University of South Carolina Libraries
lewis ml. gbist, Proprietor. J ^it Jnbepenbent Jamilj! ^tftospafijr: <for % promotion of tjje political, Social, Agricultural attb Commercial Interests of % Sont|. TERMS?$3.00 A TEAR, IN ADVANCE. ^ VOL. 24=. YORKYILLE, S. C., THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1878. NO. 25. , ? jielrftcd ?0fttg. I'M STILL A FRIEND TO YOU. Ah ! years have come and goue, dear Tom, The past seems like a dream, Since you and I together met, Down by the winding stream : When hand in hand we promised, Tom, To each we would be true; Old time has made no change in me, I'm still a friend to you. How often have I wept, dear Tom, When thinking o'er the joys, The happy scenes of long ago, When you and I were boys; But now I'm told you are very poor, And your days in life are few, ! It gives me joy to meet you, Tom? I'm still a friend to you. Old friendship often withers, Tom, Whene'er a man grows poor. The rich and proud forget "old friends," And know them then no more. Tint b-oan that hnnnat hftartof vours. We'll make old friendship new ; I care not what the world may say, I'm still a friend to you. ?itr IrUet. WIDOW COBB. The fire crackled cheerfully on the broad hearth of the old farm-house kitchen, a cat and three kittens basked in the warmth, and a decrepit yellow dog, lying full in the reflection of the blaze, wrinkled his black nose approvingly, and turned his hind feet where hi3 fore feet had been. Over the chimney bung several fine hams and pieces of dried beef. Apples were festooned along the ceiling, and crooked-necked squashes vied with red peppers and slips of dried pumpkins in garnishing each window frame. There were plants, too, on the window ledges?horse shoe geraniums, and dew plants, and a monthly rose just budding, to say nothing of pots of violets that perfumed the whole place whenever they took it into their purple heads to bloom. The floor was carefully swept?the chair? had not a speck of dust upon leg or round ; the long settee near the fire-place shone as if it had just been varnished, and the eight-day clock in the corner had had its white face newly washed, and seemed determined to tick the louder for it. Two arm chairs were drawn up at a cosey distance from the hearth and each other; a candle, a newspaper, a pair of spectacles, a dish of red-cheeked apples and a pitcher of cider, filled a little ta ble between theoi. In oue of these chairs 9at a comfortablelooking woman of about forty five, with cheeks as red as the apples, and eyes as dark and bright as they had ever been, resting her elbow on the table, and looking very thoughtfully into the fire. This was Widow Cobb? "relict" of Deacon Levi Cobb, who had been moldering into du9t in the Byton churchyard for more than seven years. She was thinking of her dead husband, possibly, because?all her work being done, and the servant gone to bed?the sight of his empty chair at the other side of the table, and the silence of the room, made her a little lonely. "Seven years," so the widow's reverie ran. "It seems as if it were more than fifty?and yet I don't look so very old, either. Perhaps it's not having any children to bother my life out, as other people have. They may say what they like?children are more plague than profit?that's my opinion. Look at my sister Jerusha, with her six boys. She's worn to a shadow, and I am sure they have done it, though she will never own it." The widow took an apple from the dish and began to peel it. "How dreadful fond Mr. Cobb used to be of these grafts. He will never eat auy more of them, poor fellow, for I don't suppose they _ have apples where he has gone to. Heigho ! I remember very well how I used to throw apple-parings over my head when I was a girl, to see who I was going to marry." Mrs. Cobb stopped and blushed. For iu those days she did not know Mr. Cobb, and was always looking eagerly to see if the peel had formed a capital "S." Her meditations took a new turn. "How handsome Sam Payson was! and how much I used to care about him 1 I wonder what has become of him? Jerusha says he went away from our village just after I did, and no oue has ever heard of him since. A n/1 ???kof o oil! it tkuf Alio i*ro] vpoa ? tp illiU viuai a oiiij tiuu^ tuab \juui i vi ?* uo jl? it had not been for that?" Here came a long pause, during which the j widow looked very steadfastly at the empty j arm chair of Levi Cobb, deceased. Her fin- i gers played carelessly with the apple-paring; she drew it safely toward her, and looked around the room. "Upon my word it is very ridiculous, and ; I don't know what the neighbors would say j if they saw me." Still the plump fingers drew the red peel ; nearer. "But then they can't see me, that's a com- ! fort, aud the cat and old Bowse never will know what it raea: s. Of course, I don't believe anything about it." The paring hung very gracefully from her hand. "But still I should like to try it; it would seem like old times, and?" Over her head it went and curled up very quietly on the floor at a little distance. Old j Bowse who always slept with one eye open j saw it fall, and marched deliberately up to I smell of it. "Bowse?Bowse?don't touch it!" cried his i mistress, and bending over it with a beating heart, she turned as red as fire. There was as handsome a capital "S" as any one could wish to see. A great knock came suddenly at the door, j Bowse growled, and the widow screamed and snatched up the apple-paring. "It's Mr. Cobb?it's his spirit come back again, because I tried that silly trick," she thought fearfully to herself. Another knock?louder than the first, and 1 a man's voice exclaimed : "Hillo ! the house 1" "Who is it?" asked the widow, somewhatI relieved to find that the departed Levi was still safe in his grave upon the hill-side. "A Btranger," said the voice. "What do you want?" "To get lodging for the night." The widow deliberated. "Cau't you go on?there's a house half a mile further, if you keep to the right-hand I side of the road and turn to the left after you get by?" "It's raining cats and dogs, and I'm very ! delicate," said the strauger, coughing. "I'm j wet to the skin?dou't you think you can ac-! commodate me?I don't miud sleeping on the floor." "Raining, is it? I didn't know that," and the kind-hearted woman unbarred the door j very quickly. "Come in, whoever you may s be?I only asked you to go on because I am , a lone woman, with only one servant in the house." The stranger entered?shaking himself like j a Newfoundland dog upon the step, and scattering a little shower of drop3 over his host- I ess and her nicely swept floor. "Oh !?that looks comfortable after a man has been out for hours in a storm," he said, as he caught sight of the fire, and striding along toward the hearth, followed by Bowse, r who sniffed suspiciously at his heels, he sia-j tioned himself in the arm-chair?Mr. Cobb's arm-chair, which had been kept sacred to his memory for seven years. The widow was horrified, but her guest looked so weary and worn out that she could not ask him to move, but busied herself in stirring up the blaze that he might the sooner dry his dripping ' clothes. A new thought struck her: Mr. I Cobb had worn a comfortable dressiDg-gown during his illness, which still hung in the closet at the right. She could not let th:s poor man catch his death by sitting iu that wet coat?if he was in Mr. Cobb's chair why should he not be in Mr. Cobb's wrapper ? She went nimbly to the closet, took it down,: fished out a pair of slippers from a boot rack j below, and brought them to him. "I think you had better take off your coat and boots; you will have the rheumatic fever or something like it if you don't. Here are some things for you to wear while they are drying. And you must be hungry, too; I will go into the pantry and get you something to eat." ! She bustled away "on hospitable thoughts intent," and the stranger made the exchange. He was a tall, well-formed man, with a bold, but handsome face, sunburned and heavily bearded, and looking anything but "delicate" though his blue eyes glanced out from under a forehead white as snow. He looked around the kitchen, and stretched ont his feet before him, decorated with the deaoon'e slippers. Then he leaned forward and stroked the cat and her brood, and patted old Bowse upon the head. The widow bringing in sundry good things, looked pleased at his attentions to her dumb friends. "It's a wonder Bowse does not growl; he generally does if strangers touch him. Dear me ! how stupid." The last remark was neither addressed to the straDger nor the dog, but to herself. She had forgotten that the little stand was not empty?and there was no room on it for the things she held. "Oh ! I'll manage it," said the guest, gathering up paper, candle, apples, and spectacles (it was not without a little pang that she saw them in his hand, for they had been the deacon's, and were placed each night, like the arm-chair, beside her,) and deposited them on the settee. "Give me the table-cloth, ma'am; I can spread it as well as any woman. I've learned that along with scores of other things in my wanderings. Now let me relieve you of those dishes ; they are far too heavy for those little hands (the widow blushed ;) "now please sit down with me, or I cannot eat a morsel." "I had supper long ago, but really I think I can take something more," said Mrs. Cobb, gently drawing her chair nearer to the little table. ?r>f prmroo tmn nan mw dpar lndv?in thin ! cold autumn weather, people ought to eat twice as much as they do in warm. Let me give you a piece of this ham?your own curing, I dare say." "Yes; my poor husband was very fond of it. He used to say that no one understood curing hams and drying beef better than I." "He was a most sensible man, I am sure. I drink your health, madam, in this cider." He took a long draught, and set down the glass. "It is like nectar." The widow was feeding Bowse and the cat, (who thought they were entitled to a share of every meal eaten in the house,) and did not quite hear what he said. I fancy she would hardly have known what "nectar" was?so it was quite as well. "Fine dog, ma'am?and a very pretty cat." "They were my husband's favorites," a sigh followed the answer. "Ah I?your husband must have been a very happy man." The hlne eves lonkpd at her so lone that she grew flurried. "Is there anything more I can get for you, sir ?" she asked, at last. 'Nothing more, thank you kindly, I have finished." She rose to clear the things away. He assisted her, and somehow their hands had a queer nack of touching as they carried the di8hes to the pantry shelves. Coming back to the kitchen, she put the apples and cider in their old places, and brought out a clean pipe and a box of tobacco from au arched recess nea'r the chimney. "My husband always said he could not sleep after eating supper late, unless he smoked," she said. "Perhaps you would like to try it, * ? 99 sir. "Not if it is to drive you away," he answered, for she had her candle in her hand. "Oh ! no?I do not object to smoke at al'. She put the candle down?some faint suggestion about 'propriety' troubled her, but she glanced at the clock and felt reassured. It was only half past nine. The stranger pushed the stand back after the pipe was lit, and drew her easy chair a little nearer the fire?and his own. "Come, sit down," he said, pleadingly. "It is not late?and when a man has beeu knocking about in California and all sorts of places, for a berth like this?and to have a good-natured pretty woman to speak to once again." "California? Have you been in California?" she exclaimed, dropping into the chair at once. Unconsciously she had long cherished the idea that Sam Payson, the lover of her youth, with whom she had so foolishly quarreled, had pitched his tent, after many wanderings, in that far-off laud. Her heart warmed to one who, with something of Sara's looks and ways about hiro, bad also been sojourning in that country?and who, very possibly, had met hira?perhaps had known him intimately. At that thought her heart beat quick, and she looked very graciously at the bearded stranger, who, wrapped in Mr. Cobb's dressiuggowu, wearing Mr. Cobb's slippers, and sitting in Mr. Cobb's chair, beside Mr. Cobb's wife, smoked Mr. Cobb's pipe, with such an air of feeling most thoroughly and comfortably at home. "Yes, ma'am?I've been to California for j the last six years. And before that I went quite round the world?in a whaling ship." "Good gracious !" The stranger sent a puff of smoke curling gracefully over his head. "It's very strange, my dear lady how often you see one thing as you go wandering about; the world after this fashion." "And what is that?" "Men, without house or horue above their ! heads, roving here and there, and turning up in all sorts of odd places, caring very little for life as a general thing, and making fortunes , just to fling them away again?and all for I one reason. You don't ask me what that is ! ! No doubt you know already very well." "I think not, sir." "Because a woman has jilted them !" Here was a long pause, and Mr. Cobb's ; pipe emitted short puffs with surprising rapid- : ity. A guilty conscience needs no accuser and the widow's cheek was dyed with blushes as she thought of the absent Sam. "I wonder how women manage when they i get served in the same way," said the stranger, ; musingly. "You never meet them roaming vi .1 . .1..1 . ? up ana aown in mat siyie. "No," said Mrs. Cobb, with some spirit; "if a woman is in trouble she must stay at home ! and bear it in the best way she can. And j there's more women bearing such things than we know of, I dare say." i "Like enough. We never know whose hands get pinched in the trap unless they ; scream. And women are too shy, or too sen- j sible, which you choose, for that." "Did you ever, in all your wanderings, meet any one by the name of Samuel Pay-; son ?" asked the widow, unconcernedly. The stranger looked toward her?she was rumaging her drawer-work and did not notice him. When it was found and the needles in motion, he answered her. "Payson ? Sam Payson ? What! He was < ray most intimate friend! Do you know I him r < 1 "A little?that is, I used to when I was a I girl. Where did you meet him ?" < j "He went with me on the whaling voyage I told you of, and afterwards to California. < We had a tent together, and some other fel- i lows with us, and we dug in the same claim < for more than six months." < "I suppose he was quite well ?" I "Strong as an ox, my dear lady." ' "And?and happy ?" said the widow bend- i ing close over her knitting. < "Hum?the less said about that the better? i perhaps. But he seemed to enjoy life after a 1 fashion of his own. And he got rich out : there, or rather, I will say?very well off." ( Mrs. Cobb did not pay much attention to that part of the story. Evidently she had not { finished asking questions. At last she brought it out beautiful. "Was his wife with him in California ?" The stranger looked at her with a twinkling eye. "His wife, ma'am I Why, bless you, he hasn't got oneI" "Oh, I thought?I mean heard"?here the little widow remembered the fate of Ananias and Sapphira, and stopped before she told such a tremendous fib. "Whatever you heard of his marrying was all nonsense, I assure you. I know hiira well and he has no thought of the kind about him. Some of the boys used to tease him about it?but he very soon made them stop.'" "How ?" "He just told them frankly that the only woman he had ever loved had jilted him years before, and married another man. After that no one ever mentioned the subject to him again except me." Mrs. Cobb laid her knitting aside and looked thoughtfully into the fire. "He was another specimen of the cllass of men I was speaking of. I have seen him face death a score of times as quietly as I face the fire. 'It matters very little what takes me off,' he used to say ; 'I've nothing to live for, and there is no one to shed a tear for me when I am gone." 'It's a sad thought for a man to have, isn't it?' Mrs. Cobb sighed as she said she thought it was. "But did he ever tell you the name of the lady who jilted him ?" "I know her first name." "What was it?" "Maria." The plump little widow almost started out of her chair, the name was spoken so exactly as Sam would have said it. "Did you know her?" he asked, looking keenly at her. "Yes." "Intimately?" "Yes." "And where is she now? Still happy with her husband, I suppose, and never giving a thought to the poor fellow she drove out into the world." "No," said Mrs. Cobb, shading her face with her hand, and speaking unsteady. "No, g her husband is dead." t "Ah. But still she never thinks of Sam." There wa j a dead silence. "Does she ?" "How can I tell ?" "Are you still friends P" ? ? "Yes." "Then you ought to know, and do. Tell yy me. "I am sure I don't know why I should. But if I do, you must promise me, on your honor, never to tell him if you ever meet with him again." "Madam, what you say to me never shall he repeated to any mortal man, upon my honor." ' "Well, then, she does remember him !" a "But how ?" a "As kindly, I think, as he could wish." j "I am glad to hear it for his sake. You and I are the friends of both parties; we can rejoice with each other." He drew his chair nearer hers, and took her hand. One moment she resisted, but it was a magic touch ; the rosy palm lay very quietly on his, and the dark beard bent so low that it nearly touched her shoulder. It did not matter much. Was he not Samuel Paysou's dear friend-? If he was not the rose, had he not dwelt very near it for a long, long time ? "It was a very foolish quarrel that parted them," said the stranger, softly. "Did he tell you about it?" "Yes, on board the whaler." "Did he blame her much?" "Not so much as himself. He said that his jealousy and ill-temper drove her to break off the match ; but he thought sometimes if he had only gone back and spoken kindly to her, she would have married him after all. "I am sure she would," said the widow, piteously. "She has owned it to me more than a thousand times." "She was not happy, then, with another." "Mr. , that is to say, her husband? was very good and kind," said the little woman, thinking of the lonely grave on the hillside rather penitently, "and they lived very pleasantly together. There never was a f harsh word between them." c "Still?might she not have been happier s with Sam ? Be honest and say just what I you think." \ "Yes." ] "Bravo! That is what I wanted to come t at. And now I have a secret to tell you, and t you must break it to her." i Mrs. Cobb looked rather scared. f "What is it?" "I wan't you to go and see her, wherever g she may be, and say to her?Maria! what i makes you stare so ?" e "Nothing?only you speak so like some t one I used to know, once in a while." j "Do I ??well, take the rest of the message, t Tell her that Sam loved her through the c whole; that when he heard she was free, he c began o work hard at making a fortune ; he ' ] has got it, and is coming to share it with her, r if she will let him. Will you tell her this?" The widow did not answer. She had freed g her hand from his, and covered her face with a it. By and by she looked up again. He t was waiting patiently. t "Well?" c "I will tell her." ^ He rose from bis seat, and walked up and i down the room. Then he came back, and ? leaning on the mantel piece, stroked the yel- 1 low hide of Bowse with his slipper. j r "Make her quite understand that he wants ^ her for his wife. She may live where she < likes, and how she likes, only it must be with ? him." ? "I will tell her." t "Say he was grown old, but not colc!; that 1 he loves her now perhaps better than he did ; i twenty years ago ; that he has been faithful j' to her through his life, and that he will be i faithful till he dies?" The California!) broke off suddenly. The i widow answered still? ( "I will tell her." f "And what do you think she will say?" he I asked, in an altered tone. j "What can she say but?COMeI" t "Hurrah 1 ( The stranger caught her out of her chair i as if she been a child, and kissed her. I "Don't?oh, don't!" she cried out. I am | Sam's Muria." I "Well?I am Maria's Sara !" i - "'f,, Off went the dark vrjg and the black whiskers?there smiled the dear face she had nevBr forgotten. I leave you to imagine the tableau?even the cat gdt up to look, Bowse sat an his stump of a tail,*and wondered whether be was on his heels oc his head. The little widow gave one scream, and then said? But stop! Quiet people like you and me, Jear reader, who bavp got over all these follies, and can do nothing but turn up our nosB8 at them, have no'business here. I will snly add that two herfrts were very happy7: that Bowse concluded -after a while that all was right, and so laid down to sleep again? and that not a great ifhile afterward there was a wedding at the bouse that made the aeiehborine farmers Htare. Widow Cobb bad married her first ttiver 1 Iftisccllaneojls grading. STATE POLITICAL ITEMS. ? The Central Democratic Club of Abbeville has endorsed Hon. D. Wyatt Aiken for renomination for Congress. ? The Darlington Democratic Convetiltoir, by resolution, disapproves of the plan of primary elections, and will adhere to the old convention system. ? Gen. Samuel McGowan has been noraiaated by the Abbeville Democratic Club for i seat in the next House of Representatives, ind his name will go before the people in primary election. ? The Greenville Democratic Club has idopted a resolution inviting the colored peoale who confide in the Democratic party to jecome members of the club. Also that it 8 the sense of this club that candidates for he Legislature pledge themselves, if elected, o use their influence to reduce the pay of nembers of the General Assembly to three lollars per diem while in actual session, and hat they receive mileage going and returnng once during the session, and that they accept no complimentary passes over any raiload. ? The County Convention of Chester has cassed resolutions authorizing and requesting he people of Chester county to cast their rotes at the primary election for the persons vho were, in their opinion, qualified for the iffices of Treasurer, Auditor and Trial Jusices in said county, and that the result be iommunicated to the Governor for his benefit n making appointments. The objecl; of this -eanlntinn ia t.n relieve the Renreaentfi.tives of he necessity of making nominations for the Executive, and also to more nearly express he wish of "the people." ? The Winnaboro Democratic Club haa manimou8ly reaolved that the delegates from his Club to the County Convention be intruded to vote for such persona as delegates o the State Convention as will use their rotes and influence for the renomination of joveruor Hampton and all the present execitive officers of the State ; also to secure the lomiuation of Major T. W. Woodward for Congress, from the fourth district, as first ihoice, and for Col. Jno. H. Evins as second ihoice; also that the said delegates be intruded to support Gen. John Bratton for he position of county chairman. ? The Democracy of Abbeville county, ilairn that they have solved the Colored Democratic Problem in their county. The bounty Convention refuses to admit colored Tubs- to representation In that body, but slows colored men to join the various Derao:ratic clubs on the same footing with the vhites. The Medium says : "The resolution loes not prohibit the admission of colored )eople into the Democratic clubs, but it prolouuces most earnestly against the iutroducion of the race feature into oui political afairs and gives to all Democrats, white and >lack alike, precisely the same privileges, rhe color line has been obliterated, and we ire all moving along together upon a higher md better platform of equal rights und equal ? ?-- - I 1 t 4 1? ? 4. H/.MO w/1 r\ wn /in /1A !/>? USUCt; LU nil, WILUUUl ICgaiu LU IBM, WJUI >r previous condition.'" ? The Republican voters of what was formirly the Grey's Hill polling precinct, in Beaufort county, recently held a meeting for he purpose of hearing remarks from Senator Jollins and others, who went from Beaufort. The substance of this gentleman's remarks vas the necessity of a new departure of he Republicans; the abandonment of the eaders who were tainted with fraudulent )raciices in the past, and the selecting as :andidates for office men of intelligence, of >robity, and of untarnished record. The munciation of these principles was favorably eceived by the four hundred persons who vere present. Before the meeting adjourned, Sammy Green took occasion to endeavor to ixplain away the charges made against him, >y his own admission, before the investigating :ommittee. In order to deny his receipt of noney for the fraudulent passage of claims, le felt it necceesary to declare that he had >erjured himself when he swore to the evilence which he gave before Senator Cochan's committee. LEAD PENCILS. A lead pencil is in itself a small affair, but lonsidered as a manufactured product, it rises nto much importance. To start a first-class actory with improved machinery and stock >f well-seasoned wood, requires a capital of ibout 8100,000; ground covered is about lalf an acre, chiefly occupied by drying jouses for the storage of red cedar. The Florida red cedar is most used in this counry and in Europe?some "iben" wood, as he Germans call it, or English yew, is used u Germany?white pine is occasionally used or a common grade of carpenter's pencil. The "lead" of the pencils is the well-known jraphite or plumbago; the best of this is the mtural, found in a pure state in masses large mough to cut into strips. Of this there is >ut one mine now up to the standard, which s in Asiatic Siberia, and pencils made from his graphite are all one grade, and pay fifty :ents per groBS special, and thirty per cent. id valorem duty. The Cumberland mines in England were the first discovered, but are low almost exhausted. What was formally refuse in cutting the ] jraphite is now ground, cleaned and refined, tnd then mixed with a fine clay. In mixing he clay and graphite great care mu9t be aken in selecting and cleaning the clay and jetting the proper proportions; the mixture vith water after being well kneaded is placed n a large receiver and strongly compressed ind forced out through a small groove in the jottom, in the shape of a thread the thickless and style required?either square, octajon or round. This thread or lead wire is :ut in bars of proper length (done by little jirls) and then straightened, dried at a modirate heat, and packed in air-tight crucibles ind placed in the furnaces; the grade of the ead depends upon the amount of clay used j n mixing and the quality of the plumbago.' The coloring of the lead is by various pig-! nents. The wood after being thoroughly seasoned s cut into thin strips and dried again, then ;ut into strips pencil length. These Btrips ! ire grooved by machinery, then carried on a ; )elt to the glueing room, where the lead is ilaced in the groove, and the other half of he pencil glued on. After being dried unler pressure, they are sent to the turning oom and rounded, squared or made octagon iy a very ingenious little machine, which jasses them through three cutters and drops hem ready for polishing or coloring?the j brmer is done on lathes by boys, and the lat-1 ter by a machine which holds the brush and turns the pencils fed to it through a hopper. After the pencil is polished, it is cut the exact length by a circular saw and tbe end is cut smooth by a drop-knife, the pencil resting on an iron bed. The stamping is done by a hollow die, which is heated; tbe gold or silver foil is then laid on the pencil, which rests in an iron bed, and the die is then pressed on it by a screw lever. The pencils are then ready to go to the packing room, whence they find their way to all parts of the civilized world, at prices ranging from two dollars to twenty dollars per gross.?American Exchange and Review. The Romance of Needle-Work?The needle has been many an imprisoned queen's best friend. To it she has owed the power of cheating the long, weary hours out of some of their tedium. Mary, Queen of Scots, found this art of needle-work, which she had acquired when a girl in the convent, and later practiced in the Court of Catherine Medicis, a solace and beguilement to her dreary captivity. During the early part of her confinement she 1 Was as'Ked""How in unfavorable weather she passed the time. She replied that all the day -i ii _:it- i ii_ i a: sne wrougOL witu uer liccujo, turn wat mc ur versity of the colors made the work seem less tedious; and she continued so loDg at it till every pain gave over. Marie Antoinette passed the weary hours of her imprisonment in needle work, knitting, or tapestry-work with her daughters; and when at onetime there came the order to remove all kinds of instruments usually taken from criminals, the unhappy queen and princesses were the more sensible to the loss of their knitting-needles and all the little articles used in their embroidery, as they were in consequence forced to give up all the feminine handiwork which bad beguiled their prison hours. After the Empress Josephine was divorced, she kept a Bort of 'domestic court at Navarre or Malmaison, where she and her ladies worked daily at their embroidery. The hangings of the salon at Malmaison were entirely the work of her own needle, and were of white silk embroidered in roses. Surely there were thorns in those roses! It is said the ex-Empress Eugenie is an accomplished artist in needle-work and embroidery. During the past few years she has spent her days in working a set of vestments for the little chapel where she worships, and also a stool and cushion for the use of the priest. So jealous is the fair devotee of sharing the pious task with other hands, it is said, that she will not allow another needle but her own to set a stich upon the work.? Harper's Bazar. More Election Investigations Proposed?In the United States Senate on the 8th, Mr. Spencer, of Alabama, submitted the following resolution: Ttaanl.Ttof in fliof oil flia fonto I J. UUl IU Ui U'Jt VUMV ?U VUV JUVbO connected with the Presidential election of 1876, and the result thereof which was finally reached may be made fully known to the American people, that a select committee of eight Senators be appointed and instructed to inquire and investigate all charges of fraud, illegality, intimidation, violence and other obstacles to a free and honest suffrage occurring at said election in the States of Scuth Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, and also into all similar charges which said committee may deem of sufficient gravity concerning said "elecrtun in- Alabama, Mlbblsertpyriy Orego?, or any other States ; also into all circumstances which they may deem expedient to investigate counected with the Presidential Electoral couut,in the Forty-Fourth Congress; also into all circumstances of dissolution of the Legislature and government in the State of Louisiana, known as the Packard government, and the establishment of the Legisla ture known as the Nichols' Legislature, and to ascertain whether or not such dissolution of one government and establishment of the other, was in consequence of any acts or transactions occurring prior to March 4th, 1877, and through what persons or agencies, if any, such result was accomplished, and that said committee have power to appoint subcommittees. eroDlov clerks and stenographers. ?d minister oaths, to send for persons and papers, examine witnesses, to sit during recess, with all the powers of a full committee of the Senate, and that the expenses thereof be paid from the contingent fund of the Senate. Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, moved to let the resolution lay over and be printed ; when Mr. Spencer gave notice that he would call the resolution every day until a vote upon it should be reached. Proposed Exchange of Prisoners.? The rumor that Governor Hampton, when recently in Washington, consented to an arrangement with the President whereby the prosecutions in this State would be discontinued on condition that the General Government would discontinue all prosecutions under its authority for political offences in South Carolina, is contradicted in the following Washington telegram to the Baltimore Sun: "Governor Hampton remained in Washington several hours, on his way home from Baltimore. While in Washington he had a brief interview with the President. His purpose in calling on the President was simply to intercede with him for the pardon of several persousnow confined in the Albany Penitentiary who were convicted and sentenced during the Ku-Klux prosecutions in South Carolina a number of years ago. Governor Hampton has reason to believe, and so represented to the President, that the persons in whose behalf he spoke were convicted without due cause. The President assured bim that the cases should all have his attentive consideration, and that if he ascertained that executive clemency was merited he would not hesitate to extend it. During the interview all political allusions were avoided by mutual consent. "A suggestion was made a short time ago that if the State authorities of South Carolina would discontinue the prosecutions against the late Carpet-bag officials then the General Government would discontinue all prosecutions under its authority for political offences in South Carolina. Governor Hampton, before leaving Washington, spoke of this proposition, which, by the way, it is understood, did not emanate, from any authorized official source, and said that it could not for a raomeut be entertained, that the execution of the laws, either State or National, was not a fit subject to make commerce of." TV?. ru?.uq ma. I/?IATU Uf il lUlLLlu^Ainrj. vunuco jjxkjigan, who died in New York, on Wednesday, in his eighty-fourth year, leaving a fortune of about 810,000,000, was a native of Connecticut, having been born at Clinton, New London county. He was compelled to support himself from his fourteenth year, and by 1836 was in control of such large steamship enterprises that he built the Morgan Iron Works in order to construct his own engines and boilers. His steamboat-line holds almost a monopoly of the Gulf traffic, and to further its capacities he, some years ago, bought the New Orleans, Opolousas & Great Western Railroad, paying 82,050,000 for it, and spending $2,000,000 more in improving it. These enormous outlays were only a part of what he spent upon the Texas lines. The Berwick, or inside route to Texas, was difficult because of shoal water of the Alchafalaya bays. A ten-footed channel to the sea became necessary. This work was finished five years ago. Passenger steamers now ply between Galveston and Brashear through a channel six miles long, 200 feet wide and | ten feet deep, in which formerly there were ; barely two feet of water, and a very shifting bottom. Tbis vast undertaking took two years and cost $2,000,0000. The marvelous feature of all this aggregation of capital and enterprise is that it was created and managed from first to last by himself. He never had partners after bis prosperity rendered him independent of outside capital. During the nearly seventy years of his business life he seldom failed to spend a brief summer vacation in his native town. In 1870, he make to it the only considerable benefaction of his life, by presenting it with a handsome school building, which bears his name. This was built and endowed at a cost of $100,000. ? The Women Indignant.?The action of Judge Hilton in bis management and subsequent closing of the Working Women's Hotel, erected by Mr. Stewart, has evoked an earnest protest from the fair sex of New York. Nor is the indignation confined to workingwomen alone, but all classes of female society manifest their resentment. One of the largest mass meetings ever held in New York for the past ten years was held in the large hall of the Cooper Institute one evening last week to protest against Judge Hilton's conduct and what the participants in the meeting characterized as his insults to the sex generally. Mrs. DeLozier presided, and addresses were delivered by Mrs. Matilda Fletcher, of Iowa; Mrs. Let'tie Devereaux, Blake and others. Kesolutions were adopted denouncing the manner in which the enterprise had been conducted, but exonorating Mrs. Stewart from all blame, and laying all the fault of the matter at the door of Judge Hilton, who was characterized as the evil genius of sordid gains, that presides over Stewart's vast commercial enterprise. The following document has been placed in active circulation, both in New York and Brooklyn : "The ladies are so much trouble" to Judge Hilton. Until five years afterdate, we shall not buy anything at Stewart's store, in consequence of the unmannerly insinuation regarding the management and failure of the Women's Hotel, hoping that in that time the managers thereof may better learn the characteristics of American women. S ? ? TheTea Plant.?About twenty-five years ago Dr. Junius Smith, a native of Massachusetts, who resided at Greenville, South Carolina, obtained some tea-seed from a daughter who visited the East Indies, and demonstrated that tea could be grown in the Southern States. In 1857 and '58, the Patent Office distributed some plants and seeds, and anum- ] ber of them are living and growing, furnishing for their owners a home-supply of "the beverage which cheers without inebriating." Gen. LeDuc, the present efficient Comrais e a ?: ? 1.. i : j _..v siouer ui .agriculture, xiaa exauiiueu una buuject with great care and is convinced that the tea consumed by the United States might be raised here, thus producing what now costs us about twenty millions of dollars in coin. He has imported plants and seed (or rather nuts) from China and from Japan, and is now furuishing the plants to such parties in the Carolines and Georgia as will carefully cultivate them. Next year the tea-plants will be jient in small numbers to any pant of thn country where it is fairly probable success can be attained. The Chinese and Japanese expend a great deal of manual labor in heating, rolling and drying tea leaves, and many have thought that the cost of this labor here will prevent the culture of tea. But if some plants can be grown, some ingenious Yankee will soon patent a machine for manipulating the leaves. The cotton-gin, the mowing machine and the telephone show that the inventive genius of Americans is also equal to any emergency. # Terrible Storm in Upper South Carolina.?On Sunday the 9tb instant, the most terrific hail storm ever known in that section, occurred at Anderson. The damage can scarcely be estimated which it did to the VA7kno f ho * kas? nrvf hoon glUWl&Jg Miuy, vv litau uiuv uuu uvw wvm harvested was every stalk beaten flat to the ground, and at least half of it will be lost in gathering and threshing it. Corn was completely riddled and torn up, every blade of it being stripped off. This will not injure the yield of the young corn materially, but where it was waist high, as much of it was, it will be cut off a great deal. Oats will fare almost as badly as wheat, but the great damage is done to cotton. Fears are entertained that it is ruined beyond recovery, the leaves being beaten off and the stalks bruised and broken. The hail was terrific, covering the whole ground and remaining sometime. Many of the hailstones were as large as ben eggs and some as large as turkey eggs. The gardens seem utterly ruined ; tomato plants, squashes, beans, okra, in fact nearly every thing almost beaten into the earth. The rain came down in torrents all the time, and the small streams were higher than ever known. The land is terribly washed, and bottom corn entirely ruined, either covered with mud or washed away. Hail generally comes in April or May, when it is possible to replant, but now that is impossible, and if the storm has been general the county has had the most terrible calamity that ever befell it. The South Carolina Cotton Crop.? Under date of the 8th instant, the Charleston Committee on Statistics and Information made their first report of the condition of the growing cotton crop in South Carolina. The report is addressed to the President and Directors of the Charleston Exchange, and is as follows: Your Committee on Information and Statistics beg leave to submit the following report of the growing cotton crop in this State, based on seventy-seven replies from twentyeight counties. The acreage planted shows an average increase over last year of five per cent. The weather, with few exceptions, has been more favorable this year than the last, and the plant much more forward, the estimates varying from five to thirty days, averaging ten days earlier. Labor, as a general rule, is abundant and more efficient. The U3e of commercial fertilizers varies considerably, several counties reporting an increase and others a decrease. The acreage shows six per cent, increase. Where commercial fertilizers have decreased, a large increase in those of borne manufacture is reported. Eleven counties report considerable damage from cut worms; making replanting neces sary. Upon the whole we consider the reports very favorable for a good crop. A Boy's Affection for his Mother.? Next to the love of her husband, nothing so crowns a woman's life with honor as this second love, the devotion of the son to her. And I never yet knew a boy to "turn out" badly who began by falling in love with his mother. Any man may fall in love with a freshfaced girl, and the man who is gallant to the girl may cruelly neglect the poor and weary wife. But the big boy who is a lover of his mother at middle age is a true knight, who will love his wife as much in the sere-leaf Autumn as he did in the daised Spring. There is nothing so beautifully chivalrous as the love of a big boy for his mother. Killing op a Citizen by Revenue Of- " ficers.?A dispatch to Collector Brayton, received in Columbia on the 10th instant, gives the following account of the killing of Amos Ladd, an illicit distiller in Pickens county: Officers Kane, Durham, Moore and Scruggs, while on an expedition through the mountains in search of reported "stills," went to the house of a woman named Ladd, who is ^ generally supposed to bean illict wife of Redmond, the notorious outlaw. Here they found Amos Ladd, the woman's brother and one of the party who broke into the Pickens jail several weeks ago. The officers at once attempted to arrest Ladd, and he resisting, a struggle ensued, in the course of which Ladd ' * tried to kill Kane and was himself fired upon and mortally wounded by officers Kane and Durham. """"" As soon as the probable fatal result of the strueele became manifest, the four officers re turned to Greenville the same day and surrendered themselves to the civil authorities at that place to await trial. The shooting took place about 11 o'clock Sunday morning, the 9th. Immediately upon reaching GreenvHle, ^ QfCici Kauo lepuixwt itre ulrcUMilSlICSS "by telegraph to Collector Brayton, who promptly submitted his information to Governor Hampton. The Greenwood and Augusta Railroad.?In a recent communication, Mr. Bradley, President of the above road, says: "I regard the completion of the road a fixed fact. We have now seventeen miles of the grading finished on this side of the river. The entire length of the road from Greenwood to the Savannah is forty-six and fivesixteenth miles. The actual work is fully one-third done. The contract for erecting a splendid iron bridge at the river bas been awarded to reliable contractors, who are now casting the iron for the structure. We think we get it remarkably cheap, $26,000. The cost of grading is only five hundred dollf.rs a mile. The highest grade of the road is sixty-one feet. The grade of many new roads is now over two hundred feet to the mile. The improved machinery of the present day enables railroad officials to run their trains with ease on much greater grades than formerly. Some of the new roads in Nevada have a grade of two hundred and ten feet to the mile, and the trains move on this grade around the curves of the Rocky Mountains at what we would call a fearful speed. We make our road more level, because we can then use cheaper machinery." Mr. Stephens' Independence.?In view of some of Mr. Stephens' recent public acts, and more especially his well-known opposition to the election investigation now progressing, he has written a letter to the chairman of the Democratic executive committee of the Eighth Congressional District of Georgia, in which be says he shall neither seek nor decline a nomination at the bands of the convention to meet; But if, he says, "the convention shall repudiate me as an unfit representative of Democratic principles, and shall attempt to rule me out of the Democratic party because of anything connected with my recent public acts or sentiments, then I say to you and to tbem plainly and distinctly tbat I shall regard tbeir edict as but a brutem Julmen, issued by an irresponsible faction of tricksters, and the question whether I or they are sound in the faith of the fathers shall be left for the true Democracy of the uiyifiL't lu beuitj rtnr pdlls. 11 this man-?? produog any division or dissension in-the ? party, then the responsibility for the consequences must rest upon those who have so assailed and so grossly misrepresented me." ? ? + Why He Never Wore a Collar.?It was a fact observed by many, that Governor Briggs for several years before his death never wore a collar. When he was the honored chief magistrate of Massachusetts he appeared at his levees and on all public occasions without a collar. There was comparatively few who knew the reason for this. But the secret is most interesting and suggestive. He had a neighbor, whom he very highly esteemed, who had fallen into the habit of using intoxicating liquor. He was already the slave of appetite. Governor Briggs remonstrated with him. The man replied, "1 will never drink again, if you will never wear a collar again." "Agreed," said the governor. The man gave up the intoxicating cup, and thp cmvflrnnr laid aside his collar. He never ?- o"; # ?wore it again, but he saved his neighbor. The adverse criticisms to which this seeming lack of attention to his dress and personal appearance exposed him, never moved him from his purpose. Horse Beep.?The use of horse flesh as ' an article of diet has spread from France, Belgium and Italy to England, and the first shop for its sale on the island has just been opened in London. The event created great excitement in the neighborhood, and the demonstrations of aversion on the part of a large and not particularly cleanly mob were so pronounced that a large force of policemen had to be called upon to keep order. Sides of horse, donkey and mule, decorated with tinsel and holly, and certified by a veterinary surgeon's certificate to be those of healthy annimals, bung around the shop, forming the background to a large display of joints, sausages, etc. Most of the purchasers were foreigners, who had before formed the acquaintance of this sort of meat in their native countries. A ljmr(tot iurtft, rx. OIU1 jr 10 buiicut among the Chinese of a great wine drinker, who was able to sit on all the day at table, and after consuming what would have been sufficient to drive the reason out of half a dozen men, would rise up, perfectly sober. The emperor hearing the fame of this deep drinker, asked him to dinner, that he might test his marvelous powers. As the story goes, the king had ordered a hollow figure to be cast in bronze, of the exact size and model of this man, and, as the wine was served, for each cup that the guest drank, a similar cup was poured into the opening on the top of the head of the image. This went on for some hours, until at length the bronze statue overflowed while the guest continued at the table, and rose from it perfectly sober. Something New.?A scientific wonder equal to the telephone, is reported from France, though, unfortunately the details are not so cerefully given as to make the matter entirely intelligible. It is called the "electric mirror," and consists of a number of reflectors so arranged along a railroad line that in each is seen the movement of every train on the road. It is stated that in the mirror set up at the station at the end of the line can be seen a picture of everything going on over 100 miles of road, though how electricitv is brought into the case is not clearly stated, but after telephones aud phonographs we ought not, perhaps, to doubt that wonders may be wrought by electricity on simple mirrors to greatly increase their reflecting powers. Cabbage Worms.?Mr. J. Y. Whitted tells us he tried last summer, with good effect, a mixture of three parts of unslacked lime and one part fine salt, dusted on cabbage plants when the dew was on in the morning. The worms were completely conquered. Last year was a remarkably fruitful year for worms, and cabbage plants looked as if they were riddled with buck-shot. The above remedy is cheap and simple, and ought to have a trial by every gardener.?Hilliboro Recorder,