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A VIRILE WEEKLY PRESS. i Tbe News & Courier Rises Ye Defend Ybe Country Press. The Columbia lfecord "has! viewed with distress the vacuity ; of tbe editorial pages of many of its South Carolina weekly exchanges.'' This is not so important as it is interesting as \ one of the peculiar phenomena of sorrow. The wide world has seemed a ver3Tdark brown thing to the Record for more than a month and all objects are seen by it through streaming tears, but its moans remind us that the weekly newspapers of the State, so far from being "as insipid as unsalted hominy,'' have never at any time to our extended observation appeared quite so lively, vigorous and pungent as during the past twelve months. Possibly their smartness might have been en hanced by more liberal quotations from the Columbia Record, but that is their fault, it may be their "very great fault," as Mr Kipling would say. It is all in the point of view. v To a fairly happy newspaper, with no "sorrows crown of sorrow" in "remembering hapoier things" there is a pleasure *" ? in voting that not only the Yorkville, Abbeville and Gaffney papers teem with positive and sometimes biting expressions, bnt that in nearly every county are newspapers bristling with telling ideas. We make bold to mention a few examples which by no means cover the whole field of South Carolina. The Aiken Journal and Review always contains something, about somebody or some issue that helps or hurts. Seldom is more originality to be found in any weekly newspaper than in U the Greenwood Journal. Editor A W Knight's Bamberg Herald impresses us as singularly free from the slightest fear of expressing its opinion, and no politici&n is too powerful for it to touch with the" sharp point of its Istnce upon occasion. The Bennettsville Advocate has steadily maintained a consistent political view for its county during the long dispen\ sary warfare against politicians who, to our mind, have succeeded in forcing the historic prohibition strong hold of Marlboro into a queerly absurd posture I before the State. No issue of! 0 the Winnsboro News and Herald is ever barren of clean-cut opinion usually in opposition to * the dominant political sentiment of its county, and by, the way, , t the newspaper which holds its - own for years against majorities 5 may as a rule be trusted. J' In Williamsburg the closest contest between dispensary and an ti-dispensary notions was carried on, and it is a reasonable presumption that the decided victory won the prohibitionists would not have resulted without the persevering hammering of the opposition by Editor Wolfe's / County Record. We have heard of no question arising in Beaufort that has not had pointed comment from Editor Niels Christensen, Jr, and the Ander son Intelligencer and the Anderson Mail have scarcely emerged from about as warm a tire of editorial conflict?perhaps too warm?as one could wish to see. For thirty years the Newberry Observer has been a dispenser (no offence meant) of virile and epigrammatic opinion which has - had its influence throughout South Carolina, and it is no rest flection on our Columbia contemporary to remark that Editor Wallace's words count for more in the shaping of public affairs than do those of most writers in daily newspapers. The New: berry Herald and News is another distinctly strong editorial newspaper, and the Sumter Watchman and Southron proper| . ]y ranks with the high class county newspapers of the country both as to editorial and V ~ ~ V ? news matter. The Hartsville Messenger, ol newspapers not published at i county seat, perhaps heads the list for clear and outspoken ex pressions, and it is always z leader of the best opinion. Tht Laurensville Herald, with whicl it is our misfortune to frequent ly disagree, never negative? and never trims, and the Man nin^f Times is habitually mili tant. We might go further anc name a dozen others equalh conspicuous for individuality and character. It is all in the point of viewSome of these spring- days the sap will rise again in the Co lumbia Record.?Xtws if- Courier WEALTH OF THE NATION. Statistics Showino The Enormous Re sources of Qur Country. Washington, March 23:?The tot^l estimate of the valuatior of the national wealth ir 1904 was 8107,104,192,410 according to a special reporl issued today by the census bureau on wealth, debt and taxa tion, which represents an in crease in the four year period from 1900 to 1904 of $18,586,885,. 635. This advance in nationa1 wealth has no parallel in th< history of the United States ex cept the decade from 1850 tc 1860. In 1850 wheu the lirsl estimates of the national wealth were made the figures wen only $7,135,780,228. The various forms into which the nation's wealth is divided with their valuations, are as follows: Real property and improve ments, taxed $55,510,228,057 real property and improve ments, exempt, $6,831,244,570 live stock, $4,073,791,736; farn implements and machinery, 844, 989,863; manufacturing machinery tools and implements, $3,297, 754,180; gold and silver coin anc bullion, $1,998,603,303; railroads and their equipment, $11,244, 752,000; street railways, $2,219, 966,000; telegTaph systems $227,400,000; telephone systems 585,840,000; Pullman and privati cars. $123,000,000; shipping- anc canals, $846,489,804; privatel} owned waterworks, $275,000,000 privately central electric ligh and power stations, $562,851,105 agricultural products, $1,899, 379,652; manufactured products $7,409,291,668; imported mer chandise, $495,543,685; mining products, $408,066,787; clothing and personal adornments, $2, 500,000,000; furniture, carriages and kindred property, $5,570,. 000,000. The total public indebtedness of continental United States ir 1902 was $2,789,990,120 and the total per capita indebtedness was $31.55. The total indebtedness of the national governmeDl for the year was $925,011,637, and the per capita indebtedness was $11.27. Becomes a Little Rebel. That there is a startling differ ence between the temper of the ris irig generation and that of th< youth whose young ideas shot uj according to the teachings of Mrs Hannah More and Sanford anc Merton has recently been provec by a little seven-year-old girl, wh< was laboriously spelling her wa] through a reading lesson. "Always speak the truth," sh< said, "and obey your parents. "Be gentle and quiet. Nev-e] slam the door and shout and ecrean a-bout the house. "At the ta-ble eat slowly, not ii a rrroofl.v msin-rior lilvO ft TilCr " ** fe* *.*??* j "?j r-c Suddenly the little girl shut the book with a portentous bang anc announced with firmness and deci sion: "I'm not going to let any olc Third Reader boss me like that!"? Rochester Herald. * The Correct Count. As a prisoner was brought before Judge Sherman for sentence the clerk happened to" be absent. Judge Sherman asked the officer in charge orf the prisoner what the offense waa with which he was charged ''Bigotry, your honor. He's beer married to three women." "Why, officer, that's not bigotry," said the judge; "that's trigonometry."?Indianapolis Star. ' . .. ' -; l \ A SOURED CONDUCTOR. f Incident That Changed Hie Theory of 1 Street Car Etiquette. It was O'Brien's first day on the * job. He had served his probation i term as conductor on the Sixth ave? nue line and after a few days of 1 anxious waiting had been told to report for duty the following morni ing. Ten o'clock found him bound downtown on the poop deck of a yellow car with a bunch of change in his pocket and a heart full of ^ pride and hope. O'Brien had ideas of his own re; garding how a conductor should act in the performance 01 nis aunes. He had read from time to time stories in the newspapers which re^ fleeted severely upon the manners of the man who pulls the bell. He . determined to be an exception to what seemed to be the general rule. .He would be uniformly kind and polite to old and young and never lose his temper. Perhaps, he ' mused, by following this course he might some day get to be superin, tendent. The trip from the car barns down 1 to Forty-second street was compara1 tively without incident, save that , the motorman's feelings were outt raged and his 60ul irrevocably lost . because O'Brien refused to ring the starting bell until an alighting passenger had both feet 6afely on the " ground or an incoming one was well I within the car. Down in the shopping district [ O'Brien 6aw his first chance to put 4 his real thepry into practice. A woman on the crosswalk signaled " for the car to stop. Beside her was > a little girl of perhaps six years. "In t the woman's arms was an infant , still in swaddling clothes, with tiny k I flaxen curls peeping out from under ' I a cap. The woman started to help the little girl up the step. O'Brien i sprang forward, seized the child , and 6wung her easily to the plats form. "Now the baby, ma'am," he said. And before the woman coulcl uttei a word of protest he had snatched J the infant from her arms, held it closely with his left arm, reached . down his right, assisted the woman j up and pushed her and the girl gently forward, following close behind after giving the starting bell. 1 It was all done so suddenly the wo. man had no time to speak. Then [ she tried to say something, but hex 5 voice failed, and almost bursting with suppressed laughter 6he dropped into a seat. Then for the first time O'Brien , noticed that the baby he carried ; was of unusually light weight. He B also noticed that every passenger * * ??: .1: I in his car wore grins 01 varying ?uraensions. With a muttered excla1 mation he almost threw into the ; woman's lap one of those "life t sized" dolls which children like to . take "out shopping" and which their mothers invariably have to carry home. ? O'Brien flew for the back plat form and partly relieved his feelr ings by savagely kicking at a small r .boy who was stealing a ride. They JV X X say now uunen is xne worst tampered conductor on the line.?Now 5 York Press. Two Swallows. 'Hello, Mick! Have you heard ! about that awful affair?" j "What awful affair?" "About the man swallowipg the 5 girl." "Swallowing a girl? Go 'long! t Couldn't be done." "Yes, fact. Swallowed a little milk made hot." ' "Well, that's good! But, look here, old pal, what about the railway man that swallowed his mate, eh?" "Give it up." " "Well, he swallowed a little Dub? lin porter cold !f'?London Mail. ) 1 Absorbing. 1 "What are you reading that causes ) you to smile so delightedly ?" 1 "I beg your pardon." "I ask you what are you reading? i Something new in fiction?" "Fiction? Just a trace." r "Any poetry ?" i "Well, that's more like it." "Not philosophy?" i "Plenty of it." "Oh, come! What are you readi ing?" 1 "The report of the secretary of - agriculture. Don't bother me."? Cleveland Plain Dealer, i I Clear Evidence. Judge?What's your name? Prisoner?I'm Pat Murphy, your honor. | "Where do you live ?" "Sure, I don't live anywhere, ! sorr." Judge (to second prisoner)? 5 What'3 your name? 'Tm Denis McCarthy, sorr." "Where do you live V' J "Begorra, your honor, I live next door to Pat Murphy." ? London Punch. .. . >/. j FIGHTERS. St.c .* .4 . .7ill Attack On* Another uytning Else. 'i >ack is the most combative 1,6. . i,cording to an angling expert. raison d'etre for a sticiviobac.. ?ncounter," says the writer, "i& . e lerally, I believe, that which act jnen to fight over women. 7..hen 1 liave watched them myself 1 have not been able to learn whether there has been a lady 'tiddler' present or not or, if so, which one she was. But, whatever the motive may have been, I*have seen trUK ac ?rmr?Vi /locnorn. I tion as would have been necessary i if forty females had been the point j of issue. Not only will they fight ' one tmother, but they will even go out of their way to attack anything which may appear to them offensive, and if a walking stick be put into the water near a fight the two combatants will almost surely suspend personal animosities for awhile and make for the stick, butting it with their homv noses and trying to saw it in two by swimming | on their sides with their stickles rubbing against the wood. Having conquered the stick, the two turn against each other again. "The victor stickleback assumes a radiant, translucent green, his sides and gills glow with scarlet and gold, while his white under parts shimmer like silver. It is then at i its finest. In an aquarium, however, the stickleback loses his combativeness and becomes a faded creature, though at first it fights the glass case if alone and another if it has companions till the mastery is obtained, when victor and conquered 6wim to the corners and die or pine away. '"The stickleback shoots at its opponent, strikes and is away as quickly as a flash. Then back it mt .x comes again, xiieir spines get uo?ered with blood from each other's body, the spines being used like a saw whenever the one fighter gets under the ojher. Although the sticklebick fights at all seasons, the height of the fighting comes during the mating season." BANK OF ENGLAND NOTES. The Enormous Output and the Safeguards Against Forgery. The Bank of England refuses to use color for its notes on account of the fact that the authorities believe that its whiteness and apparent simplicity are the greatest safeguards against forgery. The whiteness of a Bank of England note is different to that of any other pa per and is obtained by using only llie very finest linen rags in the making. At Laverstoke, a little village in Hampshire, the paper is prepared, and at the miH there every blank is as zealously guarded as if it were already engraved. Even' workman or workwoman employed at the mill is bound to secrecy, and the secrets of the mysterious water mark and texture of the paper are known only by the most tried and trusted of the workmen. It is not generally known that every hank note bears a private water mark, which is constantly being changed in a wav^ known only to the head officials and wfiicfi is discernible through a microscope only. And it says much for the vigilance and skill of the Bank of England cashiers that, although they pay on an average ?27,000 in exchange for notes every day, they have never yet paid a forged note. The easiest way to detect a forged note is by dampening a corner with the tongue.. If genuine, the watei mark appears very distinct. In counterfeit notes it almost disappears. On a genuine "fiver" there is a small white dot on the right side of the Old English "I" in the word "Five." The tail of the letter "F" in the sentence 'Tor the Governor and Company" is also left in an incomplete state. The ink with which bank note9 are printed is made of charred husks and stems of Rhenish vines, and the recipe, like the manufacture of the paper, is a carefully guarded secret. Each bank note costs about a halfpenny to produce and on an average is in circulation about seventy I days. After being paid the notes 1 1 * TQQrfl are tiorcu oy mo umm iui n?c at the end of which time they are destroyed bv burning in a large furnace. Eighteen millions of money thus disappear in the course of e?erv year. Once a note is returned to the bank it is never reissued, and after bein* canceled by having the signature of the chief cashier torn off it is placed in what is known as the bank nota library.for purposes of reference. There are no fewer than 120 clerks in this department, and so perfect is their system of filing ' that any one of the 77,745,000 notes which form the usual stock on hand can be reached in five minutes. Altogether the Bank of England has some ?15,000.000 worth of notes / I in circulation and issues betwee f>0.000 and GO,000 notes of varioi denominations each day. There ai seventy or eighty kinds of Bank < England notes of different value Every year about 3,000 of the not* issued are lost or destroyed by tl owners. At any rate, they are ne or returned to the bank and repr | sent a clear profit. While it is tru I however, that if a note never conn 1 back the bank profits to thj amount, Ihey never can tell whe i these so railed missins notes ms ! be presented. Soine people possess a weakne for hoarding bank notes, and the r i suit lias been that frequently tl j bank is called upon to cash dirt ! crumpled notes which were issu< i years ago.?London Tit-Bits REFUSED TO STRIKE. I | An Incident of the Shorter Hour Mov ment In Russia. During a period when the waite j and chambermaids were forcib ! out of the Warsaw hotels and re i taurants on strike many of tl i servants in private houses flatly r j fused to leave their work, and tho i who did go into the streets soon r j turned. A servant in the employ of oi I old nobleman, who does not eia j much work from his household, r ceived the men who had come persuade him to join them, recli ing on a sofa. "What do you gentlemen want he asked languidly when the foi delegates were ushered into h presence by the scared kitchi maid. "You must come into tl streets/' "But what for?" "To join the general strike for uniform eight hour day." The servant sprang from his sof "How dare you even suggest su< a thing?" he demanded indignantl "I never heard of anything like in my life! Eight hours, indee* Why, you won't find a self respec ing footman in the town to suppo such a movement!" V.AMM Ar\ WA11 nrA1*lr 1 liuw many ruuio uu juu iivm asked the astonisned delegates, wl looked upon all domestic servan as white slaves. "Two or three at the most, spend much of my time on this so reading the newspapers, which a very interesting just now. I c< just see myself walking about tl muddy streets to get eight houj work a day! I'm not fool enouf for that, gentlemen !" "Then give us some money f the committee," the deputati< urged. "tfever! I should be actii against all my principles if I ga as much as 1 cent toward suppoi ing an organization which is in f vor of domestic servants workii eight hours a day!"?Pall Mall G zette. A Hopeless Case. Prtwlt?lA 4at?I?IK1 u Kr ^1 V/ttUt IC nns icinutj uvitu iv t vi persistent cptiraism of his friei Emerson. "I thought," he sai "that I would try to cure him, so took him to 'some of the lowe parts of London and showed him t that was going on there. This don I turned to him, saying, 'And no man, d'ye believe in the deevil noo 'Oh, no!' he replied. 'All thesepe pie seem to me only parts of t) great machine, and on the whole think they are doing their wo: very satisfactorily.' Then," conti ued the sage, "I took him doufh the hoose o' commons, where th? put us under the gallery. There showed him 'ae chiel getting tip ai er anither and leeing and leeinj Then I turned to him and sai 'And nno. man. d've believe in tl m~m ? 7 ? / ? y deevil noo?> He made me, ho1 ever, just the same answer as h fore, and I then gave him up in d spair." "A dollai is a doll / There is no better wa dealing with J. L. Stuckey, the < man I have a splendid lin< flit i? that in view of the hard tiir above cost. A nice bunch of HORS at prices to suit. J. L. Sti "C< ? . . v " } i . i Throat JI \Coii<jhs e" \ Vk your doctor about thet-j* e' liiiioat coughs. He will |j you how deceptive they are >n I A tickling in tne throat oi'tt? ^ ; means serious trouble ahead. , | Better explain your case car - ' ss fullvbto your doctor, and ask .} . e- j him ajout your taking Ayer's i ie Cherry Pectoral. 3 / _ We banlth alcohol 0 ff "W r from our mecLCiucs 9 ff U We urge you to A fj; CO " con?u)tyour j] if doctor Who makes the best liver pills? The .1. C. Aver Company, of Lowell, Mass. They have been making Ayer's Pills for I over sixty years. If you have the slightrs est doubt about using these pills, ask ly your doctor. Do ns he says, always. ? fade t>r 'be J. C. J.ri\r Co.. ? ? ? le ;! 1 FIRF, LIFE, ACCIt DENT, HEALTH to ?" | Burglary * Insurance a for Banks or pri- J vate residences. a. ft SURETY f! BONDS rt ? P? given for Administra" 10 tors, Receivers, Trusts tees, Cashiers of I Banks, Treasurers of fa Corporations, State, / ^ said County officers, ie ? The WilUflmsburp Insurance & Bondm Ino floenGU, ig Kingstree, - S. C. ve ^ummg lg -i . a" Kingstree CAMP NO- 22. uMirua *tin*?? # 1?t?nd 3rd Monday id \\*K?1^H9tZ7// visiting choppers cor, VJr^?5^^P5%-vy dially inyited to come Q, l\jSaefi|'jpr>y up and sit on a stump J or hang a tout on the ?f , PHILIP STOLL, 111 9 27 12m. Con. Com. . ie. t> ?o, , # K/of r=>. ?" v %?y Kingstree Lodge " Sgi^ No. 91 rk Jll|?^ Knights of Pythias n- Regular Conventions Every to 2nd and 4th[W'ednesday nights, ey Visiting brethren always welcome,. I Castle Hall 3rd story Gourdin Building, it- F W FAIREY, c. c. TH0S Mr CUTCHEN, K. R. & s. ^ Everyone knows that Spring jis ^ the season.of the year when the system needs cleansing. DADE'S T LITTLE LIVER PILLS are highly recommended. Try them.?Sold by W L Wallace. r saved lar made" iy to save your dollars than by old reliable live-stock e of B Hi HfflBf 1 A les am offering at 10 per cent ES and MULES always on hand * uckey, L*ecHy,s.a ,