Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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K kA' VOL III, MANNIN~'G,, CIAARENDONCUNY S. C., WEDNESDAY, JUNE S 8 O 5 TIMELY TOPICS F B FArRaM R HOW TO DO PAYING WORK AT THU SEASON. Suggestions of Interest. from an Author! ta~ive Source. (W. L. Jones in Soutlrn Cultivator-) Having finished planting the nail crops and got them well under way, th work of continued cultivation will ab sorb most of the time and vttention o the farmer. If the seasons during MIay in any given section, have been propiti ous, the main obje ct in view in cultivat ing the crop will be to keep the sulfaci soil in light, friable condition. Ti un thinking labUrer conceives that. the Chie end of plowing and hoeing is to preven the weeds from choking the crop. T( such a man (perhaps there are man: such) the grass and weeds are a blessint in disguise-compelling him to give th< cultivation which would be needed, evei in the absence of such a blessing. Dee plowing of growing crops is not now ii order, excepting, of course, late-pku!ntc(' fields not before well plowed. We wan to induce a moderately rapid and health ful growth of the stalks of corn and cot ton. Therefore the roots of the plant: should not be torn and broken mon( than is absolutelv necessary. The uppec inch or two of te soil should be kepi open and loose. The crust which form after a rain prevents the easy access oj the air above-laden with plant food iL the form of carbonic acid and nitrogen and should be broken as often as may be found expedient, not less than onec in every ten days or two weeks. The layer of soft mellow soil that is left be hind the cultivating implement acts very decidly as a mulching to the layer bAon in which the roots are penetratinz im every direction. Such a layer of ioose soil is a poor conductor of heat and therefore protects the roots of the cror from the too fervid and scorching rayt of the sun; and the interstices are not fine and close enough to act as capiliarieE in bringing up the noisture from. the soil about the roots to be evaporated anid lost, ss would be the case if the crust were pe-mitted to remain undi'turbed. It should be the aim, therefore, to go over a crop as rapidly as possible aizer a good season of rain and to keep the sur face as constantly as possible in thi loose, open condition. How ofte a crop should be plowed over is, as already hinted, a question of expediency. N1 hiie it is true that a crop growing on ;0ooz land but lightly fertilized will receive a greater ratio of benefit from frequent and thorough cultivation than a Cro: growing on rich or well-fertilized toil, yet it pays best to give the naturAllv rieh or the highly fertilized land the pi:er ence-the best and most frequent culti vation. We donbt not there are iany fields already planted that would give better returns (less loss) if they should receive no cultivation at all. irMD CoTITVATIOX. The implements used in the South i: cultivating tly crops are generally de fective in the respect that they are tot small-they do not get over the crop fasi enough. A light-running 12 to I8 incl: sweep does not fully tax the cspacity oj a stout mule to say nothing of the smalle2 shovel and scooter, still so much used. The Southern farmer does not fully ap preciate the advantages of wide spread. ing cultivators and harrows. Among th< number of expanding, adjustable culti vators, on wheels or otherwise, that are so generally used in the North and'West, we ought to be able to find one that will answer our purpose better than the sweep and heel-scrape. A cotton middlE should be cleaned out and stirred fron> row to row at one through trip-a cort row at not more than two. There is cer tainly an unnecessary consumption oi time and travel when from seven to nin furrows are given to each three-foot cot ton row, in the course of the season, az is usually done, employing the time oj an able-bodied hand and mule. Several years ago, while watching the plowing of a field of cotton with :M-inei sweeps-two furrows to the middle-we were struck with the fact that, in makims the return, or second furrow, the bis sweep was doing substantially little mor< original work than might have been don< by a three-inch garden hoe. The greatei part of the cutting edge of the sweep wat lapping over and passing along the fur row run just a few moments before. T< remedy this on the spot we dii ecte'd tii< plowman to side "by the row,' a"d'k every other row-i. e. tide both deo every other row. The resmlt was a a of just one-half thie tiue, and doin t work-so far as mntrely stimxug u:* -2i was concerned.-almrot as pertcecily two furrows had been run in e.:chm ale. This raving of time made i-pos ble to stir the soii-practically the enir surface-twice as oi:a.i as before uiti precisely the samne labor. Of couz a the next plowing the rows not siden tbe fore received the special attention. ti others being left. We were so pleaset with the plan that it was adopted a permanent resort, tspecially when it wa desirableto go over the crop very rapid ly, as immediately after a heavy ramn The principle involved _is more or les applicable to the cultivation of wide rows, and the plan mag be modifieu o suspended according to circumnstances It is equally applicable to any of th cultivators whicti do not straddie th row so as to plow beth sides of it. Al implement designed to run astride IL rows and side both sides perfectly is desideratum in the earlier stages of th~ crop. But in the absence of such a cu. tivator the plan above detailed will of te: be found very expedient. The tim honored rule of plowing over the crc every three weeks has but little to r, commend it except its observance -w: prevent the absolute loss of the crop. but three plowings are to be given to tu corn crop it is better to somewhat dela the first and hasten the second and thrt so as to make the intervals be~twee plowings less. SM.LL GRlAIN. Of course the small grain crop~ mun receive attention as it ripens for the ha vest, and no reminder will be neede other than the rapid fading of the gree into the golden yellow :'emember ths oats intended for feeding in the shei pbenM ha cnt when the tops of the hea( have tmnned vellow and while the straw is Atill :green Cut rather high and care well before housinag, as they are very troublesonie to manage if put into stack or barn udercured. Wheat intended for market or milling ,hould also be cat before fully ripe, but nearer full ripeness than oatz. The husk or bran will then be thinner and the yield of flour will be better than if the grain b-, permitted to fully harden. But all grain intended for seed should be fully ripe, especially oats. It is an excellent plan to go over the filds and select the choicest heads (in adivance of the harvesting), stripping by hand and keeping the grain separate. In this way the guajitv of tile seed in any desired respect may be kept up to the original standard of exellence, and even much improved. 't is probable that the popular inst proof oats and other vtaiCts of grain were discovered and perpetuated in this way. SWEET POTATaoEs. This is the favored time for enlarging the area in sweet pototoes. The vines planted now will do as well, if not bet ter, than the slips from the old bed. But whether cat vines or slips be used, plantings in June or July will make cheaper and better keeping tubers than plantings made during the months of Xpril and May, because they grow onl at once andt require much less cultivation. We used to take a pride in setting the earliest slips and the largest area carly in the season, until we discovered that some of our neighbors who were not so smart made more and better potatoes by planting later. We consider the sweet potato crop as possessing great undeveloped possibili ties. It is about the cheapest hog food that can be produced in our climate and certai-ly one of the most healthful as well as convenient. An important secret in sweet potato planting is to have the ground well prepared beforehand and freshly plowed just before seiting out the slips or vines. If not convenient to reverse the beds after a rain and just be fore planting, the patch should be plowed, or at least hoed, just as soon as practicable. Plants set in a sodden, compact soil do not flourish and grow off as well as if set in a mellow, freshly plowed soil. In planting vines we have found it to! pay to prepare the cuttings with slime degree of care, dividing them into pieces containing from three to five leaves (ac cording to distance between leaves) and inserting two to three joints only in the ground. There will be fewer potatoes in a hill, but they will be larger and smoother than when much more of the vine is inserted in the ground. FIELD PEAS. This is the best time for planting field peas, whether for seed or improving the land. No crn !ield should be without a row of peas between the rows of corn, or broa,"msted over the fiel. The crop costs little more than the seed and is probably the best paying crop planted in the Soutn in proportion to the in vestment in sced and labor If some buinch variety is already growing in rows! it is not a bad idea to sow again Just ahead of the last plowing. For this pur pose the Conch p- a, or some other run ning kind, is best. It is often recom mended to sow peas after wheat and oats. It is good farming to do so when practicable. But it so often occurs that the ground is too dry and hard to per mit of plowing and getting the peas up that the plan cannot be relied on as a part of a regular system. Sometimes it can be done, often it cannot. If the groutd can be plowed the best way we have found to do it is to list two furrows together lapping the slices turned and leaving a narrow ridge to be opened out with a shovel, followed by a pea-dropper, and the peas covered. Three furrows, after the peas are well up, will usually, suffice for the cultivation. Forage crops, like cat-tail millet, millo maize, kailir corn and sorghum, niay still be planrted, but the land should be proportionately better as the planting is later. We have had no personal experi ence with millo maize, but doubt if it is any better for green-soiling than the old stand-by cat-tail millet. For curing into hay for use by and by, the German mil let and common corn answer better, albeit th.e latter is very dificult to cure perfectly. The German millet should be sown broadcast in well-broken land, and at the rate of one-half to one bushel of seed per acre and harrowed in. Sow the corn in driuls t'rree to four feet apart at the rate of three bushels of seed per acre. The ordinary pop-corn is said to be ex cellent for tis purpose. Tt'RNIPS. Ln itedd to b esown in turnips, especially i rutabagas are to be grown, shoud recei.ve attentio~n by repeated deepv .oi."gs until the time for seceding arixe. We .ce n.ot st~olg in our ad voc,: o taripsf 'ms ag stock crop i" the c-ot: elt. (=Xr fil cimate is general lv too dryv for turnips, and unless every othe co eito of sucess is faithfuly :com .:'ed with,, the faihmrs will be often er tl~: the~ . hits; ye't this vegetable is so - 1ei l for the tal ie, as well as for Itock tat a moderate area should be sowni. If they fail, it is easy to devote the 1 ud to some fail erop, as rye, barley 1HOGS. WL ave long believed that the predis posing causes of hog cholera are insui ient or unnatural food and want of plenty of pure water. The disease is well jiuown to be infectious, bat it is known that even infectious diseases more recadily attack whore there are pre disog causes. The Log, in a state of atur~e, herbivorous, subsisting on roots, grass and nuts, and ranging the woo s and swas unrestrained. 'The nr:we can keep to nature in the nu' n' gement of stock, supplementing nam-l supplies by the arts ci culture, andt rotecting against undue exposure to ine'ment weather, the more healthy and 1"-orous the animals will be. Every armer should provide an abund.:nce of genndsucculent food throughoutth sprin arnd summier, to be followed in the fail and winter by nluts, tubers, grain and oil-cake. Green roasting ears, stalk and all, sorghum, coilards, clover, fallen fruit and miany of the natural grasses ot -the held anlord a succession and variety that leave little to be desired during the a grcwing months; and sweet potatoes, ? jchufas, peanuts, field-peas, artichokes, if etc., answer the demands of the season s furthe n, and prepare the porkers foi the smoke-house. Whai.a list of food resources for man and be-Sst we have in tthe South! We ought not to import a pound of bacon or lard, beef or butter. If failure or famine occurs in one coun ty the adjoining or not distant county should be our Egypt, instead of the far distaut West. If failure occurs this year. try again. Not many give up cotton planting because of even repeated. suc cessive failures. The writer spent seven teen of the best years of his life on his farm, and during that tim=, in the ag gregate, his sales of surplus pork and bacon were greater than the amounts bought. The South raised her bacon during the war, and she can and ought to do it now. Not every farmer, per haps, is favorably situated for raising hogs; but there are others whose sur plus shoul supply such as fail. This is fully as good a section for hog-raising as for corn-growng. If we persist in the one, why not in the other? We can largely substitute oats and other grain; we accept no substitute for bacon and lard-the greater reason why we should produce our own bacon which has been done very successfully by many progres sive Southern farmers. 'I WANT 1HAT MAN." Rcaxons for Th inkinug Albert Syd ey John ston Was Killed by a Private. Chicago Inter-Ocean: As a general rule the most impartial personality that I ever got acquainted with is a bullet in battle. It is perfectly democratic and fair, recognizing neither rank, station, age nor quality. There are some exceptions to this rule, as, for instance, when a bullet is directly aimed at some con snicuous oflicer and fetches him. I think it was a special bullet that killed Albert Sydney Johnston, and the reason why I think so is this: In the Shiloh fight Pugh's brigade, to which I belonged, was strung along the rail fence, having the cotton field and peach orchard between it and the Con federate line. Across this field and orchard the enemy made three or four magnificent charges, and was terribly repulsed each time. Captain Johnston, the son of the General, frankly acknowl edges those defeats in his account of the battle contained in the biography of his father. The repulses caused much de moralization in the ranks of the Confed erates, but after awhile we could see that their line was re-established in great shape. Then we saw the General riding down the front while the men cheered him with a great deal of enthusiasm. We all supposed that General Beaure gard was in command of the enemy, for General Johnston's name was not fa miliar to us and Beauregard's was. As he passed along the line our boys said to each other: "That's Beauregard! That's Beaure gard!" Just at that moment a tal, gaunt fel low in a state of intense nervous excite meilt, and carrying his gun at the "trail," tried to break through the line where I was, with the intention of climb ing over the fence toward the enemy. I challenged him sharply: "What do you want here? What regi ment do you belong to?' "Fifteenth Illinois." "Go back to your regiment; you have no business here. Go back!" "Oh d -M't stop me," he said. "Let me go, I want that man on that horse." Before I could prevent him he had broken through and scaled the fence. I watched him zigzagging along from tree to tree until he reached the log house above the centre of the field. This brought him very near the enemy, and if he took a rest for his gun on the win dow sill the man on horseback would certainly be in peril. I never saw that soldier again, but for twenty-five years I have held firmly to the opinion that he shot "that man on the horse." It is evident from the accounts that General Johnston was wounded several minutes before he fell, but did . ot think the matter serious, even if he knew it at all. He had been slowly bleeding to death for some time, and when at last he fainted it was too late to save him. A Dwarf i' ople in Euirope. Professor Mlarapta has made a remark able anthropological discovery in the valley of 11ibas, in the Eastern Pyrenees. In that district he found numerous groups of persons who are named by the other inhabitants "Nanos" (the dwarfs), and who never attained to a greater tall ness than four feet. They are well built in body, have exceedingly small hands and fere, and arc broad in the hips and shoulders. All have red hair. Their cheek-bones are prominent; their chins are square and large. The eyes have the slant tendency of the Chinese. The men are beardless, or they have at the w ist ( nlv a few soft hairs on the chin. T'he Lace is full, and skin pale and loose. ft locks as if it had no muscles beneath -tThe men and women arc so like each other that their dress betrays their sex. Many of them have swollen necks, goitre-hrke, but this is possibly to be attiihuted to the water. The Nanos are constantly objects of the taunt and ridi cule of~ the other inhabitants of the val icy. They live as a separate peCople, marrying only amongst themselves, so that the race is preserved unique. Their intelligence is very low. They have no schooling, no means of bettering their existence, no one cumbers himself about them, and they lead a miserable exist ence. "MaIny of those whomi I ques tioned," says Professor Marapta, "could not even tell me where they lived. They had no conception of arithmetic. The) were amiable in their manners, and seemed quite willing to learn some thing." Sturm~ bI;nais As the coming of agreat .to rm is her..ded by the diph of catutxi'ar signlds i ease joumt'n of the Lug usual.~~'* i teal'boo poi ou whc, aifO n0. prmtl expell fomLI the sy.am ael~s the deli (e:te tissues of ti he luns causing, i hemi to -. ....l.dica.l eoverv"i the creal reuelv ;or ti, Us for all Uiisas hav'ing their orbzin in a blood1. It ini .poves the appetite and digestion, increases nutrition and builds up the waisted system. The youongnman who stood on his cown merits became very muce fatigued with the nrerformance I ON THE WAY IT031E. A Soliloquy by Farier StackXpolc. Go 'long, old mare. Let's see: I've got the molasses, an' the thread, an' the plow-pint, an' Sal's shue that was mend ed, an' the paper. So Cleveland is really in the White House an' at work. The paper says he's puttin' in the B ourbons at a great rate. Somehow I don't like that paper as I used to. It don't seem to tell the whole truth an' nothin' but the truth, as I used to suppose it did. I was in at neighbor Straight's an' picked up a paper called the Voice that had a heap of news in it that I never -found in my Republican papers. I intend to hear both sides of these things after this. Well, I voted for Blaine, .fter all my leanin's to St. John. Fact, they sort of bull-dozed me wqjen I got to the polls. I There was Elder Grand met me on the street. "I do hope," says he, "that you won' cast half a vote for such a moral leper as Cleveland. The great issue in this campaign is moral purity, and every Christian man should vote for Blaine." An' then come the Squire. "I tell you," said he, "Cleveland is a man of no capacity whatever, no experience in pub lieafai'rs. He'll fast be the tool of the worst elemncuts of his party. Have you seen what the ministers of Chicago say about?" An' then he took the tobacco out of his mouth an' read somethin' like this: IResolved, That for the sake of the South, for the sake of this country, for the sake of temperance and Prohibi tion, for the sake of the family and the reform against iolygamy, the election of Jas. G. Blaine is the necessity of the hour." "Exeuse me a minit," says he, and he started off to catch a saloon keeper who was coming along. He talked with him for about five minits an' then handed him something in the Tri bune to read, and then come back to me. "Here's another," says he, "of these opinions of the clergy that every Chris tian man ought to read before votin' for such a d- d fraud as St. John. Ex cuse me, deacen, I don't often swear, but the hypocracy of these fellers what is disgracin' the cause of temperance makes me mad." So he pulled out a paper an' read a string of resolutions by the clergy of New York. One of 'em was, "not to cast a half-vote for the Democratic party with the seri-sanction of impurity and dissipation, nor a whole vote for a man whose name is now the conspicuous synonym of incapacity and incontinency." Then he began readin' Burchard's speech, but just as he got to the last end of it the saloon-keeper come over where we was standin' and says, -'That is very satisfactory, and he took a Republican ticket an' went on to the polls. As soon as he was out of hearing the Squile went on with Burchard 's seech, an' he put a good emphasis on the "Rum, Romaism and Rebellion." These things had sort of staggered me when good old General Easy come along. Bless his gray beard! We all know he was a true man in Congiess, and he seems like every man's friend. "Dea con," says he, "I'm very anxious about this election. There's the brass factory over at the river shut down, not to re sume unless Blaine is elected. And here is the hunker Democracy -.ust reachin' after the spoils. If they get in where will we be? What will become of Civil Service Reform? And I tell you if the Democrats get in I should not be sur prised if they repealed all the laws against polygamy, and just let Utah into the Union, Mormons and all." There was no doubt the good old man believed what he was sayin' "And as for tem perance," he went oh, "you know I am a true temperance man. St. John couldn't help the cause if he was elected, and he can't possibly be elected, for the majority of true temperance men are against him. After election I will go over this county myself an' speak on temperance, and we will put up a first rate candidate for the State Legislature." Steady, old mare, over this new road. Well, sir, my resolutio~n just oozed out with all this talk. 1 forgot everything but the incapacity and wickedness of Cleveland and tihe~ Democrats, and the anxiety of good men for Blaine's elec tion, and I brushed past young Straight who had the Prohibition tickets, though I couldn't help admiring his grit, and grace, too, for I knew he was doing his Christian duty-I brushed past him and putin my ballot for Blaine. I'm afraid that ballot was throwed away. Cleveland's incapacity ain't as conspicuous as I expected it would be. The brass works aesumed about a week after eletion-there's the smoke of 'em now. And as for the MIormons and the fellers what was crowdin' out the In dians, they seem to be skipping and clearing out more than ever before. I'm afraid those good men what I followed was party-blind themselves. Not that I beive in the Democrats as a party. Why, Neighbor Crook, who's been a Deocrat always, has come out since electi.n, and says he can't stand his party any longer, now he sees a better ~lace to go to, and jined the Prohibi tionits. The Democrats is bad, but not so bid as~ whiskey- The Republicans my better, but they are not good enough to suit me. if they had do~ue iheir duty this temperance question would not be so big as it is to-day. Well, when I got home wife says, "Hurrahi for St. John," an' I was kinder shamed to tell her who I voted for, so I edged around and told her what the men on the street told me. 3My stars! didn't her eyes begin to snap! She just fired upl and swept away their arguments like so many cobwebs." "Who are the hopo crits," savs she, "the honest men who vote for what thev believe to be right, or politicians, like the S<1uire, who say one thing to the saloonists, and another to the temperance men, and get 'em both o vote the same ticket?" Whoa! I say-. Jim! Jim! Come and )ut out the ma~r.-The Voice. lRailroading inl 3exico. "Blut the railroads in MIexico arc re miarkable. 1 like the way 31exicans take life. I don't believe we know how to live here or in Europe. We go so fast and we work all the time. Now it took me a whole day to go about fifty miles.' "By railroading?" "Ycs, by railroads. We went very slow and took it easy, but we might have arrived at our destination a little earlier if the conductor hadn't had a lot of gamecocks along and an engagement for a cockight at every station. It was in teresting, don't you know, but I don't think I'll go to Mexico again for some T1E IMILE-A-MINUTE 31YTH. Fast Time Made by Railway Trains I America and England. (New York Mail and Express.) "It is interesting to study railroq statistics." said a railroad director to Mail and Express reporter. He co: tinned in the same strain, "There ai 2J0,000 miles of railroad in the Unite States. In 1855 the railways of t United States carried 312,7.6,641 pa: sengers and 400,453,439 tons of freigh Each person was transported an averag distance of 23 miles; hence the enti movement on all the roads was equ:d t carrying , 511,309,671 persons one nail Massachusetts takes the lead in passer ger tran-portion, with 53,800,887; Pent sylvania next, then New York, llinoi New Jersey and Ohio. In freight tor nage Pennsylvania takes the lead wit 105,507,916 tons, and New York sOcCUn There are about 25 miles of doable tract sidings, etc., 19 locomotives, 621 freigl cars, .5 baggage and mail a;d 13 passer ger cars for every 100,000 miles of rail road in the United States. "Speed is hard to average. The G and 75 miles an hour train is generally myth. An average of 48 3-10 miles pe hour is the fastest time in the - Unite States. This is made on the Pennsy] vania 'limited' in its run from Jerse; City to Philadelphia, 90 miles, in les than two hours. The 'Flying Dutch msnn' train is supposed to make th fazeest time in the world, between Lou don and Bristol, 1181 miles, in less thai two hours. The average, though, evei of this fast train is only 59 miles pe hour. There are several other train noted for remarkably fast time on shor distances. Sometimes a straight an< even grade for a distance of 20 miles wil permit a train to run at the rate of mori than a mile a minute. One train on th, Canadian Pacific road, from Cotaneau t< Ottawa, averages 50 miles an hour for : distance of 78 miles. On the Centra road the late Mr. Vanderbilt traveled a the rate of 90 miles an hour. An avel ge of :36 miles an hour is considere< fast traveling. Many rof the limited ightning expresses do not go at a faste rate. The value of r-ilroads in th United States exceeds eight billions u lollars." The Churches in the United States. It is sometimes asserted that Chris ianity is losing its hold upon the masse in the United States. Statistics shov hat this is quite a mistake. Indeed, th< >pposite of the assertion is amply show: by the figures. The religious divisio; >f the census of 188O has not yet beei published, so that the public is deprive( f the figures made up from authorita ive statements of representatives of thi lifferent branches of the Christiai Church. But enough data are obtaina ble from other trustworthy sources t< nable us to make a fair estimate. Th result of such estimate is to show tha the increase in churches, ministers an :ommunicants more than keeps pac with the increase in population. A computation of the statistics of th :hurches of the United States made fou years ago shows that at that time ther were 115,610 churches, 81,717 minister Ind 17,267,178 communicants, includin; ,832,954 Roman Catholics. These fig ares did not include Mormons or Jews he year books of 1886 show that th! nae religious bodies now number 132, 135 churches, 91,911 ministers and 19, )18,977 communicants, allowing th Catholic population to number 7,000, )00, which would be a gain of but 167, )00 in four years. The net gain of fou: years is thus shown to be 15,235 churches >r at the rate of 10 per day; 1,618,79 omm unicants, or at the rate of 1,11 very day, and 10,194 ministers, or mor han 2,500 a year. Unless these figure ~an be shown to be untrustworthy, th ~laim that the masses are falling awa: rom the churches is contradicted. It is interesting to note the relativ< trength of the various religious bodie hich figure in these statistics. Thb Roman Catholics stand first, with embership of 7,000,000. The fourtee: ifferent 31ethodist organizations comi ext, with a total membership of 4,5:32, 5; the Baptists third, with 3,727,02. ?resbyterians foumth, with 1,082,43t utherans fifth, with 930,836; Congre Rationlists sixth, with 4:36,379, an< piscopalians seventh, with $30,53l he entire Protestant Church member hip is placed at 12,018,977. Of th ains of the last four years the MIethod ists are to be credited with more thai >ne-half the ministers and with one-thir< f the churches and membership. Th rowth of this body is enormous,i aving arisen within one hundred yeaz from a membership of 13,000 to 4,5:32, 658 at the close of last year. The churches of the United States,i classified according to form of churcl overnment, would naturally fall unde hree heads, Episcopal, Congregationa nd Presbyterian, In the first, whichi the largest class, should be placed Cat) olics, Episcopalians, 31ethiodists and 31c avians, their combined membershil ggregating 11,787,773. The Congreg~ tional polity includes Baptists, Congre ationalists, Advents, Friends and som inor divisions of the MIethodists, wit] an aggregate membership of 4,520,41: Under the Presbyterian lorm come th various Presbyterian bodies, as well a~ the Lutherans and Miennonites, with membership of 2,710,632. There is every reason to expect thi the growth in church membership wi increase rather than diminish. Th lferent church bodies are improvin; their methods both in extent and i etectiveness. Sunday-schools have late years become more numerous, ani have become, too, better means of prc mting the growth oi the Churell Nearly one thousand preachers of Chri tianity are at work, and of late years th standards of fitness for the ministry ha~ been very much raised. The Churcl lergy as well as laity, is better educated andi for that reason is all the better iltte to teach that morality without whic Christianity cannot expect to cope wit its enemies or to place its follo wersi such light before the world as thtat the may by their lives teach its all-importaz lessons. A HI ,~uiand' G3reates.t ies,.in; Is a strong, healthy, vigorous wif! with a clear, handsome complezior These can all be acquired by using 1). Harter's Iron Tonic. Sin has many tools, but a lie is the hand] TIE OLL S T.)U1' . A I.HIAt'T'L TiW.'UT, TO YER III 'E, RAT Vl.LI. a 1- i1tF-l'orgmi en WVriters Who Were G.iants in Their Bo--st lioys of the Old So0ti in ( ollege Where Two Go Now--Too SMuch of the D)'il:tr-Makin:g Elemnent on (- Top Now. (Fron th,- Loui-ville Courier-Journal.) V Within the_ past few years it has be o cone the fashion among literary critics to depreciate the literature produced in the South before the war, and to point to ante-beflum days as a period almost - barren of literary achievement. Indeed, it has been with this fashion as with all fashions-it has been exaggerated and t overdone. In our zeal to place the laurel on the brow of the hero of to-day, we have forgotten his predecessors, and 0 we have whispered into his ear, "Thou a art the first of thy race." r Now far be it from my intention to say . aught against the fair name of the new y generation of writers that has sprung up s in the South since the war. No South erner anywhere is prouder than I am of such names as Thompson and 1 Craddock and Harris. But now, if with 3 the ancient Cleitus I dare say to the hero, "Thy father, Philip, of Macedon, t was also a great man," I hope I may not meet the fate of that faithful, but too bold, censor. In offering a criticism of anything a written in the South before the war, one is confronted with an amount of preju (dice which is indeed remarkable. The 1 average Southerner has formed his t opinion of ante-bellum literature not - from actual study of the literature itself, but rather from the biased criticisms of Northern writers. le reads Griswold, r and is told that Simmas was a voluminous a writer, but entirely without literary i merit, and that Poe was a drunken and conceited fool. From Stcdruan he learns that Walt Wlhitmaan is the ne plus ultra of American poets, and that there was no - intelletual abievemeat in the South before the war, for "luman slavery was - the basis of its phyical life." Examine th e Lirary of the tolerably well read Southernier, aak shat will you f find? There will be ryqant and Long fellow, and Eenon an Hawthorne, I and all the r o the N.rthern writers. - But I would be surpris.:d if you found anythirg by P. n I am sure you would mli nothing by Washington - Allston or E. C. Pinkney, or HenrY1 Timrod o:: 2ibert . The thousad and on- vuamcs of Coeuur's novIls t would be con .pieuous, but you would look in vain for "Swailo;w Darn" and "Horse Shoe itobin'on," and "31artin Paber" ;ad "Castlo Dismal." Now, surely such indifference is not jutilled by a lack of intrlnsic inerit in our literature, and the Southern. peopl s are doing themselves an injustice when they allow themselves to be persuaded . that there is anything in their literary history to be a:,Lamcd of. In 1760 that scholarly and accom - 1)ishcd writer, John 11. Thompson-for - a long time editor of the Southern Literary inessenger-entered mto an agreement with John Esten Cook to publish an edition of the "Poets and Poetry of the South." But the war, that blighter of hopes, came on. "A wind came out of the clouds by night, 7 Chilling and killing-" Sand so the leaves, scarcely begun to be s gathered, were scattered again. But they Swere the fresh leaves of a noble and un i passioned people's spring time, and let us for a moment enjoy their fragrance. 3Did you ever read Washington All ston's "Sylphs of the Seasons" and S"The Paint King?" They are wild and beautiful. You would divine they were I written by an artist, even if you did not Sknow that Allston was one of the great - est of American painters. He is to us ;what Dante Gabriel Rlossetti is to Eng ;land-he is the painter-poet. Indeed, - the soil of Carolina grew many sweet and fragrant leaves. There xv erc the -lyrics of the two Timrods, the book binder and his son. When Washington Irving read William Timrpd's ode "To -Time," he exclaimed, "Tom MIoore has I written no finer lyric." "Autumnal Day I in Carolina" ana "Sons of the Union," Swritten during the nullification contro t versy, and Henry Timrod's "Vision of s Poesy" and "Rhapsody of a Southern - Winter Night" and "Summer Bower" ail have about them the scent of the foliage iof a Southern forest. Henry Timrod is muc admired in the North, and Whit r ti'ta1~ -a : --:''gon far as to Thy efnetUn i aLe (Le cy tien ac ul.b'erver 'e eiarater ando eas VC.. i r ,a- e uti.. I~ hi 'k- 'o Othe r a honest od Lenudy' "Swallow 5 l9," the" woud desi-t fromthei a se*less-vituperat1ins. Said the North Ainericanf ?eview: "Ihej story of Abe t an igro aaones, for pt?os an.1i 1 pooee, lauit surpaae1 by anything that ha s yet appeared in the hiterature of ou country." 2 But I have time only to mention sonme Sof our other writers. T here war icihard -lHenry WAilde, whose researches oa l orluato Tasso produced such a sers -tion 1m Lurope; and then the brother Cooe; and .John JTames Audubon, ti traeler and naturalist; and Charle. e Gaarri, the historian; and Judge Long; street, w;hose '"Georgia Scenes' was tg~e ! pioneer in this dialect literature which is I so much "the styvle just now, you kno w. U n now comes Poue, the greatest o b thenm al. But the crities have tried to steal him away fronm us and give him to the North. "Even 31aurice Thompsea .t hints that Poe was only half a South erner. Cable and Craddock have "iden tited thenmselves with the North," but who would cai thema Northern writers? Yes, I'oe was a Southerner, and a Sout L erner to tihe core. His father wa-s a Southerner, he was born in the South, he was raised in a typical Southern fame ly, and his sentiments and temperament ewere intensely Southern. Bu Mr. Thompson savs that "not one of Poe's poems was distinctly Southern in its conception and coloring." Now Mr. Thompson is a great authority, but I beg leave to differ with him. I would ask if a Northern writer has ever pro duced anything "grotesque and ara besque?" That awful and powerful wierdness of Poe's writings was the ex ponent of the misfortune and misery of an intensely passionate Southern nature. "The Raven" is a nightmare of a hot summer's night. Have not all Southern and oriental writers this characteristic gorgeousness? Is not Dante's "Inferno" characterized by this same horrible grandeur? Indeed your Puritan poets, while they could point the world to a fable and prattle of slavery, were utterly incapable of moving the human soul to its very depths and riveting it in intense emotion, as Poe was wont to do. Even Stedman says that Hawthorne was no better romancer than Poe. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a grand mas. terpiece, and will go to posterity on equal footing with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "The Great Stone Face." As a poet Poe is unsurpassed by any of his countrymen. "Annabel Lee" is one of the purest gems of the English language. With the Europeans, and especially with the French, "The Raven" is the best known of American poems. And "Ulalume," and "The Haunted Palace" and "Israfel"-who has written anything finer than these? They are not only poetry, but they are fine paintings and grand music. "It was hard by the dim lake of Auber, In the misty mid region of Weir It was dvv. by the dank tarn of Auber, In the goulhaunted woodland of Weir" What imagery! What music to the ar! Poe's feet were winged, and they ould wander in that "land east of the un and west of the moon," in that border land of all the arts. It is true he lid not write as much as Longfellow. He did not have time. Longfellow died it seventy-five. Poe at thirty-nine. The lark had just began his morning flight when the hunter brought him down. But the clear, passionate notes of this ongster will float down many ages to 3ome. But why go farther? Did not the old South have a literature? Did not bher enerous soil grow literary genius as ,vell as every other kind of genius? For en years the critics-Northern, and I Alush to say Southern, too-have racked heir brains in the endeavor to formulate in hypothesis to explain what they are pleased to call the "dearth of Southern iterature before the war." In their fforts to find a cause for a result which oes not exist except in their own minds they have vilified our fathers and pro 3aimed them an uncultured and unlet tered people. But I deny the charge in toto. Could a man be idle who directed the nanagement of the broad thousands Df acres of a Southern plantation? Could a man be idle and govern, protect and provide for five hundred or a thou sand slaves? Could a man without in lustry and executive ability bring agri ,ulture to such a state of perfection and ake mother earth yield so bountifully is before the war? I know the Southern planter did not do manual labor. No wealthy man does that to-day. And was the ante-bellum Southerner ncultured? I declare that the culture mnd refinement in the South before the war were such as the world has seldom een. They were a noble, a chivalric, patriotic people. They were not only entle in manners, but they were gentle it heart. And was the old South uncultured? Where five boys went to college before :he war, only two go now. Her educa ional institutions were the finest in the nd. There were the universities of Virginia, Mississippi and North Caroli a. William M. Evarts sent his son to he university of Virginia, "because," said he, "it is the best in the land." But he critics say the Southern boy did not study. Perhaps not, but the Northern boy at Harvard squeezed through at fifty," while the Southern boy had to oe the mark at "seventy-five" at the University of Virginia. And, I dare say, fere was less dissipation at then Uiver sity of Virginia before the warthanthere i at Harvard to-day. Yes, I am proud of the old South. I im proud of her people; I am proud of ier deeds; I am proud of her blood. But I am glad the war turned out as. it lid; I am glad that Democracy tri amphed, and that all men are now equal before the law; and I rejoice heartily at the material progrese th'e South is now making. But listen to my prophecy: The condition of things in the South to-day does not sit well on the Southern temperament. There is too much of the dollar-making. The Southerner is con servative. But he is proud and strong, nd things must yield to his will. The fabric of ante-beilum society is the one that suits him the best, and it is the one which he will weave for himself again. Within the next next score of years the broken threads will be taken up again an t voven into a fabric whose texture wili be finer and stronger than ever be fore. It will be a free, a democratic aristocracy. And then-the South will be the grandest land on God's earth. Jors HrranaU&sVrrs Vanderbilt University. 1;altimnore Friend'si Defalcation. A dispatch from Baltimore says: For the 1rst time probably in the history of the Society of Friends in this country the treasurer of a Quaker meeting has turned defaulter. Edwin Blackburn, the treasurer of the Friends' Lombard Street Meeting in this city for many years, has been deposed from his responsible posi tion, a deficit of about $G,000 having been discovered in his accounts. Mr. ilackburn was recognized as one of the most trustworthy men in the city. He was a leader in the Lombard Street Meeting and particularly interested in the riends' mission work among the Indians. lHe is over Ut0 years of age and has a wife and two daughters. The dis eoverv was made recently when he was called upon for church funds and could not deliver. He then confessed that he had used the money with the intention, o course, of making good the deficiency. 1l Lilous, or suilrering from impurity of bto1l or weak !ungs, and fear of con sum4:an (serofulous disease of the lungs), ake 1)r. Pierce,s "Golden Medical Discov ery, nid it will cure you. By druggists. A voung woman who had lost her speech by a severe cold, had twenty offers of mar riwe in n week.