Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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TALES OF VISITS T1 Ghosts and Their Warnii Wonderful Happei Interestu % ? At a house party in the south the! talk fell upon the supernatural, and: there were cited a number of in-1 stances showing either vividness of Imagination or something harder to explain, but not less interesting because not understood. A man in the party according to an exchange, said: "I am telling you \ this just as it was told to me by myj father. | "Both my father and my uncle; John were planters before the war.! They owned thousands of acres whiPh they planted in cotton and rice, and: lived several miles apart on separ-. ate plantations. Their father had been dead for several years at the time of my story. He had always been fairly idolized by his sons, for while a stern man he was a loving father. "My uncle owned a number of negroes, one of whom, Black Dan, he had a special fancy for and kept as a valet, or body servant, as they were called then in the South. No one could understand my uncle's fancy for the negro, for he was a surly fellow. "One night Uncle John was sitting in front of the fire in his study reading. I do not know what the book was, but I will mention, however, that it has no direct connection with the story, that he was an agnostic and was looked upon by the family * as little better than an atheist?a stern, embittered, irreligious man, intensely materialistic, believing little in oitVior find r?r the devil, and given to reading authors of his own scoffing tendencies. "Suddenly a shadow seemed to fall across his hook, and he glanced tip. Standing on the opposite side of the fireplace and looking gravely at him was my grandfather, who had been in his grave for years. My uncle jumped up, dropping the hook, and the figure disappeared. "Thinking that he must have been dreaming, he sat down again and tried, to resume his reading, but a sense of uneasiness possessed him, and he felt himself impelled to rush > nut into the darkness of the night. My uncle had much sorrow, and he began to wonder if his trouble had affected his mind. He endeavored to fix his attention on his book, when suddenly the shadow fell again, and he looked up to see his father standing facing him with a heavy frown darkening his face. "My uncle sprang up and held out his hands, and the apparition disappeared, leaving behind a sense of impending disaster. My uncle tried again to settle to his reading, refusing to give way to impression of danger with which he seemed pos-t sessed, and had almost convinced | himself that the presence had been a dream when the apparition suddenly appeared again. My uncle sprang up and my grandfather spoke, frowning and pointing to the door. My uncle thought he caught the words, 'John, go! go!' and then the ghostly visitant for the third time disappeared. "My uncle rushed from the house, and following an impulse, saddled his horse and rode to my father's, three, miles away. I was a small child, but j I can well remember hearing the clat-! ter of the horse's hoofs as he dashed j up to the door. He told of his ghostly visitant, and said he wished to spend the night with us. "My mother and father thought him ill, but forebore to argue with| him. He spent the night with us and?the next morning my father rode back with him to his plantation. When they entered my uncle's room > they cried out in amazement. Two heavy loads of buckshot had oeen fired Into the bed the night before from an open window. Had my grandfather appeared to his son to save him from death the night be\ fore? "Years after Black Dan was bangle ed by a mob for crimes committed P- . against the white race. My uncle f endeavored to save the negro's life, but his efforts in his behalf were in vain. During the last conversation1 my uncle had with him the former! slave told him that it was he who* had fired the buckshot into his bed,' thinking he was asleep in it as usual at that time of night, and hoping to! , kill him. "Was I not a good master to you,! Dan?" my uncle asked. "Why did il you wish to kill me?" " 'You were my master,' the negro said. 'You were white and I ami black and I hate the white people/ and that is the reason for every crime j i I have committed.' "When my uncle was a very old man he had another dream or visitation, whatever you choose to call it. In his early life he married a beautii fill woman whom he loved very dear$ I ' ; FROM HIE SPIRIT LAND. tigs to the Living.?Some ning Told of in an ag Way. ly. She died of typhoid fever six weeks after the marriage. In the early days of their honeymoon they had given a promise that the one who died first should, if possible, return and warn the other of approaching death. "My uncle's grief grew less as time passed and he married again. His second marriage brought him great unhappiness, but he lived to be an old man. In the early stages of his illness he told my mother the date and hour of his approaching death. " ' came to me last night/ he said, 'and sat beside me. She told me that mj hour was approaching and that I must prepare to meet her in Heaven.' "My uncle died at the exact date and hour predicted." Another member of the party contributed the following experience: "My great-grandmother had made her home with us for a number of years. She was a tiny little woman, very old as I remember her, and in the habit of reading her Bible almost constantly. At night before retiring she would kneel beside a little table in her room, read a chapter in her Bible while oh her knees, say her prayers, and then no word would pass her lips again for the night. Many and many a time I have "seen her kneeling there making her evening supplications. "She moved with a daughter to V.o/3 V\ non livinc in thnt XCAOO OUU liau' uwu 1K1UQ ? State for a number of years when one day I entered the room which she had occupied while with us, and there, kneeling beside the little table, her Bible before her, was my greatgrandmother. She smiled at me and pointed upward, and then seemed to fade into nothingness. "It was broad daylight and I could scarcely credit my senses, but I told members of the family and expressed the belief that grandma was dead. The following day we received news of her death, and she had passed away at the very hour of her appearance to me. They said at the last she had smiled and pointed upward." In the party was a man of affairs whose success in business and practical ways gave weight to the following contribution: "I have never seen but one ghost. That was several years ago, before my mother's death. "I had been fox hunting on a clear, moonlight night, and on coming home was met by the stable boy, who told me that my mother, who had been an invalid for several years, was much worse. It was the fall of the year, and I remembered noticing, as I passed through the gate, that a pile of dry leaves had accumulated in front of it, and as I walked through them I thought that I must see that the gardener had them removed the next morning. "I did not enter the house at once, but sat down on a bench on a side porch, thinking I would collect myself after the shock of the stable boy's news, before going into my mother's room. "My mother was a very charitable woman and was greatly beloved. Among her pensioners was a Mrs. Brown, a poor widow, dead for several years at the time of which I am speaking. This poor woman had been an especial pet and beneficiary of my mother's. "As I sat idly looking out into the grounds, I thought I saw a woman come down the lane and pass through the gate. I was especially struck with the fact that when she passed A1 J i ? mrouga tne pue 01 ueau iwtve? mcic was not a rustle of a leaf, so far as I could hear. She was dressed in black and came on quickly down the walk and passed me with face averted, going into the house. She did not make a sound, and passed so near me.as almost to brush against me. I seemed to recognize something vaguely familiar in the figure. "Presently, without a'sound, she came from the house and passed me again, going as she had come, through the leaves and on up the lane. I roused myself wondering if I could have been dreaming, and went into the house, washed my face and hands and went down to mother's roomv "As I bent to kiss her and asked solicitously if she was feeling better, she said: " 'Oh, much better! All day I have been suffering so with my head, but a little while ago I thought that Mrs. Brown came in here and bent over me and laid her hand on my head and soothed all the pain away, and now I am in no pain at all.' "Then I realized that the figure that had seemed so familiar was that of Mrs. Brown, dead many years before, but who, I do firmly believe, entered my mother's sick room that READERS CRITICISED. Blease will Ask State Board to Cancel . Contract. Governor Blease stated Thursday afternoon that he, as chairman ex officio of the State board of education, at the meeting to be held here Monday, August 28th, will ask the board to cancel the contract for the "Heart of Oak" readers, adopted at the last session of the board, when textbooks for five years in the schools of South Carolina were adopted. This statement by Governor Blease follows the action Wednesday of the South Carolina division, United Confederate veterans, who at their business session passed resolutions con demning the readers. Governor Blease said he had no idea such a statement as that printed was in any of the books adopted, this reference being to a selection in in one of the Heart of Oak readers which is said to refer to the Confederates at Shiloh as "a dark rebellious host." Governor Blease further stated that if he had known that such a "libel upon the South" was printed in any book adopted by the board, he would then and there have registered his protest. He said that his attitude was well known in this matter by his stand in the Waddy Thompson history controversy. The governor also stated that he was not present when the readers were adopted by the State board of education, being called out of the city at that time. ' "i win Bring tut; uianei cu me attention of the board at its meeting here on the 28th," concluded the governor, "and I will use my influence to the end that the contract with the firm be cancelled." It was stated by the chairman of the board of education that the meeting on the 28th is called to consider protests from publishing companies, and to hear appeals from the several counties as to school matters. The governor has a formal protest from one- of the publishing houses as to the interpretation of the contract with the State. Veterans' Protest. The following 'is the protest registered Wednesday by the resolution of the old soldiers: "Whereas, The Heart of Oak readers recently adopted for use in the public schools of this State, contain on page 225 of the fourth book a selection that refers to the Southern army at Shiloh as 'a dark rebellious host,' and, "Whereas, we, the United Confederate veterans of South Carolina thus assembled, believe that the principles and truths for which we fought are ilia* oa vitni tn-dav as thev were when we left our homes and families to defend them with our lives and fortunes, and, "Whereas, we further believe that the books taught in our free school system, where alone our children have an opportunity to learn these truths, should be free from any aspersions or misrepresentations, eithKv or indirection: "Therefore, he it resolved: That we most seriously protest against the use of the above named readers and respectfully but earnestly call upon the State board of education to s take immediate steps whereby readers or any other books containing any or all such expressions reflecting upon the truth of the cause for which we fought may not be forced upon our children." Largest Negro Woman Dead. Selitia Campbell, the largest colored woman in the world, died at her 'home in Toronto, Canada, on Friday of last week. She toured with a circus six years, weighing at that time 650 pounds. Her mother weighed 400 pounds and a sister 450. night and ministered to her." "I was visiting relatives in North Carolina," one of the group said. "One of the girls whom I was visiting had given a party and we had been very gay all the evening, so I had gone to bed with no sense of uneasiness about any member of my family, who were in a distant State, and, so far as I knew, well and happy. "I dreamed that I saw my mother lying on her bed, white and ill, and about her all her children gathered, with the exception of myself. I thought I stood far off, struggling to get to her through a heavy white mist that seemed to hold me im prisoned. The dream came to me three times and at daylight I arose and went to my aunt'sroom, telling her of the vision and the anxiety I felt about my mother. "The family tried to laugh me out of my fears, but I persisted in my belief that my mother was ill. No bad tidings came that day, but several days later I received a letter, written on the night of my dream, telling me that my mother had been taken ill suddenly and her life dispaired of that night, but was pronounced out of danger at the time of my sister's writing. All of the children but myself had been gathered about her bedside, and I believe my mother's spirit called to me through space that night." \ .... HOLD YOUR COTTON. Congressional Committee Advises Holding for Thirteen Cents. Washington, Aug. 23.?After discussing what was referred to as the ' threatening condition of the cotton market," a conference of Southern senators and representatives through a committee consisting of Senators Williams, of Mississippi, and Owen, of Oklahoma, and Representative Burleson, of Texas, decided to give formal advice to farmers' organizations to "hold cotton for thirteen cents." A committee will urge the State banking associations to co-operate against "the bearish movement of the speculators." The committee which will advise farmers to "hold for thirteen cents" issued a statement to-day, which says in part: Effort to Break Market. "It seems to be the opinion of all that there was a preconcerted effort hointr made nrinHnnllv throiieh the instrumentality of the speculative element of the New York Cotton Exchange, to break down the price of cotton. It was the opinion of all that the present statistical condition of cotton did not justify the lowness of present quotations, and that the estimate of 15,000,000 was unjustified by any facts upon which a prediction could be sanely based, and that, moreover, even if a 15,000,000-bale crop were in sight* the world's supplies still probably would fall short of the world's demand for cotton "to the extent of more than 1,000,000 bales, because of the exhaustion of the present visible supply of carried-over spot cotton. In other words, with a 15,000,000 American crop, the world's crop for 1911 would sum up only 25,000,000 with 140,000,000 of spindles creating an active demand for 26,000,000 bales. This opinion ?? iti /\ 1 r? /IttlnAO W clS Ud.8CU upUil ILLC laicdi aum^co from Egypt, India, China and other cotton producing countries. Bankers to Aid. "Information was given at the informal conference that assurances would be given to President Barrett or to Southern bankers that ample funds from banks outside of the South could be had through the instrumentality of Southern financial institutions to be lent at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum to those who did not wish to dispose of their cotton at a sacrifice upon cotton warehouse statistics." Crop Off 30 to 50 per Cent. Montgomery, Aug. 23.?Dr. W. E. Hinds, State entomolgist, to-night predicted that the caterpillar or cotton worm will curtail the cotton crop in this State from 30 to 50 per cent, and that within the next few weeks, other States east of the Mississippi river would feel the full force of the pest. The worms are beginning to work in Mississippi, he said, and he is getting reports from other States of their appearance. It is an impossibility, stated Dr. Hinds, for the South to make a fifteen-million bale crop this season. In this and in other States the rains have ruined the middle crop and the worms are about to get the top crop. The bottom crop is practically made in most States and this will be the main crop gathered. The second crop of worms is now at work and the third will come on about the middle of September. He does not think the danger will he over before the middle of October. HAIR CLIPPER HELD. Pittsburg Beauties Weepingly Select Their Own Tresses. Pittsburg, Aug. 24.?Eighteen locks of beautiful hair, each shock tied with baby blue ribbon, were found yesterday afternoon in the trunk of Frank Rickerl, "the hair snipper," who was arrested Saturday night after he had shorn away the beautiful tresses of Mrs. Florence Timberlain in the Fifth Avenue Theatre. At police headquarters last night twelve of his closely-cropped victims, all Pittsburg beauties, weepingly gathered around a table that looked like a hair dressing bargain" counter. According to the police Rickerl has been operating for months, principally in theatres and in the amusement parks. He is held on a charge of malicious mischief. ESTATE OF JOHN W. GATES. Great Plunger Left Property Valued at from Thirty to Forty Million. New York, Aug. 23.?John W. Gates, whose funeral took place here to-day, left an estate valued at from $30,000,000 to $40,000,000, according to former Justice Gildersleevo, who drew Mr. Gates's will. The bulk of the estate is left to his widow and his son, Charles G. Gates. The beneficiaries also include relatives, friends and former employees, the total amount of whose legacies will aggregate about $1,000,000 in bequests ranging from $1,000 to $200,000. FASHION PUTS BAN ON CORSETS. Venus de Milo Effect to be the Real Thing This Winter. St. Louis, Mo., Aug. 23.?There are no rats at the "Made in St. Louis" show, which opened Monday at .the Coliseum. There are women in trousers, silk ones, but the ban was put on rats last night at the rehearsal salon of the twelve models who have, been named the "Perfect Thirty-Sixes." The fashion metor from Paris, according to local correspondence of the New York Herald, told the models to be in style next winter and spring they would have to look like Venus de Milo. Venus didn't wear corsets flia faohlnn montnr tnld the mnfl els it is impossible to look as if you didn't have corsets if you wore rats. Moreover, she said, corsets would be tabooed this autumn and winter. The models' display shows there is to be a revolution in women's dress styles for the next season. Curves and the mincing step that goes with the hobble skirt are to disappear. The corsetless natural figure will be the thing. Trousers are to replace the petticoat in this effort to realize the natural figure for women, but few women doubtless will follow the' trousers idea?in public. SEABOARD TRAIN WRECKED. Passenger and Fireman Injured Near Plant City, Fla. Tampa, Aug. 25.?Two persons were injured by the derailment last night of a Seaboard passenger train running from Tampa to Jacksonville. The wreck occurred near Plant City, Fla., 25 miles northeast of Tampa. The entire train was derailed. It is stated that the wreck was caused by some one having tampered with the plates which bind the "rails together. The injured were the fireman and one passenger. Thpy were taken to Jacksonville. ** 11, * &i iff Newberr [FOUND I A safe college. x Regular CI II Electrical and Mechanical Enj II # modern equipment. Locality it I Preparatory School connected v II partment very reasonable. Fo II address II President J. NEWBEB | | "The School that Stands Bamberg, Let us give your Boy and Girl the HI ough work under positive Chi HI CHANCES? Our school is owne< and IS NOT A SHAM. Recognis I larged faculty?all men of College ual attention. Study Hall, 4 HI Teacher. Unsurpassed Health. III Baths. Entirely separate boardh ? ? ? 11 _ " Prices lowest consistent witn goc Boarding capacity limitedcatalogue. Nineteenth ye vJj Famous. f?fiufa Edges a tesSnw a | iSJ KUH KUtlfR "GOOD WORKT Done Daily in Bamberg. Many Glti* ,fi& zens Tell of It. Nearly every reader has heard of If&S Doan's Kidney Pills. Their good work in Bamberg still continues, and our ' 2g| citizens are constantly adding en- % dorsementrby public testimony. No W1& better proof of merit can be had than ''/M the experience of friends and neigh- &SB bors. Read this case: Mrs. J. J. Simmons, Second street, Bamberg, S. C., says: "About two *3gjS years ago I used Doan's Kidney Pills which were obtained at the Peoples > Drug Co. and I shall never forget how greatly they benefitted me. At v^??|? that time I suffered from pains r^j|f through my kidneys and I also was -|g annoyed by headaches and dizzy spells. Doan'fe Kidney Pills brought ^ me such prompt relief that I have no ^|| hesitation in recommending them. nthor mpmhprfl ftf mv familv have used this remedy and it has always J||B been beneficial." N For sale by all dealers. Price 50 cents. Foster-Milburn Co., Buffalo* iifeg New York, sole agents for the United States. s Remember the name?Doan's?? ~ and take no other. For Rent.?Nice office rooms lm The Herald building. Hare electric ^ lights and water. The most desirable 3 ^ offices in the city. Will rent singly y% or in suites. A. W. KNIGHT. ^ 8* ? 6^8^^ <u >> * V ; iS A ^ u 1 psa m m > I ^ 3 8 IJ | Jk1 p oll 21 S 0* < ; jfgg ? S ilf f !i| 3 Xi'Ml "2 *2 ~ "Si I | A O I I ':ll 't ^ I ? i % ^^^===i y College ? |? ED 1856.] ||^H assical Courses, also courses in II Queering. An able Faculty and II imed for its health record. Fine II -?j?| rith college. Expenses in any de- || , r catalogue or other information II % 'gM Henry Harms 1 'RY, S. C. TING SCHOGMk 3 for Work: and Character' 111] - - - South Carolina |||| J mm training they need?honest, thor'istlfln Influences. WHY TAKE 3 and controlled by Wofford College sed standard of Scholarship. Eni and University training. Individ1-2 hours a day, conducted by Pure Artesian Water. Hot and Cold . : -&J ig departments for Boys and Girls. >d service. -write to-day for handsome ;ar begins Sept. 20th, 1911.