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f The Fort Mill Times. I ^ VOLUME 19-NO. 13. FORT MILL, S. C? THURSDAY, IUNE 30. 1910. ?, ?R VMJ.? If* COnON BOLL PEST SPREADING TO EASTERN SOUTHERN STATES ' Louisiana Man Takes Hopeless View of tbe Situation---Is His Pessimism Warranted? From all reports now being received from the depths of the r. cotton-producing belt of the South, the boll weevil is this season becoming more alarming than ever in its inroads into the heart of the belt. In regard to the destruction which it is working in certain portions of the South, the New York Commercial has this to say: "The boll weevil has almost ; entirely destroyed the cotton crop in the western part of Texas and the eastern part of Louisiana, according to statements in a newspaper interview with Col. , . James Willbanks, published in Washington. He says that the weevil is getting worse in those sections every year and that it moves steadily northward and eastward. He is very pessimistic over the situation, fearing that no remedy for direct application to the pest will ever be found and that sooner or later it * will be impossible to raise any cotton* in the South at a profit. But for all this, he has himself a suggestion to offer for exterminating the insect--as follows: 4 4 41 believe the only way to kill the pest for good is to burn all the cotton stalks after a crop has been harvested and let the land be sown for the next year in some other crop. Of course ? . this would cause a cotton famine, . # and prices would reach civil-war levels, when cotton sold for $5 a *,1. K..? 4-UJo. u V... jmuiiw, uut Liiia u uuiu uu tuca)^i in the long run if we could finally , get rid of the weevil. "'Already many fine planta tions in Louisiana and Texas. ' where the land is not suitable for anything but cotton, have been abandoned because the ^ weevil has made it no longer profitable to work the land.' "It must be admitted that as yet nothing has been discovered in the way of direct treatment that promises an extermination i of the boll weevil, but it has been found possible to minimize the extent of the damage caused by it. and. in some instances, to check the so read of the pest these things, chiefly through improved methods of cultivation and treatment as directed by the experts of the United States department of agriculture. So there is no occasion for such a hopeless view of the situation as this Louisiana man takes." Death of Arthur Potts. Arthur Potts, the 23-year-old son of Mr. Walter Potts, of the Steel Creek section of Mecklenburg county, died suddenly at the store of his father Monday morning. Mr. Potts was in apparently good health a few minutes before his death and the announcement that he was dead was a great shock to his family and friends. He was a member of Steel Creek Presbyterian church, where the funeral services were conducted by his pastor. the Rev. Mr. Cleveland. The burial was in Steel Creek churchyard Tuesday afternoon. The dead young man has a number of relatives in Fort Mill and was a frequent visitor to this place, lie was a nephew of Mr. J. H. Potts, who attended the funeral. He was said to be the tallest man in Mecklenburgcounty, his height being (> feet -6 inches. Cap!. Allison Again in the Service. The friends of Capt. J. A. Allison have been pleased to note during the last ten days that he is again in the passenger service of the Southern railway, as conductor of trains 35 and 28, between Charlotte and Columbia. For the l#st two years Capt. Allison has been in ill health and has been on his truck farm in I Florida recuperating. In point of service, he is one of the oldest conductors on the South ern. uapt. Allison succeeded Capt. E. Bonie Chase, who has returned to his old run on the Columbia and Asheville division, which he held for 3() years before coming to the Columbia division two years ago as the successor of the late Capt. W. H. Sprinkle. Fort Mill Loses to Yorkville. "Honest Injun, cross your heart i and hope to die if you tell, Bo, and | I'll take your word for bond that you'll keep this thing quiet: The Fort Mill boys went over to the j ancient town of Yorkville last Wednesday and lost three games of ball. It was this way, Bo: Fort Mill has a fairly good amateur team. Well, they were in-' vited to the capital of the county | for a series of games and accepted the invitation, thinking the |1 contests would be between amaf m 11*0 tV/ui o. jl nut o >? ntit i/Jicj vv tic i tagged for overrunning the base. 1 The Yorkville ball folks were so anxious to win the games that! they had gone to the expense of j hiring a team, composed largely | of professionals and semi-professionals. But at that, the Fort Mill boys do not complain. You understand they are in the game for the love of the sport, Bo, and it is not a matter of life or death j with them whether they win. They neither sing songs of triumph over victory nor despair in ' defeat. "So they are .willing to accord the Yorkville boys whatever > gratification there is in dressing up a team of hired help in Yorkville uniforms and claiming that they are the town's ball players. As I said, Bo, or meant to say, j there is no dark brown taste in ( the mouths of the Fort Mill boys: they are used to defeat. They (| did. however, feel that in each , of the three games a little more , might have been given them by the umpire. The score? Well, ( let's forget it. Fort Mill got , beat; that's all. The Yorkville , team is over here for a series of games, beginning today (Wednesday) and our boy#s hope to do better on the diamond, but do ( not hope to excel the kind and hospitable treatment they received off the diamond over ( there. Now, I enjoin you to , keep all this quiet except the,! visit of the Yorkville team. Let everybody know they are here." . Will Not Speak in Fort Mill. Lieutenant Governor T. G. McLeod will not come to Fort Mill Friday evening to make a speech to the voters ot' this com- , munitv in behalf of his candidacy for governor. Some days ago ' local friends of Mr. McLeod conceived the idea of having him ; come to Fort Mill from the county ' meeting in Yorkville Friday, hut an agreement has been reached by the various candidates for ' State office making the countyto-county campaign that no political speeches are to be made by any candidate during the campaign at other than scheduled meeting places. This agreement kills the proposed Fort Mill speech of Mr. McLeod as well as the meeting which it was hoped to have in Hock Hill Friday night. Mr. Witherspoon's Fine Reduced. About a hundred Yorkville citizens felt enough interest in the second hearing of the case of the town of Yorkville against ,J. Harvey Witherspoon to attend the trial at the court house Thursday morning. Mr. Witherspoon was charged with fighting. He is the superintendent of the graded school in Yorkville. On June 15th a ball game which he was managing was played by the school team and the Hickory Grove boys. Mr. Witherspoon endeavored to collect an admis /? f l\i? /> '> ?v\ r? 1 O \/t ivz11 iu cuv; >;<iiiic ik'iii iv. 1*1. Whitesides, a 50-year-old citizen of Yorkville. Mr. Whitesides refused to pay and would not leave the grounds when ordered to do so by Mr. Witherspoon. Mr. Witherspoon then caught : hold of Mr. Whitesides and threw him to the ground, choking him a little. Mr. Witherspoon was tried for fighting before the acting mayor, J. M. Starr, and given a fine of $20. He considered the mayor's fine exorbitant and appealed to the town council for a rehearing of the case. The re| hearing was held Thursday morning and the council reduced ' the fine to $10, after listening to i the testimony of several witnesses and the speeches of the I lawyers?W. W. Lewis for the ! prosecution and Thos. F. McDow I for the defendant. SPECULATION ON MAIN STREET OVER THE RACE FOR GOVERNOR Friends ot the Candidates Talking ol Their Favorites---McLeod Leads in Straw Ballot. Up to the last ten days there had been no marked interest in Fort Mill over the selection ol the Democratic nominees for the various State offices, but since the biennial county-to-county canvass of the candidates was begun at Sumter last Wednesday and as the tour of the State brings the candidates closer tc Ynrt pnnnfu flto infnvnof ?. V. >. WV.IIVJ vuv. li ltv.1 tot W IllLI, was certain to crop out sooner 01 later is manifest in many places. Naturally the interest of the majority of voters centres in the race for govornor, the most important office to be bestowed this year upon a favorite son, thougf an occasional reference is made to the candidacy of B. B. Evans against Fraser Lyon forattornej general. No one has been hearc to venture the opinion thai Evans will defeat Lyon, bul Lyon is not popular in Fort Mill, as was clearly shown in the primary two years ago when he ran for the office without opposition and a large number o1 voters here scratched his name off their tickets. This year everyone seems te be at a loss to guess with anj degree of certainty who will be the nominee for governor.. Heretofore, for the last 20 years, the drift of public sentiment towarc this or that candidate has beer so strontr that one did tint liov< to go far afield to gather suf ficient information upon which to base a more or less accurate estimate of the one. two. three leaders in the voting. Now there are three candi dates for the governorship whe are out-and-out advocates o] State-wide prohibition, Messrs Featherstone, Richards ant Hyatt. Formerly there has beer but one prohibition candidate and he has polled the entire vott of that wing of the party. Ir the present campaign, however, the prohibition vote doubtless will be considerably split betweer the three candidates with tin chances seemingly in favor ol Mr. Featherstone, though Mr. Richards seems to have made some headway since the campaign opened. There are two local optionists asking for the governorship. Messrs. McLeod and Blease. Neither believes that it would be fair or in line with tin principles of the party to force prohibition upon the five counties in the State which voted for the county dispensary last year. Twe years ago Mr. Blease made ; creditable race against Governoi Ansel. Both claimed to be loca optionists. This year Lieutenant Governor McLeod and Mr. Blease are in accord on the liquor question. but are men of very different personality and different con cepuons 01 the otlice to whicl they aspire. Monday morning in an effor to ascertain the favorites amonf the gubernatorial candidates tin The Times took a straw ballot of i small number of business men or Main street, the following beinj the poll of the 80 voters wh< were asked to indicate thei choice: Blease Duncan Feathers tone Hyatt McLeod l Richards Non-committal Total 3 Charlotte Citizen Kills Himself. James VV. Wadsworth, one o the wealthiest citizens of Char lotte, who was known in a busi ness way to hundreds of peopl in York county, committed sui cide at his home at 3:80 o'clocl Monday afternoon. Mr. Wads worth shot himself in the heat with a niotnl .. >v> i* ^;iatv/i. L/caiu luuowet an hour after the shooting. Th excessive use of stimulants ani worry over business matter were Riven in a statement b; *the family as the cause of th act. A brother of Mr. Wads worth, Charles Wadsworth, too! his life in a Greensboro (N. C. hotel last year. 4 Reasons for Small Wheat Crop. [ " A number of Fort Mill farmers do not agree with the statement made in The Times two weeks F ago by Mr. W. J. Stewart that the lands of this section are not adapted to wheat-growing. One farmer told of the unusual ? yield he had received from a few i acres which he put to wheat r some years ago, but admitted ; that he had abandoned wheat> growing on his plantation to be r able to devote practically all his . land to cotton and corn. Another ! farmer who mentioned the mat-1 ter stated as his opinion that the lands of this section are not un} suited to growing wheat, but 1 that the seasons are so uncertain * that it does not pay to risk a failure with wheat since there ; are more certain crops which can ? be grown. Still another farmer . thinks that thl reason why . there is so little wheat grown hereabouts is because of the poor ! 1 1 * - r r% quality 01 nour wnicn is turned 3 out by the mills. The average ? man is not now satisfied with 7 flour, however wholesome and 1 nutritious it may be, if it is t "off color;" it must be as white t as the product of the great roller , mills of the West and Northwest i ?much of which is adulterated i and unfit for human consump tion even though it be of better I quality but unbleached. Whats ever the cause, all agree that there is not one-tenth the acreage ) in wheat that there was 20 years r ago. Local Boys Give Catawbas a Game. j The novelty of seeing an Indian baseball team at play was wit\ nessed on the local diamond 3 Saturday afternoon when the Catawbas came to Fort Mill for * a game with a local team. The 31 Fort Mill boys were generous 3 and presented the game to the i Indians after it was seen that they could have beaten the red! skins with ease. The score was 11 to 10 in favor of the Catawbas. j J More interest was manifest in ; the personnel of the Indian team M than in the result of the game. 3 Their oldest player, John George, was about 40 years of age, and 1 their youngest player, thesecond; baseman, a little brave not more than 13. A Chippewa. Will 1 i Saunders, from Minnesota, ' played the short field for the Catawbas. The batteries were: Catawbas, John George and Floyd Owl; Fort Mill, A1 Ferguson and Holt Ardrey. Fort Mill Man Charlotte's Chief. A list light on the streets of I Charlotte Saturday afternoon be tween Recorder I). B. Smith and ? Chief of Police T. M. Christen5 bury, both of that city, resulted ; in the elevation of a former Fort > Mill man, Sergeant .James M. i Youngblood, to the office of the * latter, which he is tilling until 1 the executive board of city count cil acts upon the case of assault > which has been made out against - Mr. Christenbury. Sergeant t Youngblood is filling the position - of chief of police satisfactorily 1 and it is said to be not unlikely that he will be elected to fill the t offiee permanently should Mr. r Christenbury be indefinitely sus? I pended or dismissed from the i service. Some years ago Serl : geant Youngblood was a citizen X | of Fort Mill, being an employe ) | of the Charlotte Brick company, r The difficulty between Recorder Smith and Chief of Police 1 | Christenbury grew out of a report that the latter was taking i part in the election for solicitor r> i in Mecklenburg county. Re corder Smith was a candidate '* | and the report became noised o abroad that the head of the police I department was working against him. The two men met Saturday afternoon and a personal f difficulty ensued between them. -! Chief Christenbury is said to havf> hp*?n thn airTrnL-unv Unn'1" _ - V..K VUOUI . HV-t'VV e the action of the executive board. k Much Farm Work Done. i- The farmers of York county d have been blessed with several d days' ideal weather for cultie vating their crops during the d last week. Thursday and Friday s of last week and Monday, y Tuesday and Wednesday of this e week have witnessed the dei struction of thousands of acres k of the grass which ten days ago ) appeared to have the upperhand i in many cotton and corn fields. BLOCK SYSTEM INSTALLED ON THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY Over 2,000 Miles of the Company's Lines are Now Protected by the Appliance. A bulletin just issued by the Interstate Commerce commission gives the mileage of railways in the United States operated by the block system on January 1, 1910. It shows that 2,080.1 miles of trnnL- r??i ? V. UV? un l UC OUUlllCI II railway, constituting 30 per cent, of the entire mileage of the system, is now equipped with this safety appliance. The working of the block system may be best explained by taking two block stations, Gainesville, Ga., and Oakwood, Ga., for example. A train approaches Gainesville bound for Atlanta. The telegraph operator at Gainesville asks the operator at Oakwood if he can have the block for the approaching train. If there are no trains between Gainesville and Oakwood the operator gives the required permission and both operators make a record of the time, train number, etc. The operator .at Gainesville then clears the signal | by pulling it down to an angle of about 60 degrees below horizontal after the train comes in sight. That is called "clearing" the i signal and is done after the I train comes into sight to assure 1 the engineer that the signal is cleared for him and he will not proceed into the block unless he sees it go "clear." This , assures him that he is not taking : a signal given a preceding train. I As soon as the train passes the signal the operator returns the signal to a horizontal position. This indicates "danger, stop," and it remains in this position as long as the train is in the block. It will be noted that two men, one at each end of the block, must co-operate to allow a train to enter. This provides a check which effectually prevents mistakes, it heinir nnlikolv tl-mt two men would make the same There are I ! Shoes, but' Shoes ar iwww?ii IWI rjn'AMi aw'Hiauirr Wo liavo jlist op down six hundred Shoes in all the shapes and leatlie Star Brand, we k t he best shoe mat Star Brand, \\c I made a regular sin tomers advertise t sell you your ne: ? ? have two tiiousam I Mills & ^ PHONES: Dry Goods, 37. JL Jm JL JLJ1\ A Mecklenburg's Vote for Clerk. In the Democratic primary election in Mecklenburg county Saturday, Clerk of Court J. A. Russell, who is well known in this section, failed of a majority vote and will therefore have to go into a second election, which is being held today, with his highest opponent. C. C. Moore. In North Carolina, as in this State, a majority vote is necessary in the Democratic primaries to secure the party nomination. This Mr. Russell failed to get. Indeed he ran 739 votes behind Mr. Moore. There were 3.832 votes cast in the race for clerk of court. Of this number Mr. Russell received 1,045 and Mr. Moore 1,784. It will be seen, therefore, that to secure the nomination, if the total vote is the same in second primary, Mr. Russell will have to gain 972 votes. Upon the same basis Mr. Moore would have to gain only 183 votes. Mr. Russell's friends fear that he will not be able to overcome the handicap. 1 i i 2 h Mr. Russell Withdraw*. A telephone message was received in Fort Mill Tuesday from Mr. J. A. Russell in which he stated that he would not enter a second primary for the nomination for clerk of court. Mr. Russell gave as his reason for withdrawing from the race his unwillingness to enter a scramble for the nomination in which it would he necessary to resort to the tactics of ward politicians. Mr. C. C. Moore has been declared the Democratic nominee for the office. mistake at the same time. To install this system has necessitated the employing of a I large number of additional telegraph operators and the expenditure of a large amount of money for line wire, signals, etc.. but the ollicials of the | Southern railway believe that the expenditure is warranted because of the safety it affords their patrons from accidents due to collision. .ots of Good "Star Rranrl yivii ui MIIU | e Better" ?wrii>mitfii?wii? wi?<m?i??www rne<l up and marked pairs of Star Brand most fashionable rs. hi buying the now that we liavo le. In soiling' the mow t lint we have >o friend. Our enshem for us. Let us tt pair shoes. We I pair to select from. (oung Co. Furniture, 144. Grocery, 12.