The gazette. (Elberton, Ga.) 1872-1881, January 26, 1876, Image 1
IfMjfeiOMt Citnte The undersigfed have this hay entered into a partnership f'orthe practice of law in the town of Elberton under the name and at)le of SHANNON & WORLEY. Will practice wherever emyloyed. and prom ise prompt attention to all business entrusted to them. Thankful for the patronage bestowed upon them in the past, they ask a continuance of the same. JOHN P. SHANNON. Jan’y 8, 1876-tf JOSEPH N. WORLEY. J. S. HARKETT, ATTORNEY AT LAW, ELBERTON, GA. JOHN T. OSHOUS, ATTORNEY AND COUNSELOR AT LAW, ELBEKTON, da. WILL PRACTICE IN SUPERIOR COURTS and Supreme Court. Prompt attention to the collection of claims. nev'l7 ly IL. J. GARTRELL, ATTORNEY AT LAW, ATLANTA, GA, PRACTICES IN THE UNITED STATES Clß cuit and District Courts at Atlanta, and Supreme and Superior Courts of the State. (BibcvUnx Cavite. J. A. WREN, PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST Has located for a short time at DR. EDMUNDS’ GALLERY, ELBERTON. GA. WHERE ho is prepaled to execute every class of work in his line to the satisfac tion of all who bestow their patronage. Confi dent of his ability to please, he cordially iuvites ' a test of his skill, with the guarantee that if he does net pass a critical inspection it need not be taken. mch24.tf. MAKES A SPECIALTY OF Copying & Enlarging Old Pictures T. J. B3WMSN STCI REAL ESTATE AGENTS, ELBERTON, GA., ~IT7 ILL attend to the business of effecting VV sales and purchases of REAL ESTATE as Agents, on REASONABLE TERMS. Applications should be made to T. J BOWMAN. Sepl f-tf ES & BUGGiES, J. TP. ATT H D (Jarria(;eMlanufact’r ELBERTOS, GEORGIA. WITH GOOD WORKMEN! LOWEST PRICES! CLOSE PERSONAL ATTENTION TO BUSINESS, and an EXPERIENCE OF 27 YEARS, He hopes by honest and fair dealing to compete any other manufactory. Good Buggies, warranted, - $125 to $l6O REPAIRING ANDBLACKSMITIIING. Work done in this line in the very best style. Tlie Best Harness TERMS CASH. My22-1v J. m. balsfield, THE BEAL LIVE Fashionable Tailor, Up-Stairs, over Swift & Arnold’s Store, ELBERTON, GEORGIA. Call and See Him. THE ELBERTON DRUG STORE fl, C. EDMUNDS, Proprietor. Has always on hand a full line of Pure Drugs and Patent Medicines Makes a specialty of STATIONERY and PERFUMERY Anew assortment of WHITING PAPER & ENVELOPES Plain and fancy, just received, including a sup ply ot LEGAL CAP. CIGARS AND TOBACCO of all varieties, constantly on hand. F. A. F. WOBLGTT, HAemAXr EASON, ELBERTON, GA. "Will contract for work in STONE and BRICK anywhere in Elbert county [jel6 6m CENTRAL HOTEL MRS. W. M THOMAS, PROPRIEIRESS, AUGUSTA GA THE GAZETTE. JSTew Series. FARMING RUN MID. How I Edited an Agricultural Paper. BY MARK TWAIN. I did not take temporary editorship of an agricultural paper without misgiv ings Neither would a landsman take charge of a ship without misgivings.—• But I was in circumstances that made the salary an object. The regular edit or of the paper was going off for a holi day, and I accepted the terms he offered, and took his place. The sensation of being at work again was luxurious, and I wrought all the work with unflagging pleasure. We went to press, and I waited a day with some solicitude to see whether my ef fort was going to attract an}" notice. As I left the office, toward sundown a group of men and boys at the foot of the stairs dispersed with one impulse, and gave me passage-way, and I heard one or two of them say : “That's him!” I was nat urally pleased by this incident. The next morning I found a similar group at the foot of the stairs and scattering couples of individuals standing here and there in the street and over the way, watching me with interest. The group separated and fell back as I ap proached, and I heard a man sa.y, “Look at his eye!” I pretended not to observe the notice I was attracting, but secret ly I was pleased with it, and was pur posing to write an account of it to my aunt. I went up the short flight of stairs, and heard cheery voices and a ringingjjlaugh as I drew near the door, which l opened and caught a glimpse of two young rural looking men, whose fa ces blanched and lengthened when they saw me, and then they both ploughed through the window with a crash. I was surprised. In about an hour an old gentleman, with a flowing beard and a fine but rather austere face entered, and sat down at my invitation. He “seemed to i have something on his mind. Ho took j off his hat and set it on the floor, and got out of it a red silk handkerchief and a copy of our paper. He put the paper on his lap, and while he polished his spectacles with his ho raid. “Are you the new editor 1" I said I was. “Have you ever edited an agricultural paper before ?” “No,'’ I answered, “this is my first at tempt.” “Very likely. Have you ever had any experience in agriculture practi cally ?” “No, I believe I have not.” “Some instinct told me so,” said the old gentleman, putting on his spectacles and looking over them at me with asper ity, while he folded his paper into a con venieut shape. I wish to read what must have made me have that instinct It was this editorial. Listen, and see if you wrote it: “Turnips should never be pulled, it injures them. It is much better to send a boy up and let him shake the tree.” “Now, what do you think of that? —for 1 really suppose you wrote it?” “Think of it? Why, I think it is sense. I have no doubt that every year millions and millions bushels of turnips are spoiled in this township alone by being pulled in a half ripe condition, when, if they had sent a boy up to shake the tree —” “Shake your grandmother ! Turnips don’t grow on trees !” “Ob, they don’t, don’t they? Well, who said they did ? The language was intended to be figurative, wholly figura tive. Anybody that knows anything will know that 1 meant that the boy should shake the vine.” Then this old person got up and tore his paper all into small shreds, and stamped on them, and broke several things with Lis cane and said I did not know as much as a cow, and then went out and banged the door after him ; and in short acted in such a way that I fancied he was displeased about some thing. But not knowing what the trouble was, I could not be of any help to him. ' Pretty soon after this a long cadaver ous creature, with lanky locks hanging clown to his shoulders, and a week's stubble bristling from the hills and val leys of his face, darted within the door, and halted, motionless, with finger on lip, and head and body bent in listening attitude. No sound was heard. Still he listened. No sound. Then he turn ed the key in the door, and came elabo rately tiptoeing toward me until he was within long reaching distance of me, when he stopped, and after scanning my face with intense interest for awhile, drew a folded copy of our paper from his bosom, and said : “ There, you wrote that. Read it to me—quick. Relieve me. I suffer.” I read as follows, and as the sentences fell from my lips I could see the relief come. I could see the drawn muscles relax, and the anxiety go out of the face, and rest and peace steal over the fea-. tures like the merciful moonlight over a desolate landscape: “The guano is a fine bird, but great care is necessary in rearing it. It should not be imported earlier than June or later than September. In the winter it should be kept in a warm place, where it can hatch out its young. “It is evident that we are to have a backward season for grain. Therefore it will be well for the farmer to begin ESTABLISHED 1859. ELBERTOX, GEORGIA, JAA’Y 26. 187^ setting out his cornstalks and planting his buckwheat cakes in July instead of August “Concerning the pumpkin.—This ber ry is a favorite with the natives of the interior of New England, who prefer it to the gooseberry for making fruit cake, and who likewise give it the preference over the raspberry for feeding cows, as being more filling and fully as satisfy ing. The pumpkin is the only esculent of the orange family that will thrive in the North except the gourd and one or two varieties of the squash. But the custom of planting in the front yard with the shrubbery is fast going out of vogue, for it is now generally conceded that the pumpkin as a shade tree is a failure. “Now, as the warm weather approach es. and ganders begin to spawn—” The excited listener sprang toward me to shake hands, and said— “There, there—that will do. I know lam all right now, because you have read it just as I did, word for word.— But stranger, when I first read it this mornfng, I said to myself, I never, never believed before, notwithstanding my friends kept me under watch so strict, but now I believe lam crazy; and with that 1 fetched a howl that you might have heard two miles, and started out to kill somebody—because, you know, I knew it would come to that sooner or later, and so I might as well begin. I had read one of them paragraphs over again, so as to be certain, and then I burned my house down and started. 1 have crippled several people, and have got one fellow up a tree, where I can get him if I want him. But I thought I would call in here as I passed along and makathe thing perfectly certain ; and now it is certain, and I tell you it is lucky for the chap that is in the tree. I should ave killed him sure, as I went back. Goodbye, sir, goodbye; you have taken a great load off my mind.— My reason has stood the strain of your agricultural articles, an I I know that nothing can ever unseat it now. Good bye, sir - ” I felt a little uncomfortable about the cripplings and arsons this person had been entertaining himself with, for I could not help feeling remotely accesso ry to them. But thes.e thoughts we*-,. mmshea, lOrtbe walked in ! [I thought to myseiq ] if you had gone to Egypt, as I recom i mended you to, I might haveßind chance to get my hand in, but you woul&r not do it, and here you are. I sort of expected you ] The editor was looking sad and per plexed and dejected. He surveyed the wreck which that old rioter aud those two young farmers had made, and then sa'd. “This is a sad business—a very sad business. There is the mucilage bottle broken, and six panes of glass, and a spittoon and two candlesticks- But that is not the worst. The reputation of the paper is injured —and permanently, I fear. True there never was such a call for the paper be fore, and it never sold such a large edi tion or soared to such celebrity; but does one want to be famous to lunacy, and prosper upon the infirmities of his mind? My friend, as lam an honest man, the street out here is full of peo ple, and others are roosting on the fences, waiting to get a glimpse of you, because they think you are crazy. And well they might after reading your ed itorials. They are a disgrace to journ alisnr. Why, what put it into your head that you could edit a paper of this nature? You do not seem to know the first rudiments of agriculture. You speak of a furrow and a harrow as being the same thing; you talk of the moult ing season for cows, and you recom mend the domestication of the polecat on account of its playfulness and its ex cellence as a ratter ? Your remark that clams will lie quiet if music be played to them, was superfluous—entirely super fluous. Nothing disturbs clams. Clams always lie quiet. Clams care nothing whatever about music. Ah, heavens and earth, friend, if you had made the acquiring of ignorance the study of your life, you could not have graduated with higher honor than yon could to day. I never saw anything like it. Your obser vation that the horse chestnut, as an ar tide of commerce, is steadily gaining in favor, is simply calculated to destroy this journal. 1 want you to throw up your situation and go ! I want no more holiday—l could not enjoy it if I had it. Certainly not with you in my chair. I w’ould always stand in dread of what you might lie going to recommend next. It makes me lose all patience every time I think of your discussing oyster beds under the head of “Landscape Garden ing.” I want you to go. Nothing on earth could persuade me to take anoth er holiday! Oh ! why didn’t pou tell me you didn’t know anything about ag rieulture ?” “Tell you, you cornstalk, you cabbage, you son of a cauliflower? It’s the first time I ever heard such an unfeeling remark. I tell you I have been in the editorial business going on fourteen years, and it is the first time I ever heard of a man’s having to know anything to edit a newspaper-. You turnip. ‘ Who write the dramatic critiques for the second rate papers? Why, a parcel of promoted shoemakers and apprentice apotheca caries, who know just as much about good acting as I do about good farming and no more. Who review the books ? People who never wrote one. Who do up the heavy leaders on finance ? Par ties who have had the largest opportu- nities for knowing nothing about it. Mho criticise the Indian campaigns ? Gentlemen who do not know a war whoop from a wigwam, and who never bad to run a foot race with a tomahawk, or plucked arrows out of the several members of their families to build the evening camp fire with. Who write the temperance appeals, and clamor about the flowing bowl ? Folks who will nev er draw another sober breath till they do it in the grave. Who edit the agricul tural papers, jou—yam? Men, as a general thing, who fail in the poetry line, yellow covered novel line, sensa tion-drama line, city editor line, and finally fall back on agriculture as a tem porary reprieve from the poor house.— You try to tell me anythiug about the newspaper business ! Sir, I have been through it from Alpha to Omaha, and I tell you the less a man knows the bigger the noise he makes and the higher sala ry he commands. Heav n knows if I had but been ignorant instead of culti vated, and impudent instead of diffident, I could have made a name for myself in this cold, selfish world. I take my leave, sir. Since I have been treated as you have treated me, lam perfectly willing to go. But I have done my duty. I have fulfilled my contract as far as i was permitted to do it. I said I could make your paper of intei-est to all classes— and I have I said I could run your cir culation up to twenty thousand copies, and if I had had two more weeks I’d have done it. And I’d have given you the best cl iss of readers that ever an agricultural paper had—not a farmer in it, nor a solitary individual who could tell a water melon tree from a peach vine to save his life. You are the loser by this rupture, not me, you pie plant. Adios.” I then left. HOW TO JUDGE A TOWN. The Jefferson City (M 0.,) Journal tells this: About a week ago, a gentleman from Tennessee, representing a capital of $20,000, in search of a location in which t* engage in business, give us a call, ayd after stating his mission, “West” Li ked to look at our paper. We h mded_ J>m the morning Journals ,JYtroUr sur -11 ,1 ‘V J **^ T notstop to read our newsy ; efforts ft. ; s our attractive editorial CiJ tees are-ielhij | n advertisements ,fflPV9pJ4*.cautifrt going over tlieir space a foil, said he, looking up from the r, “Is that all? Is tlnd the busi of this town ?” *h, no,” said we, “there is the Tri bune with a few advertisements that do not appear in the Journal.” He then counted two additional local advertisements in the Tribune, and looking up, with the remark : “And this is all, is it? Why you have not got near as much of a town here as I thought you had.” “And then we explained to him that we have a great many business men who do not advertise. “They are not busi ness man to hurt,” was his answer. We could not contradict him, and we were powerless to vindicate the “claims of the city.” He left us, saying if he had time he wofeld look around, but thought this no place for him. This is one instance, and a fact. We know some towns with from sixty to one hundred business houses of one sort or other, which, judged by the above just rule, would make a very poor show ing before strangers. Intelligent men fre quently come into our office to examine newspapers from different towns to see whether it would be desirable to locate there. They invariably decide against such as make a small show in adver tising. The Bravest Girl of the Centxry.— Miss Annie Petxold, the young lady who was committed to my charge in Bremen, says Adolph Hermann, in his narrative of the loss of the Deutschland, courageously climbed in the rigging, witff my assistance, first climbing through the rafters and on the skylight. She did not lose heart during the whole ofctGat awful night, although subjected to perils under which ordinary women would have given up all hope. While I held her by the waist, the paymaster, wlio was above us; lost his footing, and falling against Miss Petzold, rebounded from her shoulder, into the dark water an l was seen no more, although a gal lant effort was made to arrest his fall by one of the stewards. During our ascent through the rafters Miss Petzold was nearly choked. She cheerily held to the rigging and myself, never yielding to the despair which paralyzed the efforts and caused the death of so many other unfortunate ladies. While aloft an un known person handed me a flask of whisky; not being able to draw the crok with my teeth, I broke the neeck against a spar, and having revived Miss Petzold with a draught, I took one myself, and passed the bottle to the nearest man— Dr. Petzold, of Fifty third street, New York, is to be congratulated upon his daughter. In my opinion she is the bravest girl of the century. Many of the other women stayed in the saloon and were drowned by a sudden deluge of waves. The western papers recommend that Bishop Haven’s name be used to fright en refractory Republican children. Try it on Morton. A negro girl was burned to death near Senoia a short time ago. Vol. IYE-INTo. 39. CURRENT ITEMS. If you wish to find the length of any day, multiply the hour of sunset by two; to find the length of the night multiply the hour of sunrise by two. Fifty Otoe Indians on the way to buffalo hunting grounds, are reported to have been killed by a band of Sioux Col. Alston, who was present when Mr. Kill delivered his speech in Con gress, says it is the grandest effort made in Congress since 1860. At New Orleans, James Merriman, colored, aged 69, shot and instantly killed James Murphy. Both Carpenters working together. Merriman surren dered himself. Cortina has been released from im prisonment, and his partisans says he will soon be back at Matamoras to recommence his bloody and predatory warfare upon the American side of the Rio Grande. The debt of New Orleans is twenty one millions of. dollars, and the city is trying to make a compromise with its creditors on the basis of sixty cents on the dollar. The Missomi Republican, the leading Democratic orgrn of the West, says the Democrats in the present House have already introduced bills which, if passed, would take seventy millions of dollars out of the Treasury. It is said thatjthe Governor has com menced suit against Tre .o cues and his bondsmen for the recovery of the deficit in his account, and for the amount of the bonds improperly paid— in hall nearly $300,000. In the case of Eliza Benson vs. the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Rail road, the plaintiff was carried beyond her destination and became permanently disabled from consequent exposure to fcbej weather. A verdict -was given for the plaintiff for $4,250. The road moved anew trial. The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday considered the bill making the Presidential term of office gi* years without re-eligibility, when * cor | iiderable diversity of obinion was mani fested. Finally an informal vote was taken, when the proposition was carried by six to fi/e a New York paper says that one of the most remarkable incidents in the chronicles of the civil war will be brought to light for the first time in Scribner’s for February in “A Piece of Secret His tory.” This is a letter from General Lee to President Davis in 1864, which throws new light upon the character of the former. Experiments were made in M lwaukee on Saturday with Gray’s Harmonic Sys tem of Multiplex Telegraphy. A loop was arrauged by way of Iloricon to Por tage and back, by way of Watertown, a distance of two hundred miles. Over this single wire eight messages were sent and eight received at the same time. The Washington Gazette thinks that if Grant should take it into his head to commence the ball by the exercise of his veto power, the Democratic House will squeeze him and his friends into a very tight place. They hold the purse strings and can refuse any appro priations, suffer who may. “The time has come, and the Democratic majority will take a stern stand on the side of tho people, as against the rings, office holders, sinecures, and plunderers. The Chronicle makes amends for the misrepresentation of Geneva! Gordon’s views on amnesty. It nutv correctly represents Genera! G ji don’s position as follows: “He, senator Gordon, is op posed to any conditions connected with* amnesty, but wishes it free and uni versa! He will not vote for a bill which exciudes Mr. Davis, as he cannot consent to be a party to a discrim ination against the ex-Confederate Presi dent. If, however, a bill for universal amnesty cannot be passed without atj taching to it the proposed oath to sup port the Constitution, he would vote for the bill with such an amendment.” A ROUGH JOKE ON A LOVER. The Reading Eagle says that recently a young man from Springfield, Chester county, Pa., visited that city to buy a number of Christmas presents for a young lady to whom he is engaged. A number of young men knew of the trip to Reading, and as it was dark when he neared the house of his intended ' the party waited for him along the road, and when he was thinking over the ef fect the presents would produce he was suddenly met in the road by four mask ed men, who caught him and tied him with a rope, and took the presents from him. He begged for his life, but they still continued to tie him band and foot, and threw him down and made him state when the wedding was to take place, and what he had brought, and how long he had paid attention to the lady. To all these questions he answered prompt ly and then would beg them not to kill him. To close the sport they tied his hands securely behind his back, turning his coat inside out first, then tying the presents on his back, they started him for the house of his intended, and throat ed that if he did uot go in they would assault him again, He went in, but what the result of the interview was is not known. COMPTROLLER GENERAL’S ANNUAL RE PORT. This document is the most complete, exhaustive and host arranged exhibit of the finances, resources, expenditure*! and condition of the commonwealth; that we have seen for ally previous year. Tables have been prepared at infinite pains, showing and comparing with the preceding year the various kinds of property, and present value and increase or decrease of the same as might appear; together with the aggregate of each. Mr. Goldsmith also gives other statis tics of great value, which wo propose briefly to notice, not in regular sequence or detail, but presenting such salient features only as are most practical and interesting to the public. . The total debt -*of the State not yet due, is $8,005,500, and the assets foot up 186 shares Georgia railroad stock, worth $18,600 ; 10,000 shares of Atlantic and Gulf road, valued at $l5O, 000, and 16 shares of Oconee bridge bonds, estimated at $1,280 The valuo of the Western and Atlantic railroad is not given, though that property is cer tainly worth $5,000,000. Assuming this, then, the State has, at the lowest calculation, $5,169,880 of tan gible, marketable assets as a set off to her debt of $8,005,500. This would leave only $2,835,620 of actual liabilities. A most comforting exhibit. The total balance in the Treasury, January Ist, 1876, was $511,785.21. The whole number of polls in the State is 209,338 of whom 121,819 aro white, and 87,569 colored. The school children £ between six and eighteen years of age, including confederate sol diers under thirty years, count 400,891. For the free education of these, in tho several counties, $161,304 were ex pended. The number of professions in the State is 2,781, of which Bibb boasts seventy five. The total number of acres of improv ed land is 28,202,795 acres, valued at $95,421,177. The wild lands sum up 7,068.66 acres, assessed at $2,086,567. The average value of tho improved is $3,38£ per acre, and tho wild land ,29£ cents per acre. Wayne shows the lowest averago of any county, in tho valuo of improved land, to-wit: fifty-one cents per acre, while the lowest assessment of tho unim proved, is eight miles, as returned by Ware county. The aggregate vali e of all the taxable property of the State amounts to $261,- 755,884 against $273,093,292 for 1874, showing a decrease of $11,337,408, near ly half of which, or $6,385,080, resulted from the exenu>**y u of s'so for household and ki f nen furniture by the last Legis inture to each head of a family. The remainder can readily bo accounted for by the general shrinkage in values of ev ery description. The decrease ia Chatham county is $350,890, and the increase in Fulton $26,7. 5. Under the head of total assets is in cluded tho value of city and town prop erty in the State which sums up $57,- 930,353 against $57,218,248 ; showing a net increase of $712,000. Of all tho counties, Chatham claims precedence, having $12,871,090 worth of city proper ty ; Fulton coming next with $11,486, 294, and Bibb footing up $4,158,760. In the matter of merchandise, tho same cities rank thus ; Fulton $2,127,- 429, Chatham $1,856,821, and Bibb $1,234,102. In money and solvent debts, aristo cratic Chatham, ancient, opulent and well refined upon her lees, takes the lead, having no less than $5,089,817 in vested in stocks and securities. Fulton $2,554,806. In the value cf tonnage and shipping capital, Chatham far outstrips!he interi or, showing $150,000 to $29,500 in Mc- Intosh, and $27,550 in Fulton. In cotton manufactories $3,500,000 are employed. Muscogee is the banner county, hav ing $1,529,500 invested ; Richmond, $617,200; Clarke, $385,150; Cobb, $237,725. I on works and founderies are in their infancy, only $670,471 of capital taking that direction, though no pursuit is more profitable. Of this amount Fulton owns $210,500; Muscogee, $167,006, and Floyd, $112,500. But $49,279 are invested in mining operations, and Dade has the honor of bearing away the palm owning $30,000, against $5,862 for Lumpkin county, her nearest competitor. The total value of those articles is put down at $0,‘215,552 against $11,012,088 for 1873. The discrepancy being caused by the exemption clause of SSO to each family. The total number of hands employed in the various departments of labor in 1875 was 121,541 against 116,086 for the preceding year. Total value of plan tation and mechanic tools, over $25 to each family, $1,337,232. The Comptroller General also gives minute statement of all the warrants drawn upon the Treasury for every pur pose whatever, and makes some very val uable suggestions to the General As sembly. We add a word or two in relation to th e amount of tax levied by the several counties in 1875. In Baldwin, the rate was highest, amounting to on every SIOO. Next same Wilkinson with 175, then Lee, 1.45 and Pulaski, 1.25. The county enjoying the privilege of paying the lowest tax was Tatnall, where seventeen and a half cents only was as sessed on the one hundred dollars. Af ter her, come no less than nine counties, viz: Banks, Bullock, Chatooga, Forsyth, Fulton; Hart, Irwin, Walton, and War ren where twenty cents was the rate im posed. This shows what good manage mentcan accomplish. - Many a man has ruined his eyesight sitting around in a bar room looking for work. The slaughter of lings up to the 15th in Cincinnati was 450,050 The same time last year the number was 472,283.