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Cfrc jileo lu ec dEoui iei. PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY MORNINC. - BY JAVNES, SHELOR, SMITH A STECK H. T. JATNKH, I - .,"", 1 I). A. HMITH 4. W. sn KI.nu. i Kl>A- 1 1 1 B8, I J. A. HTKCK SUBSCRIPTION. ? LOO PER ANNUM. ADVERTISING RATES REASONABLE. ?'*7 " Communications of a personal oharaoter charged for as advertisement*. By Obituary notices aud tributos of respect, of not over one hundred words, will be ju i nt cd free of charge. All over that number must be paid for at the rate Of one cent a word. Cash to acoompany .manuscript. WALHALLA, 8. C. : WKDIVKNUAV.Ot'T.!?, IttO.V TAUGHT A CRICKET TELEGRAPHY. How a Night Oporator Taught an Insect Dots and Dashes-Prevented a Wreck. I ( lias. C. lloyd, in Columbia Stato.] "I note with unfeigned pleasure that ono of the groat railways of the country has recently dived far down into it? overalls and fished out tho price of a college diploma as reward for a North Carolina maiden who some lime ago stood on thc bank of a swollen mountain stream over which tile bridge had been swept away by the maddened torrent, nod saved a passenger train loaded with human freight, from dashing into tho yawning gap by waving a red petti coat high above her bared hoad-a signal that caught the watchful engi neer's eye and caused tho driver of the iron horse to slap on the air and bring his charge to a dead Btop on tho brink of what must have been a watery grave for many score of trav elers," said Chester Rockhill, i mi ning his nervouB digits through his disheveled bush. "Of course, this magnanimous act on tlie part of tho mushy-hearted corporation naturally evokes gushing words of approval," continued the speaker, crossing Iiis legs and gazing intently into the anxious physiog niony of his auditor, "but the lynx eyed management of tim arrow? pierced monogram hasn't always coughed up kopeks to preventers of wrecks on its line. Hut theo, I'm not throwing any kicks, for the caso I have in mind just now bas never been piped to the men behind tho jingle tank-hence no shafts of criti cism eau justly be burled at the in nocent heads of the unknowing high ups. They can't be blamed because the savior ol' a hundred lives eon signed to their keeping went to his death uncrowned and sleeps in a spot unmarked by marble slab; for bis identity bas never been reveal.-I. True, a university education wool ! have been about as useless to him an knives and forks are to native born Chinamen ; still had ho been known at tho time bis cunning averted a frightful catastrophe, tho deafening, generous plaudits of a charitable and semi-appreciative public would have . lone the ding-dong in bis ears, jarred his supersensitive nerves and has tened tho coming of his mundane finish." "What was bis patronymic?" asked the listener. "Didn't have any." "What ! Such a hero without a name?" "Oh, yes ; he had a single name, all right, all right." "What was it?" ".loe." ".loe ! Was that all ?" ?Yes ; .loe-ll.at was all." "( hld name for a man " "Ile wasn't a tuan." "Ah, I see ; a mere boy." "No, be wasn't a bb) "A woman, lin n ?" "No, lu? wasn't a woman." ".Must have been a girl, eh ?" "No, bo wasn't a yiri, either." "Well, what was he ?" "A cricket." "A cricket !" "Yes, sir; just a poor, little, inof fensive South Carolina cricket.'' "An ordinary hearthstone cricket ?" "A hearthstone cricket, yes ; but not an ordinary one-no, not by several 'centimetres." "And pray tell me how a cricket ever prevented a railroad wreck and saved a hundred lives?" .?Well, it was in this way," ie turned Rook hill, refilling h is clay pulfer and throwing his trotters across the OXOhange table that stood ? between os : "FifteOn years ago I was night' telegraph operator at Winnsboro, S. C., for the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta railroad, now an im portant division of the Southern system. Tho telegraph office was in the passenger station, which was located in an otlicc building in tho heart of the business section of thc town. Tho ticket room, express room, baggage room, waiting room, telegraph room and mail room were all in one. A large tireplaco fur nished heat in the winter for tho whole layout. "There was but little doing aftor dark in the Fairfield county metropo lis, and after the day ticket agent, telegraph operator, baggage agent, express agent, intelligence bureau, etc., a courteous gentleman named Skinner, left the place at dusk, thc clock hands moved as slow as a United States Senate committee in vestigating tho caso of a Mormon member of the upper branch of thc National Congress. Barring an oc casional visit from tho lone police man, Gilbert, who guarded the slum bering little city, 1 had but few be tween-suns callers, and the pages of my nootuary were filled mostly with anecdotes related by the puritanical patrolman. "Ono night, while I was alone and all was quiet as a cemetery, save the ticking of the big time-piece that hung on tho wall, and tho every nowland*then clicking of the tele graph instruments, when some ope rator along the lino reported the arrival or departure of a train to the dispatcher at Columbia, I wa? at tracted by what seemed at the timo to bo the jumbled echo of Morse telegraph characters emanating from the vicinity of tho fireplace. This kept up for several nights, and to give tho acoustics a fair test, 1 would open the telegraph key on one of the wires and make a lot of letters and then listen for tho echo. Not all of the characters resounded at first, the letter 'e' being the only one that came distinct-that letter being the shortest one in the Morse alpha bet. After a week's time I was able to get tho echo from such letters as 4g' and H' and 'h.' Thou I com menced on tho tWO-lottor system. I would make the combination ?Ja1 a dozen times, and the hearthstone would answer 'Ja.' But when I went near the fireplace to investigate, a mausoleum stillness would creep over the room. 1 was puzzled, and laid thc ease before Policeman (fil bert and his brother officer, McMas ter, to ferret out, but after a week of study and watching the minions threw up their bands and said they were slumped. "Finally I observed that frequent chirruping under the hearth when tho telegraph instruments were not busy, bad the same tone as tho echo of the Morse signals. This goaded my thinkery, and I nursed a notion in my noodle that all the noise was being made by a cricket, ami this conception was confirmed before many more nights went by. "Having noted that the grylua was already possessed of a rudimentary smattering of telegraphy as a result of bis place of abode in the dark re cesses of the hearthstone, where ho could hear the sounders clicking day and night, and believing be had a thirst to know things, 1 determined to teach him the entire alphabet, and found in him an apt student. In a few weeks the little, black orthop tcran had thoroughly mastered every detail. Ile had learned all the let ters and ligures and punctuation marks, so that when 1 would talk to him on tho instrument ho would re peat back in inimitable .Morse, every character by rubbing tho basal parts of the veins of his Iront wings to gether. Later, tho cricket grow tame and would venture from bis habitation and come over and stay Oil my table or sit for many hours tit a lime on a plug in the switchboard. I gave him -ligar and tender, young mosquitoes to eat and christened him Moe.' "Ofttimes, during the dead hours, doe would wait until I had finished FOR TORPID LIVER. A torpid liver deranges thc whole system, and produces SICK HEADACHE, - Dyspepsia, Costiveness, Rheu matism, Sollow Skin and Piles. There is no better remedy for these common diseases than DR. TUTT'S l.lVflK PILLS, as a triul will prove. Take No Substitute. I Sending bim several soutenues before he began repeating, ami then the dots and dashes eame with auch rap idity as to severely tax my brain to translate and follow him ; but this was tho exception rather than the rule, for he generally repented the words at the same speed as they were transmitted to him. Ile soon reached that stage of proficiency where he could repeat train orders i and seemed to appreciate fully thoir I importance, being always particular ! not to omit a letter or a figure that I the dispatcher had sent. "Of course, Cricket Joe couldn't j manipulate the telegraph key. He ! had to rest content to listen at what . was made by the operators on the 1 wire and then, by creating a friction ! between his front wings, disseminate I the stored-up letters and words, imi tating the sounder with ?nicety only 1 approached by the most expert : telegrapher. j "I used to send entire chapters out ?of the Bible to Cricket Joe for our! ' mutual delectation and be repeated , the Scripture with evident and un mistakable pious regard. He was passionately fond of the Holy Writ, and seemed particularly impressed with proverbs, delighting lo repeat! at odd moments from that book, bis! favorite quotations being 8-88, 9-11 j 'and 10-SLD. "One morning I left my office earlier than usual and went to my room in tho Duval Hotel to go to bcd. I hadn't been asleep half an hour when I was awakened by hear ing my office telegraph call-'Wu.' This was repeated probably a hun dred times in quick succession and was followed with the numbers '81* the train order wiro signal. The office call and the train order signal were supplemented with the plead ing 'For God's sake answer." I located the clicking at my chamber window and made answer by striking the iron couch with a twenty-dollar gold piece, and thu next instant I heard the request: "Stop No. 78.' "At that my blood almost froze in the veins. I knew that No. 73 was tho Florida Limited, and growing apprehensive of impending disaster, j I threw on ray clothes and dashed, barefoot, across the street to the pas senger depot, reaching the telegraph office just in tim? to drop the sema phore ann to red and stop No. 73, winch was then in sight, coming down the track at a speed of 50 miles I an hour. The conductor hadn't got on the ground to inquire what was wrong before the headlight of a northbound special showed up in tho yard a quarter of a mile away. The special was fairly scorching thc i wind, but the read light spelt danger, [ and the engineer succeeded in bring ing his train to a standstill with the nose of the locomotive's cowcatcher rubbing against that of the south I bound limited. "The dispatcher bad been calling me all this time for dear life and : Cricket Joe's wings were work ing overtime. The crews came in thc office, got clearance cards and ten seconds after were hurrying to their destinations. The passengers were not awakened and never knew what a (dose call they had had, they 1 never knew that they had been saved from terrible death by a Palmetto Slate cricket; they never knew that the operator at Ridgeway went to sleep and failed to Hag down the northbound special and give it a new meet order, while tho operator at Blaokstock was wide awake and de livered a duplicate order to the Florida limited to go on to (lockton -a point between Winnsboro and I?idgewav - where it would pass the special, instead of meeting it at Winnsboro, as previous!) ordered to When the man ai Ridgeway woko up he told tho dispatcher that the special had gotten by without the mr s. The dispatcher knew now that there v>- but one way to pre vent a death harvest through a head cm collision bet ween the two last trains-and that was to get Winns boro to slop the licet limited. The dispatcher called and called and called, but there was no response, for I was in bed fast asleep. But ('ricket doe was roosting on tho re lay spring and beard tho train order signal. He heard the dispatcher at Columbia say, for God's sake, an swer,' and 'Stop No. 7:;.' Ho planted all of it in bis trusty wings and squeezing himself through the sta tion door keyhole, made his way to my window, where he woko mo with * Our Buyers have returned from New York and our \ Shelves and Counters are packed with Seasonable Goods. Wo offer our Friends and Customers tho Nicest Lino of Goods over brought to Goonoo Couuty. Our Stock is com plote in ovory Line and wo will takt pleasure in showiug you through, and will convinco you (hat wo have tho right Guods aud the right Prices. DRESS GOODS. We havo all Shades aud Widths in Ladies' Cloth, Silks, Sorgos, Mohairs, Cashmeres, Flanuols, Ginghums, Peaca 8, Outings, Calicos, Etc. SHOES, SHOES. Wo sell tlio Celebrated liny Slate Shoes for Men. This is the boat Shoo on tho Market. In Ladies' Shoes, wo guarantee to suit you, ns we are tho solo agonts for the Krippcndort? Dietitian Shoes. Seo our line of Misses', Roys' and Children's Shoes, all sizes. BLANKETS. Blankets from $1.50 to $10 00 por pair. CLOTHING. For every one-Slims and Stouts, Youths and Hoys. JACKETS. Ladies' .Jackets lu all tho Now Shades and all the Now Prices. Wo havo a Nico Lino of Miases' and Children's Jackets. GROCERIES. Don't forgot us when you want anything in tho Cro cory Line. Wo batidlo tho best. LIME, PAINTS AND OILS. BUGGIES AND WAGONS. 1 All Kinds of R.\igs from 50 cents to $5.00. WALHALLA, S, C. lumber and MATERIAL OF ALL KINDS. Doors, Sash, Blinds, Mantels from $1 to a $40 Cabinet. Tile Hearths and Facings, Columns Turned and Scroll Work of every Description. Lime, Cement, Plaster Paris, etc. Devoe's Paint, the Fewer G-allons, Wears Longer kind. In fact, everything for the builder. Send ns your orders. Yours for Business, ' WI DDICCCV THE LUMBERMAN, . I_. DnloOLT. ANDERSON, s. c. the office call and repeated all he had heard. "Next day I carried Joe lots of nice things to eat for his dejeuner and we oontinned fast friends until the minute of his sad and untimely death." "How did he meet his end?" "Ho was sitting one cloudy night) on the topmost cross-arm of the office telegraph pole, watching for an extra freight train for which I had orders, when a pitiless holt of light ning struck the wires nearby and a hugo globo of green fire, seeking the ground through the Winnsboro switchboard, struck Joe as it passed into the station und killed him." Deafness Cannot he Cured by local applications, us they cannot n ach the diseased portion of the ear. There is only ono way to cute deafness, and that is hy const it ut ional remedies, Deafness is caused by an In Hamed con dition of tho mucous lining of tho eusta chian tubo. When this tube gets inflamed you have a rumbling sound or imperfect bearing, and when it is on ti roly (dosed deafness is tlx result, and unless tho inflammation can be taken out and this tube restored to its normal condition, hearing will be destroyed forever. Nino 00808 out Of ton are caused by catarrh, whioh is nothing but an inflamed condi tion ol' tho mucous surfaces. We will give one hundred dollars for any ease of deafne s (caused by catarrh) that cannot he cured by Hall's Catarrh Cure. Send for circulars free. J. J. CHENEY A C?>., Proprietors, Toledo, ( Ihio. Sold by druggists, 7"?c. Hall's family Pills aro tho best. .,55 THE BEST Tho I3e?t iw Always tlie Cheapest? Send your orders tionery and Advertisii-_ ter to The Courier and got 30-Day Special. Por the next thirty days we will sell our famous 1'uri-tone Catarrh Tonie for 7:">c. Large size Celory Compound, 75o. The largest bottle anil host Sarsaparilla for 76o. Our Dyspepsia Tablets, two kinds in a box, 26o. Syrup of Figs, 26c. per bottle. Dr. Pitcher's Castoria, 860. per bottle. All the above are fully guaranteed to flo what they ?ire ad vertised to do or money back. We Sell the Drags that Get You Well. GARTER'S PHARMACY, WESTMINSTER, S. C.