The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1902-02-12
PIseAH NEWS NOTES.


some oats planted over in this sec
ton. The prospect here for crop is
the poorest for years.
The bad weather, rainy and cold for
the last two weeks has brought the
usual crop Of colds, coughs and grippe.
A good many are sick at present. 1t
is wonder more do not die than do
from exposure, especially when their
clothing is not as good and warm as it
should be. Our hardest cold seems to
come after Christmas of late years.
A rural free mail service is being
agitated here, to commence at Rem
berts Post Office and run by the Pisgah,
and Brown Post Offices. An agent of
the government will soon be here to
look over the route.
I hear of no good mau having any
difficulty in getting advances this
year. When one door is closed, an
other is wide open to them. The rent
ers are not succeeding in getting help
and the landlords are not waving
their rents. So the prospect for them
is rather gloomy.
A good deal Of guano is being haul
ed, though it will not be used as ex-
tensively as last year.
Hands are getting scarce here. If
they keep on going as they have for
the last two years, there will be none
left for the farmers. A kind of Ia
Dor contract has been in use here for
sometime, something like those in
Anderson County. A minor or some
other person, wants little credit.
They sign a labor contract not to
move without permission, or not more
than mile and half, work at Is or
20 cents per day in discharge Of the
debt bought at palace prices, &c. Then
these contracts are transferable; one
party buys negro at so much and
works the debt out. Sometimes five or
six persons have claims on one darkey
and as he can't pay all, he takes to the
woods. That is the cause in part of so
many leaving. I am informed that
they are used as collateral for lien
debts kind of mortgage or bill of sale
on oneself It is amusing to read
one. I have never heard of one being
enforced. Of course they are not
worth legally the paper they are writ
ten on, for nobody but fool would
admit that man has the right to
mortgage himself to secure a debt as
he would a piece of property. He
might do so out enforcing the mortgage
would be the fun, but then we have
wise Alecks' these days who want to
subordinate law, or constitutional
rights, to meet their ends, even il they
practice bull dosing methods to do
the same with the ignorant.
The survey, and re-survey, Of Lee
County at this place, are a mile and
half apart, where they cross the
Columbia road which runs by Pisgah
Chuch. The re-survey turned at the
stake in Bradley's field and went due
North which is in the bill, and in
Spring Hill Township. Lee County
went on further into Rafting Creek,
but gives no boundaries. There is a
mistake somewhere.
The legislature made no mistake
when it elected Hon. R. 0. Purdy to
the Judgeship, and 1 could say the
same if Mr.. Fraser had been elected.
The death of Capt. Pierson leaves
the County Board of Equalization
again without Chairman. Two
dying in one year.
The campaign will soon open and
trust that all candidates will advo-
cate their claims for Office on their
merits and not on some popular chord
as the "old soldiers" that was 80 ex-
tensiyely done IN the last campaign.
We all love the old fellows and the
State is right in doing all she can for
them. A statesman will try to elevate
people to his line of thought, but a
politician will pander to the lowest
wishes of people, knowing them to
be wrong, in order to be popular, and
get votes. Hon. T. B. Fraser made his
canvass for the legislature against a
most popular measure, the dispensary,
but he was sincere and honest in his
belief and he got there all the same.
Congressman Lever, and Feely of
Chicago, are the babies of the
House. Lever is 27 and Feely 26 years
old, while Grow of Pennsylvania is
the daddy 81 years cd.