Newspaper Page Text
PEOPLE’®
Comanche, Texas, Jan. 19, 1873.
Col. A. T. Hardin,
Dear Colonel:—Two years ago to
day I left Rome, I have passed through
mp.ny vicisitudes and trials, but
by. the blessings of-God have been
spared and me and initie have been
blessed with health. I now feel set 7
tied, that I am satisfied with this por
tion of Texas, I may not ramain in
this village, though it is growing very
rapidly. The county has nearly doub- ,
led in population since I have been .
here, and the town has quite doubled |
Tl|e country is healthy- The winter i
sojfar since tire middle .of. December
has-been colder than usual—had one
heltyy sleet, but little rain, but the win
ter is nqw broke, and we,, begiiiping to.
hay <4 .warm sunny day 3 r Jaiw#s. prepay ■
ing their lands to plant in- 1 ebruary.
My sons-in-law, Estis and Garner,
and son Willie are all opening farms
this year, twenty, miles. North of here
in this. county> about lialf way from
here to where the Southern Pacific
will pass. The iron and rolling stock j
for that road’is bought and being de- .
livered through Galveston, enough to
run it three hundred miles, which will
cany it West of this point. Provis
ions are plenty in the country—pork
5 cents, corn 75 cts per bushel, wheat
S] .25 per bushel. Agood.sternn flour
ing ami saw mill just stalled, in the
edge of town. Flour is worth five cts
bub will b.e cheaper, so I think corn
wil| be, as many have been holding
both wheat and corn for higher prices,
but-grass will soon be good so that
coni will be .used to feed stock.
Hogs .are fat .without any food. The
people of lhe county elected me in
Nowember to the oflice of Chief Justice
of the county;.! entered upon the du
tics.jof.lhe office on the first Monday
in tjjis month, married my first , coup
le in Texas on the 16th instant a step
soiqofuld Dr. Tuggle to a Miss JLogan.
Had a fine wedding party. I begin to
feel ns much at home as I used to feel
in old Floyd before the war, I make
it a rule to get acqTiTtnfM with every
body. I went out seventy miles west
of this hi the summer with a friend, to
look at the country, it is good as far
as I.went, but as yet thinly settled.
Son/e of the finest vallrys of land, in
Biifflii and Coleman counties, I have
ever’se’en, and a fine stock country,
botlffor cattle and hogs, equally as
gooij for horses and she< p, but on ac
count of wolves ami Indians not much
attention given to the latter two yet.
The people come herefrom seventy
mill ,i west of us, for their supples of
breiulstuffsand merchandise, but that
will not. be long the case, as they are
beginning totnni their attention to
farr.dng. and ti good many emigrants
have passe I on out then' this winter,
who will engagi in farming. This and
adjacent comities is d< stined to be the
best part of Texes on aci/t of its being
so hrldthy. and railroads will soon be
bu it *to supply every lacking conven
ience) This will be to Southern 'Tex
as. what Cherokee, Ga. is to Southern
< la. 'Cotton grows as well here as in
< i< r >kee Georgia, and will produce
much liion* to the acre, because tin*
him i Abettor, lamin treat;, for 32')
aci<of land lying threw miles from
1 iw./fiitllf of it No. 1 valley land, ready
i r th • plow, and timber and good
rock in half a mile to fence it. L think
| can get it for five hundred dollars,
it I eitn, I want to buy it and settle
on it
Yours truly,
N. YARBROVGH.
THE VSI'RY LAWS RKPEALBD.
In the proceedings of the House we
find that that body has passed the bill
repealing the usury laws of this Shite.
The same bill having passed the Sen
ate, now awaits the .signature of the
Governor, which we hope it will never
receive.
We, on tliis question, belong to the
class of men known as and are
willing to bear the subn-/u<7. Two
vears ago, when ten per cent, was
made legal interest, it was said that
capital would flow into the State, but
nary flow ever came up this way.—
Money has been scarcer since that
time than before. But ten per cent,
would not bring it, hence, the fence
must be thrown down, and capitalists
be allowed to extort two dollars for
one. The idea that a high rate of in-
terest makes money cheaper, is about
like the argument of protectionists that
high tariffs make cheap goods, that is,
the higher the tariff, the cheaper the
goods. You see fools believe such
logic. We can wag with the law if
others can, as we make it a point to
pay very little interest. In this sec
tion of the State our farmer's have
about got but of the woods, but we pity
the farmers of middle and lower Geor
gia who run their farms on the borrow.
Two years from to-day land and mules
in that section will be as cheap as corn
in Indiana. The few men who have
j money to lend will grow rich, while
I those less fortunate will grow so poor
■ that their own dogs will refuse to
i bark at them when they trudge home
I with a peck of meal to feed their hun
gry brood.
We are told that Great Britain has
long since repealed her usury laws.—■
Yes, but we' are a different nation—a
different people. They: are old and
. settled, we are young and. unsettled.
They have a Bank of England, whose
notes are at a premium to regulate cur
rency and interest in that country.
We have no Bank of England to regu
late currency and interest here, but
are subject to the whims and caprices
of every little Jack that can get a few
i dollars together from which to grind
| toll. The difference between the two
; countries is too marked to allow even
iof a comparison. Laws that would
prove wholesome in England would
not be so in the United States, and '
j laws that would prove beneficial here
would not prove so in England. We
; speak of local laws. The general laws
I governing nations and societies are
, applicable alike to all.
The argument used by the advocates
• of the. law referred to is, that it will
. make money cheap. We will see.
Another argument is, that it will flow
into Georgia by the hundreds of thous
ands; We will see. In our judgment,
it is a scheme of capitalists and money
shavers to legalize any rate of interest
' their stretching conscience will allow
i them to the charge,, and use the courts
i of thp county to enforce their claims
Are we correct? We will see.
In concluding this article, we ask
the attention of the reader to an arti- |
1 tile from the Nashville, Tenn., Union d; ,
Ameriinn on this subject. We agree ,
with the editor, and our people, will
find his theory to be the correct one.
A high rate of interest cannot make
money cheap, any more than a scarcity j
of breadstulls would make that com
modify cheap. The one is just us rea
sonable as the other.
As many men tlxink money should
.be a a 1 r<-liuni.ahl , ‘ article, perhaps it is
wi ll enough to try it. Experience,
, though dearly bought, is sometimes i
1 flic best. When money rings once get j
the advantage of the people, it is hard
1 to retrace a wrong step, as the people ;
are at home at work, while the money
, lords are hanging around our legisla-
I tive hulls with their pockets full of
money, tickling Senators ami Repre
sentatives in many and divers ways.
We will not say they bribe members,
but oyster and champagne suppers
frequently get the better of men s judg
ments. and influence them even against
their better judgement. A multitude i
I of legislative sins can be laid at the
door of oyster ami champagne sup-
i
To give the reader an idea of what
money can do, we ask them to watch
closely the bogus bond issue between
the State of Georgia and Clews and
, others. Already many men are found
m our borders who favor a compro
mise, why? Echo answers, why?—
Home Jluttetm.
Editorial Dotiings.
Tut Legislature adjourned on Tues
day last.
Spain now spirts a Republic. What
next ?
C u.faX is a go id hand to steal, but
a bad one to cover up his tracks.
France, has a standing army of one
million of men.
I
One thousand loaded cars in Chatta
nooga.
The Queen of Denmark wears calico
in public.
j Th eke are ten million beehives in the
| United States.
The snow is twenty feet deep in the
i mountains near Salt Lake City.
The Ohio river rose forty feet in
' thirty-six hours at Cincinnati Monday
I and Tuesday last
A dispatch from Petersburg, Va.,
says the ißxhl still increases, and caus
' ing the heaviest river disasters ever
known. Twelve persons drowned.
1 The City Council of Macon has ten
dered the hospitalities of that city to
President Grant. Rome should do
| likewise.
A patriarchal lobster was found on the
, shore at Booth Bay, Maine, recently, which
weighed nearly forty pounds.
The woolen mills in Massachusetts are
reported to be stopping on account of the I
prooeat hifh price of ni aaunai. I
From the Masonic Tidings.']
Masonic Musings.
Brotherly Love, the direct emana
tion of Masonic. Principles is an ele
mentary feature in Free Masonry
w hich, if it had no other to base its
claim for support upon, would chal
lenge the admiration of all good and
true mpn in this age of almost univer
sal selfishness; for in its influence, it
checks, in a marked degree, that pow
erful antagonist to social intercourse,
unalloyed with personal and selfish
profit and advantage. There is no in
stitution known among men that sur
passes Masonry in the drawing to
gether and holding man in fraternal
relations towards his fellows.
The fraternal feelings engendered by
a recognition of our common origin
from one and the same Divine Source,
lays the foundation for the structure,
or spiritual building, for the indwell
ing of that Divine Presence who we j
learn from the Great Light of Free .
Masonry is Love. “God is love” and
the influx of this holy principle is the
indwelling of the spirit of God in our
hearts which warms and vivifies our
affections ; drawing all those, in whose
breast the flame is enkindled, closer
and closer together.
But it may be urged, the member
ship of the Masonic fraternity fur
nishes abundant evidence of that ac
cursed hatred which one man may feel
toward another—alas we regret that j
it is true, and can only add, it is a
pity, it is true—but we must not over- I
look the fact that such members are
not really qualified for that institution, !
and are doing it more potent injury '
than a host of open mouthed and reck
less opponents can possibly achieve.
The only assault that Masonry has
ever felt—has come from within the
pale of its false hearted and nominal .
membership. Men who wear its livery <
to defile its landmarks of principles. ;
These are the examples which our
assailants always point to, in their
Quixotic efforts to combat the wind
mill of their own fancy, overlooking as
they do the host of good and true men
who also are enrolled in our ranks.
When the finger is pointed at broth
er Benedict Arnold, shall we not point
to brother George Washington? The
one would have sold his country, I
while the other p> rilled his all to save
it. Were the apostles all vile and sei- ,
fish because Judas was one of their '
number ?
It is the love of God and our fellow
men, that marks the upright man; it is
the operation of this love principle
that animates the Philanthropist, that
causes a sympathy for the sorrowing
to flow into acts of' Benevolence and
Charity. Thor.
The Make-Up of the Body.
Supposing your age to be fifteen or I
thereabouts, I can figure you up to a
dot. You have 1(A) bones and 500
muscles; your blood weighs 25 pounds;
your heart is five inches in length ami
three inches in diameter; it beats 70
times a minute, 4,200 times pel’ hour,
100,800 per day and .30,722,200 per
year. At each beat a little over two !
ounces of blood is thrown out of it,
and < ach day it receives and discharg
es about seven tons of that wonderful
fluid. Your lungs will contain a gal
lon of air, ami you inhale 24,000 gal- 1
lons per day. The aggregate surface ’
of the air cells of your lungs, suppos
ing them to be spread out, exceed 20,- |
000 square inc,lies, lhe weight of
your brain is three pounds; when you
are a man it will weigh about eight
ounces more. Your nerves exceed
10,000,000 in number. Your skin is
composed of three layers, and varies
from one-fourth to one-eighth of an
inch in thickness. The area of our
skin is about 1.700 square inches, and
you are subjected to an atmospheric '
pressure of fifteen pounds to a square 1
inch. Each square inch of your skin
contains 3,500 sweating tubes or per
spiratory pores, each of which may be
like in d to a drain tile one-fourth of an
meh long, making an aggregate lengt h
of the entire surface of your body of
201,196 feet, or a tile ditch for drain
ing the bexly almost forty miles long. .
From the Masonic Tidings.]
What Constitutes a Mason?
In our last issue we discussed the ques- .
tiun, “What is Masonry?” and traced the
origin of the fraternity to the guilds of op
erative Masons anciently in existence in
Europe. We now propose to ask what con
stitutes a Mason. He who would answer '
the query in the language of our ritual
would solve the question to the satisfaction
of all trne Masons. By those who drink in
the spirit of our institution no other an
swer is desired. But unfortunately, there
are thousands of oonnterfeits among us — ,
which is one proof of the great value of
our institution, since none but good curren
cy is ever imitated.
For the benefit of the world at large, ;
then, we will say, the genuine Freemason
is a noble, whole-souled fellow, who is noted
for his fidelity to his engagements, his kind- ,
ly heart, and his upright, unselfish life.—
These qualities are what constitutes a man
a true Freemason. One of the Dukes of
Luneburg, a German Duchy, it is said,
caused the figure of a burning lamp to be
enstamped on his coin, with the initial let
ters, “A. S. M. C.,” which stand for the
Latin phrase, “Aliis servius, meipsum con
tero.” The English of which is, “Minis
tering to others, I consume myself.” This
is a glorious motto for a large-hearted Ma
son. Do the lamp and the motto present
too lofty an ideal ? Must the standard of
Masonry which it suggests be lowered to
meet the tastes or the fashion of a self
seeking and self-applauding age? The
. truth is, very many of our brethren would
shine if they could do so without consum
ing themselves. They would shine like the
burnished candlestick or the polished nair
. ror, borrowing all the light they give, and
without any loss to themselves, shining on
ly to be admired. Without that admira
{ tion they would, perhaps, be indisposed to
shine at all. They must have position, of
fice, honors, deference, and they shrink
from that, lowly service of usefulness which
bears most the image of His life who
. “made himself of no leputation,” that he
inight the better serve the eternal interest
of fallen man. -
The motto on the coin comes to us with
ail the force of a personal appeal, and
should be stamped on every heart-in living
letters. To spend one’s self for others is
• the height of heroism, and is what we con
! ceive to be the true definition of the word
! Freemasonry. Looking at it in this light,
■ there is one sense in which the Duke’s
motto does not apply. The, powers of the
magnet are increased bjHts constant use ,
so, if our bodily strength be spent, our spir-.
itual strength is renewed and our souls ex
panded by serving the interests of others
'unselfishly. To this complexion we Would
' ha p e the individual Mason come, and if
1 one could but attain it the summit of hu
man greatness would be reached ! But
alas, the top of the ladder which leads' to
this eminence is, like that of Jacob of old,
lost in the clouded canopy of Heaven. We
can not reach perfection here below, but
we C7» climb the steps that are within our
reach, and approximate to the top of the
I ladder. So shall we indeed realize and in
our lives show forth what constituted a Ma>-
, son.
Small Aristocracy.—Women arc the
: most absurd creatures, all owing to the sil
ly fancy that it is lady-like to be a loafer. —
A little time ago one of my small busy
housekeeper friends' asked a lady loafer
caller what had become of her sister.
‘‘She goes down-town everyday, now,”
said the lady loafer, hesitatingly.
“Is she at work ?” inquired the house-
! keeper.
! “Well, ye —yes,” said the lady loafer,
j still more hesitatingly
“What does she do?” inquired my
friend.
The lady loafer stammered, and hacked
off painfully two or three times, and finally
made a clean breast of it, thus ;
I “She —she—she has charge of the trim-
mings in a —dress-making establishment.
She has nothing to do with the dressmak
ing. She has charge of the trimmings.—
It’s not a common dressmaking establish
ment- It’s one of the fashionable dres--
makers. She won’t make a dress for a
poor person.”
“Oh, glory! Fan me with a cabbage
leaf!” quoth my friend, the small, bu.-y
housekeeper.
'fhe idea of a body’s dressmaker setting
hor-elftobe '‘higlistocracy.”—Uorr., llo
ntiuis Joti\it<d.
i From fh<’ l]'arre)i!on, N. t l . Gazette.]
Mu. Editor — Dear Sir: — Although
having keen requested by you some time
ago to give a uetailed statement of my ope
ration- ami experience in the cultivation of
cotton in Warren County, I have not until
now found time to corn; ly. Ido so reluc
tantly: believing my-elf incapable of im
parting any valuable information, or of
casting any light upon the agricultural ex-
! perience of the many intelligent and practi- '
j cal farmers of the county.
Nevertheless, I venture upon the task,
hoping that some suggestion I may throw
out, or some experiment I have made in re
claiming worn out land, or in testing the
relative value of commercial fertilizers, may 1
be of service to some young farmer, who 1
like myself at the beginning, may be con- i
tending with poor land.
Now I don’t propose to say a word to the
' old farmers; their ways are not our ways.
They knew all about it before we were born, '
and shako their heads knowingly, when yon
talk to them of farming on the high culture 1
system, or about buying fertilizers. Tell
them of making two bales of cotton to the ,
acre, when neither they nor their father ,
before them ever made more than j or j,
and they don't believe one word of it, .
and arc constantly predicting an utter
failure of those who dare hope for such a
result.
I I
. In starting out then, it may be import
ant to state wJiaEwag ilic cbarjjßttjr eLsoil,
and condition of the farm upon which I re
sided. when I fiW.. rnTlffiiTi mj— 'ii?n of it,
just five yeans
The soil chiefly Ted and
out ycayS ago. The place the
highest' bidder before the..war, at
acre. ; lhe ge|it|em<u> itho sold it,Wow:d
away,i giving as his r.easoii,'. that Hoii"
fearful If he remained, that h-e and
groes , l Would..sta’'ve. H: > is sold Xo . w/at
$4.50 waluufixMi..
it afrer .1 c.rr. r ul examinationtWqjfe di<-
;
and large laiicbtM
i When I movedupoKfand examined the
land more closely I found it dve'n more
sterile than lat first .supposed, and in worse. <
condition- The most st/ikiug- charaiteiis- »
tics being rotten fences, broomsedge, galls
ahd filled'up ditches. , . £ „.- - ;
It was a gloqpiy prospect for.a.new be- ...a
ginner ; for I knew nothing comparatively, ' ?
about farming ; and then with the totailj;
disorganized condition of our labor I began
to think that the farmer who moved away
did right.
I don’t suppose there is a farmer in the-’
county who at this time has a mote dis
couraging-or disheartening prospret tlriti I.
ha,d in I 860; If so I hope he will tfegfn this
year’s work with renewed en&rs£,.a. deter
mination and will to succeed, and I have
su doubt his efforts will be crownbd with
success. . .
The first, year I planted nearly all t.ie q
arable land in corn, reserving only eleven.:
acres for cotton. The result of my labor-"
one barrel of corn and'five liurtdred ponndr.
seed cotton per .acre. Two hundred pounds ■ t
• of Phosphate, per. acre was applied upon.
the cotton land, and had I not farcied on - ' ' t
shares that year','!' think it likely T .wtuild '
' ‘never have been able to have made anoth r '
start. It may be presumed also that I : ;•
learned something from that year’s experi- 1 >’
eiice (what some older farmers than myself ■ '
have yet to learn judgt ng from tlfe appear- ■
auce of their crops) and that-, was that ■
it ,vouid not pay to wCrk poor land, even '
on shares, much less will it with hired
labor.
The next year I curtailed th^'number of
acres, prepared iny land better, manured
more highly, and. the result .was decidedly
more satisfactory.
The first step tak ea toward .enriching my . •
worn out farm, was to increase the quantity ;>
of home tnadc manure by littpiing my sta
bles and farm pens wdl, preserving my cuG j
ton se.«<l and burning ashes.
'Then laid aside' my old'fences, and from •
the jams scraped up the jioh deposit of .
vegetable matter, the accumulated deposit .
of perhaps fifty years or more, and-with ;
this composted the above named materials (
in alternate layers, using about one-fourth
i of the manure to three-fourths of scrap*
: ings.
In early soring hauled out at the rate of
1 one hundred and twenty damping cartloads
per acre. Rows run off with Watt A. I».
' plow, large mould and hands following
1 throwing manure in drills with shovels.
' After manure was exhausted,, fertilizers
were used, from two to three hundred
pounds per acre, and listed upon, until all
the land was prepared
i Just here let me say that the corumon
■ method of applying fertilizers in the bottom
i of a deep furrow made by a turn plow is -i
great error. The rows should be laid off
I with the Watt or Dixie plow, small mould- .
1 board, so as to allow the dirt to fall i<. the
rear, and partly fill up the furrow, and then
sow the Phosphate.
' It is well to place Peruvian Guano deep,
in which there is a large amount of Arnmo
-1 uia; but as for the phosphates most of them
containing not more than two an a hall or
three percent, of volatile properties, there
is no necessity but. great 10-s. Such fertili
zers as we generally use for cctton, should
I never be put more than two or three inches
below the seed.
Early in April bedded upon lists previ
ously made, and commenced planting on
. 18th same month and finished on Bth of
May. Where I put the compost I used 125
1 pounds of Patapsco Guano with seed, which
caused the plant to grow off vigorously, and
enabled it to feed upon the grosser manure
beneath, carrying it on to maturity.
I think this is one of the best, if not the
I best application of manure that can be
ade, both for cotton and the land. The
manner of manuring I have constantly
kept up, until now, some land which five
years ago made only 500 pounds seed cotton
per acre, has been made to produce 2G86
pounds per acre.
Athens, Ga., prosperously bczan the new
year with a surplus of one cent in the treas-
I Ury ‘
- The young Napoleon is said to be master
of one accomplishment —he is an excellent
fencer.
European diamond merchants now look
upon the United State? as the best market
in the world for their gems.