Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-06-17
Personal Paragraphs from Old plokens.

Old Pickens, June 4.--My last article
did not appear in your paper, hence my
silence. Thinking that it may have
misoarried or been misplaced, I write
again.
After drouth of four weeks, which
much retarded the germination of seeds
and growth of crops, this vicinity has
farmers are more cheerful. Wheat and
oats are almost failure in this section.
Much complaint among farmers about
the inferior stand Of cotton, but they say
it will come now, that 1t has rained and
moistened the earth. Corn is up gene
rally to stand and looks promising.
There is scarcely any fruit.
Rev. Wade, a Presbyterian minister of
Easley, preached an able sermon at Old
Pickens Sunday last to small congre-
cation. He has promised to come again
and as often as he can.
The holiness tent, which stood here
for two weeks and under which services
were conducted by Messrs. Craft and
Curtis, has departed.
| Mr.. j. B. Hill and wifc rejoice in the
( pleasing addition of another young mem
Der to their family.
The relatives and friends of Mr.. w. 81.
Reeder are grieved to hear of his serious
illness, and hope for his speedy recovery.
bright little boys, Elzie and Lee, is on a
visit to her mother and brother, Mrs. I.
| @. and Mr.. l.. b. Lee. Little Ellie is a
most remarkable child and seems to pos
sess wonderful memory. He is only
| five years old and yet he can recite from
memory, In distinct tones, the Lords
Prayer and the Twenty-third Psalm,
1.-THE Boy Stood on the burning Deck
and "You can scarce expect one of my
The other, Lee, is younger, but promises
to be equally bright. To hear this little
| fellow, unembarrassed and with perfect
pronunciation declaim, reminds me of
the system of "old time Schools" when
everybody, from the largest to the small
est, every Friday afternoon was required
to ''make a Speech" and every girl who
couid~write to "read composition" !
we'll remember whom the older boys in
the school of John L.. Kennedy, at Slab
town, would select for their speeches ex-
tracts from those of Patrick Henry, Cal
houn, Webster, Clay, Hayne, McDuffie,
Curran, Grafton, and some classic orator
would occasionally declaim the senti-
ments of Cicero or Demosthenes which
had once resounded in the Senatorial
halls of Greece and Rome. One fellow
uoiifoiOo Gio boiouSo Ok EuR0u0 AIdH
so often that the boys called him the
"Ram." Even Brntus and Mark Antony
DER the dead body of Imperial Caesar
were sometimes heard. The more relig-
iously inclined would deliver extracts
from the sermon of some prominent
divine. The girls would generally write
about love, music, flowers, spring, bad
boys, good girls, etc., thus proving that
"out of the abundance of the heart the
mouth speaketh."
The "Southern Reader and Speaker
was the book from which most of the
boys selected their speeches, and it
abounded in the finest specimens of
prose and poetry. 1 do not know by
whom it was compiled, but wish every
boy in the South had one, and also wish
1 had one, but don't know where to
get 1t. 1 do not know to what extent
elooution is taught in the schools of
to-day, but it is deemed by many most
important in tho education of boys be-
cause it develops whatever oratorical
power they may possess and imparts to
them degree of self-possession, elo-
quence of speech and grace of manner
not otherwise easily acquired. G.