The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, May 01, 1913, Page 6, Image 6
"BACKXUMBER JOHN."
Queer Character Who Was Invaluable
to New York Lawyers.
Lawyers of this city who handle
will cases requiring a search of early
records lament the retirement of
'Backnumber John" for he was the
first and searcher-in-chief in digging
up facts from the archives.
"Backnumber John," despite his
name, never lost touch with the
events of the day. His specialty,
though was the accumulation of back
numbers of newspapers, back numbers
of magazines, back numbers of
comic supplements, and back numbers
of almost anything that ever was
printed. He included in nis stocK 01 i
back number newspaper publications
from nearly every city of the country
and from many foreign cities.
Even if "Backnumber John" did
not have the particular copy of an old
newspaper needed by a lawyer who
was straightening out a tangled suit,
he always managed to get the desired
publication in the course of a few
days. How he did it was a trade
secret for which he made his customers
pay well.
His system of payment was the
strangest feature of his novel business.
He fixed the price he demanded
by the age of the paper desired.
"One penny a day from the date of
publication, for any paper in the
world, in addition to the original cost
of the paper," was his rule. It was a
lucrative trade. A paper a year old,
by this rule, was worth $3.65 above
the original price; a paper two years
old was worth $7.30, and a paper ten
years old brought $36.50. And when
it is borne in mind that very often
he supplied newspapers thirty, fifty
or even 100 years old, the profits of
the business are apparent.
"I'm a jeweler by trade," he would
say, with a twinkle of his eye, refer
a _ 1'olna r\f Vlic TVQT*P<3
nilg IU tilt; taiuc kjj. u'w ..
As the fame of John grew among
lawyers and antiquarians, he acquired
more and more stock, and needed
\
larger quarters for it than he originally
occupied in his little shop in
Fulton street. For many years he
stored his papers in a warehouse of
his own somewhere on the west side
of the city.
Not only did he preserve the newspapers
of the world from day to day,
but he also had an excellent system
. , of indexing the news so as to know
just where to put his hand on a newspaper
chronicling a given event. He
was a voracious reader, and day after
day could be seen riding down town
. in an elevated train to his office with
a bundle of newspapers under his
arm, and one spread out before him.
Every now and then he would stop
reading, put the newspaper on his
knee, and, with a penknife or the
point of a stickpin, cut out some article
or headline for his index files.
4 But "Backnumber John" insisted
that he was the first and original
* 1 ?" ~ " "11 llinco ti-h n tr?olr
i5a.CKUU.LIl UtJI vii axi tuvcv n uv
up his calling. Just what has become
of him, the lawyers who have recently
missed him, do not know. They
take it for granted that he has retired,
and they agree that he could
well afford to do so.?New York
Times.
The Latest in Advertising.
Moving pictures are to carry the
beauties of California and its advantages
as an agricultural, mining, and
industrial State, to the East and to
Europe. A large corporation which is
developing large areas in California
io thp It has organiz
ed a moving picture theatre in connection
with its sales department,
and free performances will be given
in all cities of the East and of Europe
The story is told in three reels of
films, which require almost an hour
to display. They take the spectator
through the various stages of gold
dredging, rock crushing, road building,
levee construction, land clearing,
irrigation, cultivation and harvesting.
The films begin with the construction
of a gold dredge, and end
with the picking of oranges from
trees which withstood the most severe
frost in the history of the State.
In the films is shown the operation
of a machine which clears 300 acres
of timbered land in one month and
also that of the great levee building
machines used in the irrigation projects.
NEWS AND OBSERVER BURNED.
Raleigh Paper Owned by Secretary of
Navy Suffers by Fire.
Raleigh, X. C., April 24.?Fire tonight
partly destroyed the plant of
the Raleigh News and Observer, causing
damage estimated at $75,000,
with $40,000 insurance. Starting in
the basement near an elevator shaft,
the blaze swept quickly to the roof
and then burned unchecked for some
time, low water pressure handicapping
the efforts of the firemen.
Secretary Daniels, of the navy department,
is president of the News
and Observer Company. He will
reach Raleigh tomorrow afternoon.
The News and Observer will be published
tomorrow from the plant of the
Raleigh Times.
LOVERS LEAP FROM TOWER.
Young Belgium Couple Carry Out How
Suicide Compact. Ie
Antwerp, Belgium, April 25.?A T1
youth 18 years old and a 19-year-old John
girl were the principal characters in Han
a love tragedy enacted here today, cone
Arm in arm they climbed to the clock magi
gallery in the tower of the Notre are,
Dame Cathedral and from a height of ram
180 feet leaped into space, falling at Ie
the feet of passers-by. cup
Every bone in the bodies of the an A.
boy and his companion was broken, job
As they hurtled the air several men locai
and women who witnessed the sight tive
fainted. signi
According to the police the leap offici
from the church tower was in ac- laidz
cordance with a premeditated suicide ferre
pact. desti
The tragedy occurred at a time The
when the market, in front of the with
north tower of the Cathedral was tion.
thronged with pedestrians, a large lack
number of whom stood transfixed, man
helpless witness of every phase of low
the drama. The youth and the maid- guis<
en had purchased from the porter at assis
the entrance door, tickets of admis- tive
sion to visit the tower, from which bette
a view is possible. The porter notic- and
ed nothing unusual in their demeanor tunit
The lovers placed five letters, one Tf
addressed to the police commissary wont
and the others to relatives, where the
they could be seen by visitors to the Acco
tower. child
Entering the clock gallery the desct
couple climbed up the stone balus- spor
trade. With hands clasped they whei
9
n/-v?c??/i thomsplvps for a moment, and wer(
then leaped downward into the mark- alley
et place, striking the flags close to the alias
historic fountain. ther
Ambulances were summoned, but self,
the surgeons declared both had died fled,
instantly. The letters found in the tense
tower show that the youth was Elie j^'as
Walkow and that his home was in ret i
this city. The girl has not been iden- In
tified. The letters, it is declared, Pe
stated that the young couple had been merg
driven to their death because of a hind
love affair. sir,"
? was
What Twelve Billions of Electric catal
Horsepower Means. jjow
~taug
One of the big electric light* and
P&P0
power associations has been gatherng
c
ing statistics on the amount of elec- .
fore.
trie power generated in the United
ques
States and it now states that the .
mak
combined annual electrical power outproc<
put of the 7,500 central generating
stations of the country aggregates
12,000,000,000 horsepower. .. ;
As it is difficult for the mind to ^ ?
ttrr%c-T\ tttV.o+ + Vi i e i ty-i m on ca mitnnt nf
biaoF ** l-A" O tUiO lUlfcUVUWV VUV^/UW WA.
power means an electrical engineer ^ ^
illustrates it by saying that it would t
take 5,000,000 of the largest size
railroad locomotives to exert this . .
whic
amount of power, and that it would ^
be sufficient to propel 342,857 of the j
largest size ocean steamships. These
exert
steamships if placed end to end would dran
reach twice around the earth.
the ]
In regard to the growth of the elec- ,
and,
trical industry the president of a ha(j
large electrical company recently .j.
said: "This growth has been so , .
. date
rapid that the Government has been ,, .
all t
unable to make a proper classification ^ ^
of electrical industry in the census cejj?
of manufacturing. No matter how
much electrification the railroads
ore
may have done, all of them are classed
as steam roads. The thousands of ,
benn
poles used to string wires are still
classed in the lumber industry. The ..
the
great copper companies, producing
practically exclusively for electrical
. , um]
industries, are still classed under cop- , .
ni(
per industries. blusl
This official estimates the total ^
business in electrical machinery in .
true
the United States in 1912, at $300,of
31
000,000 which seems to be conservaret
tive, when it is known that the cenng.
Riis df?r?artment reDorted the total
electrical machinery business of the
country in 1909 at $243,000,000.
A
Young America Logic. taje
"Dad," the youngster asked, "does deal
it cost much to keep a lion?" bad
"It does, my son." four
"A wolf would make a good meal old
for a lion, wouldn't it, dad?" ?^er
"Yes-" leas
"And a fox would be enough for g(
the wolf, wouldn't it, dad?" Q]
"I suppose so. Go on and play." tb
"A fox would be satisfied writh a Qnd
hawk and a sparrow would satisfy a
111 d LI
hawk, eh, dad?" ingi(
"H'm! If you don't go away?" ^rQn
"And the spider would make a wh
meal for a sparrow?'" j
"Yes, yes! Now?" baffl
"Wait a minute, dad. Now we're boai
coming to it. A spider would be sat- t
isfied with a fly, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, my son." new
"And a drop of molasses would be
enough for a fly, wouldn't it?"
"Well, supposing it would?" him
"Yes, that's just it, dad. Now,
what I want you to tell me is this: j3ea|
'Could a man keep a lion for a year an(j
with a quart of molasses?" T
And then, relates The Pathfinder,
the sound of a falling slipper awoke 0f t
the echoes of the stilly night. bacl
roui
Paper, envelopes, pen staff and pen
for 5c at Herald Book Store. E
A TRUE NATURE FAKE.
' Roosevelt Received a Fund of
[formation Regarding Ferrets.
le fact that a man of the name of
ison has been employed to rid
ard college of rats recalls a story
erning Theodore Roosevelt. The
ic words bringing up the memory
of course, "Johnson" (not Hi)
and "rats." This is the story:
i the days of the first consecutive
of coffee?that is, about 1912?
irizona newspaper man out of a
turned up in Washington. A
I morning paper gave him tentaemployment,
and as his first assent
sent him to interview the
ial White House ratcatcher, a diited
man constantly equipped with
its, terriers and other vermin
overs, and a6k him how he did it.
ratcatcher was soon found and
l difficulty gave up his informaIt
appeared that something was
ing. After the Arizona newspaper
had supplied that lack the melratcatcher
invited him to dis*
himself as his (the ratcatcher's
tant) and come up to the execumansion.
This looked like a
;r "story" than a bare interview,
the reporter embraced the cppor<y.
le cellar of the White House is a
lerful place, and from this basis
ratcatcher started his operations,
rding to the story, the Roosevelt
Iren soon got wind oHhe fun and
snded to the depths to join in the
t. Presently, and at a moment
1 the ratcatcher and the children
i scampering down some ancient
way to the assistant ratcatcher,
5 the Arizona newspaper man
e descended the president himThe
man of the pencil nearly
for he feared lest his false prej
be discovered. But Roosevelt
too eager, having espied a fern
the pretender's hand,
lmediately the naturalist was upmost
and the executive was subjed.
He wanted to know what
of an animal that was. "A ferret
was the reply. Indeed, a ferret
a new beast in the Rooseveltian
ogue. What might be its habits?
was it bred? What could it be
ht? And so on. At first the newsr
man hesitated; he knew noth)f
ferrets; had never seen one beBut
again came the impetuous
tions. Either he must confess 01
e good. Fearing confession, he
eeded to make good,
le Arizona newspaper man therei
described the natural history oi
ferret. He went into the ances)f
the ferret, tracing it from prosm
to finished beast. He told oi
amily traits, its instincts, its charristics,
acquired and inherited
created for the ferret a careei
h would have excited the envy oi
r animals in whose biographies
iterary imagination has not been
cised. While Mr. Roosevelt
k in this brand-new information
reporter dilated more and more,
going back to the days when it
paid him good money to write
nature fakes under an Arizona
line, he dilated some more still,
he while keeping a weather eye
or the return to* that part of the
ir of the real ratcatcher. Fortun;
the president had had enough bethe
proper owner of the ferrets
uAd; otherwise there might have
one Arizona newspaper man less
'ashington. At the conclusion oi
yarning Roosevelt stumped
ightfully back upstairs, no doubt
nating a book . on the ferret
;h would put the encyclopedia tc
2.
lere is no moral to this tale. It is
, and a glance at the writings
r. Roosevelt under the head "Fermieht
or might not be illuminat
?Boston Transcript.
Not a Sherlock Holmes.
police officer tells an interesting
of an old woman he once had tc
.with. A batch of bank-notes
been stolen, and the detective
id someone to tell him that the
woman in question, a notrious
ice," had one of the notes, al
t, at her house.
d implicitly did the detective reh
a his informer that he set aside
formality of a search warrant
proceeded to ''visit the old wo,'s
house, locked the door on the
ie, and rummaged the rooms
a cellar to roof. He is an officei
prides himself on his keen sceni
l search, but he was completely
.ed; add after tearing up some
*ds and knocking down some plasby
way of making a show of dosomething.
while he waited for z
idea, at last he gave it up.
urning to the woman and handing
back a candle which she had leni
to work with, he said:
Well, this time I confess I an
rri _ 1 1 if io r>i ntVl AT
.till. I t!Il US ? IICic 11 ID, niumvi
I'l get you off."
he promise was sufficient.
You've had it in your hands mosi
he time." she said, "and gave ii
t to me this minute. It's wrappec
id the candle.?Tit-Bits.
lead The Herald, $1.50 year.
Mother of Queens.
Although brewers were at
time held in little esteem, ther
a curious historical fact in con
tion with the trade that they
well be proud of. During the r
of Charles I a country girl cam
London in search of a situation
applied for the position of "tul
man," or carrier of beer, at a t
house. The brewer, struck by
good looks, married her. In a s
time he died, leaving her a large
tune. She gave up the brewery
for the proper settlement of her
band's affairs was recommendei
Mr. Hyde, rising young barri
whom she afterward married,
gentleman ultimately became
Earle of Clarendon and from his i
riage with her he had one da
ter who became the wife of Jann
and mother of Mary and Anne,
subsequently Queens of Englan
London Chronicle.
can gi1
i you ^
Sty^:
: SpirelL
(not sold in stores)
I will call at your home b
appointment, and give yo
any information on our coi
sets with no obligation o
i your part. Telephone (
send postcard to
MRS. A. A. ZEIGLER,
Ram berg, S. C.
| DOING THEIR OUT)
Scores of Bamberg Readers are L<
ing the Duty of the Kidneys.
To filter the blood is the kid]
duty.
When they fail to do this the
neys are weak.
Backache and other kidney ills
. follow;
Help the kidneys do their worl
Use Doan's Kidney Pills?the
, ed kidney remedy.
Bamberg people endorse
worth
Mrs. Julia B. Sandifer, Bamber
1 C., says: "I feel justified in re
' mending Doan's Kidney Pills and
; pleased to do so. I got them fron
i People's Drug Co. for dull, nag
. backaches and other symptoms of
ney complaint and they gave me
i relief, also removing other troi
, with my kidneys. You may use
endorsement of this remedy for
benefit of other kidney sufferers.'
For sale by all dealers, i-tic
1 cents. Foster-Milburn Co., Bu
! New York, sole agents for the U:
i States.
f Remember the name?Doan's[
take no other.
! (malaria'
s
m headache, biliousness, inI
digestion, rheumatism,
B pimples, blotches, yellow
V complexion, etc., are all
; m signs of poisons in youi
> I blood. These poisons
5 B should be driven out, oi
; m serious illness mav result
I To get rid of them, use
Bedford's"
Black-Draugh
the old, reliable, purely
vegetable, liver medicine
Mrs. J. H. Easier, oi
Spartanburg, S. C., says
" I had sick headache, foi
years. I felt bad most o:
the time, I tried Thed?
ford's Black-Draught, anc
now I feel better thar
when I was 16 years old.'
Your druggist sells it, ir
25 cent packages.
Charity covers a multitude of
that ought to be exposed.
jgpgjl?j|jg88gBgg^
one
111 THEY A
DWO- ^ ^
the 8 time, and the
ugh- || will please y
ull S stock. We a
both _
d? m tra nice Buggi
? II andeverythin
1 and see wha<
^ I JONES
rt ffl BAMB
kid-1 ^
may T/ie man who has ?
respect and confiden
k. thing called "Credit,
test- Xou cas establish thii
people have in you, />j
their JBAJVJi. X/ie banker
visor of every businei
S, S. grows to believe in yc
j0m" money away for youi
fvm SXot a btnk account sti
1 the
fginS Do YOUR I
kid- ?8
fine B ^ e Pav Per*
lbles I ed quarterly on
thai I Fai?tnai*c & A
I A CAJl 111V/A A '
e 50 I JBHRHJ
ffal0> WnnonnH
Qited ? ??
NOMINA!
? II .POPULAR
II hereby nominate or;
Jj A(
As a lady worthy to 1
Popular Voting Conte
the distinct understan
editor shall not divul|
obligate me in any wa
, Signed
Address...
^1??IOCS
. I ? A Safe C
E H ;."6": In the Banking business
W i?| ods, shrewd judgment
h ^ the fact that our deposi
r M ficient proof that our ci
0 ||| that this combination is
I 2^1 We shall be pleased U
H gg customers. We pay 4 p<
II PEOPLES BANK \
I Tower Surface Cultivators
II I have a car load for sale,
j The only successful Cultivaw
tnr for Cotton and Corn.
B One man and two mules
9 can plow ten acres cotton a
day. Will make it do the
wr work before payment. For
prices, etc., apply to
^ W. H. LIGHTSEY, Branson,S.1
RE HERE! 1
We have some as ||
lice Horses and ||
Vlules in our stables f ;
is have been shown || a
n Bamberg in some ?? 4|
prices and terms ?? ^
ou as well as the ||
Iso have some ex- p
es, Harness, Whips || jd
gin this line. Come || V
t we really have. ||
BROSj
ERG, S. C. ||
a bank account feels selfce.
There is a mysterious
" which is based on faith.
s credit and this faith, that
V having AIO^SEY IA7 THE
, who is the friend and adss
man in his community,
)u when he sees you putting
- future. If you have not *
art one AOW. s
tanking with US. I
it. interest compound- 8
savintrs devosits 8
Merchants Bank I
L RDT, S. C. I
[OOOOE==3N
1NG BLANK A*
VOTE CONTEST II
1913 II
suggest the name of if
idress Jf
become a candidate in your j '
st. I present this name with
ding and agreement that the
je my name. This does not
y whatever.
< H >
m ?r TT I mombination
||
is ample capital, careful methand
unfailing courtesy. Thus
ts are increasing rapidly is suf
ustomers realize ana appreciate
our method of doing business. jS|
> number you among our new J greg ?
;r cent, on Savings Deposits. ,
- - - - Bamberg, S. C. g|
ggBBBiagBijiaaw
;r
..
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