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v"': -'/y ? * # _ ISSUED SEMI-WEEKLY. t. x grist's sons, Pubiuheri.} S 4amiI8 : ^or th< promotion of Ih? political, Social, ^grieulfura! and (Tontmercial Interests of th< JeopU. ) I?"";'o^0?(/P/""vJ"CB"""CI' ESTABLISHED 1855. YOEKVILLE, 8. C., FRIDAY, MAY 17, 191-2. NO. 40.* | MISSISSIP1 I Trying Times on P f Under d High water time in the Mississippi val'ey is one of fear and danger to all that live in the lowlands along the river from Cairo to the gulf stretch, says the New York Evening Post. The fight against the waters of the Mississippi, which is never ended, is the fight of all those who have built their towns and homes, and planted their fields for hundreds of miles along its banks. "The levee's got to hold" is the slogan of every one, and the task of strengthening it calls out every man in the bottoms. Armed guards patrol the river. To tamper with the levee is to be shot, with no questions asked afterward. High water talk is the one subject of every one. As the saying goes, it's "come hell and high water." For the terrible loss caused by a break in the levees is too eat to suffer from, except after the most desperate fight to stem the waters. Watching the fevees is a watch to save life itself. A single stream? starting perhaps by a crawfish hole ?may get to considerable proportions without detection; may grow with the rush of water behind it, until the crevasse can not be held. Then comes the flooding of farms and the killing of live stock, and the lowlands become a desolate flooded plain, the river changed to a flowing sheet of water sixty miles in width. Hundreds of thousands are driven from their homes, and return when the waters have receded, perhap3 to find that their houses have been carried away, too. Planting is almost impossible. "High water's coming," is a warning to all. People who have seen only rivers such as the Hudson, or other streams with faster currents, but held in by firm banks, can have no idea of the turbulence of the mighty Mississippi when the spring floods are upon her. It may give some idea of the stream to say that the waters from middle Pennsylvania, Lake Winnipeg, and Montana meet together more than a thousand miles to the southward, to swell the flood and perhaps to overwhelm an Arkansas plantation. The watersheds of twenty-seven states contribute to the Mississippi's stream. Time of the Spring Flood*. Small wonder is it that when the spring thaw comes, the snow melts, and the water comes out of the ground the river's stage rises, often to the danger mark; maybe it passes It and overflows or DreaKs me banks, as It has done this week. Before the turbulence of that river in flood time the efforts of man to hold its current In narrower banks for nearly one thbusand miles by protecting levees seem well night hopeless indeed. Thousands of men are working desperately now, from Cairo down to a point below New Orleans, in the hope of holding the levees. It Is heartbreaking work to fight against the water, whose efforts are ceaseless; It never retreats, but must be forced back. News of the river stages from above is hailed as news from the front In time of war. "Forty-four feet at Memphis, and the government forecaster aays that the crest of the flood is not yet reached"?this reads almost like tidings of disaster to the planter In the lowlands in Arkansas and around Greenville. The common danger makes friends of all who must help, lest all be lost. The planter hurrying from his home, where he has left his wife and children camping in the upper stories of the house, to the levee, where he will work with blistered hands at piling sacks and shoveling dirt, by the side of a laborer, meets some one on the road. "How's the water?" "Forty-three feet at Memphis and the river's rising." "We'll hold her this time " And the two pass on. These people of the Mississippi lowlands are florKt acrnlrvQt thp piucny in uien iiqiiv ? mighty river. They are always confident that sooner or later the fight will end, and those men who have wrested this land from the river, will hold It secure for their own. Scenes at High Water Time. High water time is one of the most interesting sights that the Mississippi offers. Boats bring in to protected towns loads of refugees from plantations which are outside of levee protecton. Negroes leave their cabins on rafts, and float out chickens, hogs, mules, and all sorts of plunder. They crowd upon the levees waiting for a boat to take them off. Planters se^d their stock away to safer pasturage, if they are able. The river swarms with craft. Men are brought to the levee in special trains Tor emergency wore; lumuer is snipped to build bulkheads and prevent the caving away of the dirt. Trains bring in thousands of sacks to be filled with earth and raise the top of the levee above the flood. Steamboats carry lumber, wheelbarrows, skiffs, sacks and materials of every kind up and down the river to threatened places. Every one must do his utmost in this time of high water. It is almost a time of martial law. The danger is too great to allow the ordinary force to the local authorities to suffice for the protection of the levee. Up and down the bank of dirl which must be held, walk armed guards, sworn in as the levee patrol. Their horses are hitched at a tree behind the bank, saddled and ready. Day and night these men patrol up and down, their rifle." unslung. Perhaps one man will guard a half mile of levee?rarely more: and when there is danger of some one cutting the bank they are posted every two hundred yards or less. Standing on the levee by the side a imnrrt the thin striD of earth, perhaps only a few inches above the crest of the stream, seems a pitifully weak defense against the river floods. A small boy might cut a small trough >1 FLOODS. j -? | eople With Country j Water. j across the top and start the crevasse > that would destroy property over i miles of country. Again there have been cases where men rowed across and cut the levee on the other side, i to save the bank on their own. A > half doz*n strokes of the spade and the da-.nage might be done, which i none could stop. Timber thieves, i too, might find it profitable to flood i the swamps and steal the rafts there while the owners were trying to save ; other property. Because of all this, the armed ' Tuard shoots and shoots to kill. His idea of his task is to make a job for the coroner and not for the doctor. It is enough to ask questions afterward of the man jvho comes with a spade to the levee. Besides this danger there Is another that the waves may begin to overlap the top. Steamboat captains are warned to keep away from the snore wnen mey are swuuiue uk v> down the river at full speed. A guard will walk with watchful eye along with a boat. If It threatens the banks and comes within the prescribed limit, he tries to pick off the pilot These are not times for a shot across the bows. After the flood waters have been In the river for some days, lapping against the levee, water will begin to seep through the earthen bank on the land side. If the water that comes through Is clear there need be no fear, as that indicates that it is only the seepage. But if it comes through in a muddy flow, then there must be a quick and effective efTort to stop the leaking. A muddy flow shows there is a break in the bank and that the water is strong enough to carry away material. Men and mules and lumber and sacks of dirt are rushed to the spot In the case of a muddy flow there is only one way to stop it, and that is by adding material on the river side, to stop up the holes at the point of Inflow. The Break at Holly Buah. Perhaps the efforts of the men will be successful. But sometimes nature and fate are against them. At the Holly Bush crevasse in Arkansas in 1903 thousands of men worked night and day to strengthen the bank, and managed to keep it just an inch above the flood tide. Reports from up the river indicated higher and higher stages?the flood crest had not passed. On March 15 the crest passed Cairo, and the men near Holly Bush knew that the next day would be the crisis. The river was rising at the rate of a foot a day. The next day dawned with the weary men fighting still to raise the bank?most of them had been without sleep for forty-eight hours. But with the early day there came a high wind from the east, and little waves began to dash over the levee. It was the lasti misfortune. Streams a few inches wide began to make a small channel in the top of the bank in dozens of placeB. There was no hope now, and the men abandoned their work at the dangerous points, and waited for the flood to sweep away In a few minutes j their work of days, and to flood all the lowlands behind. ! Then came the break. One hundred feet of the ombankment snapped with a roar and a terrific tor-1 rent rushed through. The break widened to 6,000 feet and the swirling yellow waters dashed through, carrying destruction. They flooded the town of Marlon, Ark., and inundated two entire counties. The damage from that break was two million of dollars. The Mississippi river in flood takes everything with it. To watch the endless procession which the swift current carries by Is to see all the properties of tragedies. The Mississippi In flood is the despoller of homes. Houses come floating down the stream, outbuildings, furniture, and myriads of smaller things, tossed by the waves in the "runs" or sailing on serenely in the broader stretches Great trees go by. They are evidence that the Mississippi has asserted Its majesty somewhere and has cut a new channel to please itself, eating away bank, growth and all. Carcasses of cows and horses and dogs float down the stream, carrying a pair of buzzards, those scavengers who have so much work to do after the floods have receded. It Is a terrible and a melancholy sight. The Lowlands In Flood. For those people who dwell always within sight of a hill or a rise of ground, the terrlbleness of the flood i waters in flat lands is hard to unt derstand. After the levees have been i broken, the waters spread over thousands and thousands of acres, and rafts are the only refuge of the peoi pie and their stock. The suffering in the towns is great, but it is in the.inundated lowlands away from the towns on the plantations, that one finds the real tragedies. The picture of the lower Mississippi in flood time, and the desolation i of the Inundated flats, has rarely been better done anywhere. It was written by one who was on a dispatch boat in the great inundations of 1882. i "Ascending on the left, a flood was > pouring in through and over the le: vees on the Chandler plantation, the I most northern point in Point Coupee parish. The water completely cov? ered the place, although the levees had given way, but a short time bei fore. The stock had beeu gathered * - * ...iiU ' in a large liuiuuiii, wui-i ? , vvimuui ( food, as we passed, the animals were i huddled together waiting for a boat ' to tow them off. On the right-hand ? side of the river is Turnbull's Island, and on it Is a plantation which for> merly was pronounced one of the most fertile in the state. The water i has hitherto allowed it to go scot free in usual floods, but now broad sheets of water told us only where fields were. The top of the protective le vee could be seen here and there, but nearly all of It was submerged. Gloomy Tre?? In Water. "The trees have put on a green foliage since the water haa poured In, and the woods look bright and fresh, but this pleasant aspect to the eye Is neutralized by the Interminable waste of water. We pass mile after mile, and It Is nothing but trees standing up to their branches In water. A water-turkey now and again rises and flies ahead into the long avenue of silence. A pirogue sometimes flits frnm tho hushes nn Its WAV nut to the Mississippi, but the sad-faced paddlers never turn their heads to look at our boat. The puffings of the boat is music in this gloom, which affects one most curiously. It is not the gloom of deep forests or dark caverns, but a peculiar kind of solemn silence and impressive awe that holds one to its recognition. We passed two negro families on a raft tied up in the willows this morning. They were evidently of a well-to-do class, as they had a supply of meal and three or four hogs with them. Their rafts were about twenty feet square, and in front of an improvised shelter earth had been placed on which they built their Are * Thursday a number were taken out of trees and off cabin roofs, many yet remaining. "One does not appreciate the sight of earth until he has traveled through a flood. At sea one does not expect to look for it, but here, with fluttering leaves, shadowy forest aisles, housetops barely visible, it 1b expected. A graveyard, if the mounds were above water, would be appreciated. The river here is known only because there is an opening in the trees, and that is all. It is in width, from Fort Adams on the left bank on the Mississippi to the bank of Rapides par ish, a distance of about sixty miles. This then is the gloom of the water which comes up and floods the flat lands. The story of suffering and loss is told in figures of millions of dollars, but that scarcely gets to the heart of it. The negro squatters and small farmers in out-lying districts, who must save everything by themselves, see nearly all they have carried away, and must wait for the waters to recede to start again, handicapped for years. After the waters come the pestilential mud and the evidences of death. The buzzards wheeling continually above the willow trees in the bottoms tell much of the story of what the Mississippi has done in its flood tide." THE WOMAN PAST FIFTY. Men Who Say Her Greatest Intellec- i tual Growth Comes Then. Careful studies of the histories of men and women, their growth and 1 development, extendng over a long period of years, reveal some facts not i recognized In the literature of the i day, writes a physician in the Dietetic i and Hygienic Gazette. A man and ] woman, both college graduates, mar- i ried at the age of 25 years. They both possessed culture and training i aDOve me average unu were m c? cellent health. . i During the first twenty-five years of their married life he attained great i eminence and did fine Intellectual i work. Then he became a mental In- 1 valid and remained at a standstill, I without any special cause. During 1 this time his wife had given all her < attention and time to the care and 1 education of her children and domestic duties, and while regarded as a very strong woman stteemed not to I have risen above the level of her sur- I roundings. Then suddenly she realized her 1 husband's decline and entered into the ' work which he was engaged in and 1 showed rare intellectual vigor and 1 power, and in a very short time attained a reputation. This continued until her death. Her husband, in the ' meantime, failed to keep up his pre- ' vious reputation and gradually de- ' clined, although he was not in illhealth. His intellectual work was over, but hen's began where he stop- ' ped and went on to great heights. 1 Thus in almost every community 1 there are women not recognized as anything more than the average in intellectual attainments and wisdom, who mwlripnlv after KO vears of aee. ' broaden out Into strong, vigorous thinkers and become great powers In 1 the community. Joseph Cook said: "The most Intellectual audiences I have ever ad- j dressed were women past 50 years of age. I have found them most appreciative and critical, and when I have asked for questions to bring out fur- 1 ther explanations of the subject their wisdom has astonished me, as well as ' their clearness of knowledge and breadth of judgment." The late Frof. Shaler affirmed that, all things being equal and with a degree of average health, the real intellectual growth of women Is more rapid after 50 years of age and from then on to 70 than In men. Usually men at about 50 years of age begin to decline in productive, literary or constructive work. The rest of life Is spent In gathering up and perfecting work that has been outlined before. In women it Is just the opposite. Many men who live rationally and carefully exhibit no halt in intellectual growth until after 70. The best work of life is done in the last fifteen or twenty years. in women 11 may ue siuu-u an u rule, that their highest attainments begin and go on after 50. The term "grand old man" should more literally include the woman, who is the best illustration of all that is broad and strong. Paid to Be Boss.?"There's a certain politician gallavantin' around the country just now," said a dyed-inthe-wool Taft man at the custom house, "who reminds me of an old negro who used to work for my father. He's bound to be boss. "Old Ike was given a job one day by father cutting up some wood In tVio varrt Dad cave Tka a ouar ter to do It. Later in the day he went out and found the old negro sitting on a stick and directing the work of another black, who was industriously cutting and sawing. " 'Why. Ike." remarked dad,' didn't I nay you to do this work?' "Yassuh. boss, yo' sho' did.' "Well, why aren't you doing it?' "I giv dis nigger 35 cents to do It.' " 'Thirty-five cents? Why so much?' asked father. "Well. boss, it's dis a way: I reckon it's wuf 10 cents ter be boss once in a while."?Louisville Times. ,W _ Governor XOoo Endorsed For The Preside State Com ITALY'S GIGANTIC TA8K. II Conquering Tripoli Like Filling Up 8] Rat Hole With Water. a I wonder If the Italian people have ai any idea of the hopeless task that lies ^ before their arrav. I wonder if the u people who have to pay for all this ** business of war and waste of ammu- ,r nltlon out here have any conception P' of the futility of it all, or of the enor- ? mous sum of money they will have to ?o on paying1 every month without the * least chance of getting a single centi- w mo of It back. The belated European newspapers tf that occasionally reach me by devious ^ routes, give accounts, from time to 01 time, of glorious Italian victories, of s* which I have never been able to find n< any evidence here, though I am free to go where I choose, writes Alan Ostler, from Tripoli, to the Washington el Star. Possibly these encouraging ac- 11 counts are credited in Italy. I cannot otherwise understand why the cam!>aign Is allowed to continue. rl Even if they were true; even if the UI Turkish forces were defeated with heavy loss seven times a week; even If every Turkish soldier in Tripoli 01 were shot or cut down by these irresistible, valiant Italian warriors, who n' jpeak so modestly of their mythical 'z successes?even then, Italy would be A no nearer occupying the province ol Tripoli than she is today. Here is the situation as it is at present, and as it will most probably ? jontinue until Italiy wearies of her la :ostly enterprise: " Could Occupy Other Posts. 01 As long as she is prepared to keep al her warships ready for action and to 81 patrol the coast (a costly affair in itself), Italy can be fairly secure against the recapture of Tripoli, Horns and ni Benghazi. She ought, with a little en- aI terprise, to be able even to occupy *11 other important posts on the coast line, and aided by naval gunfire, to " hold them against the Turks and hl Arabs. al She also can advance into the deBert?if she cares to pay the price. 'r The price will be heavy. Every ad- tr vancing column will have to be enor- ? mously strong in cavalry and Infantry ^ and light artillery. The task of trans- ** porting heavy artillery across the sand ki dunes is practically hopeless. Every step Into the desert lengthens the line of communication, which p< cl the columns must keep Intact at all ? T hazards and this means an enormous Increase in the size of the army and consequently in expenditure. Food, ammunition, fodder and es- ^ pecially water must be sent daily from the base, for the desert affords none ^ of these but the last, and in the case r>f an irresistible advance of this kind v< the Arabs would effectively cut off the water supply by filling up the wells with sand. ,a fr Wherever the column halts for any length of time It must intrench and fortify, as at Aln Zara and it will be ^ harassed by bodies of Arab flying cavalry, to attack which would, for a ^ slow-moving force, be like fighting the wind. Must Fight for Every Foot. r< And such a column would be able to dominate a district extending per- 111 haps a day's ride on either side; certainlv not more. Now. from the fron- e1 tier of Tunis to the frontier of Egypt is about forty or forty-five days' ride, 111 and Italy will have to fight for every c? square foot of that area. c< Even then matters would not he altogether hopeless if defeat meant subjection for the Arabs. But it does not. I eannot too emphatically state my 111 conviction that no amount of Italian ai victories would ever induce the Arabs to submit. If Turkey were to make m peace tomorrow the Arabs would go on w fighting as long as Italy attempted to te impose her government upon them. They do not for a moment believe tl" the Italian promises of prosperity, w kindliness and just government. Such ei promises have come too late. The ai Aralts of Tripoli or, at all events, ?' their leaders, do not believe that Itaty rc has spent all the money that this cam- cc paign is costing merely in order to sc help them to wealth and happiness. |jS& drotv XV its on mcy by South Carolina rention. Well, in supporting a successful alian advance I have hitherto only ,ioken of the coast region. Save for littoral fringe of oases between Zoura and Tripoli, this district is about s fertile as a stoneyard; and the vale of the alleged phosphate mines in le neighborhood of Zawai is exceedigly problematical. By driving the resent inhabitants out of it, at a reat cost, as I have said, Italy might BLin possession of this region. But it HI cost her more to keep it than to in It. ^outh of this coast strip lie the mounilns. The Arabs, if unable to hold le coast and plalnland, will fall back i Gharlen and Yefreen, mountain xongholds from which It would be ext to impossible to dislodge them. Could Hold Passes. The first of the two mountain passi that lead to Gharlen alone could terally be held by 100 men against 000. Even without the mountain itterles already stationed there, Ghaen is practically impregnable, a nat-. ral fortress. What will the people of Italy say thou train ? fnnthnld in the desert aly to find that If they mean to hold they must sweep the mountains of ?st after neat of armed and organed raiders? In such a case the rahs Intend to make their home In te mountains and descend at will to irry the plains. Imagine what It would cost the rltlsh taxpayer If Wales and Scot,nd still were peopled by warlike eebooters, whose favorite amuselent was raiding the border country id retreating to the hills whenever a iperlor army was brought Into the eld against them. England would have either to exterilnate those people or to maintain rmles constantly in a state of war on er borders. Think of the cost of pro cting the Indian northwest frontier; ie bills for the "little wars" England as to wage against single tribes, such i the Afrldls. The prospect before Italy Is worse, ?r Italian troops are not accustomed > desert and mountain warfare, as ngland's Indian veterans are. Insed, I do not hesitate to say that ley show no aptitude for war of any ind whatever. Arab's United People. Further, they are matched against ?ople united In arms and led by ever men. The chief leaders of the rlpolltan Arabs are educated men of le new type. The war began in October last year. Ince then the continued success of le Italian arms has given the Italian my possession of one town and two lllages and the Italian soldiers have it yet advanced into the desert beind the range of their great naval jns. (Ain Zara Is their one inland nd position, and is perhaps six miles om the seashore). I EN OF WONDERFUL MEMORY. acaulay Knew "Paradise Lost" Backward and Frontward. Rabbis have been known who could >peat the whole of the Hebrew :riptures word for word. A French arquls made a handbook of France om memory, in which he described ( .'ery principal chateau in the king>m. Cardinal Mezzefantl, "that lonster of languages," as Byron tiled him, could give offhand the ; intents of entire dictionaries and rammars. A Roman priest used to amuse his lends by a extraordinary feat of lemory. Allowing them to designate fiy line of an Italian poet, he would t ?gln with that line and recite a hun- < red lines, either backward or for ard, according to the wish of his lisners. I Experienced librarians will carry in leir heads a list of titles of books, ith the names of the authors and fen the proper number of the books < id their places on the shelves, to i extent astonishing to the ordinary j ader. Long practice gives this acimplishment, but it Is of course the >oner attained when the person pos- | sses a naturally retentive memory. . This faculty was downright genius in Antony Magllabecchi, librarian of the Grand Duke Cosmo III, of Florence. For instance, if a priest wished to compose a panegyric on a saint and communicated his intention to Magllabecchi, the librarian would immediately inform him of any reference to the saint of the part of the work wherein it was to be found, and that sometimes to the number of a hundred writers. Magllabecchi could tell not only who had treated a -subject designedly but also those who had touched upon it incidentally in writing upon other subjects. This' information was given with the greatest exactness, naming the author, the book, the words and often the very number of'the page at which the passage occurred. Magllabecchi visited other libraries, and his local memory was such that he needed but to see and consult a book but once in its place to fix everything pertaining to it permanently in his mind. One day, the story runs, the Grand Duke sent for Magllabecchi to ask whether there could be procured for him a book that was decidedly rare. "No. your grace," answered the librarian, "for there Is but one copy in the world, and that is in the library of the Grand Selgnor at Constantinople. It is the seventh book on the shelf on the right as one enters." Prescott tells how Macaulay was once caught tripping with reference to a line in "Paradise Lost." In a few days he turned up with the poem In his hand, saying, as he offered it to the gentleman who had caught him, "I do not think that you will catch me again as to the Paradise." And they did not. Dr. Addison Alexander of Princeton 1 Theological seminary, had a wonderful memory. It was not only tenacious of words, but of facts. For the ' amusement of young folks he would sometimes say, "now, I am going to talk without thinking." And he would pour forth period after period of ' strange words and incongruous lm- 1 ages, harmonious and even rhythmical in sound but wholly destitute of 1 sense. If any one thinks this is an easy feat, let him try to suspend his rea- ' son and give free rein to his fancy in 1 periods which shall be grammatically correct and yet without meaning. Another of his feats was to submit 1 himself to examination and tell oft- 1 hand where he was and what he was ' doing on any day of any year the examiner chose to name. His most wonderful feat was displayed at the matriculation of a class in the seminary. Forty or fifty stu- ] dents presented themselves for admission. Each handed his credentials to the professors, who examined them, and, If satisfactory, entered the student's name and address in the register. _ When the students had retired the professors began bantering one another as to which one should take the register home and prepare from It an alphabetical roll?an Irksome task.* "There is no need to take the register home," said Dr. Alexander, "I will make out the roll for you." Whereupon he took a sheet of paper and, without referring .to the register, wrote out in alphabetical order the full names and addresses of the students, which he heard only once, when they were recorded. What makes this still more wonderful is the fact that the entire mass of names and addresses must have been present in the doctor's mind while he was selecting each one in its alphabetical order.?New York Evening Sun. The Recreant. There was a Kansas City man present who could make affidavit to this story, but he won't. It happened not so long ago, and Just why the Kansas City man found himself In the little Missouri town that had gone dry by one vote and was about to close its single saloon is neither here nor there. He was there, all right, and he declares that the following is a irue account oi wnat iiappeiitu. The Kansas City man, the town marshal and one other were walking up the main street when the Kansas City man was suddenly seized with a thirst. "I'll show you the way to the saloon, but I won't go with you," said the marshal. "There's a bunch over there lamenting the fact that the town's going dry and I don't want to have to make any pinches until I get a new padlock for the calaboose door." Within the saloon there was an air of mingled sadness and hilarity. Six of the brawniest "wets" were In possession and the liquor was flowing fast. The Kansas City man and his friend accepted a general invitation. Just then the town drunk came In. "Where in thunder have you been?" demanded.the largest of the men before the bar. "Fishln," replied the town drunk, "Jist fishln." "Where were you day before yes- * terday when all this dry votln' was * goln' on?" The town disgrace hung his head. 1 "Flshin," he said sullenly. "Why, 1 I was jist flshin." "Jist flshin, were you?" demanded all six men at once. "Jist flshin,' and this town going dry by one vote. You might have tied that vote and you were flshin'!" Suddently, declares the Kansas City man, there was an eruption of arms and legs and the town drunk became the center of a tornado-like mass of humanity. Finally he managed to roll through the door and took to his heels. "Flshin'!" scornfully exclaimed that biggest man. "Him' flshin' when the town was goln' dry!"? Kansas City Journal. Dignity of the Law.?"Now," said the lawyer who was conducting the c cross-examination, "I will ask you whether you have ever been In Jail." . "I have not," replied the witness. "Have you ever been indicted by a f grand jury?" f "No." "Have you ever been arrested?" "No." a "Have you ever run away with an- '' other man'a wife?" "I never have." a "Have you ever cheated anybody In a horse trade?" "I never have had a horse." c "Ah! You are evading my question, t [ thought we should find you out . sooner or later. You are excused." ?Chicago Record Herald. 1 'aj'T'+J'T'VW'w^X^ **}'TIA/'W^" '^ V"ww wV MARIE ( Mother of First Toi Tells H By Ismay Dooly, In "Ladles and gentlemen, before this very Inspiring conference concludes I want to Introduce to you the organiser of the first tomato club for girls in the world," was the dr&mtic statement by Miss Virginia Moore of South Carolina, whose clear womanly voice has rung through the four walls of nearly every little one-room school house of rural Carolina as well as in the bigger normal schools, and she led from her chair the rather shrinking figure of a girl, and presented the little mother of the tomato clubs. The occasion was one of the many sub-conferences held under the conference for education in the south in Nashville, for this particular conference hinged on the human Interest theme of the girls' tomato clubs of the country, as led by women who for the past year have organized them in every agricultural state in the union. Miss Moore director of school improvement work in South Carolina. Dr. Bradford Knapp of the farm demonstration department of the department of agriculture, had made the leading address and drawn brilliant reports from the women of many afo toe ha ho/4 crnna tA Q nnthpr mOAt. Ing. It was growing- late; the group were beginning to consult their watches with the knowledge of other calls, when "the mother of tomato clubs" took the floor. She Is not near the height w.omen claim as "medium." She does not weigh a hundred pounds. She looks scarcely 18, and when her voice broke UDon the silence her introduction commanded. It had the note of weary womanhood blended with the long accentuation children of the country give the last word of their sentences. "Well, if Miss Moore thinks It will do any good I'll tell my story," she said. Before she had spoken Ave minutes pencils slipped from nervous Angers, note books were laid aside and white tissue veils were drawn from women's faces that they might see as well as hear. Doctors of theology, university presidents, editors of national note lost themselves in emotional following of the drama of rural life interpreted by that heroine of the remnfnai noono, In ivhlnh tVlooa HrflmO C iiiuicoi OVCIIV *11 niMwit i>*vnv u. centre the teacher of the rural school. No 8tudiod Effect*. There was no need for studied effects; no eplgramatlc efforts; no play to the emotions, but just the intensely held thoughts and sentiments of the speaker as she conscientiously related facts of the homeliest problems which can be converted Into the most beautiful truths of life. Her voice grew higher when lost in her interest in the subject, two red spots came on her cheeks under black, deep set eyes and she appealed in her tones when she brought her audience with her over muddy roads and rocky roads to the little barren schoolhouse ar the court house In the rural center where she fairly forced the girls of that community to unite to form a tomato club. They did not want to?-it did not sound stylish, and she had to reach out and verily drag their inter rat in, as the circuit rider preacher does when he faces an indifferent flock. "I am Marie Samuella Cromer," Miss Cromer began. And she thus told her story to jne: "I had had much experience as a country school teacher, my first teaching done in a little school about four miles from Abbeville, S. C. I was born In the country. I live in the country; [ know its lonesomeness and sleepy spiritedness. I love the country and the country people, and I made up my mind I was going to do something for the little girls of the country. I felt sorry for them ; for school was all they tiad to go to, and one could not always be telling them of school and keeping them in school to talk to them. They needed something to keep the thinking up when they went home, ft was not bright at home; It wasn't bright at school, and there was not nueh Interest In going from one place 'o /-? H ai* on/1 Hot ura a o hnn oil :here was to do. " 'Marie Samuella Cromer,' I said :o myself, 'what Is the use of your hinking these things if you do not lo something about it.' I had talked >efore the teachers' institutes of the :ounty, but it seemed to me that here was so much about the school ind so little about the home, and so ittle to be brought from the school to he home. Chrysanthemum Club Suggested. "I had taken charge of another ichool, further out than the one I lad been teaching in, because I hought the people further out in hat community needed more what I night be able to do for them, little as t was. Still, I had not found the point >f interest. I talked about it to the >ther teachers, and to the county sujerintendents, and somebody suggested hrysanthemum clubs for the girls. 3ut that did not seem practical tnough. "I spoke to Mr. Ira Williams, the orn club director in our state, and >e suggested a plan by which the drls of the community should be aught to make good cornbread and nuffins. That was a venture, in a '/ay; but I felt I had been something if o Dunonoa taonklno1 or* h nnl OnH T luestloned whether I could teach hem how to cook good bread or muflns. so I declined the bread proptsltlon. "Finally, I said to Mr. Williams: Why don't you start canning clubs or the girls like you have corn clubs or the boys?" His reply was: About fifteen hundred people have isked me that, but nobody has done t.' " 'Well, if it Is Just a matter of omebody doing It, I'll do It." "He laughed and doubted that I ouia; DUl i naa always imenueu Keying a canning outfit for myself, as I Ike to work with tomatoes, and knew here would be money in it. But, how CROMER. nato Club for Girls er Story. i Atlanta Constitution. Iwaa I to start? Where was the money, for the prises to come from? I knew the girl* would not want to do the work without some Inspiring object. 'The county superintendent, however, was encouraging. He suggested I begin with a tenth of an acre near the schoolhouse where I was teaching and then reach out in the county and organise the girla I started, but I did not seem to be able to get the Interest. Some of the girls were scornful about 'working with tomatoes,' some of their parents thought the teacher ought to stick to her job of teaching school; and I saw I must have money for prizes, so one day I Just put on my best clothes and went over to Aiken to see Mr. John D. Rockefeller to ask him for the money. He was out riding once; busy another time (they said), and after a second fruitless visit, I began to write him notes. I don't think he ever got any of them, because he never sent me any money. The secretary wrote polite notes for him. "Then I wrote Mr. Thomas Hitch cock of New York, who lives at Aiken. I failed there, at first; but, God bless Mr. Hitchcock?but I have not come to that part yet. Ashamed at Thought of Failure. "And it looked to me for a while as If I was losing out in my plan. But J shamed myself at the thought of failure and I determined to make one grand effort I called a mass meeting at the court house one night; I sent word to everybody?men, women and children?to come; that I had something Important to tell them; and I determined to offer a prise myself, and that nothing less than a scholarship to Wlnthrop college. " 'You are crazy,' said the county superintendent for he knew I had already spent my money I saved in the school Improvement work. 'Where are you going to get the money?' "I did not know when I offered the prise, but I made the kind of speech that got them all; I offered the scholarship, and the result was the girls got interested and the first club was organized January, 1910. "Then to every schoolhouse In the county I planned to go; the clubs began organizing, the one-tenth acres everywhere doing their work, but that prise money was not coming! "I went liome one night feeling awful sad and down-hearted. I was hoarHlnff than oHth tha mnthar nf tha superintendent, and after I had my upper I felt I could not sit with the others without sighing, and was about to go, when the superintendent handed me a letter. I remember every incident of that night because it brotght me to the realization of my scheme, the success of the tomato club. "I opened It and good, people, what do you think It contained? The prize money from Mr. Thomas Hitchcock! Well, I could not tell them what had happened. I threw up my hands; I cried out with Joy; I just danced around the table, and I cried and laughed and said I am so happy!" and as Miss Cromer rehearsed her Joys with childish realism she stirred all that was tender and sympathetic in the group hearing her story; "When the story of my tomato club was told by Dr. Seaman Knapp to Mr. Secretary Wilson the latter said: "I will give S100 for prises out of my own pocket' But there was no need for that, for very soon afterwards there was the movement of the tomato clubs started everywhere, and In August, Mr. O. B. Martin, who Is the director of the farm demonstraton work for the department of agriculture in Carolina, announced that for the merit and feasibility of my plan I was appointed director In South Carolina of the Olrls' Tomato clubs, called now the Canning and Poultry clube. Twenty-five thousand dollars has been given by the general education board for the work among girls," explained Miss Cromer. Rockefeller Did Give Money. "So, after all, Mr. Rockefeller did give the money," somebody suggested to Miss Cromer. "What Mr. Rockefeller gives to that board?It Is his money," and Miss Cromer reproached herself bitterly. "I will write him a note at once and thank him." she said. "I have really had very hard feelings toward him for not sending me the money, for that first pri^ie I wanted. "Yes, the girl who won the prize for the first clubs I organized went to Winthrop college and is doing splendid work there. "Yes, it is true I have been asked to go and tell the story of the work I have tried to do in the country In the church of which Dr. Brown of the Union Theological seminary is pastor in New York. I met him in the conference for education in the suuin. xuu kuuw iuus? yevpic uicm are working It out They have got the church worked up now, and if the church gets Into thla work to wake up Interest, and the school and the home, then the boys and the girls and the fathers and mothers can be made to be Interested in the same things, and the vital things which they have not been waked about. It will be a new?a blessed?life in the country. All Dr. Walter Page said could happen In the country was true when he addressed the conference. It was good and true, and I wish I could remember It all to take back home!" Who Started It.?A little fellow who had just felt the hard side of the slipper turned to his mother for consolation. ' "Mother," he asked, "did grandpa thrash father when he was a little boy?" "Yes," answered his mother, lmpresslvly. "And did his father thrash him when he was little?" "Yea" "And did his father thrash him?" "Yea" A noiiflA way?"?McCall'a Magazine.