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y ARP ON OLD FRIENDS 8i!l Says He Receives Letters From Old Men. KNEW EACH OTHER LONG AGO .Likes the Letters and Tries to Answer Them?Rheumatism in Arm ?ramps His Replies. N They arc not all dear]. In fact, tiiey \ fioeni to multiply as the years roll on? my contemporaries, I mean. I receive more letters from old men than I ever did. and they write well and give long epistles. When a man gets along in the seventies he feels lonesome, notwithstanding the near presence of children and grandchildren. The companions of his youth are gone, and so some of these old men unbosom themselves to me for sympathy. I like such letters and try to answer them all. but rheu- | matism in my ariris and hands cramps my replies. One old gentleman fiom Alabama says he feels better after he has written, for he is a native Georgian and loves her people and her old red hills and the sweet memories of ^ Emory college and his visits to Athens, where his uncle Elizar Newton lived, and he met me there in the forties, and John Grant and Dan Hughes and Jack Brown and Billy Williams, who married my friend's cousin and took i iih* v;i nit; uiiuu as} liuu?aim ijuw he heard Pr. Church preach and was charmed with the music of the choir where Miss Ann Waddell and Rosa Pringle and other pretty girls sang, and how a tall, long, high man. with a big hocked nose and a huge "pomum Adamus" on his throat, sang base, end how be was a roommate of Tom Norwood at Emory and a classmate cf Bishop Key and Judge A. B. Longftreet. the author of "Georgia Scenes," was the president: and how he removed to Alabama In 1S49 and married rnd has seven daughters and no sons and has ten orphan grandchildren, and has to work early and late to support and educate them, but aever sees and rarcv hears from any friend of his youth ?nd is at times sad and depressed and ongs for sympathy. Poor old man, 1 wish that he lived near me. for I would visit him and cheer him up, and tell him anecdotes and antidotes, and we would talk over the times and swap ollcge stories and brag about the gocd old days when there were no tele ;raphs or telephonesor bioycles.and we lid not want any; no sewing maihn~s or store clothes, and we didn't need any; no football or baseball or hazing or suicides or appendicitis. And in those days came Toombs and Stephens and Judge Dougherty and Howell Cobb and Walter Colquitt and spake to the people face to face, and such eloquent men as George Pearcee and Bishop J Capers and J esse Mercer ar.d Dr. iloyt and Goulaing and Ingles preached to them. Yes. we would t:lk about the days of our boyhood, when there was no g3s or kerosine or friction matches ?nothing but candles to give us lignt. and no Prometheus to steal fire from heaven to light them with. Shakespeare knew how it was, for he wrote: "How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world." Tf Shakespeare wrote by candle light, tvhv shouldn't we? And he, too. used the flint and steel to make a spark to light them. "Pick your flint and keep your powder dry" was G3neral Jackson's order to New Orleans. When I was a young merchant gun-flints were as common as marbles, and I sold them at the same price?10 cents a dozen. "Wonderful, wonderful are the changes, and we old people fall in with them and adapt them to our use and our comfort. I wouldn't be set back to the good eld times, if I could, but I would -enjoy seeing this generation all set hack about seventy years, just for about a week. My Alabama friend and other veterans would be tickled to death to see the universal dismay?no ra'lreads or telegraph, no mail but once a week?and cents for a s'nele le::cr. No daily newspapers in the state and only four weeklies, with no sensations, no suicides or lynchings. There would be no cooking stoves, no coal, no steel pens or envelopes, no cigarettes. No millionaires or free niggers. I remember when cotton was packed in round bales with a crowbar. The iang bag was made first and was r.dt ,1 from a hai? in the gin "hens ' fi.mr 'nd l"nr!c Jack sot down ;n it or. : pa had th? cotton hard as it d was thrown to hira. He packed two vnl.-,s a day and they wcigiud 400 pounds each. Two of thorn filled the (bed of the big wagon and five more were crossed on top and fastened down with a long pole. All the little spaces were filled with corn and fodder, the big cover put cn and with a four or six-horse team we were off for Augusta. It was a ten-day's trip and we boys were happy to go along and cantp out all n:g%t and listen to the nigger dri- | vers ten about ghosts and Jaek-o'- | Lanterns and witches and raw head and bloody hones. It wal great fun. We brought back sugar and molasses in great hogsheads. It was brown sugar, for white sugar wasn't invented, except a kind called loaf sugar, which was put up in five-pound cones and covered with blue paper. That kind was for rich folks and was very preoI V ions. It was crystallized like these little square lumps that are common nc-w. When our mother would unwrap the loaf she would let us children lick the sweet white tissue paper that was next j to the sugar. It was good. Most any- | thing was good then. A stick of striped candy was a rare treat. So was half an orange, or a bunch of "reesins " as the niggers called them. Most anything was good then, for our appetite had not been surfeited with cake3 and ou'dotmpats as thev are now. We loved sassafras root and angelica and sugar berries and locusts and wild cherries and the inside bark of chestnut trees and slippery elm. We were always hungry and hunting for something. My Alabama friend is sad. not only because he has lost his youthful companions. but his youthful appetite. Even ginger cakes have lost their relish and a game of sweepstakes and town ball and bull-pen their fascination. I envy the happy children as they play around me. but I am happy, too. in trying to make them happy, for I know that there is trouble enough ahead of them, for man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. The best we can do is to do the best we can to fortify against it and take the bad with the good. Try to be calm and serene, for life is full of blessings and we should school ourselves to magnify them and be thankful. I have not forgotten the poor little boy who slept under the straw, and one cold windy night his mother laid an old dcor on -1- - ? v.^.i/1 it Hmvn !>nrt hp staid II1K blian IU iiuiu it UI/IIU, ...... "Mother, I reckon there are some little boys who havent got any door to put over them." It is a good way for us to think about those who are worse off then we are, and my Alabama friend knows there are thousands of them. But I must stop, for it is hard to write a cheerful letter these gloomy days. The weather is depressing and that helps my Alabama friend to feel sad. Cobe says that a Ions wot lain is worse on a man than a long dty drought. We have not seen the blessed sunshine for four long days and the wind has blown down my pretty butter bean arbor flat to the groun 1.?Bill Arp in Atlanta Constitution. JOMFORT FROM ELECTRICITY. How Creatly It Aids Men to Endure tho Heated Term's Agonies. The hot weather, to equal which in intensity the meteorological authorities have had to go back thirty years, had many mitigations that were not available to the last g.iteration; and they were largely of an electrical nature. For example, great life was made of the telephone, enabling men to sit in their offices or country nomcs uuu uau.-au bu.-iness at a distance without any necessity to trudge the Saharan streets, 'l'hey say the ordeal is a trying one at such seasons to the little telephone girl, but she does her work bravciy and well. Then there is the fan motor, bringing "sea breezes" into the iiottest building. Their popularity was Immense a? a relief to weary people, and the market was soon swept bare of them. We have heard of one society woman who, with a member of her family under the weather, went to an electrical store and, being told all the fans in sight were sold, iaid violent hands on one and refused to be comforted until she was allowed to ;arry it away tn perspiring triumph in her carriage. As for the electric light, that has long been a familiar boon, but one needs to get out in the country or by the seaside. where only oil lamps and candles are available, to realize once more how grateful and cool the little incandescent lamp is. Moreover, in town tiie ice cream freezer or the electric stove can lie run from the same circuit as the lamp, but in the holiday wilds brute force and fire again arc disagreeably necessary. The wonder is that electricity is still so little known and used outside the towns and cities. It is most needed by the sad sea waves and amid the cornfields and potato patclics. Perhaps the biggest electric boon of all in such calcining weather as that which has been the subject of so much flattering comment recently is the trolley car. All the street railway companies report a busy time, and their employees were worked to tlitf* point of exhaustion. Any cursory glance at the cars will show that the travel is quite largely of a recreative character, ,'n tli/? lint nitrhfs when en OJJtViailjr III wav ?v. ---n . --tire families with the latest ailing little baby board the cars to go for a fifteenmile swift crni-'e for five cents a head? for the adults. The sick man does not mow take up his bed and walk. He gets relief these summer nights by jumping on the first trolley car and leaving his bed behind him. The trolley car thus does en masse for the suffering population that which electricity docs more individually for members of the community who can each pay for a telephone. a lamp, a fan motor, and a freezer for themselves. Great indeed is electricity in the dog days! Cnrlmis Kiif;lUli Tpinirm. Some of the English tenures are exceeding curious. A farm near Broadhouse, in .Yorkshire, pays annually to the landlord a snowball in midsummer and a red rose at Christmas. The manor of Foster, is held by a rental Df two arrows and a loaf .of bread. An estate in the north of England is held by the exhibition before a court every seven years of a certain vase owned by the family; another, in Suf- i Coik, by an annual rental of two white f u-.iS. ? A TERRIBLE CHARGE PREFERRED. Young White Man Accused of Attempting a Criminal Assault On a Young White (Iirl. Florence, Special.?A warrant sworn out by Mr. A. J. Lynch, of Effingham township, before Judge Smith alleges that Mr. L. Cook, a young white man attempted a nameless crime upon the person of Mr. Lynch's daughter, a girl about 16 years old. The alleged assault occurred 14 milos from the city and a denntv has eone to H'rest Mr, Cook. The girl states that Mr. Cook made improper proposals and threatended force. She refused and in the struggle that followed her face and arms were scratched and bruised. Tne two were returning from chuich in a buggy at night. Making a supreme effort, the girl states that she escaped from the buggy and ran into the woods. The night being dark she fell Into a deep ditch. The alleged assailant did not follow. Relatives found her a half hour afterward sitting by the roadside crying as if her hear: would break. A Sad Story, Florence. Special.?Ne^vs has reached Florence of the drowning near Jocasseo, in Pickens county, of young Victor Wilson, son of the Rev. J. B. Wilson of Anderson. It seems from the meagre reports, that the young man was one of a party of bathers in Ke )rt-ee river. He was caught in the swift current of the mountain stream and whirled to his death before the eyes of his companions, who were powerless to render any assistance. Miss Maude i Wilson, a sister, witnessed the distressing accident from the banks of the stream. The Rev. Mr. Wilson lived in Florence several years ago as presiding elder cf the Florence district of the Methodist church. Victor, for thus he is remembered in Florence, was the idol of the family. He graduated from Wofford College last year. He took an enviable stand in his class, and was very popular among his college mates. Two Coroners Needed. Governor MeSweeney finds himself confronted with the necessity cf appointing two coroners in view of vacancies made by death. A few days ago Coroner Tuten of Hampton county pased away in the mountains. Tho governor has asked the legif.lative delegation in both the cou?t^e3 to meet and recommend suitable persons to fill the vacancies. It is rare that a coroner dies in office. A Drowning. Walhalla, Special.?Victor Wilson, son of liev. J. B. Wilson of Anderson was drowned in White Water river ? Saturday at Jocassee. His body was not recovPred till Monday afternoon. His remains left here Monday aceorn panled by his parents' family. Assailant Identified. Macon, Special.?At an early hour Saturday morning Officer Arthur Johnsen arrested a ne^ro named Tom Hay. who is chaiged with criminally issanlting Sophie McArthy, colored, aged 70 years, on last Satu day ni.ht. In VlnArllla U'hnn U . ? ? clared that he did not commit the crime. At 10 o'clock Ray was carried into the p'es?nce oi' the woman an i she positively identified him as heas.-ailant. Ray was taken back lo jail to await the November term of Bibb superior court. The woman has been confined to bed since last Sunday from the injuries infiicted by Ray. May Be Jones' Murderer. Rochester, N. Y.. Special.?A negro giving the name of "John Flagler" asked for a night's lodging late Tuesday night at the central police station and was locked up. Chief Cleary examined the man and after taking hi3 measurement by the Bertillon system, suspects the man is Jim Lowry. of Shelby, N. C., wanted in that city for the murder August 4th last of Chief of Police Jones. When questioned by the chief. Flagler, or Lowry, told several conflicting stories as to his whereabouts during the past week or two. In Paragraphs. Norfolk is to have a $60,000 plant erected on the south branch of the Elizabeth river by the McNally Oil Manufacturing Co. for the purpose of manufacturing castor and other vegetable oils. The plan3 for the main building and warehouses have been completed, and are now in the hands of the contractor, who will submit bids at once. Texas cotton seed products are now only fairly steady. Prime crude oil, loose, and prime summer yellow oil are both nominal, while linters are quoted at 1 3-4 to 2 1-4 cents per pound, of f. o. b. mill at Texas interior points: cotton seed meal and cotton seed cake are $21 to $21.50 per ton, and baled hulls $5, all f. o. b. Galveston. narion Butler to Build a Factory. Clinton, N. C., Special.?It is reported here on good authority that Marion Butler has formed a company to establish and operate a cotton mill at Elliott, his country home several miles from Clinton. It is understood that the capital other than his own was subscribed by parties in the West whor.i he met on his way to Alaska. COL. NEAL PARDONED. Governor McSweeney Gives His Reasons For the Pardon. Col. Wm. A. Neal, the former superintendent of the State penitentiary who was convicted in June in the court of general cessions for Hichlan J county, of failure to turn over within 20 davs to his successor public funds In his hands and was sentenced to | serve four months in the county jaii and pay a fine of $1,000, has heen pardoned. The pardon was not a surprise to the general public in view of the remarkably strong petinons and letters that the governor has been receiving for the past week. When Col. Neal was informed of the action of the governor he wept like a child. Soon afterwards, the man whose case had attracted the attention of the people o! the State so much during the past few months, took the train for Anderson and went to his family circle, declaring that he has now to start out upon life anew and show the world that he could yet be a man, though he had gone through enough to kill an ordinary mortal. Thus ends a case that has excited universal comment, and one which ha3 commanded the attention of the courts to a considerable degree. Of course the pardon \va3 not granted until the appeal pending in the State supreme court had been aba:i doned an-d the following Dotiee of such action had been served upon the attorney general: To G. Duncan Bellinger, Attorney General and J. W. Thurmond, Solicitor: You will please take notice that Wm. A. Neal, defendant in the abov-': stated case, his abandoned his inton tton to appeal iu me suyicmc notice of which was served on yon on the first day of July. 1901. P. H. Nelecr Julius E. Boggs. Attorneys for Wm. A. Neal. Gov. McSweeney gave the following statement In writing as to his reasons for granting the petitions in this i-23c: "In addition to the petitions which were signed by gnntlemen of the highest reputation and standing in Rich land, Anderson. Greenville, Spartanburg, Pickens. Rock Hill and other counties and cities where W. A. Neal was known, I received letters from prominent men from all pans of the State urging me to exercise executive clemency on the ground that the law had been vindicated, and the defendant on account of the high position he once occupied, had been sufficiently humiliated and punished by hi3 conviction, and had made good to the State, prior to his conviction, all the money for which he was officially lia ble. "A pardon was urged by the sureties on bis official bond, not only by theft signatures to the petition, but also by letters and personal Interview. Tht petition stated that Neal bad paid tht full amount for which his official bond was liable, and one of the sureties in a personal Interview, assured me thai they had paid up all moneys demanded by the State from them, and that they had boen reimbursed by Neal a short ftmo after eAttlinf? with the State, and prior to his trial for breach of truai with fraudulent intent, upon which charge he was acquitted. 'The petitions male no question bui that Ncal's trial and conviction ware regular and technically proper, but prayed his pardon upon the ground that the law had been sufficiently vindicated by his conviction and consequent humiliation. "I saw no ieason for withholding clemency, inasmuch as his conviction and sentence has shown that the way of the transgressor is hard, and the highest as well as the lowest citizen is amendable to the law. "Imprisonment under such circumstances could uot add anything to the humiliation of one who has occupied such positions as Neai, but could only bring sorrow and pain to his wife and children, und the exercise of that clemency, which I am authorized under tht constitution to exercise, may be th* means of inspiring him to an earnest ende&ror to redeem his life, and rein state himself in the good opinion of ills fellow citizens." In addition to this statement the governor handed to the newspaper men and correspondents the larg* batch of letters he had received from prominent men in different portions of the State urging the pardon of Col. Neai. Only a few of them can here bf reierrea to. Coi. Jas. L. Orr, of Greenville, wrote the governor thus: "I would respectfully ask the pardon of W. A. Neal. upon the ground that there was not one scintilla of testimony showing any criminal intent to defraud t he-State, and 1 do not believe that such intent exer existed. I think the ends of jus tiee have been achieved, and the ma je3ty of the law vindicated and taat he should be pardoned." Chairman J. C. Wilborn, of the State railroad commission, wrote as follows. "1 desire to earnestly request you to consider the petition to pardon ex Superintendent W. A. Neal most favor ably. "The conviction of Col.. Neal in this matter was entirely upon a technicality, in the matter of not having turned over within 30 days funds in his hands to his successor. He has paid to the State all that the legislative committee said he was due. "Col. Neal did not turn over thi* money while the matter was still ir. the hands of the investigating commit tee. but as soon as the case was settled he did so. "I truly hope you can feel that it is * i ; ' / : I- * . - * r consistent with your sense of high duty to pardon this citizen." The following Is what the Hon. A. T. Smythe, of Pendleton, wrote in his letter to the governor: "I notice In the papers that the subject of a pardon for Col. Wm. A. Neal is being agitated, i write to join in tne otner requests that you take such action. The State ha? not lost one cent by him, he paid the amount he was ascertained to be owing in full, and his conviction at most was a mere technicality, because he did not par in thirty days. If every one guilty of tnat offense iy to be imprisoned, we must build new Jails and import extra population for jailers. I earnestly recommend his pardon." J. A. Mooney. of the Greenville bar. wrote as follows: "I do not believe in vicarious sacrifices, hence for that reason as veil as for other patent ones I write to join niy voice in the prayer of thousands of my fellow citizens asking lor the pardon of Col. Meal. The people of this section ?re not satisfied with the result of his trial, but are indignant that he has been sentenced to suffer the mortidcation and shame of imprisonment. I have never believed that he deliberately stole the State's money and where today are the men who got the State's property for nothing by reason of poor Meal's great heart and his confidence in men? Could a jury be found to convict one of these mighty men in Israel? i do firmly believe that for onv insularities in Neal's office these friends (?) of hi3 and superiors in office arc morally responsible. To the sensitive i iind the mere trial upon such a charge is not only punishment, but it is torture. The poor fellow is broken in spirits and fortune and I believe the good people of the State would rejoice at his pardon." J A. the last term of the court the other case pending against Col. Neal, charging him with breach of trust with fraudulent intent, was marked discontinued in some way. It is not thought that the discontinuance was requested by the attorney general or the solicitor. it is not known, however. * whether there will be any effort to push this last caso or not by reopening it. It may be that in view of the circumstances the case will be allowed to 6t.ond as it is now and the French expression of "the incident is closed" will be applied. 21,000 Miners flay Become Idle. Lexiineton. Ky? Special.?Dr. J. T. Slade, of this city, who was chairman of the convention of United Mine Operators of Kentucky and Tennessee, held at Knoxville last week, and who is president of the Eagle Coal Company of Kentucky, predicts that because of differences between the miners and operators, which seem impossible to settle, no new contracts will be signed Sep tember l.'and that 21,000 miners will become idle for an indefinite period. No Ci t at Fall River, Fall River. Mass., Special.?A thorough canvass of the situation here indicates that the plan to cut the wage3 of mill operatives in this print cloth center la per cent. September 3, will fall. Eighteen corporations controlling exactly 1,458.926 of the 3,042,472 spindies in this city, manufacturing plain and fancy goods, will not enter into the agreement which calls for the signatures of the treasurers representing 1,730.000 spindles in order to make it operative. 23 Men Killed. London, By Cable.?Lord Kitchener, In a dispatch from Pretoria, dated says that a party of South African constabulary yesterday surprised a strong Boer laager near Middleburg, Cape Colony, killing 23 men. The con3iat-1--" 1 "ft m ATI * hilt A TV1 fl CT UU I cli y liuauoi^u iww , WV.V, vn>?9 to the strength of the enemy 600 to 800 men, they wero urabl? to follow up their success, and during their retirement they lost one man killed and had six men wounded. Fourteen men are missing. ? ? ;jK Fishermen of the North Pacific coast are undertaking a movement for the destruction of sea lions, the inveterate enemies of salmon and other food fishes, and which annually make incalculable ravages in the schools of Chinooks, -teelheads and other varieties of salmon that hover off the Washington and Oregon coast. * * llie I ?ir?^r h(h1 ."Most C omplete stabllsliiiifiit ?outh. 6E0. S. HACKER & SON, j ? MANUFACTURERS OP ? 3ash. Doors. Blinds* Moulding ?n<l Building Material, Sash Wei (fills and Cord CHARLESTON, S. C. Purchase our muke, which we guar- ^ superior to any sold South, and hereby save caouey. 'Vinu.,w and Fancy Glass a Specialty. * 5 | ;& Je