The weekly ledger. (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1894-1896, October 22, 1896, Image 3
THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C., OCTOBER 22, 1896.
3
1
QUAINT AND QUEER.
J3pmo Puro Philosophy from the
Baokwooda ,
Bafu* 8»n«1ers NTiti'n About the “Bullish
Iiitturnce” of l)lyth—The I.ayln on of
Hands and I’lV-tU lng Physic—
Th> niouty Question.
• -1
There was and slow walkin
jj^over nt old Pilgrim’S*Re«t church one
buried
*day Inst week.
A-.small vacan
cy had t>oe! ,r red
at the county
jK>orhotuse. and
now conso-
quentinlly a s
you ride along
the big road by
o 1 d Pilgrim’s
Kest you will
notice some
fresh dirt piled
up out there in
is where they
Steve Hasseltinc—
yrtir'i ‘ ,; ' r as anybody knows he was
/ tl7«> las<
L
the las* of his generation and died with
a bad case of the dropsy in the feet.
The man and the Occf.slon.
There was considerable singin and
cry in aid carry in on at the grave
yard that day, but I raley couldn’t ecc
how the people made it tit the ease. 1
don't see how anybody could feel sorry
jest simply because old man Steve was j
dead and gone. I wouldn’t be half way
) honest if 1 even sorter made out like I
was sorry when I heard the news.
People have to die and be buried—
somebody somewheres—every year and
| every day and every hour. And when
the news come that there would be
j singiu and slow walkin at Pilgrim’s
Best, and who it was for, I thought to
myself if there ever w as n time when
the man and the occasion met Steven
lllnssi Itine w as the mime of the man.
Now don’t you take a bad breakin out
|at the mouth and tell it around that
‘■flic gentleman from Kooky Creek
talked unre; pectful of the dead. lie
didn't do it. From the bottom of my
unhollowod fvet to the top of my
gly head, J respect the dead, liven
}ld man Steve Hasseltinc, I respoct-
r hira when he was dead—which that
fwas a whole lot more than I could say
—and more than anybody else could
say—whilst he tarried around and re
mained over amongst us in the flesh.
In life he didn’t respect himself, and
other people wi re most in generally of
the same opinion. In the natural stage
of life he nevi r w as known to do any
thing for the good of anybody. Put
when the last numnons come he died
for the good of his country and the
whole entire human race.
I use to s.:.met hues go over to the
poorhoim- imluring of the campaign,
whilst burning the woods and eiftin the
ashes for votes. And I never went
tber ■ but what 1 found old man Steve
Hasseltinc at home. His mother she
had died there alwut the time lie was
■ned into this vale of years and
.•, and ii was always home to him.
Jkuiy and many's the tune I have heard
the old man . ay he was sick end tired
of livin—that he was nobody and no
account to himself or any l>v.n crea
ture, and the odd home want what it use
to be nohow.
"I have been tdek and pore and help-
lr-n and a general drug on creation
from the cradle up, Hufe, and raley 1
can't see why I ever was horned into
this world,” says old man Steve to nv*
oncst upon a time. “1 ain’t only sick
ly, but. I am likewise also too Infernal
lazy to breathe free and easy, and as
you know 1 jest have got sense enough
to er.r.ie in the house when it mins. I
am like unto a knot on a log. I don’t
give a durn for nobody nml nobody
gives a darn for me. So what’s the use
of livin?”
Well, as for me, I didn’t git into any
red-hot aigyflcation with the old man
along that line. It looked to me like he
wa s nlxmt 'throe-thirds right, and I had
the nerve to tell him so. It ain’t for
in • to give the w herefores and the
wheneene. and it is none of my busi-
pess how it come to pass that old man
f*ve Hasseltinc was liorned and
rung up to !;■ such a tnemendlns big
lank in erralion. , I didn't make him,
jd you can', put the biorie on me. Ho
llln't ci -at ■ himself, and I raley don’t
how you could put the blame on
um. The good Lord don’t make any
uistakea, and l jlon’t sec how anybody
is to blame in regards to old man Steve.
Hut anyhow, if he was too jiore and
[too sickly, mid too lazy and tootrlflin
live—if. as he was wont to tell it, he
In’t give a durn for nobody and no-
dy didn’t give a durn for him in the
fsh—then what was the use of all that
lyin and singin and slow walkin
j*r nt Pilgrim’s Kest? If the poor old
ping was raley glad to die, it looks to
like <n her people mought ngree wit h
fcn -“rejoice with them that rejoice,"
leordin to w hat the Word says,
frhe last time I was in town Bill
Pnipkins told me that the latest crop
vs liad a powerful “bullish Influ-
fnee” on cotton. I didn’t know for
certain v. liat he war drivin at.tiU he told
me the news hail throwed the price up.
Mow I can fee how it is. Death had a
powerful “Ijullis-li influence” on old
man f’.teve Ilossidtinc. The last time I
saw him over at Pilgrim’s Rest that
day he wu. as mnart and as rich and as
igoo-.i a any dead man in all the round
Icreated u.,;l I.
But t<> my dyingdny I never w ill see
ptny iif <g :,ll tliut cry in and carryin
and slngiii and slow walkin when
licy laid the old man down to rest.
lidi
A rractlcliiK riiyntrlun.
|l ’l) to t!ii pre; ei:t wrltin I never have
[d nny j aitieulnr iisc for doctors,
[ey are n ott in generally mighty
fl i n, i i d./Ubtf, but remehow, I
t like tl ir i tun pics, But if it
|d(n 1 • i | , tbat 1 i iought
iwn ! icl< and ne<'<l a doet</r 1 do
[they Will 11 ml for old Dr. Stoud-
re. lie don’t claim to know
nhrful much about looks and
medicine, but ho hn« got great gobs of,
common sciifc, and what little lie don-1 (
know abernt yerbs and roots and peo
ple and things wouldn’t scarcely be
worth the trouble of learnin.
They worked up a tremendius bail
rase over in the hill country the other
day, and if it hadn’t been for that good
old doctor I reckon there would of
been some more singin and slow walkni
in the settlement before now.
Josh Galloway was a mighty sick
man about that time from what they
tell ma. He had so many different
things the matter with him in general,
and yet nothin in particular, till no
body couldn’t, say for certain what it
was. But nt any rates, lie was sick,
and his folks all thought he was sick
unto death. He was mopin and droopin
around tcllln everybody that the dew
damps of death was on him, and he
w as bound to go. He got worse and
worse, till Anally at last ho. went to
bed arid sent for all the family kinnery
to come and tell him gcxxl-by, and
look upon his face for the last time in
tliks life.
Now, in the main time the Galloways
have, nil got. a strange and pecurious
kind of religion to me. Thej'don’t be
lieve in doctors, and medicine if they
can help its When Josh got. to his
worst they took and bought some sweet
oil and “nointod” him, as they call it.
Then they sent out and called In the*
ciders to lay their hands on him. Hut
with all of that Josh he got worse and
worse till by gracious it looked like, die
lie would. So at hurt they sent for old
Dr. Stoudenmire. Josh told the
folks they needn’t to send. It
was nil vanity and vexation of spirit.
His time had come, lie was bound to
die. Hut they sent tinbeknowanco to
him.
And when the old doctor got there
the women and the elders was crowded
around the bed “nointin” Josh with
sweet oil and layin on the hands. Tie'
old doctcr be politely |x>kc<l off and
took bis seat on the back porch and.
lit his plj>\ and then took life easy
for about two hours. And by and by.
the folks wanted to know what he
was gor' to do for poor Josh.
“Not. a dndblnme thing,” says he,
“till the women and the eld'-rs takeout
and quit. Wlien they quit, layin on of
the hands I w ill then go to pme.t.icin.”
CAMERA TELLS TRUTH.
Country Photograph Gallory M irks
Christian Civilization.
Arp Finds Food for Thoufrht—Bnrtow’s
Fhllottophrr DIsoukrcs Huinnn Nature
as It Appears In Rural i’icture
Taker's Home.
I
From tho daws o? Death.
By this time, you will undcrwtaj'.d, it
looked like every breath would lie- the
last one for Josh. But finally at. last
the women nml the elders give up the
case and went oui, and the doctor he
went in to practice.
“What’s the matter with you. Josh?”
nays, the doctor.
“I am dyhi, doctor, dyin.” mys Josh.
“Hanged if 1 don’t believe yen me,"
sayn the doctor, “though I can’t find
nothin portiekir the matter with you.
But if you will die, Josh, dadblame it,
straighten out them long legs and die
like u man. 1 wouldn’t, die all curled
up there like a wet and hungry dog.”
Well, Josh he straightened out, he
did, so a« to die decent, but you*could
sec he didn’t love for the doctor to talk
m> infernal plain ami rough around his
dcnthlicd. But 11 so doctor went on:
* “There, now. That looks a little
more like n white man tixin to die.
Now, see here. Josh, if nothin else will
do you I reckon you will have, to die,
ami the next thing is to take your
proper measure no wo can make the
black box to lit the man.”
And w ith Hint t he old doctor went out
and cut him a long stick to take the
measure with. Then he came, back and
measured Jusli all around and all owr.
Presently ho put one end of the stick
under the dyin man’s nooa jx> ta* to
take his measure from that pint to his
toes. Then all of n rndden't like he
jab led Josh under t lie nose with that
stick as hard as he could drive-it.
Well, man, sir, from whtut they tell
me, Jcch Galloway riz up from there,
he ilk!. And w hen lie riz ho riz iightin
mad a.-.jd it cm sin. Sick and weak as he
was, it took I’.iree or four women and
elders to l.oui him off of Hie old doc
tor. And then, bltxs grneiouR, b}’ the
time they could git him back cn the
bed lie had give out the notion of dyin
ami forgot a!i he luul ever hctml about
deatii an<l the grave.
The old doctor then told the wean on
folks to give Josh a. good, healthy dost
of calomel that, night, and follow it
next morn hi with j.lenity of < alts and
simkeroot t.va. It was right after sup-
]X'r time tiiat. night when, the old doc
tor rid I y oor house c.n his return Lack
from the kill eou.nl.ry to tell me the
general diffnenoe Isetv. cen the layin on
of hands and prnetiein.
.losli Gallow ay is now so as to be up
and about and from ail appeal incuts 1
reckon It will be a long time before
they will have to do any singin and
slow walkin for him.
And that’s what makes me say what I
do. If it. ever conies to pans that I
mought lx* took down rale bad sick
give me a doctor that knows the differ
ence between the layin on of hands and
praetiein. Rend for old Dr. Rtoudcn-
mire.
Blissful Ignorance.
Now nsfviriucnnd mine,we don't know
a blame blessed thing about the great
quest ion of free silver. And what dif
ference does it make—whether they
turn out gold or silver or paper—to the
man that, ain’t got no money and no
prospects to speak of.
Orly the other day I heard Andrew
Lucas and one of Hie Milligan boys bav
in the dsdblamdest most furious dispu
tation In regards to goSl and silver,
when both of them put together would
lack about four bits of bavin enough
money to j ay spot cash for two square
meals. They made me think of the old
story w herein tho two eats fel! out and
fit about the cheese whilst the men key
climbed up around the whole chunk.
Blamed if ( don’t sometime." v.i c h tho
politic Inna had to take the everlnstln
money quo' Hon and fight it out in that
foreign country where they don’t have
• o wear overcoats nor shovel ary snow
to rpenk of.
UUFUS SANDERS.
The photograph gallery in a country
town is one of the most pleasing marks
of Christian civilization and the ad
vancement of modern science. I paes
by one every day and it is gratifying to
sec its patrons awaiting their turn or
coining out with smiling faces and all
arrayed in their best apparel. It is a
family discussion before they come
what dress to wear, what ornaments,
and how the hair sliall be arranged, or
whether to sit or stand, whether a side
view or n front or whether the baby
shall be taken alone or w ith its mother.
%
All classes are on an equality before t he
camera, for the sunlight of nature has
no favorites. So far as faces and
features are concerned, the camera tells
the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth. This morning as I passed
I saw a countryman sitting on the
stcjps with a child in his arms. His wife
and little girl were inside awaiting
their turn. I used to know him before
he was .married, and so I stopped and
and gavehim my hand. His foilks wore
pool*, honest.and industrious, and I have
great respect for all smih. The women
do the housework and have the care of
the children. The men cultivate their
little farms, work the roads, sit on tho
the juries, nurse their sick neighbors,
bur} - the dead, go fishing on Saturdays
and take the family to meeting on Sun
days. They are generally populists,
not because of any jxditieal principles
involved, but because of affiliation and
association. Most of their kind are
jxipulists and therefore clannish. They
stick together because they arc either
jxior or less than rich. Their fathers
fought in the late war, and these will
tigiit lathe next one if it comes in their
days. It may be n. rich man’s war, but it
will be a poor man’s light.
“Are you going to have the baby’s
picture taken?” “No; not this one,”
said be. “I want my w ife's and our lit
tle girl's. They are in there. 1 thought
I would like to have them about the
bouse, for life is uncertain, you know.
Jim Moore’s wife died last year and Jim
mys he would give the world for her
picture, ami Jack Hrown lost bis little
girl in June. She was a mighty party
little thing, but Jack haiu't got no
picture and so I concluded to have some
taken for fear of aeeidejtfs.”
“That is all right,” said I, “but sup
pose you die; wouldn't your wife like
to have one of you?”
“I reckon she would. She mentioned
that, but pictures don’t become a
rough man like mo, and besides, it
would cost more money than I have got
to spare. The winter is coinin’ on and
w e all have to have shoes and stockings
and the like, and my cotton c rop was
powerful short, but I will have mine
taken sometime. I reckon nil your
folks have got ’em, haven’t they?”
Ixive for wife and Children is the best
virtue of human kind, and poor folks
have as much of it as rich ones. Yes.
more. Many of them haven’t anything
else to divide their affections. It i« a
pleasingthingto see them at the picture
gallery and to witness their pride 1 when
the work is done and the faces of t heir
loved ones are before them on enameled
cards, fresh and clean from the artist's
hand. What a wonderful art it is. I
remember well when the. first daguer
reotype was taken in our town. It was
only 40 yearn ago, and when our first
little girl was four years old we bed her
picture taken. She was a little beauty
then and I thought the picture was tin-
sweetest gem on earth. We have it now
in its ohl-flnehioned case. That Jittl- 1
girl hs long since a mother and has jiie-
tures of her own little girls, and they
are much finer in their finish, but I
prize the first one most. It carries me
back in memory to the clays of my
K\veete.m s fondeRt,prom let.parental love.
I idolize that child and ! love her dearly
yc.t, but. she left us for a young man she
was no kin to in t he world, and who had
never done anything for her but to give
her a ring and books of poetry and a
little French candy now and then. We
had to give her up to him, and as Tom
Hood said:
“ fiho took our daylight with her
And tho Joys that we love host.
With morning light upon her brow
And pearls upon her breast.”
Daguerre was a benefactor to the
emotional side of our nature. He was a
French artist-—u painter of jx'.nonnnns
of cities like London and Paris and
Naples. He used the'"rays of the riiji
through colored glass to heighten the
effect, of his paintings, and kept on ex
perimenting with sunlight until in 18.19
he caught it on the king and made It
utiek to metallic j.Oates and reflect the
images thrown upon them. His suc
cess was jxirtly accidental, partly de
sign, and lie himself was astonished nt
his discovery. In 1840 Am go made the
rnnouncument to the Academy of Sci
ence and Daguerre was made an officer
in the Legion of Honor and voted a
pension of 0,000 francs a year. lie died
in 1851 and a monument was erected to
him in Paris.
But like nil inventions, Daguerre’s
wuh crude and imperfect. Photog
raphy has grown out of it. and seems
now to be. tlie perfection of ait. II is
used in making Hie exact likeness of
nil the great works of art end nature
and bringing them within reach of the
millions who have never seen and never
will sou the originals. All the nonu-
t’-ents, pyramids, churches, cathedrals,
bridges, mountains and waterfalls—nil
the grand old paintings of Raphael and
RcmbnumH, all the sculpture of the old
masters and oven the aspects of the
moon ami eclipses of the run and the
reproduction of th»» ancient manu
scripts of the Old and New Testaments.
Tine lightning itself cajinot. more in-
KtOTitJy speed its woy than photography
now catches a bird oh Him wing or u
rue© borne on th© turf or a meteor la
tho heavens. Just so it was with tho
locomotive, the spinning jenny, the
tewing machine, the telegraph and tel
ephone. All wot© improved from time
to time by tho cunning of Hie human
brain and human hand until they
now »eein to be perfect, but they are
not.
On the manHe near me I see a cab
inet photograph of a well preserved old
nan who has a sweet little black-eyed
grandchild on his arm, while her head
rests trustingly upon his shoulder
and touches his venerable cheek. She
looks shyly and timidly at you, but
clings to the old man as tho tender
vine clings to the old oak that the
storm has riven. The old man’s face
is calm and serene, I like those pictures
for the. children’s sake, and I wish I w as
so coupled with every little grandchild
ami that my wife had some to match
them. I was ruminating that when. I
am dead and gone and that little girl
is a mother, maybe she will show the
picture to her child and say: “I never
knew my father, for he died when I
was very young, but that oltl man was
my grandfather, and he was good to me
and I loved him very dearly.” Maybe
when I am in the spirit land I will some
times be. near her and hear her talk
that way—maybe so; who knows?
Flowers and music are the sweetest
gifts *of God to mankind, ami pictures
and painting the sweetest that come
from the hand of man.
But of nil the. cameras that catch and
hold fast the images of art or nature
tihere are men of scieno? who assert
that none are equal to the retina of
Hie human eye. They say that every
look or glnrce or vision makes an im
press. There, an imjiress so delicate
and impalpable that millions may lie
upon its glossy surface and the last
thing seen is on top. They say that if
a man is murdered while he faces the
murderer the assailant’s face and
form will be found upon the victim's
eyes. Rome experiments have Been
made to prove this, but they were im-
jierfect and unsatisfactory. Maybe it
will yet lie proven.—Bill Arp, in At
lanta Constitution.
RINGS, RUM AND RASCALS
Sam Jmos Entaro a Frotaot
Against Thoir Mb rule.
THE PALACE AT CHANDU.
A HU from Marco Polo That Inspired a
Famous Poem.
And when you have ridden three
days from the city last mentioned, be
tween northeast and north, j’ou come to
a city called Chanda, which was built
by the knan now reigning. There is at
this place a very fine marble palace, the
rooms of which are all gilt and painted
with figures of men and beasts and
birds, and with a variety of trees and
flow ers, all executed with such exquis
ite art that you regard them with de
light and astonishment.
Round this palace a wall is built in
closing a compass of 1C miles, and in
side the park there are fountains and
rivers and brooks, and beautiful mead
ows. with all kinds of wild animals (ex-
cludingsuch as are of feroeiousnature),
which the emperor has procured and
placed there to supply food for his ger
falcons and hawks, which he keeps
here in mew. Of these there arc
more t han 200 gerfalcons alone without
reckoning the other hawks. The kaan
himself goes every week to r.ce his
birds sitting in mew, and sometimes he
rides through the park with a leopard
behind him on his horse's erouji; and
then if he sers any animal that takes
his fancy, lie slips his leopard nt it, and
the game when taken is made over to
feed the hawks in mew. This he does
for diversion.
Moreover, at a spot in the park where
there is a charming wood, he has an
other palace built of eano, of which I
must give you a description. It is gilt
all over and most elaborately finished
inside. It is stayed on gilt and lacquered
columns, on each side of which is a
dragon all gilt, the tail of which is at
tached to the column whilst tho head
Rujiports the architrave, and the claws
likewise are stretched out right and
left, to support, the architrave. The roof
like the rest, is formed of canes, cov
ered with a varnish so strong and ex
cellent that no amount of rain will rot
them. These canes are a good three
palms in girth, and from 10 to 15 paces
in length. They are cut across at each
knot, and then the pieces are split so
as to form from each two hollow tiles,
and with these the liouse is roofed; only
e»nry such tile of cane lias to be nailed
clown to prevent the wind from lifting
it. In short, the whole palace is built
of those canes, which serve also for a
grant variety of other useful purposes.
The construction of the palace is so do-
viecd that it. can be taken clown and
put up with great celerity, and it can all
be taken to pieces and removed whither-
sovor Hie enijieror may command.
When erected it is braced against mis-
bafifl from the wind by more than 200
cords of ailk.—Noah Brooks, in St.
Nicholas.
Too Economical.
There arc worse things than having
one’s feelings hurt, according to Uncle
L’omp, an old darky who has lived in a
New England household for nearly 40
years.
“Young Mr. Willums am all bery
well,” remarked Uncle Romp one day,
to a friend of the family, “but Ik: don’t
compare wid old Mr. Willums, sah;
don’t compare wid him.”
“Why, it is strange you should feel
that way,” said the visitor. “Young
Mr. Hilliams seems to me much more
careful of you in every way than his
father.”
“He am careful ob me, soh,” respond
ed Uncle Pomp, “he am careful, dat's
a fac; but when old Mr. iVillums he for
gets hisself and treats me like I was a
slave, he’s mighty sorry afterward,
sah, and obery time he gibs me n quar
ter. 1’se getting to be a old man, sab,
and close quarters come in mighty
handy. I can’t afford to hab folks so
mighty careful ob my feelings as young
Mr. Willums, sah, and dat's the tmff!”
—Youth's Companion.
Bilge, the conductor of the popular
concerto at Berlin, has just celebrated
.his 80th birthday.
Power of Combines Among Professional
Politicians—A State at the Mercy of
a Wholesale I.bjnor Dealer—
Down the Three It's.
The United States boasts of a popu
lation of 60,000,000 or mere of people.
These 60,000,000 of people are made up
from grangers, manufacturers, dealers
in commerce, railroad men, miners.pro-
fcfisional men, millionaires, troonjis
and politicians. The varied industries
and callings engage the hearts and
hands and time of u large majority of
the people of our country, and when
working hours are over they are too
tired to meddle with other things. We
may say wliat we please of combines
ami trusts, of millionaires and monopo
lies. This country is suffering not so
much ut their hands as it is suffering at
the hands of political “rings” ami at
the hands of political “rascals.” The
tendency of the parties and partisans
is towards “rings” and rings break for
rum, and rum turns out rascals. If I
were asked which is the purest party
in America I would unhesitatingly say,
the youngest party is the best. 'Hie in
nocence of youth is a thousand times
more preferable than the fully de
veloped depravity and meanness of old
age in parties.
Rings and clicks and combinations in
polities arc made and run in the inter
ests of rascally combines. The saloons
furnish the money, the rascals the
brains and the people the votes. “Any
thing to beat Grant.” Anything to beat
the fellow that don’t belong to the
ring. Lying is Incoming a fine art. The
rings v. ill lie on the angels, they will
lie about the dead. If it was profitable
for them they would lie about the un
born generations. Their lies are always
in their own interests, and thoroughly
against the fellow that lias the impu
dence to offer for a position which the
“rings” want. We have rings in poli
ties, and rings in the church, and in
the social life, rings in commerce, and
rings in the manufacturing industries.
Rings everywhere, from the ring
around the moon to the ring around a
pissmire’s Ixxly. When 100 astute un
scrupulous politicians in any stateshaH
combine their forces and facilities,
they became almost invincible. They
make their slates, parcel out jobs, and
give their ward-heelers and bar-roan;
bums to understand there is meat and
bread in it for him,from Boss Tweed, of
New York, to , of Ran Francisco.
Every state has its- political boss, its
ward-heelers «nd its pap-suekers. From
Maine to California every state has both
its democratic and republican rascals
and rings. It has become a close cor
poration, dishing out the patronage
with a distinct understanding that to
the victor belongs the spoils, as un-
e cm pious as the devil and ns unsati-
able as n hyena. They push their busi
ness, for polities is abusinerr, with that
“gang.” And if you want to hear them
howl, just throw a bomb in their camp.
Let an honest man protest, let the oj;-
position party call for a change in nil-
ministration and you will bear the
welkin ring. These rings are largely
composed of one-horse lawyers, red-
nose editors and ward-heelers. No
first-class men care to enter the
scramble for office. The odds are
against them. Every county and dis
trict ring of organized politicians is
against, him. Every saloon and bum
is against him. The odds are nil
against him, and it. is only when public
sentiment is aroused from its lethargy,
and decent men do grow sick and tired
of the way things go, that you can
effectively and permanently bury the
gong, that has bad charge of things so
long. Boss Tweed has his day, had
his day. David B. Hill, Bon Tillman.
Gov. Altgeld, Gov. Waite have had their
day. The sun of thoir day is setting.
Th© masses of the people are discour
aged. They rise up oceasioimlly and
put down three rings, but the reform
party soon Ixx-omes ns corrupt as the
party it displaced. Ben Tillman’s gang
in South Carolina are no lletter, and
not nearly so brainy, as the crowd they
displaced .a few years ago. Kansas is
also suffering at t he. same point. Colo
rado seems to be convalescent. The
worst, rings we have to deal with are
the rings within rings. The state and
municijial rings combine, and play into
each other’s hands. Then we have the
worst form of jxdities. When the gov
ernor, mayor and police commissioner
and aldermen combine, they can beat
four aces in a draw game of poker.
The only hope of the country is to
keep the courts absolutely disconnected
with the politics of the state. When
ever tho gang can pull the courts In
with thetm, linen roblierv and pillage is
complete. I know states where one
wlnolcsaJe liquor dimler speaks and it
is done, he coinniuiuls and it stands
fast. God save the country or the
state that is at the mercy of the greed
and whims of a wholesale liquor dealer.
God pity the miserable, cowardly in
famous set of legislators that will listen
\6 his commands and conform legisla
tion to his wishes. Wlien the day shall
come in this country when all office
holders shall listen to the pure women,
and their chief aim shall be to protect
innocent children, then we slmll have
inverted th© present order of tilings
and. saved our country from the ruin
which threatens it. The saloon keeper
and live wholesale liquor dealer ought
to have no more to say in legislative
assemblies, and tlie municipal balls of
our country, Ilian a liog should have to
say about the furnishing of a gentle-
mnn’s parlor.
Everj' saloon keeper and liquor dealer
is the enemy of mankind, and his busi
ness will wreck and ruin any home that
comes in contact with it. No man who
drinks liquor is fit to legislate for a
dog kennel. Lot sober men and docent
men fill our offices and ennet our laws,
then prosperity will come again; for
God lias said it, when tine wicked rule
the people shall mourn. This buying
of votes and selling of votes, the frauds
in legislation, this ballot-box Bluffing
wBl as certainly bring revolution as 1
that disease brings death end death!
produces putrefaction. A good man
dreads to sjienk. He hesitates to inter
fere with tl»e order of things. He.
knows that every little party editor 1
und dirty sheet, called a newspaper, in
tli© state will heap their abuse upon!
him, and licrfd him u]> to ridicule and;
ronritumely. A man dreads to fight
them as he dreads to fight a : kunk,
not that the dkunk will hurt him, buti
that the skunk will make him stink. '
These things ought not so to be. Tbei
good citizens of this country had bet-!
ter take n day off row and then in the:
interest of good government and pure!
officials. It would be n day well j>ut!
in, for, after ail, the legislators make’
the laws and the officials enforce the'
Jaws, and it is the law at laxt that
gives u© protection to life and liberty
and property. I would repeat what l
have raid before, that no law on any
statute book in the world is any better,
practically, than the gang enforcing it.
Pcrmnal integrity, personal purity,
sobriety and uprightness ought to be
the only grounds for any man's candi
dacy, and the only Ixisis for bis elec
tion to office. The man who gambles
or drinks liquor, or traffics cr trad'.'s
in office, ouglvt not. to be allowed to
sit. in any legislature, or to sit on any
judicial bench, or to occupy any office
in the state. When you down the ios-
cals you down the rings, and when you
down the rings you down the rum.
And if you can down these three
R’s, protection of life, liberty and prep-
erty will be guaranteed until these
three R’s get on top again.
SAM P. JONES.
A QUEER MANIA.
How a Sicilian Monomaniac Diverted
Himself.
The Sicilian prince of Yalguanera at
the beginning of this century was a
monomaniac of rare description. lie
succeeded to one of the hugest fortunes
in Europe, his habits were studious ami
economical, he had no children; but, in
spite of these advantages for saving
money, he contrived to ruin himself.
The prince had a fancy for grotesque
statues, with which he adorned the
stately mansions of his forefathers.
Many descriptions of the place are ex
tant, for it was renowned through Eu
rope in its day. Brydone visited it, and
he has left, us a pleasant picture. Ap
proaching by a noble avenue, one found
the palace encircled by an “army” of
monsters. “The absurdity of the
wretched imaginat’cn which created
them is not less astonishing than its
wonderful fertility,” says Brydone.
“Rome were a compound of five or six
animals which had no rrxi mblancc in
nature. In one instance the head of a
lion was set upon the neck of a goose
with the body of a lizard, the eye of a
goat and the tail of a fox. Upon tho
back of this object stood another with
five or six beads and a grove of horns.
There is no kind of a horn in the world
that he lias not collected, and his pleas
ure is to sec them all flourishing on Hie
same skull.”
Of such horrors there wore GL0 in the
avenue and the courtyard alone when
Brydone saw the collect'on. and the
prince maintained a regiment of seuiji-
tors, who were rovnrdi d projiortlon-
r tely 16 their success in designing new
and unparalleled combinations.
The effect unen a superstitious peas
antry may be imagined. Ro serious was
tlie agitation that the goveinment, o{
Sicily threatened to demolish the won
drous array several times, but a prince
of Yalguanera was not to be offended in
those days without Hie gravest cause.
The inside of the liouse }vas eccentric
in another fashion. Here the madman
diverted himself with columns and
arches and pyramids of eujis and
rancors, teapots and the like cemented
together. One column, for instance,
started from a. great j>oreelain vns<* of
shajie familiar in bedrooms, but not
elsewhere; the shaft was trnjxits, with
the spouts protruding, graduated in
size up to a capital of flower jiots. The
opening of windows was incrusted in
this manner, the chimney jneees were
loaded up to the ceiling and the mag
nificent rooms of tho palace were di
vided by fantastic arches of the same
construction. China was rare and fine
in Sicily at that day, and most of the
pieces thus treated bad great value.
The prince’s bedroom was n chamber of
supreme horrors. Reptiles, awful be
yond conception, bad their homes there,
intermixed with pleasing busts and
statues which, if turned, showed a
skeleton, or a hideous representation
of decrepitude. IVc have never observed
an allusion to these things in a modern
work of travel. Perhaps the govern
ment destroyed them at t.he prince’s
death, beggared by his mania.—London
Standard.
Cautions Prophet.
In these days, when jieojile are wont
to complain of any mistake made in
the prognostications eent out from the
weather bureau, it is amusing to read
of tlie complaisant manner in which
Clough, in his “New England Alma
nack” for the year 1702 and later, pre
dicted the weather.
"Perhaps,” he says, from the 15th to
the 23d of January, “it will lx* very Cold
Weather if it frose by the fire-side or on
the Sunny side of a Fence at noon.”
In April he says: “Perhaps wet
weather if it Rains.” “Now fair weath
er if the Sun shines.” “Windy or calm.”
And in July he writes pleasantly: “If
now' the Weather do jirove fair, People
to Cambridge do repair.”
It apjiears that Mr. Samuel Clough
knew' how to secure himself against
criticism.—Youth’s Com|>anion.
rieaaaut Mldnleht VUltor.
Mayor Murphy, of Tempe, Ariz., was
awakened by a rattle one night recently,
and not knowing of nny arrival who
would be shaking one in the small hours,
-he got up to investigate, and bad to kill
a rattlesnake which was on the front
piazza before going back to sleep.
i