stables, a careful examination of the horse and inquiry into his pedigree led to the pur- chase of the animal for the race stable. So Sorrel Jackson changed hands to be- come the source of unaloyed delight to the young people of all the surrounding territory, who were wont to attend the semi-annual meet at the track. Jackson was a sure horse on a two-mile heat race.
 "Both of the young men who owned the track. singular to relate, became citizens of Alabama, the one buying a plantation on the Chattahooche, below Girard that had been opened by Governor James Hamilton. and the other settling on plantation on the opposite limit of the State. on the Tom Bigbee below Demop- olis There both men were when the plan tation life. in all its vigor of democracy, went out to make way for MT. Lincoln and the empire.