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About North Georgia times. (Spring Place, Ga.) 1879-1891 | View Entire Issue (April 3, 1890)
NORTH GEORGIA TIMES tl 4fBfeH.} Pr#Motor Smiles and Tears. to a meant to wound me? Then forgr O friend, that when the blow fell, X Turned luy face from you to the wall To smile, instead of die. Ton meant to gladden me? Dear frier Whose praise like jewels l have kept, Forgive me, that for very joy I bent my happy nead and wept. —The Century. HER LITTLE SISTER. “Lizzie has gone again,” said Mrs. Crest. “Lizz’e's no sort of use to me of late. I don’t know what’s come to the child, but she does act to me as if ■he was bewitched.” Frances Crest set down the blue rimmed plate she was wiping with a coarse homespun towel. “Where is she, mothci?” said she. “Out in the woods, I suppose. It’s where sho always goes.” “Mother, you must remember that Lizzie is young. Don't bo hard upon her!” plea led Frances. Mrs. Crest was Farmer Obei Crest’s second wife, nnd Francos, the tall, pale girl with the sombre brown eyes and the oval, colorless face, was the good woman’s stepdaughter, while pretty 13 year-old Lizzie was her own aud only child. “But for all that,’’ said Sirs. Crest, “I put a great deal more dependence on Frances than I do on L’z'.ie. Fran¬ ces is all the same to me as my own child. *’ “Hard upon her!" sho repeated querulously. “What I’m afraid of is that I’m too easy with her. She’s al¬ ways bad her own way in everything. And sho takes it dreadful hard that you • should be going to Albany nnd she left at homo. I uevor knew such nonsense h» my life 1” A. disturbed expression passed over Frances’s face. “It’s natural sho should feel so, mother,” she urged, gently. Frances Cre3t ha 1 diligently taught school for three conseetit.ve seasons to earn the money for this coveted winter in Albany, during which she had prom¬ ised herself to take music lessons and add to her knowledge cf art and literature. For sho was engaged to Stephen Ellsworth, and she longed, with an ex¬ ceedingly great desire, to make herself worthy of his love. “I’m only a country girl,” she said to herself, “and lie lives in the city, where ha is meeting brilliant women svery day. And it would be dreadful, If, after we wera married, bo should be ashamod of mol” Mrs. Rigney, a distant cousin of the Crests, had offered to give Frances a home for the winter for what use she could render iu household matters, and the money she had saved was to be Spent in suitable dress, lessons and Other expenses. And, best of all, she would see Stephen Ellsworth every day. Bhe had looked forward to this for a long time; now it was very near, and her heart was full of happiness. She finished her household tasks and went quietly out to the nook in tho woods where she knew that she should find Lizzio. It was a sheltered glade, where a twisted grape-vine overhung the brown waters of a babbling brook and tail plumes of golden-rod noddled along the narrow path. Aud here, with her head leaning listlessly against a tree-trunk, sat a lovely girl of scarcely 18, with deep blue eyes, full, cherry-red lips, and a complexion like a balsam- flower. One hand was immersed in tho cool, run¬ ning water; tho other held a crumpled pocket-handkerchief, drenched with tears. “Lizzie!” exclaimed Frances, “you have been crying!” The blue eyes sparkled resentfully. “Crying? Of course I’ve been cry¬ ing!” retorted Lizzie Crest, “Who wouldn’t cry, to be left alone in this dismal hole all winter long, while you •re eaj lying yourself in the city? But I won’t stay here. I’ll run away and go on the stage, or else drown myself in Packer’s pool." “Lizzie 1 Lizzie! think what you are •ay mg!’ - ’ “I don’t care!” pouted Lizzie. ‘‘What is life worth in a place like this?’ And she burst into a fresh flood of tears. Frances sat down and took the gold¬ en head tenderly into her lap. All her life long she had been ao- SPRING PLACE. GA., THURSDAY. APRIL 3. 1890. customed to subordinate her will to that of this lovely, tempestuous sprite. What signified one sacrifice more or lees? “Don’t cry any more, Lizzie!” she whispered. “I've made up my wind, i'on shall go to Aunt Josie, instead of me.” “I?” “And I’ll wait another year,” added Frances, swallowing a lump iu her throat. “You shall have tho music lessons and the att lectures; you shall see what a winter in the city is like.” Lizzio's eyes sparkled; her cheeks were red. Sho flung her arms around Frances’s neck with a sudden cry of rapture. Oh, Frances, you don’t roally mean it?” “Yes, I do,” bravely uttered Frances. “But mother won’t consent.” “I will see to that.” Once more L'zzie showered soft, waim kisses on her sister’s cheek. “Oh, you darling! you sweet guar¬ dian angel! ’ she crieJ. “And I am a sottish little beast to allow you to sacri¬ fice yourself in this outrageous fashion. But if you knew how I have longed to escape from this dreadful groove of housework nnd sewing and bntter makingl” 4 “You shall escape, Lizzio,” said Frances. And no one ever knew tho bitterness of tha tears she shed when Lizzie went to Albany. Mrs. Crest remonstrated stoutly, but Frances held to her own way, and Liz zie’s entreaties wera not to be with¬ stood. “Francos don’t care,” pleaded she; “Frances always was a human icicle. And I’m so much younger than she is, nnl—and--’’ “And so much prettier," quietly spoke tho elder sister. “Yes, Lizzie, dear, I know it.” Lizzie laughed and tossed hor golden curls. “At all events,” said she, “I think I ought to have a fair chance.” Lizzie’s letters from Albany were full of life and sparkle. Sho was like a bird let loose. Everything was couleur do rose to her. The gay streets were a dream of delight; tho opora was an actual reality. Her new dresses filled her with delight; sho was improving so fast in music and drawing, and she could not imagine how she had ever lived all those dreary, dragging years iu the old farmhouse at home. “And, best of all, Stephen Ellsworth had been so often to seo her, and taken her out s eigking and to tho picture galleries and theatres, “all ou dear old Frances’s account, of course,” she added, with a spice of merry mischief. Sho could not say enough in praise of Stephen Ellsworth. Ila was so hand - some, so stylish; the old E Is worth mansion on State street was so elegant; ho sent her such exquisite cut flowers and baskets of fruit! Aud Frances, reading those letters at home after her day’s work of school teaching was over, tried to rejoice in her young sister’s happiness. “Mother,” she said one day, “1 should like to seo the child in her new dresses. I think I’ll go up to Albany and surprise licr. Lucy Lairpson will tako the school for a week. Dear little Lizzie! how astonished she will be.” “Wife,” said Farmer Crest hoarsoly, when Frauces had gone up to bed, full of her new plan, “I don’t know’s we ought to let her go.” “Why not, Obod?’’ “I saw Dr. Jones’s son this morning. He is just home from the Albany medi¬ cal college, and he says every one is talking of our L zzle’s engagement to Cap’n Ellsworth.” “Obed Crest, you’re a-dreamin’l ’ “I wish I was, wife, I wish I was! But it’s only what wo d ought to have expected. Lizzie is as pretty as a pic ter, and as frothy as a bowl o’ soap¬ suds, and brimful o’ mischief into the bargain; and Ellsworth’s only a mortal man after all. Frances ought to have married him a year ago, when ho wanted her to do so, only she wouldn’t leave us until we’d paid the mortgage ou the farm, and got even with the world.” “But, Obed, what arc we to do? I can’t tell her,” sobbed the old lady. “Nor I, neither. There’s no help for it, wife; she’s got to find it out herself.” Aud he let his wrinkled forehead fall into his hands with a groan. Just then the door opened. A tall, slight .figure came in like a gliding shadow. “I've heard it all, father,” said Frances, and you mustn’t blame either Stephen or Lizzie. It—it was only natural. Ho has grown tired of wait¬ ing for me. And Lizzie is very lovely. I can’t blame any man for wanting to make her his wife. I shall go to Al¬ bany, all the same, and tell them not to mind me. You know,” with rather a forced smile, “people always said I was cut out for an old ma d. And—and—■ we three can be very happy here at home all our lives loug, can’t we?" Aud here poor Frances broke down, and cried bitterly. “Don’t mind me,” said she. “I shall be quite used to it after awhile.” It was a brilliant January afternoon —the ground covered with snow, the suu shining with arctic splendor, and all the streets musical with thojiyoui chime of sleiglibells—when Fiances Crest arrived at Mrs. Rigucy’s house in Albany. “Why—Frances—Cicst,” ejaculated tho good lady, “is this yon?” “I came to surprise Lizzie, Aunt Josio,” said the traveler, smiting faintly. “Well, it will bo a surprise,” said Mrs. Rigney. “Go right up, dear. She’s in tho parlor with-.” “With Cant. Ellsworth?” “Row ou earth did you know?” cried the comfortable elderly lady. “Has she written to you?" “Xo, not a word,” Frances an¬ swered. “But I know it all, neverthe¬ less.” Sko went on, and knocked at tho parlor door. “Come in!” called Lizzie's sweet so¬ prano voice; and, with a sudden quick¬ ening of'the heart, she obeyod. Was that little Lizzie standing by the fire, one dainty, slippered foot on tho fender, her gleaming silken gown held by a slim, white hand, while her ex¬ quisite profile was ou! lined against the ruby velvet of tho lambrequin? She looked more like a princess—a fairy queen. hi this atmosphere ot change aud happiness she had fairly blossomed out like arose in mid-June And that tall figure in tho shadow beyond- “Frances 1 Dear, dear Frances!” In a second Lizzio was in her arms. “You got my letter, love—the lottor I wrote to you yesteidny—the letter that told you all? ’ “I have received no letter, Lizzie. I left home early this morning, but— where is Capt. Ellsworth? ’ “Here-—right before ycur eyes. Coma hero, Clarence, and let me introduce you to your new sister; tor we are en¬ gaged, Francos, Clarence ami L That is my mysterious secret.” The tall figure advanced with a mili¬ tary sort of salute. It was not Stephen at all, but a taller, younger, less impressive-looking man, Frances bowod in a bewildered way. “But Stephen—where is Stephen?’’ she asked. “Gone down to Woodficld, Frances, after you. Because he says ho means there shall be a double wedding if there’s to bo a single one, and he do. c ares ho won’t wait any longer for you to make up your mind. And how puzzled he will be, to be sure, when ho finds tho bird has flown 1 Are you very much surprised, Frances? But you see, Clarence is in the regular army—not a mere militia captain like Stephen. lie is stationed in Florida, and he will spend his leave of absonco with his cousins hero In Albany; and so, of course, I couldn’t help getting acquainted with him, because Stephen came hero every day to talk about you, and Clarence always came with h m. And—Y r es, Clarence; go away now and get tho flowers for the evening’s reception at Miss Bird’s, for I’ vo got so much to say to my sister. ” ' She dismissed her handsome lover with the nonchalance of a queen, and then showered caresses anew on Frances. “Isn’t ho splendid, darling?” sho cried. “Aud only think, I owo it all to you; for if it hadn’t been for you sending me here, I never should have met him at all. And we’ll telegraph to Stephen at once, and you will con¬ sent to be married at tho same time with me—won’t you, dear?” “Yes, ” said Frances, her eyes brim¬ ming over with blissful tears, “I wilt 1” Stanley estimates that there is room in Africa for 80,000 miles of railroad. American railroad conductors will never go to Africa to secure employment at their calling. the They might be able to stand climate, but the names of tho stations would paralyze them. THE GREAT AMAZON. Its Watershed Embraces Mill¬ ions of Square Miles. The Commerce, Forests and Cities on its Banks. •fle Amazon is 100 miles wide at its mouth. Para, the northernmost city of Brazil, lies at the gateway of the most wonderful river system of the world. It is the commercial depot and distributing point for 40,000 miles oi navigable water. The Amazon water shed embraces twenty-fivo degrees of latitude and thirty-live degrees of longi¬ tude. Its western sources ara in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador, only a few leagues from tho Pacific. Its northern tributaries traverse tho borders of Guinea and Colombia, whiie midway the head-waters of the Negro mingle with those of the Orinoco in tho western spurs of tho Sierra do Pacaranna. Between most of its leading tributa¬ ries aro broad stretches of impenetrable forests whieh have never beeu explored by white men. It is tho Amazon alone that renders any form of government possiblo in the heart of South America. Within the rango of the 40,000 miles of navigable water settlements have beeD empowered to conduct local ad¬ ministration. Para, lying at the south¬ ernmost out et of the Amazon, less than 100 miles from tho sea, is the metropo¬ lis of this wonderful valley. It is a city with perhaps 50,000 inhabitants, and with as much commercial enterprise as is possible under tho equator. The commerce of tho Amazon is nom inally carried ou under tho Brazilian flag. Foreigners aro not allowed by law to own steamers or sailing vessels employed in inland navigation; and hence it is necessary for tho English capitalists who control tho carrying trade ot tho river to assign their inter¬ ests to Brazilians. There aro forty steamers owned by an English lino, which receives a large mail subsidy from tho Brazilian Government for ply¬ ing between various ports aud villages on the main tributaries; and in return for this financial support it is well sat¬ isfied to fly tho national flag, Another company has eight steamers, under similar conditions; and thoro arc as many as a dozen more on the rivSTaud its tributaries which sail under tho Bra¬ zilian flag. Thoso sixty steamers are gradually opening tho Amazon valloy to commerce. Only the smaller vessels are now running beyond Manaos at tho junction of tho Negro, but next year the largest English vessols will make regular trips to Yquitos, 3750 mile; from tho coast. Some of tho tributaries aro only navi¬ gable for long distances at high water during certain months of the year, but the lower villages on their banks arc visited by steamer as ofton as once or twice a month. This river trade is al¬ most completely in the hands of tho Portuguese merchants and tho mercan¬ tile houses represented at Para. Manaos, with a population of 15,000, is the most flourishing town west of Para. The other settlements, with few ex¬ ceptions, are straggling villages inhabit¬ ed mainly by colored people, Indians and half-breeds. Tho forests of tho Amazon, consist¬ ing mainly of hard wood, nro not available for commercial requirements. The finest of rosewood and mahogany are used there for firewood. Even if there were a demand for the hardwood lumber at Para, it could not be logged and brought to market on a large scale, owing to the density of the woods aud the lack of roads and clearings. The one tree which is a source of wealth in these immense forests is the rubber tree. It is found everywhere, from the low-lying delta opposite Para to the Tapojos, tho Madeira, and the Negro, and piobably thousands of miles beyond those great tributaries. In the interior roads are impracticable, and the rubber trees that are milked lie along the rivers, where tho farms can he approached. The milk can only be drawn at certain levels of the river, for the trunks of the trees are often fifteen or twenty feet under water after tho rainy seasons. " When the conditions are favorable the bark of tho trees is tapped aud tho milk drawn off in cups to bo compacted and rolled together layer by layer like a snowball. It is then cooked or smoked over a fire made of sticks—a process that involves contraction in Vol. X. New Series. NO. 9. cooling and imparts elasticity to tha substance—and then it is ready for shipment to Para and New York. The operation of such farms and tho open¬ ing of new veins of trees in the track¬ less swamps and forests require the employment of native labor under the most inclement conditions of equatorial heat and rains. If there be any quarter of the world where nature seems to command inaction and indolence, it is in these vast stretches of the Amazonian forest. Nowhere elso can existence be sustaine 1 with so small an expenditure of effort. On an aero of cleared land beans can be raised iu sufficient quantity to keep soul and body together with the ad¬ ventitious aids of nuts and fruit from the woods. A torpid, somnoleht exist¬ ence seems to bo the imperious require¬ ment of the climate. Tho Indians, ha.f-breeds and colored population in the villages can livo, if they choose to do so, with what may be described as the minimum of human labor involved in obtaining a livelihood. They iii tinctively resist all appeals to ambition and scif-intercst. The efforts of rubber farmers aud agents to induce them to share in the dangers and labor involved in exploring the forest and striking new veins of rubber trees arc ordinarily fu tile; aud tho employment of even the poorest classes of labor is carried on under almost insuperable difficulties.— Kan York Tribune. St. Lonls’ Iron Pyramid. Here is a description of tho wonder¬ ful structure that St. Louis proposes to build a3 tho chiot attraction in case that city secures tho World’s Fair: It is to he a skeleton pyramid con¬ structed of iron ribs or lattice work, coveriog 10 or 12 acres at tho base, with floors of iron lattioe work at every hundred foot, containing gardens, cafes, restaurants, conversation rooms, etc., the height of the pyramid to be anywhere from 500 to 1000 feet, sur¬ mounted by a statue of liberty, ulso woven in iron work, 100 feet high. On tho sloping sides of tho structure are pedestrian walks, tramways aud other modes of ascent, and in tho centra nu¬ merous elevators. Innumerable orua montal features are suggested in tha way of electric lighting, cascades, fountains, etc. On the vast floors, of which there aro to be 10 or 12, spaces are reserved for exhibits and for assem¬ bly purposes. Fireworks at a great height are to be among the nightly at¬ tractions. The structure is to be painted silver while, and will bo of immense strength aud quite indestructible, and a perma¬ nent feature and municipal attraction, and can be seen many miles from the city. Its illumination at night with electric aud colored lights is provided for on an immense scale. The Future of the Congo State. According to Harper's Weekly. King Leopold’s enterprise, the Congo Free State, is without doubt the greatest philanthropic project of tho century; and although many years must elapso before its possibilities for civiiiz iti on and commerce are fully known, the remark¬ able work of the past few years justi¬ fies the hope that the Congo State will achieve a grand and beneficent destiny. We are beginning to understand that a largo part of this region is at least as habitable as India, as soon ns white men learn to adapt their habits of living to its climatic conditions. The fumous traveler Burton said of Barua that it was one of tho most insalubrious holes in tho world. It is now tho capital of the Congo State. In 1888 there was not a death among the thirty to fifty white men who live there, and recently three Luudred Europeans wore at one time in the settlement, whose total white population when Stanley first saw it was sixteen souls. Owing to exces¬ sive rainfall, however, the past Eeason on the Lower Congo has been very un¬ healthful. The Last Answer the Best The Persian author Laadi tells a story of three sages—a Greek, au Indian and a Persian—who, in the presence of the Persian, monarch, debated this question: Of all evils incident to humanity, which is the greatest? Tho Greciau declared: “Old age op¬ pressed with poverty ;” tho Indian an¬ swered : “Pain with impatience;" while the Persian, bowing low. made answer; “The greatest evil, O King, that I can conceive is the couch of death without! one good deed of life to light the darit some wayl” SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. The California agricultural station has analyzed ovor 1200 sampler of soils from different localities ar a brsis for a classification of the lands of tha State. California farmers are beginning to use silos to preserve winter and spring fodder for summer aud fall use—a complete reversal of Eastern dairy economy. A Minneapolis inventor is about to introduce to the public a slot machine that for a nickel will present the player a photograph of himself in jtnfc three minutes from the time he drops in tho five-cent piece. The hospital of St. Spirito, iu Flor¬ ence, Italy, is said to contain a table top of petrified human viscera, tho work of a Florentine anatomist, who died without explaining the process so ghoulishly applied. In the Cascade Mountains, Oregon, is to be found the Great Sunken Lake, the deepest in the world. It is said to average 2J00 feet down to the water on all sidos. Tho depth of tho water is unknown. It is fifteen miles long and four and one-half wide. Mr. Gatschott lias just had published by the bureau of ethnology a grammar of the Klamath language. It is inteu l ed to form not only a comp’cto analysis and exposition of thnt language, but to bo a model of all subsequent grammars of tho Indian languages. It is probable that tho English oak will bo the hard wood of the future on the Pacific coast. This species is ap¬ parently much hotter adapted to that region than are the varieties of the oak common to tha Eastern states, which there make a slow aud unsatisfactory growth. The economics of metal tics of rail¬ roads is now being thoroughly investi¬ gate l in this country, not on nccouut ol scarcity of suitablo timber, but be¬ cause of their lasting character and firmness of lire track. At this time (here are sovornl hundred miles of track in Europe laid on metal ties. A soluble pigment has been found in the spines of tho South American tree porcupine. The quills are tinged with bright yellow and tipped with dark brown. Tho yellow will dissolve in ordinary water, but tho brown resists the solvent action of alcohol aud chloro¬ form, though it yields to ammonia and potash. It is not a fact that new-born babies always have blue eye3. But it is true that in the majority of cases the eyes of the newly-bora aro blue in color, and as ago increases, change. This is owing to the fact that at the time of birth the pigmental structure of the choroid coat of the eye is not complete, with the re¬ sult that the blue and violet rays of light aro more fully reflected • by the iris, But in very many cases the oyo has its normal color from the moment of the child’s birth, and we find grey, brown, or hazol eyes among newly-born infants. 102 Years Old. - Captain Jack Haynes, the engineer in charge of the olevutor engine at tho Fagan building, is 102 years old/ As he stood in front of the structure the other morning no one would have placed his age at over sixty-five years, and there would even have been soma mis¬ givings ns to his being quite that vener¬ able. Nevertheless, it was in 1787 that the old engineer came into this world, his birthplace being iu tho then wild and unsettled region of Tenuessee. Like nearly all Tennesseans, tho cente¬ narian is a six-footer, chews tobacco, and loves a good story. Ho is active, healthy, spare in figure and on’y slight¬ ly bent with his wonderful weight of years, and possesses tho eyesight of a frontiersman.— St. Louis Republic. A Boy’s Presence of Mind. A boy living near Nassau City, Fla., was out fire-hunting a few uight3 ago, when he planted his foot on something soft aud slippery, and at once awakened the warning notes of a rattlesnake. By the flickering glare of his torch ho saw that he had trod upon tho reptile, but fortunately had planted his foot on its neck just back of the head, and though it folded its slimy coils around his an¬ kle and struck out with its fangs with lightning-like rapidity it was unable to turn its head to do mischief.* The lad had presence of mind enough to keep his foot firmly planted upon its neck while with axe in hand he severed ths head from the body. 1
