Newspaper Page Text
6
[thecountryhojuel
Women on the Farm
Conducted By Mrs. IV. H. Felton.
MH Illi li !!!»>• !»••!•»♦»♦
V Correspondence on borne topics Os 4
* subjects es esp-cial Interest to wo- 4
A men ts Invited Inquirfss or letters ♦
* should bs brief and clearly writtea ♦
* in Ink on one side of the sheet. ♦
+ Write direct to Mrs W H Pel- ♦
< ton. Editor Hone Department Semi- ♦
* Weekly Journal. Cartersville. Ga. ♦
+ No fequirias answered by malt ♦
lIIIIIimiIHHIHHIIHI
Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Os an the southern generate tn the Con
federate struggle. It is agreed by friend
and foe that General Lee. stood on the
very topmost round of the ladder.
He was. and Is. to my mind, a truly
wreat man. When I recollect that he had
a distinguished position in the United
States army and left his honors and his
hopes for a regular promotion to go with
the southern army and the state of Vir
ginia. It goes without saying that his
mind and heart underwent a terrible
struggle, but having given his allegiance
to his native state, he never faltered in
his devotion from first to last, from be
ginning to end.
He was as true to his people the night
before Appomattox as be was In the hour
of greatest victory as commander-'n
chief.
It was very Interesting, some years ago,
to me to go through his long-time home
at Arlington, to look at the places that
were familiar to him in early manhood
and up to the hour when he bade adieu
to his beloved home forever, to see the
various things that were his and hjs wife’s
during that halcyon period of domestic
bliss before the tocsin of war pealed over
the southland, wheri they and their chil
dren occupied one of the most distinguish
ed places in society, and were the Inti
mate friends and associates of the best
people in the union.
As I wandered through the parlors. In
spected the dining room and stood on the
porches I could tn memory fill these places
with some of the noblest of the citizens of
the republic on gala occasions, and none
were greater than the splendid soldier
who owned Arlington, and who was even
greater in defeat and comparative poverty
than he was during the affluent circum
stances that attended his early life.
But General Lee had in himself the ele
ments of greatness. He was not dependent
bn mon£y or position to make his name
famous.
When be passed away the whole south
bowed in grief and strong men wept like
they were his own children.
Away back yonder In his boyhood he
laid the foundation for clean living and
upright conduct, and he simply grew and
developed into a noble Christian patriot
of the finest type and character.
I am anxious that the young people who
read The Semi-Weekly shall study a let
ter that General Lee wrote to one of his
own boys. It is perfect of its kind. It will
be good reading for everybody's boy fifty
years from now. Cut it out and paste It
tn a safe place, because It will be good
to read more than once.
LETTER FROM GEN.LEE TO HIS SON.
“My Dear Son: I am just in the act of
leaving my home for New Mexico. My
old regiment has been ordered to that dis
tant region, and I must hasten to see that
they are properly taken care of. I have
but little to add in reply to your letters
of March 36. 27 and 28. Tour letters
breathe a true spirit of frankness; they
hare given myself and your mother great
pleasure. Tou must study to be frank with
the world; frankness Is the child of hon
esty and courage. Say what you mean to
do on every occasion, and I take it for
granted you mean to do right. If a friend
asks a favor, you should grant it if it is
, reasonable; if not. tell him plainly why
you eannot; you will wrong him and
wrong yourself by equivocations of any
kind. Never do a wrong thing to make a
friend or keep one; the man who requires
you to do to is dearly bought at a sacri
fice Deal kindly but firmly with your
classmates; you will find it the policy
which wears best. Above all. do not ap
pear to others what you are not. It you
have any fault to find with any one. tell
him. not others, of what you complain;
there is no more dangerous experiment
than that of undertaking to be one thing
before a man's face and another behind
his back. We should live, act and say
nothing to the Injury of any one. It is not
only best as a matter of principle, but it
is the path to peace and honor.
"In regard to duty, let me. in conclu
sion of this hasty letter. Inform you that
nearly a hundred years ago there was a
day of remarkable gloom and darkness—
•till known as the dark day—a day when
the light of the sun was slowly extinguish
ed as if by an eclipse. The legislature of
Connecticut was in • session, and as its
members saw the sudden and unexpected
darkness coming on they shared In the
general awe and terror. It was supposed
by many tnat the last day. the day of
judgment, had come. Some one. tn the
consternation of the hour, moved an ad
journment. Then there arose an old Puri
tan legislator. Davenport of Stamford.and
said that if the last day had come, he de
sired to be found at his place doing his
duty, and therefore moved that candles
be brought in so that the house could
proceed with its .duty. There was quiet-
wv-s- 9 No woman’s happi-
s
an i® her nature to love
£SJS S& «%* ■"** and want them
“i.TLT.h 8 :
pore. The critical ordeel through which the expectant mother must
pew, however, is so fraught with dread, pain, suffering and danger
, ? r ° f ,“ 6111 her with •PPrehension and ho™.’
-oere .s no necessity for the reproduction of life to be either painful
or dangerous. The use of Mother’s Friend so prepares the s" rem for
remedy is always KBkjKB rii SB *
/wOloOf*\s
of women through _____
the trying crisis without suffering. jP - ® W a
r
Tke Bradfield Regulator Ca„ Atlanta. 6a. " Ba jv B
ness tn that man's mind, the quietness of
I heavenly wisdom and inflexible willing
ness to obey present duty. Duty. then, is
the sublimeet word in our language. You
cannot do more, you should not wish to
do less. Never let me or your mother wear
one gray hair for any lack of duty on
your part. Your affectionate father.
"R. E. LEE."
Soap Making Again. •
By rising a little earlier this bright,
evrisp Monday morning. I was able to
store away nearly six gallons of good
strong lye soap for coming uses in the
winter time ahead of us.
As I have been without either cook or
housemaid nearly all the year. I had the
work to do myself.
As I made such good speed towards
soap-making. I am tempted to tell our
Country Home readers how I succeeded.
The grease was clean, some of it old
and dry. I set on three large-sized stove
pots and put the grease in one only.
I made potash lye In all three, and
when the first pot full was covered an
Inch thick in melted grease. I skimmed
it off into another pot and so with the
third, which consumed my present supply
of soap-grease. Every pot was full when
I set them off about noon, and as soon
as the soap grew cold, I dipped it into the
watting Jars. There was some salt in
the rancled butter and refuse lard,
enough to make the soap turn out in a
firm, st! ffjelly, but it was perfect of its
kind, and I felt quiet satisfied with my
work.
I like to haw a plentiful supply of
home-made soap about the kitchen and
for washing off floors, etc. I am a prodi
gal with water, when I cook, and plenti
ful with soap in dish washing, etc.
I can tell whether dishes have been
soap-washed in /the darkest night by the
feel of them, and I have never found a
way to clean dirty floors, kitchen uten
sils and milk vessels without soap.
Frequent scaldings are helpful, but
soapy dish water does the preparatory
work. „ .
By the way, I have a recipe for wash
ing clothes without rubbing, that some of
our readers might like to try when help
is almost impossible ate we are finding It
at this time.
Cut a bar of good store soap into small
pieces, and then dissolve In five gallons
of soft water. To this mixture add a
tablespoonful of spirits of turpentine or
of kerosene oil. (I put a little of both.)
Soak the clothes over night, and boll
them for an hour or longer in the mix
ture. . ...
Rinse the clothes in three waters, a lit
tle bluing in the last one.
The mixture appears to loosen the dirt
and boll it out without rubbing. Good
lye soap ts also good to use for rough
washing.
Note premium list In this Issue,
make your selection and subscribe at
once. •
Poor King Edward.
Now we are told that the new king.
Queen Victoria’s successor. Is afflicted
with the deadly throat trouble which has
haunted and taken off his ancestors for
generations.
His eldest sister. Empress Frederick, of
Germany, died with the disease some
months back and her royal husband oc
cupied the imperial throne of Germany
less than ninety days, for be was dying
with throat cancer when he ascended the
throne a few years ago.
It is one of the diseases which are hand
ed down, inherited, a taint in the blood, a
result of marriages with kin—a curse par
ticularly that follows ambitious royalties,
who intermarry so closely, producing de
cay in strength and vitality among them
selves.
Poor King Edward!
For forty years, maybe more, he has
been heir apparent and heir presumptive
to all the glories and gifts of the British
crown, with no question of his title. But
his mother held on year after year, while
her son waited as patiently as he could
for her place and power.
He saw his young manhood pass away,
his middle age likewise, and he came to
the throne at last a grandfather, a weary
man of years and sordid vanities, when
the days of his prime were all gone for
ever, and his son now is waiting to step
into his shoes as soon as another royal
funeral can be celebrated in London. And
the cancer route is a certain one for kings
as well as commoner clay.
Just as the new king was making ready
for the grandest coronation exercises ever
known or carried out on this globe, can
cel steps to the front and whispers: "You
must go my way. I will come for you, and
soen!”
Painful, loathsome, deadly, incurable
and insatiable disease—the cancer germ—
has been working itself from the inside to
the front all these years of waiting and
making ready for this whisper and the
end.
The Ung has had several operations of
late (a? we are told) several removals of
cancer from the inside of his throat, to
give him relief.
His breathing gets to be bad, the doctor
comes, the knife is brought out and the
people shake dismal heads when some
body asks: "How long?”
Just so General Grant passed off the
stage of action and later Senator Hill of
Georgia, with throat caneer.
When the knife is brought in to relieve
pain the end is not far off. The cancer
germ is then marching on the citadel of
life with all outposts carried.
The horizon draws in to the four walls
of the death chamber. The watchers and
the doctors take the expected places of
heralds and messengers bearing royal tid
ings of congratulation and proud acclaim
from afar.
Mourners go about the house in tearsand
gloom and thus passeth the glory, the
pomp and the vanity of earth's greatest
expectations!
May the poor king And rest and peace
when the end comes.
Wm. Campbell Dies at Thomasville.
THOMASVILLE, Ga., Nov. 4.-Mr. Wil
liam Campbell, a prominent citizen of this
city, died last night after an illness of a
few days. Mr. Campbell was for several
years master of roadway of the Plant
system at this place. He leaves one son
and one daughter to mourn his loss.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA. GEORGIA, THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 7, 1901.
Sam ffones Writes From the Lofty Peaks of the Blue Ridge
a Napoleonic Silence he could carry
WILKBBORO, N. C„ Oct. 8, 1901.
To the Atlanta Journal:
The past week I have been circu
lating through the mountains of Ken
tucky, east Tennessee, western Vir
ginia and North Carolina. Surely a
week's travel among the peaks of the
Blue Ridge satisfies the desire one may
have had to visit Switzerland. The
beauty and grandeur of the scenery
surpasses description. The autumn
coloring on these mountains is more
gorgeous and beautiful than a swarm
of butterflies among the stars. Big
Stone Gap, Va., is a beautiful little
city among the hills, lovely for situa
tion and vigorous in growth. A most
splendid, cultured people make up the
population. No finer bar in the state
than the lawyers of Big Stone Gap.
Their public buildings are a credit to
a city of 25,000.
London, Ky., the seat of Taylor’s
government, where his legislature met,
is another mountain town of many
splendid people. My stay in those
towns was most pleasant. Large au
diences greeted me at the lectures. At
Ix>ndon J lectured in the Bennett
Training school building. God bless
Miss Bell Bennett. She is the most
sensible, generous, self sacrificing
woman in the south, and her life and
• character furnish a model. She is wise
in her benefactions and many will rise
up in later years to call her blessed.
From there I,came to Asheville, N. C.,
the city of altitudes and pure water
and air. Wondrous city, this. With
more than 300 cases of typhoid fever
now in the city, I was told. A scourge,
a calamity has befallen them. That
dread disease seems to laugh at alti
tudes, pure water and crisp atmos
phere. From Asheville to Wllksboro,
N. C., the capital of the state of
Wilkes county. Here apples grow and
branuy flows. The county where
preachers run still houses and mem
bers drink. No saloons, but blind ti
gers and wildcat stills furnish the
famishing ones with apple jack and
corn liquor. They defy the govern
ment and make fun of state officials.
Judges wink and solicitor generals
drink. Sheriffs are as blind as the
tigers and preachers dumb in most
cases. Yet, withal, there are many
cultured, splendid people in this coun
ty, and things make for the better all
the time. Some preachers in this
county are made of stuff they once
made martyrs of. Ground down by
’poverty, yet game as a lion. I lec
tured and preached here and larger
and more responsive audiences I sel-
Hints On Soup Making,
A student of the culinary art has this
to aay of soup and soup-making:
As surely as oysters and apple sauce on
the bill of fare indicate the season, so
surely the reappearance of the soup kettle
in the kitchen tells that cool weather is
at hand. Notwithstanding the tradition
that with the French housewife rests the
secret of the soup kettle, any woman with
common sense and a fair knowledge of
cooking may make this article of daily
diet contribute not only to the pleasure
and health of her family, but in its varie
ties of ingredients and flavorings, may
utilize it as a daily source of economy in
the employment of leftovers.
Invariably the housewife who has a rep
utation for fine soups is the one who su
pervises the food left from each meal, and
sees that no bone, unless burned in the
broiling; no scrap of meat, not the least
bit of gravy and not a teaspoonful of veg
etables are wasted. All these she uses in
her soup kettle. This, indeed, is the
Frenchwoman’s secret, and she helps it
out with Judicious seasonings.
Fresh meat will need to be purchased at
least once*a week for the soup stock. For
the purpose a piece of the shin of beef,
with the bone which contains marrow; a
knuckle of veal for additional gelatine
and the cold meat and bones which -have
been saved should all soak in cold water
for half an hour or so, and then be
brought very slowly to a simmer. When
the meat is cooked to shreds and the
knuckles fall apart it is time to remove
the kettle. Many persons season the stock
while it is cooking, but this practice has
its disadvantages. .In the first place, vege
table juices will cause it to sour much
more readily; besides, once it has been
seasoned it is impossible to vary it so de
cidedly. Then, too, in the daily scaldings
of the stock, which is necessary if the fat
is removed from the top, much of the
flavor is lost in steam. It is an excellent
plan to fill stone crocks, each holding
enough for one day’s supply, to let the
cake of grease form upon them, and when
they are entirely cold to cover them and
place them in the refrigerator. Undisturb
ed, and in a cool place, the stock will
keep for two weeks.
A level teaspoonful of salt and two or
three whole peppers should be allowed for
each quart of the liquid and should be
added about an hour before the soup
is removed from the fire. When vegeta
bles are to be used for seasoning they
should not be allowed to cook longer
than they would naturally for any other
purpose, as overcooking destroys their fla
vor. A? a flavored stock is most conven
ient in the preparations of gravies and
made dishes, a portion should be seasoned
and saved for this purpose. In addition to
the herbs and usual vegetables, such as
cqlery, parsley, turnip, carrot, onion, etc.,
a tftblespoonful or two of the small pep
pers found now in most of the stores will
oe thought an improvement by most peo
ple. Two or three cloves and whole all-
KU
Many years ago there lived in this coun
try a number of beavers who were just
like those of the present day except that
their tails were long and thin, like those
of muskrats, instead of being large and
flat as they are now. And the reason
that the tails of the beaver folk became
so changed, in shape is this:
Even in those early days the beavers
lived in fine houses which they built in
ponds and streams, and in which they laid
by a great store of food to last them
through the winter when ice should chain
up the water courses and keep the ani
mals prisoners in their own homes. Os
course they took good care to be snugly
at home before the cold weather arrived,
but once (and you shall hear how nearly
they came to losing their lives through
their carelessness) a party of Incautious
young beavers went too far in search of
some particularly desirable logs, and, to
their dismay, found on returning to the
stream which held their homes that its
surface was covered with a thick coating
of ice.
They had been so hard at work over
the logs that they had failed to notice the
increasing cold, but now the unexpected
sight of the ice sent a chill to their very
hearts. Still they did not Intend to sit
still and freeze, but set about their return
as speedily as possible, hoping that some
charitable relative had remembered their
absence and kept a passage open by which
they might return to their fine, warm
houses. But, alas! when they reached the
village of their people, the ice was solid
as a rock and only the tops of the dome
like houses rose above the glassy surface.
The entrances were all far below near the
bottom of the stream, and nowhere did
sgSSg
• - ;V
dom see. These mountain ranges have
furnished tp America some of the
brainiest men that have come to the
surface in the life of our country.
I note another fact. These mountain
counties in Virginie, Tennessee, Ken
tucky and NorfOCarollna are most
all Republican in politics, and most
every Republican county is under lo
cal option and most every Democratic
county in these states are wet coun
ties. Whisky is legally sold.
Caleb Powers was found guilty again
and sentenced to life imprisonment.
While I was in eastern Kentucky I
never met a Democrat but who re
garded the sentence as just, nor did I
meet a Republican but who thought
the whole thing was a farce. Such is
politics.
A Republican politician indicted in
a Democratic court stands no more
chance in Kentucky than a cat stands
at a dog show. I .frequently shake
hands with myself and congratulate
myself that I am neither a Democrat
or Republican.
But all in all, I admire these moun
tain people. They have the stuff in
them which if rightly treated will
make grand men and women of them.
They drink and cuss, many of them,
but they won’t steal- They will pay
their debts, as a rule.
I am at Salisbury, N. C.. tonight
and then Sumter, S. C., and Bruns
wick, Ga. And as I turn my course
homeward I begin, to run upon the
| “Race Equality |
| Is Impossible” I
Governor Candler in reply to a tele
gram from a New York newspaper has
written a pointed letter regarding the
education of the negro and equality be
tween the Caucasian and African races.
The message sent out asking the gov
ernor for his views on this question is
from the Hearst syndicate of newspa
pers. -
The following is the telegram received
by the governor:
NEW YORK. Nov. I.—Allen D. Candler,
Governor of Georgia. Atlanta, Ga.: Mr.
Hearst is getting up for his three papers,
the New York Journal, the Chicago
American, the Sam 'Francisco Examiner
and papers of the Hearst syndicate
throughout the country a symposium for
this Sunday on .education of the negro.
Will you kindly wife collect today your
views as to whether the negro can be
benefited by education and as to whether
the men like Washington can lead them
to the level of the white man. Has
Washington’s meeting with Roosevelt
helped .or injured the problem? How
best to educate the negro? •
C. J. MAR,
The Hearst Syndicate.
The governor replied as follows:
"C. J. Mar, The Hearst Syndicate, New
"York City: Rational education benefits
any people of whatever race. What the
negro needs most is moral education. The
states in which he lives are providing
reasonably well for his education in the
text-books. Washington is doing good
work for his race, but he cannot lead
them up as a race to the level of the
white man. The white man is the high
est type of the human family; the negro
the lowest. God has made no other race
equQl to the Caucasian, and education
cannot do that which God has failed to
do. Individual members of the negro
race will rise to the level of the white
race, but the race, as a whole, never will.
"The receiving of Washington by the
president on terms of social equality will
not affect the question in any way. If
sensational newspapers had not made so
much ado about it nobody would have
thought or cared anything about it.
. "A. D. CANDLER,
spice are liked by some, but are frowned
upon by others. One housekeeper claims
that her soup is always the best when she
has a baked apple or two to add to it.
If a brown stock is wanted the meat and
vegetables are fried in butter before going
into the soup kettle.
they find an openlng’by which they might
enter. The poor beavers were in despair;
the cold was steadily Increasing and chil
ling them to the very marrow of their
bones, and they felt that whatever they
did was to be done 1 quickly or else they
would die there in the bitter atmosphere
within a few feet of their relatives and
friends, who were doubtless at that very
moment busily eating or taking long, cosy
winter naps in their warm, comfortable
houses.
The unfortunate exiles made frantic ef
forts to dig through the ice. but they
found that it only wore out their toenails'
and made their feet dreadfully sore, all to
no purpose. Then they tried to dig their
way through the top of one of the houses,
but the frost had rendered the mud-plas
tered sticks of which it was built as hard
as stone; so they were obliged to aban
don that idea also. They jumped up and
down and banged with their tails on the
tops of several of the houses, hoping to
attract the attention of some of the in
habitants, who might in some way aid
them in effecting an entrance, but all
their efforts seemed fruitless, and they
were just about to resign themselves to
their fate and lie down on the ice to die,
waen the top of a partly ruined house,
on which they had been jumping as a last
resort, caved in with several of th£m.
You may be sure that it did not take
the freezing animals long to scramble
through the opening and make their way
by various under-water passages to their
several homes, where, after a hearty
meal, they at once settled down to sleep
without disturbing any of their friends,
who were one and all found wrapped in
deep slumber.
But the next spring, when the ice melted
Atlanta papers and see that our leg
islature is in session and the • bills
they are introducing, etc. Go it, boys.
But if you will take your governor’s
advice and cut down pensions to
needy indigent cases and the public
school and one-half, you can then go
home and I will be one to vote you
the best legislature that ever assem
bled in Georgia. And if you don’t do
those two things I would not pay
your salaries for all the balance you
do enact. The wall of the taxpayers
this winter is going to make cold
chills run down the back of every
politician in Georgia. Give us relief,
gentlemen, or stay too drunk to work
until your time is out.
I note the papers are subsiding over
Roosevelt and his colored folks din
ing. But the world will move on and
white will remain white and black
will be black long after the president
has been gathered to his fathers.
We boast of living in the finest coun
try God’s sun shines on. Then we kick
at the guest sitting at another man’s
table. Roosevelt dined the greatest
negro on earth, and a negro who leads
his race and leads the right.
Now don’t any old woman jump on
me and say I am for social equality,
for I ain’t. But when a white man
south sits down fend eats with a ne
gro he will sit down on a tack every
pop and wish he hadn’t.
I suppose the president won’t do so
any more and if he don’t let’s forgive
him. I don’t believe in bearing mal
ice.
I find the corn crop short everywhere.
Corn is going to be corn for twelve
months to come, and happy is the man
who has the crib full. I see now I
will lose, nearly a million dollars on
corn this year, by not having the corn
to sell, and it’s so high.
But we have the wheat and folks
and stock can live and do well on
wheat. Cotton will reach 10,000,000
bales, and if we can get 7 1-2 cents for
It we won’t suffer. The country seems
prosperous everywhere. Passengers
fill the trains and freight trains one
may see Sidetracked as we whirl by.
We will have good times a year long
er any way, I think, but by and by we
will have hard times and woe uhto the
fellow that’s head over heels in debt.
He will wish he had never been born.
But the fellow who owes nothing is
o. k.. whether times are good or bad.
Yours, S. P. JONES.
P. B.—Begin meetings in Mobile the
7th of November, for 10 days or two
weeks. We hope to see the Savannah
meetings duplicated. S. P. J.
Women Don't Want To Vote.
It is a singular fact that men acknowl
edge the justice of woman suffrage, but
at the same time delude themselves Into
believing that they are doing no injus
tice to women by withholding from them
that which they consider for themselves
one of the most sacred rights of citizen
ship, viz. the ballot.
The Minneapolis Times says:
“The Times desires to state in behalf
of the men of the nation, that the prin
cipal obstacle to the granting of women’s
suffrage’ is in the disinclination on the
part of the large majority of women to
accept such grant. This being true, it
would seem to be fair to acknowledge
that masculine skirts are free from stain
in Vhis regard.”
This seems rather an excuse for defer
ring Justice. In the first place how are
we to Judge whether women want to vote
or not until we have given them the op
portunity? In the four enfranchised states
the women vote as generally as the men
and seem to enjoy it. If you don’t believe
it. Just cry to take the ballot from them
and see what will happen. If t!he women
do not wish to vote and still do so front
a sense of duty, they are the most con
scientious beings on the face of the earth
and are certain.y needed in governmental
affairs.
There have been more petitions pre
sented to our legislative bodies asking
that woman be given the uallot than all
the other peutions combined. But why
demand that a majority of women petition
fbr the ballot when no such contest has
ever been required of the various classes
of men that have been enfranchised since
this republic was formed? Originally on
ly free-holders voted. Did the poor men
unanimously petition for the franchise?
Did a majority of the negroes in tfye south
ask for the ballot? Have the majority of
the Alaskan men asked for it? Have the
various tribes of Indian men been enfran
chised because the majority requested it?
Did the majority of the Hawaiian men ex
press a desire for it? Did a majority of
the Porto Rican men insist upon being
made voters? Is universal male suffrage
provided for in the new Cuban constitu
tion because a majority of tae men have
petitioned for it? D d a majority of the
native born Chinamen ask for rite ballot?
Is there in the whole history of our gov
ernment one—Just one—instance where
any class of men have had the franchise
bestowed upon them because a majority
demanded it? Not in one single case
has this been done, and yet legislators,
politicians, editors, ministers, lawyers,
dismiss toe plea of women for representa
tion witn the Illogical remark: "When the
majority ask for it they can have it.”
No one has ever asked that these wo
men who do not wish to vote be made to
do so, we only ask that those women who
do take an interest in the affairs of their
country be allowed to express that inter
est at the ballot box. This is simple jus
tice, and V is always expedient to be just.
ELNOR-- MONROE BABCOCK.
and the village awoke, the beavers who
had so' narrowly escaped death told the
others all- that had befallen them. And
then the chief of the beavers, an animal
so old that his whiskers were gray with
age, issued a proclamation in which he
ordered all of his people to fasten wooden
paddles to their tails, so that tn case of
a similar occurrence they would be able
to make enough noise to be heard by those
below, who could easily break through the
roof from within. And the beavers,
obeying this order, soon found that these
paddles were of the greatest assistance
in building and plastering their houses;
and gradually, through much exercise in
using the wooden Implements, the shapes
of their tails changed till they were large
and flat, like the tails of beavers of the
present time.
FLORENCE A. EVANS.
is wears
out your clothes —e
"'u month of ordinary
wear is less than one dose oi
wash-board wear. PEARLINE
does away with the deadly
wash-board rubbing—thus it
saves wear, work, worry, and
money. Can you doubt it’s
economy? Millicyts use PEARL
lNE—bright people.
Educational Field |
Conducted By Hon. M. B. Dennis ||
The Needs of the Rural Schools.
"Democracy la a government by the
common people and its perpetuity de
pends upon the education of the masses
rather than the classes. It is not as im
portant for the few to receive-a superior
education as it is for the many to re
ceive a liberal one. As the masses begin
and end their education in the common
schools it is all important that these
schools come first in the minds of the
people and should be given every consid
eration that the state and nation can af
ford. •
"While the common schools which are
to be found in our towns and cities are
on a permanent foundation, the rural
school is on a foundation which may mean
one thing today and something entirely
different tomorrow, depending largely
upon the teacher and community. And
yet these rural schools are the places
where the masses of our rural popula
tion receive their education. While the
colleges, universities, the normal schools,
the town and city schools are making
rapid progress and are forerunners of
civilization, the rural school lingers on the
threshold of progress.”
Why is this true? There are several
reasons for this condition of affairs but
we will consider one or two only.
In the first place, it is largely chargea
ble to neglect. Visit the legislative halls
while a session of the general assembly is
in progress and mark what the leading
educators are working for. The State
university is not without representation
whenever an important measure touching
its interest is to come up. The State
Normal is never wanting for advocates
whenever this school is interested. The
Technological is defended by able coun
selors when its Interest is at stake. The
Girls’ Normal and Industrial is never
lacking in warm and influential friends
when opportunity offers. Higher educa
tion in almost every state is ably cham
pioned when its interest is Involved. Like
wise the city and town systems are ob
jects of deep concern, and are general
ly protected and provided for. And this
active interest and intense solicitude are
not confined to individuals; the leading
newspapers are vociferous in their de
mands for the higher institutions of learn
ing.
We would not be misunderstood. We are
not fighting higher education, and its
maintenance, even at the expense of the
state; neither would we decry the ones
working for its improvement. On the con
trary we rather admire their interest and
zeal. Would God the common schools of
the country districts had in proportion as
many ardent advocates to champion their
cause!
"Higher schools of learning have
their place and educators who are la
boring to advance them are doing a grand
and noble work, but the time has come
when the rural school should no longer
be treated as a football; it should be given
due consideration by all who are interest
ed in the welfare of this republic. The ru
ral school is a very sick child and it needs
physicians—not Inexperienced physicians
to practice upon it, for its criitcal con
dition is the result of such, practice—but
specialists, the beet the country affords."
Who are working for legislation look
ing to the improvement of rural schools?
The state school commissioner makes a
manly and persistent fight every year,
but he stands alone and is often compelled
to bear harsh and unjust criticism for do
ing what he conceives, to be his duty. He
has no help in these battles; no co
workers; no advisors. With but one or
two exceptions the newspapers are not
at all outspoken. If they indulge in com
ment or dare make suggestions in the
least favorable, they are characterized by
a conservatism so courteously refined not
a ripple is produced. The army of teach
ers seem to be criminally indifferent. The
school officials seem to have been inocu
lated with a narcotic as effective as death.
The great mass of parents, forgetful of
the sacred obligation resting upon them
to train and educate their children to
honorable, useful lives, are conspicuously
reticent.
In the next place, it is due to the un
just war waged against public schools by
a few who stand high in authority and in
fluence. The cry of burdensome taxation
is a popular wall, and In the hands of a
jrily politician it can be made to wield
a tremendous power. If there is a de
ficit in the treasury, the public schools
are responsible. If there is to be enacted
any measure looking to smaller expen
ditures the school fund becomes at once
the object of attack. If there is charged
any extravagance whatever In the ad
ministration of public affairs, it is all
laid at the door of the public schools, not
withstanding the average salary paid ru
ral school teachers in Georgia is not ex
ceeding 1125 per annum, and the average
amount paid for their supervision is only
about MOO a year. Politicians pave their
way into office with promises rich and
plentiful for the uplifting of the public
schools, only to change their minds when,
under the pressure of hard times, the
people cry out against high taxes. The
man at home with large accumulations
but no children to educate, and actuated
by selfish motives will denounce the sys
tem as burdensome, unjust, undemocrat
ic and diabolical in the extreme; and
strange to say, the first man to fall under
the sway of his logic and believe as he
believes is the poor fellow under the
hill in a two-room log hut on rented land,
with less than 825 worth of furniture,
but a house teeming with children grow
ing up in Ignorance as black and dense
as Egyptian darkness. Opportunities to
prepare his children for life’s duties are
afforded him by the common school sys
tem at a cost per aumn less than an or
dinary month’s tuition that otherwise he
could never hope for, but he is blind to
them, and allows himself to be persuaded
to believe the system a hydraheaded
monster and the product of the brains
of men whose purpose it is to curse the
race of mankind and blast forever its
hopes of prosperity- and happiness for
both time and eternity.
"In my Judgment, an educational cam
paign similar to the political campaign
of 1896, is needed in the rural districts.
The people must be aroused to the needs
of the rural school, and this cannot be
accomplished until the rural school ts first
in the minds of prominent educators.’ It
will take firing of cannon and beating of
drums to awaken the rural population,
and then if the leading educators and oth
ers will give their attention to the rural
school, we feel sure that it can be placed
upon a permanent foundation. But it will
take an educational revival to do it.
"You can talk about the little school
house on the hill and laud its good work
to the skies; but any person with com
mon sense knows that the foundation of
the present rural school system is a very
poor one, if a foundation at all, and if
the masses of the rural population are to
begin and end their education in this
school, they are not likely to become
educated men or women.
"Consolidation must come before the ru
ral school will be on a souad basis. It
will take’ a great effort on the part of all
educators to bring this about; but when
it has been accomplished and the rural
school has been made equal to the town
and city school, the universities, colle
ges and normal schools will find the at
tendance of rural students in the higher
schools of learning much greater than it
is today, for the consolidated or central
ized rural school means the more favor
able consideration and liberal support of
the masses. This is the century of cen
tralization. With the aid of the foremost
educators of this state may it not be ap
plied to the rural school! _, _
The Evils of Irregular Attendance.
of the schools. Nothing tends more to
greater enemy to combat, no more stub
born obstacle to overcome, no more vital
malady to feed upon its life, than the non
attendance, or irregular attendance, of
the children upon school. This is more or
less true everywhere in the south, but es
pecially so in the rural districts. It is
simply alarming In its proportions in cer
tain sections, and how to overcome it is
one of the knotty and serious questions
confronting educators today. It produces
a condition of affairs that is bad, not
only from the standpoint of the children—
i the hope of the country—but from that of
all true, progressive educators having in
mind a purpose to increase the efficiency
of the schools. Nothing tends more to
create enemies to the system than does
this condition; nothing invites so fully un
friendly and unjust criticism.
For example, the enrollment may be
never so large, so full indeed as to include
every child of school age, but if on ac
count of irregular attendance the aver*
age number of children attending regular
ly and receiving the full benefit of the en
tire term’s instruction should fall to or
below one-half the enrollment we will hear
it said, "The whole scheme is a failure
and unworthy the confidence and supports
of the people/’ The school term may be
increased to nine or ten months, but if the
average attendance is not unproved “the
result does not justify the effort put
forth.” The finest talent available may be
employed as instructors in the schools, .
but if the pitiable average is not aug
mented “the increased outlay is not war
ranted." "If the present educational op
portunities are rejected and spurned by
parents and children, why spend more
money to improve them?” V
These and similar expressions are con
stantly heard, and while greatly exagger
ated they contain no little truth.
The evil effects of Irregular attendance
upon school—not to mention non-attend-,
ance at all—is simply fearful. Could the
people at large be brought to comprehend
its evils they certainly would labor to
correct It.
Let’s look at some of these evils.
1. It affects the teacher. It makes his i
work more difficult and infinitely less sat
isfactory. It places him where it is utter
ly impossible for him to act with strict
Justice to the pupils in the matter of grad
ing and classification. He cannot do jus
tice to the pupils in the matter of grad
ing and classification. He cannot do jus
tice to the children, the community or
himself. It hampers him, embarrasses
him, and, no doubt, harrasses him.
2. It affects the school work. It disor
ganizes and makes the school more diffi
cult to disciplines It interferes with the
system of graduation and classification. It
demoralizes and disjoints the entire in
ternal machinery of the school and se
riously impedes its healthy progress.
3. It affects the child. It lessens the
child's regard for punctuality and regula
rity and forms in him loose and careless
habits relating to the demands of life. It
encourages and fosters a disregard for
good order and law, and engenders a dis
position to be insubordlhate.
4. It affects the child's home. A girl or
boy allowed to form such habits Will soon
become a menace to the peace, happiness
and good government of his or her home,
and open rebellion will likely follow.
5. It affects the community. Just what
the child is regarding his school duties
and home duties will be when, as a re- •
suit of his majority, he becomes a citi
zen. If he is careless, negligent, insubor
dinate and defiant in the one, he will bs
so in the other. As is the boy, so will
the man be. This is a law of nature, and
only now and then can exceptions be
found.
Right along on this line I reproduce
from the Canadian Educational Journal
the following article on
FORMATION OF HABITS.
The character might be not Inaptly de
scribed as the sum total of the personal t
habits. As “the straw best shows how
the wind blows,” so the ordinary, com
paratively unimportant act of speech af
fords a better guide to the real char
acter than that which is studied and de
liberate. In serious and critical cases the
man has opportunity to take counsel with
prudence. selflnterest or expediency. He
takes into account what the distant es-;
sects of his course of action may be,',
what others may think or say of it. how
it will affect his reputation and future
prospects and governs himself according
ly. But the words spoken and the things
done on "the spur of the moment." the .
perpetual succession of little actions
which make up the bulk of every life,
are more truly characteristic. They may j
be regarded as the spontaneous outcome
of what the man is in his own nature
and training.
Intellectual habits are of the essence
of education. By repeated acts of rea
soning. comparing, discriminating, etc.,
the process becomes easy, the power is
developed and the habit established. This
thinking habit is what chiefly distin
guishes the truly educated from the un
educated. The man to whom the exer
cise of each faculty of mind has become
easy through habit, brings all his powers
of thought to bear instantaneously upon
any matter of interest or importance,
while he who has formed no such habit
finds it laborious and fatiguing, if not
impossible, to concentrate his mental forc
es at will upon any object, however wor
thy of attention.
CASTOR IA
Tor infants and. Children.
The Kind Yon Han Always Bought
THE KICKER.
Kicking In the morning, kicking all the day,
Kicking if he's busy, kicking at delay;
Thus the chronic kicker fills his life with woes.
Frowning, grumbling, wrangling, everywhere
he goes. . , , ’
Nothing ever suits him, always finding fault.
Every kind of pleasure he is sure to halt.
Scowling at the children, growling at his wife.
Turning peace and comfort into constant strife.
Kicking if the weather happens to be dry.
Kicking when the rain is tumbling from the
sky,
Kicking in the summer, heat has then no
charm;
Kicking in the winter, then he’d have it warn’-.
Kicking every mealtime, glaring at the meat,
Often he Is saying. ’'Nothing fit to eat;"
Kicking when he's reading, grumbling at the
light.
Now and then denouncing everything in sight.
Kicking In the morning, kicking all the day.
Kicking In the evening, kicking should he pray.
Kicking while he’s thinking, kicking when In
bed—
Wonder If he’ll keep on kicking when he’s
dead.
—Pittsburg Chronicle-Telegraph.
For $l4O we will tend The Semi*
Weekly one year and the Five Vaseline
Toilet Articles and any one of the
premium papers offered with The
Seml-Wsekly at SI.OO. Thia Is the
greatest offer ever made and you
should take advantaoe o» m —**hout