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i 4 ^ " _ ISSTTgP^lgggl^ l. m. grist s sons. publishers, j % Jamilj geurspaper: .for the promotion of the political, fecial. Agricultural and Commercial Interests of the fJeople. {TB?no^copIVSvJ ieraVANt* established 1855. YORK V 1 f-T-K, S. C., FfttDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1908. ^TO. 01. iwwwiiwmwiiw m mm mimwi * "THE HI1 By OPII (Copyrighted 1896, by Wm. f By Permission of Lai - ? ? ? CHAPTER I. The neighbors and our family began to laugh at me about as far back as I can remember, and I think that the lirst serious remark my father everad* dressed to me was, "Bill, you are too lazy to amount to anything in this life, so I reckon we'll have to make a school teacher of you." I don't know why he should have called me lazy; I suppose it must have been on account of my awkwardness. Lazy, why, I could sit all day and fish in one place and not ^ get a bite, while my more industrious companions would, out of sheer exhaustion of patience, be compelled to move about; and I hold that patience i>* the very perfection of industry. In the belief that I could never amount to anything I gradually approached my awkward manhood. I grew fast, and I admit that I was always tired; and who is more weary than a sprout of a hoy? My brothers were active of body and quick of judgment. and I know that Ed. my oldest t brother. won the admiration of the I neighborhood when he swapped horses with a stranger and cheated him un[ mercifully. How my father did laugh, 1 and mother laughed, too. but she told Ed that he must never do such a thing ^ again. With what envy did I look upon this applause. I knew that Ed's brain was no better than mine: and as I lay in bed one night I formed a strong resolve and fondly hugged it unto myself. I owned a horse, a good one; and I would swap him off for two horses?I would cheat some one and thereby win the respect of my fellows. My secret was sweet and I said noth* ing. By good chance a band of gypsies came our way; I would swindle the rascals. I went to their camp, leading my horse, and after much haggling. I came home with two horses. It was night when I reached home, and I put my team into the stable, and barred up my secret until the sun of a new day could fall upon it. Well, tiie next morning one of the horses was dead, and the other one was so stiff that we had to shove him out of the stall. My father snorted, my poor mother wept, and for nights afterward I slipped out and slept in the barn, burrowi ed under the hay that I might not hear tlu derisive titter of my brother Ed. i We lived in northern Alabama, in a I part of the country that boasted of the refinement and intelligence of its so1 cietv. When I was alone with boys much younger than myself I could say smart things, and I had a hope that when I should go into formal "company" I would, with one evening's achievement, place myself high above the numbskulls who had giggled at me. The time came. There was to be a "party" at the house of a neighbor. ^ and I was invited. I had a suit of new clothes, and after dressing myself with exceeding care. I set out. strong of heart, for the field of victory. But I weakened when I saw the array of blooded horses hitched without, and * heard the gay laughter within, a merriment rippling and merciless: and I stood on the porch, sick with the sense niv- awkwardness. I was too big, ;in<l I knew that I was straining my clothes. Through the window I could s*e a trim fellow laughing with a girl, and I said to myself. "If I can catch you out somewhere I will maul you." I was not acquainted with him. but I hated him. for I knew that he was my enemy. To an overgrown young fellow. ashamed of his uncouth, steer-like L strength, all graceful youths are hateful: and he feels, too. that a handsome V girl is his foe. for girls with pretty mouths are nearly always laughing, and why should they laugh if they are not laughing at him? Long I stood there, stretching the seams of my clothes, angry, wishing that the house might catch fire. I heard footsteps, and looking about, recognized a member of the household, an old and negI* cted girl. I was not afraid of her, and I bowed. And I felt a sudden looseness, a giving away of a part of my gear. She called me Mr. Hawes, the very first time that any one had called me anything but Bill: she opened the door and bade me go in. I had k to duck my head as I stepped forward. and there I was inside the room with the light pouring over me. I took one step forward, and stumbled over something. and then a tittering fool named Btntley. exclaimed: "Hello, here comes little Willie." I don't know how I got out. I heard a roar of laughter. I saw grinning faces jumbled together, and then I was outside, standing with my hot hand resting in the frost on the top rail of a fence. Some one was urgV ing me to come back?the neglected girl?but I stcxHl there silent, with my hot hand melting the frost. I went out into the moon-lighted woods, seiz\ ?-d a sapling and almost wrenched it I from the ground. Down the road I % went toward home, but I turned aside and sat on a log. I felt a sense of pain and I opened my hands?I had been cutting my palms with my nails. But in this senseless fury 1 bad made up my mind. 1 would waylay Bentley and beat him. Hour after hour I sat there. Horses began to canter by: up and down the road there was laughter and merry chatting. The moon was ^ full, and I could plainly see the passers-by. Suddenly 1 sprang from the l.?g and seized a bridle rein. A girl shrieked and a man cut my hand with a whip, and I jerked the horse to his ? knees. Bentley shouted that he would kill me if I did not let go. but I heeded not; I jerked him off his horse, kicked his pistol across the road, mashed his mouth, slammed him against the ground. The shrieking girl cried out that I was a brute, and I told her that 1 could whip her whole family, a charming hit of repartee. I thought, but afterward I remembered that her famf iIv consisted of herself and an aged grandmother, and I sent her an abject apology. Bent ley's horse cantered away, and I left the fellow lying in the road, with the girl standing over him. shrieking for help. It was all done in a minute, and with jolting tread I stalked away before any one came tip. D KiltS*! I READ. 4. Lee?All Rights Reserved. I ird &. Lee, Publishers. Opie Read, the Author. Of course, there was a great scandal. My poor mother was grieved and humiliated. ashamed to meet any of the neighbors; and my father swore that instead of becoming a school teacher I ought to turn out as a highwayman. My brothers thought to have some fun with me. but I frightened them with a roar, and for a time they were afraid to smile in my presence. I was almost heartbroken over my disgrace. With out undue praise I can say that I was generous and kindhearted: even as a child I had shown almost a censurable unselfishness; I had given away my playthings, and my sensibilities were so tender that I could not bear the sight of a suffering animal, and I remember that an old man laughed at me because I could not cut the throat of a sheep when the poor thing had been hung up by the heels. And now I was put down as a heartless brute. Bentley's face constantly haunted me. I was afraid that he might die, and once when I heard that he* was not likely to get well, I was resolved to go to him. to beg his pardon. Two weeks had passed: it was night and rain was touring down, but I cared naught for the wetting. I found Bentley sitting up with his face bandaged. His mother frowned at me when she opened the door and saw me standing there under the drip, and it was some time before she asked me to come in. and I have thought that she would have driven me off had not the sight of me, wet and debased, aroused her pity. Bentley held oul his hand when I entered the room, and he said, "I don't blame you, Bill. It was mean of me. but I wanted to be smart." I was so full, so choked with emotion, that it was some time before I could say a word. But after a time I spoke of the rain, and told him that I thought that I had heard a wildcat as I came along, which was a lie, for I had heard nothing save the wind and the rain falling on the dead leaves. He laughed and said that he did not suppose that I would have been very much frightened had the cat jumped at me. Then I told him that I was the biggest coward on earth, and sought to prove it by offering to let him kick me as long as he might find it amusing. I told him that everybody despised me for the way I had beaten him, everybody, including my own family, and that I deserved the censure of all good people. We talked a long time, and he laughed a great deal, but when I told him that I was coming over to work for him three weeks, his eyes grew brighter with tears. This filled me up again and I could oo nothing but blubber. After a long time I asked him if he would do ine a favor, and he said that he would. Then I took out a watch that I had brought in a buckskin bag. and I said. i thino- that nmod In hplonertol my grandfather, and it was given me by mother when I was ten years old. It is a fine time-piece and is solid. Now, I want you to take it as a present from me. You said you would do me a favor." Hut he declared that he could not take it. "Why, I would despise myself if I did," said he. I told him that I would despise myself if he did not. His mother, who had left us alone, came in. smiling, and said that I must not think of parting with so valuable a watch, the mark of my grandfather's gentility, but I put the watch on the table and plunged out into the rain and was gone. Bentley's mother returned the watch the next day, and then there went about the neighborhood a report that I was so much afraid of Bentley's revenge that I had tried to buy him off with a watch. Bentlev had said that I should not work for him. but when the time for breaking up the land came. I went over and began to plow the field. His mother came out and compelled me to ciuil, but I went back at night and plowed while other people slept: and thus I worked until much of his cornland was broken up. The neighbors said that I had gone insane, and a few days afterward when I met a woman in the road, she jerked her old mare in an effort to g?-t away, and piteously begged me not to hurt her. I made n?? further attempt to get into "company." and thus, forced back upon myself, I began to form the habits of a student: and to aid me in my determination to study law, I decided to tench school. So, when I was almost grown?or. rather, about twenty-three years old, for I appeared to keep on growing?I went over into another neighborhood and took up a school. And they called me "Lazy Bill." 1 couldn't understand why. for I am sure that I attended to my duties, that I played town ball with the boys, that I even cut wood all day one Saturday: [tint confound them, they called me lazy. I spoke to one of the trustees: I called his attention to the fact that I worked hard, and he replied that the I hardest working man he had ever seen was a lazy fellow who worked merely as a "blind." To sleep after the sun rises is a great crime in the country, and sometimes I sat up so late with my books that I had to be called twice for breakfast. And no amount of work could have offset this ignominy. I | taught school during three years, and found at the end of that time that I ' was no nearer a lawyer's office. Once < I called on an old judge, the leading I lawyer in a neighboring village, and I told him that if he would take me I I would work for my clothes, and the humorous old rascal, surveying me, replied: "I have not contemplated the starting of a woolen mill. Why don't you go to work?" he asked. I told him that I was at work, that I taught 1 school, but that I wanted to be a law- i ver. He laughed and said that teach- < ing school was not work?declared it I to be the refuge of the lazy and the shiftless. I then ventured to remark that the south would continue to be 1 backward as long as the educator was 1 put down as n piece of worthless rub- I hish. I went away, and a few days i later one of the trustees called on me 1 and said that I had declared their children to be ignorant rubbish, and that ' therefore they wanted my service no I longer. I returned home. My brothers were gone, and my parents were in ] feeble health. My father died within i a year, and soon my mother followed I him Thn farm was nonr and was < mortgaged, and empty handed I turned away. I heard that a school teacher was wanted up in North Carolina. I near the Tennessee line, and I decided to apply for the place. I walked to the railway station, twenty miles dis- I taut. I have said that I went away ] empty handed. I did not; I carried a i trunk, light with clothes and heavy j with books. I had put my trunk on l the railway platform and \vas striding 1 up and down when I ~aw two men, 1 well dressed, rich-looking, standing near. This amounted to nothing, and { I would not mention it but for the fact that it was at this moment that I re- t ceived my first encouragement. One ' of the men, speaking to his companion, i remarked; "'Devilish fine looking fel- i low. I'd give a great deal to be in his : shoes, to have his strength and his l youth." I turned away, eager to hear i more, yet afraid lest the other man i might say something to spoil it all. ' Rut he did not. "Yes," he replied, "but i he doesn't know how fortunate he is. i Gad, he looks like an imported bull." The train came and I was whirred '< away, over streams, below great hang- 1 ing rocks; but I thought not of the i grandeur of the rocks nor of the beau- f tv of the streams, for through my mind < was running the delicious music of the t first compliment that had ever been i naid me. And I realized that I had outgrown the age of my awkwardness, i that strength was of itself a grace to i be admired, that I should feel thankful ? rather than remember with bitterness i the days of my humiliation. I observed a woman looking at me, and there was interest in her eyes, and I knew that she did not take kindly to me simply because she was an old and neglected | girl, for she was handsome. Beside her sat a man, and I could see that he was eager to win her smile. He hated me. I could that, but he couldn't * laugh at me. I noticed that my hands ' and feet were not over large, and this was a sort of surprise, for I recalled hearing a boy say my foot was the biggest thing he ever saw without a 1 liver in it. I reached back and wiped out the past; I looked out at a radiant cloud hanging low in the west, and called it the future. Fool? Oh, of f course. I had been a fool when a boy. * and was a fool now. but how much wiser it was to be a happy fool. 1 was to leave the train at Nagle . station, and then to go some distance . into the country, which direction I knew not. I made so bold as to ask the handsome lady if she knew anything of the country about Xagle, and she smiled sweetly, and said that she did not. that she was a stranger going south. 1 had surmised as much, and I spoke to her merely to "see what effect ' it would have on the man who sat beside her. Was my new-found pride making me malicious? I thought it was, and I censured myself. The lady -'" " "'I ' uicnrksitinn to continue the talk, but the man drove me into si- j lence by remarking': "I suppose there is something novel about one's first ride on the cars." How I did want to ' reach out and take hold of his ear, but I thought of Bentley and subsided. When 1 arose to get off at my station, I thought that the lady, as I passed her, made a motion as if she would like to give me her hand. This might simply have been the prompting of by long famished but now over-fed conceit, my ' bloating egotism, but I gave the wo- * man a grateful thought as I stood on the platform gazing at the train as it faded away in the dusk that appeared " to come down the road to meet it. I had expected to alight at a town, i but the station was a lonely place, a wagon-maker's shop, the company's building and a few shanties. I asked I the station master if he knew where 1 the school teacher was wanted, and i he answered that from the people t thereabouts one must be needed In ev- i ery household. 1 "And I should think," 1 replied, giv- f ing him what I conceived to be a look of severe rebuke, "that a teacher of t common decency and politeness is most 1 needed of all." f "I reckon you are right." he rejoined. 5 "Is he the man you are looking for?" t "I don't want to get into trouble > here," said I. "but I insist upon fair 1 treatment and I'm going to have it." I "All right, sir. Now, what is it you I want to know?" ' "Why, I was told that there was an < opening for a school teacher in this i neighborhood." "And so there is, but don't you know < that no neighborhood could bo proud of such a fact? Therefore, you ought < to be more careful as to how you make i your inquiries." I saw that he wanted to joke with 1 me and I joked with him. And I soon 1 found that this was the right course, ' for he invited me into his office and 1 insisted upon my sharing his luncheon,] t enld bread and meat and a tin bucket [' <>f boiling coffee. I soon learned that he was newly graduated from a school of telegraphy, and that this was his first position. He had come from a 1 city and he gave me the impression < that he was buried alive; he said that ' he had entered an oath in his book that if some one didn't get off at -his sta- 1 Hon pretty soon he would set the ' whole thing on lire and turn train ruh- ' bcr. Don't you think that would be a < pretty good idea?" he asked. laughing. "It would be a pretty dangerous one. at least." I answered. : "Yes. but without danger there is ( never any fun. My old man insisted upon my taking that night school , course, and the professor of the insti- , nit ion held nut the idea that I could be i great man within a short time after graduating; led ine to believe I could ?et charge of a big office in town, but tiere I am stuck up here in these hills. No rags about here at all." "No what?" "Rags, calico, women?catch on?" "You mean no society, to speak of." "That's it. Oh, away off in the country it's ail right, but I can never go more than three miles from this misprable place. You'll have to go about fifteen miles." "How do you know?" "Why, an old fellow from a neighborhood about that far away came out here the other day and sent off a dis- , patch, telling some man off, I don't remember where, to send a teacher out there." "And one might have come by this time," I suggested, with a sense of fear. "No. you are the only one that has put in an appearance, and the only one that is likely to come. I understand :hat they dyn't treat teachers very well >ut there." "How so?" "The boys have a habit of ducking :hein in the creek. I hear." "Oh. is that all? Be fun for me." "You won't think so after you see those roosters. Let me see. Take the Purdy road out there, and go straight ihead to the east, and when you think rou have gone about fifteen miles, ask Tor the house of Lim Jucklin. The ast teacher, I understand, boarded at riis house." "You appear to know a good deal ibout it." "Well, the truth of it is, I do, for the last teacher came and went this tvay. And he told me like this: 'The thing opened up all right, plenty of rags, but that evening some of the t'oung fellows came to me and said that unless I brought some sort of treat the next morning they would put ne in the creek: said that they hated to do it. but that time honored customs must be observed. I didn't bring in.v treat and I went Into the creek, rhen I left.' Yes. that's what he said, ind I concluded that as for me I would rather be here. It isn't so lively, but t is a good deal dryer. But you can't jet there tonight. Better take a shakelown here with me till morning, and hen you may catch some farmer gong that way with a wagon." I thanked him for this courtesy, and Tadily accepted it. And the next mornng. with my trunk on my shoulder, I *et out upon what I conceived to be nv career in life. To be Continued THE MAN IN THE RAIN. -lis Manner of Managing Apparel As Compared With Woman's. "You wouid think, now, wouldn't rou," she said, to a New York Sun reporter, "that lordly man would defy :he weather and not permit himself to je disturbed by such a little thing as ain? But my! I think men are more particular about their fine clothes than vomen are. "Take a man who is out, for instance, in a light gray suit and let a ihower come up. Does the man in gray jo blithely on and let the rain fall upon * * i r ol**f 11111 IIS 11 win; v ei j iuu^jii nui, on. 3e seeks the nearest shelter and there le waits for the rain entirely to cease lefore he ventures on; more careful of lis raiment, surely, than any woman vould be of hers. "But it is what a man does with his ttraw hat in the rain that interests me nost. Why, I have seen a man take iff his straw hat in the shower and car\v it under his coat, so careful is: he ibout it, and isn't a man going- along he street hatless, with his hat clutched n that way under his coat, a funny igure? Did you ever see a woman do hat? "It's a common thing to see a man caught in a shower carrying his straw lat sort of casually down at his t.rm's ength at his side, as if he was just sauntering that way, but really to proect his hat so much as he can. And lo we not even see men in the rain inlding newspapers over their hats? A'ho ever saw a woman do that? "Women seem somehow to be able to to through a shower without making ;onspicuous figures of themselves. They ire always serene, never troubled, and lomehow they never seem to get as wet n the rain as men do." SUCKER SWALLOWED DIAMOND. \ Somewhat Different Fish Story From Northern Indiana. According to the Logansport correspondent of the Indianapolis News, Miss Marie A. Gross, daughter of Mr. ind Mrs. Frank Gross of Spear street, hat city, a student of the Herron Art nstitute in Indianapolis, lost a valua)le diamond ring, and its disappearance ind return are remarkable. She was a guest at the Hanly cotage. at Pottawatomie Point, on the A'abash river, east of town, and with some other girls attired in bathing uiits rowed to the middle of the river o bathe. A friend suggested that she remove the diamond ring which she ,vnre, stating that it might slip off in lie water. She removed the ring, and laving no other place to put it she Jed it to a piece of fishline and fastened the other end to the boat. Then die jumped into the water. When hey rowed back to shore, Miss Gross ould find neither string nor ring. Yesterday while Frank Hanly was ?ut in the boat he saw a string runilng through a crack in the rear board if the craft. He began to draw in the dring and there was an answering tug. Fie nulled hard and up out of the wa :er came a pound and a half sucker. Hnnly had forgotten about the ring iixl sought the hook in the sucker's mouth. "Swallowed the darned thing!" was lis disgusted ejaculation. He cut the line and threw the fish in the bottom of the boat. Later when leaning the fish he was surprised to find the missing ring inside the suck r. The supposition is that when the ?iils were rocking the boat the string tnd ring were thrown out. dangling in the water, and that a sucker spying the bright object gulped it down. '< Why is Sunday the strongest day n the week? Itecnu.se it is the only me not a week day. .t What melancholy fact is there \bout a calendar? There is no time ivhen its days are not numbered. SHERIFF JOHN NIGHOLLS. Nan Who Risked His Life at Call of Duty. TENDER AS WOMAN, BRAVE AS LiON. A Beautiful True Story That Throws a Flood of Light on the Motives of J a Heroic Servant of the Law. fcpurtanburg Herald. The trouble at Spartanburg', S. C., on October 10th, when a howling mob ittempted to assault the jail and lynch John Irby, a negro accused of assault with intent to rape upon the person of Miss Leila Dempsey, has served to bring to public notice again the brav ?ry and tenderness or jonn isicnons 01 Spartanburg. Nlcholls is now sheriff of Spartanburg county. The negro was arrested by the police and put in his custody. Miss Dempsey, a lady bookkeeper at Saxon mills, was assaulted and brutally treated as she passed through a clump of woods on her way home, and left apparently lifeless and found a short while later in a deplorable condition. The news of the assault spread like wildfire, in a short while a crowd of several thousand of the mill operatives gathered and made for the Jail and demanded the prisoner. Sheriff Nieholls being advised of the coming of the mob. locked the doors of the prison and the wall surrounding it. Wired the governor for help, armed the most trusted of his prisoners and his deputies and awaited the mob. They came, assaulted the jail, fell back, carrying with ihem their four wounded, in the nick of time the militia marched up to awe the mob and save further bloodshed. Sheriff Nieholls was condemned by the mob and its friends, but South Carolina was saved the disgrace of another lynching, and the law will be vindicated when Irby is tried by a jury at a special term of court that meets tomorrow. John Nieholls, the sheriff, was a Confederate soic'.ier. He enlisted as a 15-year-old boy in company H., First South Carolina volunteers. Those who know him attest to the fact that his army career was one of brave, selfsacrificing devotion to the Confederate cause, he hungered with the older ones, and was always found in the forefront In time of danger. An incident at Spottsylvania court house on May 18th, 1864, however, brought him to the notice of both armies, and doubtless some northern soldier now living will recall the present sheriff of Spartanburg I have the story from a Confederate soldier now living, who was in the same rifle pit with Xicholls when it happened. "The Federals had charged our position, and had been driven back with frightful loss. When morning broke the field was covered with dead and dying between our lines and the woods that flanked the enemies. Xicholls and myself were in a rifle pit and I took my hat. put it on a ramrod and stuck it up above the edge of the pit, it was pierced by three or four balls. The groans of the wounded in the field before us told the story of the unsuccessful charge of the Yankees. Some forty or fifty feet in front of us lay a Yankee officer shot through and through, and as the morning waned, above the noise of shot could be heard his prayers and pleading for "help" and "water." It grated on my nerves and I saw tears in the eyes of Xicholls. Between the shots he would remark on the man's condition and express the wish that he could relieve the fellow's distress. And finally said that he could stand the cries no longer, but intended to give the man water at any cost. With his canteen and ramrod in hand he was out of the pit in a Jiffy. The dust from shots flew all about him, as he fell on ins belly and wormed his way across the open to the wounded man. He was a target for an army. He got to the soldier, or close enojgh to fasten the "anteen 10 the ramrod and hand it to him. The man wanted to fasten his watch to the ramrod, but Xicholls refused, and wormed his way back to 'he pit and fell over in my arms. Yes, his clothing was pierced by numerous shots, but his skin was not broken. I will always believe that nothing short / 1/nnt onrl nrntortpd 'I It'MI hi nmtcia rvv|;v muu him." Th#' storv has been well told in verse hv John Jerome Roonev in Seventh (N. V.) Regiment Gazette. John Nicholls of Spartanburg. You've told your tale how our brave boys fought In the days of sixtv-three: How thev cried "Old Glory" through field and fiood, From the mountains to the sea. And as long as a heart shall beat with pride When our country's song is sung. The deeds of our lads in the bonny blue Shall ring from the minstrel's tongue. Hut I'll tell you a tale that'll make you think? As sure as gospel facts? That the Northland hadn't the only call Of clean-white manly acts. You know how Grant had massed our men In the spring of sixty-four, And how, near Spottsylvania town, He pushed us to the fore. We tried that day. in a wild, fierce charge. To carry the rebel's works. Fiut they held their ground with the stubborn grip of the death-inviting Turks. l'he deadly bail came tearing out Of their forward rifie pits, And the "Yank" who'd tried to get fresh air Would take it in cut-up bits. Well, I needn't tell you we pumped it back In a steady stream of lead; And woe betide the topmost tip Of a "Johnny Rebel's" head. Well, what do you think??no, you'll never guess If you guess the whole year thro' When our muskets were cracking like kindling wood And the air was red and blue. Out of the nearest rifie pit, Where they lay securely walled, As sure as you live, before our guns, A "Johnny Rebel" crawled. To say we couldn't believe our eyes Is to draw it not too fine? Hut sure enough he was creeping along Straight at our blazing line. What's that you ask??did we stop to look? Well, you should have seen the way We shot the stream of molten fire At that mad, dim patch of gray! Why, you'd thought an ant couldn't live out there ihdt enoihinir torrent fell: ? 'If c And you'd say that a passing butterfly Would singe in that living hell. Hut there he was a crawling down Full length on the crimson grass The turfs would Jump where our bullets struck And the blue smoke rise and pass. Hut still, with a death-defying luck, That "Johnny Rebel" came, With never a halt or turn aside From that bath of lead and flame. He had got some fifteen feet away From the mouth of his rifle pit (And If ever the law of chance held good, He'd never get back to it.) When he reached a little sumac bush That grew in the open Held (It wasn't leafy enough for a screen Nor thick enough for a shield.) And he half stretched up and broke a twig? (Heigh-ho, how the bullets flew!) He needn't have snapped it off, we thought? Our lead would have cut it in two. Then he turned a hand to his old canteen He fixed it fast to the stick, And forward he leaned on the bloody grass With a motion sharp and quick? When up from the sod a soldier raised? His last great fight was fought? And we saw?great God?our captain quaff The water the "Johnny" brought! We saw the light of a mighty Joy Come over his dying face, And we thought we saw, thro* the drifting smoke. The North and the South embrace. Jim Brown; who never was known to melt. Looked down at his riddled coat, Then, turning, walked half shamed away? For his eyes were all afloat! Ah, boys, we were weaker than babies then, And our thanks rose, deep and slow, To the mighty one who had turned our shot From the breast of our dearest foe! And many a deed I've seen in war That the books have spelled out large, But never a sweeter act I'll see Till I take my last discharge! Yes, we asked his name when the fight was done, As a miner'd look for gold, And over the Yankee fires that night The story was told and told. We blazed his deed in our inmost hearts, And not till their doors are burst Shall vanish John Nlcholls, of Spar tanDurg, Of the South Carolina First! Private John M. Nlcholls, Company H., First South Carolina Volunteers, Spottsylvania court house, May 18th, 1864. An authentic incident. When the war closed Nicholls came back home, not yet of age, to a widowed mother, and devastated farm. He accepted the verdict of arms and set to work in the field to redeem his fortune and to provide for those dependent upon him. We, of the south, alone know the horrors of reconstruction. How South Carolina was redeemed by the Klu Klux is a story for South Carolina children. John Nicholls was a Kiu Klux, and when the Federal soldiers came in their effort to hold up the carpetbag government John Nicholls took to the woods, suffice it that he went west, and came back after the storm blew over. In the eighties he was first electetf sheriff. The close of his first term was marked by his holding a mob at bffy when they attempted to take Geo. S. Turner, a prisoner, afterward hanged for murder, from him, but that Is another story. FLOODS IN LEASH. Government Completes Pathfinder Irrigation System In Nebraska. After five years of hard labor and the spending of a mint of money the stupendous irrigation works which the government has been establishing in western Nebraska and Wyoming have been finished, says the Omaha correspondent of the New York Tribune, and the snow water which the hot August sun is biinging down from the mountains In torrents is being conserved in the immense reservoirs Instead of being allowed to rush down the Platte river and through the Missouri on into the lower Mississippi to inundate that portion of the country at a tremendous loss to the people. This is the first practical trial of the gov 4 t tforl/o oriH tho nffi - eminent unganun nvm.i, .... .... clals of the reclamation bureau are watching the result with a great deal of anxiety, as on that result will hang the future actions of this branch of the national government. The irrigation works on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains are intended for a twofold purpose. One is to irrigate a semiarid country; the other is to so hem up the flood waters when the summer sun has started the mountain snow to melting that no damage will result to the country along the lower and more level stretches of the great rivers, the water beipg held in check when In flood and gradually released when the land is dry and baked under the prairie sun and wind. The work which has just been finished and the reservoirs which are Just now filling up with the snow water are included in the famous Pathfinder system, the dam being located in a deep gorge of the Rocky Mountains through which the North Platte river plunges. In this gorge a dam costing 11,000,000 was built and the water backs twentyfive miles through the mountains. The great reservoir holds 1,000,000 acres feet of water: that is, enough water to cover 1,000.000 acres of land one foot deep. Contrary to the general idea, the government is not constructing this great work, nor any other of the western irrigation systems, for the free use of the owners of the lands through which the canals flow. The reclamation service is self-supporting, and every cent spent by the service is repaid to the government by the owners of benefited lands. The original appropriation for the North Platte project? the project just finished?was from money received from the sale of pubis.. nnn it will he renaid to the national treasury by those who enjoy) the fruits of the irrigation it affords. Each acre of land under this project, whether privately owned or homestead, must pay the government $35 for the perpetual irrigation right. The $35 is paid in ten equal installments, without interest. Thus the government will, in the course of ten years, recover every cent it spent on the project. Land which without irrigation was worth next to nothing is converted into land worth from $90 to $100 an acre. The habitable farm area of the country is increased by hundreds of thousands of acres. Everybody wins and nobody loses. As fast as the money is paid back Into the national treasury it is reaporoprlated for the use of another irrigation system, and the same fund Is used over and over again. So the reclamation service is entirely self-sustaining. The North Platte valley, which the Pathfinder dam and reservoir irrigates, is from five to twenty-five miles wide, and already water is taken from the river in sufficient quantities to irrigate 250,000 acres in the valley. But the government project takes no water from the river. It utilizes simply the flood water and does not diminish the regular flow of the river. BLONDE AND FEMALE. Types of Mosquitoes That Pester Soldiers at Fort Lawton. The mosquitoes that are making life so interesting for the soldiers at Fort Lawton are of a decided blonde complexion and belong to the female sex, says a Seattle Times correspondent. The statement as to their complexly Is vouched for by dozens of Infantrymen who have examined their color after spatting them to death en their cheeks, and the information regarding their sex comes from Prof. O. B. Johnson, former Instructor In biology at the University of Washington. The mosquito's mission In life is still a mystery to the scientific world, according to Prof. Johnson. While entomologists can see a reason for the existence of most insects, the little but exceedingly busy masqulto still remains a deep puzzle. "A mosquito never eats anything after passing out of the larvae stage," explained Prof. Johnson today, "but from the moment It Is matured the female's sole ambition In life Is to suck blood from a mammal. It makes no difference whether that mammal Is a hippopotamus In Africa, a lion, a house cat. a mule or a human being. "After a mosquito has once filled Itself with blood, according to tradition, it proceeds to die, but I do not believe this has been scientifically demonstrated. As far as known, it never makes a second attack on an animal. The males never bother us at all, but there seems to be enough females to go around. It Is peculiar that an Insect should be placed on this earth with the sole object of extracting a little blood from an animal, when It does not need the blood for food or any other purpose, so far as known. And then think of the billions of them that die without ever seeing a mammal. "Methods of exterminating mosquitoes have been reduced to an exact science by the army surgeons who have been compelled to make their study an object of special research, and it is an easy matter to get rid of them when the stagnant water where they lay their eggs can be found. Contrary to the belief of some people, they do not require hot weather to live prosperously. They enjoy life in a snowdrift and are often found above the snow line in the mountains." The Fort Lawton soldiers are still keeping indoors to avoid the onslaughts of the salt water mosquitoes that have Invaded the posts. The hands of the men who are compelled to work outdoors during the day are covered with tiny swellings that show where the j mosquitoes have been. J "Grasshoppers are nearly as bad as Ithe mosquitoes," said one of the sol-1 j diers today. "With the mosquitoes j swarming: around us from above and j myriads of grasshoppers hopping on to 3 us from below, army life here is becoming a nightmare. The mosquitoes do not devour vegetation, anyhow, but the grasshoppers are stripping all the flower beds." NAVY MARKSMEN SHIP. Gunners Show Great Advance In Skill Since War With Spain. During the year 1896 and part of 1897, says Admiral Evans in Hampton's Broadway magazine, Rear Admiral Bunce, then commanding the IVortn Atlantic squauruu ui mc lean navy, undertook systematic target practice for the first time In our navy with modern high-powered guns and torpedoes. He was fully aware, as most of us seagoing officers were, that our hitting power with guns was far from satisfactory and the torpedoes were even worse, and he proceeded to Improve It as far as he could. The first practice was held on what was known as the northern drill ground off the coast of New Jersey and was in every way a departure from the methods previously followed. A target was moored, ships anchored to mark the shots, and each ship in turn ran along the base of the triangle opposite the target and fired as rapidly as she could for a period of about six minutes. I commanded the Indiana, our first battleship, at the time, and the fire of her battery was watched with Intense interest. Our 13-inch guns were fired, each of them, once In three minutes and we occasionally put a shell through the target. The six-Inch guns fired about three shots per minute and the slxpounders six to eight shots. At our last practice In 1908 the 13-lnch guns averaged nearly two hits on the target per minute?no,t, you will observe, two shots only, but two hits; the six-inch guns went as high as twelve hits per minute, though the average Is much below that. The record for slxpounders ran up as high as twenty hits per minute. I state all this to show how we have advanced in accuracy and rapidity of fire since Admiral Bunce started us in the right direction. The result of this first practice was surprising. Some enterprising newspaper man found out the cost of the ammunition we hud expended, and his paper, joined by a number of others, gave us a fine line of abuse for wasting the money of the tax-payers and firing away ammunition we might some day need. The Spanish war cathe a few months later and we were enabled to repay our tax-payers in a measure for our wasteful practices of the previous year. The same newspapers gave us praise for our good shooting and did not indicate * fnoll'/o/l hniv fih. mi any way iiiui mr/ ican^u surd their conduct had been in the first case. If Admiral Bunce had not drilled us as he did I feel sure the battle of Santiago would not have have been the clean-cut, businesslike job it was. One naval officer has had the. hardihood to state before a committee of congress that our shooting at Santiago was disgraceful. If we can judge by results, this officer was clearly wrong in the Impression he tried to convey, in fact, did convey, to the committee. One thing we may be sure of, and that is that he will have a small following among those who fought in that battle. ^tisrrltanrous grading. "THE LAW AND THE SOUTH." Wherf Wtalth and Position Aro. Safeguards /.gainst Punishment. The Columbia State. Within the last few days judgment has been rendered in three criminal cases in this country that are of more than ordinary interest. In New York Charles W. Morse, bank wrecker, has been convicted and sentenced to fifteen years in the penitentiary. In Virginia, E. W. Overby, bank wrecker, has been acquitted by a jury of twelve men. In Georgia, T. W. Alexander, convicted bank wrecker, has been pardnnpri hv Hip nrlsnn cnmmlsalnn and Governor Smith. The case of Morse the public Is familiar with, his large career as a financier, his accumulation of a fortune of a hundred or two millions, his control of vast enterprises In New York, his connection with the Ice pool, his final collapse, his embezzlement, his conviction and his recent sentencing to fifteen years In the penitentiary. E. W. Overby was formerly cashier of the bank of Mecklenburg, at Boydton, Va. He embezzled the funds of the bank and wrecked the Institution. His trial has just been concluded. There was absolutely no dispute as to the facts; they were undeniable and acknowledged. Overby In fact pleaded guilty to the principal charge against him. But the jury was of "the vicinage," as the law hath it, they knew the accused, knew his family and felt sorry for him. So in' the face of the facts, In the face of the law, and against the rights of society, they brought in a verdict of not guilty! The indignant and courageous judge, Judge Barksdale, publicly reprimanded the Jury and denominated their action as a plain and flagrant disregard of the law and of justice. But Overby was acquitted?and the prosecution has no redress. The public hereabout Is probably more or less familiar with the case of T. W. Alexander. He was a prominent business man In Augusta; he was equally prominent socially. He became Involved, embezzled funds from one of the Augusta banks and wrecked It Alexander was tried, convicted and sentenced to six years in the state penitentiary. Now. after two years of his service, the prison commission of Georgia and Governor Smith have pardoned him. The arguments on which the pardon was based are of more than ordinary Interest. In the first place It was argued that because of certain circumstances the sentence of Alexander was longer than It might have been otherwise. These circumstances were as follows. We quote from an Atlanta dispatch to the Augusta Chronicle: "In the application for pardon, It Is set forth that Mr. Alexander's term was much longer than would have been the case but for an odd circumstance connected with the laws of the state. It was first understood that his term would be no more than two or three years. Then it was discovered that such a sentence would place him on a county road chaingang. Richmond county was short of its pro rata share of convicts at that time, and the | chance was that he would be sent back to his home to serve the sentence, where infinite humiliation to himself would not alone result, but undeserved pain and embarrassment to his relatives caused." It would seem that only short term convicts may be used on the chaingangs, and so to avoid the necessity of putting Mr. Alexander on the chaingang it was determined instead to give him the long sentence and send him to the penitentiary?where after a time the opportunity of a pardon would be offered. Then, too, there was another interesting and forceful circumstance. We quote again from the same dispatch to the Chronicle: "Beside the circumstance of the sentence, it was set forth that the punishment had been adequate as two years for a man of Mr. Alexander's refinement amounted to more than 20 for the ordinary criminal; that his continued confinement will punish numbers of innocent and very reputable relatives more than himself; that he has been model in his conduct and is anxious to begin life anew and reclaim his lost prestige while still on the bright side of the meridian. This is interesting and it is new law. We had always imagined that the law knew no distinctions, that it prescribed certain terms for certain offenses and questions of a gentleman's "refinement," not to speak of the feelings of his relatives and the opportunities of the gentleman's resuming his business and regaining his "lost prestige" while still on "the bright side of the meridian," had nothing to do with the expatiation of a criminal offense. Those of not so tender hearts and consciences as the prison commission of Georgia and Governor Smith will be disposed to ask the question why Mr. Alexander did not think of his "refinement" and of his relatives and of his "bright meridian" before he embezzled the funds of the bank. These three cases carry their own moral?a moral which we are sad to | confess is not pleasant to the south. *? wn Hosximqo wp have not the I ll iUaj WV WWWWMV .. ? same respect for the law, It may be because we all know one another In the south and respect for the "refinement" of folk or regard for the feelings of their "relatives" frustrates the enforcement of the law, but at any rate and for whatever cause the unhappy truth remains that we of the south do not enforce the law as do the people of the north. To our shame be it said, that it is the negro or the moneyless white of the south that gets Justice. Persons that can plead their "refinement" or can plead their "relatives" or something else equally foreign to the . administration of equal justice get? well they got out of jail, or they never get into jail. % The south must take account of itself. We are now so cursed with lawlessness that honest and decent and I right-loving citizens must hang their j heads in shame. We have often, and earlier, recognized murder as a flno |art: and if we do not mend we shall soon give equal recognition to the art of plain theft. The south must enforce its laws, it must protect life and ->ronertv. or honest, decent, peaceable men must leave the south. "r The rabbit's range of vision takes in the entire horizon.