The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1908-08-06
IN THE OLDEN TINE.
Col. T. j. Counts Writes Of Before
he Wah" Gentlemen.

De Wah" Gentlemen.
We take the liberty of republish-
ing the following, which appeared
in last weeks Barnwell People. Col.
Counts is always an interesting
writer, but. never more so than when
his subject is "befoh de wah' times:
Dear Holmes: Today, the 4th of
July, 1908, brings my S1st birthday.
l can still read and write without
glasses.
When yet in my teens l left Barn
we'll for Graham's Turn Out (noW
Denmark Maj. Henry B. Rice of
the firm of D. & H. B. Rice, with
whom l had no acquaintance before
upon my application for clerkship,
readily consented to take me at a
salary of one hundred dollars a year
and furnish me board. l had never
seen much of the railroad up to that
time, so you may imagine it was a
good big thing to look at. The S. G..
Railroad was the second railroad
known and when finished to Augusta
was the longest railroad in the world.
If my memory serves me right, the
first being up North, don't remember
what State, but only twenty miles
long.
The stringers of this road were
eight by ten inches, wood, twenty
feet long, with a fiat bar of iron half
inch thick by three inches wide sp1k-
ed substantially to the stringer. The
engines were very small-perhaps
not one eighth the size of the pres
ent engines. The passenger coaches
were round and in barrel shape,
while the freight boxes were about
seven feet wide by fourteen feet long
and enclosed (not with woody but
very heavy cotton duck, the top, how
ever, being covered with tin.
From twelve to fifteen Of these
freight boxes made up full train
for the trip to Augusta. 1t was an
all day trip from Charleston to Gra-
hams, distance of eighty one miles,
and that was all that the railroad
company required. The train forces
(as the farmer would say) would
stop, take out, and feed for the night.
Next morning after reasonable
breakfast hour they would fire up
and leave for Augusta. As matter
of course the passenger train made
much better time, but took the whole
day to run from Charleston to Au-
gusta, as a great deal of the time
was consumed by having to wait for
the mail carrier to carry the mail
pouch into every mail station on the
road and there wait until the post
master assorted out the mail matter
for his office-lock the pouch and
hand it back to the carrier.
was associated with D. & H. B.
Rice for ten or twelve years, continu-
ing as clerk for part of the time
and as partner in the business for
the balance. MY relations with the
old set of Rices was of such char
acter that I feel it my duty and a
high privilege to add in few words
a justitribute to the memory Of these
true and, loyal Christian gentlemen,
who are not here to hear what l.
have to say in my humble way, but
have long since gone to their rewards.
Old man David, Rice and his brother
Ben; old man Charlie Rice and his
brother John; old man William Rice
and his brothers Jessie and Aaron.
It was my pleasure in young days
to have business transactions with
these old gentlemen, or most of them,
and it affords me the greatest pleas
ure, even at this late day, to say
that in all my long life have never
met a truer and more honorable,
high toned, and broad minded peo-
pie.
1 have not set out in this letter to
discuss the merits and demerits of
the people at large, but to tell you
the kind of people that lived in that
day and time, and let you draw your
own conclusions and make the COM
PARSONS between the people of the
present day and those of >sixty-tive
years ago.
While a member of the firm of D.
& H. B. Rice we sold from twenty to
twenty-five thousand dollars worth
of goods a year, and of this amount,
we collected from ninety-f1ve to one
hundred cents on the dollar and not
with the assistance of liens and mort
cages, but alone from disposition
on the part. of the people to pay their
just debts. While I have taken oc-
casion TO pay tribute to a few Of my
old friends there were many others
having just as much merit in point of
honesty and integrity. But I was
more intimately associated with the
Rice family for the reason of be-
ing connected with the firm OF
D. & H. B. Rice, a firm Of long
standing and the senior being
the oldest of the whole Rice fam
lily of my acquaintance. If you will
indulge me a little further I will
mention some of the names Of the
old people whom 1 had the pleasure
of serving across the counter for
many years and who never failed to
pay ninety-fve to one hundred cents
on the dollar of Indebtedness: Jno.
Turner, John Hanberry, Linton Lee,
w. B. Bowling, D. Bowling, O.. R.
Faust, James Milhous, Daniel Parler,
John Guess, q. G. Graham, H. B. Tin