The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-06-18
BILL ARP.


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Joel Chandler Harris says that easy
reading is hard writing" and Sheridan
gives the antithesis when he says,
"You write with ease to show your
breeding,
But easy writing is curst hard read
ing"
l am too sick to write easy, but l
don't wish to be curst about it. This
gloomy weather takes away all my
hilarity. Lowell says, ooh, what's so
rare as a day in June" 1t has rained
every day and every night since the
LIST and we didn't like it at my house,
for it was my wife's birthday and we
hoped it would be bright and balny,
for the poor woman don't get but two
maternal feasts in a year and two pa
ternal kisses. l was sick the night be-
fore and she was up with me half the
night and slept late. I had creeped in
to breakfast and slipped a %five-dollar
gold piece under her plate and intend
ed to rise and kiss her unwrinkled
brow when she appeared, but she slip
ped up behind me and kissed me first.
She v did 1t that way before and
the boys hint that she saw the gold
shining and it excited her labial views
and osculatory glands and she couldn't
refrain.
Gold, gold. gold, gold,
Bright and yellow, hard and cold,
Heavy to get and light to hold.
Spent by the young but Rugged by the
old
To save 10 ruin, to curse or to bless,
Now stamped with the image of good
Queen Bess
And now of bloody Mary"
But she got more than I gave her
and nobody got a kiss but me. Call
dren," said /, this is your mothers
seyenty-second birthday. You know
that the stars fell seyenty-two years
ago and that's the reaso they did fall.
They knew that q brighter light was
coming and so they paled their incffec-
tual fires and fell to the ground and
expired.
Il am only H., said my wife. why
do you try to make me 72?" Because"
said I, you have had seventy-two
birth days. You had one the day you
was born. When you were a year old
you had had two
Then she gave it up.
These birthdays are the mile stones
that measures the journey Of life.
Next Monday l will be 70. On the 23rd
n Of the girls will be 40. On the oath
my mother was born and so was my
little g%randchild. Caroline, who was
named for her. My wife can tell the
birthday Of every child and grand
child. but | know only half a dozen.
Well the Mexican boy did come and
for a whole week we have Toasted on
his presence and listened to the same
old songs he used to sing. He IS a fine
singer and has plenty Of help from
the children and grandchildren.
And the night was filled with music
And the cares that infest the day
Folded their tents like the Arabs
And silently stole away.
And the little boy, who is only %
months old, and looks like me, joins in
the hilarity and tries to sing. and holds
up his skirt and dances the cakewalk
and kicks up his feet and bows to the
audience with great solemnity. He
plays monkey in the show, and his
young mother thinks he Is the smartest
and prettiest child In all the world, and
/ think sc, for they say he is just like
me. What kind Of a world would this
be without these little children, and
yet the last census says they are not
wanted Up in New England any more.
They say that Roosevelt loves children
and wants to encourage maternity.
Well, III give him credit for that when
be retracts and apologies. Our Next
can boy says the poems of Mexico have
them by the score. Their abode houses
have but one big room with a dirt floor,
and you will see a man and his wife
and a flock of dirty, lousy, greasy chill
dren and half a dozen dogs all gathered
there by day and roosting there by
night. A peon is the biggest vagabond
On earth. He will work n or two
days in a week for 81 cents o day and
be paid in Mexican silver that is worth
only half what ours is, and he and the
family and the dogs will live on this
for a week. They will steal everything
that is in sight and not Locked up;
says he has known them to break into
q car that was sidetracked and steal
and carry off 1000 pounds of nachi2-
cry. They will get it TO the city some
way and sell it to q junk shop for 4
dollar or two. The Americans do all
the manufacturing; the Germans all
the hardware business; the French all
thc silk and fine goods, and the ma
tives all the little shop business and
run the saloons. Besides the arch
Bishops and bishops, no less than
twenty-five priests o1iciate around the
chancel in the great cathedral every
day. Somebody must stay there to re-
ceive the offerings and grant absolu-
ton and remission of sins. This is the
largest cathedral in the world except
three. 1t is 46 feet long, $40 feet wide