The Tupelo journal., 1905-08-25
PEN.PICTUREs OF THE OLDEN TIME
1Y COL. W. |. CLAYTON.

money, and thinking / had press
ed the credit system about as far
as a man should expect any one
to look upon him with favor in
that direction, / started out from
old Richmond, armed with a well
written recommendation from
my old teacher, Henry Martin,
to seeka school. It was the first
time | had ever gone out to seek
business for myself, and / was
quite awkward in that role. The
first place | stopped was at Col.
Joe Hills who then lived at the
place now owned and occupied
by Joe Clark, in Shannon, but it
was a farm house then, and there
was no town of Shannon then in
existence. Col. Hill was a Sc
date, stately old, gentleman of
the old school "befo' the wa "
kind, having a yard full Of ne
groes, and rather particular as to
the qualifications of the man who
should teach his children, and
being a kind Of leader in the
neighborhood, felt that he was
even responsible as to who should
teach their school whether he
had pupils to send or not. I
think Col. Hill was like a great
many people are even now, look
ing largely to the kind of clothes
a man wears to find out what
kind of a man the wearer is. l
was a boy then, less than TWEEN
ty, and had on only common
clothing, suitable to a poor man,
though they were clean and re-
spectacle, but | remember l wore
a fuzzy quilted cap, and it was
rather large for my head and
came down rather low on my
ears, and | guess, on the whole,
| was rather a tough looking
customer to be applying for a
school. Col. Hill was a very dig
nifed looking old gentleman,
and while very polite, and what
the world would call kind, yet
his politeness and kinndess was
of that kind which, while you
could have no objection to it,
seemed to hold you at a distance.
When | made known my business,
Col. Hill was not long IN inform
ing me that they wanted a man
who could teacha High School,"
and | drew the conclusion right
readily, though he did not say
so, that | was not the man that
he, and consequently the people,
wanted to teach their High
School. My recommendation
from Martin would not work
with him with my cap over my
! ears, and my boyish face. Even
since those days | have had great
sympathy for the boys just
starting in any kind of business
or profession in which they have
to look to the public for success,
and where / find a worthy young
man offering for office, | am his
friend, and / think the young
lawyers will say l have been es-
pecially kind to them through all
the years of my professional
life, and ready at all times to
lend them a helping hand. left
Col. Hill with a pretty strong
impression on my mind that
there was not only no school for
me in his neighborhood, but |
was almost of the opinion that |
was neither fit nor competent to
teach. | put in the balance of
the day looking and listening for
some other place in which the
people wanted a young man just
out of school to. teach the
young idea how to Shoot but l
found none. That night | put up
with Old Ben Rock, who then
lived at the first house north of
Town Creek on what was then
the Ellistown road, and since
known as the Poor House place.
Both he and his wife were born
aristocrats, and he had spent a
fortune, but he was especially
kind to me and his wife was a
very motherly old woman. /
showed Uncle Ben my recon-
mendation from Capt. Martin
and he scanned it very carefully,
and | remember well, through all
these years, the objection he
made to it. Martin said in the
paper that / had assisted him in
his school and had given entire
satisfaction, and that this was an
earnest" of what / would do
with a school Of my own. Uncle
Ben did not think the word "eal-
nest was the one which ought
to have been used to express the
idea intended to be conveyed by
the writer. However, after
explained to him that the writ
er was a fine Latin, Greek and
French scholar, in addition tc
his requirements in English, he
thought it probably the right
word. But after my experience
with Mr.. Rocks doubling Of the
wording Of my recommendation
,l.-I Nj u;li,c erich fcr q voop ~