Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C., SEPTEMBER !?4, 1896 3 SHED TEARS NOW. Thoro la Sicl aoas and Sufferin • Down on Rocky Crook. Some Down with the Fever, Some with the ‘•Mullygrube" and a General “Mcs,- ment of Snnimer Complalnta’’— Talk of Ulood and War. Raley, I do not know for certain and would ruther not try to soy what is the niatterorwhero the trouble comes from— whetheritisthe great question of free silver or the scandlous hot weather —■ but anyhow, everything put together makes it look trcmcn- dius foggy up the creek to me. runs down stream and ain’t gone nowheres, you under stand, but when 1 go out amongst the people in the settlement blamed if it don’t look to me like ail things are cumin wrong side out and tail end forc- inost. Rocky Creek still "Mortal Man and Female Woman." There is sickness and sorrow in the land this fall. Of course I recollect w hat the Word says—mortal man, born of female woman, is of few days and no teeth and full of various and sundry troubles. So long ns a man remains over and tarries around in this valley of dry Ixmes be. mought as well to look lor bis share of trials and temptations and troubles and tribulations. But to the common run of men and settlements trouble most in generally always comes in little drop's and driblets, whilst in- durin of the present fall season of the year and to the long-sufferin people around Rocky Cr?ek it has come in great ehunks and gobs and sluices. 10 very body is “down in the mouth,” as old Miss Sukey Sellers use to say. Some arc sick with one thing and some with another. Some have got the chills and fever, some have got the plain slow fever, whilst some have got the mully grubs, with a general mixtry and messment of summer complaints. My doctrine is that if a man will pay his debts, put his trust in the good Ixird, keep his liver movin and lie hon est and virtuous, he is bound to be happy. Rut right here lately 1 have found out that the general circum ference of the surroundins has got a whole lot to do with a man’s feelins. The general calamity is catchin, and if 1 want to feel bad and look bad, all 1 have to do is to git out and stir round some amongst the sorrowful and the sick. I use to think to pour some sperits dow n was alxmt the best and onlycst way to keep my droopin sperits up. Rut in this present case I have now learnt that salts and snakeroot tea is the mainest thing, and I have come to that pass w here I need a big dost every time 1 start out to visit around amongst the people. roarin big fire—which you understand the weather was swelterin hot right then and I didn’t need any tire. !*ut b^ this time I could see that be w as foam- in mad and I lowed it mought be a good time of year for me to lay low and say nothin, lie next went down into his clothes chist and go* out his bullet molds and three new bars of lead, and went to moldin bullets. As to me I soon bad to go out and look for a; shady place on the back porch—which you understand I want nobody’s part ner In the bullet business. But the fire hit roared and the bullet molds they rattled. Old man Pleas got so worked up and hot till by gatlins be wassweat- In like a free nigger on election day, whilst I could hear him talkin and goin on with himself at a high and scan- dlous rate: “Let the rumblin go on and let the war come. “There is plenty of lead in tow n, and my old army musket she ain't gone no wheres. “Wc w ill fight ’em, dudbl.ane ’em, till the cows come home and the evenin stars sing logethcr. “They call me old man Pleas Warner now, but I fit plum through one war ar.d fcot m\ horse drownded in the Ten nessee river, and dadblame ’em, l will pick mv flints and trv ’em another bar rel.” When the sun went dow n the very na tive air was thick and hot. But in the main time I had throwed two buckets of water on the lire and got the old man in a notion to go dow n to the spring and cool oft. Now you mought maybe think old man Pleas Warner is crazy, and to be plum honest I don’t raley think he knows anything for certain right now. But he don’t have to do all the war talk for the settlement, and if he is crazy lie can find lots of company around Rocky Creek. There are plenty of peo ple in this pleasant skirt of woods talk in about blood and war and the like of that. They haven’t got it quite as bad ns old man Pleas yet—which I believe he is the onlycst one that's started to mouldin bullets—.but they have heard so much infernal fool talk about poli tics and free silver till they have come to the conclusion that, somethin ter rible is hound to drap. It will take a whole pnssle of salts and snakeroot, and maybe a dost of calo mel here and there, and then about three good frosts to bring this country around on her feet ouct more. But it will come. We must live in hopes if we die in the ernzv Siloam. BILL ARP RUMINATES. Turns to tho Glories of Nature and Dossortatos Upon Thom. He Is n Real Pantheist — Investigate* the Workings of Hectics anti Ends with Rabbits and Literature. " " Rumblings of War.'’ Sickness and sorrow and the thoughts of free silver has got old man Plead Warner mighty had rattled in u gen eral way, hut partielar in regards to the next war. Some of these gay and giddy people—like Andy Lucas and little Bunk Weatherford—are now wont to laugh at old man Pleas and poke fun at liis troubles. But to me it is one of the most saddest eases in the re corded history of Rocky Creek. About this time last year old man Pleas lost his wife—which they had walked hand in hand together through all these many years. Then along in the Christmas his son Tony stole a breech-loadin shotgun from one of the Watson hoys over in the hill country, and consequently had to move his wash- in somew heres way out west unhe- knowancc to the old man. And finally at last his onlycst daughter — which they called her Sweetie, and if she hail any right and proper name I never heard it—she packed up a little wallet of duds on" bright and beautiful spring clay and lit out and run away with a lightnin rod peddler. About that time old man Pleas was took dow n with a furious had ease of hreakhonc fever, which belt him to the bed for three long and weary weeks. It was a long time*, that the neighbors didn’t think lie would ever come across, hut lie did. Well, right an top of that polities warmed up fast and furious, nnel everybody went to talkin free sil ver so rccklewe and promiseus like, till by gracious they got old man Pleas so had rattled till he is now about ready to put on his weapons and go to war. Be aintsiok and he aint crazy so far as any- lioely knows, hut he is sufferin from some tremendius fool notions concern in fre.'e silver and the next war. He In Ready, “ Dudblamo’Em.” “Hits a eoinin, Rufe, and you mought as well to he ready and waitin when you bear the drum beat," says edd man Pleas the other day when I had riel around by there to w*e what I could see. “Don’t the Word sn}’ there will Is* wars and rumblin of wars till the evenin of tho last day?” he went on talkin loud one! waivin his hands and gesturin and goin on like a man out. of his head. “Of course the Word says that, Rufe, and you know it. You can hear the rum blin now. There is sickness mid sorrow and death and ruination in the land. There is hard times mid rorr) - crops and skeeree money everywhere. Five silver is what we want, Rufe, and fre*e silver wo will have to fight for. t “And as for me, Rufe, elfldhhiine ’em, I am ready and waitin. Let the.rumblin of war go on, and let the* war come. When they call for men and guns Pleas Warner will hVtheje with his old army ^musket, and dadblame ’em he will pick his (lints and try ’em cnc more karrtl low.” ,w Mh that the old man went out jppeel some wood and built on a "Pure Meanness mul 1‘lzonKtlnclness." The onlye-t plain and reglar spell of crazy that has come to pass hen* lately was Jude Collins, which Jude he lives dow n in the old Pant her Creek country, and politics and free silver didn’t have anything to do with the case. “From what they tell me, Rufe, and from all the general appearmeii'ts, I think it was pure meanness and pizen stinginess that, made Jude’s lieodgear- ins jump a cog,” said Ben Chris Weaver In givin out the mainest facts tome. “Of course you arc hound to recollect the. Collinses, w hich lived over there on tfiie. ridge and on yonder side of w hat wc use to call Rtinkin branch. Well, after the old folks died /o1T Jude ho turned out to he the mainest man in the family for business. The. other hoys was all wild and wayward, harum- scarum youngsters, hut Jude he was reglar and steady ns a rale old man be fore he got good grow n. I f the rest, of the family made a li \ in Jude w as dead shot to make some money, and if there was anything in the way of money— from shin plasters to free silver—floatin around the Collins place it was more than probable to land in Jude’s flank pockets. “Whereas naturally of course in the run of time it come to pass that the old Collins place belonged to Jude, and the other hoys didn’t have a blame thing to do but to pack up a few old clothes and move. Then I reckon it was somethin better than a year ago— some time in the fall of the year, at any rates—when a stranger from the city come bruisin around through the set tlement and took up a notion all of a suddent that he would love to own the old Collins place. The stranger had plenty of money on him—which as everybody knows, Jude loves that stuff better than a town hog loves slops—and it didn’t take him long to make a deal and close, up the trade, lie paid Jude $000 smooth and even for the whole entire place. “Well, Jude jiever did git married- lie was too rotten mean and stingy for that—and, consequently, lie didn’t have no big store accounts npd feed hills to pay off. With what money he had saved up and what the old place brung In he had a gracious plenty to make any one man feel easy in re gards to this world's goods. “But duriu the winter the stranger which had bought the old place sold out to a big company for $3,000, and all on account of that big spring up there at the heod of Rtinkin branch. You re member that big spring, Rufe, and you are hound to recollect how had it smelt. We use to think somebody must of broke a hamper basket full of spiled eggs Into it about the first settlement of the country. Now, bless goodness, they say that, water is out of sight fftr sick and sufferin humanity. They say it Is chock full of soda and alum and iron and sulphur, and the Lord knows what not. And they are now huildin u fine hotel over there and boomin the old Collins place as the best place in the world for the sick and the sufferin to go and drink that water—which the old ipring runs s free and smells as had as ever—and git well. “And that’s what’s the matter with Jude Collins, Rufe. Not that he needs any money, hut jest to think of how he dropped the jug and spilt his molasses, whilst them town fellows come along and sopped it. up. It is pure meanness and pizen MinginrR*, Rufe. But I reckon Jude is worth as much to the country ravin crazy, or even dead, as he would lie livin and in his right mind.’* HUFUS BANDERS. I wish that I were a great naturalist —1 wish that I was a botanist or a horticulturist or an ornithologist. I have great admiration for Linneus and Audubon and Humboldt and Agassiz. It seems to lie by design that such men were born to explore the mysteries of nature and solve them, and then teach them to us. They are all dead, hut they finished their life work and no body has improved upon it. I never go into a drug store and read the Latin names ui>on the jars hut w hat I think of Linneus. What a work for one man to do—to walk thousands of miles over mountains and valleys, in heat and cold, and to study and to classify 8,000 different flowering plants and in- nmwotners that did not flower. Boor ns charity during his early man hood; for weeks and months actually suffering for food; and even when his earnest work began to attract atten tion of the learned and great he was not allowed to marry the girl he loved un til, like Jacob, he had been put on five years’ probation. How he was en riched. honored and ennobled in his later life is matter of history and is pleasant reading. I was ruminating about these things because a friend from Milledgeville wrote me about the large yellow but terflies that were now migrating south ward and asked if L had observed them. .He says that next spring they may he seen migrating northward, and this an nual change of place is as certain as the flight, of the swallows. For a few da\ s past I had noticed the number of these beautiful butterflies that were passing over our flowers in the front yard and stopping a hurried moment to sip honey from their chalices and then moving on with steady and graceful flight, hut it had not occurred to me that they were all going one way. But they are; and still they come and still they go: not by hundreds nor tens, hut hardly a minute passes hut what I can see two or three or a half dozen flying leisure ly along. They are a peculiar sjieeies. are all of a size and with solid chrome yellow wings that seem less frail Ilian those of other varieties. AY hat docs their flight signify? Do they know that winter is coming, and when? Where is their journey’s end? Where will they stop to lay their eggs and die, and what will he the transformation that brings new butterflies to life for a re turn in the early spring? Such things arc to he observed and studied, hut who does it ? Some years ago when I was farming I observed that hundreds of small branches of the persimmon and the ap ple and other trees were lying upon the ground w ith withered leaves, and upon examination they seemed to have been cut off ashy a tiny turning lathe; the in cision a half inch wide at the Ixirk and narrowing down to the center just as a turning chisel would do it. None of •e neighbors could explain it tome, hut .ound out on closer invest igation that it was done by a black beetle that first made an incision on tho tender hark and laid her eggs like a locust and then pro ceeded to cut off tho limb so Hint it might fall to the ground where the larvae, could hatch and th< n burrow in the soil and go through nature’s trans formations. But how did the beetle cut. the limb so artistically? Why, it fastened its hard, sharp, horn i v mandi bles to the hark and then buzzed round and round by the power of its wings until the work w as done. What a won derful mechanic is this beetle! What n wonderful study is. nature. There is more unsolved science in Hie light ning hugs, that like little meteors brighten the twilight on our lawns, than in the electric flashes that illu minate the clouds. lYhat are nil these things for? Humboldt says 1 hero are -iDO different species of humming birds. What for? Why should not one kind or ten kinds have answered the Creator’s purposes? Why are millions of flowers born to blush unseen on mountain sides and cliffs and in the desert. Humboldt says there are 800,000 beautiful scales on a large butterfly’s wing, and they can lie seen and counted w ith a micro scope. Why should there he so many ? Who ever sees them hut (led and per haps the angels? But there is no limit to these mys teries, and no answer to these ques tions. And so I will forbror. There seems to he bigger things before the people now. The paramount question is gold and silver and even the preach ers have engaged in the discussion. Dr. Pnrkhurst and Tom Dixon and some of our southern ministers have entered the arena and are trying to convert sin ners. not to repentance, hut to gold or silver according to their views. They have searched the. Scriptures to find something about gold and silver that they can torture and twist to t heir side. But there is only one text that, has any hearing upon it and that, is one of Solo mon's proverb* which says “words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in pic tures of silver.” Now let the. political preachers take that for a text and stick to it; or, maybe it would lx* better for them to let polities alone and turn their attention to Hie. work of the University of Pennsylvania In the buried city of pre-historic Nippur—a city that tho professors and scientists of that insti tution say is 3,000 years older than Adam and they have the proof of it. Only two years ago one of these same professors published a long article, in the. New York Herald asserting that the hones of a man exhumed in Florida were over 10,000 years old. If these preachers don’t watch the university will upset nil the chronology of the Ilihlo and make Mows to he a myth or a fraud, for If there is any one thing} the Mosaic account of the creation and succession, it is the succession from Adam to Noah and Noah to Abraham. .Science has no respect for sacred his tory a nd every few years comes out with something to upset or contradict it*‘ Couldn’t Bark hurst and Dixon give us a pulpit utterance on Nippur and let gold and silver rest with the statesmen and politicians of the country. As tho Richmond Dispatch well says: “We earnestly advocate the gold standard, hut see no reason for alarm or praise or ruin if silver is remonetized. Tho commercial world will soon adapt.itself to any currency that may he declared legal by the government.” That's the way to talk. “No reason for alarm!” Y hat is the matter with Mexico? Nothing—nothing at all. My hoy lias lived there for nearly two years and says it is a good country and a pros perous people, and improvements and new industries continue to come and Fnglish money continues to pour into that country building railroads and factories and buying coffee plantations and silver mines. The American pop ulation is increasing every day and now a Chicago firm is building an American hotel that is to cost half a million dol lars. And yet Mexico has a silver stand • ard. Cold may he the best standard for us when wc get used to it, hut it is an awful ordeal we are going through in getting broke in. It is like the fellow who experimented with his horse to train him to do without food. Hegavo him a few grains less every day until the horse died. I believe Hint if we can live Hi rough the trial we can get along on gold, hut I had rather place silver hack where it was ami quit the Sher man experiment. But I am not paying much attention to money now, nor is it paying much attention to me. 1 am comforting myself now by studying arithmetic and perusing history. One cf the Rome hoys who grew up with mine and made mud pics and worked the dog in harness, has long since got to he a man and took his degrees at An napolis. Mathematics is his specialty and he has just published an arithmetic that has been for six years his labor of love. 1 am no critic of modern text- books. hut I like this little hook of Ern est West’s and Indievc I could master it if I w as a hoy. I worked hard on a sum last nigliJ. which was something like this: “If a rabbit runs six miles and finds a hollow tree and stops there half an hour and a hound dog is after him and takes two leaps while the rabbit takes three, and three of the dog’s leaps are equal to five of the rabbit’s, and the dog gets to the tree 15 minutes late and finds the rabbit gone, when will the dog catch the rabbit and whereabouts?” The history that now so deeply in terests me is the life and times of Wil liam L. Yancey, an admirable hook written by J. W. Du Bose. A grand man has been portrayed by a thorough^ cfcmpctent author and the l>ook is a literary and historical treasure.—Bill j Arp, in Atlanta Constitution. A PLEA FOR HOUSE PLANTS. POLITICAL MEETINGS. Sam Jonoa Tolls of O io la His Nativo Town. It Was a Populist Gathering with Somo Demorr.its ami Ropuhltran* Present — Why the Evangelist Didn't Hear the Speakers. They Do More for a Room Than Teu Times Their Cost 1:» Other Things. A pretty idea in decorating one’s rooms for an entertainment is to place pots of palms, grow ing ferns or flowers, on the shelves above the doors usually devoted to pottery. Placed at this eleva tion they are most effective and are, be sides, outof the way us regards wall and floor space, w hich is often a considera tion. For plants that do not require sun light the idea might he carried further, and certain kinds might always he left on such a shelf. Flowers give an air to a room that nothing else can impart —a touch of nature, a cozy, homelike air—hut in our rage for the esthetic they have in a measure been banished, since both the pots and the shelves or stands holding them are considered unsightly. But the dull red of the com mon flower pot has a beauty of its own and t here is no reason why a sunny win dow .should not he fitted with a strong shelf, upheld by ornamental brackets, and surrounded with fretwork or with a homemade arrangement of spindles and halls, that would he graceful and pretty. Hfilf a dozen well cared for plants on this shelf will do more toward making your room beautiful than ten times their cost expended in china or furniture or wall paper. Your friends will look at your blooming hyacinths and your sturdy gerniums and forget to notice how fa Jed is the carpet and how worn the covering of the furniture.—N. Y. Herald. This is the day of crowds of political gatherings. 1 have sat on my [torch to day and s»*en the thousands gathered in this tow n to hear the political orators of the day. Mr. Watson mul John Tem ple (Irnvc.s were the orators of the day. l*he crowd was immense, the s[>ovche-s greatly enjoyed ami frequently ap plauded. 'ITie enthusiasm was pretty lively. But it is not so much of the s|s*akers and Kjteaking that I want to write. It is the. anxiety of all that gath ered to listen to the speakers that en gages my inten-st. and thought. They came to-day front the regions round about and from all directions. The well-to-do farmer and the poor fellow’ who steers a plow, the landlord and tenant were in the throng as they passed to and fro the masses seemed to he anxious to learn and anxious to know more nlxmt something or somebody. Cu riosity, fellowship, kindred thoughts, make them all akin at these great gath erings. While I dictate this letter after sup- jicr of the day of the greatspeaking t hey have all retired to their homes. They are sitting down at home talking to wife and children nlxmt the speaking and the speakers. They will have some thing to think about for several days to come. This was a ]x>pnlist gathering, ; though there were many democrats and a few republicans mixed up with the ; crowd. It was largely a free silver 1 crowd. They cheered to the echo every ; utterance of the sjx'akerx bearing on 1 the free and unlimited coinage of silver. They are looking to Bryan and Watson ! ns the Mooes and Aaron to lend them out \ of the land of Egypt where they have : made brick with butlittie straw. They are thinking only of the land of Canaan ■ that flows with free silver and high ! prices for their products. They arc not concerned about the wilderness I w ith its 40 years of sojourning, with its : snakes and with its grove lings. They imagine that they will leap the 3d of ; Novemlx*r with one Ixmiid into silver up to their chins and that prosperity j will come to the formers,whatever may happen to the monopolists, million aires, bankers, merchants and mnnufac- . Hirers. They dream with their eyes 1 open and wide awoke. Their reveries are pleasant to them. It iff not a mir- 1 nge to them. It is a lake of clear water I surrounded with w illows and deer and j cattle. Like thirsty travelers on the des- I ert when thirst famWhes thorn, they see ! the clear lake not far distant. It is a | pity to break into their reveries. It is a pity to disturb their dreams; hut it is all a dream, and their thirst will hut be augmented when the fact breaks upon them that it is only the mocking vision of a mirage. I etould see that this throng of [x'ople was happy to-day, happy going and happy coming from the great speaking. They will have dreams upon dreams to-night ; hut aft er all, the dream of the day is as delu sive as the dream of the night will he. They will wake up on the morning of November 4 saying: “\Yc have fought a good tight and we. w ill try them again four years hence.” I love the pops. They are good fel lows. They are all good meaning fel lows; hut Ixir’ me, a crowd that can’t Vlll this always he thur. or thus al ways be this, is the question? The best dressed fellows I saw to-day in tho procession were the speakers. They rode in carriages and I could sec the force of Bat’s jxx'try when he said: “ The rich they ride In chaises. And the poor can walk, be Jasus.” We are going to have another speak ing to-morrow. That will make a two days’ speaking. To-morrow we have the candidate for governor of our state, Mr. Sealiorn \Yriglit. lie is a com bined candidate of the prohibiCon and populist parties. I don’t know which) wing of the prohibition party Mr. Wright belongs to. for you know tho prohibition party split some weeks ago—hut they split Eke a hairpin, it is together at one end. I am a prohibi tionist myself from snout to tail, hut I am not a [xipulistie prohibitionist nor a prohibitionist populist. The two parties have fused in my state, hut they are like oil and water—they only fuse while you are stirring them. The most unmix-togetheration thing in the uni verse is something else and |s>pulism. The specific gravity of popuEsm is such that it won’t go to the bottom un less you turn it bottom side up. It is lighter than water and harder than flint. Rut we have got them. They are too good to Ixj mean ard too inno cent to he found guilty of anything un less we had the same jury that tried a Methodist preacher the ether day for using slang in his newspaper articles such as “raise tho hide,” “a pint of wa ter on his coal-tail,"and w riting against Hie use of tobacco. They found him guilty, too, and like (Jallilco lie had to retract or lose his ofYeinl head. He retracted and I suppose now instead of writing “raise the hide" he will have to w rite it “elevate the outside lining;” instead of "a pint of water on his coat-tail" ho will have to put “four gills of aqua on his togus caboose;" and in all future references tobacco must l»e spoken of as an Indian plant. The world do move! Men and things w ill go to seed and the seed will come up if they fall on the ground. Nevertheless we will stick to the gold standard until silver goes up or is worth more than 53 cents an ounce. I i wish all parties well. SAM B. JONES. CHICKEN COULD READ. Tho Mikado to Visit f*. The Loudon Chronicle says it learns on excellent authority that the mikado contemplates a tour through the United States and Europe at some future time, If he Is able to carry out this plan he will l>e the first Japanese emperor who has ever Ix'cn allowed to leave his dominions. It seems, however, that there are great difllcultlos in the wijy, the old or fanatical Japanese party ob jecting strongly to so remarkable an In novation. The Turkish fanatics did the same thing when Alxlul Aziz announced his intention of paying a visit to Baris and London, hut they were unable to prevent It and that luckless sovereign was the first Turkish sovereign who ever crossed the frontier of his empire except ns a conqueror. The. mikado is a highly educated man, who sjieaks sev eral European languages, and his visit, should it ever take place, will be an event of great Interest. Really Henevolent Janitor. There was a lively racket in an up town apartment house in New York the other night, and the next morning the tenants who were disturbed wanted the janitor to tell them w hot the row was nil about. He didn’t know himself un til the. occupant of the flat next to the noisy one appeared and informed him that the man who occupied the ii]>nrt- ment had whipped his wife during the night and caused the turmoil explained of. “Well,” remarked the janitor, “I’ll see that It doesn’t occur ng vln. I’ll not permit any man in this house tc more carefully stated Hum another in | lick his wife after ten o’clock.” run a farm successfully can’t run a government successfully. But tho procession moves. Rome w ere crowded in their wagons, some in buggies, sonu horseback, and many were afoot. I had much sooner take their chances for Heaven than their dinners for the white house in Washington or the con gressional hall. Mark Hanna with his barrel and gold standard procession will he sitting quietly down waiting when the populistic procession conics up and will no doubt invito the crowd to the second table, and they will ho welcome to what is left. Bleeding Kan sas, w ith her reign of populnrism, is an everlasting menace to the future hopes of the dear old pops. Whiskers and soekless men and “sexless” women won’t get in often and won’t stay in long. Experience teaches us that re form parties in politics arc mere par ties at last and partyism tends towards! rings, rascality and rum. No state In this union wants to duplicate the re form movement of South Carolina. It is frequently true that the blunders of fools arc more irreparable than the per fidy of rings. We can watch our ras cals, but human foresight can nevi r foretell where a fool will turn up next. Our whole husinosscommunitv’closcd its doorsund attended the great gather ing to-day. As some of them [Missed along down the street a little late I told them to hurry up, for the price of cotton would b« advanced by that au gust gathering before they could gd there, and they wouldn’t share in the honor of having raised the price. After all the dust and flurry of the day the old sun set right smack in the we*t again; the chickens went to roost as usual; the hog feeding and milking time came Just ns it did the day before. Oh, that men could learn that to do your own job well and stick to it is the only road to personal prosperity, and personal prosperity is the only founda tion for national prosperity. I didn’t get over to the meeting to day myself. My wife positively for- bode me going ever, and when she saw how earnestly my heart was set on joining the procession sho then gave me to understand that if I went against her will and w ishes to the great popu listic meeting I could move my hoard ing-house. Unfortunately for me, my wife owns the dwelling in which we live, and I yielded to her wishes with an almost broken heart. 1 am not so wise as those who heard the speeches to-day, hut “he who increnseth wisdom Inweasoth sorrow," and *••# Ignorance in bliss then ’tis folly to be wise.” Knew Too Much to Waste Its Time on • Poor Ksff. This is an instance where the chick en could road. “It’s a case of absolute gameness on the one hand and a knowl edge of English on the other,” remarked Deputy Collector of Customs Ozcnnc, of the Teche district, the other day. “I have what some people say is an inor dinate fondness for game chickens. Well, I have a good reason for it, hut that’s not the question. About two weeks ago I concluded not to set any more game, eggs on account of the late ness of the season, so I gathered a lot of the eggs deposited by the hens in vari ous parts of the yard and placed them in a nest, intending to take them in’o the house for use there. Among Hie lot was an egg belonging to a ‘dunghill’ fowl, and this f marked ‘no good’ and placed with the others. Leaving the nest for an hour, I found upon my re turn that a hen, one of the game one*', had taken possession and wassettingfor dear life. I thought I’d let her hatch, and the next morning when I went to the nest I found the egg marked ‘no good’on the straw outside. Thinkingit had fallen out, I placed it again in the nest and left. The next day I again found the egg on the straw, and as I had placed it in the middle of the lot in the nest I thought this funny. I once more placed the egg in the nest, again on tho center of the lot, and then went outside. Hearing a noise in the chicken house a little later, I went hack and found the hen looking at the eggs. In a moment she found what she wanted and pro ceeded to roll with her bill an egg from the nest to the ground. Rhe rolled it several feet away and then, as if recon sidering her intention to leave it thus, deliliorately cracked the shell. I picked up the pieces and saw that it was tho ‘no good’ egg. Not only had the hen been able to read, but she had been too dog-goned game to hatch a ‘dunghill’ egg.”—N. O. Times-Democrat, Tho Walts In Africa. The dancers seen at Kumhuidi’s were Bisa and Lilangeni. There were four drummers, and one old man with rat tles, who gave a very picturesque per formances; the drummers hud small, bar rel-shaped drums with tightened skin at either end; the drums were sus pended by rope from the left shoulder. The drummers played to any crude, un trained songs in splendid time, and while playing and singing danced about most gracefully, some steps resembling closely the waltz. All wore long loin cloths of hark, reaching from the waist almost to the ground. They were won i derfully active, dancing and singing vigorously, w hirling round on one leg, and spurring the ground w ith the other foot; they sang, drummed and danced In perfect, time. The old man had two rattles, each composed of five small, round, dried wild fruits w ith noisy, rat tling seeds; these were threaded cn brochette on thin sticks, one of which the old man held in each hand, and kept time with the others, besides doing bis share of the dancing.-—Journals of the | late E. J. (Have, in Century. A Nets Focket Telephone. A pocket telephone for policemen is one of the recent inventions. Over in England It is in general use, and has been found very satisfactory. The tele phone consists of a combined mouth piece and earpiece, with about a foot or more of w ire attached, an aflixing pin and a small key. This apparatus Is to Is* used by the officers in connec-, tion with the fire alarms placed ut varK oils parts of a city. Instead of breaking the pane of glass in case of a fire occur ring in Hie neighborhood, as an ordi nary individual would have to do, the policeman opens the door w ith his key,’ places the aflixing pin in u socket pro vided for It, and is in direct common!-, j cation with the fire department.