The Washington herald., 1921-03-10
RICE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
CULTURED AND TALENTED.

RICE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
CULTURED AND TALENTED.
Is the old landed proprietor Of the
South wholly extinct ana does he
exist only In bookss Don't think II
Tor moment not so long a. James
Henry Rice. jr., Of Virgins. s. c..
Is alive.
Rice came to Washington as the
personal representative Of Gov.
Cooper. Of South Carolina. at the
Inauguration of President Harding.
Naturalist, author, lecturer, pa.
triot. all Of these Is Rice, but above
all we must add, gentleman"
There are some who seem to have
that title by divine right. and Rice
may well be said to be one Of them.
The title goes with the man and his
nnner and you feel impelled to
write 1t after his name when you
have talked with him and have felt
the charm Of his personality.
There are 50 many interesting
things about the proprietor Of
Brick House Plantation" that one
feels more like writing book about
him than a column. It is hard to
Under the spell Of his tales of the
old South you are carried back to
the picturesque community Of
wealthy planters whose slaves be-
fore the war titled the fertile acres
still drained by the Combahee, the
Chee-haw. the Coosaw and the
Ashepoo Rivers.
You find yourself on the white
q RAI AaL - =
plantation houses. a part of the
easy. tranquil existence and gener-
Gus hospitality that for 200 years
characterized the lives Of the men
and women Of the old regime on the
coast Of South Carolina.
THIRTY-CoURsE DINNER
GIVEN 163 C0NFEDERATEs.
Given this opulent background.
you listen on. until you can easily
credit the tale OF the Gargantuan
feast rendered three companies Of
Confederate soldiers and their on
GERS during the civil war by Capt.
Plowden J. Weston. OF Hagley. who
on two hours notice entertained
163 men and officers at q thirty
course dinner. The banquet was
spread in his spacious plantation
house on the Waccaman River. There
was q different wine for each course.
all taken from the hosts own cell
lars, and enough silverware for all
the guests.
Nor Is IL hard to reconstruct in
the minds eye the fourishing docks
and contingencies Of Charleston.
where merchant princes such as
John Frazer did business with the
marts of the world.
With equal facility one follows
the history of this territory, re-
counted In the picturesque style Of
Rice, until il has ceased to be what
Thackeray termed on his visit to
South Carolin the daintiest bit Of
earth" that he had ever beheld, and
has been swept by the horrors OF
civil war, from which II Is still try
ing to recover.
At this point might be mentioned
the cause to which Rice has given
most of his life, the passage of q
stock law that would protect the
rich ten-mile strip OF coast land
from the marsuding herds and
iocks Of poor whites. negroes and
Indians who inhabit the back -coun-
try, and thus restore the pristine
riches of this section.
Rice declares with great satistac-
ton that. thanks to the progressive
policy OF the new governor. Robert
A. Cooper. and the efforts of Assem-
blyman H. l.. oliver. a Statewide
stock law has just been passed by
the legislature which will secure
this land from invasion and will
compel cattle owners to keep their
stock from running wild.
TAKES HIGH RANK
AS A NATURALIST.
But il you asked Rice what had
been his most important work, he
probably would not even mention
the fact that he has worked long
Of q great and glorious South, one
that would surpass even the pre-
war South.
He might tell you any one of
several things. He was one of the
pioneers in the movement to pro-
tect and preserve our native North
American birds. and was one OF the
early field agents for the Audubon
Society. He is one of the foremost
naturalists of the South and IL well
versed in the fauna Of that Sec
tion of the United States. as we'll
as other parts of the North Amer
ican continent. He has studied
American and foreign birds and an
imals for the last thirty years.
Rice has travelled extensively in
South America and has visited the
islands OF the South Seas on sci
entific expeditions. In South Amer
lea he was a close friend of E. H.
Hudson, the English naturalist.
whose long residence in South Amer
1ca has given the world SO many
invaluable works in a popular style
on the fora and fauna OF the South
American continent
Rfce has been a newspaper man
In his time and still writes on sci
entihc subjects. He also writes
book reviews, a type of literature
in the writing of which he is said
to be unsurpassed.
GIVES HIS IDEAS
ON BOOK REVIEWS.
Il do not believe in writing a
book in reviewing a book, as Ma
caulay often narrowly escaped do
ing" he declared. but / do believe
in giving il more atteI.ion than
Is given in the conventional mod
ern book review, which is often
little more than a notice"
Rice says that in his opinion Sir
walter Scott is the greatest of mod
ern story-tellers.
The most charmingly told and
interesting works Of fiction that I
have read recently are those by a
woman who lives on Black Bear