The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-02-16
LETTER FROM OCCASIONAL"
News and Observations From an Old
Friend of The Herald.

I have visited your town twice re-
Gently. These visits to me have been
a sad pleasure. 1t was sad because
I missed so many faces that | met
a long time ago when l was quite a
young man. | miss Gen. F. NJ. BAN
berg, Isaac Bamberg, Col. T. j.
Counts, Gen. Jack Rice, Major Hays,
Joe Dickinson, C. B. Free, and 9TH
ers. These were all my friends, and
| I think of them when l visit Bam-
berg. Once 1 went to Bamberg with
a wagon in the fall and spring about
| once week carrying cotton and
bringing back fertilizers and gro
ceries; now I go perhaps once in
| two or three months on an average.
It is 18 miles from here to your
town; and other towns have sprung
| up nearer. 1t is a pleasure to go for
several reasons: Main street is paw
ed, and it was once so boggy in a
| rainy time. The roads are so much
better than when 1 was young man,
and new and enterprising young men
have taken the place of those who
! have gone before.
On my return home I came back
Dy old Bufords Bridge, once a vii
lage that all of us were proud Of;
though it was about 16 miles to the
nearest railroad station, yet it boast
ed of five stores that carried general
merchandise, a Masonic hall, a tailor
shop. postofice, a bar room, a hotel,
one church, several dwelling houses
and a blacksmith shop. 1t seemed to
me the best people in the country
visited old Buford's Bridge. But it
is a thing of the past, and old Mlzpah
church is the only building standing
today. When we got there some
thing went wrong with my auto. And
we stopped in the road between what
was once a store, and hotel.
It was about one hour until good
machinist came along and put us to
going again. Our surroundings look
ed desolate enough. We were where
there once was so much gaiety and
mirth, so much pleasure and .happi-
ness, so much lively conversations
and Jokes. And now everything look
ed so desolate. Truly we were where
"the moss dropped how from the
rugged oak tree" for in Is feet OF
us the moss from the oaks reached
the ground.
Gen. L. NJ. Aver was a good story
teller and 1 thought about the time
when he used to sit in store piazza
and was listened to attentively for
perhaps an hour by such good men
as Leroy Wilson, George Moye, Capt.
Billy Williams, Frank Hogg, Major
Ranse Barker, J. J. and H. Brabham,
DR.. L. S. Hay, George I. Priester and
others. But l will write now of the
present.
J. B. Ritter has started up his
soap factory again. Old Maum Lou
ise Kearse continues to be mistress
of the work. They are very well
fixed, for Genia Browns children
have all got good teeth yet and can
carry on their part of the work
and every little is help. The old
woman said that there was an old
saying and she believed it was true
that "just as long as there is life
there is SOAP"
And now a few words about some
of our colored "popylation. Wash
Folk and Lula Graham were happily
married short time ago. Wash and
Lula each are getting well up In
years anu wash uoS uoW IohSh oA
his third wife, but you can't outdo
a woman. Lula has risen sublimely
to the occasion and wont be turned
down. She goes Wash one better
for in Wash she has taken on her
fourth husband. Wash says he's get
ting along fine, for he has "shore
got a plum good wife" suggested
to him that he had been married so
many times 1 supposed that he knew
all the hen pecked lodges, and ne
said that he did. I wonder If she
is not pretty we'll fixed on the same
line. Their friends gave them
surprise party and they gave 1t
in true military style. They cooked
good supper, got five shot guns,
two tin pans, and one tin horn and
went to their house after dark and
commenced firing at once. Wash
was out in the yard and thought
himself killed. Lula fell on the floor
and tainted. They procured cam
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