Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, September 18, 1908, Image 1
^ ISSUED
t. m. grist's sons. Pubii?her?. j % Ifamilg Jtespager: Jfor (he promotion of the political, Social. Agricultural and Commercial Interests of the fSeople. {ters?n0^c2rvrive c?nt? K
established 1855. YORKVTLLE S. C., FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1908. jSTO. 75.
4* 4* 4* 4* 4~ 4- 4* 4* 4* 4* 4* 4H
1 HOW WIDO\
! WAS SOLE
! By Mr*. MAR
<r <r 1' <r 1- 1' f </ <f 1
fc* T T T T *$* T? T V T *T? "1? 1
CHAPTER IV.
Have You Quite Forgotten Me?
The morrow came. It was a quiet,
breezeless summer day. All the world
of Pottstown flocked to the sale?the
few to buy, the many to see how the
house was furnished, and judge
whether the widow was a good manager.
"They say she's got chists full of
the best linen sheets and piller-cases,"
remarked a thrifty old lady as she
laboriously ascended the stairs.
"The little wife of the inn-keeper's
son was busy among the crockery'.
She had selected her purchases, and
stood guarding them with the vigilance
of a small but particularly fierce
dragon, determined to have them, as
she said, if everybody in Pottstown
bid against her.
In one of the smallest rooms upstairs
stood Lucy and the Widow Willets,
watching the gathering cfowd.
And a motley assemblage it was of
lumbering old carts, family carriages,
one-horse chaises, light spring-wagons,
gayly painted, horses of every description,
saddles of the most antique
pattern; while the men, women and
children who had come, intending to
make a day of it, crowded into the
yard, ran through the pleasant rooms
and up and downstairs, with much
chattering and shrill laughter.
Old Deacon Pitt, who was a good
friend to the widow, poked among
the kitchen utensils with his cane,
"Several of us neighbors were going
to buy up things," he said, eyeing a
nest of pans wistfully; "but they say
some stranger's made a bid for the
hull lot, cash down. I'm mighty sorry
for the widder?mighty sorry."
"Old Pinchbeck deserves a coat of
tar and feathers, and I know somebody
who'd like to give it to him,"
spoke up twelve-year-old Tom, the
deacon's son.
"Silence, sir!" said the deacon,
gravely, then added, in an aside to
another old deacon, "it would be the
best fit he ever had in his life."
Meantime the clamor outside increased.
It was nearing high noon.
Those who had brought lunches were
comfortably seated, regaling themselves
with doughnuts and sandwiches.
The children cried from weariness,
and some of them were put to sleep
in the shade.
Lucy and her mother watched the
proceedings from their little perch,
themselves unseen.
"Why don't they begin?" said Lucy,
in a nervous tremor. "The auctioneer
is here. Oh, how I dread it!"
At that moment, amid the shoutt
of a crowd of small boys. Peter Pinchbeck
mounted his stand?the smoothly
cut trunk of a tree, which Lucy had
made beautiful with vines, but now
the pretty green tendrils lay prone
and trampled in the dust.
Presently business commenced. Two
anxious old farmers bid against each
other till they were hoarse, when
suddenly a deep, low. masterful voice
exclaimed:
"Five thousand dollars for the place
jusi as 11 sianus?evei/ si:vn. ui umber,
every rod of land, every article of
furniture!"
"Widow and daughter included?"
queried Peter Pinchbeck, making an
attempt to be facetious; but on a sudden
he recoiled, and in stepping back
?for he saw that ominous look in the
stranger's face as the latter came viciously
forward?down he went amidst
the broken vines and tumbled grass,
and a roar of laughter went up from
the throats of the assembled urchins.
"It will be safer for you if you keep
your tongue within your teeth," was
the low-uttered warning, "or I won't
be responsible for what might happen,"
and the attorney gained his
perch, looking white, scared and
crestfallen.
Meantime the people were talking
in groups. Of course nobody could
compete with a man who bid in that
fashion. The property was not worth
much over three thousand, and who
could this stranger be who felt such
an interest in this out-of-the way
place, and was so rich that he could
afford to throw away his money.
mi X ?Aiif /InutrVititr
1 lie lllll-RCVJICI O IIV ,, uuubi.ivn
stood tremblingly guarding what she
had made sure was hers. Deacon
Pitt proposed that a contribution be
taken for the purpose of setting the
widow up in housekeeping.
Lucy turned to her mother as the
house was knocked down to the highest
bidder, and threw herself in her
arms as she cried:
"It is all over, and we are beggars!"
"Not quite, Lucy. You forget we
can work. God will overrule this
great misfortune for our good."
"How can you be so quiet over it,
mamma!" asked Lucy. "It was I
who was going to be so brave, and
now look at me."
"Did you see the purchaser?"
"Yes?a tall man with a heavy
beard. Oh, I hope we need not meet
him! But there, he is coming in. Let
us go."
She flew to the door and opened
St. meditating a retreat. The groups
outside fell back at sight of her white
face.
A heavy step was heard ascending
the stairs. As she stood there, uncertain
and expectant, it drew nearer. It
was the man with the heavy beard. She
could see in her fright and almost
hate, that his face was working with
emotion.
As if it were his right, he passed
into the little room, shut the door,
and as Lucy retreated, planted himself
against it. Then he gazed searching
from mother to daughter. Then
he held out both hands beseechingly.
and with a cry that was almost a
wall, exclaimed, piteously:
"Have you quite forgotten me?you
and little Lucy?"
"Mother, it is my father!" screamed
Lucy, and ran straight into his
open arms. "I knew all at once,"
she sobbed?"all at once! Oh, fath
V WILLETS i
?
?
1
) OUT. !
i
4
t
Y A. DENIS ON j
1
ft <r t* f ! lr lr f ! f tr ir
r T *T? f t f t' *T T T T *T *T
er, father! Mother, come here?father
has come back from the dead!"
The woman thus appealed to staggered
to her feet, still regarding him
with bewildered eyes and dizzy brain.
"John, John! and you were killed,
they told me!" she cried, in hollow
tones.
"Yes; I was taken up for dead
from under the wrecked cars. For
weeks and weeks I was in the hospiI
tal. Afterward I saw the report of
my death and let it go. I was dead
in a certain sense?I felt myself a
ruined man. You had bid me never
come back; and when I was dismissed,
cured, having taken care to conceal
my name, I went to California,
and tried to forget that I was human.
Rot there were eood influences
thrown ab.out me at last. I worked
like a slave, determined to call no
man master. I conquered myself after
years and years of bootless trial,
and then I resolved to come back
and, if I found you as I left you,
make a new home for you. and give
you back through Heaven's grace, a
new husband and a better man."
"John, have you forgiven me?"
asked his wife, in a faint voice, as she
clung to his arm.
"What had I to forgive? You were
the sufferer. Thank God I've come
back rich, and we will try and forget
the past. I bought this place because
I wanted to give that brute out there
a lesson that will last him his lifetime,
I reckon. He thinks he is having
his revenge. Come down-stairs
with me."
Gladly they went, beaming faces)
and brightening eyes taking the place
of pallor and tears. One by one the
groups within doors comprehended.
The crowds outside heard a ringing
cheer. Louder and more exultant it
grew. They had prepared themselves
for the sorrowing exit of the widow
and her daughter, but an answering
?mii#? hrnkp over their faces as the
three appeared on the little vine-covered
porch. Peter Pinchbeck was
talking volubly, but at this sight he
stood dumb, his mouth half open and
his rheumy eyes starting forward.
"Friends," said the stranger, in his
deep tones, "I bought this house as a
gift for my wife, who, with my
daughter, you have long known.
Some of you remember that I left
home ten years ago?"
The dullest of the throng comprehended
now, and on the instant there
arose a deafening cheer, in which the
very babies seemed to join. Hurrah
followed hurrah, caps were thrown
^p, handkerchiefs waved, the men
shouted themselves hoarse, and then
laughed themselves clear again in order
to raise another cheer.
In the midst of all this glee and
rudely expressed joy stood Peter
Pinchbeck, like a grim and evil spirit,
his face ashen and his teeth set. He
had never been a favorite, and most
of the townspeople knew the history
of the mortgage, and the sight >f
pretty, smiling Lucy, so radiant in
her new-found happiness, turned the
current of their thoughts at once.
"Three groans for Peter Pinchbeck!"
cried a small, thin voice?'.he
voice, indeed, of the deacon's son, and
which was the signal for an uproar
ious tumult, wnicn resuuea in me ignominious
retreat of the attorney,
followed by a number of small missiles,
such as the ingenuity of youth
invents as it finds occasion for.
That night a happy company gatnered
round the tea-table, for busy
hands and light hearts had been at
work, and the little room was restored
to its usual and beautiful order.
And yet tears were very near smiles.
The sign of Peter Pinchbeck no
longer decorates the office in which
that worthy spider-at-law wove his
toils. Finding the place too hot for
him, he moved to other quarters.
I don't think anybody but the bride
at the inn murmured over the return
of the long-lost citizen. She always
regretted the lost opportunity to buy
up all Widow Willet's chinaware.
To Be Concluded.
; CAUGHT THE WOLVES ALIVE.
But Roosevelt's Friend was Badly Bitten
In Doing It.
With his hands, arms and legs covered
with wounds inflicted by the teeth
of two lobo wolves, John Abernathy,
United States marshal for the Western
district of Oklahoma, is being treated
by his physician to save him from
blood poisoning, says a Guthrie, Oklahoma.
letter. Abernathy catches
wolves alive with his bare hands. He
performed this feat several times for
the entertainment of President Roosevelt
when the latter hunted in the Ki
owa and Comanche Indian pasture in
southwestern Oklahoma. Abernathy
was then a rancher in Oklahoma. Later
he was appointed United States
marshal in Oklahoma Territory.
The encounter with the wolves in
which he received his wounds occurred
in August. Symptoms of blood poisoning
followed, and at one time it was
feared that two of his fingers would
have to be amputated. His wounds
now are yielding to treatment.
In seeking encounters with wolves
Abernathy is impelled by the same motives
that send other men up in balloons
or through Niagara rapids in
barrels. He enjoys the thrill and excitement
of adventure. He lived most
of his life in western Texas and is a
man of great physical strength.
In attacking a wolf Abernathy presents
his right hand, and the wolf
springs to seize it. It is here that
Abernathy uses his skill, gained after
long practice. As his hand passes into
the wolf's mouth he takes hold of
the wolf's lower jaw back of the long
canine teeth and grips it with all his
strength. The wolf may close its jaws,
but is unable to Lite.
Abernathy's safety depends upon his
not relaxing his hold until assistance
comes and the wolfs jaws are bound
together with wire. Its feet are then
tied and it is thrown across a horse
and carried to camp and caged.
Abernathy was in summer camp with
friends in the Wichita game preserve,
near the town of Cache. There are
many wolves in the Wichita mountain
region, some of them being of the lobo
species, of great size and without fear
of men. The lobo wolf can easily kill
a horse or a steer.
Abernathy prepared for his hunt by
placing a number of wolves in wire
cages in the mountains. They are a
better decoy than a calf or a goat.
Fourteen trained wolf dogs, twelve of
them being greyhounds and two staghounds,
were in camp to run the wolves
down.
Abernathy had been told of the presence
of lobo wolves in the vicinity and
had been waiting for them to be drawn
near the camp by the caged wolves.
One afternoon a single wolf was seen
loping up the mountain side about half
a mile distant. The dogs were released
and the game pointed. After a
run of less than a mile the wolf turned
against the dogs in a shallow ravine.
Some of the dogs were knocked fifteen
and twenty feet when struck by
the wolf. A number were badly crippled
and two were killed. The wolf
was in an open place when it turned
and came toward Abernathy, who saw
that he would be attacked.
Abernathy sprang from his horse
and unluckily found himself on a bed
of pebbles that had been worn smooth
by washing rains. He slipped and fell
to his knees just as he presented his
hand and the wolf caught his hand
with all .its teeth. Abernathy's safety
depended upon his holding on. which
he did, throwing himself bodily upon
the wolf to restrain its struggles. Two
of Abernathy's companions came to his
assistance and seized the wolf by the
feet.
Abernathy was in great pain and
when the wolf's lips were raised it was
seen that one of its fangs had passed
entirely through Abernathy's hand and
that the wolfs jaws were locked in a
viselike hold. Abernathy remained in
this situation until wire was brought
and the wolf securely muzzled.
Abernathy started for camp without
waiting to wire its paws together. He
was compelled to ride with the bridle
reins between his teeth. His horse was
fiery. In its struggles the wolf scratched
the horse with its sharp claws,
causing the horse to plunge and run
away. Abernathy lost the reins going
down a steep mountain side and was
in danger of being thrown. Two companions
overtook him and seizing the
loose reins led his horse to camp.
The captured wolf was a female.
Abernathy knew that her mate must
be somewhere around. Then he learned
that another wolf had been seen
and was described as one of the largest
ever seen in southwestern Oklahoma.
Abernathy began hunting for this
wolf, but ten days passed before he
caught sight of it.
Abernathy had been riding hard all
forenoon and was lying under a tree
fagged out when one of the women in
camp cried out, "Look at that great
wolf." The wolf was about 200 yards
distant.
"It was the biggest wolf I ever saw."
said Abernathy, telling of his adventure.
"He was taller than any dog I
ever saw and heavier than the biggest
mastiff. Later I found that his head
was not less than sixteen inches in
length, and my hand slipped into his
mouth as easily as into a corncrib."
This second wolf began making its
fight against the dogs in an open
place. Abernathy made a skilful pass,
and seizing the wolfs jaw bore the lobo
to the ground without being bitten.
The wolf was muzzled with wire and
its feet tied and it was thrown across
Abernathy's horse in front of his saddle.
Just as Abernathy was mounting he
heard a popping sound, and instantly
saw the wolf with mouth wide open
coming toward him from off the horse.
T-ho. *..nlf hoH hrnlren its wire mUZZle.
Abernathy grabbed the wolfs lower jaw
with his left hand in midair and the
two went to the ground in a heap. He
was again unlucky and his hand was
badly lacerated.
The wolf was bound again, carried to
camp and caged. In less than an hour
it broke the wires of its cage and ran
to a nearby creek when the dogs started
in pursuit. The wolf plunged into
the water, swam to the opposite side
and backed up against a steep bluff at
the water's edge.
Abernathy swam the creek, but before
he could get a firm foothold the
wolf lunged toward him in the water.
He seized the wolf by the jaw and the
two disappeared under the water,
which was about five feet deep. In
this encounter Abernathy's thumb was
split and his leg cut. The wolf was
pulled finally into shallower water and
wui cu.
The wolves were taken to Oklahoma
City and placed in the zoo at Wheeler
Park.
EARTHWORMS.
They Can Move About Only When the
Ground Is Damp.
Ever since Darwin wrote his remarkable
book on earthworms the
general public has taken an interest
in these lowly creatures. Everybody
has observed thousands of them on the
cement walks during and after a rain,
but the true cause of these remarkable
wanderings is not often written about.
The fact is that earthworms can move
about only when the ground and the
grass are wet. The truth of this is
easily shown by placing an earthworm
on some dry sand, when the dry grains
will stick to its slimy skin and make
it helpless.
All living creatures are endowed
with the instinct to move and spread
over the earth. Human beings, higher
animals and birds prefer to move
about in fair weather. To the earthworm
and other lowly creatures, like
frogs, salamanders, slugs and land
snails, rainy days are the only fair
days for traveling. When the sun
out and dries the roads and
the meadows, they withdraw into
their hiding places. As earthworms
cannot see clearly, they crawl about
in an aimless sort of way. Tf they
happen to get on a board or cement
walk, when the sky clears they soon
die and shrivel up.
When a dry season or winter approaches,
the earthworms burrow
deeper into the ground. At a depth
varying from six inches to two feet
each worm coils up into a little ball.
By aid of secreted slime it makes a
case <>f dirt round itself, and in this
state it remains dormant until abundant
rains or the spring thaws call it
back to a more active life.?St. Louis
Republic.
MESSAGE TO THE UNION.
The Annual Address of President C. S.
Barrett.
"IN UNION THERE IS PROTECTION."
"Without Organization You Will Be as
Helpless Against the Man Who
Would Prey Upon Your Efforts as
One Man Would Be Against an
Army.
Following is the adress of Hon. C. S.
Barrett, president of the National Farmers'
Union to the Fourth Annual convention
at Fort Worth, Texas, on September
1.
Gentlemen of the Fourth Annual Convention:
Brethren: As I greet you today I
am impressed with the thought that it
is? especiiuiy appiupiiaic mat wc na?c
selected the state of Texas as the
meeting place for our convention of this
year, and the genial hospitality already
extended to us by the people of Fort
Worth vindicates the wisdom displayed
In the choice of this particular city.
Texas is the birth place of the Farmers'
Union. It was in the far-peneetrating
mind of a Texan, Newton
Gresham, of Point, that the principles
upon which this order is builded first
took their definite form and character.
With a vision that included the lessons
of the past, some of them bitter,
and that reached far into the needs of
the future, and I doubt if any of us
have as yet fully comprehended their
scope, he dreamed the dream that has
today grown Into proportions of substance,
vast beyond even his imagination,
and stretching their influence into
the four quarters of civilization.
So it seems singularly appropriate
that in the year wherein our development
and our purpose have begun to
reveal their true greatness, speaking
in vigorous language of the foundations
already laid and prophesying in resolute
terms of the conquests yet to be
made, we should gather in the state of
our birth to debate the problems of the
present and devise the policies of the
future.
I tninK, too, tnat tne very vaamess
of this imperial state, larger tha"n
kingdoms of Europe, the ruggedness
and independence of its people spoken
in a way In which they became a part
of America, and the unending variety
of its splendid resources are somewhat
symbolic of its vastness of our organ- I
ization, the rugged independence of
our people and the many large aims
to the accomplishment of which we are
committed.
If the past year has been productive!
of great results in the work that we
have marked out to our hands, you
must not lose sight of the fact that
these results have been only attained
through the fidelity and the neverresting
zeal of the men you have
chosen to direct this organization. I
desire, in this connection, to express
my gratitude, in the warmest terms, to
the national officials with whom it has
been my pleasure to co-operate in
guiding the larger affairs of the Union.
Our secretary-treasurer and your
board of directors are each and all men
of zeal, energy and the instinct for selfsacrifice.
At every juncture I have
found them upholding my hands and
giving me their finest loyalty in meeting
the demands of each new problem
as it pressed itself upon us for our solution.
The work of organizing and reorganizing
during the year has also
secured us a splendid equipment of
state officers, men of quick intelligence,
thoroughly informed regarding
our purposes, characterized by integrity
and admirably fitted to labor in
harmony with the national officials.
I want to impress upon you, gentle
men, as never in uie previuun m?iui)
of this Union, the tremendous significance
of our organization and the revolutionary
importance of the ends we
are striving to promote.
I want you to feel, as vividly as I
feel, that upon the full success of our
mission depends the very welfare of
this country, and I can say, without!
exaggeration, the permanence of Amer- I
ican institutions.
I want you to realize that we are
fighting a battle that no political party,
however great, no crusade, however
vital and widespreading, has attempted.
We are fighting the battle of the
producers of the wealth of this country,
the most wonderful country in history.
We are doing what no crusader or
reformer ever dared to undertake.
We are saying to the man whose toil
feeds and clothes nearly a hundred
million people, not to mention the
teaming hordes of Europe and Asia:
"Without organization and co-operation,
without education and persistent,
never-tiring effort, without sacrifice
and obedience to discipline you can
never attain the true reward for your
labor, you can never rise as a class
above the hardships and the oppression
that have always been visited
upon the man who creates wealth in
the sweat of his brow; you can never
win the income to which you are entitled
that you may properly feed and
clothe and house and educate your wife
and your children.
"Without organization you will be as
helpless against the man who would
prey upon your efforts as one man
would be against an army."
It is true we are talking not alone
to the cotton farmer of the south, but
to the wheat and corn growers of the
west and the fruit producers of the
Pacific slope.
And they are giving heed to our
words. They are recognizing the common
sense and the justice in our arguments.
The man who creates the sub
stance that becomes the vast wealth in
the hands of the manufacturer, the
railroad, the bank and the trust, is
coming to see that it is through the
use of system and combination, the application
of plain business methods that
these vast industries have succeeded in
concentrating vast fortunes.
He is seeing1 that his business, the
business of providing the crude material
for this wealth making, has been
neglected. That the speculator, the
spinner and the consumer have been
content to let him raise all the cotton
that made the south the most independent
section of the nation during
the recent stringency, and to give him
what they pleased for it. He sees
that year after year his just earnings
have been rifled by gamblers a thou
sand miles away, to whom the word,
conscience had no meaning, and to
whom it was a matter of indifference
whether the children of the farmer had
bread or a stone; whether lie lived in
a mortgaged hovel or in a home to
which the world-value of his labor entitled
him.
; He sees, too, that comprising seventenths
of the population of this country
he is possessed of only one-eighth
of Its wealth.
Some of my more prejudiced friends
may ask: "What else can you expect
in a cut-throat age?"
I say it is not a cut-throat age any
more than the fifteenth century was a
cut-throat age. Kings, lords and barons
then held the producers of wealth
in bondage, demanding rrom mem me
fruits of their toil, and kindly returning
just enough upon which to eke out
a bare existence that they might make
more wealth for the masters.
The difference is, and still is, that
the kings, lords and barons were organized
and had force and the authority
of law on their side.
Education, the triumph of democracy,
has done away with these conditions.
The man who produces the food and
clothing for the nation and the world
today is not in bondage to the modern
kings and barons and lords of industry
and finance unless he puts on and
rivets his own shackles!
The kings, lords and barons of 1908
speedily adjusted themselves to changed
conditions. They recognized that
organization, system and business-like
methods have taken the place of the
old ways of concentrating wealth and
raising themselves up In supremacy
over its producers.
That they have been able to do this
with any degree of success, that every
farmer is not receiving a just compensation
for his labor, solely is due to
the fact that the producer of cotton
and corn and wheat and fruit and what
not, has placed himself upon a plane
of equality with the modern kings and
lords and barons.
Mo has fallerl to ficht them with the
modern weapons of organization, system
and co-operation, and he pays the
penalty. He clings to the methods that
w*re in use at the time of Adam, and
cotnplains because of the results!
The farmer is the one man who
brings his product into the market and
aslts meekly: "What will you give
me?" And then take what is given
him! Up to a few years ago there
was not even a semblance of a trade
about it. The buyer simply dictated
what he was willing to give, and the
producer humbly accepted!
The farmer as a class form the greatest
producing corporation in the country.
What other corporation, one-horse or
Standard oil, would calmly submit to
sucb conditions?
Is it-any wonder, then, that wealth
is ^cumulated in a few hands, that
wd , find trouble developing our waste
plants; that the farmer, as a class, is
the poorest of our population, when he
conditions and a determination to remove
them that the Farmers' Union
was founded. It appealed with vigor
and persistence to the masses of the
country's wealth producer, dealing the
facts I have roughly outlined to you.
The result has been that today,
scarcely five years from our organization,
we have a membership approaching
3,000,000 of the people upon whose
efforts the prosperity of this country
depends.
As the reward for our activeness and
for the loyalty of our members, the
south has received more money for
its great basic cotton crop in the last
four years than at any time in its history,
and this, in spite of powerful influences
that have wrought cunningly
at the old game to break the solid
front of the farmers, with the intention
of securing cotton at their own
prices.
The cotton farmer no longer goes
meekly to market and takes what is
given him. He says: "My cotton is
worth so much to me and to you. I
demand this or that price for it. It is
my property and I have a right to put
a price on it."
The movement, it Is true, is yet in
its infancy. We have still to combat
poverty and fear in our ranks, and
fierce attacks from the outside. It is
difficult to get a man to hold his cotton
when his debts cry for payment
and his family for necessities.
We are fast removing these obstacles,
the only ones that stand in the
way of full success. Our claim of warehouses
stretches from the Atlantic to
the Rio Grande: it is being strengthened
and given more links each month.
We find ourselves constantly more able
to secure such financial assistance for
our members as will enable them to
continue to work in harmony for our
mutual ends. I believe in time that
cotton scrip will be negotiable in every
southern state and city and town.
And we are just in the beginning of
this plan also. Our meeting on the
18th of July at Memphis perfected a
system for each of the cotton states
which will enable every farmer, if he
will abide by the rules of the Union,
to secure for his staple exactly what it
is worth. I cannot emphasize this
triumph too strongly. It marks a
turning point in the progress of the
Union.
Our warehouses, too, are only a portion
of the enterprises undertaken and
accomplished by our members. Every
state where the Union is organized
maintains many industries in which
stock is held by its members. This is
a feature of co-operation in which the
stock is held by its members. This is
a feature of co-operation that the
Union strongly encourages. Our people
must find investments for their
surplus money, remunerative investment,
which will increase communities'
properties.
* ?i ...UJU
It may no: De out or piace wunc ur
this subject to direct your attention to
the request sent out earlier in the year
to the effect that members plow up cotton
already planted where it seemed
apparent that production might exceed
the proportions of demand due to temporary
influences. Responses to this
request assures me that it has been
universally complied with, though I do
not deem it advisable to make public
what percentage of the yield will be
Influenced thereby.
Legislation for the past four years
bears the imprint of the Farmers' Union.
We don't go into politics personally.
I have made it a point to caution
our members against partisanship
in any nature, form or variety. It has
been the death of organizations that
once sought to do the work we are doing,
and it must not and will not be allowed
to creep into this one. But our
influence upon the enactment of just
law for the regulation of transportation
problems and for protecting the
rights of property has been large and
effective. We do not hesitate to take
the initiative in legislation that vitally
concerns our membership, and our every
aim is to encourage lofty ideals of
citizenship.
Sneaking of legislation, I want to tell
I you that my experience at the nation- I
al capltol during1 the last session of l
congress, assures me that the Farmers'
Union is recognized with reverence,
even awe, by our law makers. These
gentlemen were never too busy with
keeping those troublesome fences at
home from tumbling down, that they
didn't have time to discuss with me
pending or prospective measures which
would affect our membership and our
aims.
What we have accomplished has
been made possible through education,
patience and persistence. We have
spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
for lectures and teachers, for
newspapers and literature which should
rouse the producers of this country's
wealth to the meeting of our mission.
My time, personally, has been, ceaselessly
occupied n supervision of the
work a.t all points, personal visits at
points of weakness. I have not hesitated
to discipline, and discipline
harshly where disaffection, petty Jealousies
or failure to abide by the rules
seemed to me to threaten the future of
any particular state or local organization.
I have made enemies in this process.
I regret it, but am willing to accept
unpleasantness in the larger end of
holding in solid formation and advancing
the Interests of this Union.
It has been my ambition in this con
nectlon to make my duties with the
Farmers' Union carry out every hour
of the day that fine Scriptural phrase,
"He who would be greatest among
you, let him be your servant." Do
you realize what it means to be a good
servant to the Farmers' Union? When
you do you will appreciate the vastness
of the organization and the demands
its affairs make on those whose
business it is to supervise them. In
the process, then, of being a good servant
in the biblical meaning, I have
traveled more than forty-one thousand
nine hundred miles since last September.
That means a distance of nearly
twice around the world and many
times across this continent.
The good servant does not either
count his own comfort or his own
pleasure when it comes to being about
his master's business. My master is
the Farmers' Union, and in advancing
Its cause I have spent in the neighborhood
of three hundred and twentyeight
days of the past year away from
mv home. A man's wife and a man's
cmldren, next to his Maker, are the
fr?hest, purest, brightest influences in
his life. It is the thought of the wife,
the woman who has fought hard times
and good times by your side, and who
believes In you when the rest of the
world forsakes you, that keeps you
vigorous and hopeful and cheerful during
the hours of the day when the task
bears hard on tired muscles and tired
brain. The knowledge that she will be
at the door to greet you when the dusk
comes, makes the heat of the sun less
exhausting, the weary round of duty
less fatiguing.
It is an inspiration, too, to know
that at nightfall the little children
with which God has blessed your life
will be climbing over you as you rest
* * ? Ut??. or 1 y?
on tne porcil, mugmiiK OIIU pia.>iii5 II.
a loving way, chasing away the
wrinkles of worry, letting a bit of
heaven's sunshine into your heart. I
wonder how many of you have felt
keenly the absence of this consolation
of home when you have been forced to
leave it one or two 'or three days, perhaps
a week? I confess to you that
during these weeks that I have not
known the smile of my wife, or the
smile of my children, or the quiet of
home, sometimes the ordeal has been a
hard one. I have been sustained by
the remembrance that she whom the
Almighty sent to lighten my life was
in thorough sympathy with the work
we are all trying to pursue faithfully,
and that she wanted me to do a man's
part in the greatest work yet undertaken
for the toiling masses of our country.
I have indulged in this personal talk,
friends, as a means of showing you
how strongly I feel the obligation resting
upon all of us. I want you to understand
the task that confronts us
all merely upon the threshold of our
work. It is my belief that ultimately
every farmer in the country, large or
small, will see that his personal interests
lies in affiliation with us. Constant
education and inspiration are required,
too, to maintain the ground we
have gained and to record further
progress. The instant we imagine we
have the fight won and relax our efforts,
that instant is sounded the
death-knell of this organization.
We are faced also by the crafty and
powerful enemies ready to exert force
and to spend money liberally to break
up or weaken the army we have formed
with such patient toil. As I firmly believe
that the great prosperity of the
south for the last four years has been
largely due to the efforts of this order,
T believe as firmly that any blow aimed
at its integrity will redound to the injury
of every industry and every man,
woman and child in the south.
We have gained the farmer a reputation
and clothed him with ability as a
business man in a manner new in the
history of the world. We have merely
begun to teach him the power, his responsibilities
to himself and to the
community.
We do not ask for him any more
than his dues, but we intend to see
that ho gets that due. We are not, a-s
some of our enemies claim, striving: to
upset economic laws, to ignore the law
of supply and demand, or to take unrighteous
advantage of our patrons.
We are simply seeking, in a businesslike
way. to secure the rights and privileges
that belong to us, and which
will not come to us without effort on
our part.
Already the larger future of the Union
is beginning to materialize. We
are getting Into direct relations with
the spinner and the consumer everywhere.
The Spinners' and the Growers'
Conference, held in Atlanta last
fall at which your president and other
officials participated, is an instance in
that direction. When we meet spinners
and consumers we lose no time in
impressing upon them the honesty, sincerity
and practicability of our purposes.
And we are gaining headway
in their conlidence every day.
We are invading Europe, too, with
the advance guard of an organization
WHICH ?Udll cvcmuaiij' ruauic uo tu
dispose of our products directly to the
old world consumer, eliminating' the
gambler and the middle man in this
country. Calmly, systematically, without
flurry or excitement, we are going
about the solution of these problems
that have puzzled men since buying
and selling became regular, economic
functions.
In this greatest battle of the ages,
the battle for the rights and the development
of the producer of the nation's
wealth, I ask your earnest, unselfish
and unsleeping co-operation.
JUDGE PRITCHARD SUSTAINED.
State Loses Decision In Famous Dispensary
Case.
In an opinion handed down by the
circuit court of appeals, last Tuesday
at Richmond, Va., Judge J. C. Pritchard
Is sustained in his findings in the
now famous case of Flelschmann &
Company and others against the South
Carolina dispensary commission.
The opinion in this case was written
by Judge Jas. E. Boyd, district judge
of Greensboro, N. C., and concurred in
by his associates, District Judge Waddill
and Chief Justice Fuller. The opinion
is quite lengthy, consuming more than
forty pages of closely typewritten matter.
A great part of this, however, is
devoted to the statement of facts.
In the opinion proper, Judge Boyd
says in part: "There are two main
propositions: first, the Jurisdictional,
which presents the question whether
this is a suit against the state of South
Carolina and therefore forbidden by
the eleventh amendment: and, second,
whether the dispensary commission is
a court incapable of having its proceedings
stayed by a writ of injunction
granted by a Federal court. Does
this case come within the limits prescribed?
In this connection it becomes
necessary to inquire if the state has any
present interest in the fund in controversy
which can be divested by a Judicial
determination of the true amount,
if any, justly due, the complainant, or
has the state by an act of the legislature
relinquished all right, if any existed,
to enough of the fund to pay all
the just debts of the state dispensary?
"The proposition rests largely upon
the construction to be given the act of
the South Carolina legislature of February
16, 1907, providing for the appointment
of a commission to wind up
the affairs of the state dispensary and
section 47 of another act abolishing
the state dispensary.
"The state through its legislature, has
nassed both the title and possession of
the funds to the commission for the
purposes designated in the act. The
fund being- in the hands of the commission,
charged with this duty, the state
has no Interest in so much thereof, as
Is necessary to pay the Just debts. The
court cites the case of the United
States against Planters' Bank of Georgia,
22 U. S., and many other decisions
sustaining this position, including the
case of Gunter, attorney general,
against Atlantic Coast Line railroad,
200 U. S. In what capacity, asks the
court, are the members of the commission
acting. Are they officers of the
state of South Carolina, or are they
agents appointed under an act of the
legislature empuwerea i" ianc ^050slon
of a certain fund and directed to
administer such fund In a certain manner?
"We are constrained to hold that the
funds in their hands are held In trust
for the payment of the debts mentioned
and that creditors of the state dispensary
have a property In the fund in
the hands -of the commission to the extent
that the debts are shown to be
joint and that a judicial determination
of the true amount of such debts can
In no way affect the rights and interests
of the state.
"Having therefore determined the
relation of the appellants to the funds I
In controversy, we answer the question
propounded in the outset that this
is not a suit against the state and that
the complainant is not forbidden to
maintain his action by the eleventh
amendment of the constitution of the
United States. Thus it is not against
the state nor is the state an indispensable
party.
"Treating the fund in the hands of
the appellants as a trust fund and
the duties of the trustees being clearly
defined, the trustor is not even a
necessary party to a suit brought to
compel the trustees to discharge their
duties. Their position appears to be
that the agents and representatives of
the debtor should constitute a tribunal
absolute in its character to arbitrarily
pass upon what, if anything, is due an
alleged creditor, and if a claim be adjudged
invalid, to put an end to it
without further opportunity for redress
on the part of the creditor. To
uphold such a contention would be to
deprive such a creditor of his property
without due process of low."
The court further announces that in
the conception and adoption of the
eleventh amendment it never entered
the minds of the framers of that
amendment that a sovereign state
would engage in the liquor business
and become a trader by buying and
selling an article of common traffic In
competition with the citizens of the
country. It may be questioned, therefore,
whether the state of South Carolina
was exercising a governmental prerogative
in performing a function necessarily
or properly incident to its autonomy
as a state.
In reference to the provisions of the
eleventh amendment Judge Boyd uses
the following language:
"Undoubtedly the eleventh amendment
was intended to prevent the Federal
court, in suits prosecuted by citizens
of another state or citizens or
subjects of a foreign state, rrom interfering
with a state in the preservation
of its autonomy In maintaining
Its own system of self-government, so
long as such system is in harmony
with the constitution of the United
States. To this end therefore, the
funds of the state. In its treasury', or
held by its officers or agents for use
in the administration of governmental
affairs of the state, are not to be affected
by the process of a Federal
court, nor can such court entertain
jurisdiction of an action which has for
its purpose the invasion of rights of a
state to manage and control Its Internal
affairs, or of an action which will
obstruct the state authority or Impair
the state Instrumentalities In the discharge
of legitimate functions in the
maintenance of the state's integrity.
To be more concise, the constitutional
limitation is to the effect that the
courts of the United States cannot entertain
Jurisdiction in an action at the
instance of a citizen who seeks to recover
as against the state, property belonging
to the state or the purpose of
which is, and the result of which
would be, to disturb the l^gal and orderly
administration of the state's internal
governmental affairs by Its duly
appointed officers and agents."
As to whether or not the dispensary
commission Is a court Is briefly considered,
Judge Boyd citing the constitution
of the state of South Carolina,
providing for the establishment of the
different courts of the state, the court
holding that while It Is true that the
commissioners were empowered to investigate
the transactions connected
with the management and control of
the state dispensary before Its abolishment,
these were not empowered to
determine any Issue of fact, enter any
Judgment or conclude any party that
might be investigated as to any right
or interest involved.
Judge Boyd then refers to the opinion
of the supreme court of South Carolina
deciding that a suit against the
dispensary commission was a suit
against the state. "The South Carolina
supreme court," says the judge,
"Is entitled to and has our most profound
respect, but we do not feel entitled
to adopt the construction given
by that tribunal to the statute of
South Carolina. The law governing us
is well settled In the case of Burgess
vs. Seligman, 107 U. S. It Is our conclusion,
therefore that the conclusion
of the circuit court for the district of
South Carolina appealed from should
be affirmed."
It will be seen from this that Judge
Pritchard has been affirmed in every
particular. On motion of Attorney
Stevenson for the commission a stay
of mandate was granted foi; forty days.
Mr. McCullough's Statement
Mr. Jos. A. McCulIough, one of the
receivers named sometime ago by
Judge Pritchard for the dispensary
fund, said yesterday upon reading the
court's decision:
"I presume that the state will apply
for a writ of certiorari which In
effect is an appeal to the supreme
court of the United States from the
decision of the court below. Judge
Prltchard's order appealed from being
an interlocutory order, and there is
some doubt as to whether or not the
appeal lies at this stage of the case.
If this application is granted, I presume
the matter will stand in abeyance
until the supreme court of the
United States passes upon the question.
If it be refused, I presume that
the receivers will be ordered to take
charge of the funds. Of course the receivers
will do nothing until they receive
their instructions from the proper
tribunal."
AN EFFECTIVE SERMON.
Trumpet Blast That Drove the People
to Repentance.
Ole Peter Cartwright was a famous
preacher and circuit rider many years
ago.
The exhorter was holding a campmeeting
in Ohio. There was a great
number of campers on the field, and
the eccentric speaker, addressed vast
concourses at every service, but he
thought too few were being converted.
He felt that something should be done
to stir the sinners to repentance, so
he prepared a strong sermon on the
second coming of Christ. He told how
the world would go on in its sin and
onH nt Inst OnhHf?l would
sound his trumpet and time would
come to an end. He described the
horrors of the lost and the Joys of
those who were saved. The sermon
grew in Intensity, and he brought his
people up to a grand climax, when suddenly
the sound of a trumpet smote
the ears of the anxious throng.
There was a great sensation, and
many fell upon their knees in terror
and began to repent and pray. Women
screamed and strong men groaned.
Pandemonium was let loose for a few
minutes. After the terror had somewhat
ceased the preacher called to a
man up a tree, and he descended with
a long tin horn in his hand. The
speaker then turned in fierce wrath
and upbraided the people. He cried
out in stentorian tones that, if a man
with a tin horn up a tree could frightI
en them so, how would it be in thelast
great end when Gabriel's trumpet
sounded the knell of the world! The
sermon had a great effect upon the
vast audience, and many hundreds
flocked to the front and were converted.
AN ANCIENT HIGHWAY.
England's Great North Road Is Two
Thousand Years Old.
Before we reached Hatfield, a few
miles out of London, we had already
been impressed with the magnificence
of this Great North road, which is
said to have been built by a Mr. Caesar,
whose headquarters were in
Rome at the time. It is the direct
route from London to Edinburgh and
has been traveled for so many centuries
that the earliest histories of England
contain certain accounts of the
movement of troops upon it. It is a
great thoroughfare for vehicles of all
sorts, motorists and cyclists, and in
these modern days there are well
worn footpaths along either side for
pedestrians. We passed scores of
motors, and I was told while in England
that the popularity of motoring
had noticeably diminished the num
ber of first class travelers Dy ran.
We found the road for Its entire length
of 400 miles in perfect condition. In
many portions the macadam is said
to be nine feet thick. Long sections
of the road are oiled, and on no part
of it was there any appreciable
amount of dust. There are few sharp
curves, and the grades are so slight
that it has become a great thoroughfare
for speeders, with the result that
there are many police traps for which
one has to watch. We found that we
could stop in almost any little village
and get information as to Just where
the traps were located?as, for instance,
they told us at Bigleswade,
which is a better looking place than
its name, to look out for traps, just
the other side of Buckden and again
in approaching Weston.?Frank Presbrey
in Outing Magazine.