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H ^ Di sElK- WEEKLY^ l. m. grist & sons, Publishers. 1 g. 4famili> ffetrspger: ^or the ?romotion of (he $oli(icat, Social, ggritulfural, and Commercial Jntyrijsts of (he ?outh. {Ttl sGL*oArfmr!ci ;'M' established 1855. YORKVILLE, S. C., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1898. NO. 80. ittft I BY P. Y. Copyright, 1S9S, by the Author. CHAPTER n. Mother Revel!, old campaigner and fearless of weathers, pulled on a warmly lined pair of rubber boots that showed honestly beneath her sensibly short skirts, wrapped a warm shawl over her head and shoulders and ventured boldly away from her little cottage by the creek, plodding through the knee deep enow. The blizzard which the teamster had scented afar had blown past, and again the wind was stilled, so that the drifts lay motionless, freezing crisply in the moonless night. No. 1 on the guardhouse porch, beyond the lines of barracks and officers' houses, lonely in its griinness, saw her coming, a cloth covered basket on her arm, and challenged her with smiling ceremony. "Who comes there?" ho cried, and she answered cheerily, "A friend." "You bet you are, Mother Revell," 6aid the sentry and helped her on to the porch. "Want to see the sergeant?" Ho opened the guardroom door and pushed her gently in. "Another prisoner for you, sergeant," he said and grinned. "Hello, mother!" cried the sergeant of the guard, coming forward from his little office bedroom. "What brings you out in tho snow?" "It's Mother Revell," the troopers called out, throwing aside cards and jumping from their bunks, "and a basket. What's in the basket?" "1 thought," said the little, gentle eyed woman, who for all her long, rough life with the army could yet blush pleasantly. "I thought as it was Mar tin's first guard as a sergeant you boys wouldn't mind if I just fixed you all a lunch, seeing it's so cold " Tho sergeant laughed and gave the little woman a boy's hard squeeze. "You ought to be brevetted colonel," screeched the young trumpeter. "Ach! Mutter Revelll Why vas you not secretary of var made alretty?" a Dutchman grunted. No. 1 poked his head in at the door anxiously. "Make them keep some for me, Mrs. Revell," he cried earnestly. "I've half an hour yet to freeze out here. " Hot mince pies and a can of better than messroom coffee came from the big basket, and the soldiers ate with boisterous good humor. Mrs. Revell sat on the edge of a trunk and eyed them comfortably. Sho kuew them all, know many of their secrets, as she had known recruit and veteran, private and sergeant of the old troop for 20 years and more. Her quick gray eyes glanced from one to the other motherly. "Brown," she said, "are those your best boots? Mind you draw a new pair next clothing issue. You'll be on the sick report with pneumonia if you don't take care. Billy McNab, how's your arm? Thought you knew better than let your horse throw you. Have you got enough coffee, Martin, boy?" "How, mother?" Mrs. Revell glanced at the barred and closed door of the common prison room. "Mayn't they have 6ome, poor things?" "Oh, we're empty tonight, mother. There's only old Barney Constable?tho usual thing?and he's sleeping it off." "Poor old Barney! I doubt but they'll bobtail him in the end. Where's the?the stage robber?" she whispered. "Sulking in his cell there. I guess they'll ship him off to the civil authorities soon, if the roads open up. If it hadn't been for the blizzard, they'd have sent him before this. We've had him five days now, and the adjutant don't like the responsibility of keeping such a desperate murderer in this old wooden shack." Mother Revell had a little of a woman's curiosity, and a great deal of a woman's tenderness. "He must be cold in that dark cell," she murmured. "Won't you give him a mug of hot coffee?" "He'd only growl and refuse it." "Let me," said Mother Revell, with innate Red Cross proclivities. She took the tin cup and filled it steaming full and took as well a piece of pie. With these she stepped lightly along the dark corridor to the farthest cell, a dark and chilly dungeon, utterly lonesome, securely barred. She paused timidly a foot away from the grating. By the smoky light of the oil lamp in the corridor she made out to see a bundle of blankets in the far corner. Would you like a cup 01 coneo ana a piece of hot pie?" asked Mother RevelL The blauket was slipped from a shaggy, gray haired, gray bearded head and two eyes, red shot, stared out. "I've brought you a cup"? The blankets were tossed aside and the prisouer made a spring at the bars. His lips wero apart in surprise; his hands shook; his eyes were eager. "Good Lord! Are you still with the boys?" he whispered. The mug of coffee shook iu Mother Revell's hand until much of the draft was spilled on the woruout boards, but Mother Revell had courage and wit and presence of mind, developed by her uuusual training. She neither screamed nor fainted, but her breath came pantiugly. "You again!" she whispered at last, and they were silent, staring at each other, the man with an astonished, half ?i 1 ;i., ?i.., ..a,;*., plWlJMIl ZMIUK', tnu ?WUItlll ?JUVU uuu dazed. At last she found herself and pushed the coffee and pie between the bars. "Drink it!" she murmured. "I shall set? you again." He nodded to her and gulped the hot drink down and took the pie. Mother Revell had been gone but two minutes when she came back to the guardroom. "Did that brute frighten you?" cried Martin. "You are white jus your apron.'' "Hush, Martin." said the old lady, BLACK. with a shiver. " Don't call him tha?T Tt was only the dark and the cold of that lonely cell that frightened mo." "Ha, ha!" the troopers laughed. "A votemn nf thp. war fricrhtened bv the dark! Oh, Mother RevellI" The delicate flash, so readily provoked on Mrs. Revell's cheek, saved her pallor from being again noticed. "Has the major seen him?" she asked quietly of her sou. "No, only the adjutant; but the fellow's cute. He won't talk. Nobody is allowed to see him. Angels of mercy are, of course, excepted." He patted his mother's cheek, and she tried to laugh, then took her basket and bade them all good night and a quiet guard. She walked steadily home, tramping bravely through tho drifts, answering cheerily enough the greetings of a party of officers she met as they came out of the club; but, once home, she locked and barred the door, put out the light, and sat, her face hidden in her hands, until morning by the stove. Before the bugles sounded reveille round the white counterpaned parade ground she was up and busy, poking into odd corners for something she frowningly sought. At last she found it, a little steel tool, and she slipped it in the bosom of her dress. She fed the stove and made coffee again and filled her can. Then, while the dawn hung timorously in doubt and the sky in the east was very slowly trembling from violet to gray, she pulled on her boots and took her shawl and once more started for the guardhouse. There the men were weary, and those not out on post were sleeping. The young sergeant was wrapped in bis blankets, sound and snoring, and a drowsy corporal was in charge. He brightened at sight of Mother Re veil's can. "Begum, but you'll spile the sergeant with yer coddlinl" ho said. "Shall I wake him?" Mother Revell shook her head and poured out a mugful for the grateful corporal. "Is he asleep?" she asked, nodding toward the prisoner's cell "Nop. Just now ho was swearin at the cold." "It is horribly cold in there," she said. "Won't you give him a cup?" "Shucks, Mrs. Revell, ye're all heart 'Twas him killed the paymaster." "That's not certain yet, '* said Mother Revell, suddenly shaking. "But it would bo cold for a dog in there. Let me." "The corporal shrugged his shoulders. It was hard to reft so Mother Revell anything. So again she slipped along the corridor. The prisoner must have heard her voice, for he was already at the bars. "Bessie," he hoarsely whispered. "You're the same as ever?a good old girl And you haven't forgotten the old mun A corner of vour heart for him still, eh?" She shruuk from his bloated face for a moment; the next she stepped determinedly to the grating. "Listen," she murmured hurriedly. "Don't touch my hand. I'm going to help you, but not for your sake?for the same reason I helped you before, when, in your drinking craze, you shot the cowboy in Dodge. I wanted to save my boy the shame of hearing his father was hanged. 1 want to save him again." "'Little Martin?the baby. Bessie, is he here? Let mo see him?Bess." "Never," she cried fiercely. "He's doing well; he's a boy to be proud of. He studies and will pass for a commission in time. Ho knows nothing of your life, of you, and never shall. I'd die first. Do you think I'd see the boy creep about in shame for his father, a deserter twice a murderer? Could he hold up his head among his comrades when he's an officer and a gentleman, as he will bo, as ho deserves to bo? See you! Never! You must go away?escape, else there are some hero will recognize you." She was trembling now, and ho gulped the steaming coffee sulkily. The men snored; the corporal nodded over his Stove. "'What name have you gone by? You dare not call yourself Revell?" "Hardly," bo grinned. "Take this," she said, and pave him the tool from her dress. "It'sail I could find?a gimlet. You boro liolo after holo in the planking of the floor until a piece is loose. It's slow, and you must be cautious of the guard seeing you. Get through by night after next if yor. can, for they are eager to send you to prison. There's a foot and a half between floor and ground. You can crawl out. It was dono once by a man at Fort McKiuney. Look out for No. 1. He passes round the guardhouse every quarter of an hour." He took tho tool eagerly and she turned away. "Bessie!" She iwused. "1 saw in a paper that Pollock was made a major. He always had luck. Yon and 1 remembered him as a big buck private when I was a sergeant in the war. Say, is he?is he stuck on you still? I cut him out for fair then, didn't I? I half thought you'd get a divorce and marry him." She looked at him fiercely. "The major's a good man, not fit for you to name. Get away from hero as quick as you can, and remember this? there's only one thing I lovo in tho world and that's the boy." Sho slipped quickly from mm aua through the guardroom, past tho drowsy corporal and regained her homo beforo tho sun was yet abovo tho plain's far rim. CHAPTER IIL Tho young sergeant came to his mother's littlo breakfast tablo in a poor humor. "Mother, can yon give mo something < to eat?" ho cried. "They'vo detailed a new cook, and ho can't either bako beans or make coffee. Tho mess breakfast was ruined. This is something like. Nobody, alive or dead, ever mado hash liko you, mother, and this is coffee, not bootleg. Say, mother, you're pale. What have you been doing to yourself?" "I?" she answered, and the soft, sweet pink spread on her cheek. "I'm all right, Martin. Are you off duty to- < day?" Ho shook his head. I "No such luck?guard," he answer- i ed, and bent hungrily over his plate. < Mother Rovell paled again and trem- I bled. "Guard!" she said at last. "Why, Martin, you were ou the night before last." "Can't help it. Schiedermann's gone sick, Foley's acting sergeant major, McMillan's ou detached sen-ice mending telegraph wires, Fairleigh's provost sergeant and so on. There's only Bob Otis and 1 for duty?one night in." "It's a shame!" she cried, jumping up in a passion of fear. "You can't! You must not!" "Why, mother?" "You?I'll go and speak to the major!" "What on earth?mother, you know such things often happen. It's all in the live years. Don't get excited." "You?you'll be ill." She began to cry. "It'll tire you out." *' Mother,'' he said, stepping to her side and petting her, "yon are ill. Why, you, of all people, know ouo night in is no hardship. It won't last. Look here! I'm going to ask the hospital steward to send yon dowu a tonic, and don't you move from your stovo today. I'll run up and see yon at dinner time. Now, I must hurry and clean my belts a bit." He left her shaking silently, but turned at the open door. "That hangdog road agent is to be sent to tho railway tomorrow, xno sner- ( iff will take charge of him there." I Mother Revell huddled up in her j chair as the dwr closed behind her and became a uervous bundle of anxious fears. I "Tonight!" she muttered. "Ho must j escape tonight, and Martin on guard! If , he should fail, if the guard shoots him ( ?a son shoot, his father down! Oh, oh! ( And if he succeeds Martin will bo tried , for allowing the escape, for neglect of | duty, and be reduced. It will ruin his , chance of promotion. Oh, oh!" I She sat, stunned, until tho bugles on the parade ground announced guard mount. She stole to the window and watched. Crash went tho band. All the familiar, stirring maneuvers were performed in the bright winter sun. The baud ceased, the adjutant and sergeant , major saluted, tho shrill bugles ad- , vaneed, and the new guard marched on , to the guardroom, tho tall and bright , eyed young sergeant in command. She ] could hear his clear voice even when ho was out of sight at tho distant guard- ( house: "New guard! Present arms!" , Evening stable call and the troopers \ in white stable dress, trotting at double time through the frosty air of the fail- ] ing day?supper call?retreat and the sunset gun. Martin ran in to see her and ] found her so white he resolved to bring the post surgeon in the morning. Dark- , ness, but she lit no lamp, and at last | came tattoo and taps to usher in a windy ] ? -?' * oTtrifflw nmoo. Illglll, Willi WUHO tlUUUO onuvij wi ing tho half moou. Night?the final i click of the billiard balls in the club, the final song at Captain West's even- , ing party, the first silent round of the ] officer of the day. The sentry at the guardhouse lifted up his voice, "No. 1, < 12 o'clock!" and from the corral, from the cavalry stables, from the haystacks \ and from the distant sawmill came the swift replies of lonely sentinels, , "Twelve o'clock, and all's well!" Mother Revell rose up, unable to wait ; longer, to bear suspense. She stole from the house. Well she knew the old post , and how to hide in the shadows and ( ^ r '~3 J> "Don't shoot!" ' how to avoid the sentries. Unseen, fill- ' ed with a shuddering disgust at herself ] a; having so to hide, she gained tho ; rear of the guardhouse. There, there stood a little clump of scrub oaks by a spring of clear water, and in their 1 shadows the littlo woman crouched and I watched. ] Tramp, tramp, tramp, to tho eud of tho porch; to tho rear, march, and tramp, tramp, tramp to tho other end. ] Shift carbine to the other shoulder, aud it's time to patrol round the guardhouse. So went No. 1, monotonously, distractiugly. Once, twice, thrice and four times i he passed round the building, and it < was 1 o'clock. Again ho sang tho hour 1 and again came back the distant echoing t sentries'calls, "All's well!" i Mother Revell was in a fever. She i felt no cold. Her eyes sought continu- 1 ously the yawning blackness between the walls of the old gtuirdhouso and the i snowuy ground. Again the faithful sen- i try passed around and went back to the t porch. A minute passed, and something i protruded from beneath tho guardhouse. ' reiichiug out to the whito snow, stealth- i ily, 011 its belly, liko a great, sneaking j cat. Mother Revell clasped her hands 1 and shook ami watched. Inch by inch i ho came?tho murderer, a big man, J c cvhilc the hole was narrow. The moon glanced upon him. and she saw the glitter of his excited, determined eyes. Inch oy inch, without a sound, he dragged tiimsolf to freedom, and No. 1 continued to tramp the wooden porch unsuspectingly. The man was out and on his feet, stooping low, glancing here and there to make sure of the right direction to run. "Quick, quick I Oh, man, be off with pou quick!" murmured Mother Revell. | As if he heard her, he started to run through the deep snow, soundlessly. Due step he took, and Mother Revell closed her eyes in despair. The man's legs, cramped by confinement, were uncertain. His toe strack a rock in the snow, and he fell, noisily bumping against the wooden wall. At that he Forgot himself, or became at once rei.jk' less, and swore aloud. "Sergeant of the guard!" the sentry shouted and dashed round the house, while inside tumult and clashing of steel resounded. Tho prisoner picked himself up. but slipped and slid agaiD before he could start afresh, so that No. 1, carbine loaded and cocked, was on bis heels. It was no intention of the sentry's to kill, but rather to recapture llive. He brought tho butt to the front swiftly and thrust viciously to knock bis man over like a rabbit. The running blow missed, and in an instant the prisDner turned, a shaggy, wild eyed image cf desperation. They closed, but for a second. The next instant the sentry lay an the snow, and tho prisoner had the carbine. Ho was off again with a dash, but now tho guard came running out, Sergeant Revell ten paces in advance, revolver at the ready. "Halt, or 1 fire!" he yelled. The prisoner swung about and brought tho carbine to his shoulder. A scream came from tho spring, and Mother Revill run out, wringing her hands. "Nn tin! Rnthofvou! Don't shoot!* She; rushed to her sou and flung herself entreatingly 011 his breast, but not before his revolver had cracked. The prisoner was a second later. Uuhurt by Martin's bullet, ho returned the fire as Mother Rovell clasped her boy. Martin beard his mother cry out in pain and felt her fall heavily forward upon his rescuing arm. The gunrd rushed past, carbines ready, in pursuit of tho fugitive, but tho sergeant of tho guard paid no attention to them. He picked the little unconscious woman up in his arms ind dashed away to the post hospital, terror in his eyes. CHAPTER IV. "How is she?" "Is she better?" "Is there any chance for her?" All day long the men came slipping ap to the hospital and whispered their mxious inquiries in the attendants' jars and went off in gloom when the steward pursed his lips and shook his bead. Toward evening she became sensible ind found Martin in the room with the loctor, and a tall mustached figure in the shadows of a corner. "Martin," she whispered, "are you burt, boy?" "I wish I were, dear little mother," be cried, "so that you were safe I" "Hushl None of that now, sergeant, Dr you'll have to get out," the doctor said as the lad flung himself on his knees by the bed. Mother Revell petted her boy's hand sveakly, and her eyes sought the corner. "Is it you, major?" she asked softiy, ind the officer commanding came silently to her side. "Mother Revell," he whispered, aon t you W IE>U I/O oputvrv tu Uiui She paused, closing her eyes, and then opened them upon the doctor. "I've seen many of the poor boys go, ioctor," she said. "Tell me." And he told her. The doctor took Martin by the shoulder and pushed him out before him gently, and the major and Mother Revell were left alone. At once she asked: "He was caught?" "Ho svas shot down, dead, Bessie." "And you recognized him?" "But nobody else, Bessie. Nobody shall know he was Sergeant Revell." "Thank you, major," she sighed, with a content that almost stifled her pain. "Martin will never know when?when he's an officer and n gentleman. Major, you've been very, very good and kind. " "I'd have done more if you'd let me, Bessie," he answered. "Do it for?for Martin," she pleaded. "He's not like his father." "No, no, Bess?like you, dear girl, Like you, Bess." She looked at him with a faint shako af the head. "Bess, give me a right to bo a father to the boy. Thrice I've asked you, and you refused, though Revell was good as lead." "For your sake, major. I'm only a laundress." "I rose from the ranks, " ho replied. 'I don't want to think that the rascal who spoiled your life won to the end. I've been patient. Let me remember you as my wife?take my name." Again she motioned "110." "I've money, Bess, and Martin will he my son. 1 have influence, and Martin, as my sou, will draw 011 it natural ly." "You attack the weaker wing, major," she answered, and pressed his land. "Yes?" "Yes." He stooped and kissed her and hurried out to send his orderly for tho post chaplain. Martin, bewildered, was Ihere, and the doctor, and these alono saw Mother Revell acknowledge tho nistakcof her hasty girlhood and marry it last tho man who had patiently waited. After that sho lay in pain, sinking swiftly, and grew a little delirious and law into the future, speaking of her boy is "Captain Revell, a gallant officer ind gentleman." At 9 o'clock sho was I'ery weak, but sensible, and sent messages to a number of her children?tho irrief stricken troopers. Shortly sho whispered to them to open tho window, ilthough it was very cold, and thoy lid so. '' I want to hear the bugles,'' she said. 1 Soon they sounded?the last, last, t friendly, loving call to rest?taps. THK KND. t _ a Miscellaneous Reading. < "THE LORD ONLY KNOWS." o Some Every Day Trouble* of the Average ' Country Newftpaper. From the .News and Courier. r We do not know who made the following graphic statement ; but he was evidently some one who had "been there" himself. Moreover, he was the editor of a "country newspaper," as t we are assured by'the New York Tri- t bune, and if he had written for a year he could not have stated the case more clearly, and with such a wealth of philosophy : The editor has a charter from the slate ^ to act as doormat lor the community. He 8 will get the paper out somehow, and stand s up for the town, and whoop it up .'or yon a when you run for office, and lie about your big-looted son when he gets a fourdollar-a-week job, and weep over your 8 ~ . :r ' ^ ' ' --.-Ssfc V , ' V^' VIEW OF THE CH. In the above picture is a view of the nil from a point just beyond the incorporate li During a portion of the winter of 1896 { impassable by two-horse wagons carryii go over it with a buggy was almost ag fair idea of what is to be found for a dis the incorporate limits of the town, and the history of the change is the story of brn number of Yorkville business men and the part of country people living along miles out. One day in January, 1897, a ci toiling through the mud of a country road stated he would be glad to be one of ten cit pay $100 a year each, for five years, and tba improvement of some road leading int majority of the subscribers. The propc gentleman continued to agitate it privately the matter began to provoke discussion proposed, and finally there was raised in the road the people of which should fu Thirty-four subscribers in Yorkville rais awarding of the sum, the people of the Chai subscribed by 28 subscribers. As the next i agreed to allow the use of the county roac provided the Charlotte road people wot required to macadamize that distance. W; town and country?put their interests in Messrs. G. H. O'Leary, J. H. Kiddle, v\ Thnmasson and W. S. Gordon. Under din during July and August, 1897, paid thei delivering rock on the side of the road, commenced the work of grading and mac miles of the best road in the county have mile more is graded ready for the mac easily been improved not leas than 100 pe be noted in the fact that where last sumtni the Charlotte road, brought three and four bringing, with the same team, seven and ( when all the other roads leading into Yorl of the mud, will be still more apparent. shrivelled soul when it is released from I its grasping body, and smile at your wife's r second marriage. Don't worry about the editor, he'll get along. The Lord only 1 knows how?but somehow." t That covers the case, aud covers it ? all over. The country newspapers in J1 this state do more hard and thankless service for their respective communi- f lies than all the officeholders aud pro- a fessionul sharps aud gentlemen of ' leisure, w ho were created for some purpose, we suppose. They work a early and late, and 90 per cent, of c their work goes without reward. It is * a strange tiling ubout the newspaper * busiuess generally that most people do not regurd it as "business" at all. ? Customers go iuto a store aud pay for what they get. They do not ask for a J; pound of crackers, a bunch of cigars, a box of candy, a bolt of cloth, or any of the many thousand things which ? are sold ; but they ask the price of the ' articles which they think they would like, and if the articles suit and the u price is about what they can atlord to 1 pay for them, they pay for them iu f cash, or "have it charged." It is not s so with newspapers. If John Jones v make a great speech, and it is reported ll at length by a man who is paid for j. doing the work, and is printed in a 0 newspaper which has to pay for putting the story iu type, Joues would like to get a half dozen copies of the paper for distribution among his friends, and Jones generally tries to |( get them for nothing. 0 If the lovely Mrs. Brown-Robinson v has a tea and her parlors are crowded v with the elite of the land, and the ii society reporter writes a eharmiug ... ? ..i- .i.? j..i;..u,r?i f?,w.. .. UCCU1111L U1 lllC uciiguuui 3UUOI , tion, Mrs. Brown-Robinson would like p to have 10 or 20 copies of the paper to v mail to her out-of-town friends, aud u she would be shocked if anything b should be said by the young man at fi the desk about so common a thing as ii money in exchange for the papers, t which she would obtain for the grati- t fication of her own amiable wish to a et her friends know how she figures in he great social swim. Several years ago, as we have been old, a newspaper printed a long story bout the celebration of a military ompany. It filled a great deal of pace, and cost a good deal of money o put it in shape for the entertainment >f the reading public. It would seem hat the newspaper had done its full hare in writing up the the celebration ; nit. the next mornincr. all the same, a equest was made for 150 copies of the taper containing the story for general listribution, and 150 copies were vorlh, according to prices prevailing t that time, exactly $7.50. Besides he expense of writing up the celebraion, the newspaper was asked and exlected to contribute $7.50 to the adniration fund of the company. When men die who have occupied a irorainent place in the community, ind who have done good work for the tate or church or society in their day ind generation, it is the invariable rule >f newspapers to speak well for them, md to give an account of their lives. ARLOTTE ROAD. icadamized section of the Charlotte road initsof Yorkvilleand looking this way. >7, this road was, at times, practically lg more than a one-horse load. To ony. Now the above picture gives a itance of more than two miles beyond good work is extending onward. The ad-tninded liberality on the part of a thoroughly intelligent appreciation on the road for a distance of five or six tizen of Yorkville, who had just been , came into The Enquirer office and izens to bind themselves to subscribe and t the aggregate sum be expended in the :o Yorkville and to be selected by a isition created some interest, and the 7 and through The Enquirer. At last i. Various plans of operations were Yorkville a subscription to be used on rnish the largest co-operative amount, ed ?714, and on the day fixed for the rlotte road carried off the prize with 9681, step, the county board of commissioners 1 plant and convict gang for five miles, jld furnish the stone that would be ith this understanding the subscribers? i charge of a committee consisting of \ H. Herndon, L. R. Williams, M. L. ;ction of this committee the subscribers, ir subscriptions either in cash or by and during September the cbaingang adamizing. Up to this time about two been completed, and very nearly one adam. The condition of the road has r cent. The best evidence of this is to jr, people who came to market over the bales of cotton at a load, are this year sight bales. The advantage this winter, kville are almost impassable on account t would seem that in doing this the lewspaper had discharged its full duty o the public and to the deceased ; but here are societies and orders and or.animations that would also like to aake some public announcement ouching the esteem in which the delarted had been held by his associates, ud of how deeply they wonder at the uscrutable decree of Providence which lad removed their deceased friend and ssoeiate, and their words of appreiation and sympathy and sorrow are trung out in tributes of respect which he newspapers are expected to print or uothiug. We have kuown persons lmost prostrated by surprise and inlignation when they have found that he newspaper attaches money value o such eulogies. It is in the religious press that the ibituary writer finds the amplest scope or his talents, and his work of "emialming" the memory of the dead has ieen pursued with such activity that he religious papers have been comielled, for self-protection, to publish uch reminders as the following which ve take from The Southern Presby eriau : Obituary notices not exceeding five nes inserted without charge. Excess ver tivo lines, five cents per line. And it is a remarkable thing how aany obituaries are published that do 01 exceed five lines. Otherwise our hurch contemporaries would doubt?ss be compelled to double the size f their papers in order to hold such ^ordy manifestations of grief, than /hich there is nothing cheaper, even a these days of 5 cents cotton. We would like to suggest to our weekly and daily contemporaries that iossibly they are to blame for the alue which the general public places pon their work. Newspapers are usiness enterprises just as mills, and actories, and stores, and their stock a trade is the paper which they sell o their customers, and such space as hey oiler to advertise. Newspapers re uot supported by public appro priationn, they are uot endowed institutions, they have to live on the business that they do, and they should agree among themselves as to the method of doing business. Every weekly newspaper in South Carolina, we venture to say, would be able to pay all its debts and declare a good dividend the first of every year on the space which is given to the public for nothing, and for which the newspapers do not receive so cheap a reward as sincere thanks. GENERAL WOOD'S FINE WORK. He Han Greatly Improved Health Condl> tlonn In Santiago. T ? - t 1 D . in a long personal letter 10 oecreiary Alger, General Leonard Wood, military governor of Santiago, outlines the work he has accomplished since he took charge of the city. He says that when the American forces entered the town the sanitary situation was something frightful. Unburied dead lay in the houses, 3,000 Spanish sick and wounded crowded the hospitals and barracks, a horde of 20,000 half famished people walked the streets, the water supply had been cut off, and the streets were full of dead animals and filthy materials. Because of the advance of decomposition, the dead were burned. Yellow fever was raging, 20 or more cases being in the Spanish hospital alone and the charity hospital was filled with dying persons. General Wood began systematically to improve the situation. He has 170 men constantly at work and the death rate is only one-fourth what it was in July. The sick are given careful medical attention and the worthy poor are fed, 15,000 rations being distributed every day. The garbage is taken outside the city and burned, and the uuhealthy parts of the city have been drained. The police force in the city and the lighthouse system in the barDor have been re-established. The courts are not in operation yet, but Generul Wood sits each day as a police judge. Since the Americans took the city the customs receipts have been $100,000. The present expenses attending the work of operating the city, which are iu some extent extraordinary, are about $5,000 a week. By the efi'ective measures adopted by General Wood a general epidemic of II t> i. _ i A. i mt- _ yenow lever nas oeen aveneu. me general hopes soon to start the schools and thus get the children off the streets. The Future of Cuba.?General Fitzbugh Lee, a few days ago, gave out an interview with regard to the occupation of Cuba. He said : "The army in Cuba is simply going to be a big police force, the duty of which will be to maintain order from one end of the island to the other. We will garrison it and see that every one behaves himself, and then not only charitable work but private enterprise and our own government's plans regarding the restorarion of the island can be carried forward without danger of interruption or antagonism. "I have no information as to President McKinley'sintentions; but this is my idea of what is goiug to happen: We will send 60,000 troops to Cuba and scatter them over the island. We will garrison it from end to end?not to take possession of it; but to see that peace and good order is maintained and that society reaches a settled and comparatively satisfactory condition. "We will let the insurgent government set itself, and we will teach it how to levy and collect taxes, how to run its schools, how to maintain necessary sanitary and quarantine regulations, and how to develop the wonderful country that is back of it. I think that we will let the Cubans establish themselves accoording to their plans, and recognize them in their administrative positions. But the fact that we have placed them in power not only gives us the right to see that they exercise that power judiciously, but we are morally bound to watch over them until they are able in every sense of the word to govern themselves." Nigger Versus Negro.?A gentleman of color expresses himself as follows in the New York Sun : To the Editor of The Sun?Sir : After reading in your morning issue an article headed "A Plain Speech," by one of your constant readers, I was struck to hear him say that it gave him a pain to read the word AfroAmericau, as his preference is "nigger." You will do a great favor to one of your constant readers to instruct the gentleman that if the word AfroAmerican is improper, then the word uigger is improper. Negro is good enough, and if ho wants to be called Digger there are others wbo know the meaning of nigger that don't. Please teach him the word Negro, and say to him don't dot the e, don't add u g, don't place an r where an o should be, and oblige Rastus Jeckson. When Mark Twain Felt Embarrassed.?When Mark Twain was first introduced to General Grant the latter shook hands in a perfunctory manner and immediately relapsed into his customary attitude of reticence. There was an awkward pause ; it grew longer and longer as the humorist tried to think of something bright to say. Finally, as if in sheer desperation, Twaiu looked up with an assumed air onH Ottirl <JMp VI ^ICUV iiuiiuiujr, uuvi wMtu .... President, I ?I feel a bit embarrassed. Do you ?" The president could not help smiling, aud Mark took advantage of the chance the incident presented to give place to others. Ten years later, when statesman and humorist met again, General Grant, with a twinkle in his eye, said, before Twain had the chance to utter a word : "Mr. Clemens, I don't feel at all embarrassed. Do you ?"?October Ladies' Home Journal.