Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1911-05-11
Echoes of the Past.
Martinsville. Va, April s, 1911.

martlnsVille, Va, April 5, 1911.
Mr. Editor:
l got here April LIST from trip South.
j visited Columbia, Sumpter, Manning.
Clemson College and Spartanburg, in
South Carolina, and Augusta and At
ianta, in Georgia. 1t is amazing, al
most passing belief, the wealth of the
South, as exhibited in the many mag
nificent churches, colleges, public school
buildings, court houses, railroads, cot
ton mills, &c. l will mention one illus
tration. In one county in South Caro-
lima there are fifty-eight cotton mills,
the average cost of which is $500. 900.
and in one county the average assess
ment of each acre is twenty-six dollars.
In some of the cities they seem to be
doing away with the buggy and car
rage and using the automobile.
Well, l wish every Sabbath School
teacher in the United States could have
been with me at Spartanburg, S. c.,
during the three days session of the
State Sabbath School Convention. On
Thursday, March Both, twelve hundred
South Carolineans marched in process
ion with flags floating headed by bands
of music. Many of those who marched
in the procession were old men who had
been in many battles during the late
war between the States Some were
between seventy and eighty years old
and some between eighty FIVE and
ninety.
Well, Mr.. Editor. whenever l met
with Virginian. the party seemed to
think it was incumbent to represent, as
far as possible, the hospitality, culture
and refinement characteristic of the
true Virginian.
l met with many grand men during
my visit South 1t seems to me need
not go to other States for illustrious
men who were worthy to serve during
the late civil war under Lee and Jack
son and who during the dark days of
reconstruction, with Wade Hampton as
their Governor and leader, with no
badge except the simple uniform of the
''red shirt" struck terror into the
minds of the ignorant negro and drove
the carpet Dagger and scallawag home.
-Four representative men, of whom
all South CaroliDeans sre proud, and
whom l met during my stay in South
Carolina, will mention their names
Capt. Richard Coleman Strother, Of
West Union; Colonel Simpson, of PEN
dletop; Capt. John w. Carlisle, of
Spartanburg, and Ex-Governor Ansell.
Many names could the noble men who
marched in the Sunday School process
sion from all over the State, add to these
four names. The grandest women on
this earth were such women as the
wives of these four men.
Now. Mr.. Editor, 1 will give you
little personal history in addition to what
/ give you in my last letter. 1 told you
in that letter that a prominent doctor
in my county said l would live to be one
hundred and twenty years old. l will
now give you little personal history of
the second period of my ninety years
sojourn in this preparatory life for the
Great Hereafter. The period of boys
life, from ten to twenty, is peculiarly a
period of temptation. The Devil re-
CARDS it as his opportunity, to so picture
life, as to get complete possession of the
boy so that when he enters upon life as
the sole director of his own actions, his
ideas of what constitutes real happi-
ness, and real success are Numerically
opposed to all the teachings of pious
parents. Fortunate indeed is the boy
who has pious parents, who have gone
with him to the Sabbath school and re-
manned with him to listen to the les
sons which the man of God has for him
and his parents. In my last letter
told you the condition of things eighty
five years ago. Now / will tell you
how much advance was made in ten
years. The farmers were beginning to
realize, more and more, that their sons
needed better school advantages end
their daughters should be better edu-
Gated. Negroes brought almost fabu-
lous prices. On many farms they had