Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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VY euntjouaj', w uuv STRIKE VOTE TO BE TAKEN Railroad Conferees Fail To Uet together. MAY TIE UP ROADS ; ? I EMPLOYEES DECLINE OFFER TO SUBMIT DIFFERENCES TO ARBITRATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH NEWLANDS ACTS. > | . I New York, June 16?More than 300,000 union and non-union railroad workers of America will vote within a j month on the advisability of calling a general strike to enforce their demands for an eight-hour day and time and a half for overtime as a result of the failure by representatives of the railroads and the men to reach a settlement here to-day after a two weeks' conference. I Hope of adjusting the dispute through the conference faded when 1 the railroads submitted a tentative compromise offer to the men, granting their demands, but eliminating the majority of existing "double compensation" rules. The conference adjourned yesterday to give the railToad managers opportunity to discuss further their stand on this point, but when they met the men to-day they not only refused to make a specific offer covering the compensation rules, but advised that their differences be submitted either to the interstate commerce commission or to a board of arbitration to operate under . the provisions of the Newlands Act. The men declined both offers and the decision to take a strike vote followed. r*?5-1- Ci_:l I/OCIQC Uli k^lllAC f VkB* The leaders and five Hundred delegates of the' four brotherhoods of ' trainmen, engineers, firemen and conr ductors who atended the conference decided on the necessity for the strike vote at a secret meeting following the break. A. Gerretson, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Conductors, announced later that the ballot would be drafted to-night and distributed , to all railroad men, whether members of the brotherhoods or not, before the close of next week. The canvass will (consume at least three weeks, the leaders agreed, and before August 1 the result will be known. If the men vote for a general strike the leaders will return here and again present the demands of the men to the railroads in an effort either to gain their demands in full or a compromise offer, without the necessity of putting the strike actualIt? ijr lUbv v*v-v? Win Take Fit* Weeks. ' It probably will take five weeks or more for the strike vote to be completed. It is understood, however, before a strike becomes effective, if the \ men vote in favor of one, the railroad heads will be formally notified to give them an opportunity to reconsider their action. The union representatives demanded the yielding of their full demands. The railroads offered a counter proposition based on granting the demands, but on the conditions that there be no double compensation for employees doing different classes of service the same day. This the Brotherhood heads declined. ' LEAP YEAR LORE HAS LONG HISTORY Right of Woman to Woo Dates Back to Legend of St. Patrick. Away back in the days of Julius Caesar, about 45 years before our Savior was born, Sosigenes, a philosopher from Alexandria, after taking counsel with a group of astronomers, decided that every four years should consist of 366 days, and thus there came into the calendar what is commonly known today as leap year. The origin of the old custom for woman to woo and not to be wooed during leap year is traced back to a ' legend of St. Patrick. As the old story goes, the good man was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh after having "driven all the frogs from all the bogs and banished all the varmints," when he met St. Bridget, who, with tears and lamentations, informed him that trouble was brewing among the women of her district because they were not allowed to propose marriage to men. St Patrick was stern, but he offered to compromise by allowing the ladies the nrivileere thev desired once every seven years, says The Boston Post. Then St. Bridget threw her arms around St. Patrick's neck { ' ? | j .... ! . . ? . land begged him to make it one year ( i in four. i "Ah, Bridget, St. Patrick is said to have replied, "squeeze me that way again and I'll give you leap year, the longest one in the lot." , Then the future St. Bridget, en- j couraged to this extent, thought of her own husbandless condition and popped "the" question to St. Pat-{ rick. But St. Patrick had already taken' the vow of celibacy, so he had to patch up her wounded heart with a kiss and a silken gown. And ever since that time if a man refuses a leap year proposal he must pay the 1 penalty of a kiss and a silken gown. ' This quaint legend, of course, has the earmarks of a myth Vpure and simple, but it is recorded in several old bocks, and must have been taken seriously in several countries. < ' Scotland has a leap year law in 1288 which was actually enforced. ' Here is the English translation of ( the curious edict: "It is a statute and ordained that ( during the reign of Her Blessed Ma- 1 gesty for every year known as leap year every maiden lady of both high ^ and low estate shall have the liberty to bespeak the man she likes, and should he refuse to take her to be ! his lawful wife he shall be fined in 1 a sum of pounds, more or less, as his 4 estate may be large or small, unless he can prove that he is already be- 1 trothed to another woman, in which 1 case he may go free." ( Not many years after this there 1 was a similar law in France, which received the king's approval. / The ' story is told that numbers of maid- ' ens took advantage of it ' In Genoa and Florence there was * a law of this sort in effect during the days of Christopher Columbus and 1 one of his biographers hints at the time, during leap year, when several ladies proposed to him, but as he < was already betrothed he "escaped their wiles." \ In England during the early eigh- j teenth century the men made merry < on the 29th of Feburary, often ? climbing on barrels of liquor to j drink the health of the women they r expected would propose to them. In \ the rural districts homely men pa- 1 raded the streets, sighing a3 they j passed the girls: "Woe is me, no lady j will propose to me!" j Were Turned Down. i In the days of King Henry VIII. ' Will Somers, the court jester, furnished merriment for the king by ] having the maids at the royal palace \ propose to him in the presence of 3 the king. Of course the jester re- | fused, but he presented each one with a kiss and a silken gown, ac- < cording to the custom. 1 Even as late as the nineteenth ' century leap year entertainments \ were held, and women proposed to men in public. Skating parties, J where the women called for the men ! and took them to the frozen pnods, . were the fashion. The men would i give exhibitions of skating, after ' which proposals of marriage were in : order. Sometimes the best skater ; was proposed to half a dozen times. Leap year parties were quite the i thing also and Merrie England seems to have been a gay old place in those 12 months. According to a quaint book, published in London in 1606 under the title of "Love, Courtship and Mar-/ riage," the English seem to have taken the leap year custom as an un-, written law, for the\ author says:, "Albeit it nowe become a part of the. common laws in regard to social re- J lations of life, that as often as every leap year doth return, the ladyes have the sole privilege during the, time it continueth of making love, either by wordes or lookes, as to them seemeth proper; and moreover, no man will be entitled to the benefit of the clery who doth in anywise treat her proposal with, slight or contumely." How the need of a "leap year" was first felt?in' an astronomical, not matrimonial sense?is an interesting example of long continued calculations. In the very earliest times it was observed that during one period of the year the days gradually increased inlength (using "day" for the period during which the sun remains above the horizon,) and that then they gradually decreased in length for another period to run the same course as before. The Egyptians noted the length of this period and called it 365 days. This was done in the following manner: They observed that as the sun i rose earlier or later, it appeared at different points in the horizon. Let ; us suppose that at a certain day in March the sun rose just opposite a ' certain tree in the horizon. i Every day after it would rise at a point a little further to the north of ?Ke tree for about 90 days; then its i place of rising would for other 90 1 days gradually come back to the i place in the horizon where the tree ' stood. It would then pass that point : rising daily more and more to the - * . GEN MOORE ISSUES ORDER TO MILITIA First Regiment to Encamp July 14-28; 2nd Regiment Aug. 3-17. Columbia, Jane 15.?The offibe of W. W. Moore, Adjutant General, this morning issued orders for the mobilisation of the 1st and 2nd infantry regiments, South Carolina National jruard, to hold their annual encampments at the mobilization grounds at Styx, across the.Congaree River from Columbia. The 1st regiment will encamp from luly 14 to July 28, inclusive, and the 2d regiment from August 3 to August L7, inclusive. Col. Holmes B. Springs >f Georgetown, commands the 2d egiment, and Col. E. M. Blythe, of Sreenville, commands the 1st reginent The order of the Adjutant General 'ollows: ? "The 1st South Carolina infantry (Till perform its annual tour of field services at the State mobilization ;amp grounds, near Styx, July 14 to Fuly 28, inclusive. "The 2d South Carolina infantry vill perform its annual tour of field service at the State mobilization :amp grounds, near Styx, August 3 to August 17, inclusive. The order is signed by W. W. Moore, as Adjutant General, and counters signed by Major J. Shapter Caldwell, as assistant to the Adju?nt General. VETERAN, 90, OF MEXICAN WAR 47 WANTS TO GO AFTER VILLA Greenville Daily Piedmont. Captain Patrick 0. Roche (his friends call him "Pat" for short and in recognition of his crimson complexion and truA Irish traits) who is >ne of the oldest War veterans in the state, was a member of the distinguished party from Abbeville county 1 that paid their respects to Greenville ruesaay, having motored through the country. Captain "Pat" is a veteran of the Mexican War of '47-48 ind was also a valiant captain in the Confederate army. He said he would ike to close his military career by ?oing into Mexico and take a hand in putting the Villistas to rout. He is thorough in favor of "interveri;ion." ' The venerable captain who is learing his ninetieth birthday seemed' to be as active as his distinguished friends with him. They were also of the veteran class. With him was Colonel J. L. Perrin, clerk of court of Abbeville county, who was first elected to this position shortly after his return from the Spanish war. A.nd he has been elected without opposition ever since. Another member of the party was A. M. Stone, who was a first cousin of Sydney Allen, a member of the famous Allen clan that shot up the court at Hillsville, Va. Mr. Stone originally came from the "Mother State" and in his conversation evidenced his familiarity with conditions around Hillsville. W. A. Calvert of Abbeville, and A. D. Kennedy, of Due West, completed the personnel of the party. They started for home about sun-down after visiting their old friend, United States Marshal C. J. Lyon and others who once lived in historical Abbeville. south of the point where the tree stood, till in 90 days more the sun would reach its most southerly rising point on the horizon. Then it would begin to retrograde, and in 365 days from the tme when the first observation was made the sun would again apear to rise juBt opposite the tre marked on the horizon. This method no doubt was sufficiently crude, but it gave, the approximate length of the year. , Greeks Saw Light. As more accurate methods began t obe employed by the Greeks they noted that 365 days did not really express the correct length of the year. They found that on the 365th day the sun fell a little short of rising at the place it had risen previously, and that on the 366th day it rose at a point beyond it. In fact, that on the 365th day the year was not quite done, while on the 366th day it was more than done. They also observed that the point at which thes un appeared to rise on the 366th day was about three times as far distant from the standard point on the horizon as the point at which it had risen on the 365th day; hence they concluded that 365 1-4 days was the correct length of the year. Nature's year then consisted, it was seen ,of days and parts of days, while one year must consist of whole days. If we call our year 365 days, then it will be six hours short; if we call it 366 days, it will be 18 hours too long. Dr. Nathan Feldman VETERINARIAN Graduate of University of Penn. Office Residence of W. D. Melton 813 1-2 South Main Street GREENWOOD, S. C. I I miD WUi\ SUMMER dean > i i J Up SALE For the next thirty i you the privilege of i Dollar's worth of go CASH. When yoi [merchandise, just h in your pocket. Read the list over ing at these very lov Boys' Straw and ( pers, Big Line of Dresses, Lawn Drc Dresses, Kimon&s, Neck Wear, Corsets Grace. A big lot of lace, Torchon, Baby Iirsl All Coal 1-: MIL Some great value These prices are goods charged will Come to the Chai son Tickets now sell Thanking you fo: knnp tn merit a iron >?1 Tit) ft Jiii\ 8i Khhbhhhhb ' \ I , I * Worth Hi I Seasonable I Goods for I OA. I ouc 1 v days we are going to give laving twenty cents on every' ods you buy from us for the i purchase $1.00 worth of * andus.80cts and put .20 ct? and see what we are offerf figures. ZlothHats, Children's RomMuslin Underwear, House tsses, Muslin Dresses, Silk Middy Blouse, Shirt Wai?t?, 1 -Warners, C. B. and Madam consisting of Vals, Shadow, i and Orientals. / ts and Suits '' ' s>m ? 3 on II. LINERY : V:s in this department. strictly for the Cash, all be at the regular price. utauqua, June 28-29-30. Sealing. r your past patronage, we j ? za. r..i - a snare ui 11 in uic tuiurci ii? ABBEVILLE, S. C. I