Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-07-08
SOUTHLAND STORIES
Larry CAN'T Gives Some Interesting
!. ReCOIleCtOnSi. -
TELLS OF THE MEN OF OTHER DAYS

Gle Remus," Started on His Career OF
Fame as Printers Devil, and At
tanned the Forefront 70 American
Literary Excellence.
For The Yorkville Enquirer.
When Oliver Goldsmith wrote "Hon-
or and fame from no condition rise,"
he stated truth that has been dem
onstrated times without number.
1t Is rarely a case where brains or
eminent public service are inherent In
family, for the sons and descendants
Of great men appear content to live
upon ancestral fame. Like unto the
potato, the best part is underground.
On the other hand, the intellect, en-
inence and leadership of every country
must go out among the plain people in
the more obscure walks of life, and In
the Old World, often it's peasantry.
Trace all the great leaders in Europe,
for both good and evil, from Martin
Luther to Lenine and Trotsky and you
will find them belonging to what Is
known as the "lower class" but in our
Republic as the plain people"
William the Copqueror was the ille-
gitimate son OF a washerwoman;
Catherine, who, after Peter the Great,
created the Russian Empire, was the
lewd daughter Of an ignorant Tartar
peasant, and Napoleon Boneparte, a
Corsicap adventurer, whose boast was,
II am my own ancestor!"
Then consider our own country!
Daniel Webster was the SON. of. a
poor New England farmer, who did
not even boast of descent from the
Pilgrim Fathers; Henry Clay was
known as the>"Mill Boy Of the Slash
es;" Patrick Henry, born on a small
Virginia farm and when an obscure
young lawyer, reaped fame and hon
ors in a day by his Give me liberty or
give me death!"aJohn c. Calhoun des-
cended from family Of poor Irish
emigrants; the father Of JeTerson
Davis was small bankrupt farmer Of
Wilkes county, Georgia, who moved his
family in a wagon to Kentucky
couple of weeks before the president OF
the Southern Confederacy was born;
Alexander H. Stephens belonged to;
poor but highly respected family, his
father and mothers family (Grier) be-
ing small farmers; Nancy Hanks, the
mother of Abraham Lincoln. was born
and raised near the Chimney Rock
section Of Rutherford county, North
Carolina, and Nancy was q house ser
want for a family named EnsloW, and
on account Of the jealousy of her en-
ployer's wife she was sent to some
kinspeople in Kentucky where she met
and married Lincoln.
Joel Chandler Harris ("unc!e Re-
mus'') journalist and author, whose
book has been translated into many
languages and whose name is revered
by both old and young throughout the
reading world-a plain Southern DEM
ocrat, whom a Republican President
invited as his honored ard especlal
guest toethe White House-was a poor
Georgia boy, born on a small, rocky
farm In Jasper county. 1 do not sup
pose any boy ever started life unaer
more irving or diScouraging clrcum-
stances. He had only the rudimental
smattering Of an education obtained
at a small and antiquated country
school, and so he had to educate him.
self while earning a living.
An old man who made hats out OF
rabbit skins printed small paper OF
his farm called the -Countryrlan." He
hired Toe Harris as a printers devil,
and he also learned the boxes and how
TO stick type. In due time the "Coun-
,rvman" suspended and Joe Harris
found work on other weeklies in that
section, and started to set up while at
the case paragraphs for the paper;
and they were so pointed and priehl
that he was encouraged by the edl-
for TO continue the work. Harris $
sduibs began to attract attention from
the daily papers and were extensive
lv copied. They became the leading
feature in every paper with "hlch
Harris was connected.
It was during the Franco-Prusslan
war, l was young fellow working on
the savannah Morning News, taking
NV initial training in daily Journalism
The editor of the News was Col. w. T.
THOMPSON. author of humorous BOOK
of that day named Major Jones'
Courtship." J. H. Estill was proprie-
tor
One night about 12 o'clock Mr.. Estlll
came into the office plotting one OF the
most umprepossessing specimens or
humanity my eyes ever rested upon.
Were | an artist 1 could paint that pic
ture today from memory. "Mr. Harris
could have passed for any age from 10
to 30. He was a chunky-built, red
headed freckled- faced young man, ap-
parently weighing around 1SO pounds
and had he started to travel on looks
would never have got beyond his front
gate. But the most noticeable thing
about "Mr. Harris" was his clothes and
their fit, or rather their misft. They
were Of homespun jeans, the wool spun
,,aa fron, bla ck rreyish