Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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BT E. B. MURRAY & CO. ANDERSON, S. Cv, THURSDAY MORNING, JULY 2, 1885. VOLUME XX.?NO. 51 WILHITES ARCTIC SODA WATER, BETTER TH?N EVER! Twenty-Five Tickets or ftl.OO. When you come to the City, and wish a good, cooling, refreshing glass- of Soda, Vichy or Congress Water, go to WSLHITE * WILHITE -.?;?> ... -V.r... * ;? X , ?: And call for Soda Water with "Red Orange Syrup."' Beats the world. Strawberry, Raspberry, Pine Apple, Banana, Sarsap&rilla, Vanilla, Orgeat. True to name, and of best quality. 25 TICKETS FOR $1.00 Good for either Soda, Vichy or Congress Water. Congress Water relieves Headache and Dyspepsia, and is one of the best mineral waters sold. THE CELEBRATED NEW ORLEANS MEAD SYRUP, The best Syrup in the City. Call for it at WILHITE & WILHITE. May 14, 1885_ _44 _ " Go TeLl.all the People for Miles Around!" -THAT JOHN M. HUBBARD &BRO. ARE PREPARED TO SELL IkKORE JEWELRY, MORE WATCHES, MORE SILVERWARE, MORE CLOCKS, &C, AM PRICES MORE TO YOUR NOTION, THAN EVER BEFORE. EVERYTHING in the shape of a Watch, Clock or Jewelry thoroughly repaired. JW> 5,1886_30_ Wl BOW To our Friends and Customers who have so liberally patronized us in the past. We desire to return -thanks, and offer our usual Spring and Summer Greeting! WE ARE PREPARED TO OPFER BARGAINS IN ALL KINDS. GENERAL MERCHANDISE. PLANTATION SUPPLIES -AND FARMING IMPLEMENTS. - . WE ARE AGENTS FOR Daniel Pratt Qin Co.'s Gins, Feeders and Condensers. Barbonr Machine Co.'s Cotton Seed and Grain Crusher. Empire Threshers, Engines and Saw Mills. Champion Reapers, Mowers and Binders?the world-renowned Harvesting Ma? chines, which have been sold and used in Anderson and adjoining Counties for the past ten years, and for durability and economy there is none to compare with the Champion. We would also mention the Count's Home-made 7-Fingered Grain Cradle?a South Carolina production?of which we sold during the soason of 1884 several dozen by way of introduction, and have made arrangements to furnish them this season ngain to all who may desire a good home-made Cradle. Our "White Hickory" one and two-horse Wogoni are well known throughout this country, and speak their own praise. ) The Thomas Smoothing Harrow and Perfected Pulverizer is an implement that should be on every farm. They can be used for cultivating crops of Corn and Cotton, as well as in the preparation of the laud for planting and sowing. Call aud see them. The "Wixon" Patent Heel Sweep is growing in favor every day. Invouted and manufactured in Georgia. Used and recommended by the late J. C. Furman, the great intensive farmer of Georgia. The blades being adjustable and easily changed, make it a cheap and desirable Sweep. We are taking orders for future delivery, and would ask you to call and examine it. We also sell the Mishawaka Sulky and W: Iking Turn Plows in all sizes, The best Chewing Tobacco in the market, made by S. W- Venable, of Petersburg, Va., embracing the celebrated brands of "BIuo Jeans," "Rapidan," "True Blue" and "Florimel." A trial asked?a good chew guaranteed. Other makes and grades also on hand. McCULLY, CATHCART & CO. Anderson, S. C, April 30, 1885 FISHING TACKLE, HOOKS and LINES OF ALL KINDS AX SIMPSON, REID & CO.'S DRUG STORE, r Waverly House Corner, Anderson, S. C. April 22, 1885 41 HIGH ROADS A JiD ;jlt AILiRO ADS. Gen. McCrady Contends for More and Bettor Country Roartr. To the Editor News and Courier: We read in a letter from Spartanburg, ubiished in the News and Courier a few ays ago, the statement that "the man who lives to witness the completion of the numerous and almost numberless railways projected and chartered will see that section cut up into very small squares with transportation almost un? paralleled." We almost daily read of meetings throughout the State for the purpose of subscribing to build more railroads. The prediction of the writer from Spartanburg is undoubtedly true, pro? vided the people can support the rail? roads after they shall have built them, but it called to mind the very able letter from Mr. John B. Cleveland, of Spartan? burg, published last July, in which he contended that the State has the consti? tutional right to assume the railroad debts of the counties, towns and cities, and urged that it was right and proper that it should do so. That Mr. Cleve? land's proposition is as serious as its arguments are plausible, will be realized when, in looking over the counties which havo providently, or improvidently, burdened themselves with railroad debts, we find that combined already they have fifty-five representatives in the lower house, and need only the representatives from one or two more counties, which are now being pressed to incur railroad indebtedness, to have a clear majority in that branch of the Legislature. Does not the question of railroad building, then, lose its merely local interest and become one of concern to the State at large ? And if so, are we sure that we are not building more railroads than our necessities demand and our circumstances warrant? Railroad legislation has received more attention than most subjects of general interest, but even in regard to it the habit of local legislation has prevented proper consideration. It has been treated as if every suggestion for chartering a railroad should be acted upon without hesitation if the representatives from the proposed neighborhood favored it, and with the application for a charter the right to obtain subscriptions by counties, townships and towns?the sub? scriptions to be paid by taxation?has commonly been demanded of late years, and, considered as a purely local matter, has seldom been refused. It is true that it has always been pro? vided in the charters that the question of "subscription or no subscription" should be submitted to the people, but experience has shown that while conforming to the letter of such provisions, so that the Courts have beeu unable to declare such elections void, it has seldom happened j that the people affected have had the ' question fairly presented to them, or I have even, in some instances, been made aware of it until finding themselves bound. Then has often followed a strug? gle in the Courts to repudiate the bonds issued upon such elections. This has j been the history of county subscriptions to railroads, not only in this State but elsewhere, especially in the We3t, where county subscriptions and bends have been most obtained in aid of railroad building. A glance at the reports of the United States Courts and of our own State will confirm the statement. It is now too well settled, both by our Courts and those of the United States, to allo.Y us to renew the question as to the competency of counties to incur in? debtedness and to issue bonds to be paid by taxation for tbe purpose of building railroads, but the wisdom of doing so is still in each instance open to discussion, a discussion to which the people of the State generally, since Mr. Cleveland's suggestion, should give their fully atten? tion. Senator Butler, two years ago, very wisely called the attention of eur people to the subject of their country roads and endeavored to induce some action for their improvement, but while the Legis? lature is year by year authorizing taxa? tion for railroads nothing has been done and little more thought of country roads. In this we think there is a great mistake, and believing that there is a limit which should be observed in railroad extension we would ask the consideration of some facts, and venture to make some sugges? tions in regard to it worthy, we think, of the attention of our people. Mr. Poor, in the preface to his Rail? road Manual for 1877-78, pointed out that the experience of the New England States has demonstrated that to enable railroads to be operated at a profit a population of at least 850 to a milo of railroad is necessary in this country, and added that the history of the railroads in the Western States had proved the same thing. Yet notwithstanding this experience railroad building has gone far beyond this proportion to population. Except in the old Western States the proportion of a mile of railroad to every 850 inhabitants has been great'y exceed? ed. In those States the ratio is very nearly a mile to every 900 of population. In the New England States there is a mile to every 643.79 of population; in tbe Middle Atlantic States a mile to every 657.50; in the Southern Atlantic States a mile to every 648.39; in the old Western and Southwestern States a milo to every 899.80. In this State the pro [ portion is a mile to every 646.47. We hear of the overtrading and over? production of our manufactories as the cause of the depression of the times. May uot the overbuilding of railroads have something, perhaps even more, to do with it? Mr. Poor, in his Manual for 1884, tells us tbat a few years ago there was in public estimation* no more inviting field for railroad enterprise than the State of Colorado. A vast system of railroads covering the whole State was constructed with great rapidity, involving the nominal expenditure of $100,000,000, almost the whole of which is now un? productive. Is uot this in itself an item considerable enough to be appreciable in the economic conditions of the country? In the great "Wabash swindle," as it is now termed, it is estimated that there is a balance of $41,000,000 of bonds, to say nothing of stock, for which only $206,000 per annum is visible for purpose of dis? tribution to the investors. Is this not another item sufficient to have a percep? tible effect upon the business of the country ? But for our present purposes our view must be far narrower?it must be confined to our own State. We have in South Carolina a popula? tion, white and black, of 995,577 and 1,510 miles of railroad completed; that is one mile of railroad to every 647,47 of population. In addition to this we have 200- more miles of railroads in the actual process of construction, which will give us one mile to every 572 of population. Yet again we have in addition to this charters already granted for the building of thousands of miles more. One hun? dred and forty-two railroad charters have been granted by the State, more than a hundred of which have yet to bo built. Now are we not overdoing the matter ? It is a curious, and no doubt to many it will be a surprising, fact that the pop? ulation and number of miles of railroad J in the Middle Atlantic States and in the ' Southern Atlantic States, a3 the same are grouped in railroad statistics, are almost identical, as appears by this table: Pop'n. M'aR.R. Aggregate New York, New Jorsoy, Pennsylvania, Dele ware, Maryland, District Co? lumbia, West Virginia...-.12,374,511 18,80$ Aggregate Virginia. North Caro? lina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Ken? tucky.12,244,888 18,885 But the similarity in the conditions of the railroad problem in these two sec? tions of the country ends here. For we find that Mr. Poor gives the net earnings of the Middle Atlantic group for 1883 as.8107,259,233 While in the Southern Atlantic group they wero but. 23,850,488 The railroads in the former States carried during tho year 1883 of pts songers.~~. 126,535,899 The railroads in the latter carried. 14,114,866 The railroads in the former moved tons of freight. 167,927,23G Tho railroads in the latter moved. 26,030,589 There is again almost identically the same number of miles of railroad in proportion to population in Connecticut as in this State; there being in Connec? ticut one mile to every 647 inhabitants and in this State one to every 646. But in Connecticnt the railroads carried in 1883 10,684,374 passengers and moved 5,005,163 tons of freight, while ours car? ried 1,033,697 passengers and moved 1,404,624 tons. We must bear in mind too the important fact that of the 999, 577 of the population of this State 604, 332 are negroes, and but 391,245 of the like industrious and thrifty people who support the Northern and Western Kail roads. Do not these statistics show that we have railroads enough in this State already to do five or ten times the busi? ness which now offers ? And ought we to tax the people to build more when those already built have not business enough to do ? It is urged that if we build more rail? roads the population and business will increase and furnish them with as many passengers and as much freight as they will be able to carry. But does experi? ence warrant such an expectation ? This was the theory upon which the vast ' amount of capital was invested in the ! new Western States, and in those States there were exceptional grounds on which to base such calculations. There was the immense multitude of emigrants seeking homes in the West, and a virgin soil awaiting but their coming to yield untold wealth in grain. But even in that section there was a limit to the profit? able building of railroads, as is shown in the case of Colorado, notwithstanding her silver mines. In our case there are no such conditions on which to base rail? road speculation. We can expect no sudden expansion of business, nor the wonderful results which followed railroad building in some of the newly settled territories. We must remember, too, that the capi? tal sunk in Colorado was foreign capital, voluntarily sent there on speculation, seeking great gains, in the face of possi? ble loss. Tbe capital we risk in these new enterprises is to be drawn from our own people, for the most part unwillingly, by taxation. We, ourselves, are not without some severe lessons in railroad enterprises in this State. We have already a city, town and county debt in? curred for tho building of railroads of $4,137,579, to wit: By the City of Charleston Blue Bidgo Railroad..$1,049.000 Chcraw and Darlington Railroad. 100,000 Northeastern Railroad. 400,000 Charleston and Savannah Railroad. 265,400 Memphis and Charleston Railroad. 250,000 Nashville- and Charleston Railread. 500,000 Greenville and Columbia, Charlotte and South Carolina, (no telegraph). 50,000 Louisville, Cincinnati ana Charleston. 63,000 Total.$2,677.400 In the rest of the State a large indebt? edness has been contracted in the last ten or fifteen yeare. In the report of the comptroller-general for 1884 we find tbe j following which, however, is not given as a complete statement of the town and county debt: Anderson?Savannah Valley Railroad.... $ 25,000 Chester?Chester and Lenolr Railroad $55,000, Chcraw and Chester Railroad $75,000. 130,000 Chesterfield?Chcraw andChestorRallr'd 5,979 Colleton?Green Pond, Waltcrboro' and Branchvlllo Railroad. 1,200 Edgefield?Edgefield Branch Railroad 86, 000, Edgefield, Trenton and Augusta Railroad $400. 6,480 Georgetown?Geor g e t o w n and Lanes Railroad. 80,000 Greenville County?Richmond and Dan? ville Air Line Railroad.$170,000 Greenville and Laurens Rail? road. 50,000 Greenville City?Ric h m ond and Danville Air Line Rail? road. 51,000 Greenville and Laurens Rail? road.w. 25,000 296,000 Lancaster?Choraw and Ches? ter Railroad. 100,000 Laurens?Greenville Laurens and Spartanburg Railroad 75,000 Greenville and Laurens Rail? road. 44,500 149,500 PIckens?Air Lino Railroad... 100,000 Spart anburg?Atlanta and Richmond Air Lino Rail? road. 150,000 Spartanburg and Ashcville Railroad. 100,000 Greenwood, Laurens and Spar? tanburg. 75,000 Spartanburg City?Air Line . Railroad. 29,500 354,500 Union?Spartanburg and ABbevilfe Railroad. 145,200 York? Chester and Lenoir Railroad. 66,400 Total.Sl.4C0.170 In addition to these there remain the claims agaiust the State for its guaran? tee of the Charleston and Savannah Rail? road bonds to the amount of $800,000, and upon the revenue bond scrip of $1,800,000, which will probably cost our State a considerable sum to arrange. We have thus an ascertained railroad debt in the State of $4,137,579, and uu liquidated claims against the Stale to the nominal amount of $2,600,000. Our railroad indebtedue3s is therefore a'ready as large as the general debt of the State. Is it right to impose further taxation for the building of more railroads? What we really need in the South, and in this State particularly, is tho improve? ment of our country roads. We have, as wo have seen, already more miles of railroads in the South in proportion to populatiou than they have in tho North and West. We havo not, it is true, as many in proportion to area ns at the Nortb, but in this respect, too, we have more than in the West. In New Eng? land the proportion is a mile of railroad to 19.65 square miles. In the middle Atlantic States there is a mile of railroad to each 7.51 square miles, in the South? ern Atlantic States a mile of railroad to every 23.82 square miles, and in the Wes? tern and Southwestern States a mile of railroad to something over 27.63 square miles. If ono will try with a compass on a railroad map of tho State he will find that except in tho few places we namo below ho can describe no circle with a radius of fifteen miles which will not strike some railroad at some point. Tho few points which are not within fifteen miles of some railroad are these: 1. Along tho Savannah River about RobertBvifle. 2. Iu Colleton above Walterboro' iu the vicinity of Bull's store. 3. From about Mill's store near the point where Aiken, Orangeburg, Barn well and Lexington Counties corner and in the direction of Batesburg on tho Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Rail? road. 4. Somo territory betweeu a line drawn from Camden to Lancaster on the Che raw and Chester Railroad. ' 5. Country about Vance's Ferry on either side of the river and other por? tions of Berkeley and Georgetown Coun? ties. I 6. Parts of Horry and Williamsburg and some portion of upper Marion to? wards the North Carolina line. I These points, it will be observed, are almost entirely within the upper pine belt of the State, which, according to Major Hammond's statistics in the book published by the State Board of Agri? culture on the resources of the State, has a population of but 35.5 to the square mile?a population certainly unable to support more railroads. Except then in the upper pine belt of the State, and one or two parts of the lower, we have already sufficient rail? road facilities to allow one on good roads to go from any point in the State to some railroad and return in the same day. But is urged that while this is true with the map and compass, that it is not true practically, because out roads are so laid out, or rather have so run themselves, that the distances from rail? roads which must be travelled is in many instances much more than the map and compass would show. Granted; but which, then, is the better remedy?to straighten and improve our country roads or to build more railroads ? This is the question we would have consider? ed. We would have our people bear in mind that it is not within the design and scope of railroads to run to every barn door nor to run on both sides of every stream. Railroads can never take the place of highways. As Mr. Nimmo, the chief of the bureau of statistics, treasury department, iu his last report on the internal commerce of the United States, observes: "The fact that the railroad is an avenue of commerce, the pathway of which is no wider than the wheel of the vehicle which moves upon it, at the very outset forbade that it should become, in the ordinary sense, a free highway." "The railroad," as he elsewhere says, "became, therefore, at the very beginning, and from the very exi? gencies of its being, a monopoly." The buildings of highways has everywhere and always been the proper subject for taxation; but however the courts may have decided as to the technical, consti? tutional right to build railroads by taxa? tion, the propriety of doing so must still remain open to question. The argument that a railroad, though a highway, is at the same time not only private property but a monopoly, and that the public should not be taxed to build that the profits of which enure always to the benefit of a few private individuals and practically never to repayment of the taxes, is not answered by the technical decision of the Courts. On the other hand, the improvement and repair of our country roads is to the emolument of no private individuals, but to the benefit of the public and all the public alike. In regard to them there is no monopoly of a highway. Ev? ery person may us6 them, ride or walk upon them without question from any one else. We have often wondered to observe I the towns moving in new railroad enter? prises, for with the general through con? nection we already have, it is seldom their interest to do so. Railroads are absorbers of towns?they are suckers to the great cities?the money centres. Let us illustrate. The town of Camden is now at what may be termed the head of railroad navigation in that section. All the produce in the country around, in a radius say of fifteen or twenty miles, comes into Camden to the railroad there. But its citizens are dissatisfied, and think that by inducing a railroad from Hamlet or some other point to the north to come to Camden they will improve its condition. Is not this a mistake? If such a railroad is built will not all the cotton that now comes to Camdem from the north and east of it go to the nearest station north of Camden rather than be hauled in wagons to Camden and then by rail again North ? This has certainly been the result to Chester upon the building of the Cheraw and Chester Railroad. Before that railroad was built Chester did all the business be? tween the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad and the Catawba River, but since that railroad has been opened it has lost thousands of bales of cotton. The cotton that is put on the railroad at Fort Lawn and Richburg does not stop in Chester, but passes through to Baltimore or New York. Chester loses this year 2,588 bales ship? ped from Richburg which, but for the Cberaw and Chester Railroad, would have come to it. So again with Black ville. Since the building of the Barn well Railroad Blackvillc has lost many bales of cotton that formerly were handled in that town. Bnt it will be said the community at large is benefited even though these towns suffer. If so then let the commu? nity at large build the railroads, and do not call upon the towns to do so. But is the community at large benefited by the "drying up," if we may use the expres? sion, of our small money centres. The general diffusion of wealth has been urged as one of the fundamental maxims of political economy; but is not the effect of our building of railroads the exact reverse of this principle. The accumulation of capital in the towns small though such accumulations may in each instance be?keeps the means of planting and of improvements within reach of the farmers, especially of the small farmers, but the shipping of cotton directly from the way-stations to the great money centres is destructive to the banking interests of the towns; and yet the farmer who has avoided the town in the sale of is produce is found to return to it for the capital to renew his opera? tions and purchase his supplies. The making of good country road", on the other hand, certainly tends to the building up of our towns and the accu? mulation of capital in their banks. Sup? pose, for instance, that the money expen? ded for building the railroads from Ches? ter and Blackville had been expended instead in building good turnpikes radi? ating from these towns in different direc? tions until they reach territory tributary to other towns, would not the money havo been much better expended in their in? terest? Then their business would have been increased instead of diminished. It would really have cost the farmer no more to haul his cotton on good roads to these towns, say ten or fifteen miles, than to haul it, as be still must do, five, six or seven miles over bad roads to the nearest station on the new railroads and then pay tho railroad freight for the rest of the distance to the towns. We need in this State not so much more railroads as more towns with capi? tal. We need, no doubt, better and closer connections with the West, but except with regard to the West we have already enough through lines, and our territorial and physical position between the foot of the Blue Ridge and the sea will secure for us whatever more is need? ed iu the future at the cost to us only of the right of way. Our great need is good turnpikes to feed, strengthen and build up our towns, and not more cross railroads to sap and "dry them up." By the United States census of 1880 the building lind repairing of fences cost us annually $917,000. This sum, which we have saved by the Stock law, would give us a vast system of improved turn? pikes which would build up And develop our resources far more than any further extension of our railroads. Edward McCrady, Jr. The Grasses. While the larger part of the world is fighting grass a number are striving to propagate it. We are not sure but the common Crab grass could be profitably grown here on fallow land, but however this be a number of the improved grasses could certainly be. While we sit idly down and envy the dwellers in the Blue grass region of Kentucky and the Timo? thy and Red clover fields of the North, as producers of hay, we have in our reach a number of grasses equally valuable with those and which could be success? fully grown here. First among them is Alfalfa or Lu? cerne, which is perennial, lasting twenty or more years, and capable of being cut three and four times a season on rich ground. This grass will be eat by horses in preference to corn, for we have tried it; nor will it salivate stock, however often cut, as Red Clover after its first cutting does. The grass once set properly and the land annually fertilized grows luxuriantly and one acre would keep a cow and several horses during the sum? mer. We have a plat of sixty-five by thirty feet which we have cut twice already and it is coming again. We de? sire annually to add to this until we get an acre, if possible, for an acre well set would be worth $200 or more. It differs with Red Clover in that the latter, after two or three crops, dies out. It will grow well here and Is found largely in California and as far South as St. Augus? tine, Florida. It stands drouth well, as the roots in porous land go eight or ten feet, some say twenty feet deep. We think every farmer should yearly try to plant a small patch of Alfalfa. The only trouble we experienced with it was the first spring when we had to finger out the weeds and grass. Since that it has been able to take care of itself, smothering out other grasses. We sowed in drills about eleven or twelve inches apart and when it grows up two feet high it has the appearance of being broadcast. As we cut it we generally about a rain sow a little fertilizer over the part cut. The next in order among valuable grasses is Orchard Grass, which will grow well on land of ordinary fertility and either in orchards or groves. It does as well or better under light shade as in open fields. We have over two acres of this grass in our peach orchard and pas? tured four cows in it last year by staking them, both in the spring and during the dry summer and fall. We have seen it eat and tramped so olose in places that scarcely a vestige of grass could be seen, but in a few weeks after a rain it would spring up and appear as thrifty as ever. This spring and summer it has grown well and after mowing it we have pas? tured three cows on it and it has never lost its thrifty appearance. It remained green all winter and we know of no hardier grass for pasturage than the Orchard Grass. When at Pickens in the spring we heard a good fanner there speak of it in equal terms of commeu dation. Every farmer should seed sev? eral acres in this valuable grass. Another valuable grass, which grows well on low lands in this climate, is Red Top or Herds grass. This grass becomes a mat after a time and makes superior hay. In its green state as well as in hay it is much liked by stock of all kinds. It will remain green or have a green ap? pearance through the winter and is very hardy and well adapted for pasturage. These three grasses are perennial and once seeded are good to stand for years. We remember we sowed Red Clover with our Orchard Grass and secured a fair stand. The second year it yielded well, but this, the third year, nearly all of it is dead. We would not recommend Red Clover, as Lucerne is a better feed and is good for twenty years. Another grass well adapted to this cli? mate, but which people dread, because of the difficulty of getting rid of it, is the Bermuda Grass. It makes a solid mat and is fine for pasturage. We hear General Hagood has near one hundred acres in Bermuda Grass which pays a handsome profit. Twenty acres well set in this grass, we believe, would be worth to any farmer $50 to $100 an acre. We are not afraid of it and last year planted a two horse load of the roots, but as the land was in oats we could not plow it in and most of it died in the dry spell. We have, however, spots living and it is spreading fast. Those who dread it might clear a rich valley surrounded by woods and plant. It cant stand shade and would never spread beyond the cleared land. We have heard it could be killed out by seeding three years in oats, followed by peas, thus shading the land. It is a good fertilizer by reason of its network of roots and an effectual pre ventative of the land washing. Its high? est value consists in the difficulty of de? stroying it, for during the summer it( furnishes rich food for stock without labor or attention. Those who are afraid of it I should let it alone, but for ourselves if we had fifty acres in Bermuda Grass, near or in town, it would bring it at $1.50 per month for each cow pastured at least $150 per month during summer, and persons owning milch cows would find good pasturage at $1.50 per month the cheapest mode of feeding them. Or a man could buy up colts and beef cattle and make it profitable. With labor so uncertain and expensive we must begin to look to grasses. The late S. E. Max? well, though be disliked the grass, has often told us that the best oats and corn ho ever grew were planted on Bermuda Grass land. Though hard to break, wheu once torn up and planted the grass seemed not to injure tho growing crop and when laid by here comes again the grass. Any of the three first named grasses can be destroyed easily, and all should endeavor to get a start in one or i all of them. It could not fail to be profitable.? Walhalla Courier. ? The fame of Florida as tho place to make fortunes in has reached London, and a colony of fifty families of fruit? growers and market gardeners are now preparing to immigrate to St. Lucie, Fla., in November. It is expected that their skill and knowledge of horticulture will insure them great success. ? A correspondent of the Los Angeles Times reports that along the Southern coast of Mexico the people have a habit of inoculating themselves with the virus of the rattlesnake or adder, which ren? ders them absolutely safe forever after? ward from the bite or sting of the dead? liest reptiles. ? While medical students are being harshly condemned for robbing graves, it is forgotten that the students intend to fill them up again whan they go into practice. ? Sergeant Mason, who was made a hero of because of his attempt to assassi? nate Guiteau, is in jail charged with rob TILL ARP'S LETTER. He Describes a Storm in the Country. The weather is a littie cyclonish. Just enough for us to enjoy its solemn grand? eur. Broad fields are in front of us, and the blue hills just beyond encircling the valley South and West, and through this valley runs Pettits creek. When the black clouds begin to loom up from behind the hills and the low rumbling thunder is heard we look and watch ana listen. Will the storm go round us or will it come. By and by the western sky is all darkened. The sun is hidden, and we catch the roar of wind and watch for the first sight of rain on the crest of the pine covered ridges. If it crosses the mountain it will most surely come and water the valley in front of us, and it most always comes with a wind. We look and wonder and admire as long as we can, for it is a grand display of nature's power, but soon it reaches our very doors, and then we have to leave the piazza and take in the chairs and close the door and let down the windows and wail its pleasure and its perils. The treetops wave and bend furiously about, the tall corn is bowed low, the grape leaves are turned wrong side outwards, the driving storm has obscured all the valley and the mountains beyond, the lightning flashes incessantly and the thunder shakes the ground and jars the windows. There is a solemn stillness in the family room. "Don't sit so near the sewing machine, Jessie; keep away from the hearth, Carl," says Mrs. Arp. The driving rain dashes against the window glass, and creaps in at every crack. There is a leak over the piano?a leak that I have promised Mrs. Arp a dozen times to fix, but I can't fix it in such a storm as this, and when the storm is over I put it off for a more con? venient season. It is so easy to put off a thing, especially a thing that requires a man to get on top of a house. I don't like elevators nor elevations now?too old and stiff. I have passed the meridian; I have just seen ray sixtieth birthday and was Jdssed all round, and had good wishes and kind words from Mrs. Arp and the (children, and the spring chickens were sacrificed, and there was cherry pie without the seed and raspberries and various good things all raised at home. A storm in the country is worth some? thing to see. We can look out and afar off and we can see the lightning flash and zigzag and corruscate, and have no fear?it is grand, but not fearful?not alarming. The trees are all around us and have never been struck. They are our lightning rods, our insulators. Lightning will strike one lonely tree, but it rarely strikes in a grove or forest. It has struck twice in our cotton field and killed the cotton, but these trees all around us scatter it and keep it from con? centrating. Nabor Freeman says that lightning has a liking for a wagon with one steer, for he passed one on the road day before yesterday while there was a storm on hand and the lightning struck the little one steer wagon and tore it all to pieces, and the steer just went on with nothing but one shaft hitched to him. There was no driver, for the steer had just been turned loose to go home by himself. Cobe says he never did under? stand this thunder and lightning busi? ness, nohow, "for," says he, "some folks say it's the lightnin' that strikes, and some say it's the thunder, but he has noticed one thing, and that is that when? ever anything is struck they both come right smack together and it looks like it takes 'em both to do the work." We have had a good deal of country life of late and I have no idea of chang? ing base. I had rather live poor in the country than rich in town. We have been harvesting wheat and oats and rye. We went to see a millpond drawn off, and had a big time wading in and grab? bing the fish under the moss and in the hollow stumps, and trying to hold the slickery eels. I go with the children after mulberries and dewberries and huckleberries. I've hived six swarms of bees and got stung only twice. The children have pulled out the peacocks' tails for flybrushes. The peacock is a dude. I used to think the peahen ought to have the fine clothes, but I don't now, for it would most kill her to give them up. The beautiful feathers weve intend-; ed for the use of man, and it is all right to strip the vain bird of his ornaments j and let him feel like common stock. There is right good fishing in our big spring branch, and every spring some nice trout run up from the creek and feed on minnows. We have been watch? ing them and trying to cateh them, but they wouldn't notice our earth-worm bait, and so the other day I set out a minnow and got over the fence and watched the pole, and sure enough a big fat fellow grabbed it and hung himself, and was cavorting and splashing around, and I bad to go over a six plank fence, and I couldn't do it in the old time way, and just fell over on my hands and feet and I galloped on allfours to the pole just in time to pull him out and save him, for he fell off the hook on the grass and had liked to have flirted back in the water. Mrs. Arp had fish for supper that evening. She is fond of fish?aris? tocratic fish, and when we get a trout it is always for her. They say that fish is brain food and gives folks sense, and I reckon the finer the fish the finer the brain, and that is the reason folks who feed on trout have so much judgment. Then, again, trout are game fish and that is the reason why folks who eat them are so game. I wish I had some trout. May be I wouldn't be as meek and hum? ble aa I am. Bill arp. ? Rev. Sam Jones continues to sur? prise his hearers by his plain talk. "Some of you little sinners," he said the other day, "are sitting around here wait? ing for salvation to strike you as it did St. Paul. Snowbird waiting to be hit with a cannon ball. God adjusts his ammunition to the size of the man he is after. Mustard seed shot will do for you. God won't keep a man sober who has a quart of liquor iu him all the time. God won't keep a young lady pious who has her waist encircled seven times a week by the arms of a spider-legged dude." ? General Longstreet, in his article on "The Seven Days' Fighting about Richmond," in the July Century, says "Without doubt, the greatest mau of rebellion times, the one matchless among forty millions for the peculiar difficulties of the period, was Abraham Lincoln." ? A colored boy ten years old was drowned in the Saluda river in Newberry County on Sunday. His six companions carefully avoided mentioning the matter until after the body was found, fearing that they would be accused of murder. ? The Abbeville Medium means busi? ness: We want to see the man who said he would pay for his paper in chick? ens of nice frying size. We have the crowd at home to cat them. ? South Carolina is comiug out ahead at New Orleans. The State has carried off the first premiums on both sea island cotton and rice?two important agricul? tural productions. ? The bill of General Grant's doctors is said to have already reached $40,000. Hovf Will it End ? All over the world young men are coming to the fore, but in no country so rapidly 19 in America, and in no city of the world to such an extent as iu New York. In our great metropolis, brains, vigor, dash and fresh blood are always wanted. Young men control New York. They are supreme. Old fogies are not wanted. In an ideal sort of way gray heads are respected, but in every day life they are shoved aside. Among a hun? dred clerks at work in the Park Bank only three or four have passed their thirty-fifth year. All the leading lines of business and all the professions are controlled by young men. They do more work and do it quicker than the steady old fellows who have been at work all their lives. Perhaps the objec? tion will be urged that they lack tbe judgment of their elders. Judgment 1 Who cares for judgment ? Do we not run everything on the hit or miss, heads or tails plan ? Judgment won't take the risks ventured by hot young blood. The men who strike a big thing these days j are the reckless, devil-may-care fellows, who would stake an empire on the haz? ard of the die. If they win, the world hears from them. If they lose, the ready I revolver is ready, and the world soon forgets them. It is a fast age. Hurry is the watchword. To day is with us; to? morrow may never come. Slow men trained in the habits of tbe past genera? tion cannot accommodate themselves to these ideas, and they drop out or are crowded out of the procession. The wear and tear of these hard-working, rapid youngsters is fearful. The average business man in New York takes twenty drinks of whisky a day and smokes fif? teen cigars. Nobody can stand this. The young New Yorkers don't stand it. They go down in regiments and squares. But, like the old guard, they die, but never surrender. If a man pulls through it all he is old at the age of forty and retires to take a permanent rest. One result of this unnatural life is the pro? duction of a race of pigmies. New York is famous for its young men of small stature and light weight. This comes from excess of all kinds. It is not so with the young women. The girls who do not smoke, drink and dissipate, are large and well built, bright-eyed and rosy-cheeked. They will have to take husbands from the country. The spider legged dudes around them are not fit for their mates. If we escape a deluge or a revolution the next generation will be a gauzy one, a sort of fleeting show, as it were.?Atlanta Constitution. A Thought for "Onr Girls." "My hands are so stiff I can hardly hold a pen," said farmer Wilbur, as he sat down to figure out some accounts that were getting behind hand. "Can't I help you, father ?" said Lucy, laying down her bright crochet work. "I shall be glad to do so, if you will explain what you want." "Well, I shouldn't wonder if you could, Lucy," he said reflectively. "Pretty good at figures are you not ?" "It would be sad if I did not know something of them, after going twice throgh the arithmetic," said Lucy. "Well, I can show you in five minutes what I have to do, and it'll be a wonder-, ful help if you can do it for me." "I never was a master band at accounts in my best days, and it does not grow any easier since I put on my spectacles." Very patiently did the helpful daugh? ter plod through the long lines of figures, leaving the gay worsted to be idle all the evening, though she was in such haste to finish her scarf. It was reward enough to see her tired father, who had been toiling bard all day for herself and dear ones, sitting so cozily in his easy chair, enjoying his weekly paper. The clock struck nine before her task was over, but the hearty?"Thank you daughter, a thousands time," took away all sense of weariness. "It's rather looking up, where a man can have such an amanuensis," said the farmer. "It is not every farmer that can afford it." "Not every farmer's daughter that :s capable of making one," said the mother, with a little pardonable maternal pride. "Nor every one that would be willing, if able," said Mr. Wilbur, which last was a sad truth. How many daughters might be of use to their father in this and many other ways, who never think of lightening a care or labor! If asked to perform some little service, it is done at best with reluctant step and unwilling air that robs it of all sunshine and all claim to gratitude. Girls, help your father. Give him a cheerful home to rest in when evening comes, and do not worry his life away by fretting because be cannot afford you all the luxuries you covet. Children exert as great an influence on their parents, as parents do on their children.?Our Sun? day School. Solar Eclipses. The eclipses of the sun are caused by the moon's passing between the earth and the sun. If the two bodies followed the same trach in the heavens there would be an eclipse every new moon, but as the orbits are inclined the moon, but generally passes above or below the sun, and there is no eclipse. Occasionally the sun is near one of the moon's nodes? the points where tho planes of the orbits intersect?when it passes, and then an eclipse occurs. If the sun and moon were always at the same position with regard to the earth and always the same distance from it, the eclipses would al? ways be tbe same size. But as theso conditions vary, so do the appearances of the eclipse. Eor iustance, let us suppose that at the time of an eclipse the center of tho moon happens to pass directly over the center of the sun. If the moon is near the point in her orbit which is at the least distance from the earth her apparaut diameter will exceed that of the sun, and the latter will be quite hid? den from view, and we have what is known as a total eclipse. Of course, oven in this case the eclipse will only appear total to the observer near thelino joining tho centers of tho sun and moon. If, however, the three bodies occupy sim? ilar position but the distance between the earth and moon is greater, the whole of the sun in not covered by the moon, however, does not pas3 certainly over the sun it can only hide a part of the latter on one side or tbe other, and the eclipse is said to be partial. As the moon's orbit is quite eliptical the distance of that body from the earth varies greatly. Its leastdistanco is 221.000 miles, its great? est 259,000 miles. ? The Southern crop prospects are said to be unprecedented for many years. Cotton, rice and sugar promise splendid returns. ? There is a red oak tree in Barnwell County known as the "Rebel Oak," which measures twenty-seven feet in cir? cumference. ? There is a negro woman in New berry County six feet three inches high, straight as an arrow and black as the aco of spades.