The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, April 29, 1897, Image 3
THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. 0., APRIL 20, 1807
SOME TEXAS STORIES.
Iho Sago of Rorky Crook Ha3
Boon About.
Wpomji Mnn I’ut Off at Ardmore—
When t!ie Air Wan Hot in
the •• Wet or Dry ”
CnnipalKn.
Onct upfm a time out there in
Texas, when the famous wet or dry
election waa on
'< -y...
ff wi
y / 11
sn
hand ami they had
the jx>t bilin high
ar.d hot — when \
every man had to
pick his flag and
line un with o;:e 1
It was funny to me the way Puck
would slide over the, great question of
the day and make it around safe to the
home base every time. In town that
day a long. tall, red-headed man walked
up to me and Duck and shook his list in
Duck’s face.
“Wet or dry—•which?’* says the long,
tall man.
“That is the tnaine.st question.’* says
Duck. “Put now, stranger, dadblame
it, you say lirst.”
Naturally, of course, when the stran
ger said, and then Duck he said, it come
to pass that both of them had said the
; nine, thing. And the w hite llagof peace
still waved in triumph over the broad
and fertile bosom of the land which
the Indians and the buffalo had left
them.
JACKALS KILL A LION.
BOARDING-HOUSE TALE.
Strange Scone Witnessed by an
American in Africa
Xlno of l!ie I'Bly Cowards Pall Down
mid Devour n Dcaert liinu Tlint
In Too Oltl iiimI l<'erl>le to
(■'islit Them Off.
^<5 side or the other—
when political e.\-
ciicmont wasso tre-
mendius thick and
heavy till by gt:’.-
cicus yon could hit it with a stick or
rake it up with a splinter—in them
days it come to pass that I was on the
railroad train one night train up aercst
the lied river and into the Indian terri
tory. When the train slowed tip at the
last station on the Texas side of the
river a stropping big fellow got on
board.
1
Woke I ;» the \Vr:;n:j 3!:;n.
You could look at the gentleman from
Texas wit h one eye shot and see that he
was most unconstitutionally and serene
ly drunk. Ilia eyes looked like new
money, and every side of the ear was
his. lie was steppin as high and awk
ward a.s a blind steer calf in tall oats,
and swentin like a free nigger on elec
tion day. I!c called the colored indi
vidual which seemed t^be managin the
passengers and the train and every
thing in sight, and went on to say:
“Ain’t you the jK'rterof this ear?”
“Dai’s me to a dead immortal cer
tainty, boss," says the porter.
“Well, you will please take due and
proper notice that. I am on ipy way to
Ardmore and as drunk as seven fools
in one bunch,” t he gentleman from
Texas.
“1 reserve the general calamity of
the surroundirs, boss,” says the porter,
and with that he Ixnved sev eral so lows
and a couple of duets for the pleasure
of the pa-sengors.
“Put m-e off at Ardmore,” the Texas
man went cn. “I am tired now and
sleepy tco. Put me off at Ardmore.
By that time I will be dream in about
the election and she pin the sleep of
the just. Put put me olT at Ardmore.
I maybe niought not want to git olT,
but that don’t make a continental dnm
bit. of difference. You put me olT at
Ardmore. Here is one dollar in clean,
cold cash.
“ ‘ ’Tis the sllvv r (lobar
l.eft nhinln alone;
AU l',?r ?|::tc( n ccmpanlons
/.rc rr;.:r.r.dcrc(l end gone.*
“Pemember what I say, and put me
off at Ardmore, for if you don’t there
will bo a third-class funeral some
where* along the line of this railroad
liefore the sun goes down behind the
western hills to-morrow.”
“With the greatest of incongruity I
will pot you off at Ardmore, boss, if
it brings on another war and breaks
up the plans of salvation,” says the por
ter, as that, “last silver dollar” rattled
down into hks Hank i»oeket„
And then, in less time t han three min
utes, the gentleman from Texas and
every lx: dy on the ear but the con
ductor and ixirtee had went sound to
sleep. Twenty-six miles beyond Ard
more everyIxxly woke up all of a sud-
dirt like. The gentleman from Texas
had caught the porter and was now
makin tho native night air hot in great
streaks and patches and blue in spots
as big as a horse blanket.
“You infernal siou-fcotod, box-onkled.
tangly-hairexl. black jaseal!—didn’t I
fell you to put me off at Ardmore?"
“Dlesscd Mcscs and dc angels! Is
dat you, boss?” Rays the potter, and his
eyes bulged out n.s big ns two saueers.
"Pore (loti, Ixjss—didn’t I put you off at
Ardmore? May lx: 1 must of woke up j
de wrong-man, but. I found him in de 1
next ear. and bless* de heavens if I didn’t !
think it was you. He w as sleep, and he
waa superbly drunk. He was from Tex- ^
as. and lie wanted fo let on de elec
tion. He bucked a:xl he kicked, and he
pitched and cussed and fit till it was
plum Rcrindakitioufs, hut I put him olT i
at Anhnore, like 1 was told. Lack at
my clothes, Ixjss—tore into baby duds i
and doll rntrs—ond my face mo bad 1
senrtehed and bunged up till they won’t
l;novv my wife’s husband from an j’com- ;
mou nigger in town when I pit home.
Ise mighty sad and sorry, boss, ami I
will give you back your dollar w ith my j
double-breasted compliments. Dut if j
1 didn’t put a white man off at Ardmore
creation has jumped a cog and the n g-
ger never was set free.”
At the next station the gentleman
from Texas changed cars to return hack
to Ardmore, whilst the porter proceed
ed to manage the train to the best of his
ability.
Keeplnit on Safe Grounds.
On t hat same Texas trip I went to see
Duck Itidgcuay and his folks down in
the Hood county—which they vise to
live in the old Panther (.’reek settlement
and went west ten or fifteen years ago.
One day me and Duck we went to
town, and. as I said before, the native
air was hot with the wet or dry ques
tion. Tho election wa* comin. off in
about two weeks, and the people had
got worked up by this time to that
puss whei'e they would bet and cuss
ar.d fight about it.
Now in the main time Buck Ilidge-
way is one of the most peaeefullest
men I have ever saw. and aip to tlint day
he never had showed his hand in the
fight to any serious extent. He was
raley on the wet side, but he didn’tgiv*
out kis opinions with a dinner horn
and from the houseops. ns it were. You
see. Buck bad already fit plum through
one war and got Ids horse killed at
Seven Pines, and benc*fanvar0s after
that be was for peace on earth and good
will to the whole eirtire created human
race.
A Time of Year to Cur.s.
On horseback and riding acrost the
piney woods country of east Tc.xaa—
where they have red hills and sandbeds
and shade trees ami spring branches
and poor land, and good water in the
greatest plenty—everything was io
natural and homely looking till it was a
most magnolious and happy day to me.
Soon that moruin, when I rid out of the
broad, b’cak prairies and struck a rale
skirt of woods for the first time in three
months—man sir, 1 was so trememlius
giad till blamed if I didn’t dismount
and git down and haig a large and love
ly pine tree.
Date along in the shank of theovenin
I rid up in sight of a settlement with a
double pen log house. A man come
tearin out of the clearin and hailed mt
in the big road.
“Don’t you want a job, stranger?”
says Ire, talkin fast and excited like,
“i am vvillin to pay you anything in rea
son,—whatever mought be right for
your time and trouble, and if you are
a rale peart hand at the business you
can soon turn off the job.”
"I am a stranger in a strange land,
with a long road ahead and no money
to mention, and I w ouldn’t mind turnin
a few honest plunkers if it come hardy,"
says I.
“How are you on cussin ?” say she.
“Only a very few,” says I. “At home
they tell it aroimd that I am tli most
handiest, man in the settlement. Dut
to speak the plain Dible trut! , I am
somewhat rut her awkward and nothin
to brag on when it comes to eus n."
“Then you ain't the man lam ooking
for. What I want and what I need most
heljatious bad at this particular time of
year is a man that has been fetched up
cussin and trained for the business—
a man that can cuss in all the latest
fashions and fling in the hot stuff thick
and fast and furious. I am what you
nicught call a right tolerable good hand
at cussin my cT»n rusty sc! f , but the
terrible circumference of the present
calamity i<; jest simply too much for
me. I can’t sorter half way do the .sub
ject justice. I would love the best in the
world to hire a good, swift hand at the
business and give him the job.”
“Maybe it ain’t none of my business,
but what serins to be the trouble?"
."tiys k
“Nobody knows what trouble is hut
me, si ranger," the man responded hack
as the sun went down behind a heavy
bank of clouds. “Only last week some
ugly scoundrel beast put out pizen and
killed my three hound dogs—the finest
and the fastest that ever followed a
trail in the lone state of Texas. Night
before last my mule took sick ar.d died,
and right on top of that my old woman
took and sloped off this mornin and run
away with u foot peddler. So here 1
am—w ith my dogs and my mule dead,
and the old woman gone—with seven
children and four cows, and nobody to
do a durn thing—troubles on top of
troubles — troubles comin in great
chunks and gobs and slices, if 1 could
but only find the rjght mar to take holt
and CU.-.S out tbedimnan race, and cuss
out creation in general, seams to me
like I might feel a whole lot better. I
have tried my hand faithful and hit the
high places, and scorched the air about
iu patches. Dut a plain, blunt man like
me is as helpless as a baby under the
sad surroundins of the present ease.”
What did I do? What could I do?
Nothin much to speak of. I told the
onhnppy man to brace up as Ix'st be
could and wait till the clouds roiled by.
Then I rid on and left him alone in his
troubles.
When a lion takes a walk in Africa
or Asia it is followed commonly at a re
spectable distance by half a dozen jack
als. which, not being strong enough to
pull down game for themselves, and yet
eager to taste blood, go after the great
still hunter of the desert in the hope
of getting the drippings from its claws.
The lion does not object to them, as
one swing of its unsheathed elavvs
teaches the venturesome jackal a les
son that may be survived hut never for- i
gotten.
A large lion which had grown old and I
weak, losing teeth and lithenessof limb,
as well ;ue sharpness of vision, in t.lie ,
shrubbery which grows up in the south- I
ern part and to t he south of the Desert of
Sahara, betrayed its failing strength j
one day last spring, and instantly the j
near-by jackals, which had been re- 1
spectftil. came forward on the run and
gave Wilson James, an American hunt
er. a fine lion-baiting scene. The lion
had sneaked toward a herd of autelope
which James was seeking. It hap
pened that the lion got w ithin range be-
lore the man did. and leaped out at a
medium-sized buck, bearing it to the
ground. The ino. c .t astonishing thing
that the man had e er seen then hajc
pened. The buck, a sturdy three- year-
old. in the prime of life and vigor,
rolled over, and in spite of the jaws and
claws, which the lion closed on i-t, got
out of reach, leaped to its feet and
made off. as only a scared, lean-limbed
antelope can. The lion rose to it* uvet.
lifted its head, and watched the Hoe
ing animal gain its comrades on a
knoll half a mile away. Then down
went the lion’s head, and the big brute
started to walk on across the open in
which the antelope had been. Tho
jasJcals. which had been creeping on
their bellies before the k*:ip was wudu.
and had sat up to watch the result.start
ed tap the moment they saw the lias f-uU,
The Lnnillnily Meets a Dojr l ixlcr fn-
fa vorafde Clremnataneea.
There is a man of North side habitat,
w hose specialty, according to the Chica
go News, is dog. He adores the canine
race, is never happier than when with
a good, reliable terrier, and says that
the more he sees of human beings the
more he thinks of dogs.
For some weeks past this man has
been dogless. He bus abided quietly in
bis room and no paw has crossed his
threshold, while th:* oihor inhabitants
of the house knew not whether his fa
vorite jx ts were eats, children or boa
rv;
ARP ON HIS MAIL.
71iilosoph3r Tolls cf When Tostago
Was Two Bits a Letter.
and sprang after it w itb eager bounds,
und howling as if on the trail of a
wounded deer.
Nine of the jackals appeared in the
open, but others came from all direc
tion*. and all were howling. They be
gan to circle about the lum. w hich had
stopped to watch them with mane tutw- j
ling and tail jerking. Gradually the ;
pack grew Ixilder. Some of the largec
ones jumped toward the lion. lanArng
nearer each time, hut leaping boek ]
quickly. One more venturesome tb** i match went out—the old ladv gave one
tVKXDING TH MID WAY DOm.
constrictors,
ert of (loglessmss, finally J)roved too
much for the man. ile hied himself
forth a day or two ago and .-.oon ac
quired a large bull tinier—a beast of
great size for his species and of exceed
ingly ferocious face, albeit of mild und
generous disposition.
“If there is any dog I like.” said the
man. as he towed his purchase home, "it
is a good hull terrier."
Acquaintances met the man en route.
He tarried toexhib't thedognnd wound
up in a cafe, where a few good thinga
were discussed while the dog lay peace
fully under the table. It was tvvoo’eloek
in the morning when the man ar.d dog
wended toward their home.
When the man reached his abode the
dog rattled up the stairs with much
hilarity, and capered around the vesti
bule while Uiu man was unlocking the
door. The man lives in an tipper room.
The dog didn’t know tlint und as soon ns
t he outer door was opened skipped into
the parlor downstairs. He ran against
an easel, upset it. knocked over a Sntsu-
tna vase and scrambled across a register
with a sound like a stick scraping a
picket fence.
"Sh-li-h!” whispered the man. “Keep
still and come upstairs."
The un wonted raise had now aroused
the old lady who acts us hoits(‘kee|ier
of the place. She heard iti# rnttliugnnd
trampling of tin* dog and the whispers
cf his master. Murghirs. sure.
She L« a pltteky old lady. Out from
her couch she sprung, and. with a light
ed match in her hand, marched upstairs
from her roawi on the ground ftoor.
The dog heard her coming and silently
ran over to the landing on which she
must shortly emerge. *A« she lurneil
the head of the (light and struck an
other match she saw. the dog with the
most ferocious and malevolent of coun
tenances staring gravely at her. The
All tbc Same In Texas.
Tho railroad men mid the drummers
in Texas told me that then? was three
places of a kiix^nit there—“Hempstead.
Ilerirne and iF II. I went to Hemp
stead ami Ktopjxxl at Ucarnc. To my
notions they arc both good towns, with
plenty of good people livin there. But
the railroad men and the drummers
belt to it that as between the three
places it was six wiHi cne and half a
dozen with the other two.
One right I took the railroad train
at Houston and started up the country.
A young man likewise also got on board,
w hich fieri general appearments had
climbed up around various and sundry
drinks. Anybody could tell that he
would need a jug Indore he could take
any more. When the train pulled out
the„young man was fast asleep. The
conductor come around presently and
tried to wake him up. but it was all
vanity and vexation. By-and-by. when
the train had run some 40 or 50 miles,
the young man responded slightly to
the shakin and woke up in a measure.
"(live me your ticket," says the con
ductor.
“Ain’t got no ticket,” says the young
man.
"Well, where do you suppose you are
going?” says the conductor
"(Join to h—11,” says the young man,
only he spoke out in full.
“That is perfectly all right,” says the
conductor. "We have done passed
Hempstead, but I will put you off at
Ilearne.” BUFFS BANDERS.
the rest nipper! the lion’s heel, and the
big brute turned clumsily, but tco late
to grip the daring dog. In rts js'ftue.
the lion never allows jackals to (••me
within ten feet of the meat it is etHSteg.
ami kills those N:at do after the fashion
of lions, but thi.s one could not protect
its own skin now.
First on one side, then on the oUkt,
came the jackal*, snapping and c* c«» Mt*-
img the big follow. Little drops of ‘
blood trickled down the lion’s hawte t
At last, one of the jackals leaped totJ.*
back of the liot. and was off and away
before the brute could turn. Janies kad
heard lions roar at night and in the day- j
time, beeauseof love, hungeror wouud*.
but* never such roar* as those this kte*
gave. Neither did he ever hear munv
joyful howls or yelps from any of atv
dog kind than the howls of the jarvted*
ready to pull down the lion, whiul) was :
already weakening.
The commotion had roused-life for
miles around. Jackals hurrying to tee
attack from their Anytime lairs etKu*
for a mouthful. The screaming of |
bird and carrion eaters hovered alxive.
while all the cloven-hoofed animals
grew uneasy and ceased feeding to look
In thedireetion whence the sound (“.wit*.
The end came suddenly. A^jackaJ
which had made itself conspicuous by i
its daring, and supposed by James to
have been the one that lirst leaped on
the lion’s back, jumjsxl ns if to seize the ;
lion by the nose, but the lion was too
quick tliis time and sank its teeth into j
the jackal’s neck. Then the )>ack
leaped forward all at once,and a moiniff
of jackals heaved over the lion. When
the mound dissolved a few bones ware
left to whiten in the dry sunlight.
shriek—the wllole. household turned
out in wild confusion and dishabille
and the man slid upstairs, dragging the
dog with him. sneaked into his room
and locked the ’door.
Mutters were explained next morn
ing. hut the old lady refuses to he
friendly with the terrier, despite the
latter’s earnest efTtfrts to win her ap
probation.
RELMIN»ZD OF HOME.
Why u ChtcDKo n«ir^!nr l.eft u !2<>nxe
Without l*lsin«l<*r.
The burglar had rntcre i the house as
quietly as possible, but his shoes were
tint padded and they made some noise.
He hudyjust readied the door of the
bedroom when lie heard some one uiov-
m
J/ ; iMUMM /WA M
HE MADE A MISTAKE.
Anivcrcd by Kcil Gowns.
Ddith and Amy Gregory, aged th
and five years respectively, children of
Seymour Gregory, of Kowlandsville. >.
Y.. were seriously wounded tlitj other
day by a turkey gobbler. Th*ehildw-n
were playing in the yard, each wearhqjt
a red dress, when the turkey atlaeteti
the younger child, throwing her to hit*
ground,
ed to rese
attacked her also, throwing her <V>wo minute.’'
f ng in tho bed, as if about to get up, and
be paused.
The sound of a woman’s voice floated
te liis cars.
“If you don’t takeoff your boot* when
you come into this house,’’ it said.
••there’s going to be trouble and a whole
lot of it. He re "it’s been raining for
three hours and you dare to tramp over
li yon-r muddy boots on.
and take them off this
1 ” I ---- - —
The oMer girl then attenq^e < lay carpets with yon-r muddy boots on.
rue her sister when the fowl Go downstaurs
and inflicting several wounds upon
face and hands. Finally recovering her
feet little Amy ran to a neigh^dffc
The Why. j house to alarm her mother. \Yh«*
”1 don’t think I ever knew another Mrs. Gregory ran into Mie yard
husband so devoted as Cllnger.” found that the turkey had seveiw^'
“Presume not—all the money’s hers." wounded Ddith also, and she dlspnt
—Chicago Journal. j the a wailant w ith a club.
He went downstairs w ithout a word,
but -he didn’t take off his boots. In-
iffead he went straight out into the
night again, and the “pal” who was
waiting for him saw a tear glisten in
hte eye.
“1 can’t rob that house," he said.
“It reminds roe of home.”
lie In Asked .tinny Questions—Bartow
Man Mil own tlic (Measure Tliere
In In a for r expo ml e nee vvltta
Old Friends.
There is perhaps no invention or con-
vrivance that has brought more comfort
to' mankind than that of letters and
Hieir easy transmission by modern
postal service. How wonderfully cheap
ihey arc, and how swiftly they come
and go! Only two cents to the utmosi
limit of the United States, saj 1
i.OOO miles, and only live cents to bo
carried across the ocean. It takes only
ivvo cents to carry a letter to the City
of Mexico, but it takes live cents to
bring one back.
My wife snvs that it is hard on Carl,
*<
for besides his weekly letter to us, he
has many friends, and the girl he left
behind him. and his postage is quite a
vox. She thinks I ought to write to
President Diaz and Mr. MeKfnley
end demand reciprocity, just for
Carl’s sake, hut I compromised with her
by promising to inclose a dime in every
letter 1 wrote to the boy. In almost
every mail that comes she is on the look
out ifcr a letter from some of the
absent ones, and when she gets one she
reads it two or three times and tiles it
away on her side of the room. The
morning and the evening mail has be
come as important an event in
the routine of our daily lives as
our daily meals. It is an event
that has grown on us and be
come indispensable. Tim? was when
neither she nor I received a letter a
month, for she had no Iu.t r but me.
und I had none but her. and our postal
system was a darky boy. It was like
that of Zeb Vance, who received a note
from some fashionable woman in Wash
ington with the mysterious letters
“Ji. S. V. P." endorsed cn it, and w hen
he answered it he put on one corner
"S. B. A. N.,” just to keep up with so
ciety. he said. When, she afterwards
asked for an explanation, he smiled and
Raid: "Oh. they stood for: ‘Sent by a
nigger.’ ”
I remember when the postage had to
be paid at the last end of the line by
the person who received it, and- it was
25 cents if it came 500 miles. If less
than that, but from out of tiie state, it
was IS^ cents, and if within the state
it was 12'/ 2 cents. We had no decimal
currency then, but vve had the seven
ponce (12'/, cents) and the thrip (G^
cents) ar.d they were worn to the quick
from constant use. Nothing told their
valua except their size. We received
the great United States mail twice a
week and the tooting of the stage
driver’s horn as he rose to the brow of
the distant hill aroused all the jieoplj
of the little village, and most of them
gathered at the jxist office to hear tho
news. Perhaps there were as many as
20 weekly papers taken in tho town,
hut none of them made.mention of mur
ders or suicides, or lynchings or elcjie-
ments, or baseball or foot ball, or bicycle
races or the fashions, or rewards fo.-
guessing or advertisements of celery
compound, or photographs of men or
women or babies, or the arrival of any
body less than a president ora governor.
But in our state papers there were some
littlo pictures or cuts of hasty depar
tures—runaways—and all were uni
formly advertised: "Kan away from the
Eub*criber. my boj' Dick. etc., and I will
give ten dollars reward for hi* appre
hension.”
But now the letters—ah, the letters
that come every day! Besides the fam
ily letters from kith and kin. there are
scores from good people w ho are work
ing fur church or charity, or want in
formation aboHt Florida or Mexico.
Very often am I eomfortod v. ith compli
ments which I love to receive, and very
often^ get a good, long letter from some
old-time Georgian who for half a cen
tury has lieen living in Texas or Arkan
sas, or somew here in the great west. It
pauses mo t* reply to ell and make the
best answer that I can. But per hap* 1
had better say just here that I have
long since ceased to write conqxxdtiens
for the schoolgirls or to assist the hoy a
in their debating societies. Iwishsin-
cer.dy that I had time to help them,
but I hate i^t. I know how it u, for I
u.^h! to get help myself.
But some of U:esc l/ tters are amus
ing. One re-" iitvl a few days ago is
very urgent to hare my opinion upon
the pr*;riety or impropriety of a
Christian mnn (figging a storm pit
and getting in it when the cy
clone gives its warning. Is it sinful
or not to vhiowr mrch lack cf faith in
God? He says Urey are making a
t-hur eh question of it in hie community.
I have hod several letters asking for as
sistance in guessing the mis: iug word
that the Conatilotion offers $1,(KX) for.
These letters, of course, are confiden
tial. and some beg me not to mention it
even to Mrs. Arp. But the delieloiiK
humor in ona of them is the offer to
give me half the reward if I w ill disclose
to her t he word. That is very like the
generous fellow who told tho boy that
if he would furnish his own hooks and
line* and halt lx* would give him half
the fish he caught.
Since my last letter alxrut how to
raise children mas published I have had
several very comforting epistles from
friends and some from strangers. Rev.
lYillinm 11. Strickland makes mention
of nevera! families from old Gwinmtt
whose children arc all grown and are es
teemed by ail who know them a* good
people—funic-1. law-abiding end tem
perate. He name* tlie time son* and
five daughters rtf my old friend Jim
Dunlap. Also the eight child sen of
Rev. I). II. Monerlef. ore of whom now
lives in Atlatia and has five .son* ard
five (laughters, nil grown up r.ml all
good men and women. John md Mary
B. Sammons, hi* wife, had Iff to grow,
to maturity, end they wore nil grxxl.
How tleh t'.inse parents were!—richer
than Vanderbilt or As4or. Ard so were
the children of D. \X. Sjcnce and Wash
Allen. One had eight and the other
ten.
Well. now. ore of the renvons 1* that
all of tlx**? familios came from oid
Gwinnett, and most of tire children were
from that old Sammons htoek that
lived on Aleovy creek when 1 was a boy.
The first couple I ever saw married out
side of my father’s house was Jim
Dunlap and Rebecca Sam mo mi. and Jim
oufmnrricd himself when be got her.
That was an old-fashioned, country
wedding, and it was a big one. They
had turkeys and mast pigs and pound
cake amazing, and they had thou; and-
dollar o&udlvsticks nil about, for ev —y
likely negro boy had a torch. ) ut
my wife and I left, therr 46 years a -o,
and did not know lint these good peo
ple had had so many ( hildTcn. May
ail such be perpetuated. And I have
a good letter from F’uera Vista, tell
ing of old Dr. Reese, who has raised
a even boys and two girls, and they are
all good, sober, industrious. Christian
children, and had a gentle, kind, loving.
Christian mother, who is now among
the angels. That is it. after all—tho
mother—the mother—the gentle, kin 1,
loving. Christian mother.
So 1 am encouraged to recall my ap
prehension concerning the black sheep
being in all large flocks of children.—
Dill Arp. in Atlanta Constitution.
CICYCLE ACCIDENTS.
C«n*l(lerlnff (lie Number cf Wheels
rseft They Are Its re.
Considering the gre: t number cf
bieycles in use throughout the world,
the aoeiden’s resulting therefrom aro
exceedingly few. Nevertheless, there
are many who have an abnormal idea
of the bicycle, ond seem to think it is
an exceedingly -hazardous vehicle for
conveyance or diversion.
The far west has a most unenviable
reputation as c dangerous country for
the reason that every murder, hanging
or shooting affair is so greatly distorted
and talked about that it leave* u vivid
impression upon everyone. People will
fiirn out for miles around to take part
in a “lynching bee” or “necktie paity.”
and the news of same travels with in-
ereJibie rapidity, gaining seme new
phase at every turn, until the fact of one
poor man having been hung up by the
neck assumes the proportions of 2D or
fft) bloody assassins having been hung,
and conveys the idea of :h‘* mosrt hor
rible butchery on a very grand scale.
Bicycle accidents are so uncommon
that interest and comment in all acci
dental occurrences in which it plays a
part are more generally noted by new s
papers ar.d news gatherers than any
other mcklenta of similar character,
which merely repeat, long familiar ex
periences and are Hardly noted by the
public. It must also be Borne in mind
that gross carelessness by thoughtless
persons eausea mo d of the accidents
for which the w heel is held responsible.
The rider who has become proficient
only on the smooth floor of a hall w here
he lias taken lessons is almost .sure to
underrate the embarrassments to be
encountered in a public thoroughfare.
He does not appreciate the difficulties
of controlling his machine cn a sloping
surface, of passing safely through a
crowded street, or of coasting. Even a
skilled rider should keep informed of
the condition of his machine, as an un
obtrusive defect, such a* a loose nut.
for example, maj* lead to serious re
sults.
Cheapness in bicycles necessarily sig
nifies inferior materials and poor work
manship. and those ore the machines
that increase the number cf accidents,
and for which purchasers should be
less rnsjxinsibie than those by whom
they have lieen deluded. A good, trust
worthy bicycle of well-known standard
manufacture is rafest and best, ar.d,
though moreexpensivein the beginning.
In the end is an economical purchase,
one that the buyer should lake ad
vantage of ami that the experienced
cyclist can best appreciate.
ProRresN In Medicine.
Dr. George F. Schrady. of Now York,
has recently published nn article which
brings forcibly before the mind the
great progress recently made in medical
science, in surgery one of the great
est advances is made in efranlines''.
Physicians formerly tried to kill poison
In wounds, row t heir efforts are to pre
vent its entrance. The recent wonder
ful operations have only been made
possible by the new knowledge of an-
tiseptic surgery. Dr. Schrady mentions
the services of the Roentgen rays and
tiic nteantages given by use of cocaine.
He speaks of the discoveries in l avtori-
oi<;ry, but warns the fearful they arc
not in (kuiger of consumption ar.d other
diseases every time they breathe their
microbes. A healthy persdh has littlo
to fear in this direction. Dr. Schrady
thinks the agreeable forms of medicine
to-day a sign of progress.
Itoincli on the .ladse.
A judge on the Pacific coast, noted
for his tendency to explain things to
his juries, expressed in u recent case
his own ideas with such force that he
thought it almost unneoev.sary for the
jurors to leave the box. They did leave
it. however, and were out hours. In
quiring the trouble, the judge was told
one of tlie 12 was standing out against
the li. He summoned the jury and re-
huled tho recede it ram t sharply. "Ycur
honor." ward the juror, “may I my a
word?" “Yes. sir,” said the indignant
judge. “What have you to «ny?” "Well,
what I wanted to say is. I’m the only
fellow that’s on your side.”
I.ctluc* Green Snlart Rovrl.
English engraved glass is attracting
much attention tor iis beauty of color.
A salad bowl is of green and white en
graved glass, and the lettuce coloring
is further carried out in the handies
of salad fork and spoon, both of which
terminate in knolxqof green giaas.
She Took Her Revenge.
A man having died at Darwin, Eng
land, hi* wife addressed a long speech
to the corjiie upon her .suffering!* dur
ing her married life. She then be
labored tihe body, smashing a chair over
the dead man’s head, nccfiRitat rg tho
in ter vent ion of the police.