A Letter to Bill Arp
Written under the title: Bill Arp’s Letter
The Anderson Intelligencer: April 5, 1899
“Bill Arp. Esq.-Dear Doctor: Please permit a member of the junior race, or as you are pleased to call it, the inferior race, to tender you and your distinguished consort his sincere and unfeigned congratulations upon reaching your golden wedding and being able, through the providence of God, to celebrate your fiftieth marriage anniversary. The privilege of spending fifty years with a devoted companion is an exalted honor and should call for a reconsecration of time and talents to the service of God and the betterment of mankind. Once in a while you have hurled some heavy blows at the degraded portion of my race, but you have ever been charitable and always conceded the fact that there are some good, honest and Christian negroes. I pray God that the remainder of your days and the days of your loving companion may be pleasant and felicitous and finally terminate amid the smiles and sunshine of our common Father. Your wide reading, your bright intellect, your wit and humor and wisdom, and your ceaseless industry will rank you among the great and notable men of Georgia. Again I tender you my congratulations. Next July I will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of my connection with the Methodist church at Abbeville, S.C.
Henry M. Turner
