The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1907-02-26

q he would refer them all to a certain
f verse in the Bible and take the verse
4 for his 4 grace.'' And that the verse
|. was ,tChrist the same yesterday, to-
day and always" I don't think he
remained at that boarding place very
long afterward, but in that respect
i we differ very much from the board
er. While he may have left suddenly
/ and for a good cause, we can't leave
suddenly or any other way, and for a
good reason too. And that is, that we
are so miserably poor after riding the
mail for several years, that it is an
/ absurd idea to think Of living except
from the sweat Of our brows, and in
the meantime, we have become 50
mortaliy lazy that we would hate to
have to miss the sweat from our
1 brow much less to perform the manu-
al labor to put it there. Isn't it a
fact boys7 " ~~
! Well, I have rather peculiarly
& constructed route. To begin with,
distributing Office, which is Blairs, is
in Fairfield county. However, I do
mot serve a single patron in Fairfield,
! but entirely in Newberry. You see
that Broad river is the dividing line
between the two counties, and the
post office is just across the river on
the railroad, mean near the rail-
road, not exactly On it. It would
have been, (for we hate to carry the
mail from the train to the post Office
and vice versa), but the trains would
not agree to run around it, so we had
to build it, that is the post office, to
one side. cross the river at Blairs
four times day in bateau and
haven't missed crossing it day in
over two years, or to be more accur-
ate, since the 18th Of November, 1904,
except holidays and Sundays, of
course. Have twenty-six long rough
miles to go and living two miles from
the office gives me thirty miles per
day, and I have some rough roads to
contend with too. My territory is
very thinly populated. Have very
few white families on my route, but
what few there are, certainly treat
me very kindly and there is nothing
too good for them to do for me, and
you may be sure I appreciate their
good will. There's no such thing as
any one kicking for any little error OF
oversight or anything that frozen
over, numb distributor of Uncle
Sans mail is liable to make some
times.
In regard to ever getting any i'm
provements on our roads. [ think the
rost direct and just way to accom-
plish anything in that line is to have
a property tax for the maintenance
and improvement Of the public roads.
There is no justice or right in max
ing a poor man work six days of q
year on the public roads when he can
barely spare the time and probably
has not a buggy or mule in the world
with which 70 derive any benefit
from the public roads.
. While the big farmer with twenty
or thirty mules and wagons, which he
does not use on the road until it is
too wet to work on the farms, is prob
ably too old for road duty and does
not pay one cent, or do one lick Of
work towards the improvement of the
roads. Not only the farmer, but
every property owner should be sub
ject to the. road taX,. and especially
the big lien merchants in town, who
derive more benefit from the roads
than any one else, and J want to say
right here that T would like to say
E.what should be done with every SEN
ator in South Carolina who voted
against the repeal Of the lien law,
4 however, am heartily in favor of
maintaining the present law in lieu
6f the property tax for roads. IF we
#did not, how in the world would we
lever get at the trifling, crap-shoot-
sing, chicken-stealing negroes.
S But, what is the use Of a poor lit
8@tle one-horse, I have got two horses
though-mail-rider saying anything
along this line when our learned rep
resentatives chose to see it in a light
to suit themselves. Say boy, T have
been. thinking Of a great scheme for
some fun on the 30th Of May. Why
can't the rural carriers of Newberry
county challenge the carriers Of some
other county-Laurens for instance,
as it is near and with connection
for game of baseball on that dav.