ISSUED SEMI-WEEKLY, l. m. grist & sons, Publishers. } % jfamilij fteirspaper: 4or ^ promotion of the political, Social, Agricultural and (Commercial Interests of the people. jTK,; Established is.v>. yokkyi.llk, s. c., saturday, skdtioihkll 80, xuai\>>Kli 7?s. > - i . . THE MYSTE COUNT I By FRED \ Copyright, Km, by the American IVes< A?o<'ia CHAPTER XXXIV. SEARCHING KOR THE COUNT. It was a simple enough matter in reality. These good fellows had tracked Andre back to onr house. He had entered by my bedroom window from the yard, using a ladder, under cover of the darkness. They had done the same, climbing in noiselessly in the nick of time. One of them was wounded in the arm. the only successful shot of the four. As for Andre, he raved and blasphemed. strtiggling like a maniac. I was obliged to assist the police in securing him. and in the scnfiie he aimed several vicions kicks and blows at me, together with much vile lauguage. I carry the marks <>f one of his "hacks" r to this day. However, he was rang lit. and I may say in this place, for we have now finished, personally, with the consummate scoundrel, that this time the police did not blunder, hut sent him away to places from which there is no retnrn. 1 believe he is now at Sakhalin or thereabout. Early the following morning I received a message from the chancellery of the gradciiachalnik. which is the official title of the chief of police. The messenger requested that I would convey myself as quickly as possible to the head office. I went, this time without much anxiety of heart, for I knew well enough that even without the fulfillment of his farcical condition of identification by scar, the chief would now no longer withhold his consent to fa* * * - 4-1- 1.4 tl,A Tllfr S release. mr, IJ? 11"** linn mr student's talc verified. 110 sane man, gradotiaclmlnik or commoner. could any lunger pretend to disbelieve in the blunder which had been committed. I was not therefore prepared fur another check: yet. so closely had fate woven the net around mv poor father's * ' liberty I was destined to experience a new disappointment. The chief received me very civilly and began by congratulating me upon Andre's capture and thanking me for my share in effecting it. 1 had had a narrow escape, he said : the delinquent had fired point blank at me?was it not so? "Certainly, excellence." I said, "and kicked me very violently on the shins besides. Not quite the line of conduct one would expt ct a father to pursue toward an obedient and dutiful sou." The chief grinned slightly. "I concede the point." he paid. "There has been a mistake, though, owing to the circumstances, a pardonable one. Yon shall have your father back, tniless destiny should have been too strong for us?an event I should deeply deplore." "What do you mean, excellenceV" I said. my heart sinking to my boots, "have yon news?had news?" "Head this." said the chief, handing me a telegram from I forget what remote place in Siberia. "All may be well with him, but there is some doubt, as you will see." I snatched the telegram and read these words: "Convict Kornilof never reached here; reported detained Spask; severe illness; probably died since; no later advice received." My head swam, my legs seemed to collapse: I sank into a chair. Was this to be the end of all our labor and sufferings 1 My dear father dead in the very hour of our victory? Oh. it was too grimly cruel of destiny. I could not believe it, I could not! "Come, come, there is no need to despair." said the chief. "lie is, likely enough, making a long recovery. They would not send him forward till he was strong enough to travel without risk?the convict guard corps are not inhuman monsters, as the foreign newspapers are so ft nd of describing them. Your father is probably still too weak to travel, a most fortunate circum stance, as it happens, for von will now have hut a few hundreds of miles to journey, in order to he at liis side, instead of as many thousands. Come, play the man. and?if you are wise?take the first train for Spa.-k. You will probably find your father there." "Telegraph first, if you will." 1 said. "1 cannot stand the suspense." Tie- chief kindly did as I requested. He sent a message to the little convict station at Spa.-k, inquiring whether Kornilof was .-till detaile d there. 1 went for a walk by the Neva's banks while the message went forward and until the reply should arrive. I could not tfo home and talk about it all with Percy and Hotol'-ky. My heart was too full. I must !? al< tie?like the wounded animal, ill this, that prefers tc t'o and hide itself in older to suffer UIJ" ibserved. I tramped the whole h-mtth of the i embankment twice. ami tln-x- wini have j seen St. lVtiTnliiiru will know )iu\v far j that is, before 1 summoned courage t > call attain at tin- chancellery to bear what news had arrived at Spask. I saw the chief in a mist and heard his voice in a dream. "I congratulate you." bo said. "I :ry of landrinof. VHISHAW. tlon. think it will all he well. Road it tor yourself." He did so. The message ran, so far as 1 fan remember the words: "KorniIcf left Spask 21st. Reported ill again Nicclaief." He was alive, then, a week ago and able to travel. Thank heaven for that! To Xit'olaief I should journey as fast as the next train could carry nie. But first I must tell mother all that had happened during the last few days. I had told her nothing, waiting until I could impart to her something definite and hopeful. Counting up now as I hastened homeward what I should have to tell her good and bad and trying to strike a balance, I found it hard to decide how she would take it. whether on the whole for good or ill. Father was practically free. His enemies were defeated all down the line. All things shonld be smiling, if only she could take a hopeful view of this illness. My dear mother heard my story with closed eyes and pale face, holding my hand as I told her one by one of the steps by which we had reached success and of the perils which ve had all passed through in safety. Then I broke gently to her the news which had so dimmed for me the glory of success. Father had been very ill at Spask for inanv weeks and was ill again with a relapse which might he very serions at Nicolaief. I expected my mother to burst into tears and bewail the cruel chance that seemed to (lash happiness from ns in the very hour of its attainment, but she did nothiug of the kind. On the contrary, she embraced me and bade me godspeed in my journey eastward. "You have done most wonderfully, my son." she said, smiling radiantly. "I thank heaven has been on enr side throughout. It will still be so. You will bring father home to me safe and well. Oh. I know it. I know it, for sure!" Mother's pluck and confidence did me a world of good, and we spoke of plans and arrangements. Percy should travel with me to Nicolaief and help nurse father, if he were still unable to come home at once. Mother suggested accompanying n> herself, but this I would not liear of. She was l'ar too weak and ill. The suspense and trials of tie past months had ivdac-d her to a shadow of her old -elf and her strength to pitiable weakjie: s. Lion t.-ky. we agre. d, might now he paid oil, "and well paid. too." added mi tlier. for his services emild he measured by no < rdinary standard. "Father will know wliaT to say to him win n !i mines." she said, "and how t'i praise von. my son. ami dear Percy?my uwn heart is ton fall to say what I feel ?ti ll liiiu so, dear, loth Percy and Uorofsky." This was tiie iailv moment at which mother cried a little, and assuredly she did imt weep imw for any sorrow cr anxiety. CHATTER XXXV. till-: cot'nt kkstokki) to ii1s mom i'. Armed with the chief's own august signature, which is the next thing in Russia to the czar's ukase itself, Percy and J took the train that night fur Xiculaief. which is a little convict post not far from the town of Kostroma. The railway passes Spask. the place in which iny father lay sick for the first three months of his captivity, and I shuddered as I gazed at the wretched little huts occupied by the "unfortunate." as the convicts are called by the peasantry. How he must have suffered, unused as he was to roughing it ?ill. n.Tw.lv ai^tn.?i.d 'ilmnst hi'Mrthrnken probably by the utterly undeserved ami mysterious turn of fortune which hu/ii mulls 11h'isi train t.i j>r?<< i 1" chain* <1 c?>nvirts \v< if li;?ii 1>*? 1 cut t>f tip- wretched cattle irnck iir<>vi.1i'ide, the admiral decided to,go into port. Outgoing steamers which met the J ly m pi a gave the news of her arrival >y the firing of salutes and the blowing jf whistles, and soon the whole water"rout and the city generally was stirred with excitement. Quite a lumber of boats went out to the Olym:iia as soon as possible, and a number >f distinguished citizens called on the idunral. The newspaper reporters aero, of course, present and they have vrilten hundreds of columns of what ivas said and done. The following nterview published in the New York Evening I'ost of Tuesday is interesting. "They are a splendid lot," the adnirul said, s|?eaking of his men. "The ,ery pick, the finest in our navy, and hat means the best in the world. Heore I got to .Manila the archbishop, villi whom I afterwards became very utiniate, said that the American sail>rs were the scum of the earth, n iluodibirsty lot of cutthroats, who voiibl destroy everything in their path. "Later oil, when I did get there,'' said the admiral, with a knowing anile, "tile archbishop came on board iin* day while I had a battalion ai Irill, the very same battalion that will tarade in New York. The archbishop vent on the bridge and watched them losely. I knew he was admiring hem, and I said to him : 'Well what lo you think of our American sailors?" "They are splendid,'he said, 'I have inn men 01 niosi uavii-.-, i-m nC?-. -r anything iike tlie.se. They are 111:1^ lilieeiit. I cannot understand it?such plendid young fellows. How does it lappen '?' " Well.' I replied, we look lor the test men, we come closer to our men ; ,ve treat them better than other connries do, and we pay them better.' "Then I called a man and said to iim: 'How much do you got a nonth ?' He saluted, and said, 'Highly lollars, sir. The archbishop was as onished. Volt know $80 would pay i whole ship load of Spaniards. After hat the archbishop had a very great espect for us, and became very friend y. Here I have a picture of General ..una, which was given to me by the irehbishop." The admiral then sent an orderly or the picture of the Filipino general, vliu "was murdered by order of Aguilaldo," as he said. The picture was hat of a Negro in it sort of military luilhrm. On the back was an inscripnui in Spanish to the archbishop ol Manila, Father Ib-rnarddino Nasalado. t was signed by Luna. Admiral Howey then said that Luna \ as the best man the Filipinos had. It was a plot," he said, "to assassinate him. A crack swordsman was laced as sentry, and when Luna ap eared he simply stabbed him. Km hose fellows all." the admiral said, are a .picer bit. They are simply iervauts and stable men, and Agninallo was a junior clerk in the navy raid. He is a pretty smart fellow. Ii enow 11iin pretty well. In fact, we a ere great friends, and are, for the natter of fact, but In- lias not the trains. There are people behind him. nine of them lawyers and able felows. who make a tool ol Agtlinahlo. Here, by the way, is a cane whi-h he resented to nie," and the admiral rodiieed a thick, black cane carved, 1 - > i- ' I I I I miii rcsi'inmiiit: in>o ban anything else. "I llioiiiihtsaid tin1 admiral, "thai Ids thin:: in tin* Philippines would lie iver lony before this, :i> it should have leeii. 1 ean't imagine how they have hood out until now. 'it course, there ,vas the rainy season, and I suppose ittle was done. ( hie ureal irollhle out here has heen that m iuifl thov h?ve heen in such I contact with us as to learn that we t mean to treat them well, where they I have seen that we mean what we say, there is no trouble. They stand by us ' all the time. All of them will learn this in time. They will get from un- t der the influence of Aguinaldo, or rath- 1 er those people who are behind Aguinaldo, who, as I said before, is a mere t tool, ( ' J)o you think the Filipinos are fit 1 for self-government ?" i ' Well, no, not just now. They s probably will be in a little time. They i are queer people?a very queer mix- I lure. Many of them arc quite civilized t and good people; hut 1 do not think | they are lit for self-government just t yet. Hut when I say that I must add at the same time that in my candid t opinion that they are more ntieu iur n . than the Cubans, that they are better i people than the Cubans in every way. c "I do wish, however, that the whole t business was settled, and I think that after a little the Filipinos will take \ kindly to us." f It was suggested to the admiral that \ the Democratic slate had been settled f with Admiral Dewey for the presi- t dency and General Wheeler for the j vice presidency. I "Well," said the admiral, "we should 1 make a pretty mess of it. General 1 Wheeler, of course, has had some train- f iug in the political school; but then he <1 is a West Pointer. I had forgotten ! that. He would want to run everything as he would a regiment, and, of course, would make a splendid mess ol t it. Yon cannot run a government as a you would a regiment." e "Well, admiral," suggested the re- f porter, "it would not he such a change C from the ship Glympia to the ship of li stale." v "Yes," said the admiral, "it would a be a very great change. I am not a r politician. I am a sailor; my train- t ing has been all that way. I am at a home on board my ship. I know my i business, or, at least, should know it, Ijt and I do not want to uiix up iu the at* l lairs of government. I am perfectly { satisfied to live and die as a simple a .-uilor, who tried to do his duty. I am a not a politician. I cannot make a n speech even. I wish I could, but I N have to be content with my lot." '1 Some one said just then to the ad- h iniral that his son was reported to have r made a statement to the ell vet that his c father was a dyed-in-the-wool Itepub ( lican. a The admiral laughed outright, and, turning around, pointed to a piece of o wood lying on the deck some yards u away, at the same time saying : u3Iy s son knows as much about what my a politics are as that piece of stick." '1 The admiral would not say a word h about the alleged interference of the c (un man admiral, Piedrichs, at Manila, a I,IKK ON I'll Kill! Y MOUNTAIN, s IIKICK TilK MOONSHINKK KKIGXS SUI'ltEME. u r History of Aino* Owens, the Inventor of Cherry IJounce?Corncraeker Tell* of ^ Ills Iteeent Vi*it to Vork County. , Correspondence 01 me lonvme Luquuci, ClIKKKY Moi'NTAIX, X. C., SeptelU * her 25.?With slight trepidation, I 11 herewith submit some matter for the *' eolutnns of TltK EmjI'IUKU. In the * tirst plaee, the tar heel is not erudite 11 like the native to the manner horn of tlie Palmetto state, and besides uiy 11 early training was in the martial coin- 11 monwealth of old Kentucky. Later in life, I resolved, instead of 11 taking the advice of Greely, to go south. As my lot was cast in Ken- v lucky where the game laws allowed " you to ki^l anything hut a ''hoss," I v naturally sought congenial associates. I therefore drifted to Cherry .Mountain, celebrated in song and story as c the theater of war and moonshine whisky. The saying goes here that S corn enough must he raised to make s whisky, and the surplus, if any, can h lie turned into bread. While bread is ti the stall of life, whi?kv is here regard- o ed as life itself. Cherry Mountain is a w spur ol the Great Smoky range, and is t'i feet above the level of old ocean, a Here ruins Amos Owens, the might- " iest hlockadcr that ever reigned, ruse si ur fell. Over SO years ago lie first f< saw the light near where his present p castle towers o'er the bristling heights t! of Cherry Mountain. Here at an early o age he performed the miracle, not of o turning water into wine ; hut of eon- w verting corn and water into whisky, t< and later, invented the decoction li known to profane history as Cherry ft ISutiucc. a (>n this fauied eminence grows in c : ' ' lilni-L- . 1 t-l I-IIITI-V. ! li lilS'jc.M u; in ? g liic tree attainim; a diameter of nearly o three feel. In early .June this link V ripens ami lor ilelicioiis llavor ami si/" e ii stands without a rival. Here, in li I'herry season, eoine the sail-eyed ami h tliirsty pilgrims from many climes, os- s; leiisihly to revel in inoiiiitaiu air ami u seeiiery : hut in reality to drink hounee. ri This drink is a compound of corn si whisky and cherry juice, ami it ti "out venoms all the venoms of the (' Nile. \\ Ikj.-o laKetn sundry )>otaioiis thereof runneth amuck, anil pro laimeth himself a hold, had man, from he head waters of Hitter creek. His atpretnaey is then challenged by si.nic >ther bibulous visitor, and the hitherto lassie and celebrated Donny I'rook tas long been out classed. During these carnivals of blood, hvens stuudeth tranquilly by and augheth with ungodly glee. Anent this remarkable man, be enisled us a Confederate soldier when he first desolating boom was heard at 'ort Sumter, and till the stars and jars trailed in the dust, he followed he varying fortunes of his beloved )an ner. On going home, he found Cherry Mountain had not escaped the ravages >f war. He went to making whisky, vliich, while standard proof, was not >y any means tax-paid. AI)out. this time the south was in he toils of re-construction, and the haotic state of affairs developed the cuklux klau. Into this went the inrepid old soldier, and many a redstring and lawness Negro felt the rod >f Amos Owens, the avenger. At ength, he was captured, hut neither (treats nor bribes could make him trove recreant to the oath he had aken. He was taken to Sing Sing, S'ew York, and for IS months he trod he wine press. He went into the ;looruy recesses of that institution an inreconstructed rebel, and he came >ut a son of Ishmael, as far as the government was concerned. Cherry Mountain became a place vhere the still worm dieth not and the ire is not quenched, and Uncle Sam I'itK ?11 liie mSnifine liufniliwl va. brm Amos. He has served three erms in the penitentiary, has been in ail often, and paid fines innumerable. 3ut on being released, he goes to doing nisiness at the old stand. I stay with lim, and if any son of South Carolina eels like coming up, the celebrated lialogue between the governor ot s'orth Carolina and the governor of jouth Carolina will be in order. Nearly too weeks since, I concluded o visit the pleasant town of Yorkville ,?d adjacent vicinity. I mounted an ruptive broncho, got my shot gun and iddle, and pulled for Will and John Gordon's pleasant and hospitable mine. I am not an adept on the iolin, but am able to furnish good mateur music on a shot gun. I arived ship-shape and the boys took me o the chaiugaug first thing. Rather . peculiar way to treat a guest of an nquiriug turn of mind ; but their obi-ct was to show me some of the svsems of road-making and road imirovement. I found Mr. H. ('. Culp nd Mr. Clarence Meudeuhall using par. of the coDvict force in macadanizing six miles of highway from forkville in the direction of Charlotte, 'hev had a steam crusher capable of leaking up several hundred tons of oek a day, and a roller. Some 35 onvicts are on the force, and Messrs. 'nip and Mendeuhall seem to he dapted to their job. What pleased ine was the enterprise f the people. In order to get and lilize the convict force, these people ubscribed money, furnished wagons ud teams, and helped do the work, 'he day I was present, 110 four-hotse :>ads of stone were delivered at the rusher, and more, perhaps, hauled way. "Those who would be free, them* elves must strike the blow," is the tile that applies in any enterprise, ml I frequently wish we had such oads in our section. Friday night witnessed a social gathring at the home of Gordon Bros. Unong the ladies present, were Misses Cute Hobhs, Nannie and Maggie Bariett, Rosie and Nannie Youtigblood, ! ' * ...?l Mrc liiuij;, i iwn iitc vuuj uu.? L I). Dorsett. Everything was aire, ml nil seemed tu enjoy the occasion. Next morning, Mr. W. S. Gordon ml I took in Yorkville. We met the ien of prominence or at least many of hem, ami I was favorably impressed t the refinement, air of busiuess and eneral prosperity, that seems to perade this ideal southern city. Gentlelen, my regards ; and as Amos Owens i'ould say : "Here's looking at ye." COHXCUACKKR. li.-irlt'xton's Neijro Mill. Charleston correspondence Columbia tale : The rumor in circulation in the tale that the Vesta mills of this city us not met with success, and is about > be removed to Spartanburg is withut foundation. Captain Montgomery, /ho is in the city looking after the af* nrs of the mill, was seen and asked bout the truthfulness of the report. There is not a word of truth in it." lid lie, "and there is absolutely no xindation lor such a report. I am erfectly satisfied with the success of he tili 11 >o far. More looms are being pernted every day and a better grade I cloth is being manufactured tlian /hen the mill was put in opt ration ati?r the uew company was organized. timiiiiiVC a mill is not like running a inn; the hands have to he trained ud to do this it takes sometime. We II it't take Negroes out of the streets, lit them at looms and expect them to penile it the lirst day or lirst week, i'orking in a cotton mill is veiy dill'ernt Irom working in cotton or rice elds or on a truck farm. The help as to go through a regular course of istcmatic training. We are getting cw labor every day and everything is inning along harmoniously and in a fstematic manner. The Vesta folia mills will never be moved out of harleston."