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ISSUED SEMI?WEEKL^ L. M. GRIST'S sobs, Publishers. 1 % .jfamilj) Jkicsgager: <jfor (ht promotion of Iht fjolitital, Social, ggrirultural, and Commercial .Interests of the Jleojle. j TERns^^io^^E^K^K \dmi<ce. ESTABLISHED 1855. . YOBKVILLE, S. C., FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1904. NO. 19. + M"I'*'?'*V*****'S"l"l">"?"t"fr'i"t"' f ? ?{?* * * 4* ** 4"it- *** '!"t"I"l"l"l"f"H 1 HhGe p Fro It I *y ?< * ?; k A**) Copyright, 1099, by Voubltday >!? Copyright, 1902 I t * * * ? ! !' ! ! !' !' & * i ??** * 4 ? f 1 ** * ******** CHAPTER V. HE bright sun of circus day shone into Harkless' window, ?ud he awoke to find himself aggJM smiling. For a little while he lay content, drowsily wondering why he smiled, only knowing that there was something new. It was thus as a boy he hud wakened on birthday mornings or on Christmas or on the Fourth of July, drifting happily out of pleasant dreams into the consciousness of iong awaited delights that had come true, yet lying only half awake in a cheerful borderland, leaving happiness undefined. The morning breeze was fluttering at his window blind, a honeysuckle vine tapped lightly on the pane. Birds were trilling, warbling, whistling, and from the street came the rumbling of wagons. merry cries of greeting and the barking of dogs. What was It made bim feel so young and strong and light hearted? The breeze brought him the smell of Jupe roses, fresh and sweet with dew. and then he knew why he had come smiling from his dreams. He leaped out of bed and shouted loudly: "Zen! Hello, Xenophon!" In answer an ancient, very black darky, his warped and wrinkled vie age showing under his grizzled hair like charred paper In a fall of pine nnhps nut his head in at the door and said: "Good mawn', suh. Yessuh. Hit's doiie pump' full. Good mawn', suh." A few moments later the colored man, seated on the front steps of the cottage, heard a mighty splashing within while the rafters rang with stentorian song: "He promised to buy me a bonny blue ribbon. He promised to buy me a bonny blue ribbon. He promised to buy me a bonny blue ribbon. To tie up my bonny brown hair. "Oh, dear, what can the matter be? Oh. dear, what can the matter be? Oh. dear, what can the matter be? Johnnie's so long at the fair!" The listener's Jaw dropped, and his mouth opened and stayed open. "Him'" he muttered faintly. "SinginT' "Well the old triangle knew the music of our tread; How the peaceful Seminole would tremble in his bed!" sang the editor. "I dunno buceome It," exclaimed the old man, "but. bless Gawd, de young man happy!" A thought struck him suddenly, and he scratched his head. "Maybe he goin' away," he said querulously. "What become of ole Zen?' The splashing ceased, but not the voice, which struck into a noble marching chorus. "Oh, my Lawd." said the colored man, "I pray you listen at dat!" "Soldiers marching up the street. They keep the time; They look sublime! Hear them play 'Die Wacht am Rheln.' They call it Schneider's band. Tra la la. la la." The length of Main street and all sides of the square resounded with the rattle of vehicles of every kind. Since earliest dawn they had been pouring into the village, a long processiuu. on every country road. The air was full of exhilaration; everybody was laughing and shouting and calling greetings, for Carlow county was turning out. and from far and near the country people came?nay. from over the county line; and clouds of dust arose from every thoroughfare and highway and swept Into town to herald their coming. Dibb Zane. the "sprinkling contractor." had been at work with the town I I "Honey, hit bald luck singbrcukfus'." water cart since the morning stars were bright, but he might as well have watered the streets with his tears, which, indeed, when the farmers began to come in. bringing their cyclones of dust, lie drew nigh unto after a hurst of profanity as futile as his cart. "Tief wie das Meer soil delne Liebe setn," hummed the editor in the cottage. His song had takeu on a retlective tone, as that of one who cons a problem or musically ponders which card to play. He was kneeling before an old trunk In his bedchamber. From one compartment he took a neatly folded pair of duck trousers and a light gray tweed coat, from another a straw hat with a ribbon of bright colors. He examined these musingly. They had lain In the trunk for a long time undisturbed. He -* ?i~fr 4* 1 -I' < '!' 'M"!1 ?! ! * ! ! *?? ! !'? ! ! '! ? ? ntleman l! i !? ?? idiarta ilii doth ta hkiwg to ft ;;j;; <> ~ i,0,t ' SSL McClurt Co. ,i,*,, , by McClurt. VhiUipj C&L Co. V?" i.|,.|, i,,|.,f.,|,,|.,|,,|,,|,,|,,|, | ,|,,|,,|, ?.. !'? ?'H"C- i * 4. 4 shook the coat ami brushed it. Then he laid the garments upon his bed and proceeded to shave himself carefully, after which he donned the white trousers. the gray coat and, rummaging in the trunk again, found a gay pink cravat, which be fastened about his tall collar (also a resurrection from the trunk) with a pearl pin. He took a long time to arrange his hair with a pair of brushes. When at last it suited him and his dressing was complete, he sallied forth to breakfast Xenophon stared after him as he went out of the gate whistling heartily. The old darky lifted his hands, palms outward. "I.an' name, who dat?" he exclaimed aloud. "Who dat in dem panjingeries? He gone Jine de circus!" His hands fell upon his knees, and he got to his feet rheumatically, shaking his head witli foreboding. "Honey, honey, hit baid luck, baid luck sing 'fo' breakfus'. Trouble 'fo' de day be done. Trouble, honey, great trouble. Baid luck, baid luck!" A ong the square the passing of the editor in his cool equipments was a progress, and wide were the eyes and deep the gasps of astonishment caused by his festal appearance. Mr. Tibbs and his sister rushed from the postoffice to stare after hiiu. "He looks Just beautiful, Solomon," said Miss Tibbs. Harkless usually ate his breakfast alone, as he was the latest riser in Plattvllle. There were days in the winter when he did not reach the hotel .until 8 o'clock. This morniug he found a bunch of white roses, still wet with dew and so fragrant that the whole room was fresh and sweet with their odor, prettily arranged in a bowl on the table, and at his plate the largest of all with a pin through the stem. He l-rwl-swl im omllinrrlr n nrl nnrlflpfl nt t)lP IUUIWU up nuiiiui^ij Itirn uvumvm ? red faced, red haired waitress who was waving a long fly brush over his head. "Thank you. Charm ion," he said. "That's very pretty." "That old Mr. Wiraby was here," she answered, "and lie left word for you to look out. The whole possetucky of Johnsons from the Crossroads passed his house this mornin', comin' this way. and he see Bob Skillett on the square when he got to town. He left them flowers. Mrs. Wimby sent 'em to ye. I didn't bring "em." "Thank you for arranging them." She turned even redder than she alwr jrs was : nd answered nothing, vigorously darting her brush at an imaginary fly on the cloth. After several minutes si e said abruptly, "You're welcome." There was a silence, finally broken by a long, gasping sigh. Astonished, he looked at the girl. Her eyes were set unfathoiuably upon his pink tie. The wand had dropped from her nerveless hand, and she stood rapt and immovable. She started violently fro"i her trance. "Ain't ye goin' to finish yer coffee?" she asked, plying her instrument again, and. bending slightly, whispered. "Say, Eph Watts is over there behind ye." At a table in a far corner of the room a large gentleman in a brown frock coat was quietly eating his breakfast and reading the Herald. lie was of an ornate presence, though entirely neat. A sumptuous expanse of linen exhibited itself between the lapels of his low cut waistcoat, and an inch of bediamonded breastpin glittered there like an ice ledge on a snowy mountain side. He had a steady blue eye and a dissi pnted iron gray mustache. This personage was Mr. Ephralm Watts, who. following a calling more fashionable in the eighteenth century than in the latter decades of the nineteenth, hud shaken the dust of Carlow from his feet some three years previously at the strong request of the authorities. The Herald had been particularly insistent upon his deportation. In the local phrase. Ilarkless had "run him out o' town." I'crimps it was because the Herald's opiwsition. as the editor had explained at the time, had been "merely moral and impersonal." and the editor had confessed to a liking for the unprofessional qualities of Mr. Watts, that there was but a slight embarrass niont when the two gentlemen met today. His breakfast finished, Harkless went over to the other and extended his hand. Cynthia, the waitress, held her breatli and clutched the back of a chair. However, Mr. Watts made no motion toward his well known hip pocket. Instead lie rose, flushing slightly, and accepted the hand offered him. "I'm glad to see you, Mr. Watts." said the journalist cordially. "And also, if you are running with the circus and calculate on doing business here today. I'll have you fired out of town before noon. How are you? You're looking extremely well." "Mr. Harkless," answered Watts, "1 cherish no hard feelings, and I never said but what you done exactly right when I left, three years ago. No. sir; I'm not here in a professional way at all, and I don't want to be molested. I've connected myself with an oil company. and I'm down here to look over the ground. It beats poker and fantan all hollow, though there ain't us many chances In favor of the dealer, and in oil it's the farmer that gets the rakcoff. I've come back, but In an enterprising spirit this time, to open up a new field and shed light and money in Carlow. They told me never to show my face nere again, nut if you say l stay T guess I can. I always was sure there was oil In the county, and I want to prove It for everybody's benefit. Is It all right?" "My dear fellow." laughed the young man, shaking the gambler's hand again. "It Is all right. I have always been sorry I had to act against you. Everything is all right. Stay and bore to Korea, if you like. Did ever you see such glorious weather?" "I'll let you In on some shares," Watts called after him as he turned away. The other nodded in reply and was iK/v -'wrM PwnfWo /^afnin. leaving imr IWUI nucu VJ mum uvvu*? ed him by a flourish of her fly brush. "Say," she said?she always called him "Say"?"you've forgot yer flower." He came back and thanked her. "Will you pin it on for me, Charmion?" "I don't know what call you got to speak to me out of my name," she responded. looking at the floor moodily. "Why?" he asked, surprised. "I don't see why you want to make fun of me." "I beg your pardon, Cynthia." he said gravely. "I didn't mean to do that. I haven't been considerate. I didn't think you'd be displeased. I'm very sorry. Won't you pin it on my coat?" Her face was lifted in grateful pleasure, and she began to pin the rose to his lapel. Her hands were large and red nnrt trpmhled. She droDDed the flower and, saying huskily. "I don't know as I could do it right." seized violently upon a pile of dishes and hurried from the room. Harkless rescued the rose, pinned it on his coat himself, with the internal observation that the red haired waitress was the queerest creature in the village, and set forth upon his holiday. Mr. Lige Willetts, a stalwart bachelor. the most eligible in Carlow, and a habitual devotee of Minnie Briscoe, was seated on the veranda when Harkless turned in at the gate of the brick bouse. "The Indies will be down right off." he said, greeting the editor's cool finery with a perceptible agitation and the editor himself with a friendly shake of the hand. "Mildy says to wait out here." There was a faint rustling within the house, the swish of draperies on the stairs, a delicious whispering, when light feet descend, tapping, to hearts that beat an answer, the telegraphic mesrsge: "We come! We come! We are near! We are near!" Lige Willetts stared at Harkless. He had never thought the latter was good looking until he saw him step to the door to take Helen Sherwood's hand and say, in a strange, low, tense voice, "Good morning," as if he were announcing, at the least: "Every one in the world, exwpt us two. died last night. It is a solemn thing, but I am very happy." They walked, Minnie and Mr. Willetts, a little distance In front of the others. Harkless could not have told afterward whether they rode or walked or floated on an airship to the courthouse. Ail he knew distinctly was that a divinity in a pink shirt waist and a hat that was woven of gauzy cloud by mocking fairies to make bin stoop hideously to see under it dwelt for the time on earth and was at his side, dazzling him in the morning sunshine. Last night the moon had leur her a silvery glamour. She had something of the ethereal whiteness of night dews in that watery light, u nymph to laugh from a sparkling four tain at the moon, or, as he thought. r<membering her courtesy for bis prot*' She flistened her rose tn place of the white one. ipeech, perhaps a little lady of King I.ouis" court wandering down the years from Fontainebieau and appearing to rluLMsy mortals sometimes of a summer night when the moon was in their heads. But today she was of the daintiest color, a pretty girl whose gray eyes twinkled to his in gay companionship. He marked how the sunshine danced across the shadows of her fair hair and seemed itself to catch a luster rather than impart it, and the light of the June day drifted through the gauzy hat to her face, touching it with a delicate and tender Hush that came and went like the vibrating pink of early dawn. She had the divinost straight nose, tip tilted a faint, alluring tritie, and a dimple cleft her chin, "the deadliest maelstrom in the world!" He thrilled through and through. lie had been only vaguely conscious of the dimple in the night. It was not until he saw her by daylight that he really knew it was there. The village hummed with life before theui. They walked through shimmering airs, sweeter to breathe than nectar is to drink. She caught a butterfly basking on a jimson weed, and before she let it go held it out to him In iier hand. It was a white butterly. He asked which was the butterfly. "Bravo!" she said, tossing the captive craft above their heads and watching the small sails catch the breeze. "And so you can make little flatteries in the morning too. It Is another courtesy you should be liaving rroni me If It weren't for tbe dustiness of It. Wait till we come to the board walk." She had some big pink roses at her waist. Indicating these, he answered, "In the meantime, I know very well a lad that would be blithe to accept a pretty token of any lady's high esteem." "But you have one already, a very beautiful one." She gave him a genial up and down glance from head to foot, half quizzical and* half applauding, but so quick he scarcely saw it, and he was glad he had resurrected the straw hat with the youthful ribbon and bis other festal vestures. "And a very becoming flower a white rose is," siie continued, "though I am a bold girl to be blarneying with a young gentleman I met no longer ago than last night" "But why shouldn't you blarney with a gentleman when you began by saving his life?" "Especially when the gentleman had the politeness to gallop about the county with me tucked under his arm." She stood stin arid laughed soTny,~t>ut consummately, and her eyes closed tight with the mirth of it She had taken one of the roses from her waist and as she stood holding it by the long stem its cool petals lightly pressed her lips. "You may have it?in exchange," she said. He bent down to her, and she fastened her rose in place of the white one in his coat Site did not ask him, directly or indirectly, who had put the white one there for him. She knew by the way it was pinned that he had done It himself. "Who is it that ev'ry morning brings me these lovely flowers?" she burlesqued as he bent over her. "Mr. Wimby," he returned. "I will point him out to you. You must see him and Mr. Bodeffer, who is the oldest inhabitant and the crossest of Car low." "Will you present them to me?" "No; they might talk to you and take some of my time with you away from me." '? , Her eyes sparkled Into his for the merest fraction of a second, and she laughed. Then she dropped bis lapel, and they proceeded. She did not put the white rose in her belt, but carried it. The square was heaving with a Jostling, moving, good natured, happy and constantly increasing crowd that overflowed 011 Main street in both directions and whose good nature augmented in the ratio that its size increased. The streets were a kaleidoscope of many colors, an ' every window opening 011 Main street or the square was filled with eager faces. By 9 o'clock all the windows of the courthouse in the center of the square were occupied. Here most of the damsels congregated to enjoy the spectacle of the parade, and their swains attended, posted at coigns of less vantage behind the ladies. Some of the faces that peeped from the windows of the dark, old, shady courthouse were pretty, and some of tliem were not pretty, but nearly nil of them were rosy cheeked, and nil were pleasant to see because of the good cheer they kept. Here and there, along the sidewalk below, a father worked his way through the throng, a licorice bedaubed cherub one arm, his coat (borne with long tnough) on the other, followed by a mother, with the other children hanging to her skirts and tagging exasperutinglv behind, holding red and blue toy balloons and delectable candy batons of spiral striped peppr?; tint in tightly closed, sadly sticky fingers. A thousand cries rent the air?the strolling mountebanks and gypsying booth merchants, the peanut venders, the boys with palm leaf fans for sale, the candy sellers, the popcorn peddlers, the Italian with the toy balloons that float ike a cluster of colored bubbles above the heads of the crowd and the balloons that wail like a baby; the red lemonade man, shouting In the shrill voice that reaches everywhere and endures forever: "Leino'i Lemo'l Five u glass! Ice cole lemo'! Five cents, a nickel, a half a dime, the iwentiethpotofadoliah! Lemo'! Ice cole lemo'!" ?all the vociferating harbingers of the circus crying their wares. Timid youths in shoes covered with dust through which the morning polish but dimly shone and unalterably booked by the arm to blushing maidens bought recklessly of peanuts, of candy, of popcorn, of all known sweetmeats, perflimicfj nnd forced their wnv to the lemonade stands, and there, all shyly, silently sipped the crimson stained ambrosia. Everywhere the hawkers dinned, and everywhere was heard the plaintive squawk of the toy balloon. TO BE CONTINUED. The Caatoma o' the Country. There was once a Newfoundland fisherman?he chanced to be a Catholic? who in old age came to die. lie had jived in debt all his life and, no doubt, had never once given his whole catch to the dealer who supplied him. but had wrongfully slipped many a quintal over the side of a rival schooner and traded it out on the spot. "Send for Fawtlier Rafferty." he said. "Send Immediate!" lie wanted to confess his sins, to be shriven and to depart in pence, but his old priest had been transferred to Trinity Bay. A young man. Just bnck from Rome, was now the spiritual head of the parish. "Sure, 'tis Fawther Codlin." they toiu 111x11. "Xoa, noa!" the old man protested. "Fnwther Codlin's a fine young man? a clever young man, I doubt me not, but 'tis old Fnwther Rnfferty I wants t' hear me confession." "An' why?" they asked. "Sure," the dying man gasped, "he knows the customs o' the country."? Norman Duncan In World's Work. Hit If people knew what the future had In store for them the chief charm of existence would be lost.?New York Press. Miscellaneous ^railing. TSI-AN. The Most Remarkable Old Woman Living. A dispatch to the Sun from Chins says that the Dowager Empress has lefl Pekln for Kalfeng-fu In the province of Honan. This city of over 200,00( Inhabitants Is the capital of Honar Province, and the railroad betweer Pekln and Hankow will pass through it. The northern part of the road Is now far advanced, and the Empress Dowager has probably utilized It, as she did the completed portion wher she fled to Slam during the Boxei troubles. Kaifeng is a large trading place and has the only distinctively Jewish coloJAPAN'S WAR MINISTER. General Terauchi, who has been Japan's minister of war since 1898, was educated in Germany and Japan and GENERAL MASATAICE TERAUCHI. was vice head of the Japanese board of strategy during the Chino-Japanese war. ny in China. These Jews are engaged almost entirely In gold and silver working and in money lending. The city is on the right bank of the Hoang river and has suffered terribly from the inundations of that treacherous stream. In 1641 most of the inhabitants signed their own death warrant by tearing down the embankments in the attempt to drown a rebel army that was besieging them. The rebels, however, escaped, while nearly all the people of the town were drowned. We are not informed as to the reasons given to the Chinese public for the departure of the Empress from the capital. When she and the emperor took refuge in Siam the people were not told that they had left Pekin because it was about to be occupied by the allied forces. The journey was due, it was said, to the fact that the emperor desired to travel through his A RUSSIAN STATESMAN. Count Lamsdorff, Russia's minister of foreign affairs, is a veteran diplomat COUNT UIISDOIOT, and has been very conspicuous in the negotiations between his country and Japan. dominions, study the condition of the people and worship in the temples, The American, Nichols, who traveled to Siam later, said that no one intimated to him that the royal party had lied from Pekin. The revered rulers created the impression everywhere that it was only their good pleasure to travel to Siam; and to this day the farmers speak of the imperial wanderers .as if they had eonveyel lasting honor on the old land by traveling through it. If the Emnress Dowasrer is making her present progress by rail there will be no opportunity for exciting incidents similar to those that marked the land journey to Siam. At that time she had made up her mind that the Boxei movement was a sad failure; and when, on the journey, a man in Boxei regalia rushed into the road, knelt beside her chair and began a eulogistic address on her efforts to exterminate the "foreign devils," she merely motioned to one of her body-guard, whc quietly walked up behind the Boxer and with one stroke of his sword cul off his oration and his head at the same time, and she degraded the mandarin who had permitted the man tc make this demonstration under the mistaken impression that it would be pleasing to the empress. When the lady was informed that a Manchu of high rank in her party was making a handsome squeeze in hiring carts to carry the luggage, she al once caused his head to roll in the dust of the road. A considerable number of decapita- t tions, in fact, relieved the journey of I monotony; and these incidents did not t tend to make the Empress Dowager c less popular with her subjects. For- t , eigners who have spent much time f among the common people in China t L say that they almost worship her, and t . that her faults and cruelties are vir- t } tues in their eyes, and the more intel) ligent classes have a great admiration s , and respect for her character and un- j , bounded confidence in her ability.? t , New York Sun. I , SAM JONES GROWS WISE. 1 i a i Georgia Evangelist Learning That s Dispensaries Are Worse Than Sa- t loons. r I Sam Jones writes to the Atlanta Journal from Cartersvllle, as follows: i I have spent three days of this week 1 In South Carolina, and I have been t thinking considerably over what I saw c ! and heard on this trip as well as on 0 , other tours through South Carolina. I I spent last Monday night in Charles- 1 ton. Our train on Coast Line was late, f We got to Charleston about 9 o'clock. ( I Inquired at the hotel for a decent t restaurant. I was referred to one In 1 the block of the hotel. I went In, ordered my supper. At the table next to me were four young men, not eatj Ing but drinking. They were full when i I got In: they were runer wnen i goi ort. When I got back to the hotel I remarked that there seemed to be c more to drink than to eat at the res- \ 'aurant they referred me to. That a brought on more talk, and the dispen- l; sary, with all its characteristics, was t discussed. i A gentleman standing high In the i financial and political life of South t Carolina proposed to me that he woula show me something if I would go with c him, and I accepted his invitation, and s within two blocks he carried me into e six full-fledgi Charleston blind ti- e gers. He sa there were 300 of them s there. Sorrn of them were raided by f the state and city constabulary fre- l quently. Others were immune; they u never had been raided. li There are fourteen state dispensa- r ries in Charleston. I suppose they only c lo a small per cent of the business in p liquor. The dispensaries must close at p G o'clock in the evening, and open at r 6 o'clock in the morning, but the blind- c tigers do business after the hours of t 'he dispensary, and they do business ' until the wee small hours of the 9 morning. The names and places of ii these bllnd-tlgers are as well-known p in Charleston as the clothing stores of ti George Muse and Elseman, or the dry ti goods stores of Chamberlln-Johnson t and Keely in Atlanta. The dispensaries p in the smaller towns do a large bus- ii Iness, and perhaps the only liquor r business of any of them worth speak- t ing of; but they do business, selling ?( bust-head from sixteen cents a half pint bottle to $2 a quart. The state is v the wholesale dealer and furnishes all g the dispensaries, and the state's profit a is made In their profits as they sell to e the county and town dispensaries. For c instance, each dispensary pays the a state dispensary twelve cents a bot- a tie for that pop-skull, which the town $ 1 dispensary sells for fifteen cents, and t it has the stamp of the state chemist r on It, reading "nothing chemically im- t pure in this liquor." I do not know ii why they do not stamp on the bottle, f "Nothing morally impure either." The one would go as far with me as the c other. t I once favored the dispensary as a p choice between the saloon and the dis- v pensary, for the following reasons: r First, I thought the dispensary would s put the bar-room crowd and the liquor t interests out of politics, and we all t know what a potent factor they make, v Secondly, that the license feature, by which the coffers of the town and e state are enriched would be done away e with; and thirdly, because I believed \ less liquor would be drunk. But the li South Carolina dispensaries demon- t strate that liquor is in politics worse t in South Carolina than any state in c the Union. And secondly, that the t e uxjayers are getting more moucj uui ? of it. And, thirdly, that there is more r liquor drunk out of the dispensaries i of South Carolina per capita in my- v candid judgment, than out of the full- c Hedged bar-rooms in other states. It e will take South Carolina a hundred years to recover from the effects of the dispensary: for dispensary liquor not only debauches the poor devils that | drink it, but the dispensary will debauch the whole state in its politics and morals. I am as much against s I the open saloon as I ever was. I am I as much against the dispensary as I v am against the saloon, and for the [ i same reasons. t > And I keep saying that if whisky r i is a good thing, then turn it loose, and J f let it How ankle deep, and hang a dip- s per on the limb of every tree and give v ; the world all the good there is in it. If * ; it is a bad thing, then down with and j out with the whole business in extenso. c : Greenwood, S. C., has never had a r I dispensary. For first-class citizenship, v ( Intelligence, morality and decency she p 1 stands without a peer in that state, f ? ** ? T * In nnnfltar nf f > Ulinion, S. U. i uene>c, w j the same stripe. But whenever you I find a dispensary you will find a de- g bauched sentiment, and a growing * greed on the part of the taxpayers to s : push its business, and to increase its > profits. r The best elements of South Caro- ^ i lina are against the dispensary, the c , worst elements of South Carolina are : against the dispensary, and these two j ! classes together do not make a major- c ity in that state. It is an anomalous e i state of things if the best and worst ? f elements of society be together against ^ > anything. t I do not remember that I have met t l a single minister in South Carolina, or ^ ! devout Christian man who wasn't r against the dispensary: and the worst t : feature of the dispensary system is, j ! it has fastened itself like a leech, and j has come to stay. I had rather undertake a o vote the saloons out of Macon, Atanta or Savannah, than to undertake o vote the dispensary out of Athens >r Rome. I have not only got to fight he liquor, but I have got to fight the >rofits of liquor that come to each axpayer of the county, and when you ouch the average fellow's pocket, you lave hit a vital spot. If any town In Georgia or other tate contemplates inaugurating a dls >ensary, let them send a committee of hree honest men to Charleston or Coumbla. and take In also some of the imaller towns, and see the thing as It s. That committee will come back ind report unfavorably. Keep your ;aloons until you can vote them out, >ut don't ever compromise by swap>ing your saloons for the dispensary. A saloon Is the smallpox, a dispensary s the measles. I, for one, had rather lave the smallpox, and get well than lave the measles, forever. I am freluently asked, which would you choose aloons or dispensary or blind-tigers? reply, why don't you ask me which had rather have smallpox, yellow ever or measles? By the grace of Jod, I don't want either one of the hree in mine, and am not going to lave them if I can help it EXPENSES OF THE RAILROAD. .ots of Drains of Which tho Publio Knows Nothing. The annual expenditures of railroad ompanies for purposes concerning vhich the public takes little thought ire enormous. One of the items of arge expenses is the softening of waer used in locomotives, experience havng demonstrated that it is cheaper to nstall water softeners than supply hese locomotives with raw water. On the middle division of the Athison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ystem the sum of $27,376 is expendd annually for this purpose, the softner being used at twenty-nine water tations where the water has been ound unsuitable for boiler purposes, 'he locomotives passing these stations ise, on an average, about 999,000 galans of water daily. The water from learly all these sources contains inrusting constituents?that is, the sulfates and carbonates of lime and nagnesium, and In many cases, corosive substances, such as chloride of alcium and magnesium, are present in roublesome amounts. The Incrusting solids contained in 99,000 gallons of water used each day n the year amount to over 3,200 iounds, or, in the course of a year 590 ons. This amount of incrusting maerial deposited in the boiler would, in he first place, damage the boiler lates and cause an enormous increase n the consumption of coal. The renoval of this scale would cost probacy from 6 to 10 cents per mile of disance run. At these twenty-nine water stations later softeners have been erected at reat initial expense. The maintennce of these softeners requires the xpenditure of about $17 a day for hemicals and an additional charge of bout 158 a day for services of attendnts, making a total of 875 a day, or 27,375 a year. The cost of construclon of these water softeners was not nade public, but If the cost of malnenance represents 4 per cent on the nvestment, the total amount expended or water softeners Is nearly 8700,000. The same experience holds true of ither railroads. At ten water stalons along the Union Pacific 2,790 lounds of solids are removed fro~* the vater each day, almost as much as Is emoved from the water of twenty-nine tat Ions along the Santa Fe system, alhough at the ten Union Pacific stalons they use about 50 per cent more vater than at the Santa Fe stations. The chemical survey of natural watirs which Is being made by the hydroconomic experts of the geological survey, is directed, In part, toward the ocation of available waters which may >e used for boiler purposes without reatment. If discovered and their loatlon made known, the saving of a remendous amount of money will be ffected. In the case of railroads the ost of such great losses, as above nentioned, Is due largely to lack of nformation concerning the sources of vater suitable for boilers, and they v'ill become the greatest beneficiaries if this phase of the work of the govirnment.?New York Sun. A DRY LUNCH. mpossible to Eat Twenty Cracker* Without Water. A company of sports were taking: upper together' the other evening In Mexico City as the guest of a somevhat notorious gambler, who Is a man >ast middle life and is always a promnent figure on the streets because of he great length of his waistband. The epast was served in a well-known resaurant and the host, who is a fluent alker, entertained his guests with ome marvelous stories of feats he had witnessed, including one about a man vho had eaten ten dozen of eggs, anither who had devoured a twenty-flvelound fish, another who had disposed if 10 dozen broiled quail and many nore of like tenor. The guests listened in wonder, but lithout protest, then he gave them a loser by repeating that he had seen a nan eat eight pounds of cheese and our pounds of crackers without takng a mouthful of liquid of any kind. The assertion caused one of the ;uests to wake up, and he said to the lost: "I will bet you $40 that you canlot eat forty crackers without taking omething to drink while doing so." The bet was declined, but the guest nade another attempt and said: "I trill bet you $20 that you cannot eat wenty crackers without taking a drink if some kind." The host is a man who does not care o be bluffed, and responded by putting ip the money. It was done. The :rackers produced and carefully countid, the guests all laid down their knives ind forks and the host began to try to vin the money most vigorously. He ite rapidly, but when six crackers had >een disposed of his jaws showed evilent signs of weariness. He struggled ramely with the seventh and got it lown. When he took up the eighth he nibfled at it for a while, put it on the ta>le but half eaten, and in broad, rich rish tones said: 'Til ate no more." ^nd the bet was paid.?Mexican Her><* : j