The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-03-19
BILL ARP.
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couraged and will answer their In
quir;es as far as l can. These young
people In the country towns have
schools to go to, but they lack books
reading books, cyclopedias. bio
graphies. and If was as rich as Carn-
egie l would plant a library Of such
books in every community. would
| have a million sets Of some standard
cyclopedia pranted for every school,
even if they cost fifty million dollars.
That would diffuse knowledge among
the young people and do more good
than all he is doing in the big cities.
But what We most need in the South
are historical books that will be stand
ard with us and relate the truth about
TIE South and secession and the con-
:cderacy and slavery and the war and
reconstruction. had cyclopedia that
gave whole column Of apology for old
John Brown and the pedigree Of every
Northern rare horse, and no mention
OF John B. Gordon or Forrest or any
OF our Southern poets or authors or
orators. l swapped it of at half price
for the international by Dodd, Meade
& Co. The tributes in that work to
Mr. Davis and Lee and Jackson are all
that could be desired and more than
was expected.
wonder what has become Of that
great Southern publishing house that
was projected in Atlanta some time
ago. That Is what we want and must
have to perpetuate Southern history
and defend our fathers and grand
fathers from the slanders Of Northern
foes. 1t Is Northern histories, North
ern novels and Northern plays that
have already poisoned the minds OF
thousands of cur young people. Only
yesterday glanced at serial story in
an Atlanta paper and the first thing !
saw was a verse which read:
John Ehowns body lies moulaering
the ground.
But his soul keeps marching on
In Missouri paper saw where a
yankee troupe were playing Uncle
Toms Cabin" And now fool fellow
from Wisconsin wants to get our gov
erno:s 10 appcint delegates to con-
vention in Atlanta to determine the
race problem. and 1t is said that man
Spooner is at the bottom Of it to get
up a presidential boom for himself. /
suspected there was a niger in the
woodpiie, for these Northern politi-
clans never do anything from patri-
otic, unselfish motives. Hanna's
scheme fell through and Spooner
thought he could patch it up. But the
South never was aroused and united
on the negro question and will resent
all interference, whether 1t comes
from Washington or Wisconsin. Wis
consin. What impudence! A state
whose foreign population is 81 pei
cent. Of the whole, anc OF these there
are $4,000 who can't speak English,
and three times rs many Indians.
What does Wisconsin know or care
about our race problem? In the last
few days have received three letters
from young people wanting to know
something about the confederate flags.
what were the designs and who design
ed them. I wish that I could sketch
them and paint them in this letter, but
all I can co is to describe them and
give their history. There were four
in ell. but only two lived to see the
end at Appo:aattox.
No. l, or the Stars and Bars" was
adopted by the confederate congress
at Montgomery. It's stars were on
blue field and it's red and white bars
made it look somewhat like the Stars
and stripes, and sometimes was mis-
taken for the United States flag, and
SC General Beauregard designed.
No. 2, "The Battle Flag" and Cen
eral. Joe E. Johnston adopted 1t, and
It was never changed. 1t was a blue
cross, or rather an X studded with
stars and set on a red field.
No. 8. In May, 1863. the confederate
congress adopted national flag. 1t
was a miniature battle flag set on .
white field that had white border at
INe sue duu dI IuC uOIlShi. coS -
proved to be a mistake, for it had too
much white and afar off was mistaken
fer flag of truce.
And so on March, 1865, congress
adopted No. as the national flag.
This had the same battle flag on a
blue field, but the white border was
smaller and a red one put on the ort-
side Of that. This flag did not wave
very long. only about a month, out
nevertheless 1t remains as the national
flag Of the confederate states.
But the dear old battle flag No. 2
was the fighting banner Of every COM
pany. Our wives and our daughters
made them for the boys in gray, and
many of them were smuggled back
home again after the surrender and
still kept as household treasures. Our
boys. the Rome Light Guards, had one,
and one night the young people gave a
tableaux performance in the city hall
to raise a little money to put some
benches In the desecrated churches for
all the pews had been taken out and
converted into horse troughs for the
staff horses. One scene in the tableaux
represented a battle field where women
4.