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.1 LONG SAP.
*>«<e Godsey' t Sleep of More Than Twenty
1 ears.
For more than twenty years the ex
traordinary ease of Susan S. Godsey,
better known as the “Sleeping Beauty,”
has puzzled the most eminent physi
cians of this country and Europe. She
was born in Obion county, Tenn., about
six miles from Hickman, Ky. Her par
eats were extremely poor, and lived in a
small log house containing only one
room. Until 8 years of age the girl was
strong and Wealthy, and seemed in no
wise remarkable. At that age, how
ever, she was stricken with fever, but
was attended by an experienced physi
cian, who soon cheeked the disease.
The girl sank into a slumber which last
ed an unusually long time, and finally
awoke weak, but well. To the surprise
of the family and physicians, she re
mained awake but a few minutes, when
she again went to sleep. From that time
forward, a period of more than twenty
one years, she has never been awake
more tnan three minutes at a time. The
lethargic state invariably lasts a certain
number of hours. She awakes at 6
o’clock in the morning and at 3 o’clock
and 8 o’clock each night, never varying
one-half minute from the regular' time.
She takes but very little nourishment,
and that only twice in twenty-four
hours. During the time in which she
sleeps she does not appear to breathe,
and a mirror held against her nostrils
remained untarnished. Her breathing,
if, indeed, she breathes at all, is not suf
ficient to stir the lightest down sus
pended against her nostrils by a silken
thread. When her remarkable condi
tion became known, physicians flocked
from all parts of the country to see her.
None were able satisfactorily to account
for the phenomenon, although many
theories were advanced. The true cause
has never to this day been determined,
although the woman may still be alter
nately sleeping and waking with the
regularity of clockwork. One physi
cian, who visited her continually for six
teen years, frankly confessed that he
could form no opinion regarding the
case.
She is described as rather under me
dium size, and, with the exception that
she is sometimes troubled while awake
with neuralgic pains in her head and
neck, and that one arm is slightly par
alyzed, enjoys, as far as she can enjoy
anything, good health. One remarkable
feature of the case is that, while her
hair has grown to a great length, her
finger-nails have not grown any since
she was first stricken. Far from any
thing repugnant in her appearance, even
while animation is suspended, she would
be considered a very pretty lady by
those unacquainted with her condition.
She retains what knowledge she pos
sessed at 8 years of age, but has not
been awake enough since then to learn
anything more. She knows her rela
tives and friends, and converses with
them in her conscious moments. Before
falling asleep, a slight hiccough or chok
ing sound proceeds apparently from her
throat. She then so quickly becomes
insensible that she is sometimes unable
to finish a sentence or even a word while
talking. Some time since a committee
of five physicians were appointed to
watch the subject, and found the case
just as it had been represented to be.
>
OATMEAL.
Give the children oatmeal at least once
a day. It is genuine bone and muscle
food, and they must thrive. Could our
gills make the morning and night meals
on real nourishment—not pastry—take
more to nourish the brain and nerves,
we should have less of the neuralgia
among our women. Indeed, this oat
meal mush would afford ample food for
the last meal, which should ordinarily
by the lightest, simple, and easy of di
gestion, securing good sleep, while it
may well form a part of the morning
meal. Its extensive use would do much
to promote health among us.
He stood with his back against the
front door of the street-car. Every one
else had seats, and he anxiously watched
each face for symptoms of getting out
for over three miles. It grew weari
some, and he finally shifted his weight
from one foot to the other, and ex
claimed : “ For the love of the Lord,
have none o’ yez ony homes to go to ?”
Then they all smiled, and the conductor
tendered him the ridge-pole of the rear
platform.
It is well known to persons who have
visited the dirty cities of hot climates
that when a soaking shower is followed
by a bright sun while no wind is stirring
great numbers of people suddenly fall
sick, and physicians are utterly unable
to respond to all calls.
The North Georgian.
A OL. 111.
TITO GIANTS AND A DWARF.
Three of the most remarkable men of
the century are now on exhibition in
London at the Royal Aquarium—the
giant Chang, a tea merchant of Pekin
Brustad, a tall Norwegian, and Che-mah,
described as “the Chinese dwarf, the
smallest man in the world.” Chang is
the largest giant in existence, stands
eight feet two inches, and is highly edu
cated, speaking five different languages,
including English, which he speaks very
well; but with the well-known sing-song
of the Chinaman. He is eight feet high
without his boots ; ha measures sixty
inches round the chest, weighs twenty
six stone, has a span of eight feet with
his outstretched arms, and signs his
name without an effort upon a sign-post
ten feet six inches high. Chang is 33
year's of age, and it is about fifteen years
since he was in England. After five
years’ residence in the Celestial empire
he returned to Europe for the Paris Ex
hibition, and has since visited Vienna,
(where the Emperor gave him a ring he
proudly exhibits, marked with the im
perial eagles and the initials of Francis
Joseph), Berlin, and Hamburg. Since
his last residence in this country Chan
has grown six inches. He has a benevo
lent Mongolian face, a courtly manner,
and wears a richly-embroidered dress
worked for him by his sister, who is, like
the rest of his family, of only ordinary
stature.
Next to Chang, and next at no long
interval, stands Brustad, about seven feet
nine inches high, very muscular, very
broad backed, having as great a girth of
chest as Chang, and a wider span in
proportion to his height. He has a low
forehead, but speaks English fairly well.
Brustad has also a ring which he greatly
delights in exhibiting. He presented it
to himself out of the profits, it is sup
posed, gained by being shown. It is
four and one-half ounces in weight, and
a penny goes easily through it To
grasp his mighty hand in greeting is
iike shaking hands with an oak tree.
His weight is twenty-eight stone,, greater
than Chang’s, for his bones are more
massive. His age is 35.
Che-mah, the dwarf, gives his age as
42, sings a Chinese elegy, describes
liimself with much fluency and variety,
and, as his height is only twenty-five
inches, appears to be what he is de
scribed, the smallest man in the world.
It is common for exhibited dwarfs to be
over three feet high. Sir Geoffrey Hud
son, the dwarf whom readers of Sir Wal
ter Scott will best remember, measured
three feet three inches when he had at
tained liis full stature.— London Times
——.—•
EDUCATION.
No right-thinking person can under
value education, or deny his children
the benefits derived from it; but some
men lyyve perverted ideas on the subject.
They seem to think that because they
have prospered in life without an educa
tion, or at best a limited one, their chil
dren do not deserve any more con
sideration or any better education than
they received, and hence are indifferent
about the education of their children,
not caring whether they are kept in
school or not. They forget that their
children are living in a much better
educated world than they lived in when
they were children. They forget that
brains command a higher price upon
the stage of human action than muscle,
and that he who can command a reason
able amount of both stands the best
chance to make life a success. We have
one of the finest school systems in the
world, and children should profit by it,
and attend school regularly. But if
they are to be educated successfully,
really educated, the physical must re
ceive due attention, the amount of at
least three hours each day of gentle ex
ercise, walking being favorable. Hard
students cannot sleep too much, while
the brain needs special nourishment, as
certainly as the blacksmith needs nour
ishment for the muscles and bones.
Even the student’s food should be
adapted to mental labors. Fish con
tains the largest amount of brain food,
while eggs and the grains, including
peas, beans and the like, are favorable.
Fruits, as a part of the meals, are also
favorable, not on account of their brain
food, but as an aid to digestion. While
attending school, young people, should
not be taxed too heavily with home
duties.
Governor to smc'l b oy—“ Benny, I
shall keep you in if you don’t learn
your lessons better to-morrow ; I’m go
ing to turn over a new leaf with you.”
Small boy—“ You can’t turn over a new
leaf; it’s teared out”
If anger arise in thy breast, instantly
seal up thy lips, and let it not forth, for,
like fire, when it wants vent it will sup
press itself.
BELLTON. BANKS COUNTY, GA. AUGUST 26, 1880.
A MATTER OF HABIT.
A Chapter on the •< fteyular Man."
We can see him now—with our mind’s
eye—the person of “regular habits.”
He commonly lives in the country. He
rises at 4 o’clock in the summer and 6
o’clock in the winter, rain or shine, busy
or idle ; he invariably puts on his right
stocking and boot first, starts the kitch
en fire—if he he a real Christian and not
a mere ‘ ‘ believer ” —calls 1 ‘ mammy” or
the girl, does the “chores,” eats the
regulation breakfast at the precise hour
he ordered it fifty years before, and then
proceeds to walk through the rest of the
hours of the day like a piece of machine
ry, until the old clock strikes 9, when
he puts aside his pipe and paper and
goes to bed like a chicken—that is, a
venerable rooster’—at sundown. So he
jogs through life—tick-tack, tick-tack,
round and round, in the same old track
—until he dies, at a ripe old age, and
has the distinction of a mention in the
obituary notices of his local paper as a
“gentleman noted for his regular hab
its.”
Well, such a life has its advantages
and compensation, and if the highest
aim of our life on earth were to see how
long we can stay on the top of it the
success might make the mode more uni
versal. But one may pay too much even
for long life, and regular habits that
shut a man out from that large liberty
of choice and action necessary to self
development and great achievements are
an expensive necessity. We hear a great
deal about costly luxuries, arid there are
some so-called necessities that are vastly
more extravagant, if life be considered
as doing no less than being. When one
is robbed or hampered harmfully by
self-imposed conditions of living, it is
well to consider whether the life is no
more than meat, and the spirit superior
to red-tape fetters. A good share of the
failures in life come from the attempt to
feed without changing the post or length
ening the tethers. Men«walk mechan
ically. in a circle when they should
mount with wings like eagles. They
Realize the low aspiration of Dr. Holmes’
convict, and have “ a tread-mill of their
own.”
For certain physical functions and
habits of life, regularity is of prime im
portance ; but the conditions of society
and affairs are such that there must be
considerable pliancy and adaptability in
many of our modes and customs. Few
busy fives, closely connected with others,
can be so well ordered as to take so many
and such-and-such meals each day—so
many miles’ walk or ride—and just so
much sleep, in a set portion of the
twenty-four hours. The turtle doesn’t
bent the hare in the race, except in
fables. There are spurts in all swift pro
gression. Even nature is regular only
in a large way. She will do more tow
ard her “ grand spring opening” in the
second week of May than for the three
weeks previous to that time. Within
the week when the opening bud becomes
a leaf, new sun and wind and rain, and
the silent, unseen earth-forces combine
to “push tilings ! ” Nature rests. She
is the pattern saint in patience. She
gets ready, and then moves—slows up,
and comes down the home stretch like a
thoroughbred. 'Die sun has not yet been
brought to shine by rule, even by the
weather bureau. The rain does not come
every day like a street-sprinkler. The
wind continues to blow where it listeth,
though observation ami the telegraph
wire enable us to know its course.
The regular man inapt to be too method
ical. It never occurs to him that there
are days when he may get up early, and
others when he should lie late—times
when he needs three hearty • meals, and
others when he should eat scantily, or
fast—occasions when he must work like
a steam-engine, and times when he
should cultivate and encourage a genius
for repose.
A fellow in Chico, Cal, went up in
to the Record office to clean out the es
lablishment. About three minutes af
terward a man was seen in the street
with a couple of black eyes, a bloody
•>ose, and a completely demoralized ap
pearance. A passer-by, attracted by his
•ondition, asked him what was the mat
ter. “ I went up to see if the editor who
wrote that piece about me was up there. ”
“Well,” said the other, “did you see
’am?” “Yes,” said the injured man,
“he was in.”
m m
To gratify his wife’s persistent de
mand for a summer in the country,
Smith hired a suburban villa, of which,
however, the garden was so small that
one could scarcely turn in it. “But
how do you get the air in such a tiny
garden ?” one of her friends asked of
Mrs. Smith. ‘ * Oh, it is easy enough, ”
answered that lady. “We have only to
open the dining-room window. ”
.4 BOUT DRESS.
Bless the dear souls who write such
long articles against extravagance in
dress 1 They must expect their advice
to be heeded, or they would not make
such an effort; but, in reality, how
much of a reformation has resulted from
all this ? How many in the surging
crowd of fashion stop to listen to the
voice of warning, and, seeing their folly,
struggle free from the enthrallments
that urge them on? It is as useless to
attempt a radical change for the better
by advising economy as to stand on the
sea beach during a storm and command
the waves to cease lashing the shore.
11 you could ever hope to quell the
storm, you must first find the causes of
the commotion and then exorcise them.
What, then, causes this mania for
dross? “Female vanity” is your first
thought. No, I cannot agree to that,
though vanity is purely a female at
tribute. Who ever saw a man with any
such rubbish in. his nature? There is an
incentive to “dress well’’which does
more toward extravagance than mere
vanity. Did you ever notice the dis
tinction paid to a “ stylish ” lady ?
Have yon ever seen one more plainly
dressed, though perhaps her superior in
good breeding and refinement, sit in the
shade while homage is being paid to
dress ? The question is not asked,
“How did she get her outfit? Is her
father or husband a secret forger ? Is
he standing on a false basis which is
ready to crash at any time and carry
many creditors down to ruin with him,
or is she doing what so many think a
harmless thing, monopolizing resources
which should bo expended for the com
fort of her family ?” Oh, no I that is not
“the way of the world.” Even those
who deprecate the sway of this evil the
most bow to it as low as any.
Policy has her eye in another direc
tion. It is something to be on equal
footing with a leader of society, and in
order to do so hundreds of dazzled
mothers fluttering around the brilliant
light spend their all in a delusion, and
fall, ruined specks of humanity. Be
muse cur millionaires’ wives and daugh
ters have the choicest fabrics brought
f rom all parts of the globe for their
adornment, the second and third classes
will wear nothing but imported goods as
near a match in richness as they possi
bly can procure, and the fourth grade,
with truly American ambition, think if
they can’t always have the real they will
manage to have as good an imitation as
they can, and many a little sum finds its
way out of the savings bank to buy a
trifle of lace or jewelry. The humbler
classes bring up the rear in this train,
and their plaint accords with the Irish
man’s, “ The money goes faster nor it
comes.”
Listen to the beautiful sentiment over
the girl who goes to a ball in simple
white muslin and natural flowers ; but
the same young gentleman who would
grow ecstatic over “ beauty unadorned”
pays homage to the most stylish young
lady of his set, brilliant in satin and
lace beaded with seed pearls. Words
and actions are fittest when they go to
gether, and, if husbands and lovers are
sincere in their desire to uproot this
evil, let them arise in a solid phalanx
against it. They are the ones who en
courage it by their homage, and they
are the ones who must expect to furnish
the wherewithal by which women are
clothed. Now, gentlemen, there is
something beside complaining to do, so
go manfully to work.
A SWARM OF BEEB CAPTURE A CAR.
Sunday afternoon, when the Chicago,
Book Island and Pacific arrived, it came
in under a cloud. A large swarm of
bees, being attracted by the cool loca
tion on the top of the car while near
Beaverly, in Missouri, took deck pass
age for sunny Kansas, and the fears of
the conductor and other men on the
train of a stinging rebuke prevented
any attempt to put the deadheads off.
■When the car arrived here Police Officer
McOart was apprised of the fact that
he could take in a number of prisoners
if he would visit the car. He went to
investigate, and, finding the bees snug
ly ensconsed on their novel abiding
place, proceeded to effect their capture
by coaxing them into an empty keg. He
succeeded, after receiving numerous
stings, in capturing the entire swsrm,
taking more prisoners than he will have
at one time while he is on the force. He
says the family is getting along well at
his home in the north part of the city.
—Leavenworth Timet.
—♦ ♦ •
A facetious old lady, describing tbe
•ambling sermons of her minister, said -
■ If the text had been smallqiox, bis
termon would never catch it.”
NO. 34.
COWPER’S INSANITY.
Three years after his father’s death
Cowper removed from the Middle to the
Inner Temple, where he spent his time,
not in the grave study of law, but in “ a
constant circle of diversions.” They
were chiefly of a literary character. He
w rote essays for a weekly review called
the Connoisseur, and he “ produced
several half-penny ballads, two or three
of which hail the honor to become
popular.” He also translated some
books of Voltaire’s “Henriade.” This
kind of occupation is, as a rule, more
pleasant than profitable, and Cowper
was just beginning to feel the want of
money when he was offered a lucrative
appointment to a clerkship in the House
of Lords. The offer, for the moment,
filled him with joy. But he soon be
came morbidly nervous at having to ap
pear at the bar of the House of Lords
to prove his qualifications for the post.
He tried to escape, by suicide, the dread
trial, but he happily failed in the at
tempt to destroy himself. His madness
now took a morbid, religious form, and
his friends, judging that there was no
other resource left to them, placed him
n a lunatic asylum. Here he slowly
recovered from his malady, and in June,
1765, he removed to a quiet lodging at
Huntingdon, in order to be near his
brother, a fellow of Corpus Christi Col
lege, Cambridge.
Cowper was again assailed by his old
malady in January, 1773. He was, as
he wrote afterward, “ suddenly reduced
from his wonted state of understanding
to an almost childish imbecility.” A
melancholy of the darkest dye over
shadowed him. He again attempted to
commit suicide. He believed that his
food was poisoned, that everybody hated
him, and especially Mrs. Unwin, though
he would allow no one else to wait on
him. The return of the malady once
again prevented a soul most capacious
and tender from enjoying the full bless
ing of earthly love. The intimate
friendship between him and Mrs. Unwin
had ended in a marriage engagement,,
but Cowper’s condition from this time
forward prevented their hopes from be
ing ever realized. Cruel disease pre
vented the poet from making her his
wife, but their life was a
Union of hearts without a flaw between.
—Temple Bar.
SALT.
Nothing that we eat is more valuable
than salt, nor could anything except
bread be more missed. Animals, in fact,
will travel distances and brave great
dangers to obtain it. On the coast of
Sierra Leone brothers will sell their sis
ters, husbands their wives, and parents
their children, for salt. In the district
of Accra, on the Gold coast of Africa, a
handful of salt is the most valuable
thing upon earth after gold, and will
purchase a slave or two. Salt with the
Bambaras is such a luxury that to say of
a man, “He flavors his food with salt,’
is tn imply that he is rich. No stronger
mark of affection can be shown in Mus
covy than the sending of salt from the
tables of the rich to their poorer friends.
Spilling salt was held to be an unlucky
omen by the Romans, and the supersti
tion has descended to ourselves. Leon
ardo di Vinci availed himself of this
tradition in his famous picture of the
“Lord’s Supper,” to indicate Judas
Iscariot by the salt-cellar knocked over
accidentally by his arm. When we say
of a shiftless fellow that “he does not
earn his salt,” we unconsciously allude
to an ancient custom among the Ro
mans. Among them a man was said to
be in possession of a “ salary ’ who had
his “salarium,” his allowance of salt
money, or of salt, wherewith to savor
the food by which he lived. Thul
salary comes from salt—and in this vies
of the word how many there are who do
not “earn their salt.”
—. ♦ .
WILL-POWER.
Illness is sometimes brought on by
imagination and weakness. Courage is
a wonderful agent in throwing off dis
ease. A walk of five miles would cure
many an occupant of the lounge. Will
power will surpass pill-power in nine
cases out of ten, if not in every one. To
hold a bottle of smelling salts in the
hand on account of a headache may be
just the thing, at times, but to fling a
pound of fruit cake out into the alley,
and then walk a furlong as a reward for
i not eating the compound, is nearly
always a much better thing.
The new census of Oswego, N. Y.,
shows 20,622 population, aguinst 20,910
in 1870 and 20,428 in 1875. Oswego
people are surprised, but citizens of
Binghamton, N. Y., are fn agony be
cause the census enumerators counted.
16,000 noses in that city when they ex
! peoted some 20,000.
Published Eveby Thursday at
BELLTON. G-EORGFIA
RATES OF SUBSCRIPTION.
Oa« year (52 number*), $1.00; six montbs
numbers) 50 cents; three months (13
numbers). 25 cents.
Office in the Smith building, eaat of the
depot.
KILLED BY HIS MOTHER,
Some fifteen years ago a young Aus
trian left home to seek his fortune in
America. He left a large family of
younger brothers and sieters to be reared
by his mother, an energetic woman, who
kept a small country hotel. The young
man arrived in America almost penni
less. He went West, and, after fifteen
years’ work in the mines, was worth
SBO,OOO. As he did not know how to
read and write, he did not correspond
with bis family, and the latter believed
him dead. In the spring of 1880 he de
termined to return to his country, and
share his wealth with' his family. He
converted his gold into drafts upon the
chief banking houses of Vienna, and
sailed from New York, enjoying, in an
ticipation, the surprise his arrival would
cause his folks at home. He reached
Vienna without accident, had his drafts
cashed, and left at once for his native
village. As was natural after an absence
of fifteen years, which he had spent in
the mines of California, no one recog
nized him. He finally made himself
known, and spread before his two broth
ers the handsome roll of bills of which
he was the owner, and which he an
nounced he would share with them and
their mother. The latter had now re
moved to a village about a hundred
miles away, where she kept an inn.
After a couple of days of revel with his
brothers, the traveler resolved to visit
his mother, incognito. It was arranged
that he should not reveal his identity
until his brothers should join him.
The Austro-American made his ap
pearance at his mother’s "hotel. When
he saw the old woman he could scarcely
forbear discovering himself to her. But
he managed to conceal his relationship,
of which, of course, the woman was in
total ignorance. The pair had various
long talks during the day. When night
came, before retiring, he called her to
the room that had been assigned to him,
stating that he had an important secret
to communicate to her. Then he told
her that he had in his possession a large
sum of money, and begged her to take
charge of it, as he deemed it imprudent
to keep it in his room, particularly as
the latter could not be locked. The
woman hesitated a moment, saying that
she hail no place in the house where the
money would be perfectly safe ; but she
finally consented to receive it. When
the stranger counted over 300,000 florins
in bank notes, a sum such as she had
never dreamed of, she again declined to
assume the responsibility.
But, as he insisted, she at last took
the money and disappeared. What
passed within the brain of that wretched
woman during that night is more readily
imagined than described. Upon reach
ing her bedroom she hid the treasure
under the mattress. But the temptation
to look at the enormous roll of bills was
too strong for her, and she spread the
bills out on a table. The sight of money
so excited her that she became mad, and,
jumping from her seat, she took a razor
from her bureau drawer, and, stealing
up to the room where her son was fast
asleep, cut his throat from ear to ear,
killing him almost instantly. She then
put the razor in Ijer son’s hand, so as to
make it look as though he had commit
ted suicide. Next morning her sons ar
rived and inquired for the stranger. She
sent them up to his room, saying he had
not yet come to breakfast.
They found him dead, and yells of
despair filled the house. The mother,
like all the other persons in the house,
went up stairs, feigning to be utterly
ignorant of the cause of the disturbance.
She then learned that the murdered man
was her son. The effect that startling
intelligence had upon her mind need not
be told.
“My son?” she exclaimed. “Kill
me, my children, kill me ! It is I who
murdered him I”
The woman became a raving maniac,
and was sent to a lunatic asylum.
A STRANGE PLANT.
A curious plant has been discovered
in Wisconsin which produces a kind of
cotton and flax from the same stalk. It
has already been woven into fabrics,
and, as any article that will make as
good cloth as can be made from this
plant will make good paper, it has been
called the paper plant. It can be planted
in the spring, and cut in the fall and
winter. It bleaches itself white as it
stands, and it will yield three or four
tons to the acre. From a single root
that was transplanted last spring grew
twenty large stalks, with 365 pods con
taining the cotton, at least sixty seeds
in each. From this root were obtained
seven ounces of pure cotton and over a
pound of flax. It is a very heavy plant,
and grows from six to seven feet high.