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lewis m. g-bist, proprietor. | %n Inbcpenbcnf Jfamilj) Htfospjcr: jfor % promotion of tjte political, Social, ^jrimlioral a'nb Commercial Interests of tjje Sotttlj. | terms--$2.00 a tear, in advance "VoL. 34. YOEKVILLE, S. C.. WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 13, 1888. IsTO. 37. mmmmmmmmmmmwmEBwmmmmmmmKMmmmmmmmmm?mm Miscellaneous flcadwg. MAKING SUGAR FROM SORGHUM. v ? During tho Inter-State Farmers' Encampment, at Spartanburg, on Tuesday, August 7, tho United States commissioner of agriculture, the Hon. Norman J. Colman, delivered the following address on .the subject of the manufacture of sorghum into syrup and sugar, which was imported for the News and Courier: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: Our people are the largest sugar-consuming people in the world. By the last report on the subject it is ascertained that we consume 52 pounds of sugar per capita throughout the United States, taking all purposes for which sugar is used, which is about 25 per cent, more than the next largest consuming people use, that is, the Eng* * 1 ? ~vr? Aiif onntiol. Jisn p^Opit'. VVtJ llIO pacing uuu auuuar ly to the laborers of other nations over one hundred millions of dollars of our hard-earned money, which I hope to be able to show you can be distributed among our own people by the home production of ' sugar. \vhlle we are pay'ing~6ufc at this time one hundred millions of dollars a year, yet our growth of population is going on, the consumption is annually increasing, and in twenty or twenty-five years from now, at the least, we shall be paying, unless there is a change, two hundred millions of dollars to the people of other nations. Have you ever considered the drain upon your resources caused by taking this vast amount of money from your pockets and sending it to enrich other nations? It is a question worthy of the profound consideration of the statesmen of America. We hear a good deal about our great national debt; but that, gentlemen, is a mere bagatelle in comparison with the drain caused by the purchase of oursugar supply, which has become one of the necessities of life. Our public debt is due mainly to our own people. When it is paid the money again goes into circulation and the country is not exhausted of this blood almost vitai to its life. PROUD OF BEING A FARMER. I am proud to be called one of that class who are engaged in cultivating the soil, and I generally feel at home in such meetings as this, because I was born upon a farm and my whole life has been devoted to the elevatioa of thp larmer ana to tne development of our great agricultural interests. [Applause.} We farmers all know that there is no plant more at home among us than the sorghum plant. As I have traveled on my way from Washington I have seen numerous patches of it growing with great vigor and freedom. I dare say wherever it is grown in this or surrounding counties or States, it is one of your most vigorous producing plants. You know as well as I do that a rich and healthy syrup has been produced from it ever since it was introduced some thirty years ago, the Chinese sugar cane. At that time I commenced its cultivation, receiving my first supply of seed from the patent office. I made syrup from it, and to my surprise, at times I would find one-third or one-fourth of a barrel of crystals in the bottom of my syrup barrel. I then commenced studying the production of sugar, and have from that time to this given it my careful consideration. SUGAR CAN BE MADE AT HOME. I concluded then that if this sugar would crystalize when no effort was made to produce that result, all the sugar needed in our country might, in time, be produced at home. I had noted the cultivation of sugar beets. You probably know that more than half of the sugar now consumed by the civilized world is made from beets. You probably recollect that Napoleon offered a bounty for its production. Although the first beets used for sugar showed only about four per cent, of saccharine matter, enterprising sugar manufacturers, encouraged by the kindness and bounty of the government, have improved it from year to year until it now shows about sixteen percent, of saccharine matter, a result accomplished by careful and scientific cul, tivation. >1 argued that the same improvements could be made in sorghum culture. The first advance in that direction was the introduction of what is now called "amber cane." Mr. John Y. Keys, or Indiana, brought home some seed obtained while on a visit to Paris. He planted it and succeeded in raising one stalk. It ripened earlier; he found upon examination that its juice was richer in saccharine matter ; and from that stalk of cane has been produced the earlier amber variety, which is now to be found on nearly every farm where sorghum is cultivated. Being so early, it was taken to Minnesota and was there cultivated. The syrup was of a fine amber color. It was found to crystalize readily, and you will recollect that a good deal of sugar was produced from the amber cane. A great many barrels of sugar have been made from it. My friends here, Senators Butler and Voorhees, will probably recollect that a barrel of that sugar was sent to President Hayes at the time that he was in Washington. This gave a great boom to the production of sugar. ACTUAL EXPERIMENTS. It went so far, finally, that a large manufacturing establishment was erected at Campaign, 111., and some GO,000 or 70,000 pounds of most excellent sugar was produced. But it was produced by what is calledHhe "old roller mill process," which failed to extract all the saccharine contents of the cane, 40 pounds only of sugar being produced to the ton of cane. The price of sugar was then very low, for German and French manufacturers were making sugar in large amounts, as those governments paid a bounty, not upon what sugar was produced in the country, but upon what sugar was exported from the country, thereby bringing in money. This caused its manufacture to so large an extent that sugar was cheapened throughout the civilized world. So it was found, after the expenditure of some $50,000 or $60,000 in erecting that manufactory, that it did not pay. It was likewise tried in Kansas and other States on a small scale, and under the old milling process it was found that not enough juice was obtained to make the industry profitable. Such was the condition of affairs when I came to take charge of the department ^ of agriculture at Washington. Having been giving careful consideration to the manufacture of beet sugar, I felt satisfied that there was enough saccharine in sorHB ghum to make it a profitable plant from which to raise sugar. During the very HH first interview I had with President Cleveland, before my appointment, I stated to him that if placed at the head of the department of agriculture, I would, in my ^ humble judgment, be able to demonstrate before my term of office expired, that this country could be independent of every nation on earth for its sugar. [Great applause."] He gave me some words of encouragement, but told me that I was taking a very big task upon my hands. I spoke of the importance and magnitude of the subject, of the drain which was going on from the pockets of our people, and I presume that the very fact of my evident interest in the matter had its influence in securing my appointment. I had not been in my seat two weeks before I determined to use every exertion in my power to solve this sugar problem. .STUDYING THE METHODS OF OTJIEK COUNTRIES. I sent Prof. Wiley, the chief chemist of the department of agriculture, to Europe, to visit the beet sugar producing factories in France and in Germany, in order to get plans, specifications and drawings of the 'entire apparatus and machinery in use there. He came home with these drawings from ten or twelve different factories, lie became convinced that success could be obtained, sooner or later, by adopting the beet sugar methods. We finally agreed upon a plan, the one of Pusey & Jones, of Wilmington, Delaware, manufacturers of sugar apparatus and machinery. We told them of the battery of cells which we wanted constructed, and a complete diffusion plant was prepared at that establishment, to be placed in the Fort Scott works, in Kansas. That was during the second year of my term of office. We made some sugar. But in all new enterprises a great many unexpected obstacles occur, and we found difficulty after difficulty to encounter. As an obstacle of the greatest magnitude we found that by the diffusion process the juices of the leaves were as thoroughly extracted as the juices of the stalk: that there were certain chemical principles in those leaves which were obnoxious to the production of a good sugar. We had therefore to adopt some other method, and nearly all of our time was nnnsnmed in trving to overcome these difficulties. Luring the first year of our labor we had not surmounted them, nor succeeded as I had fondly hoped. FINE YIELDS OF SUGAR. We then had to adopt some system to get rid of these leaves. Where cane is raised, as in Kansas, by the thousand acres, employees cannot be obtained to strip the cane before putting it into the mill as you you do, where you raise two or three acres of cane. We finally hit upon the plan of cutting the stalks into strips three inches in length, carrying these strips upon an endless chain, and passing them through a fanning mill, which blew off the leaves and left nothing but the pure cane. That first battery of cells which we had manufactured at Fort Scott was put into operation after ridding ourselves of these difficulties. We commenced making sugar, and we made there last year 235,000 pounds of as good sugar, I believe, as you ever put down your throats. [Loud applause.] No flouring mill ever turned out more certainly its full complement of flour to the bushel of wheat than did this cane mill turn out its full complement of sugar to the ton of cane that was put in it, which in the first workings amounted to over 100 pounds of sugar to each ton of cane, and in the second workings to about 20 pounds, and in addition there were left to each ton of cane about 10 gallons of molasses. This was done by what is called the "diffusion process," which consists in cutting up the cane on a plan precisely similar to that of cutting up the beets; slicing the cane into thin pieces. This is done so rap! x 1 x MKn ol innrl qq fciaf. uc I IUiy lllill JUUI UlliC ?.au uc oII1.1/U uvj iiw? uu it can be ground or rolled in any mill in South Carolina. These slices, of the thinnest sort, are conveyed into round cells holding one or two tons. A battery of twelve cells is so constructed that hot water is forced from one cell into another until the juice stalks are exhausted of every particle of saccharine which they contain. They are then carried out and thrown into a pile by this endless carrier system. THE VERY BEST QUALITY. Although we had adopted many of the processes used in Europe and which were essential to success, such as corbonization, the injection of acid, the German sugar process, and many others, we found, after we got the pure juice unmixed with that of theleaves, that it made of itself, without any carbonization or filtering, the finest, sweetest and best juice and the highest grade of sugar. That sugar sold right there by the carload., ready for every farmers' consumption,?white sugar, cheap as it was last year, at 6J and 6} per pound. I showed samples of it to Edward J. Gay, thedargest sugar maker in Louisiana, and he said he could see no difference in the world between that and the Southern sugar. Every farm, therefore, can be made a sugar farm. South Carolina is as good a sugar State as Louisiana. Kansas is a great sugar State, and Senator Plumb of that State, has given a great deal of attention to this matter, because other crops sometimes completely fail and the sorghum is the only reliable crop. Lately, as you may have seen, they have been having those terrible, hotsouthwest winds, which have ruined nearly hall of the corn crop, leaving it as brown and dry as if struck by the heaviest frost, yet sorghum simply laughs at any such heat as that. It has no fear of droughts, is one of the hardiest of plants; has the widest range of latitude of any plant I know. It is being produced in Minnesota, where some sugar and large amounts of syrup are beingmade, but it cannot be planted there largely on account of the early frosts, which come in September. That climate requires an early variety, which can be worked up rapidly. But many of their men have made large amounts of money. Hon. S. H. Keenan, a friend of mine, is making 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of syrup and selling it there at GO or 70 cents a gallon. SORGHUM THE SUGAR KING. No plant in the world can, in my judgment, compete with sorghum as a sugar plant, first on account of its hardiness, and second, on account of its easy cultivation. ! For any farmer can plough during winter or early spring with a cheap span of mules or horses his forty or fifty or sixty acres of ground, harrow it, drill it with his improved double cultivators, cultivate it just as he does corn, and he has raised that crop without help. Whether he is a black man or a white mau he is capable of producing this. And, gentlemen, the seed which is produced upon that# will pay the entire cost of cultivation. To every ton of cane there are two bushels of seed, and the average production in Kansas and New Jersey, where this same diffusion process has been practiced, is at least twelve tons j of cane to the acre and two bushels of seed i to the ton. What other plant can compete with it? Will the Southern sugarcane? It has no such compensating returns. This seed is just as good for feeding i horses, cattle, sheep, swine and poultry as j Indian corn. Indeed, the Philadelphia dairymen pay to the Rio Grand sugar men ten cents more for the seed of sugar cane than for Indian corn. They feed their horses entirely upon sorghum with the addition of a little bran. They fatten upon it the finest hogs I have ever seen, and their swine command a premium in the markets. There is no better food for sheep or cattle. It is probably better to have it : run through a roller or grinder and to J have some bran mixed with it. But I say it is equal to the Indian corn, and proI duces about the same number of bushels to the acre, and the seed will pay the cost i r\f stillfiirdtir\n I \J i V.UJ U TIU4UU. THE LOUISIANA SUGAK. If any of you have visited the Louisiana j sugar plantations you know what a slow, I tedious job it is to raise cane there, and j how much help it requires. Here no 1 such skill is required. Here we have a climate where man can work longer and do more; we have land that is cheaper, and the time is surely coming, gentlemen, when in every neighborhood you will have your sugar mills as in the wheat growing States you have your flouring mills. The time is coming when you will have your sugar factories just as you have your cotton gins ; when white man and black man can raise their cane, haul it to the factory, have it converted into sugar, get, as they 1 do in Kansas, from 82 to 83 a ton cut right j from the field, leaves and all, cash every I Saturday night, the sugar manufacturer I converting it, and making a good deal ! more money than the farmer does. [Great ] applause.] Here is an opportunity for capital to enter and make money. Take a ton of cane and see what it produces. It produces 100 pounds of sugar the first working; if there is another reboiling it produces 20 pounds j more?120 pounds of sugar. What is that j worth? What are you paying for sugar | now? For the quality produced I underj take to say you will pay 8 cents; but say G cents. That is $G for the first run ; 81.20 1 for the second?87.20. Then there are two bushels of seed to every ton of cane, worth as much as corn, which I presume to be worth 50 cents.; that is $1 more, making $8.20. Then there are at least ten gallons of molasses, worth $2 more?$10.20. Yet the manufacturer has paid but $2.00 for that from which he gets his $10.20. Can anything be more profitable than that? It appears to me that there cannot. RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENTS. I wish to impress upon your minds this point; that in these experiments, which have been conducted, there have been no mistakes. Last year Col. Edward H. Cunningham, of Texas, who is raising about 1,000 acres of Southern sugar cane, having seen how successful our experiments were, wrote to me, after reading an interview with the Associated Press reporter, to ask if all I had stated was true. I replied that the best way to determine that was to go to Fort Scott and examine for himself, see the cane cut in the field, the stalks run through the mill, the sugar produced, measured and weighed, and then decide for himself. In addition, I advised him to take along with him the best sugar expert he could find in Louisiana. He followed my advice, and went there for two weeks, taking his sugar expert! who remained a month. He went home perfectly convinced that that was the true system, saying he could not afford to run the old process any longer. He has this year put in a complete battery of cells and ' planted out 700 acres of sorghum in addition to his sugar cane, thus nearly doubling the value of his plant, increasing the number of days in which he works, and increasing the profits of the plant to a very large . extent. This new system of diffusion which I have described succeeds not only with sor- i ghum but equally well with the Southern sugar cane. Last year we carried on experiments in Louisiana on the plantation of a Southern sugar cane planter with the . cane that he selected. 1 left it entirely with the committee of an association to determine whose mill should be tried, and j I believe they chose the mill that had obtained a larger per cent, than any other. | While the ownerof thismillextracted one , hundred and seventy or one hundred and j eighty pounds of sugar, the department of agriculture from the same cane got two j hundred and thirty odd pounds to each . ton of cane, and Governor Warmouth this I year said that he could no longer afford to j run the old mill. He has put in a system ] of diffusion, a battery of cells, in order not < to waste anything. FINE YIELDS FKOM THE CANE. Throughout the whole State of Louisiana ? r mo/-1 f1 tne average amount ui sugui uumiu uuiu a ton of cane is less than one hundred and j thirty pounds; a little over one hundred i pounds. And why? Because with their ' ponderous mills they are afraid of a break. ] If they break their mills the working sea- f son is delayed perhaps two or three weeks 1 or more; for they must be sent to the < foundry to be repaired. They do not, 1 therefore, crush out all the juice that is in j the cane. I have frequently taken it up, < wrung it, and seen the rich drops of juice 1 dripping from it in streams. They say they cannot afford to exhaust it of this * juice for fear of breaking their mills. ' What is more pleasant than all, gentle- i men, with our system as carried on at i Fort Scott, we obtained, from six carloads i of cane sent to us by Edward J. Gay, 70 ' pounds more per ton than anybody pre- < dieted we could. They say that they can- ' not afford to run their old system, obtain- ' ing the above small amounts ; some other ' system is to be adopted, and they say if ' this system of diffusion holds out they can f laugh at the tariff. They can make sugar ' there so cheaply, as they gradually rid themselves of their old mills, that if the < Government is determined to deprive ] them of this protection they can still make 1 sugar and make it profitably. i LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP. I recommend that none of you immedi- J ately go to making sugar. I presume that , 1 could have induced the establishment of , numbers of factories this year, had I , thought proper to do so. But what gentleman of good common sense would undertake to run any manufacturing establishment without either understanding it thoroughly himself or obtaining an expert to manage it for him? Skill is required, ? and one of the first things we need is a i school for instruction. We ought to have 1 a school in every State to teach men how ' to make sugar by this new process, to ' qualify them to run these factories, to edu- ' cate them in the business, and then we i shall see our sugar factories established ev- < erywhere throughout the country. Ev- 1 ery neigborhood can do it. Farmers can i do it. < Of course, under this process, which we I have now, to establish a good plant would ' r.?c.0.1 nnn noon Ttnt, T nm UUSb OUU4C J-VjVVV V/a vwjvvwv. ? - ? carrying on experiments in New Jersey \ this year with a much simpler plant, cost- ] ing from So,000 to $7,000. Last year in 1 New Jersey one acre of ground, carefully 1 measured by Mr. Hughes, produced 1,970 pounds of sugar. You will find that in [ our agricultural reports, and I will say 1 that if those who are specially interested in studying this matter will write to me I for the department of agriculture reports, j where all of this has been laid before the public, I shall be very glad to send it to j them. j THE IMPORTANCE OF TIIE HUSINESS. The importance of this new industry to the American people I wish to.impress upon you very strongly if I can. You know something about the over-production of farm products that is going on in this country. You know that if there was not so much cotton produced it would bring a better price; if there was not so much wheat produced it would not be selling at 00 or GO cents a bushel. 1 have lately been I through Dakota, Montana and Manitoba, ; and language will not enable me to deI scribe to you the extent of that country. Day after day I rode through the richest prairie lands I ever saw ; they seemed to me limitless in extent. It was like going j out info the great Atlantic Ocean with a i bouudless expanse upon every side of you. I Land can be taken there as a homestead. I Emigrants are flocking and living there in ; houses, tents and cabins of every conceiv; able kind. If ground is ploughed this summer and next summer it will produce thirty bushels of corn to the acre. Some of the syndicates formed in the East cultivate ;30,U00 or-10,000 acres of wheat. It is true they ! have a rigorous climate in winter, but they i sow wheat in April, harvest in August i and thrash in September, and in October it is on the way to the Eastern market, and ; they sell out and go to their homes in the East. Everything is conducted on those 1 huge farms with military precision. They J have the best horsesand mules; men who are up every morning at o o ciuck, uie horses and mules are curried and fed, the harness is put on them ; by G o'clock they are through breakfast and go out and work till half-past 7. A superintendent works with a gang of tifty or sixty horses and i ploughs. Now, the average American farmer cannot afford to produce wheat in competition with such labor and organization as that in possession of such land as that. How is it with other products? How has the ! average farmer succeeded lately ? A good many of them within my knowledge have | been losing money. Pork has been selling in Missouri and Kansas at three cents a ' pound, corn at 1 "> cents a bushel when they j have good crops. There is no money to be | made in that. We have got to look to some other crop. MAKK WIIAT YOU CONSUME. This nation ought to produce everything ! which is consumed here, if it is adapted to ! its production. We ought not to be sendi ingour hard-earned moneys off to enrich the laborers and proprietors of other nations. We want to keep this hundred millions and soon this two hundred millions here at home, to enrich our people, devel oping our resources, increasing our prosperity and giving wealth to our farmers. [Applause.] We must do it by encouraging the development of new industries. I should be doing great injustice to the distinguished Senators who" are here if I did not say that they have appreciated the magnitude and importance of this interest and have willingly and cheerfully voted to encourage it. After alluding gracefully to South Carolina's grand achievements in the past, and thanking the intelligent audience for their appreciative attention, Commissioner Colman stated that he would be glad to talk privately with any farmers who felt an interest in his subject, and ended by offering to respond by letter to any who desired further information. THE MINISTRY OF PAIN. For what are we put into life ? Add to your faith, courage; and to courage, knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, patience; and to patience, godlineas; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. How shall one do it? Can the mini^<j*\vrap these things up iu tissue paper Anufiahd them out to his hearers in eloquent sermons from the pulpit? Can he acquire courage for you, or knowledge, or self-control, or patience, r\- 11n/ioo nr hrnthprlv IfinHnps# nr l/i j^UUll liV^OOj U* W4VVI1VXJ J W. love? Can you buy these articles all the minister's ecclesiastical counter ? Can you learn them by reading? Can you obtain them by meditation ? Where can a jman get courage except on the battlefield? ' We never get courage except as danger teaches it to us. Where will you get knowledge ? Out of perplexity ? We come to two paths in the wood ; and there is, a guide-lx>ard , there; and we climb to see it; ana the weather has washed the lettering away; and we cannot tell whether to go to the rightor the left. And out of these perplexities there comes the powerof a discriminating judgment. IIow shall we learn self control? By being put under the pressure of temptation ? and learning how to put the evil underneath our feet and march victoriously on. ; How shall wo learn patience? By bearing , the burden ; not by fleeing from it. How ( shall we learn godliness? God is a pres- < ent help in every time of trouble; there is ( no minister that brings God so near the human heart as this minister of grief that we would in our folly turn from our doors, j How shall we learn brotherly kindness ? j Not by shutting eyes and ears to the groans ] and the sorrows of humanity ; not by pass- ,] ing by like the priest and the Levite in j haste to get to the temple, but by standing in life where sorrow surges and letting < the waves whelm us also while we do our part in the service of the great life-saving , station. For we learn how to love by j loving, and how to trust by walking in , iarkness, and how to control ourselves by* J wrestling with ourselves. Out of the strug- ( ?le and bitter conflict of life there is 3 emerging always the higher and the bet ter life. j This is what the apostle means when he sa!ys: "No chastening for the present j seemeth joyous, but rathef grievous." It is not the mere truism that no chastisement is joyous, but this: The process of man-building never is joyous, but by and ay, when it is complete, there comes feli- i fity in the result. This is what Christ means when he said, "Blessed are they , that mourn; for they shall be comforted not consoled, but "comforted." There would be no blessing in tears if the eyes saw no better than they saw before. But there is no such clarifimf of vision as tears. In the meadow antPthe**forest there is mly the survival of the fittest; the unfit perish. But thanks be to God, in this ( higher battle-field of humanity every tnau may help his fellow-man, and God is helping all; and out of the battle ther* J amerges, not only those that were fittest 1 it the beginning and have endured it, but ] those that, by his grace and by human help and comfort, have grown fit in man- J hood and womanhood through the process.?[Christian Union. ENERGY OF THE SUN. The most satisfactory way of arriving at 1 hn idea of the enormous energy of the sun I is by measuring the amount of heat which i his rays are capable of generating, and fur- i ther, by our knowledge of the relations 1 that exist between "heat and mechanical ' work, we are able at once to estimate the < imount of work which the sun is capable ] af doing, and also the quantity of energy < he must be losing year by year. By suit- 1 rble arrangements we can cause a certain ' quantity of his radiation to be absorbed 1 by water or other substance, and note the rise in temperature which results, and as I we know the mechanical equivalent of i each degree of temperature, in water for < instance, it is only a matter of calculation 1 to arrive at a knowledge of the sun's total energy. Like everything else connected with this wonderful body, figures give us no ade- ' quate conception of his energy,and various illustrations have been used by different investigators. Thus, Ilerschel considered 1 it a relation to the quantity of ice which would melt in a given time, and states that the amount of heat which the earth receives when the sun is overhead would 1 melt an inch thickness of ice in two hours and thirteen minutes. From this it can be calculated that if the body of the sun ' were entirely surrounded by a sheet'of ice on its surface of more than a mile in thick ness, tne sun s neat wouiu onureiy muu this coating of ice in the same time? ; namely, two hours and thirteen minutes. Professor Young uses an even more strik- 1 ing illustration. lie says: "If we could build a solid column of ice from the earth to the sun, two miles and a quarter in diameter, spanning the inconceivable abyss of 93,000,000 miles, and if then the sun should concentrate his power upon it, it would dissolve and melt, not in an hour, nor in a minute, but in a single second; one swing of the pendulum, and it would be water; seven momtind it would be dissipated in vapor." Of course, of this enormous quantity of heat the earth receives but a very small fraction. The remainder, except of course, what the other planets receive, passes away into space, and is lost forever, so far as can be ascertained, to the solar system. If we estimate in mechanical power what we do receive, we find this to be on each square foot of surface equivalent, on the average, to about fifty tons raised a mile high yearly, or to one horse power continuously acting, to every thirty square feet of the earth's surface. It is by this enormous supply of energy that the whole world is kept alive and active. It keeps us warm, and drives our steam engines and water wheels; it circulates our atmosphere, and brings us rain and snow in due season; it grows and nourishes our plants and animals, and, in a word, is the source of almost every earthly blessing. - ? Honest Work.-?We are all workers in one way and another; but how many of us are possessed 01 an earnest aesire that the work which we put from our hands shall be a thorough, honest, faithful performance that shall fulfill its purpose and withstand the ravages of time? The great difference in labor is not in what has been done?nor in the kind of work we perform?but in the spirit which we put into it. From the cleansing of a room to the purification of a government, from the clearing of a forest to the chiseling of a statue, from the humblest work of the heart and brain, it is the determination to make it of the best possible quality tbat places it in the front rank. The work that is performed only for the sake of what it will bring, not for what it will carry forth, is like the cloth of shoddy, which may please the eye, but will not wear. It is cheap, flimsy stuff, woven with no nobler purpose than to hold together long enough to be bought and paid for. For the Yorkville Enquirer. REMINISCENCES OF WESTERN YORK. Our hist chapter closed with A. T. Smith's hegira. Of him we shall speak hereafter, especially at the breaking out of the war. Until then we will let him rest. Uncle "Billy" Strain, as we have already said, was a son of the "Emerald Isle." Many things are told upon the Irish that we are not disposed' to believe, especially when they involve questions of wit and quick sense; but many are true. For instance, Uncle Billy built a comfortable log cabin on Guion Moore creek, north of the Smith's Ford road. Across the house, on top of the wall plates, was pinned some pine pole girders. When first occupied, the space between the floorand the girders was just sufficient to give room for his cupboard.' As usual, in process of time, the house began to settle down, and a girder pressed on the top of the cupboard so much that the doors were hard to open and shut. One of his bovs suggested that the corner of the house be pried up and a wedge be put in between the logs, so as to relieve the cupboard. Accordingly the necessary pile and fulcrum were prepared and brought to the place and arrangements were made to carry out the plan of the boy. The old man, without understanding the proposition of his son, placed the j pole under the sill of the house and began to prize it up. When asked what he was I doing, he said he wanted to pry the house off the cupboard. "How high will you have to pry it?" asked the boy. "High enough to get it off the cupboard," was his reply. As mention has already been made of Mr. Joe Logan, the reader knows what kind of a man he was. On one occasion he got pretty "tight" and dropped himself on the side of the road. Chess McKinney, passing, said to him : "Uncle Joe, some fool will come along and ride over you." Uncle Joe replied: "MishterChesh McKinney, you shee, shir, you are the first fool that come along and you haven't done it." . Uncle Joe used to say that "one good 3\vallow was worth two sets of teeth," and he proved it in many instances. As already intimated, when he got a dram ahead it was: "Old Joe Logan is aschmart old animal, but nobody knows it. Judge O'Neall was the smartest man in South Carolina ; Tom Dawkins next; Joe Logan next, and George Williams (of the York- I ville bar) was next." lie was a great mathematician, in his own estimation. Standard authors were mere children to him. On one occasion Sam Strain asked him: "How many times a wheel 16 feet 5 inches in circumference would turn round in going84 miles." His reply was: "Sham Schtrain, that's not dollars and sehents." Another of Western York's central figures in ante-bellum times was our old friend "Turk" Turner. How he came in possession of this delectable misnomer I can't tell. He is still alive and perhaps jf age, and the reader will have to ask him for information on that point. (I think it verv likelv that he came in possession of it during the time Uncle Jackey Hemphill was giving out nicknames to almost every man heknewin Western York, and anywhere else.) Anyway, he was known by that name from our earliest recollection, and, perhaps, long before. About the year 1850 or '51, he moved on Bulfock's creek, to "Big" Bill Wilson's, who, by the way, was another Jackey Hemphill for nicknaming people. He called him "Kedrust"; but that sobriquet didn't last-many years. Uncle "Turk," as I always called him, was, and still is, a man considerably under the average size. I don't think he ever weighed over 100 pounds in his life. He was always a hard working man and a quiet citizen ; a professional bee hunter, weather prophet, crossroads politician and lire-side lawyer. lie is at present one of the oldest original citizens we know of in that section. He is an uneducated man, yet his knowledge of men and measures goes back for more than three quarters of a century, and he can tell many incidents connected with the history of Western York. The last quarter of a century has wrought a great change in the list of the people in Western York. Those who were mere children at fhe close of the war are now grown men and women, and society, is much improved in different respects. At no time, perhaps, since the settlement of the country has it had a more thrifty and well-to-do generation than at present, with churches, schools and other evidences of progress and civilization taking the place of the haunts of viceand immoral practices for which certain sections of this country were proverbial during our earliest recollection. Society has been remodeled. We have made no attempt, whatever, to give these "Beininiscences" in chronological order. Xor shall we yet do so. In order that those living at the time may have the benefit of our recollections of the war, and the stirring scenes connected with it, we will soon give a chapter on that eventful struggle and tell what sacrifices were made by the patriotic and noble ivnmpn whnsfi means enabled them to provide for the comfort of their less for- I tunate neighbors, whose fathers, sons and husbands represented them on their coun: try's battlefields; while the arrival of almost every train brought the intelligence of a murderous battle fought, other wives made widows and other children fatherless. It will also be a pleasure for us to speak of the fidelity of the slaves to their I masters during this notable epoch in J American history. They were well aware > that their freedom was the grand centre ! around which nearly a million of native ; born American soldier revolved in mortal 1 combat, to say nothing of the legions of sol- : diers collected from the countries beyond | the sea thrown in to tip the scale of fate in i their favor. Yet they were comparatively | faithful to the last, for which they should be held in grateful remembrance by an overpowered but unconquered people. A NEEDED REFORM. The letter of Bishop Stevens, asking the j aid of the Charleston Ministerial Union to | secure legislation which will make it nec-! essary to obtain a license in South Carolina before a marriage can "be celebrated, is I likely to attract earnest attention to this subject. As the matter now stands, it is easier for two persous to enter the mar-1 riage relation, which is indissoluble under our law, than it is to form a business partnership for a few years or months, or even to effect the transfer of an acre of land, or to enter into a business contract of any nature. It would seem, really, that a compact which is regarded as so solemn and binding, when once made, should not be capable of being entered into so slightly, especially by young people who have scarcely arrived at years of discretion, and who, even if they are old enough to regulate their own conduct, are not usually in a particularly discretionary frame of mind at the time when they seek to assume the obligations of the matrimonial estate, whether or not, however, a license should be required as a preliminary to marriage, It is certain that the marriage laws of South Carolina ought to be revised in some particulars. Even if it is not desired to make it more difficult to marry than it is at present, there should be some definite provision lor icuuiuiu^, ui mc fact of marriage at least. It seems unimportant, perhaps, when persons are marrying in haste, whether they shall be married by a clergyman who will record their marriage, or by a trial justice who will keep no evidence of the contract. But in after years when children shall have been born and property has been acquired, it becomes of the utmost consequence to have always the means of establishing the fact of the marriage and its lawfulness likewise. How many persons in South Carolina have in their possession, or could obtain at need the proof of legitimate birth? It is an awkward question to very many, no doubt, who have probably never given it a ! thought before; but it is a question that ! is well worth considering. The lines of descent among the mass of the people canj not be established beyond two or three ! generations at most. There are thousands of honest and fairly intelligent men and i women in the State, no doubt, who do not j so much as know the maiden name of their i great grandmother, or the Christian name I of their great grandfather, and under the i present system, their own great grand| children will be no wiser. This is not creditable or desirable for many reasons not necessary to be mentioned. There should be compulsory registration of marriages, births and deaths in South Carolina, as there is in other States. Efforts have been made from time to induce the Legislature to provide for this kinrl nf rprnrri huf. thevfailpri. Tt is to he hoped that the suggestion of Bishop Stevens will direct serious consideration to the general subject and lead to some reform, not merely as a matter of statistics, important as that is, but in order to make it easy to vindicate the rights of property and to establish the legitimacy of children and the lawful positioogf married persons.. [Aiken Recorder. THE NUMBER OF THE STARS. The total number of stars one can see will depend very largely upon the clearness of the atmosphere and the keenness of the eye. There are in the whole celestial sphere about six thousand stars visible to an ordinarily good eye. Of these, however, we can pever see more than a fraction at any one time, because a half of the sphere is always below the horizon. If we could see a star in the horizon as easily as in the zenith, a half of the whole number, or 3,000, would be visible on any clear night. But stars near the horizon are seen through so great a thickness of atmosphere as greatly to obscure their light, and only the brightest onps can there be seen. As a result of this obscuration it is not likely that more than 2,000 stars can ever be taken in at a single view by any ordinary eye. About 2,000 other stars are so near the south pole that they never rise in our latitudes. Hence, out of 6,000 supposed to be visible, only 4,000 ever come within the range of our vision, unless we make a journey to the equator. As telescopic power is increased, we still find stars of fainter light. But the number cannot go on increasing forever in the same ratio as with the brighter magnitudes, because if it did the whole sky would be a blaze of starlight. If telescopes with powers far exceeding our present ones were made, they would no doubt show new stars of the twentieth, twenty-first, Ac., magnitudes. But it is highly probable that the number of such successive orders of stars would not increase in the same ratio as is observed in the eighth, ninth and tenth magnitude, for example. The enormous labor of estimating the number of stars of such classes will long prevent the accumulation of statistics on this question; but this much is certain, that in special regions of the sky, which have been searchingly examined by various telescopes of successively increasing apertures, the number of new stars found is by no means in proportion to the increased instrumental power. If this is found to be true elsewhere, the con-1 t xl x _ l?x ^11 iUA elusion may ue mat, auer an, me sicum system can be experimentally shown to be of finite extent, and to contain only a finite number of stars. In the whole sky an eye of average power will see about G,000 stars, as I have just said. With a telescope this number is greatly increased, and the most powerful telescopes of modern times will show more than 60,000,000 stars. Of this number not one out of 100 has ever been catalogued at all. * * * In all 314,926 stars, from the first to the ninth and one-half magnitudes, are contained in the northern sky, or about 600,000 in both hemispheres. All of these can be seen with a three-inch object glass.?[The Century. THE FASTEST PRESIDENTIAL RACE. In 1860, at the beginning of the Presiidential campaign of that year, there liyed in Elbert county Ga., about three miles below Elberton, a man by the name of ITiram Davis, whose information was very limited, but who imagined he knew a good deal. At the time there was a theatrical company spending some time in Elberton with a large tent stretched on the west side of the public square, in which the men of the town would frequently congregate to discuss the exciting political questions of the day. On one occasion an unusually large crowd was present in the tent, Davis being one of the number, when it was proposed to hold a national nominating convention to nominate candidates for President and VicePresident of the United States. After the meeting was organized, Hon. Amos T. Akerraan (then a resident of Elberton) arose, and after a brilliant speech on the gravity of the situation, and especially of that particular occasion, placed in nomination the name of Hiram Davis, of Elbert countv. Georeria. for President, and Don Pedro Castro, of Mexico, for Vice-President. The nomination was seconded and carried by acclamation and tremendous applause. A committee was appointed to notify Davis of his nomination, and called on him for a speech. He asked for an hour's time to prepare himself. In the meantime the crowd had grown to such proportions that the canvass would not hold them, and it was decided to have the speech delivered from the Veranda in front of the court house. Davis's friends, prominent among whom wasCapt. Ben. C. Henry, then a resident of Elberton, took him oft and rigged him up in a large, old style, blue military coat, with epaulets on the shoulders, an immense collar that reached above his ears, a very tall stovepipe hat and an old pair No. 12 ditcher's boots. At the appointed time he appeared on the veranda and a more comical looking appearance never presented itself to the people of Elberton. But Davis meant business. He thought that he was the bona fide nominee for the office, and visj ions of the White House and $25,000 a year had been poured into his ear by his accommodating friends until he was worked up to the highest point of excitement. : He delivered a senseless harangue of an I hour's length with as much earnestness as : was ever displayed by Stephen A. Doug! lass in those days. During the speech Captain J. A. Sanders, now deceased, pretended to become , offended at some remark made by Davis, i and at its conclusion sent him a challenge i to fight a duel. Davis was averse to spilling human blood and wanted to decline the combat, but his friends urged him that he was occupying a position in which it would be a disgrace to decline and that certain defeat would be the result of such a course. This nerved him up to the point, and he accepted the challenge, and acting under tl?e advice of his second (Captain Ben. Henry) chose double barrel shotguns as the weapons and twenty paces as the distance. I Fverytnmg Deing arrangeu, a level ! street in front of the Methodist Church ; was selected as the duelling ground. The | distance was measured, the guns loaded i (with powder only, but Davis thought I with buckshot also), and the principals | placed in position. At the command i"Fire!" Sanders tired his gun off iramej diately, but Davis took cool and deliberate i aim and tired. Sanders, of course, fell I and his surgeon ran up and bent over him, at the same time emptying a bottle of red ink on his bosom and announcing that he was mortally wounded. Davis saw the blood, as he thought, and his friends advised him to flee. This he at first declined to do, stating that he had killed his man in a fair duel, and had committed no crime, but when he saw the sheriff of the county approaching him, his courage failed and he made a break for liberty. He started down the street at a tremendous rate. The crowd raised a yell and a very large dog took after him. The dog overtook him as he turned the first corner, fastened his teeth in Davis's pants, and tore them completely off of him. He increased his gait, out ran the dog, and as he turned the top of the first hill he ran out of his big boots, they flying in the air over his head as he sped onward. He ran to his home, but made no halt, running through the house and garden, breaking down a panel of the latter as he went out. He turned up Beaverdam Creek, and never made a halt until he reached a relative's house in the vicinity of Hartwell, having run twenty-six miles in about three hours. For a year afterward Davis could not be induced to put his foot on Elbert county soil. Thus commenced and ended undoubtedly the fastest presidential race ever run in the United States. - Fashions of Ancient Times.-?Heliogabalus is said to have been the first to wear a robe of pure silk. The emperor, one of the most unWorlhy aiid debauched of rulers, who made his horse a consul, had a senate of women, over whom his ' mother presided, which prescribed all the modes and fashions. The Emperor Aurelian is said to have refused his wife a robe of pure silk, on account of its excessive cost. Indeed it was not until more than five centuries after the Christian era that silkworms were brought from the east and introduced into Constantinople by some monks in the time of Justinian. Purple was always much admired by the ancients, the dye coming from the murex, as is well known. The color was thought finer the darker it was. Under Augustus violet and bright red^became fashionable colors, as well as scarlet, and were soon worn by all who could afford to do so, but Nero and Ctesar afterward reserved amethyst and purple for imperial use exclusively. Bright colors weredisused in mourning? when the Romans wore black, or a dark gray, and matrons, especially, appeared in public in dark clothes, disheveled hair and without ornaments. In the autumn respectable ladies, who were at all religious, dressed themselves upon a certain day in robes of "murrey," or dead leaf color, in which they made expiatory sacrifices, the clothing being afterward scrupulously destroyed, the idea being that any evil which impended upon the wearer might pass into her tunic and thus be carried off in flame. The expiation, if fully carried out, was most comfortably supposed to be sufficient for a wholeyear of peccadilloes.?[Dodey's. Education of the Brain.?The brain can be trained just like the hand. This is the great subject of education. An empty head is an evil head; an untrained brain is a mischievous brain. The brain must be used all round, and perhaps the greatest danger to school education at present is that the memory is cultivated principally or almost alone. It is not walking encyclopedias that do good in the world, but skilled brains, able to think and not merely to remember. No teaching is likely to be of much permanent value which does not exercise other faculties of the mind, the reflection and judging powers, the r\f nri^rincr undivided attnntmn And t"",v* h? "-h ? ' - ? . the power of taking pains. Interest in the work is essential to true progress, and the most enduring knowledge is that which we teach ourselves. Imagination should be stimulated by wholesome and stirring stories and all the wealth of poetry; and the will should be educated by forcing ourselves to do our duties promptly, even when disagreeable, as they often are. Habits are largely the result of training; the same part of the brain is used over and over; tne nervous energy travels the same set of fibres from the same centre time after time, until ultimately it passes without control and almost unconsciously. The painful efforts of learning an art in the end give an unnoticed mastery over it. Here is the danger of self-indulgence in any vice.?[C. H. Pollock, M. D., in the Chautauquan. How They Vote in Mexico.?The election for President in Mexico has recently taken place, and a correspondent of the Boston Herald tells how the voting is done in that country. The election takes place on Sunday, and the polls were open all over the City of Mexico. At most of the polling places, situated in the "zaguans," or porticos of houses, there were two men sitting at a small table. There was no ballot box or electoral urn, merely printed forms on which the citizen voting indicated in writing his preference for elector and then signed his name. It was very quiet at all these places, and no soldiers were to be seen at the polling places, and no show of power in any form. All was as Democratic as an election in any rural town in Massachusetts. No loafers were permitted, and nobody came up with a bunch of ballots urging the voter to take this or that ticket. There were no ward politicians out, nor did any wear a badge. Any one who desired voted without let or hindrance. All the stories of troops at the polling places, and of high-handed inter ference with the popular will, turned out to be mere bugaboos, like too many Southern outrage yarns in our Presidential contests. True, very few people voted, for the average citizen down here is no politician, and so long as he can go to bed at night in peace and get up in the morning unawakened by cannonading, he lets politics run as they please. The Max Who Knows It All.?You meet him on the house top, you meet him on the street, along the winding pathway, you hear his princely feet; you find him in the cottage, in hovel, hut and hall; you hear his voice forever?the man who knows it all. And would you talk of music, if that is near your heart? Or would you, as a critic, discourse of ancient art? A voice will interrupt you, and o'er you cast a pall?the voice of that wise being?the man who knows it all. Perchance you may have journeyed, leagues, leagues away from home; have seen the sights of Atheus, the seven hills of ltome; don't tell your strange adventures, when neighbors on you call, for there will be among them, the man who knows it all. And would you tell a story, as Pommery you quaff? A little pointed anecdote to make your comrade laugh? Then shun the dark browed stranger, who leans against the wall; he is the sour souled villain, the man who knows it all. When at the realm that smoulders, where Satan broods in ire, we hand our parquet tickets, to plunge into fire ; above the wails of sorrow, we'll hear one frantic call, the shriek of that vile sinner?the man that knows it all.? [Walt Mason. He Early.?Remember that time, tide and railway trains wait for nobody, and so arrange your movements in traveling as never to be in a hurry. Go to your train, boat, steamship, stage, dilligence or other conveyance in ample season, as to have opportunity to make all needed arrangements without pressure for time. On most Continental railways the sale of tickets cease five minutes, and the registration of baggage ten minutes, before the departure of the trains. This is something to be borne in mind, or it will be learned by missing a train some day. In making up a party for extended travel, shun the man or woman who has a habit of procrastination ; who habitually comes late to an engagement, and is always not quite ready when the others want to be starting. Such a person can spoil the pleasure of all his CQmpanions by keeping them in a state of perpetual .worry whenever they are to go from one place to another, or have any sort of engagement to keep.