The Tupelo journal., 1906-02-02

pEN.PICTURES OF THE OLDEN TIME
BY COL W 1. CLAYTON.

;. CLAYTON.
enough to wish that might have
received one vote at Carolina
that each one of those sixteen
men who promised to vote for me
might have claimed to have cast
It'll" Messenger took his defeat
seriously, and soon thereafter sold
out his paper and outfit, and
moved west, and the paper was
thereafter changed from the Full
ton Messenger to the Fulton
Herald, and was owned and pub
lished until the editor joined the
army by E. P. Odom, who was
really deficient as a writer, but
hard worker, and made a good
soldier, and was so badly shot in
some battle in Kentucky that he
was left as certainly mortally
wounded, but in the course Of
six months he came hobbling
home, with wounds only partial
ly healed, and unable for work
the rest of his life. While he
conducted the Fulton Herald it
was an interesting paper, Buck
Owen being a regular contributor
to it's pages, both in prose and
poetry, and often writing the
editorials. | would be very glad
indeed to come upon some of the
old numbers of that paper pub
lished in 1859 and 1860, and again
fix my eyes upon the contents,
and even the advertisements, to
show who then held out their
signs as lawyers and doctors,
merchants and druggists in those
olden times.
l have thought in looking back
over the scenes of the long ago,
and measuring the bliss of the
people of those olden days, that
probably those who have seen the
prosperity and happiness of for
mer times when they were full
of youth, vigor and hope, in look
ing back, look through partial
glasses. But there is one thought
which has come to me with force
all through the years as they
have come and gone, and that is
that the happiest and most con-
tented people in the world are
those Of the rural districts, in
which | include those residing in
villages. In such districts and
villages everyone knows the
wants and sorrows of all the 9TH
ers. If any fall sick. or death
touches a household, or sorrow of
any kind overtake anyone, all
the others know it, and are
ready with a helping hand to do
whatever may be done to relieve
the situation, while in a city, or
in our larger towns, men and
women sicken and die, and the
first we know of it is when the
funeral cortege passes our doors.
/ like the thought of sympathy
and help. The nearer neighbors
and friends get together in low
ing sympathy and helpful aid in
time of trouble and sorrow, the
nearer we approach the loving
heart of the Man of Galilee, who
never turned anyone away empty
who applied for help, and who
wept with those who wept. Thus
it was in the olden time with the
people who lived at Old Fulton,
and each had a special interest
in all the others, and the sorrow
which touched one home had a
sympathetic chord reaching to
all the households in the old
town; when death, with its gloom
and anguish, overshadowed some
neighbor, all the others felt the
keen pang, and were ready to
come in with muffled tread, TO be
a solace to the stricken ones, and
when misfortune overlook some
poor unfortunate man or woman,
the whole town came to their
relief.
The social intercourse of the
people of that old town in the
long ago often took the form of
barbecue picnics. The river bot
tom was near to the town, near
enough for all to walk, was we'll
stocked with squirrels and some
turkeys, and the river and Cum
ming's Creek were well supplied
with fish, and the citizens would
turn out en- masse. the women,
boys and girls with fishing tack
lie, and the men with their guns.
Some would supply some old and
trusty slaves, both men and wo-
men, to attend to the preparation
of the dinner, the meats to be
barbecued from the slain of the
hunt. The men would divide up
into equal companies for the
days hunt, and those who un-
derstood the habits of the squir-
rel would be on the ground ready
to begin the work Of the day by
daylight. / remember one of
these picnic barbecue hunts in
which Capt. Belts killed twenty
seven SQUIRRELS with a rifle. and