The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-03-23

playing the lady long before they
were cut Of pinaforcs! licy were re
scr,cd and prim. but not too much so,
for sou could tell hy ihci, spa:k ling
eyes, by tie laughter that i!ay".! hide
and seek in their dimplce, and by
their restless feet that they we're not
too pTim for :tfroic. Ol Ammo Doni
~ liao changed them somewhat. or
~onc he ha, made stately danes.
some he has made lean, and some 30
Fat that they waddlc az they wall. Il
but you should have seen them when
they were young enough To be chill
drcn and old enough to mimic the
manners of their mothers,
And there were the oaks, and the
pines, and the poplars-trccs that
had their beginning about the time
that Paul was warning the Galatians
to put an end to their squabbling.
But the trees are gone now, having
been masticated and digcsted by a
little saw mill run by donkey engine.
You will have to 60 to the primeval
woods, wherever they are, to see such
trees now. The man of middle age,
or older, will tell you a good many
things about them that will be hard
to believe. Moreover he will ask you
what our boasted progress has done to
preserve the chestnut trees. They
are all either dead or dying, and what
is youth worth without the experience
gained from efforts to open the chest
nut burrs?
If he observes that you are in
sympathetic mood he will grow conf
Dental enough to tell you that while
there has been some Improvement in
the watermelon, SO far So size and
numbers 60, the flavor is not the
same; and, indeed, all other consider
ations apart, how could it be, when
people have become so fnicky and
dainty, that they refuse to eat melons
as they should be eaten. Of course,
you know nothing about it, for you
are too young or you have been raised
in a different way.
1t IS all very well: the middle-agci
man will tell you, to buy watermelon,
or to be presented with one; but you
know nothing about the fruit at all if
you have never tasted stolen one.
1t hasabecn decided in the courts that
1t Is no crime to appropriate an um-
brella that is found in the possession
OF another; and if the matter could be
brought before Judge with the right
kind OF raising, there would be no
difficulty in securing decision that,
after watermelon has absorbed its
necessary supply Of sun and soil it
ceases to be the property of the man
who planted the seed until he can get
1t into wagon and crate, and have it
we'll on the way to market. In other
words, there is an interim between
rlpening and marketing during which
the watermelon is common property,
as any wise and truly dignifed jldge
will tell you.
1t should be allowed whole night
in which to cool, and then it should
be appropriated before the sun begins
to shine on it again. No knife is
necessary to the enjoyment of the
feast that must shortly follow. A
swift blow of the fist is sufficient to
expose the exquisitely colored meat,
and If the ,ind be somewhat Jagged
and irregular, what of it7 The. hand
should be inserted into the juicy cen
ter and the delicacy conveyed to the
mouth in the way that nature pro-
vides. The nectar will be smeared
on your face and trickle down your
sleeve, but the hour, the method, and
the risk-for it must be eaten not
more than 10 feet from where it grew
give 1t delicious piquanoy and a
Wild sweetness that are foreign to all
melons that'have been. on the mar
ket or have become the victims Of
traffic.
Nevertheless, the youngest of us
have one consolation and that is that
the times in which they are living.
the times that are so new and strange.
will, in their turn, become the old
times, and take on the glamour of
poetry and romance; and half cen.
tury hence men will he sighing over
them, just as men arc now sighing
over the old times that are past and
gone. So that, in this view of the
case, the old times are really the best
times.