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PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDA
BKLLTON, GA.
by JOHN BEATS.
Tb ® ms —M.OO per annum 50 cent* for «u
moults; 26 cents forthree month*.
,ar^ e * from Beilton are requested
10 send their names with inch amounts of
money a. they can pare, 'tom lee. *o |1
TH OUGHTS OF TRB POETS ON
NESS.
He who surpasses or subdues mankind
Must look down on the hate of those below.
Round him are icy rocks, and loudly hlow
Contending tempests on his naked head.
—Byron’s “ Child Harold.”
High stations tumult, but not bliss, create :
hone think the great unhappy but the great.
-
Uvea of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footsteps on the sands of time.
—Lonqfrllow'i Poems.
Who is a great man ? It is he
Who, from the universe of thought,
A purpose self-conceived abstracts.
And by his mighty power and will
Doth make it parent to his acts.
H’esfs “Z. Chandler."
O ! greatness! jthou art but a flattering dream,
A watery bubble, lighter than the air.
—Tracy's “ Periander.”
Tnou hast not gained a real height,
Nor art thou nearer to the light,
Because the scale is infinite.
—Tennyson’s “ Tiro Fotces.’
SEVENTY-FIVE MILES AN
HOUR.
lam a railroad engineer. Away along
in ’57, during the great panic, I was
running on the F. &C. railroad. The
railroad companies were going under in
all directions. Every day we heard of
new failures, and quite often in a quarter
where we least expected it. Our road
was generally looked upon as one of the
most substantial in the nation ; nobody
seemed to have any fears that it would
fail to survive the general stnash-up;
but yet I did not fully share in the gen
eral confidence. Wages were ent down,
nrrearges collected, and a great many
other matters seemed to indicate to me
that the road had got into rather deeper
water than was agreeable all round.
Among other things, the master me
chanic had told me in the spring that
the company had ordered four first
quality Taunton engines for the fall
passenger business. The road was put
in the very best condition and other
preparations were made to cut down the
time and put the trains through quicker
than was ever known before, when the
new engines should come. Well, there
was but one of the engines came.
I said there was but one engine camej
but she was, in my opinion, altogether
the best ever turned out at the Taunton
works ; and that is saying as much as
can be said in praise of any engine.
She was put in my charge immediately,
with the understanding that she was
mine.
It was Saturday when she came out of
the shop, and I was to take a special
train up to Y . The train was to
carry up the President and several offi
cers of the road to meet some officers of
another road, which crossed ours there,
> and arrange some important business
with them.
I had no trouble at all in making my
forty miles an hour in going out. The
engine handled herself most beautifully.
We were just holding up at Y , when
Aldrich, the Treasurer, who had come
out on the platform to put the brake on,
slipped and fell. As we were still under
good headway, he was much injured
and was carried off to the hotel insensi
ble.
According to the President’s direction
I had switched off my train, turned my
engine, and stood ready to start back to
C at a moment’s notice.
Aldrich’s presence was of so much' im
portance that the business of the road
could not lie transacted without him; so
all those I had brought out, except the
President and Aldrich, went back to
C on the 3 o’clock express train.
This was the last regular train which
was to pass over the road until next
Monday.
Early in the evening I left the ma
chine in charge of my fireman and went
over to an eating-house to see if I could
not spend the time more pleasantly than
on my engine. The hours dragged
themselves away’ slowly. I was playing
a game of dominoes with the station
agent when in came Roberts, the Presi
dent, in a great state of excitement.
“Harry,” said he to me, “ I want yort
to put me down in C at 12 o’clock.”
As it was nearly 11 o’clock then, and
the distance was seventy-five miles, I
thought ho was joking at .first; but,
when we got outside the door, he caught
me by the arm and hurried me along so
fast that I saw he was in earnest.
“ Harry,” said he, “ if you don’t set
me down in C by 12 o’clock I am a
ruined man, and this road is a ruined
road. Aldrich is dead; but he told me,
before he died, that he had embezzled
from time to time $500,000 of our money,
and his clerk is to start with it on the 12
o’clock boat from C for Canada. If
we don’t have that money on Monday
The North Georgian.
vql. in.
morning, to make some payments with,
the road goes into other hands ; and if
you put me down in C at the right
time, so that I save the money, you shall
have $5,000. Understand it, Harry.
Five thousand dollars!
Os course I understood it. I saw now
the reason why the wages had been cut
down ; I felt that I would save the road
if I lived, and told Roberts so.
“ See that you do it, Harry !” he re
plied as he climbed up on the steps of
the coach, which was coupled to my en
gine.
I sprang np into the footboard, got
up the switch-tender to help my fire
man, opened the throttle, and just ns she
commenced moving looked at my
watch—it was just 11 o’clock, so that I
had one hour to make my seventy-five
miles in.
From Y to C there were few
curves on the road ; but there were sev
eral heavy grades. I was perfectly ac
quainted with every rod of it, so that I
knew exactly what I had to encounter,
and when I saw how the engine moved
I felt very little fear for the result.
The road for the first miles was an air
line, and so smooth that my engine
flew’ alono’ with scarcely a perceptible
jar. I was so busy posting myself up as
to the amount of wood and water aboard,
etc., that we danced by the first station
almost before I was aware of it, having
been five minutes out, and having five
miles accomplished.
“ Yon are losing time 1” yelled a voice
from the coach. I looked around, and
there stood Roberts with his watch in
his hand.
I knew very well that we would have
to increase our speed by some means if
we carried out our plans of reaching
C-® bv midnight, and looked anxious
ly around to see what I could do to ac
complish that purpose. She was blow
ing off steam fiercely nt 110 pounds; so
I turned down the valve to 200, for I
knew we should need it all to make
some of the heavy grades which lay be
tween us and C .
It was three miles to the next station.
With the exception of a few curves, the
track was as good as the last. As we
darted around what commonly seemed
to be a rather long curve, at the station,
but which was, at our high speed, short
enough, I looked at my watch, and we
had done it in two minutes and a half.
“Gaining,”! shouted baek to Rob
erts, who was yet standing on the plat
form of the coach.
“Look out for the heavy grades,” he
replied, and went inside the car.
The next six miles rose gradually
from a level the first, to ten and a half
feet the last, wliich lay between us and
the next station. My fireman kept her
full, and now she began to get hot. The
furnace door was red, and the steam
raised continually, so that she kept her
speed and passed the station like a streak
of lightning in five minutes.
Now came nine miles like the last,
over which she kept pace with her time,
and passed the station in seven and a
half minutes.
Here, for ten miles, we hod a twenty
foot grade to encounter; but the worst
of it all was, at this place we would be
obliged to stop for wood. I was just
going to speak to Roberts about it when
I looked around and saw him filling the
tender from the coach with wood, which
had been placed there before starting,
while he was gone after me.
I believe we would have made this ten
miles with the same speed as before,
but, tlrrough the carelessness of the fire
man, the fountain valve on the left-hand
side of the engine got opened, and the
water rose in the boiler so fast as to run
the steam down to *IOO pounds before I
discovered where the difficulty was.
At first Roberts didn’t appear to no
tice the decrease of speed, and kept at
work at the wood as if for dear life.
But presently he looked up, and, seeing
the speed had decreased, he shouted:
“Harry, we are stopping 1 ” and then,
coming over to where I was, he said :
“ Why, here we have been ten minutes
on the last ten miles, and I believe we
will come to a dead stand if some
thing is not done. The speed is con
tinually slacking. What is the matter ? ”
I explained the cause. He was appar
ently satisfied with my explanation, and,
after having tied down the safety-valve,
he climbed back over the tender, ex
horting me to “put her through, for
God’s sake, or we are all beggars to
gether !”
Just then we passed the next station,
having taken nine minutes for eight
miles. We were now. more than half
over the road, but we had lost nearly
ten minutes’ time, and had left twen-
BELLTON, BANKS COUNTY, GA. OCTOBER 21, 1880.
ty-seven minutes to do thirty-four miles
in.
I had shut the water off from both my
pumps a little distance back, when I dis
covered what was the matter, and she
was now making steam finely down a
slight grade. From less than 100, with
which we started over that ten-mile
stretch, she had 200 pounds before we
finished it; and, as the gauge indicated
no higher than that, and the valve was
tied down, I could not tell how much
over 200 pounds she carried, but she cer
tainly carried none less the rest of the
journey. And well might she carry
such an enormous head of steam, for, af
ter passing over that ten miles in eight
minutes, there lay ten miles of five-feet
up-grade, and fourteen miles of twenty
feet-to-the-mile depression between us
and C , and it was now tliirteen min-
utes to 12 o’clock.
Now the engine was hot in earnest.
The furnace door, smoke arch and chim
ney all were red ; while she seemed to
fly onward as if the very Evil One him
self operated her machinery.
Six minutes carried us over that ten
miles; and we darted by the last station
that had lain between us and C .
Now we hod fourteen miles to go and my
time showed fifty-three minutes past 11
o’clock.
“ If I live,” said I to myself, “I will
make it” And we plunged down that
twenty-foot grade with all steam on.
Persons who saw the train on that wild
run said it was so soon after they heard
the first sound of her approach, when
the strange object, which looked as if it
was a flame of fire, darted by, and then
the sound of the traveling died away in
the distance, that they could hardly
convince themselves they had really
seen anything. It seemed more like a
creature of a wild dream than a sober
reality.
And now let me tell you that no en
gine ever bent the time we made on those
fourteen miles. Those great wheels,
seven feet in diameter, spun around so
swift that you couldn’t begin to count
the evolutions. The engine barely
seemed to touch the track as she flew
along ; and, although the track was as
true as it was possible for it to be, she
swayed fearfully, and sometimes made
such prodigious jolts that it required
considerable skill for one to keep his
feet. No engine could hold together if
crowded to a greater speed.
Well, just as I came to a standstill in
the depot at C the big clock boomed
out 12, and the steamboat was getting her
steam on. Roberts got on board in time
and nothing to spare. But he saved the
money. He found it hid away in some
old boxes as Aldrich had directed him.
rKBHAm, BUT I GV ESB NOT.
The Secretary of the Lime-Kiln Club
announced a communication from Oba
diah Glassfoot, of New York, saying that
he was an enthusiast on the subject of
discovering the North pole, and adding
that he would be perfectly willing to
take command of an expedition fitted out
by the colored race of America for such
a purpose. He argued that the black
man had never yet done anything to en
grave his name on the scrolls of fame,
and that tliis golden opportunity should
not be permitted to slip away.
Immediately upon the reading of the
letter Paramount Baxter arose and
offered a resolution to the effect that the
Lime-Kiln Club at once appoint a com
mittee of three, with power to send for
persons and papers, to discover the
North pole. The resolution was sec
onded by thirty voices, and there was a
slight crook to the end of the President’s
nose as he arose and said :
“Doan’ some o’ you want a commit
tee to examine de hinges on de gates of
heaben ? What do you’uns down dar’
in de body of de hall know about de
Norf pole ? De moar’ we try to learn ye
de less ye seem to know. Now, den, in
de fust place de cull’d race of dis kentry
has all it kin do to mind its fish-poles
an’ bean-poles. If de white folks want
to fool around dat’s ntiffin to us. De
man who raises a bushel of onions fur
market needn't be jealous of de man who
diskivers de Norf pole. Jist ’tend right
to your bisness and get yer feet ready
fur a new crop of chilblains nex’ win
ter.”—Detroit Free Preen.
a e
The members of the New York Busi
ness Men’s Society for the Encourage
ment of Moderation have caused to be
built an enormous ice-water tank with a
capacity of three tons. This is to be
placed upon a truck, the use of which
has been donated for the season, and it
is to be filled with ice-water and to be
trundled about the streets in the densely
populated tenement districts, where the
cool, pure water will be distributed free
of charge.
POETICAL CONTRIBUTORS.
Some ObeerraUont on Vent Writing.
I want to say a word in friendly counsel
to recently*fledged contributors to the
press in general.
In the first place, I hazard
the assertion that, in the cases of
nine out of ten “ amateur ” —if you will
pardon that term—contributors to this
and other journals, almost the first effort
they make is in the direction of poetry.
I say “in the direction,” because very
few of the number who make the effort
succeed, or ever will or could succeed
any concatenation of circumstances.
This mistake of sliding off into poetry
eiery time yon happen to hear an owl
hoot or a blue-jay squawk is as lamenta
ble as it is universal. I “ know how it is
myself,” and several efforts of mine are
now in existence, through the agency of
a lenient and long-suffering editor,
Which, notwithstanding the stringency
of the money market, I would give a
dollar and a half could I obliterate, to
gether with all consequences and re
membrance of the same. But I can’t—
so I’m just that amount in pocket.
It generally happens in something
this way : The victim of the delusive
fancy, through some unfortunate cir
cumstance, happens to become possessed
of on idea. Perhaps it produces a strange
sensation, as entirely new and “ fresh ”
things are apt to do. He fidgets around
for a while, and finally, in the excite
ment attending the phenomenal occur
rence, finds that he has written a line
of some six or seven words. Ho looks
at it, and it presently strikes him that
perhaps he can find something that will
rhyme with it. At this point the mis
chief begins to grow serious. In the in
terest of a much-abused public the em
bryo rhymster should be brained on the
spot. Perhaps the first line is some
thing after this fashion :
The brightly-glowing Southern nun was Kinking in
the Week
Now, it’s too bad that Old Sol should
have such sinking spells, but he has
had them ever since you and I used to
...nk to rest over our mothers’ knee—and
beneath the shingle—and the chances
are excellent for his continuing to have
them after we are done writing po
etry and paying our dog-tax, just
the same ns though we had never wor
ried our little brains about him.
But there is that line ; it is worthless
alone, but there are great possibilities.
He will experiment—and he does. He
runs his hands through his hair, and
writes :
Ab the Kansu squatter testified, while pulling down
hid vest
By this time he has become feverish—
and well he may! Who ever heard of a
Kansas squatter saying anything about
the “Southern sun?” and as for the
vest—he never wears such a thing. But
the divine afflatus is on him with both
tect, and so in his torment he concludes
the outrage :
And the vent wm short, an was the day, and Southern
an the ran.
And his sixteen bootn blocked up the way—and the
dreadful deed was done!
The deed was done, but another was
left undone—a homicide, with the posj
(lessor of the unfortunate delusion for
the victim. But lam getting savage.
To conclude, when you have an idea,
sleep over it; and when you get up in the
morning, if you still have the same idea,
and possess the inclination and time to
express it, do so—but •do it in prose.
Unless you are an experienced hand at
the task you can gain nothing by a re
sort to the muse, and you stand a very
fair chance of losing everything by it,
the idea included. Should you ever de
sire to serve your country in a reporto
rial or journalistic capacity on some great
daily you will have to hold your situa
tion cn the merits of your prone produc
tions ; your poetry will in all probability
be assigned to the waste basket. Prose—
good prose—is frequently paid for, and
liberally, but poetry never—that is,
hardly !
With the best of intentions. Doo.
An old North Carolina farmer got a
double-barrel shot-gun when he heard
that his daughter had eloped with a
young man whom he despised, pursued the
couple into an adjoining county, found
them just as the marriage ceremony was
completed, and emptied both barrels
into the breast of Haverlock Styles, a
youth who had acted as groomsman at
the wedding.
- » ————
Louisiana planters have great hopes
of a recent invention by which bagasse,
the refuse canestalks left over from the
process of manufacturing crude sugar,
can be made into paper fibre of good
quality and that bleaches well. These
stalks have been used to heat the evajxi
rating pans in which the sugar is boiled,
but they will yield a ton of fibre to every
hogshead of sugar.
NO. 42.
TRUE HEROISM-
The Rcvengt of a Noble Gentleman.
The following anecdote, extracted from
the unpublished memoirs of a French
nobleman, may, it is hoped, serve as an
example, well worthy of being imitated
by all who desire to be thought truly
brave and courageous. It records an
instance of a victory gained by a man
over his owj passions—a victory more
glorious, more honorable than any that
has ever been purchased with fire and
sword, with devastation and bloodshed.
Two noblemen, the Marquis de Volaise
and the Count de Meric, were educated
under the same masters, and were re
garded by all who knew them as patterns
of friendship, honor, and sensibility.
Years succeeded years, and no quarrel
had ever disgraced their attachment,
when one unfortunate evening the two
friends, having indulged rather freely in
some excellent Burgundy, repaired to a
neighboring hotel, and engaged in a
game of backgammon.
Fortune declared herself in favor of the
Marquis; he won every game, and, in
the thoughtless glee of the moment,
laughed with exultation at his unusual
good luck. The Count lost his temper,
and once or twice upbraided the Marquis
for enjoying the pain which he had ex
cited in the bosom of his friend. At last,
upon another fortunate throw made by
the Marquis, by which he gammoned
his antagonist, the infuriated Count
threw the box and dice in the face of his
brother soldier.
livery gentleman present was in
amazement, and waited, almost breath
lessly, for the moment when the Marquis
would sheathe his sword in the bosom of
the now-repentant Count
“Gentlemen,” said the Marquis, "I
am a Frenchman, a soldier, and a friend.
I have received a blow from a French
man, a soldier, and a friend. I know
and acknowledge the laws of honor, and
I will obey them. Every man who secs
mo wonders why I am tardy in visiting
with vengeance the author of my dis
grace. But, gentlemen, the heart of
that man Iff entwined with my own ; nnr
education was the same, our principles
are alike, and our friendship dates from
our earliest years. But, Frenchman, I
will obey the laws of honor and of
France ; I will stab him to the heart.”
Upon this he threw his aim around
his unhappy friend, and said : “My dear
De Meric, I forgive you, if you will for
give me for the irritation I have occa
sioned in a sensitive mind by the levity
of my own. And now, gentlemen,” add
ed the Marquis, “ though I have inter
preted the laws of honor my own way, if
there remains in this room one French
man who dares to doubt my resolution
to resent even an improper smile at me,
my sword is by my side to punish an
affront, but not to murder a friend, for
whom I would die, and who sits there a
monument of contrition and bravery,
ready with me to challenge the rest of
the room to deadly combat if any man
lare to think amiss of this transaction.”
♦
tEI.E-INFLICTED TROUBLES AND
CARES.
A popular Macon minister spent the
night thirty miles below Americus with
a backwoodsman, whose house consisted
of only two rooms. The family, how
ever, consisted of twenty-one, though,
owing to a dance in the neighborhood,
only seventeen of the children were at
home. The minister spent the night
with the farmer and seven sons in one
room, while the old lady and ten daugh
ters occupied the other. In the morn
ing a junior member of the family, in
response to an application for a wash
bowl, brought him an old tin pan, and,
after the face toilet was completed,
hunted up about seven teeth of an old
tucking comb for him to arrange his
hair with. During the progress of the
important ceremony, the following con
versation took place : “ Mister, do you
■wash every mornin’?” “Ido.” “And
comb your hair, too?” “Yes.” "Well,
don’t it look to you sometimes like you
is a heap of trouble to yourself ?”— Macon
(da.) Teleffpaph.
An old man, supposed to be a tramp,
plucked a bunch of grapes on the prem
ises cf a widow residing near Agnew
station, on the Oliio river, a few miles
below Pittsburgh. A gang of railroad
laborers, seeing the act, started in pur
suit of the offender and threw stones at
him. To escape his persecutors the
runaway jumped into the river and made
for a sand-bar in the middle of the
stream. A missile thrown by one of the
railroaders disabled his arm, and the
poor fellow sank never to rise again.
Many persons witnessed the cruel treat
ment inflicted by the brutal railroaders
on the uiifortnßf.te man, but not one
hail the courage or manliness to pretest
against it or to defend him.
PUBUSHKD EVKRY THURSDAY AT
BELLTON. GEORGIA.
JJATJES OF BUBBCKIPTION.
On year (52 nnmben), sl.os; blx mouth*
\ 6 number*) 50 oaate; three moatha (1$
numben) 25 oenU.
O.lice in the Smith building, eait of the
dpof.
CON GRES SION A L MA NNERS.
It used often to be a reproach by the
English and other foreigners that the
nanners displayed in the AmerieanrCon
jress were rude, noisy, and sometimes
lisgraceful; and there was a time when
this reproach was not a very unjust one.
Not twenty-five years ago, it was not
m altogether unheard-of event for pis
:ols to be drawn, not only in the Na
tional House of Representatives, but in
die more sedate and dignified Senate
.tself.
Amid the violence of the party war
*are, just before the outbreak of the
uvil war, many scenes occurred in the
halls of Congress which were the re
verse of creditable to the actors in them.
Un one occasion, during a debate in the
House, a sharp altercation took place
between two members from Illinois.
One of them had bitterly attacked
Stephen A. Douglas, then a great party
leader; and the other, a devoted friend
if Douglas, hail savagely retorted, say
hg, as he closed, that the other had
“sneaked like a cur from the proof of
his charges.”
The first member made a rush for Iris
antagonist; but, before he hod reached
him, the champion of Douglas had
matched up his overcoat and had drawn
t pistol from his pocket, which he point
ed directly at his approaching enemy.
Members, however, rushed in between
them, and thus prevented what seemed
about to become a bloody fray.
At another time,’ the venerable Thad
deus Stevens was making a very bitter
•peech, which so stung his political op
ponents that twenty or thirty rushed to
wards him, some of them grasping wea
pons in their pockets, while Stevens’
friends rallied around him for .his de
fense and protection. At that moment
the two parties in the House seemed on
the very point of a general personal
conflict.
Such scenes, happily, never occur in
these more orderly aad civilized days
It is very rarely, indeed, that wo hear
nf nnyU>u>gr like a. jwntruud encounter
between memliers of Congress, either
inside or outside its halls.
The debates are often worm, and
sometimes descend into unbecoming
violence of speech. Members twit each
other, and ore sarcastic, and scold each
other, and use severe epithets ; but Con
gressional duels are obsolete, and Con
gressional fisticuffs occur so seldom that
scarcely an instance can be remembered
for years.
In the House of Representatives,
moreover, in which, being the more pop
ulous body, we should naturally expect
less decorum than in the Senate, there
are now much less noise and confusion
and obtrusive bad manners than existed
twenty years ago. Members w’ho make
speeches, often very long and dull, are
listened to with more patience than
formerly; and it is seldom that the
House so far loses its self-control ns to
deprive the Speaker of the power to
quell it at will.
It is not too much to say, indeed, that
the manners of our Congress of to-day
compare very favorably with those of
the great delilierative Ixxlies of the Old
World. In the English House of Com
mons, members still wear their hats
while the body is in session ; nn unpop
ular speaker's voice is still coughed
down, and drowned amid unseemly cat
calls and the rude scraping of feet; and
even Prime Ministers, when they say
unpleasant things, are interrupted and
disturbed by loud vocal disapproval.
The French Chamber of Deputies
presents, if possible, a yet worse exam
ple of manners. Scarcely a week passes
that some violent scene does not occur
in it hall; and sometimes these scenes
are really disgraceful in eminent and in
telligent men.
Bat shooting is a peculiar feature of
California sport. In a recent contest on
Scott’s ranch, at American River bridge,
there were several matches, and finally
one for the championship cup, in which
Jackson defeated the previous bat cham
pion, Ruhntaller, by one bat—the score
standing—Ruhstaller, 14 bats; Jackson,
15. It seems that the bats “ proved to
be unusually lively, and, flying like
jacksnipe, with many a turn and twist,
caused the men at the trap to miss fre
quently.” Bat shooting, accordingly,
seems rather more like sport than butt
shooting, in which the marksman, lying
on his back, with his head on his arm,
and his rifle poised on his toes, and with
careful sights, aims for some minutes at
a fixed target, and then at last touches
the trigger. The California Jackson,
who won the cup at bat shooting, is cer
tainly worthy to be named with the
Massachusetts Jackson who achieved
the top score in Hyde’s team at Wim
bledon.