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.

'Ny VOL. Ill. MANNING, CLARENDON COUNTY, S. C., WEDNESDAY, JUNE1587NO2. RAILROAD DISCRlMUNAThON. HO IT AFFECTS TtUE DEVELOI'MENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA. The Address Delivered Before the State Press Association. by Win. 31. Jones. Esq., Editor of the Spartanburg H erald. The press of South Carolina has strongly counselled diversity of crops and diversity of industry. It has done so forcibly, repeatedly, almost unani mously, but without avail. It is not my purpose to-night to adduce arguments to support the wisdom of this counsel, but to seek the cause which has made it so barren of results and to seek a remedy. UNJUST RAILROAD DISCRIMINATIOY. The prime cause of our continuance in our pernicious course lies in the policy of the railroads of unjust discrimination against our home industries in favor of their foreign competitors. HOME AND "FOREIGN" FREIGnTS. It appears on the surface that the prosperity of a railroad depends on the prosperity of the country which sup ports it. This is a partial fallacy. It is the interest of the people to buy nothing which they can make profitibly; it is to the interest of the railroads for the peo ple to buy everything abroad, -and raise cotton only to pay the debt; to have no local factories, to produce nothing which they consume. Before the War of Se cession, when the people produced what they used and used what they made, there was little demand for railroad ser vice, and their traffic was light. Now, when we bring our meat from Ohio, our corn from Indiana, our flour from Illinois, our molases from Louisi ana, our shoes from Massachusetts and our clothing from New York, and when we ship our whole cotton crop to pay the debt, the traffic of the transportation companies has become immense. The production of these thilgs at home would materially diminish the business of the railroads. Hence it is the interest of the railroads to suppress all home manufactures and shut up agriculture to cotton planting alone. In this class of interests the railroad managers have not scrupled to sacrifice the welfare of the State. They have accomplished t'.eir purpose by an exhorbitant and cutrsge ous discrimination against State enter prises in favor of their foreign ccmpeti tors. CRUSHING THE HOIE ARXETS. In this day of sharp rivalry the mar-' gin of profits, without which no inuas try can live, has become so narrow that the freight rates control its existence. A low freight may foster, a high freight' will strangle it. But profits rest even more absolutely on competition, and this, too, depeds on the arbitrary will of the raiLroad rulers. I may secure a just and reason able freight rate under which my btsi ness can prosper; if railroads please to favor my competitor with lower rates he can undersell me, draw away my custo.:n, ruin my business and drive me from the field. It is thus that the giant Standard Oil monopoly was built up and its strug gling rivals crushed to death. It is th us that the giant factories of the North are able to strangle our struggling factoidcs in their infancy. The discrimination practiced against the shippers ini South Carolina is enough to paralyze almost any enterprise. SOME PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATONS. A gentleman contemplated the estab lishment of a fertilizer factory in Spar tanburg. It is foand that the freight rate from Spartanburg to Wiellford, dis tant on the Piedmont Air Line 12 milks, is $17.50 a carload, or $1.46 a mile; the rate from Richmond, Va., is 10 cents a mile, a discrimination of nearly 1,400 prcent. in favor of the foreign shipper. There could be no claim by the railroad in this case for extra expense in hand ling, for the shipper is required to load his own car, and the railroad is to haul it at its convenience. The rate to Pacolet, on the Spartanburg and Union Boad, 12 miles distant, is th'e same, $17.60 a carload. We have in Spartanburg a struggling door and blind factory. The freight to Greenville, thirty-two miles distant, on th Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line is $32 a carload, or $1 a mile. The same freight from New York to Greenville is 12 cents per mile. These instances are not exceptional, and I have mentioned Spartanburg only because the rates there were more easily attainable. Other cities will be found in like circumstance, and other rates in like proportion. Instances could be multiplied indefinitely. By reference to the report of the South Carolina railroad commission we find that the average rate chred to foreign shipper, Greenville and olumbia Railroad, for each to. of freight was nine mills per mile; for South Carolina shipper to home con sumers fifty-six mills per mile, a dis crimination of nearly 600 per ceA. against our South Carolina produno;. Is it strange that in the face of such dii crimination our local enterprises lan~ guishi and die, and foreign factories usurn our home market? SPECIAL RATES FOR OTTON FACTOBRI. There is one class of factories which have been Iostered by Lie railroads, and they have prosp~ered. They are the cot ton factories. Their products are n.ot specially intended for home consump tion. Their goods are shipped princi pally to foreign markets, and their growth does not diminish rail-oad busi ness, but rather stimulates the produc tion of the export crop. Hence the rail roads have lent them a strong helping hand. Their finished cloth is shipped from Greenville to New York at $10.t00 a ton; the raw cotton is charged $13.60 a ton. The same goods, shipped by a merchant to New York, would be charged $26.60 a ton. 'The railroads have favored cotton factories, and they have prospered; the have discouraged all other factories, and they have per ished. THE ADvANTAGEs OF THE soUTH. The South has natural superiority over the North for manufacture. We have cheap food, cheap labor, mild climate and unlimited water-power, which is never blocked with ice. Great as these natural advantages arc they are more than over-balanedi by the acquired ad vantages of the North. They have cheap ih coal, skilled labor, experience in man- p agement, ample capital seeking invest- ft ment at a low rate of interest. They' o have giant establishments, filled with tj the most improved labor-saving machin- t) ery and run on a scale where expenses g are reduced to a minimum. They are a) located in a dense population who sup- a] ply a local demand for their products. a4 They are located near the great commer- h cial emporiums and can place their sur- C plus products on the market at the least, h possible expense, and they have very favorable freight rates. These advant- g ages enable the great factories of the ti North to manufacture goods cheaper ri than our infant factories can possibly do. p, So great are these advantages that ti even John Stuart Mill, the great apostle tc of free trade, admits that some govern- i mental protection is necessary to the es- S1 tablishment of factories when they have gj to compete with a country whose facto- se ries have an established business and T whose processes of work have become rt traditional. The infant factories of the st North required and secured a heavy fa protection against the established facto- ni ries of England. To-day they bear to us the same relation which the old Eng lish factories bore to them a century ago. Our factories cannot hope for the i protection which would build them up. ec Both the free trade sentiment of our r, people and the Constitution of the tb United States prohibit any import duty o against Northern goods. r But surely it is not demanding too P( much to ask the protection which nature 01 gives us-the protection of distance? tr Surely it is not asking too much to de- a mand that the products from factories n( shall be distributed throughout our own ( State as cheaply as the products of for- th eign competitors? Surely it is not re- st. quiring too much to demand that the T railroads, built frequently at the expense is of the people, for the development of t the State, shall not use their power of n( unfair discrimination to crush and ruin e the struggling industries of the State, St and drain her wealth into the coffers of nc foreign rivals? ze Im. OPPRESSING TE FARMERS. The effect of this policy is hardly less th hurtful to the farmers. Exceedingly low ag through rates have induced the neglect TI of all other crops, and the almost exclu- tr sive culture of cotton. This brings in be its train extravagance and debt, and in r the end dishonesty. When the people Si raised their own supplies they had less nc money, but they needed less. They had sh enough to purchase the comforts of life, er which they did not produce, and to pay I ar their honest debts. Now, when the Iha people raise cotton only, they make m' more money; their pockets are full if their barns are empty. The money all le, comes in at one season. They are rich Ti then, if poor all the balance of the year. do While they have the money they squan- do der it needle- sly, and before the year ex- nc pires arc compelled to go in debt for the i= necessaiies of life. And so the next year's crop must go to pay for last year's pc living, and a system of debt has been en saddled on the country which has ,co brought it to the verge of bankruptcy. in Who can foresee the result of one more in crop failure? OUR INTERNAL COM3DRcE. pi The internal commerce of the State has been ruined, and the growth of our PI rising cities has been checked by this to same ruinous policy. The prosperity of be cities hangs on the will of the railroad efl autocrats. They can cause business to flow into it, or to go elsewhere. They focused advantages at a country cross- ra road in Georgia and Atlanta sprang up1 TI teeming with enterprise and wealth. A ca withdrawal of these advantages would Bi dissipate her business, and her prosperi- th ty would be a dream of the past. Ten fo years ago it was the policy of the rail- be roads to build up the internal commerce c~o of this State. Favoring through rates lit were given to railroad centres and cheap' lo distributing rates. In a single decade th Spartanburg doubled her business and ha tiipled her population; wholesale houses ha were established and supplied the local in trade for miles around. Her goods weret gc sold within twenty miles of Atlanta.o Within the past seven years this en-m cour;gement to wholesale internal comn-el merce has been withdrawn and the busi- vi ntess has perished. Concessions have~ been made to no distributing points ex- fo cept Charleston and Columbia, wheret proximity to water compelled it. ButA even these have been deprived of what is m more important--their cheap distribut- as ing rates. cl THE wHOTESTL TRADE OF THE INTERIORi. I again take Spartanburg as a type of Ira her sister cities. In 1881 the rate on ra fertilizers from Spartanburg to Wellford, of on the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line, of or to Pacolet, on the Spartanburg and de Union Road, was S7.50 a carload; now ne it is $17.50, an increase of nearly 200 th per cent. The local trade has been de- t stroyed. Im: In J881 the freight on flour to Pacolet bi was 1G cents a barrel, now it is 32 cents; on bacon it was $20 a carload, now it is is $36. So exorbitant is this local freight a that the people have been coi 'pelled to as resort to wagon transportation. The ri; lowest freight on the Augusta and Spar- th tanburg Road to Campobeilo, eighteen Ine miles above Spartanburg, is $3 a ton; th first-class freight is $7 a ton. Wagons shi will haul it, without regard to class, for th $z- per ton free of drayage, and are he monopolizing the mercantile business. sii Until recently the rate on cotton from.d Camapobello was 70 cents a bale, while Ite the wagons were eager to carry it at 50 ccnts a i.ale. g Gireenville i:.d the other cities of re UnvLer Caroli'na ar in a like condition. cu n the seventh repoit of the Southi Lb Carolin:a railwv.l commiission is publish- ar ed a corrspond.ence betwen President es Biaskeli the Columb'ia and Greenville. It RailroadCand Col. Hamnmet, president Ito of the lFicdmont Factory, concerning the rate on cotton from Greenville to Pied mont, ten miles distant. The railroad's charge was 83 cents a bale, which, with dravage, made the cost one dollar a a bale. ~Col. Hammet showed that the Gi wagons would haul it for 30 cents a bale. He could get no reduction, was forced to employ wagons, and saved ~ $2,->00 a year by doing so. All shippers who continued to use the road were comn pelled to pay the extortionate rates which Col. Hammnet thus avoided. Few so peopie have business enough to estab- ot lish a wagon line for their transporta- w DISrIMINATIOs AGAINS 1 CuAntLESTO. But this effect is not confined to the land cities. Charleston, too, has ex arienced the weight of this policy. A w years ago Charleston was the Mecca the merchants of upper Carolina. But Le railroads have so arranged freights .at it is just as cheap and quicker to t their goods directly from New York, id their trade has flowed thither. As i instance of the unjust discrimination ,ainst Charleston, I cite fertilizers r chief product. The rate from Larleston to Spartanburg, about two Indred miles, is $4 a ton. From Rich ond, Va., over twice as far, it is but L.25 a ton-a cescrimination against is city of nearly 100 per cent. Is this ght? Sbould railroads of the State be rmitt&e to bremik V- '.uess of principal city of the State? Charles n is naturally the port of South Caro ia. She is entitled to the trade of the ate, and she would have it if she could t a fair showing, and the State should e to it that she has that opportunity. As policy of the railroads has been inous to the State's prosperity. It has )pped her small factories, s!addled the rmers with debt, and ruined our inter I commerce. A REMEDy i-on TE WT=- iRONG. Is there no remedy for this wrong? ave the people no rights to be regard- I .? This has been the claim that the I ilroads have set up. They assumed at the stockholders were the absolute I ,ners of the roads, and any attempted t guilation by the Government was re lled as an unwarranted infringement private right. During the weak and ickling rule of the Radicals this bold mumption was acquiesced in. It is I w absolutely exploded. It is now I lin every State in the nation that e railroads are public highways, con -ucted for the benefit of the people. iat the management of these highways given to a corporation by the State, as istees of her sovereign power, a trust t t to be abused. The power should be ercised with equity and .ustice, as the 1 ate would exercise it. The State could t t justly discriminate between its citi ns, and its agents should not be per tted to do so. The State could not I th equity build up one of its cities at t D expense of - other cities, and its s ents should not be permitted to do so. t Le State would not sacrifice the indus- t es and prosperity of her people to the t nefit of foreign competitors, and the c Iroads should not be allowed to do so. d .e State, if she owned the roads, would I t do these things even for gain, nor I .uld the railroads. If the stockhold. t can make a profit legitimately, they f entitled to it; if they cannot, they ve simply made a bad investment and a ist abide by it. t The right of the State to restrain and t ;ulate the railroads is now undisputed. t te question arises, how is this to be U ne cffectively? We have attempted to t so by a railroad commission. I do 9 t know what they have done; I do not pugn their actions. But this we do ow, that this stifling and pernicious F licy of discrimination against home F terprise has sprung up during their I atrol, and the condition of afiairs is e initely worse now than before their i :erference. e I have attempted to show that our esent need is low distributing rates- ' es to our home producers as cheap in f oportion to distance as those granted t their foreign competitors. This, I 1 lieve, can be easily, cheaply and t ectively secured. A UNIFORM RATE FOR ALL SHIPPERS. a Under the Inter-State law all through 13 :es must be reasonable and equitable. e Lese rates must be public.'This we anot interfere with and would not. t at this State can pass a law providing a it whatever rate per mile the roads fix through freight, that same rate shall a granted to our local shippers with the C st of extra handling added. Of course C would be unjust to require them toa Ld andf haul freight the first mile for e same amount for which they merely ul it the second mile. Butwhcn they t ye been amply paid for loading, shift- r ; and starting the car, there seems no ~ od reason why they should charge our r -ni shippers more for merely continu- a8 ; to haul it than they charge to for in shippers for exactly the same ser- a se. -C A. liberal allowance should be made e this cost of handling. There are but enty classes of freight. The General I sembly could appoint a committee to t aet during vacation to take testimony to this cost. This charge should in ide not only the cost of loading, but e cost of extra shifting and starting. 1 should be regulated in justice to thel ilroads and to the people. The local te should be based on the actual cost transportation, and not on the basis C "whatever the traffic will bear." Un r the most liberal allowance it will ver be found that it costs over one ird as much to ship a carload of guano I elve miles as it does to ship it 400 .les, and that, too, when it is loaded the shipper. I When once the throug~h rate per mile fixed by the railroads and published, c d when the cost for extra handling is z 3ertained and established by law, the e ;hts of the shipper become so plain c at no exuensive railroad commission is cessary to protect them. He knows e rate per mile, the distance he has I ipped and the extra cost for handling e class of freight offered. Whetherhler s been overcharged, is a question of t uple fact with which the Courts can 1 al, and a penal statute is ample pro-t dton. But whether the remedy I have sug-r stedt is the~ best or not, the evil to be It naedied exists. It is an oppressive in bus on the prosperity of South Caro La. The interests i Scuth Carolina Sdear to every one of her sons, and pecially to the members of thie Press. I is for this reason that I have venturedC call these facts to your attention. "Whai~t furniture can give such tinish to room. as a teuder womau's facec," asks :orge Elliott. Not any, we are happy to swer, provided tihe glow of health temn r.s the tender expres-ionl. The pale, aux 1-, bloodless face 0f a consumptive, (or! Le eidt sutierings of the dyspeptic, in ee einof sorrow and grief on our rt arnd comnpell us to tell themfl of D)r. erce's " -Golden 31edical Discovery," the I '-ereign remedy for consumption andC ber diese of the respiratory system as 1 as dys~pepsia and other digestive ABOUT IKRT ROADS. The Evil and Remedy-The Econoriy oj i aving Good Roads. (From The Nation.) About this time of year Americans be gin to give an amount of attention tc roads and road-making which is sadly wanting during the rest of it. There is probably no people in the world which bas made snch progress in the arts of >ivilized life generally that seemsto care so little for what a good many social philosophers put among the very fore nost of them, the art of road-making. [n fact, some philosophers have pro iounced the history of reads the history >f civilization. Nothing distinguishes a -ivilized country from a barbarous one ;o markedly as the aii'erence between he means of communication between >ne locality and another. As a general -ule, one knows that a people is rising n the scale by seeing its roads improve; >ne knows that it is declining by seeing ts roads go out of repair. Nothing narked so vividly the great plunge into )arbarlsm which Europe took after the 'all of the Roman empire as the disap >earance of the superb lines of commu iieation which led from the forum traight as an arrow to every corner of he Roman world. Nothing, too, tells he tale of Chinese decadence so dis inctly as the ruin which has overtaken he great roads and canals which at an arlier period connected the capital with he proviLces. When an American goes o Europe for the first time, nothing eems odder than the superiority of the kuropean roads in countries which can aake no pretence of equaling the Un'ited tates in other marks of material >rogress. We are not a declining peo >e; on the contrary we are the most Towing people in the world. We are ot among the poor nations of the globe; n the contrary we are probably the ery richest. We are not indifferent to iaterial improvement; on the contrary he most frequent charge made against Ls is that we give too much attention to b, and yet we are worse off, by far, in he matter of roads than any other high y civilized community. The original reason of the American adifference about roads was probably Le rapidity with which the early settlers 2attered themselves in small communi ies over wide areas. The fewer people here are to the square mile of inhabited rritory, of course the costlier roads be ome; and when population is very much ispersed, as in frontier settlements, 'eople cease to think of good roads as a ixury within their reach, and devote emselves simply to the task of keepiag hem passable. This tendency to neg ,et the art of road-making would prob bly have disappeared early in this cen iry if the railroads had not come in as ho great lines of communication, thrown ae post roads and military roads out of se, and relegated all roads but railroads > the condition of cross-roads or by -ays. The railroads not only did this, ut they dispersed the settlers over still ider areas than ever, and thus made the rospect of running a good highway ast every man's door seem hopeless. 'he consequence has been that the early olonial or frontier state of mind-in -hich a road was considered good nough if it was simply practicable to -heeled vehicles (that is, if there were o holes or rocks in it sufficiently >rmidable to upset a carriage), and any .ing better than this an unattainable 1xury-has almost settled into a national radition. One has only to go a few miles out of ny of our large cities to find the roads i every directioa being repaired in the xact manner in which they were re aired by the struggling colonists be ween 1630 and 1700-that is, nothing is ttempted beyond filling up the holes ith any material that is at hand, and iforaing facilities for the water to run fr'. The material that is at hand is, of ourse, the mud of compost out of the djacent ditch. This is shovelled up ith the utmost gravity and deposited 11 along the centre, filling up the cavi-. ls and hiding from view the projecting ocks. In districts in which gravel or trong clay is >btained in this way, the esult is often satisfactory enongh. But s a general rule the contents of the itch are simply mud or decayed veget ble matter, fit only for manure. Spread ver the road as a plaster, it rapidly be omes dust and is swept away by the rid, or else becomes mud and is washed ack again into the ditch, or down into bie hollows, in which in wet weather it >rms a kind of quagmire, through rhich horses toil wearily. The one cad ance we have made in this curious irocess over the early colonists is the avention of the large iron scoop or hovel, worked by oxen or horses, as a ubstitute for the manual labor of the lden days. A foreigner, seeing it at rork for the first time, is always disposed i believe that the road is being prepar d for acrop of some kind, and as a aatter of fact we have ourselves seen aany a mile of country road in which, fter the spring repairs, potatoes or corn rould have grown very luxuriantly. Of course there are signs of progress ut of this primitive condition in the aore densely settled districts on the astern coast and in the neighborhood f the large cities. The Park roads, ith which people have been made f a ailiar during the past thirty years, have hown those who have never been abroad that a good road is, and have thus aised the standard of road-making, as be 'Vienna bakery raised the standard of tread-making all over the country after be Philadelphia exposition in 1677. But a-ost rural districts suffer greatly from ot having~ a standard at all. Some of bose who taxi themselves mcst freely a:T:er miost. because the pleuniul suppiy I money not only does not improve the uads, but breeds a political ring, who reat it as "boodle." The reason they un'er is that, as they havge no standardl I goodness in roads, and do no~t make recific requirements as to what shall be wone to keep the roads in order, it is over possible to bring trustees, or tlectmen, or roadmasters, to a proper ceount. They always eseape if they an show they have put on the annuai pring plaster; and when it is washed .way, as it is sure to be a little later, hey throw the blame on the freshets; aid the simple citizen, not knowing -;hat to say in answer to them, says othing. We have seen the plaster ap lied to projecting rocks in a steep de :irity in the middle of a great highway vihin twenty miles of New York, year .fter year, without a word of remon trance frc anybod, and without any demand for the use of the sledge-haE mer for the safety of horses and ca2 riages. The waste of all this, througl the wear and tear of animals, vehicle and harness, is of course immense. A it is not easy to calculate it, it makes bu little impression on the popular mind but it probably far surpasses the cost o thorough repair or macadamization Until a standard has been set up, in creased votes of money for road makinC will in populous districts simply resul in the multiplication of the people wh< live by "politics." There is little doubt, too, that no only was the light wagon, for whicL America is now famous, produced by the badness of our roads, but it now help: to keep the roads bad by diminishing in the public eye, the inconvenience o them. The wagon in which American delight, and which no other nation ha, yet been able to imitate, really gets ove2 bad roads almost as easily as a saddle oi pack horse. We have sen it jump s fence behind a runaway with a certain grace and dexterity. But bad roads tel on it rapidly also, though not perhaps as rapidly as on heavier vehicles. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that a light wagon would last one-third longer on an English or Swiss road than o: ours, and would be a far greater luxury. Nobody shows more appreciation of the smooth, hard park roads than the trot ting men, although they prefer the dirt road to "speed" on; and they may be said to be the only class of the commu nity to whose needs or wishes attention in the matter of road-making has been paid. The owners of heavy vehicles have been left to get along as best they can, although they use roads for business and not pleasure. In no department of our material progress, in fact, is there so much need of reform as in our road making, and above all in our road re pairing, whether we look at the mattei from the health or the pleaeure point of view. The Cotton Movement. The New York Financial Chronicle, in its weekly cotton review, says that foi the week ending Friday evening, the 3d instant, the total receipts have reached 7,599 bales, against 9,865 bales last week, 10,626 bales the previous week, and 12, 666 bales three weeks since; making the total receipts since the 1st of September, 1886, 5,175,887 bales, against 5,185,176 bales for the same period of 1885-6, showing a decrease since September 1, 1886, of 9,279 bales. The exports for the week ending the same time reach a total of 8,319 bales, of which 6,804 were to Great Britali;, :' to France, and 1,515 to the rest of the continent. The imports into continental pors for the same period have been 20,00C bales. There was an increase in the cotton in sight, Friday night, of 18,009 bales as compared with the same date of 1886, an increase of 2,868 bales as com pared with the corresponding date of 1885, and a decrease of 280,450 bales as compared with 1884. Old interior stocks have decreased during the week 4,453 bales, and were Friday night 88,415 bales less than at the same period last year. The receipts at the same towns have been 1,137 bales less than for the same week last year, and since September 1 the receipts at all the towns are 22,218 bales less than for the same time in 1885-6. The total receipts from the plantations since September 1, 1886, were 5,181,660 bales, in 1885 6 were 5,309,167 bales, and in 1884-5 were 4, 740,004 bales. Although the receipts at the outports the past week were 7,599 bales, the actual move ment from plantations was only 2,844 bales, the talance being taken from the stocks at the interior towns. Last year the receipts from the plantations for the same week were 2,9863 bales, and foz 1885 they were -- bales. OVERLAND BY BALLoON. The New York World has discovered a young aeronaut who expects to come across the country from St. Louis in a baltoon. The balloon is now on its way West. It is to take up the aeronaut, a photographer, a government meteorolo gist and a reporter. June 11 has been fixed for the ascension, if the atmo spheric conditions are favorable. If they are not, the trip may be delayed until the meteorologist gives the word. He has made a study of air currents and thinks he can avoid the mistakes of the past. Four attempts have be-en made hereto. fore to make long air voyages. In 185'J Wise traveled 1,200 miles under exceed ingly favorable conditions and the rate of a mile a minute. The Graphic bal loon went up in 1873 and was a failure. A few years ago Professor King ascended frmMinneapolis in "The Great North west" in the centre of a high-pressure area and the balloon floated lazily ovez the city. Later he went up from Chi cago under conditions which sent him off into the forests of Wisconsin. Since then the science of meteorology has made rapid strides, and the theory upon which the balloon will be sent up is this: "If clouds are moving to the north of lines drawn from Salt Lake City and Quebec through St. Louis and the lower wind blows in the same direction; or if, with a clear sky, small balloons show the same motions, then I would not leave the earth. If either of these currents is favoring, all we have to do is to get into it and sail on." Professor H. Allen Hazen, the meteor ologist, has evidently Studied the situa tion very carefully, and when he leaves the earth he will have the benelit of :l the knowledge that the Signal Qilice enr a5~ord him by its weather maps. is atuempt will be watched with interest. The aeronaut is conuting on remaining in the air two days. If he can ao this he will have accomplished what no one in this country has been able to do. It has been the experience here that a bal lcon cannot remain up even twenty-fout consecutive hours, to say nothing of forty-eight. Expansion under the heat of the sun soon weakens a ball->on. Endurance of Society People. A prominent society lady of Washing ton being asked by the Prmeec of WVales, "Why is it you people here manifest so little fatigue from dancing, receptions, etc.?:" replied, "Why, you see, we Americans regain the vitality wasted in these dissipations by using Dr. Harter's Tron Tonic.' * TIE CROPS IN THE STAE. How They Appear to the Correspondents of the Departimezit of Agriculture. s The Department of Agriculture has received 246 special reports from its township correspondents regarding the crops, of an average date of June 1, of which the following is a summary: COTrON. The crop is from two to three weeks earlier, and stands better than last year. The crop is clean and growing rapidly, and is now verging to limb and square, and looks vigorous and healthy. It has not been decreased in acreage-reported at 96 per cent. The condition is reported in upper Carolina at 102 per cent.; middle Caro lina 102, and in lowet Carolina 100. An average for the State of 101 per cent. This is above the condition at the same period in 1882, 1883, and in 1884, when it was reported at 96, and in 1886 at 86 per cent., showing that the crop is in a better condition than for a period of years. CORN. The growth of corn was somewhat re tarded by the dry weather in April and early May, but recent rains in nearly every section of the State has improved its condition very much. It is good on sandy and bottom lands. Owing to the favorable spring and ab sence from floods, the bottom lands have been better prepared and planted earlier than usual. Correspondents estimate the crop on bottoms at 28 per cent., and on uplands at 72 per cent. The condition of the crop in upper Carolina on bottoms 99, on uplands at 100; in middle Carolina on bottoms 90, on uplands 98; in lower Carolina 87 on bottoms, on uplands 92; making an average for the State, on both bottoms and uplands, 94 per cent., against 83 per cent. compared to the crop of last year. wHEAUT AND OATS. Wheat and fall sown oats were injured by freezes, the iormer a little and the jatter very much; but where the oats were too thin for a stand they were re sown in early spring. The correspondents report that the crop will yield much better than expected, the recut rains having very much im iroved the condition of the erop. Har vesting has commenced in some localities. Tue condition of bot,- crops is re ported at 91 per cent. for wheat and 82 per ceu., for oats, against 75 per cent. for each last year. The amo.,unt of com!mial fertilizer, sold inU the- SAteLL for the, p:.,st -,eason, a.-, is -hown by the books of the Depart mnnt, is: lessh tha the season of 15 and 1880. Corresponde~ts report that the following perctg of commercial fer tilizcrs were used tLis Te.u: Ammoniat etl, 46; acid phios1tphate, 4:; kaiait, 12; chemi , ; and that 32 per cent. pur chased was used for composting, and that 72 per cent. of kainit was used this year as compared to 1:d6d. GEE11AL SU.%UUY. Last year it was estimated that 10 per cent. less farm sUPpiies was purehased than in 1885, and this year 16 per cent. more than lat, still making a decrease of 3 per cent. less than in 1885. This increase is due to freshets, which de stroyed the entire corn crop on the bot tows, forcing farmers to buy at the be ginning of the season. But our farmers are cheerful, hopeful and buoyant, and do not complain. And when it is recollected that k ss fertilizers has been purchased, labor cheaper and the crop cultivated at less cost up to this time than any crop for years, they have some reasons for rejoicing. Labor in nearly every locality has been morel plentiful. The failure of the crop last year taught them to prepare for the worst, and, as one correspondent puts it: "They hold their own wonderfully; most of them started with nothing and still have it." RIcE. The reports from nearly every section of the State is at this time favorable for a good crop, but there are so many drawbacks in the production of the ric crop that the present .:stimates m iy be very much changed before the maturity of the crop. The condition is reported at 97 against 92 in 1885, and 90 in 1886. The condition of sorghum and sugar cane is reported good. Correspondents estimate that the acreage has been in creased. Condition ^of sorghum and sugar cane each 98 against 92 for both crops last year. The~ estimated increase in acreage of the sweet potata is placed at 2 per cent., or 101 for the State, and condition at 9'J per cent. The acreage of Irish potatoes has been reported 1 per cent, decrease, and the condition ior the State 91 per cent., the samei as laat year. The prospecis fue the fruii crop of nearly ali ids are not encouragoag. Appier, peaches and years were badly injarecd by the cold winds in early spring. The grape a.id Lorry crops are reported as very ironing. Th~e eoa dition~ of uit is reportedt as follows: appi-a, ci; pcSheS, 2; yearis, 3S; of gar*en? proiets is reported at 9o per cen. 'gainst &s last year. OCt Lof two handred and twienty-three correspondents leporting the dLate of the mather, 146 re.--rt good, 70 fair and i ead , ov. 'g that the seasons have b'een p'ropitious for the growing Tum:i is an old notion that fish is a od brain food, but an article by WX. U .itwater in the Jutne niumbe~r of the Ccii tatry Magazine goes far to destroy whIat 1..tL there might have been in s'uch not :u. decclres that there is no proof of any~ \xchptionai aixa .anee of phil, cr1asi ilish. Ou the contrary, he -~ue a.t an exteined .series of anaiy ses ia a?us la0o-atory has shown tha't tae pro por"tion of phospuorus diselosed in the ti a Sh o trdinary aninudis used for food is quite as great as that ascertained to exes, in the species of fish that are also u::ed for food. Mir. Atwater says that we are a race of fat-eaters, and that the dtaterence, so far as the nutritive quali ties are concerned, between tish and or dinary meat is in the diIl'erent propor tions in which water and oily or fatty matter :Ire respectively found. The 11i.>h of ish has water where meats have Lit, in order to promote soundness and growth of brain, we must avoid exces sive indulgence in fatty food, and strive generally to keep the other parts of the hrwdy in healhy cneliin. KENTUCKY PIONEER LIFE. INCIDENTS OF EARLY DAYS IN THE "DARK AND BLOODY GROUND." Some Account of the Exciting Experiences of Daniel Boone and His Folowers. (From Harper's Magazine for June.) The dangers which Boone and his companions encountered in the fields came to the very doors cf their cabins, and con'tantly menaced their families. Indians lurked singly or in parties to seize a prisoner or take a scalp whenever. an incautious white should give the op portunity. Frequent combats (and each combat ended, as a rule, in the death of one or both of these engaged) had habituated the men to danger. It was later that they felt the danger of their wives Vad children. Late on a Sunday afternoon in July, 1776, three young girls ventured from the enclosure of Boonesborouge to amuse themselves with a canoe upon the river that flowed by the fort. Insensibly they drifted with the lazy current, and before they were aware of their danger were seized by five warriors. Their resist ance was useless, though they wielded the paddles with desperation. Their canoe was drawn ashore, and they were hurried off in rapid retreat toward the Shawnee town in Ohio. Their screams were heard at the fort, and the cause well guessed. Two of the girls were Betsey and Frances, daughters of Col. Richard Callaway, the other was Jemima, daughter of Boone. The fathers were absent, but soon returned to hear the evil news and arrange the pursuit. Cal laway assembled a mounted party, and was away through the woods to head off the Indians, if possible, before they might reach and cross the Ohio, or be. fore the fatigue of their rapid march should so overcome the poor girls as to cause their captors to tomahawk them, and so disencumber their flight. Boone started directly on the trial through the thickets and canebrakes. His rule was never to ride if he could possibly walk. All his journeys and . nuute, escapes and pursuits, were on foot. His little party numbered eight, and the anxiety of a father's heart guick ened its leader, and found a ready re sponse inthe breasts of three young men, the lovers of the girls. Betsey Callaway, the oldest of the girls, marked the trail, as the Indians nurried them along, by breaking twigs and bending bushes, and when threaten ed with the tomahawk if she persisted, tore small bits from her dress and dropped them to guide the pursuers. WNere the ground was soft enough to receive an impressidn, they would im press a footprint. The flight wasin the best Indian method; the Indiars march ed some yards apart through the bushes and cane, compelling their captives to do the same. When a creek was crossed they waded in its water to a distant point, where the march would be re sumed. By all the caution and skill of their traiing the Indians endeavored lo obscure the trail and perplex the pur suers. The nightfall of the first day stopped the pursuit of Boone before he had gone far; but he had fixed the direction the Indians were taking, and at early dawn was following them. The chase was continued with all the speed that conld be made for thirty miles. Again dark ness compelled a halt, and again at crack of day on Tuesday the pursuit was re newed. It was not long before a light film of smoke that rose in the distance showed where the Indians were cooking a breaskfast of buffalo meat. The pur suers cautiously approached, fearing lest the Indians mught slay their captives and escape. Col. John k loyd, who was one of the party (himself afterward killed by Indians), thus described the attack and the rescue in a letter written the next Sunday to the lieutenant of Fincastle, CoL. William Preston: "Our study had been how to get the prisoners without giving the Indians rune to murder them after they discov ered us. Four of us fired, and all of us rushed on them; by which they were prevented from carrying anything away except one shot gun without ammuni tion. Colonel Boone and myself had each a pretty fair shot and they began to move oIf. I am well convinced 1 shot one through the body. The one he shot dropped hus gun; mine had none. The place was covered with thick cane, and ueing so much elated on recovering the three poor little heart-brokcn girls, we were prevented from making any furth er search. We sent the Indians ofY al mnost naked, some without their mocca bins, and none of them with so much as a knife or tomahawk. After the girls came to themselves to speak, they told as there were live Indians, four S3haw anese and one Cherokee; they could speak good English, and said they should go to the Shawanese towns. The war club we got was like those I have seen of that nation, and several words of their tanguages, which the girls retained, were liuown to be Shawan~ese." The return of the rescued girls was dhe occasion for great rejoicing. To crown their satisfaction, the younglovers had proved their prowess, and under the eye of tue greatest of all woodsmen had .iuwn their skill and courage. They i:a fairly won the girls they loved. Two weks :ater a general summons went uroughout thehlttle settlements to at-. Sd tlie. nirt wedding ever solemnized sKentucky' soil. Samuel Henderson adt Deiy Galaway were married in the igeesence of an approved company that clebrated the event with dancing and asung. The formal license from the e 'nty court was not waited~ for, as the couri, house of E'mcastle, of which coun ifKentucky was part, was distant more u- an six liundreL miles. The ceremony conlsisted of the contract with witnesses, ad roumgious vrows admiinistered by Lloone's irother, whio was an occasional 1ueacher of the persuasion popularly i::own as Hardshell Baptists. Frances CUdiaway became within a year the wife of the gallant John Holder, afterward eatl o istuied in the pioneer an :A5s, adBoone's daughter married the sonof isfrindCallaway. Rule that works both ways-The Golden Rule.