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AIV , THE SENTINfl-.EL -JUNL Entered April 23, 1.903, at Pickens, S. 0., as Second-Class Matter, Under Act* of Congress of March ~,1879. VOL. XXXVIII, .PICKENS, S. C., THURSDAY,OTOBER 891908, N, 2 OUR SCHOOLS ]BY Pnor. WILLIAM H. HAND, Univerjityv of Mouth Carolina. Pper Number Four. Too Many Little Half-Supported Schools.-Sooner or later our people are going to' have more comfortable and commo(lious school houses. Be fore the people put their money into 1 permanent improvements, would it I not be vise to reduce the number ot schools in a great many places? A good four-room house costs less than four one-room huoses of equal com fort and convenience. Sixty pupils in one building can be better taught and more easily taught than fifteen pupils each in four buildings. A four-teacher , school will flourish where four one-teacher schools would struggle to keep alive. In more than- half the counties in the State are to be found dozens of schools with 10 and 12 pupils- each. Not many weeks ago I visted a ruial school with an enrollment of 11 pu- 1 pils; three miles off was another school with 13. pupils, and in anothcr direction was a third school with 14 pMpils. The three teachers were paid $35 each; each school house was cheap and ill equipped. In some districts six miles square are to be found a many as three white schools, each with a small number of pupils scat tered from first reader to high school grades. A good many of the incor porated villages have school districts co-extensive with the incorporate lim its. An accurate school district map of the State would look very much like a crazy quilt. What is the remedy I Take the three schools cited above. Build' a comfortable two-room house at a cen tral point, and give the entire 3.8 pupils to two teachers. Each pupil would then have his recitation time doubled, for thcre would be in the consolidated sehool more grades, or I classes, than there were in the most advanced of the three little schools. I am at once reminded that some of < these chil4}en would have too far t I walk. (It is marvelous how much I trouble a father who walked four miles to school' and brags about, makes over his child's walking one I mile.) I grant that the consolidation puts the school too far for some to walk. What then? Take part of the a money to transport these to the school. Prof. W. K. Tate of the 1 Meminger Normal school, says, "Tt is better and cheaper to transport the distant children to the good school than to bring a poor' school to the distanet children." Yes, one good school is immeasurably better than three inferior schools. The transporta ion of distant pu pils is no new Tad. Several years ago the Eastover district in Rich land county threw five schools into one. The district runs four wagon ettes, made for the' purpose, to haul the distant children. Another in stance: Three adjoining districts in Fairfleld county, with a combined en rollment of 60 pupils, have consoli dated their schools at Bethel, have' erected a $2,600 school house and are transporting all the children who live -too far to walk. This consolidation gives the school enough pupils to es tablish a rural high school, with $300 of State aid. State Superintendents McMahan Sand Martain have zealonsly advocat ed the consolidation of small schools. Sueh a policy would encourage the building of better roads, while the transportation itself would protect the eljildren in* bad weather, and would protect the small children andi the girls from insults or violence a+ the hands of tramps or thugs on the loeycountry roads. Neighborhood Jealousies and Quar rels.-These twin evils have done move to prevent and to destroy the effiiency -of the common schools than any other two agencies in the land. It, is diffeult enough to maintain a good school where everybody works in harmony, and it is well nigh impossi ble where.strife and division are. To listen to the petty contention, the shamp bickerings and the tales of disi ard in some communities makes one sarvel that a school can exist in such * place. The petitions and the ap peads which come before the various school b'oards are enough to make onie turn pesuimist. The worst of it all ig that most of these contentional and4 bickerings are childish and groundle.% Ind that they are usually begun and kept alive by men who have at heart but little interest in any school. In ;ettling most of these disputes, Sol mon's jud'nmen between the two wo. men claiming the child would be ivholesome. - It is to these jealousies and quarrels that we owe two, three and even four little starving schools where but one ught to be. To them we owe the ittle district unable to support a aehool. Every influential local cele wity wished to have a school house it his front door or in ;is backyard. Po these jealousies we owe most of 'he defeated loeal tax elections. Tearly all the loc:l disputes over the eacher have their origin in neigh- I iorhood jealousies, and the baneful w iabit of constant change of teachers S as its roots embedded here. A certain district school is support. d by ten families. All is well, but o he school house stands on the soutb 1 ;ide of, a little creek which about d )nce a year renehes a depth of four ] eet. A and B suddenly conclude hat this innocent stream is a men ice to the lives of their children, and t] etition for a new district. The next sc ;ession finds a little 20 by 20 foot T iull of a school house on the north 1C ;ide of that creek. and a little life ess school on each side of it. Or. e: s bad boy is punished by the tencb- n r; straightway C raises the flag of Ci ,ecession, and proceeds to have hiF ti >wn little d-e-e-striec cut off. Or. M me of the local economists gets tired ti f paying a teacher $40 a month. ir ;ince his daughter would teach foi d: 30; the trustees will not yield te Ir the economist; then the economist al !nnvasses the district in the intero0 1 of a new set of trustees. w'th the 0 ,%ronomist ns chnirman. Or. 1) arm1 c1 are rival physicians already at a >dds; D says that Smith's boy has 8l contagious disease, and must. be n itopped from the school; E declares k hat the disease is only infectious, r and that it would be silly to stop t 3mith's boy; the quarrel rages, tlie t >artisans, array themselves, and down roes the local school tax proposed, ti )y the only really interested patron d >f the school. Or, X begins to dis- F auss a new school house; Y says that fl he old one is good eniough, and that a ( is trying to lead the district; no b iew house is built, and the old one a tradually rots down. Or, Miss i 3rown, the teacher, boards with the d, Mniths; the Joneses feel neglectel, ' and begin to whisper it about that t< he teacher cannot solve Sallie Jones' t< woblems or parse Sallie's sentences; s lie Smiths retaliate by asserting that g he teacher is able to teach the whole ti [ones family: result-the anti-Smith a action's childre' are taught next u ;ession by Miss Sallie Jones herself. t )nee more, Mr. Brown, with much 0 -cligious devotion to his church a ,reed, demands that the new teach- f r shall be an X-ist; Perkins Y-ism b it once .-begins to ferment while e 4tubbs declares that Z-ianism has een outraged, since there has not tl >een a X-ian teacher in the school a n five years. When the now teach- t1 )r comes. is he to teach X-ist doe- il rine, Y-ist doctrine, Z-inn doctrine, il >r should he be a simple God-fearing si nan whose daily life will be a re- 5 rrke to these clamorons Phariseesl s< All this may sound like satire, but e< t is a mask rehearsal of a play where il he curtain never falls. Cannot some v leighborhoods see themselves in the t fi Self Defense Established. d Spartanburg, Special. -Raymonid a 'oster, col'ored, who shot and killed n~ ohn Garrett, also colored at Fair " orest several weeks ago was tried C n Court of Sessions on the charge of aurder. The defendant proved self r lefense and the jury wasn't long in a 'eturning a verdict of not guilty. e 'oster was represented by Spndlers - br Depasis.e s r Liquor Found in Beef Market- t Spartanburg, Special.-The beei ~ market and restaurant of J. J. Spanr located on Main street, was raidet Saturday afternoon by the police anc q barrel containing one hundred pints t of liquor was found in the beef mar- 1 ket. Spann claims that he alon& E with others ordered the stuff. This ia the biggest haul the police have mad' in some ti ec. 4ARCI Of SCIENC 'he President Address( , t Tuberculosis Congress 'RAISES GREAT ACHIEVEMEN1 reat Mpeting of Scientists Adjour to Assemble Next at Rome-Prei dent Speaks. Washington, D. C., Special.-T iternational Tuberculosis Congre hich has been in session here closi aturday to meet next in Rome. One of the most pleasalit surpirs I the closing scenes of the congre as the appearance for the first tir uring its proceedjigs .of Freside oosevelt. In a characteristic addre resident Roosevelt, paid a notal ibute to the assemblage of so mni dentists of intenational reputatic he President spoke -in part as f< lws: "It is difficult for us to realize t' rtraordinary changes, the extraor< ary progress, in certain lines of s al endeavor during the last two tree generations; and in no oth anifestation of human activity ha io changes been quite so far-reac g as in the ability to grapple wi isease. It is not so very .lon Leasuring time by history, since t titude of man towards a disca ich as that of consumption was o C helpless acquiescence in what 3isidered to be the . mandates supernatural power. It is but iort time since even the most gift kembers of the medical professi new as little as any layman of i eal cause of a disease like this, a lierefore necessarily of the remed > be invoked to overcome it. "Take, for instance, the work ti le United States government is n< cing in Panama. The Isthmus anama, whieh was a by-word f ital disease, has become well-ni sanatorium; and it has become ecause the investigations of certa edical men which enabled them nd out the real causes of certa iseases. especially yellow fever an alarial fever, and to take measur > overcome them. The older dc )rs here when they were medic ndents would have treated the su stion of regardinig mosquitos ie prime source of disenes like th ; a subjert of mirth. These utter nexpected results have followed p ent laborious. dangerons and extr rdinair skillful work that has e bled the cause of the disease to )and and the diseases themselves a combatted with extraordinary sv sq. 'At this moment in the middle ie grent continent of Arfrien there peenliarly fatal and terrible disna le slpening sickness, a disease whi ' it had beon known to our ancesto 1 the middle nzes would have be poken of as the black doath w poken of in the middle ages-as sourge of (Godl, poss5ibly as somethia annected with a comet, or some sit ar explanntion would have been a anced. We all knowv that it is d a the carrying of a small and dead lood parasite by a species of bitil y. ''And the chance to control th isease lies in the wvork of just sun ten as, and indeed, of some of t1 ten who, are assembled here. Y, rho have come here, however, ha omne to combat not a scourge confi d to the tropics, but what is on t rhole the most terrible scourge of t eople throughont the world. B few years ago hardly an intellige ffort was made or could he made rar against this peculiarly dead nemy of the human race. The chan necessfully to conduct that war ose when the greatest experts he medical world turned their trai d intelligenco to the task. It r tains for them to find out just wh an ho done. ''I feel that no gathering cou ike plaee fraught with greater ho or the welfare of the people at lar han this. I thank you all, men a romen of this country, and you, o uests, for what you have done ai re doing. On hnhnlf of the nai greet you, and T hope you will u erstand how mutch we have appi fated your coming here." [THE GOV'T CROP REPORT Condition is .69.7 and Number of e Bales Ginned 2,282,000. Washington, Special.-Crop condi tion, 69.7; number of bales ginned, 2,282,000. These are the reports i3 S sued by the government Friday morn iirg, the crop condition being based is until September 20th and number of bales ginned until September 25th. Compared with the reports issued on the same date last year the crop condition is 2 per cent higher and the " number of bales ginned one millioni less. The reports had an inappreria 4 ble effect on the market. The variance in the number of es bales ginn9d this and last year is ss' attributed to the fact that the weath le er this fall has been much more fa vorable to the gathering of the staple It than at 'the same time last season. ss In many sections of the country it is le stated that a large part of the crop y has been gathered. n. Cotton Ginned During Year. Washington, Special.-The census bureau Friday announced that 2,582, le 688 bales of cotton had been ginned ' from the growth of 1908 to Septen 0- ber 25th, as compared with 1,532,602 " to the corresponding date last year. e The number of active ginneries re porting is 23,650. Ch Condition of Cotton Crop. g, The crop reporting board of the bu ai reau of statistics -of the department Re of Agriculture, reports the average ie condition of the crop on Septembei le 25th at 69.7, as compared with 76.1 of on August 25th and 67.7 on Sep a tember 25th, 1907. North Carolina ed 69; South Carolina, 68; Georgia, 71 wn and Texas, 71. he nid New Georgia Railroad Opened. s Valdosta, Ga., Special.-The Geor at gia & Florida Railway, a newly con structed line running from this plac< of 100 miles northwest to H1azeburst or was formally opened to the publij bFriday. A special train brought 50( o representative citizens from poinli in along the line to this city. Work is rapidly progressing with a view Ic uniting the newly con'structed road with other divisions now in opera tion, which will give a new siort ehne between Madison, Fla., and Au al gusta, Ga. Lincolnton Men Interested in New York Corporation. New York, Special.-According to a- official report of the Secretary of n- State "The Mutual Farm Commis ~ sion of New York City," capital $10,000 has filed articles of incorpora. tion with the Secretary of State et '- Albany with permission to increahe capital to $200,000. The directors . chosen are named as Daniel E. . Rhyne and James A. Ahernethy, of Lincointon, North Carolina, and Frank Guy .Hull, of 1644 Nineteentii rs avenue, Brooklyn. As To Extend Trolley Line. i Spartanburg, S. C., Special.-The 'a. street car company will soon begin ci- tihe work of extending its North] i' Church trolley line to the fair ly grounds. Preliminary work is now ig under way and a larg- force of hands will be put to work shortly anid thec it laying of the rails wvili be rushed, 'h The county fair wvill open November ac 3rd and continue until the fjth. R11 'c Indictment of T. Jenkins Hains. a- New YrSpecial.-DistrictA ,e torney, Dorrin appeared before the at grand jury in queens county and de. r1t manded the indictment of 'T. Jenkins~ oHains as accessory before the fact yin the murder of William E. Annis, e who was shot 'and killed by Peter C, a- Rains. The principal witness againgl nhmbefore the grand jury was Mrs n- Annis, widow of the victim. Tour Killed on Ohio Central. HId Toledo, 0., Special.--Four personm so Jare dead and two fatally and threet to seriously injured as a result of id wreck on the Ohio Central Railroa. ir at Sugar Ridge, when an extra id freight train plunged into the real m of a special passenger train. Tha n. deadc are George Gosler, Riehari 'e- Rideout, Thomasi Crane and Leslih lullar. WAR CLOUDS LOWER Outlook is for Swift Beginning of Mostilities ONLY SMALL NATIONS INVOLVED - London Hears News From Several Bources That Two Crises Are Im pending Which May Force Hostili ties In the Near Future. L'ondon, By Cable.-Events which threaten to change the political face of Europe are crystalizing with light-.. ning rapidity. Almost over night the horizon of the Near East, which seemed gradually to be assuming a peaceful appearance, has become crowded with war clouds. ews has reached here from sev eral sotirces that two definite strokes are impending which cannot fail to bring matters to a crisis, and perhaps force an immediate war. One is the proclamation by Prince Ferdinand, of the independence of Bulgaria, which will incuude Rumelia, taking for himself the title of "Czar." The other is an announcement of Austro-, Hungary of the practical annexation of the provinces of Bosnia and Her zegovina as appendages of the Austro Hungarian crown. Either action will be equivalent to the leasing up of the treaty of Berlin while Prince Ferdinand's course seems almost certain to precipitate a war between Bulgaria and Turkey. Before these possibilities the quar rel over the East Rumelin section of the Orient Railway sinks into insig nifleance. Both armies are reported to be quietly and swiftly mobilizing near the borders. Bulgarians are said to be buying munitions and horses on an extensive scale. Bulgarians have faith in their army, which has reached a high state of efficiency although it is perhaps lacking in omfleers and the war, for which Bulgaria has long been sus peeted of preparing, could be fought with more advantage for her now than when the Turkish government had time to reorganize its forces, which have become enravelled by the corruption and neglect of the old regime. The Emepror of Austria, it is un derstood. has desontehed a letter to the President of France, setting forth his intentions regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina, although - the contents of the letter are kept secret, and be is sending similar notes to the other powers. It seems incredible that Emperor Francis Joseph, who always has been a scrupulous observer of forms, should reveal his plans to the rulers of other nations before he has com municated them to his own Parlia ment. One explanation is that *tho letter wvas not intended for delivery until Tuesday. when identical notes would be presented to the other powers. Austria is suspected of encouraga ing the recent Bulgarian-Turkish trouble for her own interests, but the British government has made pro posals to the two countries lookingr to the settlement of the railway casa, under which the other powers have agreed to give support to the plan, which contemplates the temporary restoration of the way to Turkey "to save her face,'' and then transfer ence of the company to the Bulgarian government. The English press expresses sur priae that Austria and Bulgaria should plot against Turkey and asks if the great powers will submit to having obstacles placed in the way of the regeneration of Turkey.. General Wright Selected. Washington, Special.--President Roosevelt will' designate General Luke E. Wright, Secretary of War, as the government 's official representa tive at the Southern commercial con i res, which will convene in this ity December 7th and 8th .Just prior otenational rivers and b sem congress.