Newspaper Page Text
I Talks IVith Farmers
I
Conducted By C. H. Jordan
■
♦ Official Organ of Southern ♦
♦ Cotton Growers’ Association ♦
’ ’ Th* Semi-Weekly Journal to the oftk- < >
' ‘ rial organ ot the S uthem Cottea , ■
' ’ Growern Protective Association. the , ,
' > aai» official paper of that organUa- , ,
' ' Uon. and hereafter all official com- , ,
< • tnuaications of the aseociat ion's otfi- < ,
< > eers. and all matter* pertaining to it* , ,
■ > affairs will appear tn thee* column*. , ,
i > Th* Journal also Invite* members of
< i the asaoctatlon and cotton growers and
< , farmer* generally to u»e it* column*
( , for the exprr*#tm of >uch views and
, , aucreructu as may be of Interest and
, , value to the agricultural Interests of ’
, , th* south. ' ’
Th* Journal will devote each week ' •
two column*, as requested by th* a*- ' '
naeistjon. to a •'Cotton Department.” < •
' ts which will appear the official ecm- < ‘
' ’ tmtnicatlons of the association and ' >
' ' *och statistical and other information < >
' ’ ae bear* tpoc the work of th* asm- « >
< * Motion and all matter* of interest to , >
eouthern cotton growers. , ,
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♦ Agricultural Editor. Monticello. Ga. •>
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THE CONDITION OF CROPS.
At thia date. July 10th. the prospects are
anything but bright for a successful har
vest of the south’s two principal field
crops— com and cotton.
Over a large area of the belt the corn
crop is already a failure, and fields that
looked promising ten days ago are now
rapidly wilting under the torrid rays of
the sun and a withering, blasting, dry
wind. I have noticed a number of fields of
corn which show no desposition now to
silk, notwithstanding the tassle has al
ready fully developed. The corn tops
through middle and southern Georgia are
dying rapidly, and from such stalks noth
ing can be expected but forage. Even If
the shoots appear, the grain on the ear
will be stunted and undeveloped.
While showers and thunderstorms have
been scattering tn this state and others,
no general rains have fallen over the belt
in many week*. Showers give but tempora
ry relief, particularly when they are fol
lowed by hot.blistering winds, which force
rapid and incessant evaporation.
• What we need badly at once are general
rains, followed by' several days of cloudy
weather. At thia time, however, the
weather bureau reports hold out no hope
for a change tn the existing condition of
continuous dry weather. High barome
ters are reported from all sections of the
country east of the Rockies, and some
days, perhaps another week or two. must
elapse before relief is given, maybe longer.
It is now too late to plant com expecting
a crogj.except on very rich upland or fer
tile bottoms. Even then conditions from
now on will have to be extremely favora
ble to mature good ears. To predict at
this time a general failure of the south's
com crop Is not a wild prophecy.
The com crop of Texas has already been
harvested and shredded up Into forage,
the long drought there having made the
development of the ears a failure. Last
year there was but little com produced in
the south, owing tn some areas to
drought, and in others to excessive rains
and freshets. Thousands of farmers were
therefore necessitated to buy both corn
and meat at enormously high figures,
which greatly increases the cost of cotton
production this year, and from the present
outlook, it appears that the same thing
will have to be endured again. Surely, the
pathway of the farmer is rugged these
days.
The Cotton Crop.
Naturally the state of the weather dur
ing the past six weeks has had a deteri
orating and retarding effect upon the
growth and development of the great
money staple crop of the south. Con
tinuous east winds and cool mornings
some weeks ago propagated millions of
lice in many sections which seriously In
jured the plant before hot sunshine and
other enemies of this plant Insect had
interfered to check their spread and re
duce their injury.
Not only have lice, hot sunshine and
blistering winds done great damage, but
it is now reported that the army worm
and Mexican boll weevil are present in
many fields. A recent Associated Press
dispatch from a Mississippi correspondent
gives the unwelcome tidings that the boll
weevil has appeared in ootton fields just
east of the Mississippi. It had been hoped
that this most injurious of all insects to
the cotton plant would not only be con
fined to western Texas, but that it would
in a few years be exterminated. v
Their appearance east of the Mississippi
may well excite alarm among the eotton
producers in the old states, because if
nothing is done to check their advance
the eotton industry will receive the most
serious check it has ever had to encoun
ter. They were doubtless imported
through the purchase of planting seed
from the infected regions of the Braso*
country and I called particular attention
to this danger two years ago in discus
sing the life and habits of this peculiar
insect. The black root rot is also spread
ing and may be noticed tn south Georgia
to a greater or lesser extent tn all fields
this year planted in cotton.
The June crop this year will amount
to but little except in favored sections,
where rainfall has been abundant since
the germination of the plant. Under ex
isting condition* squares and small bolls
fanning and developing in July will either
fall off or become dwarfed and puny.
Just what we may expect from August
is of course an unknown quantity at this
time. Suffice it to say tha't there cannot,
except almost by a miracle, be a record
breaking crop of cotton harvested the
coming season. If present conditions con
tinue much longer, notwithstanding the
M.0W.000 acres planted, - the crop is not i
likely to turn out as many bales a* were
harvested during the season of ISOL
Curtailing Production.
The Associated Press dispatches from
the large spinning centers of this coun
try and Europe already indicate a deter
mlnation ot manufacturers to curtail pro
duction of cotton goods by running their
mills on shorter time. There are two rea
sons advanced for this change. The first
and most weighty is that there is not
now enough cotton in the market and in
the bauds of manufacturers to keep the
Spindles going on full time until Septem
ber, and a cotton famine can only be
avoided by cutting down the daily output
of the mills- i
The other reason, which puts the mills
on the defensive, is that a large part of
the staple is now in the hands of specu
lators who bought their holding* at low
prices from the producers last winter and
are now demanding high prices, recognis
ing as they do the true value of the staple
and the scarcity of the commodity. If the
mills therefore can. by agreement, enter
into a system of curtailment of manufac
ture and run on short time for the next
W days until the n»w crop comes in. they
feel that they can as usual buy cotton
BEST PEACH CIOER
N Gallon* f’«* Gaanrta Pearbes. Ko fraigbt;
“ du * I. J. mis, Oirut, It
from the fanners at their own figures
and break the demand of speculators
who are now wanting higher prices. The
speculators are not to be blamed for the
position they have taken, neither can the
mills be eensured for their action, as the
whole matter is a purely business propo
sition, and the side which can hold out
the longest will win. The people who
arc to be censured, however, for allowing
themselves to be used so unmercifully by
both the speculators and spinners, are
the men who produce the product. The
men who are today toiling laboriously
under the fierce rays of an unrelenting
heat to make the staple which, when
packed into merchantable condition, is
rushed off to market and dunjped into the
willing hands of the buyers at their, own
price.
There is no business in such a system;
it amounts almost to a madness for which
there can be no Reasonable excuse given
by those who are able to either hold their
cotton at home from a glutted and un
righteous market, or who can make ar
rangements through warehouses and
banks to hold their staple until such time
as the market reaches a fair and just
value. The whole scheme of marketing
the cotton crop by farmers is based large
ly upon custom and habit which tor
years has been in fores, or a surrendering
of their hard practical and sensible views
to the siren tongues of those who want to
secure immediate possession of the crop
for selfish purposes of their own.
Nothing more and ndthtng less, for sure
ly no man can be so blind to his own in
terests or to facts, a* not to know that
when the market is overburdened with
any commodity and the buyer has the all
powerful and unrestricted right to dic
tate the price at which such commodity
shall be sold, that the seller must suffer
the penalty of the position in which he
finds himself placed. The marketing of
cotton is no exception to tbq rule. The
same thing is true of every other commod
ity. whether it be the raw or manufac
tured articlte. in every market in the
world. The seller will never secure his
rights until he has some voice in the
price at which his possessions shall be
sold.
Right of Possession.
The right of production and possession
of the finest and most valuable staple
and money crop tn the world, give the
producers the highest right to demand at
the hand* of the spinners a price based
upon the fair and legitimate value of
their cotton. The duty which every south
ern farmer owe* to his family and to his
beloved country should actuate him by the
strongest incentives to stand guard over
his cotton in the thoroughfares of every
local market and with steadfast and un
rc enting determination, say to every
buyer, that a price commensurate with the
value or his staple must be offered before
a bill of sale can be Issued.
If southern cotton producers would only
band themselves together in a brother
hood of strength and ce-operate along the
line* of business methods the coming crop
eould easily be made to command a max
imum value of 160 for bale. There can be
but little or no profit to producers at a
less price and if by reason of enforced
sales the price is forced down to last
figures, with heavy time accounts
to meet for high priced corp, meat and
guano out of a short crop the gloom of the
coming winter will fall like a mantle of
darkness over the home* of thousands of
farmer* before the coming of another
year. » HARVIE JORDAN.
J. E. C.. Lawrenceville, Ga.:
I planted my bottoms in corn about the
first of May and the corn • succored
the worst I ever saw. Please tell me the
cause of it. It looks more like sorghum.
Answer-The cause of corn putting out
extra shoots from the parent plant is due
to excessive growth, development and fer
tility of soil. If conditions continue fa
vorable nearly all the shoots or succors
will make a small ear in the top without
much detriments to the parent stalk. But
if dfy weather should appear the field will
be Injured by allowing them to remain,
the safest plan generally is to wring the
succors off and feed them up as green for
age to stock.
Some varieties of corn, particularly the
small grain prolific varieties, succor more
in good land than the old-fashioned large
cob kinds.
THE CYCLONE TERROR.
Westerners Fear Them More Than the
People of the South Do Volcanoes.
Chicago Inter Ocean.
Recent disturbances by volcanic eruption
in the island of Martinique and Guatemala
bring out in full measure the sympathy of
the residents of the cyclone district of
the southwest. The cyclone is by far the
worst form of disaster that visits this
country coming at unexpected times and
dealing death and destruction in wide
spread manner.
When the summer days bring waves of
heat across the stretches of hot sod. then
the residents of the prairie west begin to
cast their eyes to the windward. They
are watching the formation of the clouds,
and he who could not distinguish a cy
clone bank from arty other is indeed a ten
derfoot. Then the cry of warning Is car
ried across the plains, and the members of
every family make for their cyclone cel
lars. These cellars differ in various com
munities. The popular cyclone cellar on
the plains of western Kansas, where cy
clones a few years ago were almost a
daily occurrence, are ordinary sod houses,
built low and strong.
In the Russian communities of Kansas
these cyclone houses serve as the family
residence the year round. They are
about seven feet high, and built exception
ally strong. The roofs are slanting, and
the houses are set to the wind, that is,
the ends are faced toward the east and
west.
In Oklahonm every farmhouse Is backed
up by a cave! a hole dug into the ground,
and covered by an earthen roof. Some
farmers havk gone so far in protecting
themselves against cyclones that they
have a small cannon loaded with salt and
buckshot, which is fired into the whirling
clouds as they approach. This has been
known to turn the course of a storm. It
is a common event to dismiss school on
the plain* of Oklahoma when a bank of
clouds begins to arise In the southwest.
These wind and rain storms are becoming
more uncommon every day, and it is be
lieved that the planting of trees and the
settlement of the barren sod has had much
to do with it. Before Oklahoma was thor
oughly well settled dosens of cyclones
were reported every day In the hot
months. The writer was in Newkirk one
day in the early period of that town's
existence, and saw seven cyclones form in
the afternoon. All of them followed the
course of the Arkansas river, and “struck"
In the Osage Indian reservation, far to the
westward.
Social Changes.
London Tatler.
I can well remember the time when a
man. if perchance he met a lady while he
was smoking in some rather unfrequented
street, always flung away his cigar and
rather tried to look as if he had not been
doing it. Tet so far have we traveled that
not long ago. at a hospitable house, not a
hundred miles from Berkley Square, the
hostess and her daughter were the only
smokers in a large luncheon party, and
prefaced their cigarettes by the courteous
condition, “If you gentlemen don't mind.”
Love is never found; it come*—Graystone.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, MONDAY, JULY 14, 1902.
YO UNG MEN IN POLITICS, ‘
PAST AND PRESENT
BY F. H. RICHARDSON.
HAT is the basis of the very
general impression that’young
men are more prominent and
potential in politics now than
w
they formerly were?
We hear much about young men cpmlng
to the front in affairs of state and we see
many’ of them attain political distinction
at a remarkably early age.
But is precocity of this character pecul
iar to our generation, or our recent his
tory?
Far from it! Instead of having acquired
Increased political influence and larger po
litical leadership in recent years, young
men are relatively less eminent in that
field than tney were a good many years
ago, at least so far as the two great Eng
lish speaking nations arg concerned.
There is now In this country no man
only thirty-two years old who is so trust
ed and forceful, so eminent a political
leader as Alexander Hamilton was -at
that age, nor one in the whole British em
pire under forty who has been even dis
cussed as a possible prime minister, and
yet Pitt attained the office when he was
twenty-four. Hamilton and Pitt were re
markable, but not excepttional, illustra
tions of the rise of young men in what we
regard as an olden time to splendid
heights of fame in politics.
You oan find many more examples of
early distinction in politics then than the
present generation in either the United
States and Great Britain has supplied, or
is likely to furnish. There are scores of
young men in congress, that is to say,
men between thirty and forty-five, but it
is probable that the average age of the
members of the first American congress
was lower than the average age of the
members.of the Forty-seventh.
The influence of young men was felt
more in both American and British poli
tics tn the eighteenth century and the first
half of the nineteenth than it is felt at
present, though one might infer from the
talk of the progressiveness of latter day
youth that it is rapidly crowding maturer
men out of political leadership and con
trol.
What would we think now of a young
ster of nineteen entering parliament?
Charles James Fox did it nearly a hun
dred and fifty years ago. He modestly re
mained silent until he became of age, but
had hardly attained his majority before he
was attacking and worsting some of the
venerable past masters of debate tn the
house of commons; was recognised as
one of the most powerful supporters of
Lord North’s administration and had been
appointed a lord of the admiralty.
Fox was the most precocious of the
Englishmen who have become famous
statesmen while the down was still on
their cheeks and we shall look in vain for
a man who became an acknowledged par
liamentary leader in any country at so
early an age.
Pitt, his great rival, was a candidate for
parliament a few months after he reached
twenty-one, but was defeated. Within a
few months thereafter he won a seat and
rose so rapidly that he was premier at
twenty-four. Before he was nineteen his
illustrious father, Lord Chatham, had
trained him superbly for politics and in
spired in him an ambition to excel in "the
noblest of sciences.” On his nineteenth
birthday Pitt supported his noble father
on his arm as he entered the house of
lords on that memorable day when he
made his immortal defense of the Ameri
can colonies. Chatham was nearly sev
enty and physically very feeble. He spoke
with great power, then, as he always did,
and became so carried away with his
theme that he even surpassed himself.
After his great peroration he fell fainting
and was taken from the scene of his many
historic triumphs to die.
The Pitt, who became Lord Chatham,
first entered the army, but the death of
his elder brother caused him to turn, his
attention to politic* and at twenty-seven
he entered parllartient, but not until after
he had incurred the undying ehmtty of Sir
Robert Walpole by fierce arraignments of
his administration. Pitt had hardly taken
his seat before Horace Walpole took up
the quarrel of his father and endeavored
to bring the parliamentary novice into
ridicule by making a cruel attack upon
him in which Pitt’s youth was alluded to
in crushing sarcasm.
Pitt needed neither defence nor sympa
thy. His reply to Walpole, the son of his
persecutor, is historic ans for withering
invective and satire has rartely been equal
ed. Multitudes of school boys have rung
the changes on that superb speech be
ginning, “The atrocious crime of being a
young man, I shall neither attempt to pal
liate nor deny.”
The elder Pitt had to fight the Walpoles,
father and son, and his triumph over both
was complete.
Sir Robert, finding himself unable either
to beat him down or win him over, resort
ed to the meanness of procuring Pitt’s
dismissal from the army. Contemptible
as was that assertion of personal
spite, It was the best thing
that ever happened for Pitt,
as it gave him full opportunity to devote
himself entirely to his parliamentary du
ties and to the determination to be aveng
ed upon Walpole, x.e succeeded in defeat
ing measure after measure, one of which
that powerful minister set his heart
and finally overwhelmed him and his ad
ministration beyond hope of recovery.
A greater man than eitherffLord Chat
ham or his brilliant son, the greatest man
in intellectual power in the whole range of
British politics, Edmund Burke, entered
parliament when he was 35, but he was
already the foremost controversial writer
and critic in the kingdom. Before he be
came a member of parliament some one
asked a distinguished man who knew both
Burke and Gibbon, the great historian,
which of the two he considered the strong
er intellect. His reply was: "Sir, you
might cut Gibbon out of a corner of
Burke's mind and Burke would not khow
that he had lost anything.”
There are few personalities in British
annals so fascinating as George Canning,
the son of a London linen draper, who
practically ruled England during one of
the stormiest periods of her history. Be
fore he became a premier of almost ab
solute power he made prime ministers
and cabinets do his bidding, like the born
ruler of men that he was.
He was Great Britain’s greatest war
minister and, judged by his success in
whatever he attempted he must be con
sidered the most triumphant British
statesman of the nineteenth century.
Canning prevented the subjugation of
Greece by Turkey, saved Portugal from
being crushed by Spain, forced Great Brit
ain to recognise the newly established
South American republics before the Unit
ed States did so, stopped the Holy Alli
ance on its way to restore those repubics
to Spain, paved the way for both Catholic
emancipation and the repeal of the corn
Igws.
As an orator he had no peer in England
then and has had none since. Perhaps no
speech ever delivered in parliament had
such an electric effect as Canning’s glo
rious address in whicn he gave an ac
count of how he had broken the power of
Spain in South America. When in the full
sweep of that wonderful oration he ex
claimed :
"I have called a new world into exist
ence to redress the balance of the old!”
an indescribable scene ensued. The en
thusiasm was so intense that itxwas sever
al minutes before Canning could proceed.
He was a very handsome man and fasci
nating in a rare degree to both men and
women. Nature lavished her most envied
gifts upon him. Hazlitt referred to him
when he spoke of the “lovelocks of the
constitution.”
Canning entered Parliament at twenty
three and at twenty-five was the most
popular and most powerful man in Eng
land.
Disraeli and Gladstone were the two
most famous British statesmen of our
time and each was in Parliament before
he was twenty-five, Disraeli at twenty
four and his great rival at twenty-three.
Gladstone was only twenty-nine when
Macaulay in a review of his work on
“Church and State,” referred to him as
“a young man of irreproachable charac
ter, the rising hope of the stern and un
bending Tories.”
> Disraeli was just past twenty-four when
he made that miserable failure in attempt
ing to speak in the House of Commons
and, turning on the crowd of jeering mem
bers, exclaimed, “The time will come
when you shall hear me!"
Pamerston was only twenty-three when
he began his long and wonderful parlia
mentary career.
Macaulay, already famous in literature,
became a member of the House of Com
mons on whom all eyes were fixed before
he was twenty-three. He was one of the
most brilliant speakers of bls day and a
prodigy of industry. While he was one of
the busiest members of Parliament he
was also doing the most laborious and
most lasting literary work of his life.
Bulwer Lytton had barely passed twen
ty-two when he entered Parliament. Like
Macaulay, he was one of the brightest
literary lights of his generation, as well
as an orator of great force.
It is said that both Macaulay and Lyt
ton spoke quite as well before they were
twenty-five as they ever did afterwards
and each was ranked among the foremost
of British orators until his death.
Many other instances could be given in
which British statesmen of bygone times
have become famous at an age when the
great majority of men have not finished
sowing their wild oats and have never
given a serious thought to the real con
cerns of life, but the history of our own
country is also rich in similar illustra
tions. though it does not afford so many
of them.
What an upstart, what a hopeless case
of youthful big-head we would consider
any man of twenty-one who should even
announce himself a candidate for gov
ernor of Georgia!
But there was a young man who was
elected governor of Georgia when he was
but little past twenty-one and had Uvea
in the state only six years.
This was James Jackson, whose career
was the most romantic in the history of
our state. He came to Georgia from Eng
land at the age of fifteen and several
years before he reached his twenty-first
birthday was famous as a soldier of rare
genius and great intrepidity.
Jackson declined the governorship on
the ground of his youth and inexperience.
In later life he gave a still grander exhi
bition of unselfishness when he resigned
a seat in the United States senate to be
come a candidate for the Georgia legisla
ture. His purpose in doing so was to
drive from the state the conspirators who
had engineered the infamous Yazoo
frauds, to restore to Georgia the vast
tracts of layds of which they had robbed
her and to purge her official records of
every stain they had placed there.
He accomplished his high purpose and
that qne work of James Jackson was
worth a life-time of effort, but how many
men would now give up a senatorial toga
that they might undertake a like labor?
Patrick Henry was leading the colonists
on the path that led to American inde
pendence before he was twenty-nine.
When a little past thirty he made the
speech that did more than any other ap
peal to fire their hearts to the desperate
determination, of “liberty or death.” and
less than a year later he delivered an
other speech which calm and profoundly
critical Thomas Jefferson said was the
grandest effort he ever heard.
When Washington came to organize
his first presidential cabinet he considered
Alexander Hamilton the best-equipped
man in the United States for the most
difficult office In that council which had
such meager resources at its command
and so many dangers and difficulties to
deal with. Hamilton was then but thirty-
BOSSES OF THE SENATORS.
Washington Correspondence St. Louis
Globe-Democrat.
Barring only Mrs. Roosevelt and the wo
men of the cabinet, the wives of United
States senators are the most conspicu
ous leaders of official fashion in Washing
ton. Those of them who choose to be such
are personages of high Importance, and
their favor and recognition are eagerly
sought. In many instances their husbands
are very rich men, and wealth, with the
opportunities for entertaining which It
gives, adds substantially to their promin
ence.
Although the days of lobbying, recog
nized as such, are over at the national
capital, the dinner Invitation and the
drawing room influence are still potent as
of yore. No legitimate successor of Sam
Ward gives' gorgeous entertainments for
the purpose of modifying legislation, but
the fate of many a bill before congress is
determined by petticoat persuasion. It is
by no means Intended to imply that sena
tors’ wives are actively engaged in the
business of wirepulling; but, through so
cial and other phannels, they have large
control.
Recently a regulation was laid down
by Mrs. John Hay to the effect that the
wives of senators would In future, be ex
pected to mate the first call upon the
wives of ambassadors arriving In Wash
ington though hitherto this has not been
required. Wives of ministers plenipo
tentiary must call first, as heretofore.
No requirement was made In regard to
the wives of representatives In congress,
simply because they are not supposed to
be In the samb set with the wives of high
diplomatic personages.
Nothing could better illustrate the so
cial distinction which exists in Wash
ington between the senate and the house.
There are a few representatives who are
persons of social prominence,but the great
majority are utterly unknown to the fash
ionable life of the capital. With senators,
however, It is different, and their wives,
if they choose, are personages. Their ac
quaintance Is eagerly desired, and people
flock to their weekly receptions.
One of the most fashionable women in
Washington is the wife of the senior sen
ator from Michigan, Mrs. James McMillan,
who has always taken a conspicuous part
In social gayetles. Since the senator first
took his seat in the upper house in
1889, the McMillan home on Vermont ave
nue has been famous for its charming
hospitality. Mrs. McMillan enjoys the en
viable reputation of being one of Washing
ton’s most popular hostesses, and an invi
tation to one of her little dinners Is a
thing greatly to be desired.
Mrs. Charles W. Fairbanks, wife of the
Indiana senator, has attained special dis
tinction as the president of the Society of
the Daughters of the Revolution. She
is one of the most popular women in offi
cial circles, and her palatial home on the
corner of Massachusetts avenue and Eigh
teenth street is one of the most pleasant
houses in Washington to yislt. The Fair
bankses hail from Indianapolis.
Mrs. Stephen Benton Elkins, a daugh
ter of ex-Senator Davis, of West Virginia,
Is the wife of one of the most popular men
In the upper house. She is one of the most
fashionable women in Washington, where
she .has lived for many years, and enter
tains magnificently, being noted for her
hospitality both at her home on K street
and at Elkins, in West Virginia. Her hus
band has been a senator since 1894, having
previously occupied the position of secre
tary of war under President Harrison,
while before that he was k member of the
lower house for two terms.
Mrs. Joseph Benson Foraker is a nota-
Thomas Jefferson at twenty-six was
conspicuous in the Virginia house of bur
gesses; at thirty sat in the continental
congress and at thirty-three wrote the
immortal Declaration.
James Madison entered congress at
twenty-eight, and at thirty-six had won
the title of "Father of the Constituion.”
James Monroe, who held more great of
fices than any other American, and dis
tinguished himself in every one of them,
began his high official career at thirty
three.
DeWitt Clinton was ene of the fore
most leaders of the dominant political
party of the time when only twenty-sev
en, and United States senator at thirty
three, and before he yas forty had led
the movement for the construction of the
Erie canal so powerfully that the success
of that great movement was attributed
to him more than to all its other promot
ers combined. «
Henry Clay was a United States senator
before he was thirty-one. In fact, he was
so young that some of his enemies cir
culated the libel that he “fudged" a little
in stating his age.
Daniel Webster was a member of con
gress at thirty-one. though did not reach
the senate until he was forty five. But
in the meantime how many superb
achievements were his!
John C. Calhoun, the other figure in the
“great triumvirate” was elected to con
gress at the age of twenty-eight, was sec
retary of war at thirty-five and vice pres
ident at forty-two. He was fifty before
he entered the senate.
Jefferson Davis had made a famous rec
ord hn the Black Hawk and Mexican wars
and was a leader in the United States
senate by the time he had reached the
nge of thirty-nine.
Howell Cobb was speaker of the federal
house of representatives at thirty-four,
governor of Georgia at thirty-six and sec
retary of the treasury of the United States
at forty-one.
One of the most memorable contests for
the Georgia governorship was that be
tween Benjamin H. Hill and Joseph E.
Brown in 18*6. Hill was thirty-three and
Brown thirty-five.
Robert Y. Hayne was only 32 when he
encountered Daniel Webster, who was
about ten years older, in the most famous
of American senatorial debates.
This list of very young American states
men could be lengthened largely, but we
should find very few names to put in it,
the establishment of whose fame does not
date back of the '6o’s.
Why is it that young men, both in the
United States and England, do not acquire
lofty leadership, hold it so long or use it
so effectively as many men of their age
did in bygone generations?
There is one very patent reason.
The allurements of politics are not now
as captivating as they once were. Other
professions have gained immensely in im
portance and win a large proportion of
gifted youths.
There are the railroads, the insurance
business, civil engineering, architecture,
great business enterprises of many kinds
to offer magnificent rewards to men of
brains and ambition.
Another reason for the failure of young
men to shine with the splendor of former
youthful prodigies in politics is that they
do not have that thorough training and
equipment that was once given to the
boy who was designed by himself or oth
ers for a political career. Most young men
who now go into politics do so without
any intention of making that (science their
life-work. A large proportion of them
merely dabble in it and regard it as a
temporary entertainment or a passing
adventure.
It is an inspiring spectacle to see a young
man Illustrious in any line of effort that
requires high qualities, unfaltering devo
tion to purposes and ideals.
We have in many walks of life illustra
tions of youthful triumphs that challenge
our admiration, but politics now gives us
fewer of them than were once found in
that great field.
bly handsome and distinguished looking
woman. The wife of the senior senator
from Ohio, she enjoys an important and
influential position in Washington and
her big yellow house on the corner of Six
teenth and P street is a center of social
attraction. Her daughters are very pop
ular in society here. / .
The wife of Senator Julius C. Burrows,
of Michigan is another notable Washing
ton hostess. Though her husband was on
ly selected to the senate In 1896, he had
previously Served for a number of years
in the house of representatives, and so
she is looked upon as quite an "old Wash
ingtonian.” as the phrase is, in this town
of kaleidoscopic changes. The Burrows
es comes from Kalamazoo, and they oc
cupy a very handsome house at 1404 Mass
achusetts avenue.
Mrs. Joseph C. S. Blackburn Is the bride
of the senate, having been married to the
Kentucky senator only a few month* ago.
She was a very attractive young widow
at the time of her marriage and had been
for several years a resident of Washing
ton. Oddly enough, her first husband also
was named Blackburn, though, so far as
she knows, he was not related in any way
to her present husband. The Washington
home of the Blackbums is at 3012 Hillyer
place.
The wife of the junior senator from
Idaho, Mrs. Fred T. Dubois, is a charm
ing young woman with a hobby. She is
an enthusiast in kindergarten work hav
ing taken up the study before her mar
riage. Mrs. Dubota has apartments at the
Loudoun, and amid her manifold social
duties she has found time to give a series
of elaborate entertainments for kinder
garten teachers.
Another popular senator’s wife is Mrs.
George Turner, who comes from Spo
kane, Washington state. She has been in
Washington since 1897, when her husband
tok his seat in the upper house, and has
made many warm friends and admirers.
They occupy apartments at the Portland.
Mrs. Thomas M. Patterson Is the latest
addition to the senatorial set. She is the
wife of the junior senator from
Colorado and she and her hus
band have apartments at the
Shoreham. Mrs. Patterson is much inter
ested in charitable affairs, and a special
hobby of hers is the beautfylng of school
rooms as a means of education. For many
years shS has been well known In Denver
as an earnest helper in practical philan
thropic work.
These are only a few of the more con
spicuous women in the senatorial set—a
social circle which may be regarded as
a set within a set in Washington society,
dominating by its influence a wide social
sphere and comprising a large number
of charming and intellectual women.
Willing to Oblige.
"Yes, I like you very much, George,”
said the fair girl with the fuffy hair,
"but I couldn’t really think of marry
ing you.”
“Why not, darling?” queried George.
"Because we could never be happy to
gether,” she replied. "You know I always
want my own way In everything.”
“Oh, that will be all right,” replied the
crafty George. "After we are married
you can keep right on wanting it, as far
as I am concerned.”
B« she right or wrong, a woman will not per
mit a man to question her motives. Possibly
she never had a motive; that all her actions
being the result of impulse, cannot b« analyzed,
or peradventure, being a woman is of Itself a
good and sufficient reason for whatever she
may do or say.—Gray ato na
SUGGESTIONS FROM I
OUR CORRESPONDENTS I
WANTS ROAD BUILT FROM
ATLANTA TO SAVANNAH
To the Editor of The Journal:
I noticed some time ago where a charter
had ’ been applied for for the purpose of
constructing a railroad from Atlanta to
Savannah. I would like to see this busi
ness pushed through, because I know in
my own knowledge it would be as good
paying road as there is in the state, and
along its line through the counties it
would pass through there is sufficient evi
dence to warrant my saying that several
good-sized towns would go up and every
station, I believe, would be a hustling
place. It would have a territory to draw
from through this section of country, be
cause it is from 10 to 15 miles to any town
of any consequence from this place. The
next thing ,lt would be an air line road
from Atlanta direct to the cokst. This,
you know, would make freight rates
cheaper and also connect all the western
states with trade and trafic of nearly all
the foreign countries. So push a good
thing along when you know it is a good
thing. CHAS. P. EZELL.
Huron, Putnam Co., Ga.
ANOTHER OF BRECKINRIDGE’S
MEN RESENTS ATTACK
To the Editor of The Journal:
A friend living in Georgia has written
me that recently an attack was made in
an article which appeared in your columns
on the fighting qualities Os Breckinridge's
division, and the statement made that
the division ran at the battle of Cold
Harbor. I desire ,to answer this libel
against the well-earned fame of a di
vision of gallant veterans. Being one who
was, from the fortunes of battle, a. prom
inent figure in the memorable struggle of
the 3d of June. 1864, I will be prepared
to give the facts. I desire the name of
the author of the article referred to, so
that I may address him personally
through the columns ‘of the Journal, and
being one of those whom he has defamed,
I think I have a right to employ this
method of redress. I am very truly yours,
GEORGE M. EDGAR.
Lt. Col. 26th Va. Battalion. Echols Bri
gade and Commander of Echols’ Bri
gade at close of war.
P. B.—l am known by General John B.
Gordon and Rev. Dr. Theron Rice, Atlan
ta. G. M. E.
SAYS BRECKINRIDGE’S BRIGADE
HAS BEEN SLANDERED
To the Editor of The Journal:
Some time last spring a Mr. Shiver,
from Alabama. In writing about the bat
tle of Cold Harbor. June 3, 1864. made the
statement that Breckenridge’s division
not being used to larger weapons than
squirrel weapons, could not stand the
racket of big guns,” etc., and ran away
out of the battle. I corrected him in the
columns of both The Journal and Rich
mond Dispatch. A few weeks later he re
peated, in substance, the charge and ig
nored my refutation. Whereupon, I
wrote Col. George M. Edgar, who com
manded the 26th Virginia battalion, the
troops that occupied the only part of
Breckenridge’s division that was overrun
on that memorable morning, informing
him of Mr. Shiver's statements I have
just received a letter from him stating
that he has written you about the matter.
Mr. Shiver’s statement is extremely in
accurate, not to say worse, and does
great injustice to the living and the dead.
I can't imagine why he repeated the
story after its falsity was -shown-
Colonel Edgar is a high-toned Christian
gentleman and will no doubt furnish a
most readable article for The Journal,
setting the matter straight.
Yours truly,
C. W. HUMPHREYS.
Jackson, Ga. /
A PLEA FOR THE
TEACHERS OF GEORGIA
As we fortunate ones are plannning for
the summer, looking at maps, selecting
resorts that suit our tastes and withal
having a charming if busy time, I fancy
very few of us have thought of our
friends, the teachers.
Do they not make their plans, as a
matter of course? But these same plans
must vanish like frailest air castles. Few,
if any, can afford the luxury and almost
necessity of change. Our brightest state
official perhaps doesn’t think of them as
people—they are merely employees. To
be sure they have labored but they are
not in want by any means. (I can almost
hear those words).
Yes, very true, but have they not a
right, a just right to their pay, even
though they be only empjloyees. The most
beggarly day laborer Is paid when his
task is finished.
For five months these tedchers have
toiled daily, and tc the real teacher the
work is no play. Yet now in order that
the state may not have a trifling interest
to pay, they can afford to wait. Ah! I
am a true Georgian to my heart's core but
I care not to see our fair land a land
of such evident injustice. Can some wish
person estimate the amount of funds we’ve
spent toward the workfi?) in our treasure
aero** the sea—the Philippine islands?
See If that sum wouldn't at least cover
our honest debt*. And what benefit will
Georgia derive therefrom? If the money
in our treasury were paid where it is le
gally due, I think these Filipinos would
be quite as well off. Let me draw a pic
ture for you. At a small, rough school
house in a pine grove about two miles
from a south Georgia village, there was a
young lady teaching. All the spring days
she had been laboring with the children
from the farms. Now this was no sine
cure. These Utile folks must needs be
taught some things that the school laws
do not require. They had spent some time
in learning that one’s teacher could be a
friend, could be loved as well a* feared.
Though she has been successful there is
a feeling of something more, some higher
work to be done. She sighs, perhaps, as
there dances before her mind’s eye a
vision of two hundred dollars in crisp
greenbacks. So little to our state, but so
much to her. It would give her the wish
ed-for normal course, and broaden the
faculties that constant usage has nar
rowed. But between her and this cherish
ed oasis, stretches a vast chasm of dis
counts, and so the dream is only a dream.
M. 8. MALONE.
THE depot can be built
ON THE PRESENT SITE
To the Editor of The Journal: ,
There is one way to do it. There never
has been but one, and it is this:
The state’s land is wide enough for one
depot with eight tracks. It is long enough
for two depots. One east, the other west j
of Pryor street. Build from Loyd street
to Broad street, letting Pryor street pass
through the structure at grade level. Thus
making two, depots, one looking east with
eight tracks, one west with eight, and
both abutting’Pryor street, but no tracks
crossing Pryor street inside the depot nor
crossing within the depot nor coming ’with
in 30 or 40 feet of it. thus leaving a lobby
on each side of Pryor street 30 or 40 feet
deep; extending across the entire width
at the building. From this lobby passeng
ers can reach their trains in all cases from
the rear end without having to cross any
trpeks and with as great convenience as
in the great central depot of St. Louis. j
All trains back in and head out. No
smoking engines Inside the structure, but j
all stopping outside. Pryor street covered
by the second and third floors of the de
pot. Present grade unchanged and erpss
ed by three tracks on south slue as at
present, but by nothing else.
Loyd street raised a little for the rail-
road tracks and tunneled for street sub
way. Thus no train will have to be cut
in'two after it has been made up at the
yard, because it will in no case block a
street crossing. Second floor of structure
for waiting rooms, dining room and office*
on Whitehall viaduct level; third floor ex
tending over Whitehall viaduct, used for
baggage and express transfers, to be
reached by, eleva tor from the track level,
thus completely relieving the passengers
from the annoyance and danger of the
express and baggage trucks.
Incorporate a terminal company to
build on above lines, and lease the land
to that company for a reasonable rental;
Yours most respectfully,
JOHN D. HILLYER.
AMERICANPAPER AND INK.
Papyrus Might be Planted in the South
ern Bayous and Everglades.
Springfield Republican.
Papyrus, supposed by many to be an extinct
plant, nevertheless doe* exist tn some of the
lake margins of lower Egypt, and occasionally
Is found elsewhere, as for example. In the
famous fountain of Aretrusa, In Sicily. Wheth
er this be the real papyrus antfquorum, from
which the paper of Egypt and Greece was
made, or the papyrus corymboaus, abundant in
India and used for mats, is not so sure. But
why stfbuld not the papyrus be added to our
paper stock resources ? It could probably be
domesticated in Florida swamps and Louisiana
bayous. Moreover, it might be planted in the
vast marshes of the Amazon system. Some
thing must be done to Insure the constant
supply of paper; the forest* of spruoe and
poplar are not going to last forever under the
drain of the pulp mills, and attention should be
turned to the rank march grasses and sedges,
among which there must be many which are
capable of use and so of cultivation. It may
prove a mistake to drain and bury all our
marshes, even in the north, and the apparently
Irreclaimable gulf tnlets. swamps and ever
glades might well be experimented with by
cultivating the papyrus. The papyri that are
found are brittle, after some thousands of
years, but it is possible that the resources of
chemistry may better that tendency. At *ll
events, why is it not worth trying?
There is also a fortune waiting for the man
who can make a good ink. A good many skilled
chemists have devoted their Ilves to the prob
lem. which seems almost as impossible of solu
tion as the philosopher's stone or the squaring
of the circle. The trouble is that the demands
of modern life are many and incompatible. It
is easy to make an ink that will flow easily
or an ink Uat has good color or an Ink that
is indelible, but the difficulty comes in getting
all these qualities at once. The most usual
compromise is found in the various “commer
cial writing fluids,” which are somewhat more
pronounced than pure water, out not enough
so to entitle them to be called ink. “Commer
cial writing fluid” is the right term. It is still
possible to get a good black ink if one knows
where to look for It, an ink solid and emphatic
and without that detestable glossy shin* which
moat genuine black inks have. Music copyist*
and others who must have a strong and positive
ink have their own secret sources of supply,
obscure stores whete a few bottle* of the
real thing are to be had, black a* a raven •
feather and warranted not to *hlne at any
angle, and never to fade. But such inks do
not fit In with modern conveniences. They do
not consort with the fountain pen, and it is
difficult to keep them from spoiling when ex
posed to the air. What is wanted is an ink of
this sort with the modern virtues added, and /
after all the problem ought not to be so much
harder to solve than wireless telegraphy, say,
or X-ray photography.
Mormonlstlo Drama.
A Mormon play, with the characters
taken from the Book of Mormon, is short
ly to be produced in Salt Lake City.
Arestes U. Bean, a son of Georg* Bean,
at one time Indian Interpreter for Brig
ham Young, Is the author of the play,
and describes it as follows:
“The play is built around an Incident
in which the prophet Alma chastises his
wicked son Corianton for his infatuation
for the scarlet woman Zoan-ze-I*abel,
who is the heroine tof the drama. She
was a Lamanite, while he was a Nephite,
and the characters are nearly all Aztecs.
“Alma’s second son, Shibelon, is also a
character in the play, but hl* oldest *on,
Heleman, is not mentioned at all.
“The play dates back to a period sev
enty-five years before Christ, and the
scene is laid in South America, on the
Magdalena river, in Colombia.
“The characters of the cast are taken
from the Book of Mormon, but the play
is in no sense a propaganda of the Mor
mon church. It bears about the same
relation to the Book of Mormon that
‘Ben-Hur’ or ’Quo Vadls’ does to the Bi
ble.
“The scene of the first act Is In the hall
of justice in the Aztec temple. The sec
ond act takes you to Leantum’s garden,
where Corianton first meets Zoan-ze-Isa
bel and falls a victim to fier charm* and
wiles. Zoan-ze-Isabel’s palace is the scene
of the third act, which is the strong act
of the drama. In this act the woman
turns traitor to her people for love of
Corianton. The fourth act has a portico
setting which overlooks the city of Zora
helma.”
The Motives of Misers.
The Spectator.
Is there no charm or glamor in gold It
self which attracts and In a sense over
powers the miser, though it does not often
induce him to steal? There may be in some
cases. Doctors say that kleptomania,
though so often pleaded as a lying defense,
really exists, especially among children,
'and that it is in some way mysteriously
limited and defined, the full strength ot
the passion being excitable only by certain
objects, usually shining. The pursuit of
gold for 5.000 years may have bred in the
mind a hereditary’ tendency toward it* ac
quisition. as a concrete and visible article,
which is, we may remark, as often mani
fested by the rich as by the poor. Asiatic*
often hoard coin and jewels to their own
hurt, knowing that their possession in
volves extreme danger, and we could our
selves relate two authentic stories of great
accumulations of gold coin made by Eng
lishmen who seemed* to derive pleasure
from its actual sight and touch. These
are, however, we fancy, rather illustra
tions of the collector mania, so often de
scribed and analyzed in the case of books
and china, than instances of true miserli
ness, which is based, we are convinced,
rather on fear and an abnormal kind of
mean pride than on the passion for hoard
ing. That i* often divorced from avarice.
It was not for their value that George IV.
kept every coat he had ever worn, or that
Mr. Blank bought wardrobe after ward
robe in which to preserve every morsel’of
clothing that had ever been in hl* posses
sion.
Ex-ring champion Jam** J. Corbett was
the center of attraction at a recent base
ball game at Bayside, L. 1., in which h*
took part, giving help bo effective to th*
Bayside team as to enable them to down
the Nationals of Brooklyn.
i'SGOLDEN AGE
W t pat PURE OLD
U hfi LINCOLN CO.
iWHISKEY
-ddUMkFIVE S' BOTTLES O A 4 C
Prepaid, Q
The most perfect Whiskey
il ever distilled. Better than
other follows sell for
$5. We are distillers, which
Il m makes a big difference. All
fl shipments in plain boxes;
lAt [Z/AYYAYaI money back if you want it.
■ 5 bottles, 53.45, express paid
10 bottles, 6.55. express paid
12 bottles, 7.90. express paid
15 bottles, 9 70, express paid
A sample half pint by ex
press prepaid for 50 cents in postage stamp*.
AMERICAN SUPPLY CO., Distillers,
•*S Mai* SL, Tma.
5
