Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

BY CLTNKSCALES & LANGSTON. ANDEE S; ?ST, S. C., WEDNESDAY MORNING, JULY I, 1896. VOLUME XXX . -NO. 1. We axe offering some Big Values in Shirts ! Got too many on hand. Should you need any I'S THE TIME TO BUY. Note these prioes: 25 dozen Laundered Negligee Shirts, Collars and Cuffs attaclaed, at 35c. 21). dozen Laundered Negligee Shirts, Collars and Cuffs attached-big value-at 50c. 25 doselifiaundered Negligee Shirts, with two separate Collars and Cuffs attached, only 75c. We haye others on up to $1.50. Come iii and gaze. Bl PRICES NOT PROMISES! CH the mass*-?, but'the prices mntfi- be consistent with tbe quality of the Goods, nnot afford to advertise a thing and then not do it We advertise the Best Flour and Coffee on the Market, no ?ne can beat. Tbs fact that our DEAN'S PATENT FLOUR and J. K ?FFEE is daily ma*inp permanent customers for ns is the be-t evidence of j al merit. If other people nay, ana continue to bay, these Goods, yon shculd -t try them. We haye a complete line of Shoes, ich oar prices cannot fail to sell. They are of the famous "mover" variety, and they move. > HEADQUARTERS FOR TOBACCO, SUGAR, MOLASSES, &C. '_ DEAN, RATLIFFE & CO. THE THOUGHT MAKES HIM SHIVER ! BUT when the little fellow finds how soft the Sponge is he is com pletely reconciled and gradually grows to like the bath. Get one of our Boft SPONGE-*, use attrac tive Toilet articles and the child will enjoy it. We carry a full line of Drugs and Toilet Article?. ORR & SLOAN. Fruit Jars I Now is the time to look after Fruit Jar?. . I have them in Stock. JELLY GLASSES, PRESERVING KETTLES, ICE CREAM CHURNS, FLT FANS, FLY TRAPS. ; JOHN T. BURRISS. A REMEDY FOR HARD TIMES ! YES, I can give it to you, if you will give me a call, see my Goods and get my prices. My Stock consists of Fancy and Family Groceries, ^ Confectioneries, s Canned Goods, Tobacco and Cigars, In fact, almost everything in the Grocery line. I am not afraid of competition, but I want you to give aie a call, and if | my Goods and prices don't suit you, you need not purchase. Gk TP. BIGBY. FEEE CUT DELIVERY. " EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY!" But be -sure that what you eat and drink is bought at the JPopixLar Grrocery ! Nothing but First Class Goods are sold There. HAVE yon tried our SEAL BRAND or MORNING JOY COFFEES, put up in one and two pound Cans. If nut yon are behind the times. Tneir f qual is Hut found in the city. The same can be truthfully said about KINGAN HAMS and SWAN'S DOWN FLOOR. Whv do you worry about something nice to eat aud drink ? Simply because you ha vent be^ii 'o us. WitbOUR STO' K OF GROCERIES be'ore you it will take but a moment to select something for Breakftw?. Dinner or Supper. "A wor:l to the wise is sufficient." Yours truly, LIGON & LEDBETTER, Wholesale and Retail Grocers, Anderson, S. C. ?gf Remember, we sell the bust LIME and CEMENT on the market. NEW JEWELRY STORE ! JOHN M. HUBBARD, IN HIS NEW STORE.IN HOTEL BLOCK. LOTS OF NEW GOODS. NOVELTIES IN PROFUSION. JUST WHAT YOU WANT. ONE CENT TO $100.00. ,?t**No charge for Engraving. f&The Prettiest Goods in the Town, and it'? a pleasure to show them. P. g.-If rou have Account? with J. M, gUBBA.RD.ifc BRO. make settlement with me at above place- * " ' % * . JOT? *?. euBPABP. ! ?OUR COUNTRY?' AS WE KNOW IT The Southland Viewed From Its Own Standpoint, From the Sunday New*. I cannot better introduce my littlo statement of facts, and the spirit with whioh 1 write them down for the few who may be interested in them, than by quoting these words of Mr. Her bert Spencer, and leaving the applica tion of them to my discriminating reader: "My antagonists must continue to villify rae as they please, 1 cannot prevent them Practically they say, 'It is convenient to call you a mate rialist whether you like it or not.' In my e lier days I constantly made the foolis . supposition that conclusive proofs would ohaDge beliefs, but ex perience has long since changed my faith in man's rationality." The first vivid picture painted upon my mind as a youDg child is so pecul iar to our own past, that those who have heard of slavery and the South, and are profoundly ignorant of us as a people, may be interested in these reminiscences. It is a bright spring day, a spotless chamber, the windows on the South thrown open, the balmy air floating in, laden with the smell of orange blos soms, a lovely mother, with her Ma donna face and figure, long limbed, all grace and dignity, a tiny creature by her side, the wonder and delight of my young imagination. The door opens quietly, and with great diffidence, in answer to her gentle "come in," appears a proces sion of negro women; they are all as tidy as posf-ible, and so -delighted at being allowed to enter those sacred precincts. "Maussa say we kin come, Missus, and we come, for true, to see dis baby. Maussa so proud 'cause he is a boy. What 'e name, Missus? Hush, chile, enty yo know 'e name Jemes. Don't yo'member how Maus sa let 'e beard grow when 'e brudder die? Maussa lub dat bruddei pass speaking, an' e name dis baby arter 'im. 'E .is a beauty, 'e got to i)e, just look at you, an' Maussa when 'e dress on Sunday 'e look so proud, enty yo yerry um when 'e say, 'Come, boys, git de boat, I must go to town today. Well, little Maussa, yo got plenty nig ger to work for yo. Oh, Lord, de chile is too sweet. Tankee ma'am. Good bye, ma'm," ejaculating as they pass out of the room. This place where we were born had a grove of several hundred orange trees just in front of the house, and stretching down to the river bank. It was a joy to leave the city when the first cold severe enough to kill the rank vegetation and keep malaria at bay made it safe to stay in the coun try. We would be rowed across the spark ling waters of our most beautiful river and at sight of the. brilliant trees laden with golden fruit, and often with blossoms, too, our mother's eyes filled with delight, and the children shouted with joy, as we were lifted out of the boat and placed on the lit tle "landing," built just at the foot of the avenue, leading through the grove to the house.' We had as children a Swedish gov erness, and how I marvelled over some' unopened trunks of hers; never until after a four years' stay amongst us did I know the contents of those iron bound chests, and then how we did enjoy finding out her secret. She had brought every domestic ?rdele with her from her far away European home, coming, as she thought, amongst a half civilized people. She never need ed to unpack them, and did not, thinking, with ber nice sensitiveness, that we might be wounded by the im putation. My grandfather was a New England Puritan. He became enamored of the South, and 'twas from him my mother inherited these numerous negroes. My father's family had been profes sional men, but when he married my mother this valuable property had to be cared for, and he "turned planter," as we used to say. Every Southern man planted if he could, and no won der. What a glorious life of freedom and abundance and keen interest ano! high duties it implied! A country gentleman. Ours was a whole people of country gentlemen. Mr. Pemberton Milnes speaks of them in the Old World as "my own rank, an order which Kings adft Princes can hav6 no conception of, it? supporters, the hor&o and fox, its brest, the 'cot ton boll,' its motto, 'hospitality.' My father was a model raasten Ho?Jwell I remember when moving as we? ' from this beloved orange grove to ? jost valuable rice estate his care in cnoosing the very sunniest nooks in which to build the negro quarters. Nice double frame houses they were, each family having two sleeping rooms and a common room. Everything was done to raise them morally. Who having lived it ever can forget the exceeding picturesqueness of our plantation life? On Christmas morn ing, when my mother stood on the sunny piazza, surrounded by her chil dren, half buried in the mass of bright kerchiefs and red flannel shirts, thc warm shawls for the old women, the caps for the men, and we all helped her to distribute them among the eager crowd of happy men and women in the yard below. It seemed wonder ful to our far-away Scandinavian friend that we could be so food of the people whose savage features and black skin she shuddered at. Why, of course, we loved them. Had I not slept in the arms of my old mauina? I was a wakeful, imaginative child, and when my companions, thc flicker ing shadows of the old andirons, faded away from the ceiling and the wood fire died out, and my eyes were still wide open. I used to creep into her bed and into her kind, patient old arms and find protection and sleep. This same mauma of mine did scare me, too, when I saw her in thc dim firelight say her prayers standing, in her long, white gown and her bony black arms stretched up to heaven. I never told anybody, even my mother, of how my mauma said her prayers and scared me. My father never tired of telling how, when there werp no longer children to mind, he asked her what she did, and in rich indignation she answered that she did a great deal; she fed the turkeys and swept before the door. To undorstand our people a thor ough knowledge of the race then un der our control is necessary. It is still an unsolvrd problem what they are to be. We who have them daily about us see that it is only while they are in actual contact with us that they keep any measure of civilization; as soon as they mass on some isolated is land, remote from the white man, all their savage propensities return, and the education apparently theirs proves only to be an outward clothing easily laid asido, an assumed thing, not a personal development, not an outoore of the being. This raoe had no past to contradict, no Paradise Lost, no un utterable longings "to lift itself from the dust to the realms of an exalted ancestry," We could not have kept them in subjection had they hated the yoke and reboiled against it, Their esoeed ing docility, their sense of pride in us, their surpassing power of imitation, so that the man walked and talked like his master, their ownership of us: all theso oharaoteristios made them light hearted in their servitude. In every well ordered country house thero was a room set apart where sev eral colored women, trained to une their needles, sat and sewed, making the clothing for the negro men, and for tho women, too, unloss they asked for the material that they might make their own garments, and if they had proven themselves thrifty and compu ten t it was placed in their hands, not otherwise. The infants' clothing W?.S not always under my mother's super vision. It was given out to the wo men by her as it was needed. A wo man in her confinement was always her own mistress for a full month, and after she ^ent to work much indul gence was shown her that she might suckle her infant. On the rice plantations, where the men worked most of the time in dig ging and repairing ditches and em bankments, and in the fields after they had been under water, it was neoessary for them to have very warm clothing. My father always made them wear red flannel shirts, and their outer clothing was the all-wool Eng lish plaids. I remember so well the great bales of this expensive cloth rolled out upon the floor, where the women knelt and cut out the raany coats and breeches necessary. Many of our country physicians made a handsome income out of the planters, who paid a fixed sum for an nual attendance on the sick of the plantations. ^ My father also paid regularly a stipend to the old Methodist clergy man, who came to preach to his peo ple. How well I remember the old man as we saw him approaching on his weary old nag, and ran to tell our mother. The cook knew no gentle man in the land called out my moth er's Christian love as this old man did, and the fire was made to bum afresh, and a hot, delightful meal waa served to him as she sat by'and kind ly talked with him. This was by no means all the religious teaching uh ey received. They often attended the Church services at our chapel .ano. members of the master's family pri vately instructed them. Out of our own home each Sunday afternoon, the Puritan amongst us, as we called her, would slip away so quietly from our gay assembly we scarcely missed her, and taking her little pile of books would walk over to the negro ojuarters, where she taught the ypung and old. There she sat, this beautiful girl, the light of her holy eyes testifying to the truth of her holy teaching, and as the end proves, this teaching is still in their hearts. My father was a man of immense energy and great enthusiasm for his work. No middle man came between him and his people; the most intelli gent colored man on the place was his overseer; he came every evening for his orders as to the work to be done nest day. The place which my fat her planted had lain waste for many years; the low-lying fields during this period had received the aHtfvial deposit from the adjoining swamp, and the lands, he saw, if reclaimed, would yield a golden harvest. The fields were cov ered with c? press knees and- the soil held in a network of roots; thisgrowth had to be dug out before anything could be done with the rich soil. His friends predicted financial ruin when he undertook this seemingly impossi ble work, but year by year he added field after field, cleared of the wiley cypress knees and ready to receive the grain in its rich bosom. I remember one notable year; che season had been after the planter's own heart and the crop was heavy. The sight was so very beautiful, that he drove us, my mother and the chil dren, to the plantation from our sum mer home, sonic miles distant, and along one of the embankments, which divided field from field, to see thecrop. It was a perfect afternoon in the early autumn; the sickle had not yet touched the thick standing stalks bending their head under the weight of golden grain; field after field stretched before us, the light playing over the surface in glad ripples as the mass was gently shaken by the breeze. To add to the exceeding beauty of the scene a deer leaped through the rice, from wooded side to wooded side, and lost himself in the forest. A few days afterward a steady au tumnal rain set in; the crop which had been cut, but not taken from the field, was in little stacks ready for removal I to the barns; the rain fell in torrents, j and the streams which fed the great swamp swelled and poured their wa ters into its shallow basin. The crop was flooded from this swamp at proper seasons, but now the flood gates were all carefully closed. The waters surged against the strong banks and for a long time they stood it bravely, but this was a storm of exceptional violence, and after many hours the banks gave signs of weakness. The negroes worked, my fa'her at their head, with wonderful endurance and fortitude, strengthening the banks "by every device conceivable, and the dark, weary hours went by. As the day wore on the danger to the beauti ful crop grew greater and greater, and at last, towards evening, a break in a bank took place; they renewed in vain their frantic efforts to keep back the strong, cruel waters; break after break then came and the night drew on. At last they gathered even the golden sheaves in their arms and dashed them into the surging waters to try to stop the fatal gaps. It was now black night, and it was by flaming torches that they worked, refusing my father's orders to desist; that it was useless. The fields were one expanse of angry waters; the golden grain tossed on the surface and the crop lost before they saw the folly of further exertion, when they sat upon the banks and lifted up their voices aud wept aloud. The most honored and' beloved of our domestic negroes was our old but ler. On our return after an absence of months spent at boarding school, he was so implicitly trusted by my mother that she sent him with the carriage to bring her young daughters from the nearest station to our home. It was a distance of fifteen miles through lonely country roads. When we stepped ont of the train and saw only his old blaok face I felt alarmed, thinking there must have been sick ness at home. Whore is father, Dad dy Jimmy? "Why, chile, your father A ain't studying about you? come get in, ! your mother will be anxious waiten for you. Dis train is late." "Why, j Daddy Jimmy, why didn't father come?" "What's de matter, chilo, oan't the old man take oare of you? I been doin' for you chillum sinoe tho night you was born." And sure enough the old man was the truest and best of guides and friends. How in corporated into our lives these people were, They nursed us when we were born, they taught us to row and ride and drive, they made the music for us at our Christmas danoos, they were so knowing about our love affairs, they surrounded us when we were married, they wept for us when we died. They were the very kindliest, most child? like, most faithful and most imperson al of races. As slaves orime was un known amongst them. Tho future alone can say whether they will rise higher in tho scale of civilization as the world grows oidor than when they were ours, and we were responsible to God and man for them. No man was held in greater contempt in our land by his fellow mon than a cruel master. We were exclusively an agricultural people, our climate along the vast ex tent of coast, where the lands are rioh est, is fatal to the white man duriug the summer season, only the negro oan live in it the whole year, and but for these people the factories of the world would lose the fleecy staple, which feeds thousands of them. Only the eduoatinn, which for gen erations we have given the negro, has made him the laborer of to-day. As savages, just from their Afrioan jun gles, entire subjection was the first ab solutely necessary step in his civiliza tion. We will never feel that in keep ing them a3 slaves we have done any thing "for which our conscience needs a corner," nor will we ever assume the tone apologetic for our past. We were the most oontented, happy people with none of the restless spirit which characterized our Northern brother. We did not envy him his jmmense material development, and only asked to reap the fruit of our own hands. We did not love the great ag gressive American people, and scarce ly regarded ourselves as of them. The sovereign State was our mistress and for her and our original conception of her we were ready to lay down life and all things. All our sent:ment was for the moth er country, our homes were filled with the solid old mahogany furniture which our fathers had brought to this new world, our cupboards reflected the crown stamped silver service of old England, our children's minds were saturated with the nursery rhymes and ballads of the Old World. English editions of English classics, English reviews, the English Church and English thoughts filled our homes and minds. Today we read with amusement the impression left on the mind of the English traveller when visiting this great conglomeration of peoples. Mathew Arnold and Hamilton Aide do not describe the Southerner. It was over this abundant, happy, blessed country the dark war cloud now settled. I have not the heart to go in retrospect within its shadow. We owed it to our manhood to fight that awful war. If it was. as Mr. Bryce thinks it was, for an ideal form of government the Southerner fought, still it was our original conception; we never meant our voluntary union with other States to be indissoluble. We see very clearly now that our great content with our Southern coun try as it was hindered the full devel opment of its inexhaustible resources. We must cease to be exclusively agri cultural. We must become more like our Northern neighbors. We must mine and manufacture and build and get gain. Wc must give our youth the motto of the wily Iago, "Put money in thy purse, and again, put money in thy purse," but oh. 'tis hard, and while saying it, we fall on our knees and pray, Oh, God, keep bis heart pure and his ideals high; and we fill the shelves in his room with the lives of England's heroes, and we hang around the walls portraits of Lee and Stonewall Jackson and Davis and Maury and Hampton and Icgraham; and we teach him, while acknowledg ing the mightiness of this wonderful country, to love with a great love, and teach his children's ohildren, the story of the "Lost Cause" of his own heroic Southern land. Evaporation From one Oak Tree. ? Scientists who have studied the situation claim that an oak tree of average size, with say, 700,000 leaves, lifts into the air from the earth about 128 tons of water in the five or six months in which it displays its foli age. From leaves water is evaporated and formed into the clouds which sup ply the rain. Doesn't this make clear ; the necessity for more interest in arborculture in this latitude and long itude, which is now suffering from a drought of at least two years' dura tion ? In the current year there is a deficiency in the rainfall amounting to more than ten inches. Such prolong ed droughts have never been known since an official record of the weather has been kept. The fact is the water lifters havo been cut down and de stroyed in the Ohio Valley until the situation has become serious. The apparent alternative now is to either irrigate or restore the forests, as for ests have been restored in many parts of Europe.-Cincinnati Times Star. Great Diving Feat. ST. LOUIS, June 20.-Albert Baker, aged 19, who lives with his uncle, J. W. Gindcr, in this city, to day made the first dive into the Mississippi River ever taken from the Eads bridge. He is a pupil of Prof. Bill Clark, who has turned out many good divers. F or weeks young Baker has b-en fired with an ambition to jump off the big bridge, and has been practising almost daily at thc Natatorium. He was particularly anxious to jump head first and not feet first, as all the jumpers before him had done. This he did this morning, and did it successfully, making the first bona fide dive ever made from the Eads bridge. The distance from the top of the bridge to the water is 125 feet. Baker struck the water head first, and soon came up. He swam about 250 feet to a wa:t'og tug, and was taken on board witho^j having been hurt. There is more Cat rrh in this fcction of the country than all other diseases put together, and until the last few years waa suppos d to bc incur* ablo. For a great many ye*rs doctors pron-mticrd il a local disease, and prescribid local remedies, ami by cms antly fa Ung to euro willi local treat ment, pronounced lt incurable Sci- nc- has prov en catarrh to he a constitutional disease, and ther. fore requires constitutional treatment. Hall's Catarrh ''ure, manufactured by F J Cheney A Co. Toledo, Uh o. i- the only constitutional cuto on tho m?rtet. It is taken Internally In do-es from 10 drup. to a teaspoonful. It acis dir ct'y on tbi blood and mucous surf ces of tho svslcm. They oll'rr one hutidr-d do'lars for any case it foils to cure, ?end for circulars and testimonial. Ad d'ea-, F. J. CHENEY <i CO., Toledo, O, V42J:oIil hy DruggiatS, 75c. SABGE PLUNKETT. Plunkett Talko About a Church on Wheels. Atlanta Constitution. I loam from an editorial in the Con stitution that a ohuroh is to be put on wheels and rolled about the oountry for the benefit of catohing the bicycle riders, This is another departure to por? suade folks into the church, It means something-perhaps it means an ac knowledgement that alllhe departures of late days have been a failure, and that the church is growing weaker in its influence and being overshadowed by other things. Anyhow, you did not use to have to move a church around on wheels to get a congregation, nor you did not have to offer premiums to get young people to ohurch, nor work any schemes in church matters. In those days the ohuroh was the great thing-greater than all else-the young people were taught that it was a most glorious privilege to visit them, and they look ed to the preachers and to the mem bers as better than common folks and there was a Ptriving to arrive at such perfection. The vilest sinnere had a reverenoe for chunhes and ohuroh people and rowdies respected the old preacher's presence like they did the presenoe of women. Boys and girls in my young days walked six or seven miles to church and were glad of the privilege. It would be all right for the bicycle rid ers who go in droveii along tba ooun try roads every Sabbath day now to meet a crowd of old r.ime country peo ple ort their way to church as they used to appear. No doubt the bicy clists would stop and guy them or turn round and follow thom as great curi osities. The old-timers not only walked great distanoes to get to church, but if you could meet them in the road you would find them barefooted-shoes off and "bitting the grit" for dear life that they might be in time to catch every word and hear every song. You need not think that the boys were not accompanied by their pretty sweet hearts, for the girls went and walked and carried their Sunday shoes just the same as the boys. These old-tim ers would have a place to stop at the spring branch close by the church and there they would wash their feet, put on their home-knit stockings and Sun day shoes and walk into church as proud as-queens and fully conscious that they bad done nothing to dese crate the Sabbath day. Them old timers would have thought mighty lit tle of these crowds who romp around over the country roads every Sunday on bicycles,*and it would sound migh ty strange to hear that a church was to be put on whoels to catch them out on the roads. It strikes me as it strikes Brown that instead of starting up new church es we had better get back to old time ways. There is something wrong somewhere, and if it is not corrected this will soon be a land of sin and in fidelity, People say that Brown and I are wrong; that folks.are better and and times are better than'they used to be. The most of folks think that we have outlived cur time, are old fo gies and got no sense, and sometimes I am nearly ready to agree, but when we hear such propositions as building a church on wheels just for the catch ing of these Sabbath breakers, it strikes us" that somebody else is foolish and not us. I do not know who is responsible for the careless feeling about churches that makes it necessary to study schemes to have the young people at tend, but I do know that it was not once so. I have seen the day when it was the pride of both old and young to goto church-the married and the unmarried. The young mother went, and it was a matter of pride to take the babe, and if there happened to be twins both were carried in some way, and the mother with twins was just twice as proud as the mother with one. The young mothers of this day are almost forbidden to carry their babes to church. It i3 not fashiona ble in these days, and so the babe is left at home with some careless nurse, while the mother rushes to church and back. Of course, no affectionate mother could enjoy the services like she could with her babe along, and the < o "sequence is that the mothers are getting so they do not wish to go to-church, or else they think babes are a nuisance and rather have none, but if the truth was known, I expect a lot of babes have wished they had never been born. People say that such things as car rying the babes to church would be heathenish now. They would disturb the preachers. But what has been done can be done again, and tile churches were reverenced under these old customs, and it strikes me that we should get back to them. And it was not such a hard thing to do, this thing of taking the babies to church. Pallets were spread down on the mee t ing house floor in old times, and the babies just lay there and kicked and crowed while the old preacher preach ed, and if one happened to cry a moth er would take it outside under the trees and nobody was disturbed and nobody cared. It may be that a better plan might be arrived at in these progressive days for the management of these matters, but I doubt it-the customs of these old-time meeting houiies is hard to beat and the old howes themselves were better than anything that can be devised upon wheels. The baby boys and the baby girls lay upon the same pallets at these old churches; side by side they started out in life, and then when a little larger they sit on the benches together, played under the trees together and after awhile they married each other and brought more little babes to the same old church. They learned to love thc old house, and the trees in the lawn and thc bench es, and the graves in the churchyard all the associations were dear and nothing on wheels could ever win the heart or teach the lessons taught in these old churches. Besides these old churches used to fill the measure for all charitable pur poses, '[f a brother in the church got sick bis crop was worked-they saw his needs and attended to his family. This was no trouble in those days. On the contrary it was a pleasure. "Rich and poor joined and made the working of a sick man's crop a frolic, livery little detail was seen to-such as hauling wood, etc-til!, as I have said before and say no-,, that there was no poverty in thc south under such, conditions-not as we understand poverty at this time. You never heard of a tramp in Georgia till since thc war. And there was no talk of dynamiting nor anarchism nor auy oth er ?HI?S. I never knew^ one neighbor to sell another seed potatoes nov cot ton 3eed nor any other seed till since the war, and no man would think of charging a traveler fera meals victuals or a night's lodging, and all of this obtained under the rough old churches and rough old preaohers of whom it is spoken lightly now. Brown or I would not be understood as being against all the ohurohes of this day nor against tho preachers. There are many good ohurches and many good preaohers, and, God bless them, we love them, but we have seen so many departures away from the old time customs that we hate to hear of any more. Our memories still ding to the old things, and especially do the old-time preachers and the old me?t ing houso? linger with us. The old bouses have nearly all passed away, the old preaohers have gone, tho springs are drying up, and the shady slopes through which the branches wound, lending coolness and giving greonness, is almost a thing of the past, but tho memory of them is enough to bring a tear when we think of a church qn wheels, rolling up and down the dusty road? seeking to win the class that desecrate the Sabbath day through the land. But whatever is the "fashion" in thes'e days there is no use to combat. It has got to be the fashion to skim around the country on bicycles, es pecially on Sunday, s.nd I guess there is no use in me and Brown trying to stop it. We never did know a stop to be put to "fashion" when it had once set in but one time, and that was only temporary, and it was done by old old time preacher and atan old-time meet ing house. It was a long tima ago when the steel hoopskirtf. were first invented. People thought that steel would draw lightning in those days, and one Sun day when noe of r1 e old-time ohuroh es was Li ?o' with these steel skirts, the old preacher saw a cloud arising and he made it the opportunity to hoop up the "fashion." "These Yankee inventions," said this old preacher, "will call down the curse of God upon you." Just at this time aloud clap cf thun der shook the old house, and the light ning tore a big tree to pieces just out side. "Look out, girls,'1 said the preach er, "God is searching for them hoop skirts." The lightning flashed again., and the old mothers began to whisper to the girls, and another clap of thunder put the girls on their feet, and in less time than it takes to tell it all the hoop skirts were lying in a pile outside the church. We don't think that lightning could scare a girl in Georgia now, and we doubt if there is anything known to man that could stop a "fad" in tb^ese days, but maybe these bicyclists can be persuaded from desecrating the Sab bath in the way they have started oat to do, and maybe we can impress the preachers that there is too much de parting from old ways to "reach" the masses. Let the masses go on to hell-save the churches. SARGE PLUNKETT. - -rn- . m - 'Squire Bray's Courtship. 'Squire Bray of Caswell, a little town in North.Carolina, was hunting another wife. His first marriage had been a happy one, dissolved by the death of his beloved helpmeet. The 'Squire had, a son named Bob. Bob was a wild blade, and proposed to knock his father out of a second union. In the capacious breastpocket of the 'Squire's great coat reposed a pint tickler, well filled, that he only pro posed using on his way back from seeing the widow Brown. Now, just before he started Bob slipped the tickler out, and put in its place a small alarm clock, carefully wound up and set for ll p. m. The 'Squire had sat the fire out and was well on wit;h his overcoat, hold ing the widow's hand at the door and putting in his sweetest licks at the last. "Yes, your first husband, my dear, was one of my best friends, and we'll visit his and my lost Hannah's graves, won't we, love ?" "Ah yes, for where was there a -ter woman than your poor Han ?" asked the widow. lA good woman; she was good enough, but there's a living one just as sweet," said the 'Squire, and he was drawing her to him for a kiss, when, whizz-wizz, wiz;;er-hizzer-ting whir-r-r-r-r-ting ! bang ! the clock went off inside of him. "0 lawdl" screamed the widow, "he's shooting to pieces. It's Han nah's old peanny a playin' inside of bimi" "She said she'd haunt me ! She allers told me so !" cried the 'Squire, running in a stoc-p for his horse, with both hands pressed to his breast and the clock still striking, ting, ting. He rode like Old Nick was after him, and never knew the racket until he felt for bis tickler and pulled out the little clock that Bob had bought at auction. Then he laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks, but be promised Bob never to spark another woman, if he'd only keep the joke from the neighbors. The widow believes to this day that' old man Bray is. a walking volcano, and that his dead wife would set the battery a-going, if ever he went near a woman again to make love to her. What She Must Be. "1 believe I'll get married and set tle down. I wish you would look around and pick me out a wife," said John Bingham, a Dallas dude, to Mrs. Morris. "What sortof a wife do you want?" asked Mrs. Morris, who is a very sen sible woman. "In the first place, she must be beautiful." "What else ?" "She must be modest." "What else ?" "She must be musical ami well edu cated ?" "Anything else ?" "She must bc worth ?250,000 in her own right." "If tha" sort of a lady marries a fellow like you, she will have one oth er qualification," said Mrs. Morri"1. "What is that, ?" "She will have to he crazy !" - Chamberlain's Cough Remedy cures colds, crou p and whooping cough. It is pleasant, safe and reliable. For sale by Hill Bros. - According to current report, Blue Pond, near Oxford, Ala., is bottomless. Tradition says that less than 200 years ago the site of r,hc pond was covered with a heavy growth of timber. Thc Indians say that several hundred noble red men were camped in the woods when thc orust broke through and that the most of thom perished in thc rush ing waters. That Mile-a.MJnnte Biko. At about ll o'clock this morning S. H. Roper, the inventor of a steam bicycle, died of heart disease, while making a trial of his machine on the track of the new Charles River Park in Cambridge. He had made an inde pendent trial of his machine, accom plishing a mile in 2:011-5, and at the time of his death was making another trial against Nat Butler, thc noted professional. He had completed three-quarters of the mile, giving But ler, who is one of the speediest men in the country, all that he wanted to do and was coming down the turn on the last lap, when suddenly it was seen that he was wavering in his seat, and an instant later he plunged for ward on Lis f?ce. The tremendous speed at which he was going carried man and machine over each other, the bicycle coming down on top of Roper, who did not move after he struck the ground. The men at the training quarters, who had witnessed the accident, rushed down the track toward him. He had died so suddenly that he had not had time to shut off the power, and the wheels of the machine were flying around at a fearful rate, tearing up the track, while tho coals had fallen out of the door of the fire boz, which had como on the under side in the fall, so that it looked as if both man and machine were on fire. The ma chine was lifted from him, but the men who did it were unacquainted with its workings, and were unable to shut off the power. As soon as4t was set up with the wheels on the track it was all that they could do to hold it and it was some minutes before they could find the throttle, shut off the steam and open the safety valve to prevent the danger of an explosion. As soon as the machine was quiet Roper was picked up and it was seen that thc man was dead. A physician was summoned, and pronounced that ho had died from heart disease. There is no question that he was dead' before he struck the ground, as there was no injury upon him which would have been sufficient to have caused his death. It is probable that the tremendous speed at which-he was go ing and the excitement of his success were the cause of the attack. He was a mechanical engineer, 73 years old, living at 299 Eustis street, Rox bury. The affair is a peculiarly sad one, as the trial in which he met his death was the consummation of an idea which had cost him years of study and hard labor. The machine on which ! he was riding had been tried and al tered as defects were found, over and over again, and he had just succeeded in getting it to suit himself. As far as can be learned, it was a success in every way, as it was worked up to a great speed this morning without showing any of the straining or tv isl ing, which has always been the trouble with bicycles operated in any other manner than by foot power. The mile which he did in 2:01 1-5 repre sents only a fraction of the speed which could be attained by the ma chine, as he was unable to let it out at anywhere near its full power, and on the turns shut off the power entirely and coasted around until he came into the straight again. It is the opinion of many good judges of pace who watched the trial this morning that in the straight, where he was able to speed up pretty well, he was going at a speed of nearly a mile a minute, and that he could have attained quite that on a straight away course. There was no one at thu track this morning who was familiar enough with the machine to give a detailed descrip tion of it, hut it is apparently' of about three or four horse power. The firebox, boiler and water tank are all cootained in an oak box about three feet high, two feet long, and ten or twelve inches wide, placed inside the frame of an old style Columbia bicy cle, with the bottom'about eight inches from thc ground and the top a little above the top of the frame, the whole machine weighing in the neigh borhood of 200 to 250 pounds. The application of power is on the right side of the machine and is much the same as that in use on marine engines, except that the piston works in a hori zontal direction instead of vertically, as is the case with most marice en gines and that the end of the crank, instead of running in a bearing is free, with the eccentric rod applying to the free end, the other end, of course, be ing fixed to the rear wheel. lt might be thought that this would give a good deal of twist if the power were applied very hard, but this ap parently is not so, for in spite of the rough handling which the machine had this morning all this part of it was iu perfect condition, although on the oJher side, where it had fallen, it was a good deal smashed up. Both the piston rod and the eccentric rod run through several guides, which were at tached to the lower side of,the frame of the bicycle, so that the whole is firm and compact. The throttle is on -.he outside of the machine, just above fihe cylinder, so that if the cord con necting with the handle bar, by which it is usually operated, fails to work, it can be shut off by direct application. The machine is a coal burner, and has a funnel, projecting backward almost on a straight line, so that the smoke is thrown out behind the rider. The running of the machine works an auto matic pump, which is provided with a cut-off, which operates when the boil er is full. It has also a draught reg ulator by which the fire can be blown up to almost any height. The ma chine usually carries 140 pounds of steam, but the pressure could be run up -to 160.-Boston Evening Tran script. Last summer one of our grand child ren was sick with a severe bowel trou ble. Our doctor's remedies had failed when we tried Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy, which gave very speedy relief. We regard it as the best mediciuc ever put on the market forbowSl complaints.-Mrs. E. G. (?regory, Frederickstown, Mo. This certainly is the best medicine ever put on the market for dysentery, summer complaint, colic and cholera in fantum in children. It never fails to give prompt relief when used in rea sonable time and the plain printed di rections are followed. Many mothers have expressed the sincere gratitude for the cures it has effected. For sale by Hill Bros. - A peanut party is great fun for children. Several quarts of peanuts should be hidden about the house and the small guests given little baskets or kinder garton paper boxes in which to place all those they find. When thc signal is given for collecting again in the drawing room from which they j started, those who have the most nuts receive prizes, and there may be others for the discovery of special. peanuts I marked by ornameotations. All Sorts of Paragraphs. - Haller says that a single female housefly will lay 20,080.320 eggs ia one season. - The man who will allow his vote to he influenced by a drink of liquor ought to be disfranchised. - Cawker-"I've had another addi tion to my family since I saw you last." Cumso-"You don't say I Boy or girl?" Cawker-"Son-in-law." - Camels are perhaps the only ani mals that; cannot swim. Immediately upon entering th? ^ater, it is said, they turn on their ' backs and are drowned. - Got on your husband's cravat, havent you?" asked a neighbor of Mrs. Bilking. "Yes," -replied Mrs. B. sadly. "It is the only tie there is between us now." - It in usually best, if a minister and his charge oannot agree, for the minister to drop the' contest. The church cannot very well go off; and so this leaves but one alternative. - Agitated Young Bridegroom (jm mediatelyafterthecercmbny): "Serena, : shall-shall I-shall we kiss ?" Self possessed Bride (it"> being her third experience): "It is my usual custom, William." - "Now, WHIie," said Mr. Wilkins, "papa is going away for two weeks. ~gm* Remember whose boy ynu are, andS behave accordingly." "You can bdfl I will, daddy* said Willie.. 'TjO have just as good a nime as you wilL^^?j - The largest dammed; body of . water in the world Will be secured by ' the building of a dam at Cloquet, Minn., ou the St. Louis River. The dam is to be 900 feel; longhand eighty feet high, with bac ?waters sixty miles in extent. - "George, did you hear about that little affair at the Parish house to-day at noon?" "No," said Andrews, "what was it ?" "Why, all the ladies got up and left liho table." "The deuce, you say I What for?" "They had finished eating." - New Hampshire has produced many queer things, and the latest on record is ahorse that was'raised in New Boston. The horse has a hump that any dromedary in Arabia would be proud of, and many other peculiar ities that nothing but a camera can adequately describe. - One dollar Joined for 100 years at 6 per cent., with interest collected annually and added to the principal, will amount to $340. At 8 per cent., it amounts to $2,203, or nearly seven times as much. At 12 per cent., it amounts to $84,075, or more than 4,000 times as much. - A romantic young lady, who was dragged out of a pond into which she had fallen, on coming round declared that she would ma-'ry her preserver : "That is impossible," said a young man. "Is he already married, then ?" she inquired. "No," said he ; "he is a Newfoundland dog." .- "I wonder," said the vealiy boarder, "if there is any truth in',the theory that advancement of women to an equal intellectual plane with man will destroy her beauty ?" "Ot course there is," said the soured bachelor, "and there are more pretty women than ever nowadays." - "From the reports of the experts.' ' observed Uncle Allen Sparks, "it seems that the~small bore rifles are much more effective in warfare than those of larger caliber. It's~ a good deal the Hame way in politics. The small bore politician does ten times . more damage bo the community than the big gun does." - ''That jes' shows the contrariness of politicians," said Fanner Corntossel, as be finished an account of an unsuc cessful interviewer's attempt. "What's the matter ?" asked his wife. "When they ain't got nothin' ter say they'll talk like 'twas fur dearTife ; an^z%r soon ez they gits somethin* on their minds thet the public 'nd like ter hear about they shet up like clams." - When the Czar was crowned at . Moscow recently? he provided a ?ree festival out on Hodynsky Plain. 2'S There wexe thousands and tens of ' thousands of the poor and hungry present, and when they made the grand rush for the beer and food there was a sort; of panic, and more than - 1,500 peasants were crushed to death. But the Czar must be crowned if it does come high. - Cedar and fig trees are rarely struck by lightning. The beech, the larch, the fir, and the chestnut, also seem to be peculiarly obnoxious to the "bolts of Jove.". Thexe are trees, however, which appear to attract rather than to repel the lightning flash. The trees generally enumerated in the category of those which the lightning,^ ; ' is most apt to strike are. the oak, the yew, the elm and thc Lombardy poplar. - Bessie's mother had dressed her for church one bright Suuday morning. After her hair was brushed and her_f* hat was carefully pinned on she sat down to wait until the older folks were ready. "Be careful not to muss your dress," called her mother. "No, ma'am," answered Bessie, looking* prim and sweet. Just then in came TI: Aunt Sarah. "Bessie looks so nice this morning," she said, "that I must haveakis8." "No, no, Aunt Sarah," said Bessie "You'll muss my mouth." Mrs. Rhodie Noah, of this place, was taken in the night with cramping pains and the next day diarrhoea set in. She _ took half a bottle of blackberry cordial but got no relief. She then sent to me to see if I had any thing that would .help her. I sent her a bottle of Cham berlain's Colic, Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy and the first dose relieved her. Another of our neighbors had been sick for about .a week and had tried different remedies for diarrhoea but. >M kept getting worse. I sent him this same remedy. Only four doses_of it: ^ were required to cure him. He says'"7K* he owes his recovery to this wonderful remedy.-Mrs. Mary Sibley, Sidney, Mich. For sale by Hill Bros. - "I always know whon there is going to be a wind storm," says a Pennsylvania farmer, "by watching the turkeys and chickens go to roost each night. In calm weather the . fowls roost on the poles with their -> heads alternating each way-that is, one faces east, che next west, and so on. But when there is going to be a high wind they always roost with their heads toward the direction from which the storm is coming. There are'rea sons for those different ways of roost ing, I take it. When there is no wind to guard against they can see other dangers more readily if they are headed in both directions, but when windis V^;! to arise they faci? it because they can(:~. hold their position better. But thc part I can't understand is how the critters know the wind is going to rise when we mortals lack all intimation of it." ' . fl