University of South Carolina Libraries
BILL ARP' Bill j?Lrp Tells of His zer, Atlanta Ct A few days ago I received a letter from a friend and it was post-marked Pelzer. He said I was wanted tb ere to talk to the people, and he ventured to fix the day and the compensation for loss of time and waste of tongue. I had never heard of Pelzer, nor could I find it on my an tl guatee' map. But I did find it on one of latei date, and supposed it-was some little village that had a cotton mill and dam on the Sa luda and some tenement houses. Nevertheless, I accepted the call, for the offer was liberal. The next mail j brought a similar invitation from Piedmont, another mill town, only six miles from Pelzer; So I journeyed from Atlanta to Greenville, and there changed cars for my destination, which is only twenty miles away. It was night when I reached the place. My good friend, Mr. Padgett, who is the democratic postmaster,' took me to his house. I -had not seen the town, for it was quite dark. "What is the prospect for an audience?" I inquired. "Very good," he said. "I think you will have sev eral hundred people out to hear you." "Why, how large is your town? 'What is your population?" "About 7,000," he said. I was amazed. A town twice as large as Carterville and 1 never heard of it, and it is not on my map. He explained by saying it was only twelve years old, and had four , large cotton mills that em pb y ed over 2,000 operatives, and consumed nearly 100,000 bales of cotton, and the com pany owned some 3,000 acres of land, and all the houses and stores and cherches and several ;iiles of the riv er. "Did you advertise me pretty well?" I inquired. "Oh yes," he said. "We church folks told it to ev erybody we met, both in the town and ia the country, and they all said they were coming." "Publish it in the papers?" said I. "No, no. We have j no papers here, and no printing office. ? We didn't have a poster or a hand j bill, but we talked it a good deal." j Well, I listened and wondered, and j my confidence was shaken. After a bountiful supper and a little mixing up with the children, we went to the large church where I was to hold forth, and found it already pretty well filled. In a brief time I stood before more than 500 people, and was in spired to make my best effort, for I had an orderly and attentive congre gation, and we all fell in love with one another. I have never had a more gratifying lecture occasion. Next morning was spent in viewing the city and the mills and library. ' The merchants carried immense stocks in large stores, and there were many . nice residences for the managers and the heads of the various departments, but they were all built and are owned ? and leased by the mill company. This ; company owns and controls every foot , of land and everything that is on it. . Captain Smythe, of Charleston, is the i king, the czar, a bighearted^ and . ? brainy man, and everybody respects ? . and loves him. His the son of that < v celebrated Presbyterian minister of < Charleston, who .during his miuisteri- ? a^ life was a notable man in religious j ciircles. I remember that he was one i of W faber's friends. "Who is your ] majvor?"' said I. We have none, no j i mayor nor aldermen, no municipal | ( coraoration, no marshal or police. ! j Captain Smythe runs the town. Ev- I s erywody who comes here for employ- j ( . ment is investigated carefully. His ( antecedents must be good or hecau't ? stay. We have no lawyers uor edi- ] tors; don't need any. We allow them i < to come in and look around." Did i you know that I was a lawyear? ' said i J L "Oh, yes: but we learned that | you had quit the practice and reform- j 1 ed, and so we invited you." "I don't see any negroes about j here," said I. "No, we don't want ? j them. They are a few, but they live , outside. Some of them cook and wash ^ for us, but Captain Smythe don't want ? us to mix with them or depend upon them. He wants everybody to depend upon themselves as much as possi ble." "And BO you have ruled out j lawyers, editors and negroes ?" r "Yes," said he, "and there are no sa- . loons ?r blind tigers or cigarettes." { "How about doctors?" I asked. "Oh, ] of course, we have doctors; yes, we have two doctors and one dentist and , four preachers, all select, and one i photographer." The company has a j , good public library and pays a mun to \ j keep it. ; ( I visited mill No. 4, an up-to-date j mill in all respects. It is operated by j j electricity that is generated two miles i distant at some falls of the Saluda ! j River. This mill amazed rae. No ( coal nor no steam. It is 128 feet wide < and 528 feet long and is four stories i high. In one great room I saw (if), 000 spindles turning. In two others there were 1,400 looms. It requires ( 1,100 operatives to attend to this mill, , and it takes 56,000 bales of cotton for j a yerr's supply. Just think of it. i S LETTER. s Hecent Visit to 3?el S. C. institution. The superintendent, Mr. Guy, had the j elevator stop about half way up be ! tween floors so that I might have a : good view of the machinery and busy i boys and girls in this spinning room, j This room he called his children's i room; not the children's room, but j my children's room, he said. Scores ! of little chaps, not . more than ten years old, who looked their love for him They were the brightest and healthiest children I ever saw in a mill, and earn from 25 cents to GO cents a day. Many of the grown ?iris earn from 60 cents to $1.25 a da>, and the average pay of them all is 62 cents. This is good wages, for their work is easy and healthful. The rooms are never too hot or too cold; for the temperature is kept uniform by fans and heaters in the basement. No grease or fatty matter is used on the machinery nothing but pure mineral oil. These children are required to leave the mill at certain periods and gu to their pub lic schools, which are supported by the company. I visited the school and found 300 of the pupils gathered in the large room to receive me and listen to a brief talk about my old schooldays and some words of encour agement to cheer them up. Mr. Guy. the efficient superintendent of mill No. 4, is an Augusta man, and has been in the mill service for forty-four years. In the packing room I ob served that all the bales are marked to Shanghai, China, and I heard that China is the best customer of South ern mills. That government used to buy from J?ew England and old Eng land, but they bought their goods by weight and not by the yard, and in course of time John Bull and the yan kee got to mixing white clay with the starch to make the cloth weigh heavy, and so they turned their trade down South, where people didn't adulterate everything they make to sell. Said Mr. Guy to me: '"There is no si snog in these goods except that made of pure boiled corn starch." Nearly all the capital in these great mills is from the South; and there's millions in them, for Piedmont is on the same river and is only five miles away and has two large mills and an other is going up at Belton, a few mile? below. In fact, the traveler through upper Carolina is haidly ever out of sight of a smokestack. In a few years that State will consume all the cotton that is grown in it. What a glorious prospect. All around Pelzer and Piedmont the farmers are prosperous; for they have a regular, eager market for anything they grow, and I saw their wagons coming in on every road. I visited Piedmont and stayed a day and night. It is a duplicate of Pelzer, though not 30 large; having about 5,000 people, it is most efficiently managed by Mr. James L. Orr, Jr., a son of the gov srnor and statesman. Ile. too, is a king and a czar, and his word is law ibout everything. He is respected md loved by every mau, woman and jhild in Piedmont; and the stockhold ers have nothing to do but look ou ind receive their dividends semi-an aually. Piedmont is more elevated .han Pelzer, and thc views from her ailis are charming. And then her lowers: oh', the beauty of them. Out loor chrysanthemums ?and roses were n all their glory. Mrs. Richardson sent my wife a box full by yesterday's ?xpress that excelled anything that I ;ver saw in a conservatory. She gave i caution to the expressman in these ines on thc box: Tf you desire to climb the golden stair, Tandie these dowers with exceeding care, f you expect to play the golden harp, speed them with safety to Mistress Arp." The lyceum and public library ab Piedmont is an interesting place to ?\slt and is liberally patronized by the yorkers in the mills. Connected with t is a home-made insurance or benefit tssociation, a kind of savings bank, vhere for a deposit of ten cents a vcek the family of the depositor gets 'orty dollars whenever a death occurs rhis is of cour.-e to provide forfuner tl expenses and a decent burial. In his library is the ?nest collection of [ndian relics that I ever saw anywhere. Fortunate people to have such phil mthropic guardians. Old Father Pelzer does uot live there, but he is lear enough to keep a fatherly eye on ihese numerous children. Ile is a Jharleston millionaire, but lives at lis up country home, not far from tho jeautiful Mill City which he founded md which bears his name. Just ,hinkof;t, my Georgia friends; 00, )00 spindles turning in one room, and L,400 looms weaving in two others! Why should not every cotton growing ;ounty in Georgia, yea, in South Car bina, do likewise. Our County pro luces ten thousand bales annually, ind surely our farmers can build a nill large enough to manufacture it md double its value. BILL AUP. ACKOSS THE GRE/Vf DIVIDE. BY WILLIAM RITTEXHOUSE. Which of us docs not remember the j celebrated drop of water which, fall ing on thc very summit of the great continental divide, can take its choice of going either to the. Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean, and which has served to point an obvious moral ever since the geography of America has been known? The Great Divide is notamere ligure of speech, either, but a very imposing reality, as all the transcontinental railroads have found; and its interest is not?t al! confined to its w?tershodding qualities. The story of thc advance of thc railroads across its crest is one of the romances of history, and would require a volume to do it justice. It was in 1841 that Asa Whitney, a New York merchant, first began to dream of making a road across the American Divide. He had been in China a few years before, and became convinced that thc trade of China, India, and Japan could all be gained for the United States by a transcon tinental line. He proposed to con gress to build, at his own expense, a railway from Lake Superior to Puget Sound if he were granted a strip of land sixty miles wide all along the route. For twenty years he strove to push his plan, but the government considered it a fantastic dream, and Whitney died, poor and disappointed. Not until 1S64 was a bill finally pass ed, through President Lincoln's influ ence, which authorized the building of the Union and Central Pacific Rail roads. The Central was to lay its rails eastward from the Golden Gate, and the Union to commence at the Missouri and advance westward Wherever the rails met, between the river and coast, they were to join As there was a heavy subsidy, how ever, granted for every mile of road forty-eight thousand dollars a mile across the Rockies, for example each road was anxious to outstrip the other, and thc garders, working like ants, passed each other, and still kept on until two hundred parallel miles of roadbed (but without a rail) were finished. The track layers, of course, bad to stop as soon as they met, which wa? at Promontory, Utah, where, on May 10, 1869, the last tie was laid ft was made of highly-polished Cali fornia laurel, bearing a silver plate with the names of the officers and lirectors of each company, and the .ails fastened with four spikes, two )f gold, from California and Idaho, ind two of silver from Nevada and Montana. The original idea of a line across ,he continent was that of trade with ,he East, as has been said. For nany years, indeed, it never entered nen's minds that the land between -he Missouri and the Sierras was vorth anything at all. It was con fered a barren, rainless desert, fit inly for the buffalo and the Indian. "Money invested in the Great Araer can Desert will never come back," eas the phrase of one cautious capi alist. Yet nowadays exactly ninety ive per cent, of the earnings of these oads comes from local traffic, and only ive from that through trade from vhich Whitney hoped so much. It s even an actual fact, that "with thc advent of the railroad upon thc western plateaus thc climate has be :ome milder, thc cold less destructive, ind thc rainfall greater," for the ilanting of trees and ploughing of ields everywhere has broken thc bree of the wind and increased tie vapora tion. All this, of course, has not been one without- infinite toil and sacri icc. Many "pathfinders" of thc ugineering force lie in forgotten raves along each mighty track across he continent. The lud?an, painted, cathered, and treacherous, has hung bout the camps of the surveyors, the arders, and the track layers, as they ave followed each other steadily into he wilderness, and has left a bloody ccord of massacre behind him. rrasshoppers have clogged thc wheels nd stopped the locomotives, and now has buried thc crews to starve. Miis problem of snow, indeed, has cen one of the vital questions upon ll the transcontinental routes. For j wo and three years before each one ;as laid out the engineers have lived n winter camps along the proposed oute, observing every summit, slope, nd valley, learning from the currents rhcre the snow would drift deep and diere thc ground would be blown bare, 'hey had to study the secrets of thc valanchc and the "flurry" or local urricane produced by the passing of he snowslidc. The result of it all ;as the snowshed, :i purely American nvention, of whose interior co-istruc ion our picture gives an idea, but of rhich the outside is really the i ni por* ant part. In building a snowshed the engi cer first considers the slope on which t is built. Sometimes, when this is oo abrupt, he banks his shed ou thc pper side with a cedar crib filled Mth rock, and above and round that s placed a backing of earth and rocks, .TItil the whole hillside is a smooth ml even grade. Sometimes, on the ther hand, he hollows out a curve arther up thc mountainside to turn i the snowslide when it, come?, or he surrounds Iiis shed with trestlcwork. ; Generally an open summer truck runs ; outside the sheds, as the traveler I likes to sec the scenery. Aloug thc J top of the sheds a trough is often built, tlirougii .vhich the water of thc mountain si-rings run, to bc used in case of tire. Open breathing spaces are left here and there between the sheds, as otherwise the smoke from the locomotives tills them, making them davk and dangerous for thc trainmen, and hiding signals. These I open places must bc especially pro tected from thc avalanche, and so ' thc engineer builds a "split"-a trian gular pen, like an inverted "V," filled with stone, above thc gap. This will cause th2 slide, if it comes, to part and pass harmlessly over the tops of thc sh ods. The Great Divide is not au even one by any means. Thc Colorado Midland road crosses it ten thousand feet above sea level, the Union Pa cific at eight thousand, and the Can adian Pacific at only about five thous and. But snow falls every month in the year on the northern divide, while in Colorado, at very high eleva- I tions, the valleys are steeped in sun shine for half the year. Yet the Cen tral Pacific has sixty miles of snow sheds to the six miles of them on the Canadian road. This seems hard to explain, unless by the superior deter mination of the American road to pre vent possible delay, and the fact that where the passes are so much higher avalanches are more frequent. Thc Canadian Pacific road, though built after ours, was built under even greater difficulty. It runs through magnificently rugged mountains-the Selkirks, the Gold, and the Cost Ranges-and has, besides, to deal with "Jumbo," a mountain quicksand that oozes out of the cuti and covers thc track, and with boggy "muskegs," on whose elastic surface the track "creeps" or follows the cars, some times moving two feet forward during the passage of one train. It is esti mated that the road was twenty per . cent more difficult to build than any of our transcontinental lines; but, like them, it has been worth far more than it cost. America and Canada, as one writer puts it, may have made the railroads in the beginning; but nowa days it is truer to say that the rail roads have made Canada and America. -Forward. - A well known cleric was address ing a congregation of seamen at a waterfront mission. Thinking to be impressive, he pictured a ship trying to enter a harbor against a head wind. Unfortunately for the success )f the metaphor, his ignorance of seamanship placed the ship in several singular positions. "What shall we io next?" he cried. "Come down )ff the bridge," cried an old tar in lisgust, "an* lemme take command, >r ye'll 'ave us all un the rocks in mother 'alf second!" The Words of a Famous Mission Worker. Perhaps no man in Atlanta is better ind more favorably known than Mr. lohn F. Barclay. He for a long time las been a sufferer from indigestion ind dyspepsia. This is what he says: Atlanta, .Ga., January 23, 1895. Dr. C. 0. Tyner: Having used Tyner's Dyspepsia Remedy for several years n my family. I gladly add my testi nony to what has already been said n its praise. Without any exception '. think it is the finest remedy on the narket and nothing would induce me o do without it. ] J.No. F. BARCLAY. For sale by Wilhite & Wilhitc. sample bottle free on application to J Pyoer's Dyspepsia Remedy Co., Atlan- i , a. Ga. - "What a lot cf things they are! ?venting now; chainless wheels and i lorsclcss carriages and all those lungs." "'I wish some one would in- i eut endless vacations." Kat plenty. Kodol Dyspepsia Cure rill digest what you eat. It cures all omis of dyspepsia and stomach trou dca. E. R. Gamble, Vernon, Tex., ays, "It relieved mc from the start nd cured me. It is now my evcr asting friend." liva ns Pharmacy. i BOYS' STEAK Che Most Complete and Up-to Every Machine the latest improved, Under the superintendence of an ca f skilled assistants. Every piece of w rork allowed to pass from Laundry. PRICES LOW. Quality of work xi W. Located at rear of Flint's Book ? VA.JNTDJV? RflERCIi ^RE WIDE OPEN FOH BUSINESS in Bet ween Masonic Temp] LOI'I respectfully and earnestly invite von t< f <ioruln and get acquainted with their i ully pay you for tho Jew feet you have to w Wo are going to carry by far tho host St? ou moro tor your money than anybody. \ li is? isn't a true statempnt. Splendid high-grade lino of BHOES, rOOOS. (?ot our prioes and seo if thev aro We are going to handle at. BOTTOM JAGGING and TIES, BACON, LAUD, a ?RICHS. We heartily appreciate your liberal trad ppreciation for that trade. Come to RHO UH ; more ttian over before. You will find us Free City Delivery. Phone75. Promp Yours gratefully, - Boarding house keepers record fre ! quent well authenticated instances of , a visitor declining to sit at thc table j at which he or she would have made I the thirteenth, and there arc hundreds . ! of things happening every day that I go to show that thc supposed ill luck following this number is not an ex plodcn idea. One thing noticeable, however, is that a visitor will not haggle over getting 13 to the dozen, nor docs he fear sudden death if thc vender of the ^ucculeut native throw in an extra one in the dozen for luck. - Stubb-"Say what you please about gasoline stoves, but the one in our kitchen has plenty of nerve." Penn--''In what way?" Stubb ''Why. it's the only thing in our ho"se that dares to blow up the cook." - The most expensive hat on record cost $1500 in gold, and was presented to General Grant while in Mexico ir 1882. It is on exhibition in the Na tional Museum at Washington-per haps thc finest Mexican sombrero that was ever made. - The central West is threatened with a coal famine this winter in con sequence of the unprecedented amount of other commodities being carried by the railroads. - The little a man wants her J below is a little more. The amateur detectiveis as humorous a character as any of Shakespeare' s clowns, or even old Dogberry himself. He finds the most aston ishing clues. and generally follows them until he brings up about as far away from the solution of the mystery as mortal well may be. But the specialist in the /rJ\^** detection of crime, cJ^^ Sherlock Holmes, is a man who reads clues, as the Indian reads a trail. Every step he takes is a step to success. It's much the same way in the detec tion of disease. While the amateur is blundering; along over misleading symp toms, the specialist goes right to the real cause and puts an arresting hand upon the disease. It is in such a way that Dr. R. V. Pierce, chief consulting physi cian to the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, Buffalo, N. Y., succeeds in hunting out and arresting diseases, where the less experienced practitioners fail. More than thirty years of special study and experience have enabled Dr. Pierce to read symptoms as easily and as truly as the Indian reads a trail which is without a hint for a less acute vision than his. Any sick person can consult Dr. Pierce by letter absolutely without charge. Each letter is read in private and an swered in private. Its contents are held as sacredly confidential. It is answered .with fatherly feeling as well as medical skill and thc reply is sent sealed in a1 perfectly plain envelope, that there may be no third party to the correspondence. Thousands have taken the first step to health by writing to Dr. Pierce. No writer ever regretted writing. Ninety eight in every hundred treated have been positively cured. If you are afflicted with any old obstinate ail ment write to-day, you will be one day nearer health. Address Dr. R. V. Pierce, Buffalo-, N. Y. VALUABLE LAND SALE. WITH a view of changing my invest ment I will offrir for sale on next 8alesdav, December 4, 1S90, before the Court Houso in Acderaon, S. C., if not soto Ht private sale before, my Planta tion, containing 332 acres, more or less, situated near the Town of Belton, S C., sub divided as follows : TRACT NO. l-?")7? acre?, known aa^'?V] Wilkes Plane ..-r TRACT NO. 2-50* a*:res, known as the Martin Place TRACT NO. 3-07 acre*, known as tbe Caroline Ellison Plrurp. TRAGT NO. 4-120acres, knownas the Wm. Ellison Place, including 36 acres of woodland, originally part of tieorg? Tel ford land. Terms-Onothird <"asb, balance in on? and two years, with interest ac eight per cent per annum. Purchasers to pay for papers and stamps. W. F. COX. Nov 15, 1S99 21 2 Drs. Strickland & King. DENTIST*. OFFICE IN MASONIC TEMPLE .sir- Ga*-?nd Cocaine used for Extract ng Teeth. I i-Date Laundry in the State. and ucsigncd to do most perfect work. :pericnced Laundryman, with a corps ork carofully inspected, and no sorry inexcclled. Give us a trial. F. BARR, Bunnies:-. Manager. Store. CR BROS., IANTS, their elegant Now Store-room le and the New Bank, n call and seo them, inspect their Stock vny of doing businesn. Wo promise to alk off the Square to trot to us. ink we have ever rar ried, and promise Vo moan business. Try us and see if BOOTS, HATS and STAPLE DRY not ritfht. PRICES, CORN, OATS, BRAN, HAY, nd other Heavy Goods, at SELLING loin the pant, and promise to show our in our now place. We will appreciate nicely quanered. tness in everything. VANDIVER BROS. HEADACHE, F'OUJL, BREATH) NO ENERGY, CONSTIPATION. These symptoms mean torpid liver and a clogged condition in thc bowels. They also mean the general health is below par and disease is seeking to obtain control. MV Quicldy removes these Symptoms, Strengthens thc Stomach, Cleanses ?hc Liv^r and Bowels and Promotes Func tional Activity in thc Kidneys. A few doses will restores Health and Energy in Body ^nd Brain. SOLO BY ALL mumim. Price $1.00 Per Bottle. EVANS PHARMACY, Special Agents. Are Yon ? LOOKING FOR THIS WEEK? If so, we have all kinds of Bargains in all Departments. FOR this week and next week we will give you CUT PBICES on CAPES, JACKETS, BLANKETS, HEAVY GOODS. In fact, we give you special prices on everything, and you can't afford to look over these prices If you buy your DRESS GOODS, TRIMMINGS and MILLINERY From us we give you only the latest styles. A splendid line of FRINGES, FURS, etc., in Trimmings. We have an entire new line of UNDERWEAR, FLANNELS, and Winter Gocds of all kinds. Shoes for Everybody, And at prices never heard of before. OUR GROCERY DEPARTMENT Is complete. Call in and see 113 before buying. Youri truly, MOORE, ACK3R & CO., EAST SIDE PUBLIC SQUARE-CORNER 8TORE. Free City Delivery. JOHN A. HAYE Sells HYNDS' Homo-made SHOES-Home-made Leather, Honest Work, Honest Leather, Honest Prices. THE largest Shoe Factory and Tannery South. The BEST SHOES made In the World. The only combined ?hoe Factory and Tannery in the United States. A Solid, First-clap ?, A No. 1, Best Gainesville Shoes. If you want cheap, shoddy, paper shoes don't buy these-ours will not suit you, out if you want the beat Sbnes at popular prices buy ours, they will please you. The prices range from Fifty ceuts to Five Dollars a pair; any price you want, rhey are the cheapest because they are th? be**; made of our own pure Oak-bark ranned Leather, "Soft, Elastic and Strong." Nothing equals it for wear, and that is what you want. Try one pair and you will buy them again. Buy our best quality. $4.00 and $5.00 Shoes for $3.00 and $3.50. With LET'S SEE I You o an gr/o t>Or->~:. OSBORNE & OSBORN'S A.nd get a good COOKING STOVE with 32 pieces of nice, smooth and use ?ul ware, guaranteed io give satisfaction.. We also have the IRON KING, ELMO, LIBERTY STEEL RANGES, and other good makes of Stoves, rho biggest Stove House iu the City. Chinaware, Glassware, Tinware and Crockery. ?e?"* PRICES RIGHT. Come aud see for yourself, and let us show you through. Your? trulv, OSBORNE & OSBORNE. -Av >k -A. A"^>, A >K A.-A, ^ ^ ^ Jr*. A A A A A AB j " The Best Company- -Tine Best Policy.5' ^ j THE MUTUAL BENEFIT LIFE INSQliANCE CO J j OF NE WARK, N. J. ? I Thia Company has been in successful business for fifty-four years; bas T 4 paid policy-holders over $105,000,000, and npw has cash assets of over ^ 1 $?7,O0U,??0. lt issues the plainest and best policy on the mark6t. After TWO L i annual premiums have been paid it- Y ? rrr A Tj A-NTTTTTTC ? 1. Cash Value. 3. Extended Insurance. 5. Incootes- w j iiiT?n I 2 Loan Value. 4. Paid-up Insurance. lability. T j Also l'ai? &arge Annual Dividends. r M. M. PATTISON, \ State Agent for South Carolina, ANDERSON, S. C., over P. O. F isa. Resident Agent for FIRE, HEALTH and ACCIDENT Insurance. k O B sa B 0 H H K'S 0 td 0 pd c > ta H I H M co O ? ? H O fl m < > S3 H Kl 0 ts > H Si % Q ^ M H * % CO o o ta > G B rn Q d o 9 M w r*? I-' e POSITIONS, POSITIONS. POSITIONS ! I OBTAINED readily after taking a course in Book-keeping, Shorthand, ' Hanking, Typewriting, etc., at the !j Southern Shorthand and Business University, iVXJLAlVTA, GA. Enter now. S.OOO Graduates. Catalogue Free.