REMARKABLE HISTORY OF A PAIR OF SOCKS.—We have recently been shown, by an old man, who is at present a citizen of our town, a pair of socks, which have a most remarkable history.  Those socks were knit by a little girl in South Carolina, and presented to our old friend in the year 1825.  Four times has he been married in them, his third wife being the donor of the socks!  They are still in good condition, and the old man, who is now three score and ten, says he is preserving them now in order that they may be put on his feet when they are cold in death.

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Cherokee County Sketches.
No. X

Elijah Hillhouse, who was one of the first settlers of Cherokee, was one of the most peculiar men we ever knew.  Perhaps no man ever lived in the county who was more generally known.  His form was tall but not very well proportioned, yet capable of great endurance, as will appear before we conclude this sketch.  Mr. Hillhouse had a pretty fair education, wrote a good hand, and several times was elected to offices of trust in the county.  His principal talent was music, and he devoted a great portion of his time in teaching that pleasant and important science.  We never were one of his scholars, but often have we enjoyed the pleasure of attending his singings.  The young men and maidens would come from far and near to attend one of those “singing schools.”  About the first time we ever witnessed one of those schools was in the year 1838 at the Sixes school-house.  During that year many of the young persons in that vicinity learned to sing by note.  We learned at that time many tunes, which we have never forgotten, and many of those old airs are as harmonious to us now as some of the pieces which have a more recent origin.  We suppose this partiality for the songs of other years, is owing in a great measure to association.  We well remember how one of those “singing schools” of which we speak was conducted.  The pupils were arranged on benches in a “hollow square.”  Mr. Hillhouse stood in the middle, and when all were ready for the exercise to commence he would say “sound the parts!”  Then with head partially enclined to one side, he would walk with his right hand extended, along the treble line, leading the sound; he would then advance to the tenor and then to the base.  After all the parts were sounded, he would then say, “begin” and with both hands would “mark time” to the conclusion of the piece.  This fa so la singing was then, and is now in many neighborhoods a favorite way of passing the time on the Sabbath.  Let it be understood that there’s to be a singing on a certain Sabbath, and we will warrant that a large crowd will be in attendance.  We suppose this may be accounted for from the fact that most persons love music, and those singings being a kind of social gathering of both sexes, they are regarded as suitable places to court and be courted.  Mr. Hillhouse always enforced good order in his school, and never had any trouble in controlling his pupils.  It is said that “one master passion in the human breast like Aaron’s serpent swallows up the rest.”  And we have noticed that this is especially true of music; for those who have a special fondness and talent for the science, seldom have a taste for anything else, but this was not true of Mr. Hillhouse, for, while he delighted greatly in the “concord of sweet sounds,” having, it is said, walked several thousand miles to teach a singing school in another state, yet he had a martial spirit, a fondness for war also, if we are to judge by the number of campaigns he was in during his life.  It is said that he was in seven different wars during his earthly career!  In every one he endured patiently the privations and hardships incident to such a life, and in every engagement proved himself to be a true and gallant soldier.  Though somewhat advanced in life, he enlisted in the late great struggle for Southern independence, and while gallantly striking for our “altars and our fires, God and our native land,” he fell mortally wounded in one of the early battles of the war.  Mr. Hillhouse was a member of the Presbyterian church, having been brought up in that faith from his childhood, was a quiet and peaceable citizen having a pleasant disposition and a kind and generous heart.  On a distant battlefield he sleeps, and if we were to visit his grave we would pull off our hat and say, “here lies a kind friend, a good soldier, an honest man!”