Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1912-09-11
those only in their experimental

stages.
Our grandparents were quite old
before the railroads came near, so
they never rode on a railroad train;
they never sent or received a tele-
gram; they would have ridiculed the
idea OF talking to II an hundred
miles away; of making ice In the
summer time or of storing away the
human voice in a photograph; they
never saw an iron ship or an iron
bridge, nor did they worry about
germs and microbes II bacteria;
they never saw Il ganE plow, Il now
ing machine or 4 steam power print
ing press; they never rode On Il bicy-
Gle or in an elevator or biplane; thCy
would have laughed at the thought Of
Il flying machine or the wireless tclc-
graph, ard all they knew about auto
mobiles was found in Mother ship
tons Prophcsics," whore she predict
ed that the time would come whom
Men in carriages without horses
would ride" None OF these invcn-
'''''S - WV llltN ~ luIl VI
their quiet. happy life. so they knew
nothing of the Inconvenience Of doing
without them. We still hear people
wishing for a return OF the good old
times, but the good new times Of the
twentieth century for me!
Grandfather, In his Younger days.
was a contractor and builder and
took great pride in his mechanical
and architectural skill and ability,
but he was never called upon to build
a ten-story fashionable apartment
house or a steel frame skyscraper.
He lived in a time Of national peace,
or when few soldiers were needed,
but he imbibed no little of the mill
tary spirit Of the times, and in 1918
he was commissioned captain of mill
tia, and in 1928 was promoted to a
c~olonelcy; hence he received his title
of "Colonel' by promotion, and not
by "absorption' as do many of the
colonels of the present day. He was
a great marksman. and target shoot
ing for prizes was a popular sport in
those days. He prided himself upon
Hint and steel rifle, and at a distance
of an hundred yards, he could place
a bullet as exactly on the center 0
as you could put 1t there with your
fingers. He knew nothing Of ma
chine guns, repeating rifles, or breech
leaders, and when the percussion cap
rifle was introduced he considered it
a travesty beside his trusty flint and
steel fowling-piece INT would have
none OF it. With the former, and at
the & Of rs years, he could shoot
a squirrels head off Che disdained
shooting one through the body) nine
times out of. ten, and hat was gun
enough for him.. Yes, when he was
70 years old his hand vas as steady
as that Of any of you young people,
and he wrote one Of the most beauti-
full hands you ever saw. He could
write, and did wlite, the Lords
Prayer with perfect legibility on the
space Of a silver dime. Such was the
result Of regular and temperate
habits. which we would do we'll to
emulate.
Grandmother was a III of
calm, ~far-seeing Judgment and even
tempered sweetness Of disposition.
Her children never grew too old to
come to her for counsel and advice;
h had a heart full of Christian
charity, the utmost sympathy for the
weak and needy; they we're never
turned from her door without mate
rial aid and words Of encouragement.
Hers was not that brand Of Chris
tianity that wears a long face and al
ways seems miserable, but the kind
that fills the heart with Joy and
lights the face with effulgent beauty.
She had a keen appreciation Of the
ridiculous, and on occasions would
laugh with the enjoyable hilarity Of
a school girl. She would have Co
lumbus and me get down on our all
tours, throw a hank Of yarn over
Il heads and offer a prize to the
n that pulled the other over a Ger
tain dead-line and she would hold
her sides with laughter as the Titanic
struggle went on. Columbus and |
used to laugh at her for telling us
to go to the spring for a bucket Of
water and to come back by the wood
pile and bring in a stick OF wood.
The joke consisted in the fact that
| the Snrinp and %wnnd-nile wnro In