University of South Carolina Libraries
' f * f I F ? ? " ? ' " ^ , a . , Z ISSUED SSMI'WEEKLT. l. M. QRisT'8 80H8, Pxibii?heri. | % ^nwUg gucspagtr: ^or tht promotion of Iht folitol, Social, g^grunllitral, and Ccmroncial Jnlywlg o)f the ffople. 1 TBBI<MNoS;>?oiTT'nl.'cJmf.A'l<!tr" ESTABLISHED 1855. YORKVILLB, 8. C.. FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1905. NO. 8 r I D'rli I By IRVING 1 Author of "Ebon Holden." -Dt JOopyrlgkmW.brUthn . CHAPTER XVII. ? * Orders came from the War department providing a detail to go and help man the guns of Perry at Put-in Bay. I had the honor of leading them on the journey and turning them over to the young captain. I could not bear to be lying idle at the garrison. A thought of those in captivity was with me night and day, but I could do nothing for them. I had had a i friendly talk with Gen. Brown. He invited and received my confidence touching the tender solicitude I was unable to cover. I laid before him the ' plan of an expedition. He smiled, puffing a cigar thoughtfully. "Reckless folly, Bell," said he, after a moment " You are young and lucky. If you were flung in the broad water there with a millstone tied to your neck, I should not be surprised to see you turn up again. My young friend, to start off with no destination , but Canada is too much even for you. j We have no men to waste. Wait; a rusting saber is better than a hole in .1 the fcaart. There will be good work for you in a few days. I hope." And there was?the job of which I have spoken, that came to me through I hie kind offices. We set sail In a' schooner one bright morning?D'r I' and I and 30 others?bound for Two-' Mile Creek. Horses were waiting for j ug there. We mounted them, and made j the long journey overland?a ride through wood and swale on a road worn by the wagons of the emigrant,' who, even then, was pushing westward to the fertile valleys of Ohio. It was hard traveling, but that was the heyday of my youth, and the bird mu-1 sic, and the many voices of a waning summer in field and forest, were some- j how In harmony with the great song of m^ heart In the middle of the af?. ternoon of September 6, we cams to the b?y, and pulled up at headquarters, a two-story frame building on a high shore. There were wooded islands in the oteng, and between them we could see the fleet?nine vessels, big and little. I turned over the men who were taken to the ships immediately and put under drill. Surgeon Usher of the Lawrence and a young midshipman rowea me to Gibraltar island, well out iq^to the harbor, where the surgeon presented me to Perry?a tall, shapely man, with dark hair and eyes, and ears hidden by tufts of heavy beard. He stood on a rocky point high above the water, a glass to his eye, looking seaward. His youth surprised me: he was then 28. I had read much of him and was looking for an older man. He received me kindly: he had a fine dignity and gentle manners. Somewhere he had read of that scrape of mine ?the iast one there among the Avengers. He gave my hand a squeeze and my sword a compliment I have not yet forgotten, assuring me of his pleasure that I was to be with him awhile. The greeting over, we rowed away to the Lawrence. She was chopping lazily at anchor in a light breeze, her sails loose. " Her crew cheered " her commander as we came under the frowning guns. 'They 're tired of waiting," said he; "they 're looking for business when I come aboard." 'J.' $* He showed me over tne ciean aecKs: '*-* it was all as clean as a puritan parlor. "Captain." said he, "tie yourself to that big bow gun. It 's the modern sling of David, only its pebble is big as a rock. Learn how to handle It, and you may take a fling at the British some day." He put D'ri in my squad, as I requested, leaving me with the gunners. I went to work at once, and knew i shortly how to handle the big machine. | D'ri and I convinced the captain with 1 no difficulty that we were tit for a tight so soon as it might come. It came sooner than we expected. The cry of "Sail ho!" woke me early one morning. It was the 10th of September.' The enemy was coming. Sails * were sticking out of the misty dawn a few miles away. In a moment our decks were black and noisy with the hundred and two that manned the ves. seL It was every hand to rope and windlass then. Sails went up with a snap all around us, and the creak of of blocks sounded far and near. In 12 minutes we were under way, leading the van to battle. The sun came up, lighting the great towers of canx vas. Every vessel was now feeling for the wind, some with oars and sweeps to aid them. A light breeze came out of the southwest. Perry stood near me, his hat in his hand. He was looking back at the Niagara. "Run to the leeward of the islands," r K a >,?, an I Hn ir-Tr>nRt PT. oaiu u v iv vuv uv*.....0 ?.. "Then you '11 have to "fight to the leeward," said the latter. "Dont' care, so long as we fight," said Perry. "Windward or leeward, we want to fight." Then came the signal to change our course. The wind shifting to the southeast, we were all able to clear the islands and keep the weather-gauge. A cloud came over the sun; far away the mist thickened. The enemy wallowed to the topsails, and went out of sight We had lost the wind. Our sails went limp; flag and pennant hung lifeless. A slight rain drizzled down, breaking the smooth plane of water into bubbles. Perry stood out in the drizzle as we lay waiting. All eyes ^ were turning to the sky and to Perry. He had a look of worry and disgust He was out for a quarrel, though the 1 ind I | BACHELLER irrel of the Blessed Isles," Eio. t mJ >p Paintuklae OoapeexJ surgeon said he was in more need of physic, having the fever of malaria as well as that of war. He stood there, tall and handsome, in a loose jacket of blue nankeen, with no sign of weakness in him, his eyes flashing as he. looked at the sky. D ri and I stood in the squad at the bow gun. D'ri was wearing an old straw hat; his flannel shirt was open at the collar. "Ship stan's luk an ol' cow chawln, 'er cud," said he, looking off at the weather. 'They's a win' eomln' over 41 " '? a slao 'n th' ifleru. it 11 511c s< ? ?, ? ? lde purty soon, mebbe. Then she 11 switch 'er tail 'n' go on 'bout *er business." f In a moment we heard a roaring cheer back amidships. Psrry bad come up the companionway with his blue battle-flag. He held it before him at arm's-length. I could see a part of Its legend, in white letters, "Don't give up the ship." "My brave lads," he shouted, "shall we hoist it?" Our "Ay, ay' sir!" could have been heard a mile away, and the flag rose, above tossing hats and howling voices, to the mainroyalmastbead. The wind came; we could hear the sails snap and stiffen as it overhauled the fleet behind us. In a Jiffy it bunted our own hulls and canvas, and again we begun to plough the water. It grew into a smart breeze, and scattered the fleet of clouds that hovered over us. The rain passed; sunlight sparkled on the rippling plain of water. We could see the enemy; he had hove to, and was waiting for us in a line. A crowd was gathering on the high shores we had left to see the battle. We were well in advance, crowding our canvas in a good breeze. I could hear only the roaring furrows of water on each side of the prow. Every man of us held his tongue, mentally trimming ship, as they say, for whatever might come. Three men scuffed by, sanding the decks. D'ri was leaning placidly ove the big gun. He looked off at the whiv.? line, squinted knowingly, and spat over the bulwarks. Then he straightened up, tilting his hat to his right ear. They're p'intta' their guns," said a swabber. "liSiat thov know they'll srit spit on." said D'ri, calmly. Well, for two hours It was all creeping and talking under the breath. and here and there an oath as some nervous chap tightened the ropes of his resolution. Then suddenly, as we swung about, a murmur went up and down the deck. We could see with our naked eyes the men who were to give us battle. Perry shouted sternly to some gunners who thought it high time to ire. Then word came: there would be no firing until we got close. Little gusts of music came chasing over the water faint-footed to our decks?a band playing "Rule Britannia." I was looking at a brig in the line of the enemy when a bolt of fire leaped out of ber and thick belches of smoke rushed to her topsails. Then something fait tbe sea near by a great hissing slap, and we turned quickly to see chunks of the shattered lake surface fly up in nets of spray and fall roaring on our deck. We were all drenched there at the bow gun. I re member some of those water-drops had the sting of hard-flung pebbles, but we only bent our beads, waiting eagerly for the word fire. "We was th' ones 'at got spit on," said a gunner, looking at D'ri. "Wish they'd let us holler back," said the latter, placidly. "Sick o' holdin' In." We kept fanniug down upon the enemy, now little more than a mile away, signalling the fleet to follow. "My God! see there!" a gunner shouted. The British line had turned Into a reeling, whirling ridge of smoke lifting over spurts of flame at the bottom. We knew what was coming. Untried in the perils of shot and shell, some of :ny gunners stooped to cover undei the bulwarks. "Pull 'em out o' there," I called, turning to D'ri, who stood beside me. The storm of iron hit us. A heavy ball crashed into the after bulwarks, tearing them away and slamming over gun and carriage, that slid a space, grinding the gunners under It. One end of a bowline whipped over us; a Jib dropped; a brace fell crawling over my shoulders like a big snake; the foremast went into splinters a few feet above the decks, its top falling over, its canvas sagging in great folds. It wafl all the work of a second, mai hasty flight of Iron, coming out of the air, thick as a flock of pigeons, had gone through hull and rigging in a wink of the eye. And a fine mess It had made. Men lay scattered along the deck, bleeding, yelling, struggling. There were two lying near us with blood spurting out of their necks. One rose upon a knee, choking horribly, shaken with the last throes of his flooded heart, and reeled over. The Scorpion of our fleet had got her guns In action; the little Ariel was also flrIng. D'ri leaned over, shouting in my ear. "-Don't like th' way they 're whalin' uv as," he said, his cheeks red with angsr. "Nor I," was my answer. "Don't like t' stan' here an' dew nuUln' but git licked," he went on. " T ain' no way nat'ral." Parry came hurjying forward. "31re!" he commanded, with a quick gesture, ana we began to warm up our big twenty-pounder there In the bow. But the deadly scuds of Iron kept flying over and upon our deck, bursting into awful showers of bolt and chain and spike and hammerheads. We saw shortly that our brig was badly out of gear. She began to drift to leeward, and being unable to aim at the enemy, we could make no use of the bow gun. Every brace and bowline cut away, her canvas torn to rags, her hull shot through, and half the men dead or wounded, she was, indeed, a sorry sight The Niagara went by on the safe side of us, heedless of our plight Perry stood near, cursing as he looked off at her. Two of my gunners had been hurt by bursting canister. D'ri and I picked them up, and made for the cockpit D'ri's man kept howling and kicking. As we hurried along over the bloody deck, there came a mighty crash beside us and a burst of old iron that tumbled me to my knees. A cloud of smoke covered us. I felt the man I bore struggle and then go limp in my arms I felt my knees getting warm and wet The smoke rose; the tall, herculean back of D'rl was just ahead of me. His sleeve had been ripped away from shoulder to elbow, and a spray of blood from his upper arm was flying back upon me. His hat crown had been torn off, and there was a big rent in bis trousers, but he kept going. I saw my man had been killed in my arms by a piece of chain, buried to its last link in his breast. I was so confused by the shock of it all that I had not the sense to lay him down, but followed D'ri to the cockpit. He stumbled on the stairs, falling heavily with his burden. Then I dropped my poor gunner and helped them carry D'rl to a table, where they bade me lie down beside him. "It is no time for Jesting," said I, with some dignity. "My dear fellow," the surgeon answered, "your wound is no Jest. You are not fit for duty." I looked down at the big hole in my trousers and the cut in my thigh, of which I had known nothing until then. I had no sooner seen it and the blood than I saw that I also was in some need of repair, and lay down with a quick sense of faintness. My wound was no pretty thing to see, but was of little consequence, a missile having torn the surface only. I was able to help Surgeon Usher as he caught the severed veins and bathed the bloody strands of muscle in 'D'ri's arm, while another dressed my thigh. That room was full of the wounded, some lying on the floor, some standing, some stretched upon cots and tables. Every moment they were crowding down the companionway with others. The cannonading was now so close and heavy that It gave me an ache in the ears, but above its quaking thunder I could hear the shrill cries of men sinking to hasty death in the grip of pain. The brig was in sore distress, her timbers creaking, snapping, quivering, like one being beaten to death, his bones cracking, his muscles pulping under heavy blows. We were above water-line there in the cockpit, we could feel her flinch and stagger. On her side there came suddenly a crushing blow, as if some great hammer, swung far in the sky, had come down upon her. I could hear the split and break of heavy timbers; I could see splinters flying over me in a rush of smoke, and the legs of a man go bumping on the beams above. Then came another crash of timbers on the port side. I leaped off the table and ran, limping, to the deck, I do not know why; I was driven by some quick and irrrsistable impulse. 1 was near out or my head, anyway, with the rage of battle in me and no chance to fight. Well, suddenly, I found myself stumbling, with drawn saber, over heaps of the hurt and dead there on our reeking deck. It was a horrible place: everything tipped over, man and gun and mast and bulwark. The air was full of smoke, but near me I could see a topsail of the enemy. Balls were now plunging in the water alongside, the spray drenching our deck. Some poor man lying low among the dead caught me by the boot-leg with an appealing gesture. I took hold of his collar, dragging him to the cockpit. The surgeon had just finished with D'ri. His arm was now in sling and bandages. He wab lying on his back, the good arm over his face. There was a lull in the cannonading. I went quickly to his side. "How are you feeling?" I asked, giving his hand a good grip. "Nuthin' t' brag uv," he answered. "Never see nobody git hell rose with 'em s' quick es we did?never." Just then we heard the voice of Perry. He stood on the stairs calling into the cockpit. "Can any wounded man below there pull a rope?" he shouted. D'ri was on his feet in a Jiffy, and we were both clambering to the deck as another scud of junk went over us. Perry was trying with block and tackle to mount a carronade. A handful of men were helping him. D'ri rushed to the ropes, I following, and we both pulled with a will. A sailor who had been hit in the lege hobbled up, asking for room on the rope. I told him he could be of no use, but he spat an oath, and pointing at my leg, which was now bleeding, swore he was sounder than I, and put up his fists to prove it. I have seen no better show of pluck in all my fighting, nor any that ever gave me a greater pride of my own people and my country. War is a great evil, I begin to think, but there Is nothing finer than the sight of a man who, forgetting himself, rushes into the shadow of death for the sake of something that is better. At every beave on the rope our blood came out of us, until a ball shattered a pulley, and the gun fell. Perry had then a fierce look, but his words were cool, his manner dauntless. He peered through lifting clouds of smoke at our line. He stood near me, and his head was bare. He crossed the littered deck, his battle-flag and broad pennant that an or derly had brought him trailing from his shoulder. He halted by a boat swung at the davits 011 the port side?the only one that had not gone to splinters. There he called a crew about him, and all got aboard tha boat seven besides the younger brother of Captain Perry?and lowered it Word flew that he was leaving to take command of the sister brig, the Niagara, which lay a quarter of a mile or so from where we stood. We all wished to go, but he would have only 6ound men; there were not a dozen on the ship who had all their blood In them. As they pulled away, Perry standing In the stern, D'rl lifted a bloody, tattered flag, and leaning from the bulwarks, shook It over them, cheering loudly. "filvA '<>m h?11!" he nhnnt?H "W? '11 tek care o' the ol' brig." We were all crying, we poor devils that were left behind. One, a mere boy, stood near me swinging his hat above his head, cheering. Hat and hand fell to the deck as I turned to him. He was reeling, when D'ri caught him quickly with his good arm and bore him to the cockpit The little boat was barely a length off when a heavy shot fell splashing in her wake. Soon they were dropping all around her. One crossed her bow, ripping a long furrow in the sea. A chip flew off her stern; a lift of splinters from an oar scattered behind her. Plunging missiles marked her course with a plait of foam, but she rode on bravely. We saw her groping under the smoke clouds; we saw her ncaring the other brig, and were all on tiptoe. The air cleared a little, and we coul see them ship oars and go up the side. Then we set our blood dripping with cheers again, we who were wounded on the deck of the Lawrence. Lieut Yarnell ordered her one flag down. As it sank fluttering, we groaned. Our dismay went quickly from man to man. Presently we could hear the cries of (he wounded there below. A man came staggering out of the cockpit, and fell to his hands and knees, creeping toward us and protesting fiercely, the blood dripping from his mouth between curses. * "Another shot would sink her," Yarnell shouted, j "Let 'er sink, d?n 'er," said D'rL "Wish t' God I c'ud put my foot through 'er bottom. When the,flag goes down I wan' t' go tew." The British turned their guns; we were no longer In the smoky paths of thundering canister. The Niagara was now under Are. We could see the dogs of war rushing at her In leashes of flame and smoke. Our little gunboats, urged by oar and sweep, were hastening to the battle froqt We could see their men, walst-hlgh above the bulwarks, firing as they came The Detroit and the Queen Charlotte, two heavy brigs of the British line, had run afoul of each other. The Niagara, signalling for close action, bore down upon them. Crossing the bow of one ship and the stern of the other, she raked them wlthr broadsides. We saw braces fly and masts fall in the volley. The Nimra sheered off. Douring sho .Is of metal on a British schooner, stripping her bare. Our little boats had come up, and were boring into the brigs. In a brief time?it was then near three o'clock?a white flag, at the end of a boarding-pike, fluttered over a British deck. D'ri, who had been sitting awhile, was now up and cheering as he waved his crownless hat He had lent his flag, and, in the flurry,' some one dropped it overboard. D'ri saw it fall, and before we could stop him he had leaped into the sea. I hastened to his help, tossing a rope's end as he came up, swimming with one arm, the flag in his teeth. I towed him to the landing-stair and helped him over. Leaning on my shoulder, he shook out the tattered flag, its white laced with his own blood. "Ready t' Jump in hell fer thet ol* rag any day," said he, as we all cheered him. Each grabbed a tatter of the good flag, pressing hard upon D'ri and put it to his Hps and kissed it proudly. Then we marched up and down, D'ri waving it above us?a bloody squad as ever walked, shouting loudly. D'ri had begun to weaken with loss of blood, so I coaxed him to go below with me. The battle was over: a Yankee band was playing near by. "Perry is coming! Perry is coming!" we heard them shouting above. A feeble cry that had in it pride and Joy and inextinguishable devotion passed many a fevered lip in the cockpit There were those near who had won a better peace, and they lay as a man that listens to what were now the merest mockery. Perry came, when the sun was low, with a number of British officers, and received their surrender on his own bloody deck. I remember, as they stood by the ruined bulwarks and looked down upon tokens of wreck and slaughter, a dog began howling dismally in the cockpit. TO BE CONTINUED. English Sparrows Disappearing.? English sparrows, that fairly swarmed in New Albany, are disappearing at a rate that has become noticeable to close observers, and they are at a loss to account for the rapid diminution in the number of the birds. Whether they are dying off, being trapped or slaughtered In huge numbers, or are going away, can only be surmised, but it Is certain that the number Is rapidly decreasing. Per sons who have been observing th* decrease In the number of the hirds are Inclined to the belief that they are migrating. The birds have never before been known to migrate.?Louisville Courier-Journal. tS" A man should not be startled by a noble impulse; It may be only trying to escape. LB tiiW; LB PliKTIf Keynote to Control of Cotton Prices. PR(H'EE1)I.\US OP NIW ORLEANS CONVENTION. A Great Meeting of Rfpresentatives of 8outhgrn Interefta? Harvie Jordan Chosen Chairman and Everybody Sincerely Loyal to the Great Purpose in View. By a unanimous vote at the close of its first session last Tuesday, the Southern Interstate Cotton convention, by general agreement the largest and nuwt representative that has gather ea in tne south, declared that reduction of acreage and commercial fertilizers is the paramount question to be considered at the convention, and it must be settled before any other business was undertaken. Eleven hundred and thirty-five delegates, representing the thirteen cotton growing states and territories, had registered when the convention was called to order. Even that number did not represent the full strength of the convention. The forenoon and early afternoon were devoted to J)& compromising of all differences that existed as to organization, the central idea being that the work of the convention should go to the country with the stamp of harmony and practical unanimity. The result was that Former Congressman Catchlng's name was withdrawn and all opposition to Harvie Jordan's selection ended. Washington Artillery hall, seating 2,000 people, was crowded to the doors when the convention met As president of the Southern Cotton Growers' convention, Mr. Jordan called It to order. He said in part: "We are all agreed upon four general propositions: "1. We must tie up and take care of the surplus of this crop and remove it from the markets of the country until next fall, and hold the balance of the crop absolutely in our possession until the price advances . to normal conditions. "2. We must reduce the cotton acreape and use of commercial fertilizers under cotton at least 26 per cent under that of 1904. "9. We must arrange for a general system of bonded warehouses under local control of the people throughout the south. "4. We must at once proceed to organize the producers of the south in every cotton growing county on a business basis to carry Into operation a permanent system of relief and protection for the future." Judge E. B. Perkins of Dallas nom inated Former Lieut. Gov. jester or Texas for temporary chairman and he was unanimously elected. Concluding a brief but effective address, Gov. Jester said: "Two reforms must be Inaugurated by the southern farmers: "Diversification of crops that will reduce the production of cotton and better facilities for the storage of cotton that will give lower insurance and Interest and better protection." J. A. B. Lovett of Bluntsvllle, Ala., Richard Cheatman of Mississippi and J. H. Whyte of New Orleans were elected secretaries. The question of representation lm mediately arising Gov. Vardaman moved that every properly accredited delegate should be entitled to a seat on the floor and a voice in the convention and though the motion provoked considerable discussion it Anally prevailed. On motion of J. A. Brown of North Carolina a committee on permanent organization of one delegate from each state was named and pending its report welcoming addresses by Mayor Behrman and President Sanders of the Progressive union were listened to. There were responses by Walter Clark of Clarkesdale, Miss., and J. Pope Brown, chairman of the Georgia railroad commission. Mr. Brown said It was the number of bales which regulated the price of cotton and the present price would not advance until it was known that the production this year was to be curtailed. Eight million bales would be an ample crop to raise this year. With the 4.000,000 of surplus held on to, it would give precisely the crop the bears desire. He believed the south could whip In the present fight. W. D. Nesbltt of Alabama presented the report of the committee on permanent organization. It provided for Harvie Jordan as president, for a vice president from each state and for the three secretaries named by the temporary organization. It fixed the representation on the basis of one vote for every 100.000 bales of cotton raised iono.ni no fnllnwR Alabama IUI1III5 i??W?-WT. uu .... 10: Arkansas 8; Florida 1: Georgia 14: Louisiana 9; Mississippi 14; North Carolina 6: South Carolina 9; Tennessee 3: Texas 26: Oklahoma 2: Missouri 1, and Indian Territory 3. These committees were provided for: Reduction of cotton acreage and use of commercial fertilizers with one farmer. one banker and one merchant from each state. Permanent organization of farmers with three farmers, one rnerch""t and one banker from each *iute. Financing and holding balance of the present crop until legitimate prices are secured, with one farmer, one merchant and one banker from each state. Warehousing and financing future crops, similarly constituted. On direct trade between farmers and manufacturers. On transportation. On resolutions to consider matters of a general nature not otherwise provided for. Reduction of acreage and commercial fertilizers being of paramount lmnortance we recommend It be made the first order of business and be settled before other business Is undertaken." was the conclusion of the committee's report which was unanimously adopted. The convention then adjourned until Tuesday night. (Continued on Second Page.) DI8PEN3ARY INQUIRY FARCE. Wont Develop Anything, Wont Provo Anything, Wont Quiot Anything. A resolution providing for an Investigation of the dispensary has passed the state senate and is now pending in the house. This Investigation, if held, will be a farce and Is so Intended by Its promoters. No direct or conclusive evidence wllf probably be adduced of corruption In the dispensary management and those who are guilty of venal practices well know that personally they are safe. Exposure could only come from those who are effectually estopped by certainty of Incriminating themselves. When a valuable consideration Is passed to a member of the dispensary board?or two members usually?It Is not In the form of a check which must be endorsed and remains a record. No receipt Is taken and there are no L'uriuun ptrnjona oiuiiuiiib ivuuu when a roll of the long: green attests the gratitude of the distillery for a big order. Members of county boards of control do not In words advertise that positions as dispensers will on a certain day be sold to the highest bidder, and likewise they take no checks and sign no receipts, and there are no witnesses to the transfer of the bank roll which makes many a county dispenser. Corruption is not proclaimed from the housetops by those who practice It?but it exists. The observant mind sees it In the slyly raised eyebrow, the suggestive shrug of the shoulder, the pervading tone of suspicion, the frantic desire of thrifty patriots to serve on the dispensary and managing boards and the sudden wealth of those who do so, and the very political atmosphere of South Carolina politics Is impregnated with the odor of graft that is constantly exhaled from the fungus growth. The corrupting and the corrupted, however, are discreet and careful perslons. 'They leave no tell-tale footsteps, their fences are well kept up. When |t Is so easy to conceal none but a fool would let himself be exposed, and bo fools get on these boards. The corruption Is there and everybody who Is willing to acknowledge It knows it. Many of those who do' not directly profit by it are dulled to it and do not care. The conscience of the state is becoming atrophied, but Intelligence is lively enough and knows what is going on. No Investigation can change this or convince the people that they do not see what know they do see. There will be I no hypnotists on the committee. When hungry cattle are turned into a rich green pasture they grase. So long as alluring temptation is placed before mere human beings in the manJagement of the South Carolina dispensary they will profit by the graft.? Spartanburg Journal. ARE CONFEDERATE BONOS GOODf $200,000,000 of Them Waiting For Payment In London. Periodically some unsophisticated Englishman rises to remark that it is high time the government of the United States should take steps to bring about the payment of the bonds of the Southern Confederacy. A correspondent of the London Financial News directs attention to the highly Interesting fact that "within 100 yards of the Mansion House" in the British metropolis are deposited over $200,000,000 of these bonds. He eagerly observes that the Southern States are prevented from paying them by act of congress; that the anger which prompted the destruction of the cotton deposited as security for these bonds and the passage of an act rendering reparation to the bond holders illegal, should have been appeased by this time. Therefore it is suggested that the United States should now permit the south "to do what it can toward an amicable settlement of the debt." These, it should be remembered, are not the repudiated bonds of the Reconstruction period, but old Confederate bonds, which the south would surely have redeemed had the fortunes of war been on the side of Dixie. There is not the remotest possibility that they will ever have any value except to curiosity hunters. Since the war there has been some speculation in these securities, but, as our London contemporary, the Financial News, says: "A person who bought chances for a repayment of these bonds at a cent per dollar would be guilty of a rash, hazardous speculation within the meaning of the act forbidding the taking of such chances." The Confederate bond was bom In honor; the Reconstruction bond was born In llshonor. Neither is worth the paper on which it'was printed as an investment: but there will, perhaps, always be unsophisticated persons to believe that one day both will be quoted on the London and New York stock exchanges. OLD CHARLESTON. Memories of By-Gone Days Still Fragrant If the northerner would like a glimpse of the "old south" in his winter travels he should come to Charleston. unce me enure m southern social life, the city home of the wealthiest plantation owners, It continues to be the most distinctive and exclusive corner of the section In which it formerly held the social sceptre. There Is less wealth than memory In Charleston now, out that Is well for the visitor, if not for the people who live here. The depleted mansions of Revolutionary days are as interesting to the sightseer as they are sorrowful for the scions of the families that once maintained them in splendor. The picturesque streets bor dered by battered residence^ w^th irop crates and portlcon, the odor-tylpn gardens of magnolias and roses. %nd crape myrtles; the lafty-spjre^ Churches that have been Charleston's pride almost ever since the days of Its French Huguenot forefathers?all these are worth the seeing to any one with a grain of sentiment. Between two rivers and fronting on the ocean, from which It is sheltered by a chain of Islands, Charleston has a climate that Is mild In' winter and far more comfortable in summer than that of the country a few miles inland. ~ .. ? . . .. ' kjn me isie or raims, jusi across rne harbor, is a beach nine miles Ion*. On the Undward side of the city, approached by electric cars, and within a short distance, are big plantations, country clubs, got links, hunting lands and miles of good roads. With all its reminders of oldtn days, Charleston is a comfortable place for the visitor. There are hotels, plenty of them, : and many new homes are mingled with the old. The city is rather celebrated, too, for its boarding houses, where "Southern cooking" of the real, old-fashioned sort, has survived.?New Tore Evening Post. DEFEtyW FATHER'S MEMORY. Jefferson Davis's Ditugh^r D^nounoes Li bile. In the New York World of January 19 the letter printed below from the only living child of the late President Jefferson. Eavls appears. It will be observed that Mrs. Hayes requests the press to copy the letter and it gives Ths Enquiabr pleasure to comply ^ith her wishes. The letter is as follows: To the Editor of the World: In Justice to the southern people will you kindly have the following extracts I from President Roosevelt's book printed in the World, &nd request other newapapen n>rth and south to copy this letter? In Mr Roosevelt's book, "The Life of Thomjia H. Benton." L.e says most unjustly of the writhera people, on page 161: Slavery is chiefly responsible for the streak of coarse and hrucal barbarism which ran through the southern character. Yet hef'claims to be half a. southerner. On page 168 he says: The mqral difference between Benedict Arnold on the one hand ard Aaron Burr or Jefferson Davis on the other is precisely thf difference that obtains between a politician wsp sella bis vote for money uid one who supports a bad measure in consideration of being given some high political position*- ? * ' As a matter of feet, Mr. Davis was very indifferent to political position, unlike Mr. Roosevell; so much se that he never spent a lollar on election and asked no man for his vtAe. Me was in Mississippi but onoe when elected. Me fought in the flower Of hi* manhood when men battled In the flfid and never stood on a hill posing as a Rough Rider, an actor in a d separate battle who was. It :s said, not In the mmsa a# iha atismii'a Am mm Wis #on. vi v^v viiv<ii/ n s?v ?i#w 171-1? tastlc author of statement history Ja said to have done at Sao Juan. On pa^e 219 he attacks the hopesty of Van Buren, Tyler and Polk as servants of the public, and fi*^ka of "the unblushing rascality" among the officials generally. Again, on page 220, he attacks the one and only president of the Confederacy, the representative of the southern people whose toleration he wishes. He says: Before Jefferson Davis took his place among the arch-traitors in our annals he had already lorg been known as one of the chief repudlator*. It was not unnatural that to dishonesty toward the creditors of the public he should afterward add treachery toward the public Itself. This is libel and a falsehood. Mr. Davis was not in political life at the tine the repudiation occurred, and he spent several bundled dollars having printed and' circulated a pamphlet?on the day following that on which he was to be nominated for congress?annnnnMno' that ha WM una] t aruhl V OD posed to repudiation. And this he did because the chalrnrum of the nominating body was a repudlator. I do not hesitate to say that I do not think Mr. Roosevelt has even tried to tell the truth, and I venture to say that the life of Thomas Benton will not survive the crlllclsm of the generation which will succeed Roosevelt. Mr. Benton's mind was magnificently equipped for the struggle be made for the right as he understood It; but he was never Ignorant or malicious enough to call Jefferson Davis a repudlator or to apply to him an** of the other undeserved and vile epithets used by Roosevelt. When Mr.' Roosevelt was quite a young man he wrote an article In the North American Review der ounclng my father as a traitor, which' so wounded my father that he wrote to Roosevelt telling him his view was a one-sided one, and offering data In order that he might be better informed. Roosevelt replied through his secretary to his mother's old friend, a man old enough to be -his grandfather: "Mr. Theodore Roosevelt ?nes not care to have any communications from Mr. Davis whatever." Probably this accounts for his ignorance and one-sldedness. MorMP#t h Jofferson Davis Hayes, Colorado Springs, Col, January 3. iv David displayed his wisdom by saying "All men are liars," instead of picking out one man and saying If to him. tv The lucky man puts his l<est foot , forward Instead of depending on the left hind foot of & rabbit. V. f .y *