Evening star., 1936-04-03
POLITICS IS TOPIC
IN RURAL SOUTH
Georgia's Clay Roads Inter-
est Writer 1000 Miles
From Broadway.
BY WARD MoREHoUsE.

-
The 1,000th mile In this cross-America
jaunt, which started from Broadway
at City Hall, was reached just outside
the town Of Lawrenceville. The mile
age figures at the start totaled 1884.
and when the numerals read 8,784.0 I
was on the crest of a hill, beside a
spur track of the Atlantic Coast Line,
80 miles from Atlanta. Thus the COM
pletion of a thousand-mile splash. A
flying boat would have been handy.
Driving for the greater part of the
first thousand miles was driving in
the rain. And through flood, mud and
fog. Twice the water on the highway
reached the hub caps, and detours
were numerous and extensive, but at
no time was southwark progress
halted.
Fog over the lower bay en- route to
Staten Island. Rain in Jersey. Rain
in Maryland. Flood peril in Virginia
and around Washington and great
cloudbursts in the Carolinas. And in
Georgia, where the red clay roads and
entertainments are redder than any
where in the world and where nearly
all dirt roads become quagmires under
heavy rains there was an unrelenting
downpour from my crossing OF the
State line until I reached the town
of Stone Mountain, l6 miles out OF
Atlanta.
High Water Unusual.
There are no great rivers down here.
Great in the sense Of the Delaware,
the Ohio, the Rappahannock, the Con-
necticut. The big bridges weren't
threatened. But the oldest settlers will
tell you-a few did tell me-that
they'd never seen the Southern
streams so swollen as they have been
all Spring. Tiny rivulets have become
creeks. creeks are raging rivers and
the rivers are mud-yellow, red-brown
seas.
The Spring fishermen haven't had
any fun. but the elements have pro-
vided plenty of midday talk for the
fellows sitting on the boxes and bar
rels in the roadside stores. And they
do sit around Just as they did 10. 20
and so years ago. They talk, listen.
spit And there is now, as there
doubtless always was, one outstand-
ing comic and sage who can throw an
entire storeful into great outlaws at
his slightest utterance.
give you a certain Mr.. House OF
Madison County. He has tWinkling
eyes and a dropping. tobacco-stained
mustache and he panics the boys in
Iyle's combination store and gas sta
tion near Winder. Ga. Mr.. House
knows all about floods and tropical
cloudbursts and he's even more ar
ticulate on politics.
I'd sought shelter from the storm
and caught snatches of a noontime
discourse: Roosevelt amt going no
where if you leave it to people around
this section I'm a farmer and
I'm speakin' for lot of farmers. I'm
Democrat, too, always was, but
Roosevelt amt Democrat The
administrations give away lot Of
money. I didn't get any Of it . {.
Did you, Ben? Did you, Long
Ears? Nav, course you didn't, but
they givin' it away just the same .
Who's gettin' it? I don't know. but
there's one man who'll tell you-that's
Gene Talmadge. An he'll tell the
Roosevelt crowd whole lot they don't
want to hear. Gene Talmadge Is
raisin' cain and I amt lying when
say think he's the best the State
ever had in my time"
Congress Possibility.
The town of Ninety-Six. S. c., con-
sists of cotton mill and few shacks.
Varying stories as to how it got its
name There's a friend Of mine
in Elberton, Ga, one, D. K. Jones,
who was crack right-handed pitcher
in his college days. Now selling in
surance and is to run for the Legisla-
ture from Ebert County. Don't see
how he can miss, Everybody in the
county knows him. You mean
D. K?" asked the colored man at the
gas station. Why sure he lives here
in the white house opposite the post
office" =. Cole Blease's opinion of
the greatest South Carolinian in his
tory John c. Calhoun =. In South
Carolina, cash-and-carry liquor
State, the lowest price on imported
champagne is $3.50 :. And consid-
ering," said the man at the liquor
store, that the people round here
like their corn we do sell quite a
bit of imported wine"
The tatters of "a sheets Of last
Falls circuses are still visible upon
barns, stores, shacks. Small circuses
make the small towns
There's no drama south of Wash
ington. Amateur groups here and
there are doing what they can Saw
one movie liked-"Three Live
GhoSts"-at a dinky little theater
across the street from the Hotel