Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, August 21, 1895, Image 1
ISSUED TWIOE-A-WEEK?WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY.
I. m. grist & sons, PubUshers. } g, jfamilij Jteii'spairer: 4or "*? promotion of the goliticat, jsociat, Agricultural and Commercial Interests of the ?outh. tkk?m;S;,c',p^thk?:crntsXE'
"VOLUME 41. YORKVILLE, S. C., AVTCPTsTUSDAY, AUC4T7ST 21, 1895. NUMBER 55.
A DESERT CLAIM.
By MABY E STIOOEY.
fOopyTlfb*, BK by J. B. Lippincott Company.]
CHAPTER IX.
There was a small stir of surprise
next morning when it developed that
Jim Kittery had shaken the dnst of K 6
ranch frojn hiB feet and definitely retired
from his harassing courtship. The
boys brought back the horse he had ridden
to the pianic, with the explanation
that he had enoountered friends at the
festivities with whom he had gone on
to the P O ranch in that neighborhood,
and he had sent a curt message to Mr
Jfillery, saying, wunouc apoiogy, in me
local idiom usual in such leave takings,
that he "-wanted his time" and directing
that the wages dne him, together
with his other belongings, should be
forwarded to him by the mail carrier.
But the interest in this closing page
of Jim's poor little romance was quickly
forgotten in the more serious loss
whioh had befallen the place. When
Paul Brown, who always cared for his
horse himself, went op to the barns
that morning, it was to find the animal
missing. There was at first no uneasiness
on that soore, as the inference was
that the fastenings the night before
might not have been properly secured,
or that the revelers might have let him
escape from the corral in their sleepy
maneuvers when they came home from
the danoe, but when the boys came in
with the hone herd they brought the
startling news that not only had Paul
Brown's valuable thoroughbred failed
to be found, but the bay filly which
Ellery had intended for his sister, by
far the finest oolt on the place, was
missing also. That the corral had been
visited by rustlers the night before was
the immediate oonolusion amid such excitement
as had rarely prevailed at the
K 6 ranch in all its history.
The men were all hastily mounted
Pllnrrr chavnlvr
OUU icauj XV/X J/IUDU4W, XJ44V4J WMW.
regretting Jim's absence now, when
any defection in the ranks 60 serionsly
oounted. The plan was for the party to
divide and in the common phrase, "ride
the fences" of all the fields, looking for
4 the point where the fngitives had passed
through. The natural conclusion was
that the thieves had made their way to
the north, on aooount of the difficulties
in any other direction, which appeared
well nigh insurmountable, but on this
side the oountry was hilly and broken,
and progress in the night must necessarily
have been slow. There was a possibility
that with fresh horses and good
daylight to favor them they might overtake
their property, or, failing that, they
might at least determine the course as
to make ultimate-capture reasonably certain.
But Paul Brown's part of the expedition
was brought to untimely halt
They had gone only as far as the deep
ooulee back of the barns, where they
'were advancing in single tile down tne
narrow trail, zigzagging to the bottom,
when, as Brown leaned forward in the
saddle eagerly pointing out to Ellery
certain tracks he discovered in the soft
mud of the trickling stream below,
without an instant's warning his horse
began buoking, and the 6addle at the
same time lurching strangely to one side
he had no time to save himself from an
ugly tumble. He was almost stunned
by the violence of the fall, rendered
worse by the yielding, pebbly slope,
down which he rolled helplessly, but a
moment later he had scrambled to his
feet and with inexpressible exasperation
was examining the qaddle which had
played him such a scurvy trick.
"Well, I'll be hanged!" ho roughly
ejaculated, incredulously regarding the
broken ends of a strap, while the others
crowded around to see. The ladigo
straps on the off side of the saddle
plainly had been cut and so deftly that
the tightening of the cinches had butserved
to weaken the break, reserving
the actual giving way until some such
strain as was involved in this steep hill
should be brought to bear. It seemed
mat no more cuaooncai scneme 10 umder
pursuit could have been devised
than this, and the others anxiously
looked to their own trappings, which,
however, were found to be all right,
from whioh it seemed evident that the
enemy, happening first upon Brown's
saddle, which had been nearest the
door, had been frightened away before
molesting the rest
"But I must go back and rig up new
ladigos," exclaimed Brown sullenly,
feeling an ugly wrench in his foot as
he sprang upon his horse bareback, the
saddle loaded up in front of him. "You
fellows go on though. We've fooled
away too much time already. Look
sharp along the north fenoe. You'll find
a cut somewhere. I'll be up with you
before you've gone far."
But he found, when he dismounted
at the oorral, that his ankle gave him
poignant pain. Already it had swollen
until the pressure of his heavy riding
boot was like a clasp of steel. He drew
his knife and cut the lacing that adjusted
its shoelike fit over instep and ankle,
sharply extending the opening at either
end in very wantonness of impatience,
tearing out the leather tongne, which,
relieved of the restraining lacing, flapped
pesteringly np and down against his
foot as he stepped. He was in a mood j
, to interpret literally the Scriptural injunction
and cut off his very hand if it
should offend. The aoute physical pain,
with the harassing feeling that he ought
to stop and bandage the foot, perchance
exchange the heavy boot for looser wear,
seemed in his eager haste to be gone
simply maddening. He was limping
miserably toward the toolhouse. where
he knew some ladigo straps were hanging,
when Mrs. Ellery's musical voice
called to him from the gate:
"Oh, you are not gone. How fortunate!
I want my horse saddled, Mr. Brown.
Will you call one of the boys to attend
to it, please?"
"I am afraid the boys are a mile
away by this time, Mrs. Ellery," ho returned,
with grudging civility. "We
think we are on the track of the thieves,
and every moment counts now," adding
this last by way of a broad hint, which
he felt was excusable under the circumstances.
But Mrs. Ellery was so comfortably
persuaded of the entire reasonableness
of her purpose that she could scarcely
have imagined such an anarchical condition
of things as that anybody should
seriously object to furthering her desires.
"Indeed?" she said, smiling inconsequentially.
"Then if you are actually
on the trail a few minutes one
way or the other won't count for much.
Perhaps you will not mind slipping the
saddle on my horse before you go. Ar
talissa has just aiscoverea raau sua is
all out of yeast cakes," adding the explanation
with a smiling pretense of
apology. "We must have bread, you
know, whether a horse is left on the
place or no, and Miss Ellery has offered
to ride over to Campbell's and borrow
some if you will kindly bring round the
horse for her."
For Miss Ellery! With all his fieroe
impatienoe to be off, that put a different
face upon it. "Certainly, Mrs. Ellery.
I shall be glad," he said, turning
back to the barns. He had but just finished
saddling when Miss Ellery, in her
riding dress, came hurrying across the
lawn.
"I wanted to see you. I have run away
from Mrs. Ellery," she breathlessly exclaimed
as he met her at the gate.
"You have not mentioned that you
heard the noises last night?"
"No. I felt a little cheap, to tell the
truth, to have been fairly upon the
ground and then have let them run off
my own horse from under my very
nose. And besides,"his eyes seeking
hers in deprecating inquiry, "I did not
know. I was afraid that perhaps Mrs.
Ellery might have heard you as you
went in. I could hardly afford to take
chances of that sort "
"Oh, she did!" she said in a voice of
agony, her cheeks aflame. "I stumbled
over a chair. Was there ever 6uch luck?
The noise was enough to wake the dead.
Nelsine oame flying in, thinking I had
a nightmare, perfectly dumfounded to
find me still dressed and out or bed. i
told her that I had only fallen asleep in
the hammock. It was horrible to have
to fib like that and to think that now it
may all come out"?
"But why should anything come out,
Miss Ellery?" he eagerly protested. "I
assure you"?
"You will not tell of it?" 6he cried
in an anguish of entreaty. "Promise me
that you will not whatever comes up. "
"How can you ask such a thing? How
can you imagine such a possibility?
Don't you know that I would die a
thousand deaths before I would let you
have a moment's annoyance because of
last night?" he protested, with a sort of
furious tenderness. It seemed to him
that this sting of her doubt, added to
his physioal pain, must well nigh drive
him mad. "How can you hurt me by
jiinh'nor arinh a thinp. when VOU knOW
?how can you help knowing??that I
am yours body and soul; that I could
not be unfa.thful to you? Why will you
torture me so?"
"Hush, you must not," she whispered
breathlessly, hurriedly turning toward
her horse, which had strayed the length
of the long bridle rein and was now
quietly nipping grass. A mass of wild
sunflowers grew raukly beside the corral
gate, and in her sudden turn she had
stepped back among them. The ragged
petals of a flower brushed one hot cheek
with a touch like an insect, and as she
put up her hand to the spot she suddenly
paused as though turned to stone. It
6eemed to Brown as if some thought
had struck her which she was impulsively
considering, hesitating, yet perhaps
longing, to express, and he waited
with a wild, unexpressed hope fluttering
at his heart, looking at her with dumb
questioning, until, still glued to the
spot, she raised her finger and pointed.
""My GodP1 he hoarsely ejaculated,
thrusting her aside with such rude force
that she almost fell to the ground, while
he furiously bent himself to trampling
down the suftly glittering coil of mottled
browns which now he saw for the
first tirna It was such a combat as he
had met numberless times before in his
life upon the plains, but now, in the
6udden perception of the danger, with
the time lost in the instinctive movement
to save her, and with his stiffened,
almost useless right foot, his cunning
failed him by just so much as he
left the ugly, swaying head free to
throw itself against his ankle just at
the point where he had cut loose the
boot but a moment befora He had been
pale, but now he was ghastly, his sunburned
face like a carving in old ivory,
1?* Kie Viool nr?nn fVio
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quivering coil, nor stopped until its slow
surrender to death was well assured,
even reaching down then, from force of
cowboy habit, to break off the rattles.
"Will you have them for a souvenir?''
he asked, with a wan smile, holding
out on his palm the dull husk of corrugated
horn.
"A rattlesnake, and my dress brushed
right across it!" she gasped, pale as the
dead. "And, oh, heaven, did it bite
you? Oh, it cannot have bitten you!"
wringing her hands wildly, the suffering
in her eyes entreating him to reassure
her.
"Don't bo worried about it little
girl," he murmured gently. "If there
is whisky enough about the place. I
dare say 1 shall pull through all right,
and if I don't"?
But Edith was flying toward the
house, calling out incoherent explanation
as she ran to Nelsine, who was
opportunely coming around the corner
from the kitchen. "Where is the whisky?
Where?" she cried, seizing upon
the bewildered woman and shaking her
freuziedly as though she would wrest
the information from her by sheer force.
"Oh, I know, I saw some in your closet.
Don't come with me. Go and do what
you can for him!"
"I'll take care of him," exclaimed
Artalissa, who had heard through the
open window, darting by them as she
spoke. As Edith came out with the
whisky the girl met her on the piazza,
He calmly ground his heel upon the quivering
coll.
fiercely snatching the bottle from her
hand. "I'll take care of him," she exclaimed
again, as if repelling any interference,
hurrying back to the bunkhouse.
Nelsine was wild with excitement.
"There was never a snake seen so near
the house as that before," she cried.
"And to think that it might have been
either of the children! Where are the
children?" peering anxiously about the
lawn. "I can never feel easy to have
them out of my sight again so long as
we live on this dreadful place."
"It is not the time to worry about the
children. They are all right," retorted
Edith sharply. "The question is, What
can we do to save?him? If we only had
a doctor! Can we not send for one? Oh,
we must!"
"But there is not a man on the place
to send. He said himself that they were
all a mile away half an hour ago, and
they are farther off. by this," moaned
Nelsino, olasping her hands helplessly
together. "The Campbell boys might
gU| 11 TV O iajuxu ?UU au uucuj. xuo uuvuui
1 would get here too late probably, but
it is horrible to think of the poor man
dying perhaps, and we all alone on the
placa Oh, we never could endure it!"
1 "I will ride over and get the Camp;
bell boys to go for a doctor," returned
Edith briefly, setting her teeth hard together.
"Don't worry, and do everything
you can for hiru, Nelsina It hap1
peued?for me!" a sob in her voice as
1 she turned away her head, running toward
the horse, which had remained
nipping grass where she had left him,
as contentedly as though no shadow of
death had fallen across the emerald surfaca
"The poor man! It will probably be
too late," murmured Nelsiue hopelessly,
mechanically keeping along beside
her. "But you would better go, just the
same, Edith. It will be a comfort to us
afterward."
TO UK CONTINUED NEXT FRIDAY.
WHEN NIAGARA RAN DRY.
Congressman Dan Loekwood, of
Buffalo, says that within his recollection
the great waterfall at Niagara was
suspended, and that many people passed
over its rocky places dry shod. He
says that the miracle was wrought iu
1848, during the month of March. To
he exact, it was on the morning of
March 29, 1848, and for several hours
the wonderful torrent did cease to
flow, and the river ran dry. The preceeding
winter had been a severe one,
and the ice which had formed in Lake
Erie was of pheuomenal thickness.
There came on March 27, a sudden exceedingly
warm spell of weather,
which melted the snows, and a warm
rain poured down iu torrents during
the entire day of March 28. The ice
was loosened, and a strong east wind
drove it far out iu the lake during the
night. But at sunrise on the 29th the
wind came from the west, and as the
sailors say, it was "blowing great
guns." This terrific gale drove the
immense mass of ice into the mouth
of the Niagara river, where it was
gorged and piled up from shore to
shore, hermetically sealing the river
from damming the waters back into
the lake. Thus it happened that Niagara
ran dry, its falls became black,
barren rocks, and its mighty thunders
were put to sleep. Within four or five
hours tiny streams of water began to
trickle through the gorge. The tremendous
power back of those streams
accelerated their flowiug, and in a
short time the ice dam gave way, and
there never was such a wild, roaring,
mad Hood in Niagara before or since,
and thus the cataract became itself
again.?Boston Transcript.
ffa?" Missouri furnishes the government
cavalry horses at from $45 to
$75 each. In some of the Pacific
States a horse can be bought for $2 or
$3, and is considered to be worth less
than a good sheep-dog.
JUistcUunrous grading.
BETHEL BREEZES.
Work of the Reaper?No Damage by Rain?
The InduKtrioiiM LaclieR?Watermelons
Plentiful?Dr. Campbell, the Model Farmer?
Re-Union of Company A, of the
Sixth?The Llthla Spring.
Correspondence of the Yorkville Enquirer.
Forest Hill, August 19.?William
Beatty Bigger, second son of Mr.
James Bigger, died on Friday eveniug
last, after an illness of only two days.
Beatty was just 18 years old and a
young man of most exemplary character.
He was a student at Mr. Barron's
school at Forest Hill, and left school
Wednesday evening in apparently
good health. He took sick that night
with something like cramp colic, and
although he appeared better for awhile,
on Thursday he again took worse.
His physician, Dr. Bigger, did all that
medical skill could under the circumstances;
but he died. His family
have the sympathy of the whole
community in this their deep affliction.
His funeral was preached at the residence
of his father by his pastor, Rev.
McClain. He was buried at Bethel on
Saturday, Rev. McAllister pronouuckon
r\r1 i /if 5/\r* of tliD Ct PQDD in
lug IUC UtUUU 1V/11UU t*W VIIV giM* V III
the presence of a large number of
friends.
With the exception of chills along
the creeks, the health of this community
is, at present, good.
Corn crops in this section are very
fine, and the abundant rains that have
lately fallen insures a large corn crop
in this neighborhood. Cotton is late ;
but with a late fall the crop will be a
fairly good one. The rains, so far as
we have been able to learn, have done
no serious damage on the river or
creeks.
Some of the ladies have been a little
frightened lest the rain would continue
long enough to damage the fruit
crop; but the sunshine of yesterday
and today has restored confidence, and
now, with smiling faces and busy
hands, the good ladies are cutting and
drying, canning and preserving, and
making jelly and apple butter and
jam. God bless the ladies. If it were
not for their handiwork, we would go
without almost all the good things
wrtlro Kfti wAi?fK liwlnnr Wo nu n
tuau uiaa^ niu tr ui ku ut tug. ?? v vmu
put up with the gold standard, and
take it out in stamping and threatening
when the supreme court decides
that the millionaire shan't pay taxes
on his millions, and even smile blandly-when
we receive four cents for
cotton; but when there ain't any pie
or jelly, or canned fruit, or preserves,
theu the man becomes sour and makes
things disagreeable for himself and all
around him. I have been around a
goodeal lately, and from what I see,
the ladies of this community do not
intend that their husbands shall become
snappish or their friends grow
cold because they have no nice things
to eat. Many of them have already
put up quantities of fruit, and are still
canning, drying aud preserving it.
The fruit crop is abundant and watermelons
and cantaloupes are so
abundant in many places that they
are fed to the hogs. Mr. James
Campbell has the fiuest watermelons
we have ever seen. They are of the
Duke Jones variety. Mr. Cook also
has an abundance of fine melons of
the Bradford kind. Every one, in
fact, seems to have plenty of them.
Dr. Campbell has the best vineyard
we know of iu this section. His varieties
have been carefully selected, and
the grapes are of superior quality and
flavor. The doctor is a model farmer
us well as a skilled physician, and his
crop shows that intelligence has directed
the labor that worked it. The
doctor made about 333 bushels of
wheat and 1,000 bushels of oats this
year, lie tnresiies nis own crop wun
a horsepower that works like a treadmill.
This power is not straining on
the horse lik? the old horsepower,
and two good mules, without over
exertion, can thresh out several hundred
bushels in a day.
Mr. and Mrs. Perry Ferguson have
just returned from a short pleasure
trip. Mr. Ferguson went to Richburg
to the reunion of his old company?Company
A, Sixth regiment?
and Mrs. Ferguson accompanied him
part of the way, stopping on the road
to visit friends. Mr. Ferguson says
that all of the officers who were iu
command of the company at the
surrender were present. Captain W.
T. I). Cousar ; 1st Lieutenant J. S.
Prennen; 2nd Lieutenant John C.
McFadden; 3rd Lieutenant Newton
Gaston, and Lieutenant C. W. McFadden,
who lost his leg at Sharpsburg.
The last named was made chairman
of the meeting. The reunion was a
most enjoyable one, and the 25 old
scarred and grizzly rebels, who are
now most all of the company that is
left, shook hands and fought over
again many of the desperate battles
that they were engaged in during the
war. Mr. Ferguson says lie went tor
a good time and that he had it; but
that the time was too short to get
half through, although many deeds of
daring and funny episodes of catup
life were recalled to his memory. The
chief pleasure, however, was meeting
once again comrades with whom he
had marched though snow and mud, !
with whom he had been lulled to sleep
by the din of musketry, and with
whom he had stood shoulder to shoulder
on many a bloody battlefield. The
command was handsomely entertained
by the good people of Richburg and !
vicinity. <
Forest Hill Lithia spring still con- ;
tiuues to attract people from all parts
of the country. Our friend, 'Squire
Culp, from Fort Mill, came over and
took home several jugs of the water;
and a few days ago a covered wagon,
filled with jugs, drove up to the
spring and took oflf a wagon load of
the water. As soon as Mr. Wallace
has the pipe fixed, we think the water
will get much better, as some surface
water now gets into the spring aud
nfFects it more or less.
Mr. Cook and Mr. Jas. Campbell
went squirrel hunting one day last
week. It was most too wet for squirrels
; but they got two, and 15 opossums.
Mr. Campbell says John Bloodworth's
blue dog is the champion
'possum dog of the county.
Mr. Barron's school at Forest Hill is
flourishing. There are now 55 pupils
in regular attendance. They have
established a literary society in the
school, and will organize a debating
society soon. x.
BLACKSBURG BUDGET.
The Weather and Crops?Death of Mrs. L.
R. Roberts?Thrilling Experience at
Doollttle For?l?Believes In the Old
Burr Mill.
Correspondence of the Yorkville Enauirer.
Blacksburg, August 20.?After a
week of clouds and rain, the sun
came out bright and warm Sunday
morning, cheering our hearts and dismissing,
for the time at least, all fears
of a freshet and consequent injury to
the corn on the lowlands. The seasons
have so far been most propitious
in our section this year, the crops
were never more promising, and fruit
of everykind so abundant and so perfect.
The meeting at Buffalo church closed
last week. There were thirteen
additions to the church, and the new
converts will be baptized in a short
time with those who will join at Mount
Paran.
On Wednesday morning at 1 o'clock,
Mrs. L. R. Roberts died at the home
of her daughter, Mrs. J. C. Plonk, at
Cherokee Falls, aged 72 years. She
was afflicted for several months preceding
her death with heart disease,
and bore her sickness with becoming
Christian fortitude. The loving and
tender ministrations of her devoted
children, among whom was Mr. R. P.
Roberts, secretary and treasurer of
Cherokee Falls Cotton miH, was a
great solace to her in her last illness,
and when all was over, they bore her
body to the old Long Creek burying
ground, in Gaston county, N. C., near
which she had lived, and where she
had worshirmed so loner, and laid it to
rest beside that of her husband, Mr.
John Roberts. Mrs. Roberts was a
woman of fine mind and character,
and impressed upon those about her
the earnestness and force of a true
Christian life, ever ready, by good
deeds, to adorn the faith which she
professed.
Mr. J. C. Plonk and his brother
Mike, had an experience in water on
Wednesday morning before day, which
they will never forget, and which came
near costing ?hem their lives. There
was very little rain at Cherokee Falls
during the night, and they started to
Blacksburg, intending to cross the
small creek?Doolittle?at the ford
near the factory. As they approached
the stream, they noticed, to their
surprise, that it was somewhat swol- :
len; but in the darkness could form
no idea of its condition and drove in. ,
Before reaching the middle of the
stream the hit/rev was overturned and 1
the men had to swim for their lives.
They both succeeded in getting out
safely, and the horse, swept dowu with
the buggy about a hundred feet,
brought it and himself safely out. Of i
course the gentlemen were drenched,
and by the time they returned home 1
and donned dry clothing, they had i
only 50 minutes to reach Blacksburg 1
for the northbound passenger train, (
which passes here at 5.40; but, by taking
another road, they accomplished
the distance in good time. A very '
heavy rain had fallen here and along ;
the headwaters of Doolittle, hence its
sudden and dangerous rise. 1
I was glad to see in The Enquirer i
of the lfith instant, the complimentary 1
notice of Mr. Kiddle's burr mill flour, j
After making a thorough test of the
roller mill flour, I have used, when 1
I could get it, and advocated the use
of flour ground by the old fashioned
burr mill. While in some instances it
is not quite so white, yet it is sweeter 1
to the taste and more nutritious. '
There is no reason either why it (
should not be as white and light as <
the roller flour. Our farmers only '
need to be more careful in selecting 1
and cleaning their wheat from all impurities,
and the miller in having his '
rocks in good condition, to produce a ?'
very fine quality of good white, sweet, (
nutritious flour. The flour we are '
using now was grouud at the old Moore (
burr mill, on Buffalo, by Messrs. James '
TV T ?? ?*-! -? nn/1 T rvPAriU ACQ nf ivhont
iUill till ailVi ?/l#OV>?/fcA *?*.V/OOj V?A VT iav%*?
raised by myself, and I am sure that '
the bread and rolls made from it, will
compare most favorably in appearance ]
with any made from roller Hour, and I
is decidedly sweeter, and has more nil- s
triment in it. I hope our people, for <
their own and their children's good, 1
will never think of giving up the old
burr mill, unless they can get a better '
substitute for it than the present roller '
[latent process for making their bread.
w. A.
845?" The value of all property used i
for educational purposes in the United 1
States is placed at six hundred million f
dollars; the public school property i
alone is valued at four hundred mil- 1
lion dollars.
MECKLENBURG'S RUAD.
.Manufacturer's Record.
The construction of macadamiz
roads around Charlotte, N, C., is st
being pushed, and in view of the ef
feet of good roads upon Mecklenburg
county, the following data with reference
to road-buildiug in that county,
given by the engineer in charge of the
work, will be of interest:
Most of the stone is furnished by the
farmers, the county paying 40 cents
per cubic yard for the stone piled on
the road at designated places. A
small proportion of the stone is quarried
by the convicts.
The road costs about $2,800 per
mile.
The couuty now has about 33 miles
of first-class madamized roads.
The number of convicts now engaged
in road-building is about SO.
It costs the county about 26 cents
nor dov fnr pnph nnnvint maintained
and worked on the roads. This cost
includes food, clothing, shelter and
guarding. The convicts live in camps
at points along the road near where
the road building is being done. The
shelter is a cheap structure of wood
and canvas, something better than a
tent.
The advantages of using convict labor
are:
1. That an organized force can be
better maintained than could be done
with free labor for road building.
2. It is cheaper than free labor would
be.
3. It frees the county from the expense
of keeping prisoners without
any return value.
4. It engages convict labor in healthful
occupation without bringing it in
competition with free labor.
5. It is the best possible punishment
for the common criminal.
6. It cures the tramp nuisancer
7. The result (good roads) is a benefaction.
The county owns a crushing plant,
consisting of a stone crusher a 40-horse
power engine and boiler. It also owns
a heavy steam roller, screening apparatus,
carts, mules, etc.
Lands in the county have been
materially increased in value as a result
of the improved condition of the
roads.
Many new seiners nave Deen auracied
by the new roads.
Considerable capital has been invested
in enterprises in Charlotte because
of the good impressions made by the
good roads leading out of the city.
The road-building is done entirely
by convict labor, except only a few
skilled workmen.
RAPID RAILWAY MAKINU
When it was proposed to build the
Central Pacific railway, a civil engineer
of 25 years' experience reported
that the line could not be completed in
20 years, with all the money in the
Bank of England to back the enterprise.
But it was built seven years
before the expiration of the time fixed
by congress. The act of congress allowed
the Central Pacific to build its
line eastward until it met that of the
TTninn P.irnfin.
Inasmuch as every mile of line
brought with it a subsidy in bonds and
lands from the United States there was
a race between the two companies.
As the tracks neared each other, the
pace became rapid. The Union company
laid a little over four miles in
one day. Soon after the Central company
completed six miles in a day.
The Union company exceeded that
feat by laying eight miles.
Mr. Charles Crocker who was pushing
forward the Central, said :
"We'll take off our coats and beat
them, but we won't try it until they
ure so close that they won't have a
chance to get back at us." When the
Central approached within 14 miles of
the Union the final struggle began.
"We are going to lay 10 miles of
track in one day ; you can make up
your minds to that," said Mr. Crocker
to his foremen, who had expressed
doubts of the possibility of utilizing
men enough to do the work. "I have
been thinking the matter over for a fortnight,
and I know what I am about.
Each train load will contaiu material
enough for two miles. As soon as one
train has dropped its load, forward the
rails as fast as the men can carry them ;
then brine: un and unload another
train. Have your men in readiness for
spiking. Let the first man drive in only
only particular spike, and pass on from
Dne rail to another ; let the man who
follows him drive in the secoud spike
on the rail, and so on. See that you
have enough spikes on hand, so that
no man stops for an instant or passes
iinother man. Then let the straight->*>
" n n rl ^'AA tliof t Kotf orl.
L" IIC Id lUllUtv, uuu cvt mat mvj auvanee
without stop or hitch. Close
du their heels bring on the levelers
ind fillers, but not so as to interfere."
Mr. Bancroft, who describes the
icene, quotes an eye-witness:
''It was," said he, "as if an army
passed over the ground, and left behind
it a railway finished. I rode beside
the workmen, and at times the
:rack was laid as fast as my horse could
ivalk.
Ten miles, and 185 feet additional
fvere laid in that day of days in the
listory of track laying.
8??" The latest English religious nov?lty
is a smoking service. The followng
invitation has been widely circuated
in Whitechapel: "If you want a
uuoke free, come next Sunday afterioou
at three o'clock to Christ church
lall. A free cup of tea if you like,
robacco gratis."