The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1904-08-31
= ,ual Report.

NY TSt-
>ose, Mr.. Item,
1t has been my pusl ITS, through
to send in to my coEsTitus, nv doines
you, some sort of report Of n1nter
since my departure from his
but. as the good apostle said aeon. ~
contemplated journey to Rome
have been let hitherto. First, 1
have been running III the ringing
groove of events, and have bad no
time to waste with pen and ink; and,
secondly, am not altogether unmlnd-
full of the fact thas one Of my letters
from the mountains last summer
created a disagreeable sensation Ill
the minds of few of my friends, and
brought one or two of them TO Il state
of acute Inflammation. This fact,
backed up by lack of spare time, has
hindered me from writing. But now
that I have an of day, and am i'll a
purely pacific frame of mind, will
endeavor to give al account of events
in such way as not to offend the sup
er-refned senses of the saints referred
to above.
Our little party at Rockville is made
up of E. Fl. Rhame and family,
Drane Tindal, Rev. j. D. Higgins,
Mrs. Brown and myself. Rockville is
summer home for the cotton plant
ers whose farms are on the southern
end of Wadmalaw Island. There are.
twenty5or thirty houses here, and the
little village lies upon the very lip OF
the great tide water To my right,
in full view about half mile away
the great north Edisto flows by on it,
way to the sea. It is here about 1920
yards wide, and. in many places, a
hundred feet deep. After passing
the end of our island, it reaches sthe
ocean within less than mile. In
front of me, and helping to form our
island, is Bohicket creek. These low
country people, in utter disregard of
the truth of history, call this estuary
creek, although it is 800 yards wide
and 40 feet deep. In fact all of these
streams are merely arms of the sea.
and have no head-waters of their own.
They merely flow in from the sea and
then flow back The Edisto River
known to US in the up-count-y enters
the sea south of Edisto Island IL miles
| further down the coast. The waters
here, are of great depth and she rise
and fall of the tide in from six to nine
! feet.
Our pastime here consists in bathing,
| beating, fishing, picnicking, hauling a
seine and also largely in doctoring our
sore and sun burned epiderm. One Of
our main troubles arises from the TACT
that this is the open season for the sea
blubber, a jelly-like fish or other low
form of life, that comes floating
in from the sea. 1t has no
power of locomotion, but mere
| ly drifts with the tides and resembles
a rosette made of Jelly. 1t seems to be
highly charged with electricity or
something else and the merest touch
of the beast upon ones bare flesh
sends him off whooping and bowling.
In bathing we find 1T necessary to be
clothed from head to foot. These
blubbers sent, Tipdal, Higgins and
myself flying from our bath at our
first attempt to take dip, clothed in
| the regulation bathing suit. We now
60 forth clad, as the French would
say, 'cap-a-pie, and so render our
selves immune.
SEEMING is done on the ocean beach
at low tide, and requires ten or a
dozen men. Yesterday was hitched on
few heavy weight women also, but
we were never able to induce them to
be Quiet and keep their mouths shut,
and the squealing and squawling, with
the aid Of an east wind, gave Us very
Door luck. On a former trip, where
NO women entered as factors, we
hauled in six Bass, which weighed 25
pounds, three Drum, and more than
200 small fish, Whiting, Mullet, Trout
and Croakers. What gracious
thing it would be if, with one fell
swoop of the seine, we could scoop in
all the crokers which infest both land
and sea.
The boast of these islanders is
that they alone know how to make a
Bass head stew. "Tell .Ephraim I'll
be there on Saturday night, and will
expect Bass head stew. F" This was
the message carried from one broth
er to another. Thesaid stew is built
after approved plans and specifications:
The head of large Bass is stewed
with butter and pepper AID onions and
many other nice things, all OF which
are spoiled Tor me by the IacG UnaI 0ne
glutinous or gelatinous fish head is
there. The stew cones forth as Shiny
sort Of compound over which these
islanders smack their lips and make
exclamstions, while l sit by and
silently enjoy the slices of Bass
steak after the order of civilized
white man, who depends upon his own
head more than upon the head of any
Bass fish in the world for happiness.
Hauling a seine in the sea is quite
exercising The seine we use Is 2o0
feet long. At each end, fastened to a
upright pole, isa rope Of forty or fifty
feet. The seine is six feet deep at
each end and ten feet in the
middle. Six or eight of rs catch
hold CT the rope, and march
right out through the careering
breakers, until we find our footing fails
We then turn to the right or left, ac-
| oor1;no RI tha direction of the ride