The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1906-01-17

thep expanded whitest her white
fields. Then far Ger furthercst seas
her lord]y cotton planters filled the
marts Of busy trade, clothing millions
upon millions with her white zephyr,
tinged with gold. IL those days the
wonderful panorama OF the sunset
skies was really more wonderful than
now. The violets bloomcd bluer bc.
meath the browns and russctts Of the
towering forests; the poppies grew
redder 10 tho yellow wheat tie DIS, and
the pickaninnie, wearing a single gar.
mcnt, and eating his watermelon
1ithout spoon, was blacker, and
greasier, and dirtier, and happier in
the cabin.
AS a boy, We knew this reign of
glory for sixteen or seventeen years,
dating ogr memories from the time we
were four years old. And then came
the cruel wsr-the saddeSt, as regards
Southern patriotism and valor and
sacrifice, yet most glorious of all wars.
In 1861 the majority had voted for
Lincoln. The South's positions and
contentious were rejected. It seemed
to her people to be question of life
or death with them, and they fought.
Fighting may have been q mistake.
The results were disastrous, though
perhaps some of them have since been
for good. As regards the emanoi-
patton Of the negro, however, VIC doubt
very much, even to thie day, whether
it has been good for tho negro him
self. So, our men stood up and
fought for their rights like men.
Thousands and thousands of them
died like men and martyrs for their
cause. Whether submission would
have brought better things than fight
ing wo cannot know. The Northern
so.called historians, we believe, say
now that submission would have
brought better things. It might have
been, on the contrary, however, that
Southern submission would have
brought con,inue'. aggression, and
that VIC might ave had all the name
less horrors Of reoUS Sstruction without
tho honor and glory of having made o
stropg, game, manly fght-long and
nobly-against overwhelming odds,
and we might have lost all We did
lose, and our self-respeot, too. But
our self-respeot we die not lose. We
have it now, thank Godl and hold
it for our children and our chill
dren's children to che attermost gen.
erutions!
And then the cruel war over, we lay
PROSTATE, but not for long. Soon,
very soon, we turned our faces to the
sunrise, and worked as hard and as
uobly and as bravely as We had fought.
Unmindful Of our loss and our WOES,
we rose in strength and mighty vigor,
and restored the reign of law. We
built again our ruined cities. We
launched once more our ships Of trade,
laden with tolls nobleBt product,
wealth by man free labor made. We
forced all the energies Of nature. all
her powers of brain and Drawn and
masio, to answer to our heroic call,
aud ushered in the glorious dawn Of
an iron age Of effort, mind and merit,
an age that particularly in practical
and scientific things now bids fair
to dim { all tho silvery CYCLES of the
past--the age of bronze and the age Of
gold. ~: >,s'... -. - / .
Many Of our bereaved fathers and
mothers left p1uuiio5s and hopeless
aud joyless by the war, bebeld this
great material resurrection before
they died, and rejoioed and said:
"Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant
depart in peace" But, alas! not all Of
them. Those wevo sad, sad days,
In one short half hour this evening we
could mention by namo, by honored
and reverend name, hundreds Of die.
appointed, broken, shattered aud en-.
hausted men and hundreds: Of gray
and desolate and ohiidless women,
who went down to their graves sor.
rowing aud weeping and broken. heart,
ed. One Of these was our noble next;
door neighbor, Governor F. W. Pick
lens. He never recovered from the
untoWard end Of the war. Six years
after its close he died broken hearted
patriot. >.> =.%.>z:. -. u.,I...:::. .5i s:.i
Il, q THE OLD AND NEW. >:':, ,'%<s s. s..
= But all this 10 history, which was
by no: means our business when VIC
began. Or intent, on the contrary,
was 10 turn anu shake our montai
kaleidoscope and draw; i series Of CON:
trasts 'between phases 81 life + South