Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-03-23
LETTER FROM OLD plckENs.
Some Timely Advice to Farmers--A Blow to
tho Lien Law and DIspensary Law.

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Old Pickens, March 16.-Editore
Courier: Along with the whistline
OF the March wind, the gentle COO
ing of the dove, and the mournful
wall of the whippoorwill comes the
alluring announcement of the city
and town merchant: "My books
are open lien time has come ; guano
has arrived; plenty of mules and
horses on time; abundance of corn,
bacon, flour, &C., can be had for cash
or good paper" And now may the
farmer, who plows Western mule,
hitohed to a foreign made plow- stock
in imported gear, and whose compost
pile, corn crib and smoke house are
in the West, wend his joyful way to
market, mortgage bis mule and milk
COW, give a lien OH his crop, buy his
manure and get supplies on credit
until his crop his 'slaid by" when
his lien loses it's virtue, so far as get
ting rations is concerned.
What thenP Shift for yourself,
hunt work, get some flour and go to
the blackberry patch. When the
Eides of November come along with
wintry ice and the shrill shrek
of screech owl, this dormant lien
raises it's hideous head, the mer-
ciless tramp of an officer OF
the law is heard and the crop,
whose value was considered be-
fore it was made, is seized or sur
rendered, and if this is not sufficient,
the voracious mortgage, vulture-like,
devours its prey, in many instances
not leaving enough to tempt visit
from Santa Claus to the thinly Glad,
half-expectant children on Christmas
morn. Of course this is not gene
raj thing, but too often the man who
leans on lien in spring and summer
when fall comes is lean himself, has
lean, respondent wife, lean chill
dren, lean stock, and corn crib and
smokehouse that need no lock.
The merchant is not to blame, for
if the lien and mortgage were not
given by the farmer they could not be
enforced. Nor is the cultivator of
the soil wholly at fault, because con-
ditions are such that credit cannot be
otherwise obtained. There is but one
remedy: Make our meat and bread
at home. Let cotton be a surplus
crop. Thus | wrote one year ago,
and Notwithstanding the advance
in the price of cotton, [ see no rea-
son to change my views, and the
man who farms on credit will find
that the price of his fertilizers and
supplies will keep equal pace with
the price Of cotton.
1t was hoped by many that the
lien law, dire source of high per
cent and ruinous credit, with It's de-
moralizing influence upon labor,
would be repealed by our Legislature,
but the concentrated wisdom of the
State decreed otherwise. 1t seems
indeed that this odious law, with it's
twin curse, the dispensary law, are TO
remain on our statute books, and
80 long as they do we may expect
poverty and debt to continue as a
result of the former, and drunken
ness and crime as the inevitable con-
sequences of the latter. Statistics
seem to show that our big drunkard
factory in Columbia, with its numer-
GUS plants scattered all over the
State, is paying financially, but
what are they doing morally and
spiritually? Let the criminal re-
cords of our courts, the wall of MANY
orphans, the tears of countless
widows and the anguish of many a
lost soul answer.
am told that in the city of Co.
lumbia is located "Keely Institute,' p
which permanently cures the drunk.
ard, totally and forever destroying
his thirst or craving for the "chemi-
cally pure" Since many claim that
the profits of the dispensary are
tainted with blood and should not be
used for educational purposes, how
would it do to use the same to hire
or lease the Institute by the State to
cure or redeem the victims of its
dispensary.
From January till now the weather
has been unusually cold and wet, SC
much SO that but little work has
been done on the farm, but all indi.
cations point to a heavy increase in
the acreage of cotton as well as corn
in this section. Many old fields, fol
many years barren, are being cleared
and will be put in cotton.
A few few days ago, in passing the
site of Old Pickens Court House
which is overgrown with broom
straw and shrubbery, | found an old
colored man, Willis Jenkins, clearing
off the lot with the intention of cul.
tivating it in cotton this year. He
is now the owner of the lot on which
fifty years ago, as a boy of ten years
of age, he was sold to the highest
bidder at the sale of Pleasant Alex.
ander and brought something over
six hundred dollars. From here he
was carried to North Carolina, where
he remained until emancipation
when he returned. Verify shines dc
change and men change with them.'
jenkins is an Industrious, reliable
man and does all he can for the ad
vancement of his race. He enjoys
the respect and confidence of tht
white as well as the colored people
IL affords ne pleasure to inform
my esteemed friend, your versatil,
correspondent from Tugaloo, that
am still among the living, despite tn,
grip and temporary loss of taste.
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