Newspaper Page Text
■j pg
iU-, p®* 1 M RTH GEORGIA TIMES.
•
C N K5 I BropvMor
,»
The Beet We Can.
When things don’t go to suit a»
Why should we fold onr han<"
And say, “No nse in trying,
Tate baffles all onr plans.’’
let not yonr courage falter,
Keep faith in (Sod and man.
And to this thought be steadfast-*
•TU do the best I can.”
If clouds blot out the sunshine
Along the way you tread,
Don’t grieve in hopeless fashion
And sigh for brightness fled.
Beyond the clouds the sunlight
. Shines in the Sternal Plan;
Trust that the way will brighten,
And do thi best you can.
Away with vahl repinings;
Eing songs Of hope and cheer,
Till many'a weary comrade
Grows strong of heart to hear.
He who sings over trouble
Is aye the wisest man.
He can’t help what has happened,
But—does the best he can.
So, if thihgs won’t go to suit us,
Let s never fame and fret,
For finding fault with fortune
Ne’er mended matters yet.
Make the best of whate’er happens;
Bear failure like a man;
And in good or evil fortune
Do just the best you can.
. —Ebtn E. Retford, in Saturday Eight.
THE STORY OF BIP.
“Bip’s siory is well known in the
Cumberland valley, where he lived for
■aany years, and died not long ago,”
said Samuel Logan of Franklin county,
Pena., “and it is one of the most ro¬
markable narratives of slavery times
ever related. I have heard the old man
.tell the story with tears in his eyes many
and many a time, and no one who ever
knew him could hnve the slightest
doubt of its truth. Bip was born in
ithe Africa, where, as he believed, he was
son of a king or a chief, for ho re¬
membered that his father and mother
lived in a bark hut surrounded by
smaller ones, which were occupied by
many women and children, his father’s
hot always being approached by others
to a most deferential manner, Ilis
mother wore immense gold or brass
Hoops in her ears and bands of metal
on her arms. His father wore a big
yellow ring in his nose. When Bip-was
about 5 yeafs old, as he afterward cal¬
culated, his father’s household and
many of the tribe were overpowered by
a horde of strange blacks and taken
captive. They were bound together
and driven for days until they came to
the seashore. There they wore por¬
tioned among a number of whito men,
the first Bip had ever seen. The cap¬
tives were taken away in boats. Bip
never saw his father again. He and Ins
mother were packed with hundreds of
others on board a vessel, and they were
many days on the water. Tho vessel at
last landed and the n^f«pes that were
■till alive w«ra take r .shore, and Bip
and his mother were selected from
the lot by a white man and taken away.
It was not until after years that Bip
knew and appreciated tho fact that ho
and his parents and their tribj had
fallen victims to the African slave trad
ers, and that ho and his mothor had
been sold into slavery to a Cuban
planter.
“At tho age of 35 Bip, which name
had been given him by liis Cuban
owner, was sold, with a lot of other
young negroes of both sexes, to a slave
trader. Btp’s mother was at work in
the sugar field wiion he was sold and
taken away. He never saw or heard of
her again. The herd of young negroes
was taken to New Orleans, where Bip
wss sold on the auction block. He was
put to work in the sugar fields, but
when he was 20 years old he became
the property of an Arkansas cotton
planter. He was taken to the Arkansas
tion, which was not far from Lit¬
tle Rock. His new master proved to
be • kind one, bet Bip felt that he was
not born to be a slave, and he was de¬
termined to escape from bondage, even
et the risk of his life. Late one night
in the fall of 1821 he made a break for
liberty. He never knew exactly the
route he took, but he turned his face as
near northward as he could calculate
and blindly followed that course. He
traveled all night, swimming rivers
end floundering through swamps.
In the daytime he hid
among the dense brakes, and satisfied
his hnngsr by digging turtles from the
mud and eating their raw meat. He
travelled in that way for three nights*
and just before daybreak on the morn¬
ing of the third he came suddenly upon
a clearing. He saw at once that it was
the home of a “face camper.” In
those days that part of Arkansas was
*Ud and sparsely inhabited, and settlers
SPRING PLACE. GA.. THURSDAY. APRIL 17, 1890.
from other states end other portions of
Arkansas ware taking . up. land and
gradually clearing the country into
plantations. The settlers usually lived
during the first years of their occupancy
in what was known as face camps, their
first crop enabling them to put up bet¬
ter dwellings. The face cetnp was a
rude board hut or shanty enclosed on
but three sides. The side facing the
south was left open, the climate, even
in winter, being mild enough to keep
as airy a habitation as a face camp en¬
tirely comfortable. The shanty was
roofed with boards, and, as ths -whole
was built with slight frame 'walls, it
was not the most secure dwelling in the
world. The interior of one of these
face camps was severely simple. It con¬
tained the settler’s bed, a table and a
bench or two, and a loft for storing
various articles of houiehold use. The
bed was a rude board bunk in one cor¬
ner, made fast to the side on one end
of the shanty. The loft was a similar
bunk, built three or four feet above the
bed.
“The face camper, during his first
year as a settler, depended, in a great
measure, on game for the sustenauce of
himself and family. The woods were
filled with deer, bears and other wild
animals. When a deer or other animal
was killed the dressed carcass was
suspended on a pole in front of the
open end of the camp, the pole being
supported by long forked sticks driven
in the ground. The face campers
rarely owned slaves while they were
making their clearings, but they always
looked forward to the day when they
would become masters. As a rule they
were hard, ignorant people, and their
reputation as slave-holders was such
that even the slaves of the cotton
planters on .the lowlands pitied the
negroes of a face camper. So, natur¬
ally, when Bip came suddenly at tho
home of one of this class he was
greatly alarmed, and made up his mind
to get away from that locality os soon
as possible. The moon was shining full
and bright in the shanty, and Bip could
sec tho bunk and the outlines of its
sleeping inmates, and the loft
above it. As he stood peering out of
the thicket, taking a hurried view of
the curious scene, an u^jly and ominous
growl came from the shanty. Suppose
ing that his presence had been discov¬
ered by tho camper’s dogs, Bip was
drawing back hurriedly to escape from
the spot, when he discovered that it
was something else that had aroused the
dogs. Out of tho shadows on the op¬
posite side of the opening came two
dark objects towards the doer, and two
huge beata were revealed in the moon -
light. They did nbt stop, but slouched
impudently along to secure the object
of their visit, the deer's carcass. Bip
could not overcome his curiosity to
watch and see what tho result of this
invasion would be. As the bears shuf¬
fled up to the spot where the deer hung,
two dogs rushed out of the open camp.
With furious barking and loud yelping
they sprang upon the bears.
“The noise awoke the owner of the
camp, and Bip saw him spring from
the bunk. At the same time the wife
and the faces of three wild and
startled-looking children rose up in the
bunk. The worn in and the children
began to scream and cry. As the set¬
tler jumped out the bears made a rush
for the dogs which retreated to the
shanty. They almost ran over the man
as he approached. He ran back and
helped his wife and children from the
bed to the bunk overhead. The next mo¬
ment man, dogs, and bears were closed to¬
gether in one indiscriminate struggle.
Feeling that whatever the result might
be his own safety lay in escaping from
the scene without delay, Bip hastened
into the forest. He had not gone
far when it occurred to him that a
fellow man’s life was undoubtedly in
peril, and that it was his duty to aid
him in preserving it, no matter what
the consequences might be to himself.
Without an instant’s further hesitation
he turned and dashed back through the
thicket. He cleared tho opening at a
bound, and the next second had joined
the settler and his dogs in their contest
with the bears. The settler was being
pressed by the bears against the board
wail at the foot of the bunks, and the
frail shanty was shaking and swaying
threateningly. The man’s wife and chil¬
dren were shrieking frantically in the
loft One' dog had been kilted and the
other disabled.
“Bip closed with one of the bears at
once. His knife was a keen, long
bladed dirk, with two edges. He thrust
it to the hilt in the bear's breast as the'
animal lunged up against him. The
blood followed the blade in a stream.
The bear staggered back. Before it
rallied Bip turned to the other one. It
had knocked the settler to the ground,
where he lay stunned. In a second
more the bear would have torn the
man’s throat to strings. With one
slash of his effective weapon Bip sev¬
ered the big arteries in the bear’s neck,
and laid the windpipe open. The bear
raised up erect on its feet and fell over
backward with its whole weight against
the side of the camp. The shook was more
than the structure could stand, and the
shanty came down with a crash, bury¬
ing bears and all beneath a pile of
boards and scantling. The noxt that.
Bip knew it was broad daylight. He
was lying on the ground on a deoiskin.
He was sore and lame but managed to
got'to his feet. A big-whiskered man,
a pale, weeping woman, and two
frightened-looking children were
grouped near him. By the side of a
ragged pile of boards that had beon the
face camp, lay the carcasses of two
huge bears. The big -whiskered man
came forward, grasped Bip’s hand, and
told him he had saved his life. The man,
his wife, and two of the children had es¬
caped from the wreck of the shanty
with but slight injuries, strange as it
seemed, but the other child had been
killed. Bip felt that he would be safe
with these people, and he told them his
story. He then learned that the lace
camper was Israel Vawn, a noted re¬
ligious enthusiast, who had settled in
the wilderness to form the nucleus of a
colony of his followers. Bip helped
rebuild Yawn’s camp, and when it was
done Vawn made him promise that he
would remain at the camp until the set
tier made a business trip to Little Rock
and returned. When Vawn came back
he placed in Bip’s hands a bill
of sale for himself from his master.
Vawn had purchased the young negro
and given him his freedom. The over¬
joyed Bip remained in Vawn's service,
and was given the name of Solomon
Vawn. Israel Vawn died about the
time the war of the rebellion began.
Bip, or Solomon Vawn, came North
and settled in the Cumberland valley,
where he worked as a farm hand until
he died some months ago, nearly 90
years old. He is buried near Mont
Alto, and his grave is on land, I be
ieve, formerly owned by Thaddeus
Stevens.”—JV. 7. Sun.
A Czar’s Cura for Obesity.
Peter the Great was once traveling
incognito in a part of Finland, just
conquered, where he was executing
some naval works. He met an over-fat
man who told him he was going to St.
Petersburg. “What for?” said
the Czar. “To consult a doctor
about my fat, which has become very
oppressive.” “Do you know any doc¬
tor there?” “No.” “Then I will
give you a word to my friend, Prince
Menschikoff, and he will introduce you
to one of the Emperor’s physicians.”
The traveler went to the Prince’s house
with a noee. The answer was not de¬
layed. The next day, tied hands and
feet, the poor man was dragged off on
a cart to the mines. Two years after,
Peter the Great was visiting the mines;
he had forgotten the adventure of the
over-fat man, when suddenly a miner
threw down his pick, rushed up to him,
and fell at his feet crying: “Grace,
grace I what is it I have done?” Peter
looked at him astonished, until he re¬
membered the story, and said: “Oh,
so that is you? I hope you are pleased
with me. Stand up. How thin and
slight you have become 1 You are quit*
delivered of your over-fat; it is a first
rate cure. Go, and remember that
work is the best antidote against your
complaint!”
Well Matched.
There are now living in Washington
a married couple, Paul and Albina
Helimuth, who were born at Baden,
Germany, within four miles of each
other. Even through their childhood,
playing in the streets of the same town,
they were strangers to each other. In
the course of events they came across
the ocean to the land of promise; and
at different times and by different paths
they drifted to Washington, where they
met and loved and wedded. Upon’
comparing notes to take out their mar¬
riage license they discovered, to their
mutual surprise and gratification, that
they were not only natives of the same
place, but rejoiced in exactly the same
ages to a day.
NATIVES OF ALASKA
I
Facts About the People of the
Big Territory.
Not Handsome, But Possessed
of Good Qualities.
In appearance the natives of the in¬
terior of Alaska are generally very dark
complexion ad, with largo cheek bones,
large mouths and a sharp chiu.
“This,” w^s Lieutenant Cantwell in
his notes obtained while exploring the
Kowak River, ‘Ogives the face a very
triangnlar appearance, very different
from the round face of tho Esquimau.
Their hair is black, and the hair is worn
long, except in front, where it is
trimmed across the forehead on a line
with the eyebrows. They are quick in
their movements, active and strong in
youth, but grow aged*looking rapidly.”
Very few men of middle age were
observed. The faces of the women are
more oval than the men’s, and their
color is lighter. Their hair is parted
in the middle and worn in two braids
hanging in front of the ears. Tho in¬
terior natives are referred to as better
morally and in points of honesty and
sobriety than the people of the coast.
They have no laws except to do by
others as they. would have others do to
them. They were universally kind to
the aged and helpless, very hospitable,
curious to a degree, but never intrusive.
In the interior the people did not fol¬
low methods of the Esquimau coast
tribes in choosing an omailik, or chief
trader and general business agent In
all discussions regarding the welfare of
the community, the women and the
older ones in particular, joined, and the
men received their opinions with re¬
spect. They wore generally guided by
a kind of moral code, as Lieutenant
Cantwell says, in all matters regarding
one another’s welfare. No punishment
WM.retogaired for> the commission of
crime, but on tho other hand there was
seldom Any committed.
As to diseases, the Lieutenant found
pulmonary complaints and rheumatism
very common among the natives, as
well as weak and inflamed eyes. Epi¬
demic diseases very rarely occur, though
smallpox sometimes reaches these peo¬
ple through the natives living on the
Koyukuk river. Beyond the simple
herbs known and used by the “shaman, ”
or medicine-man, in his cantations, but
little is known of the art ot healing.
No formal funeral ceremonies are per¬
formed by the inland tribes over their
dead. The body is generally taken to
some secluded spot, usually on a bluff
overlooking a river, and laid on the
ground. A conical shaped structure of
spruce logs is built over the remains
and a tree hear by is stripped of
branches and a small piece of cloth
tied to it marks the spot, near which
are left the sled, household utensils
and some of the weapons of the de¬
ceased. No one ever visits the spot
thereafter. It is tabooed.
The natives partake eagerly of such
articles as flour, tea, rice, condensed
milk and other dishes, but they despise
salt pork and would rather starve tli-'^
touch it. In addition to the reindeer
meat, they eat the flesh of the bear, fox,
wolf, muskrat, beaver and mountain
sheep. In the summer salmon is al¬
most the sole food. The flesh of the
seal and white whale is eaten by the
summer sojourners at the coast, Wild
currants are found in abundance and
the onion, celery and parsnip grows
wild in abundance, as well as a species
of wild rhubarb. The tender roots of
the willow were also cooked in oil
when the natives were much in need of
food. The upper waters of the Kowak
abound in wild duok, geese and swans,
and cranes also could be found, The
birds are boiled after being skinned,
and astonishing to. note, the head, feet
and intestines were considered the
choice morsels. The Lieutenant says
thlse tidbits were laid before him on
one occasion.
All the tribes dress very much alike.
Their attire consists of an outer and
inner coat or “parka” of deerskin,
tight fitting trousers of hair sealskin
and boots supplied with deerskin leg.
gins, the soles being of walrus or
white whale skin. The inner garments
are worn with the fur next to the body
and tho outer one with the fur outside.
Hsts or caps are not worn by either sex,
but the outer garment has a hood, which
can be drawn over the head. A piece
of some long haired fur is sewed
around the edges of the hood to protect
Vol. X, New Series. NO. 11.
the eyes from flying particles of snow.
A belt is worn by the women to confine
their outer garments or “ parkas ”
around the waist, and this enables the
native mother to carry her offspring
underneath the folds of her “parka.”
Socks made of soft tanned skins are
worn, and mittens of reindeer skins,
with the hair turned in, are worn
winter and summer. Thread is made
of deer sinew, and the women, in
addition to their other arduous duties,
make all the clothing and keep it in
order.
A Born Musician.
A day or two ago a natural-born mu¬
sician came in on the Georgia road. He
had with him a hand-made xylophone,
as rough and crazy an instrument as a
musician ever tried to play, but the mu¬
sic was wonderful. The bars, except
two, were made of common yellow pop
lar, whittled into proper dimensions
with a pocket knife. Two bars were of
walnut. All the bare were connected
by a cotton string. The base of the in
strument was a coarse, pine plank, and
between this board and the bars, form
ing a cushion for the bars was au inch
thick padding of jute, Isioian or old ropes
threaded out. The used tVo
mallets—little balls of poplar on ban
dies of convenient length. Around each
ball was a band of flannel cloth, to
soften the note. He made the xylo
phone himself, and said he had made
four others and sold them. The addi
tion of the walnut bars was a very re
cent improvement, and he seemed to he
particularly proud of that part. The
musician, dressed like a cowboy with
bead-strung sombrero and big yellow
boots, looked as little a musician as his
instruments a xylophone. He plays
altogether by air. He whittles out his
bars without any rule, whatever, judg
ing entirely by the sound.
“Ihe tone,” he says, 1 •‘depends on
the kind of wood, on the length and
on the thickness. The,width has very
4BUA tndomith.it Paplarfcs* * .^
meUow sound and goes through neatly
he whole scale. Then another thing
that change, the note is the way the
gram runs in the bar.’
He played “Dixie,” “Climbing Up
the Golden Stairs,” and a number of
other familiar tunes. He is wonderful
ly apt at catching anew tune, and can
follow one’s whistling almost faultlessly.
Not only that, but he whistles beauti
fully. He has a knack of whistling
like three or four men at once, carrying
the air and bass all at once, or warbling
like a room full of mocking birds. He
kept a crowded car well entertained be
tween Covington and Atlanta, and
gathered in a liberal lot of dimes and
quarters when the hat was passed
around .—Atlanta Constitution.
A Magician’s Story.
“While in India,” said the magician
Keller recently, “I saw many things
done by the native masters of legerde¬
main that completely ‘stumped’ me and
some scientific gentlemen that were with
me. The most wonderful performances
were in hypnotism.
“Framjee Cowasjeo Jeejeebhoy, a
millionaire Parsee merchant, son of
Framjee Cowasjeo, the founder of the
Bombay Institute of Physical Inquiry
bearing his name, gave me his word for
this remarkable story:
“In the north of India was a famous
hypnotist who possessed the power of
hypnotizing himself. His wife, who
knew his secret, was accustomed to re¬
vive him whenever he exercised his ex¬
ceptional power. He killed a man and
was sentenced to execution. Several
days before the time for the execution
he hypnotized himself, passing into a
condition which, to all appearance, was
death. So perfect was the semblance
that the English Government physicians
who were called in officially certified
that he was dead and ordered his body
cremated. But at this point his wife
appeared. She was stricken with grief,
moaned and wept until the hearts of
the authorities were touched. She was
permitted to take away the body for
private cremation. Then she revived
her husbani, and together they es>
caped,”— Chioago Tribune.
Strictly Btuinesi,
Isaacs—Vere have you been for %*
bast veekf ; •j,,,",
Jacobs—I vas in Boston.
Isaacs—Did you go there for pish
ness or only Measure?
Jacobs—I went dera to get married,
bases—So it vaah a piahness trip,
after all.
-
From Night to Light
/riend, yon are sad, yon say?
Yonr grief once in the past.
All shall be clear to you;
The sorrow shall not last,
But then be dear to you
Some coming day.
So consolation find;
Yield not thus to despair;
Believe joy waits for you,
And, in the future, there
Opens her gates for you.
Be then resigned!
—Ornrge Birth
HUMOROUS.
Mept any city can look well if it has
a good site.
If experience is so great a teacher,
why do we speak of a “green" old
age?
The only way to be happy on five
hundred a year, is to livo on four hun
fired and ninety-nine,
First Little Girl—Is your doll a
French doll? Second Little Girl—I
don’t know, she can’t talk,
The most disagreeably obstinate per
gon on eart h is the coal dealer when he
i nslf ts 0 n having his own weigh,
— . , . .
’T ‘ ^ v\ V “ r9 ^
teaChi “* ** y ° Ung idea . h °" , t0 8h0ot
The P lumW elecutes hk ™ y
a finely 88 a rula Whett you et hi
’ * « *
bil1 ’ you feel “ if you would 1Ut ® to
execut * the P lumber -
Old Gentleman (to little girl)—Sissy,
^rhat makes your eyes so bright? Sissy
(after a little thought)—I guess it’s
cause they’re kinder new.
Some men will get up out of bed at
night in the coldest of weather to go te
a fire who cannot be induced to get up -
at 7 to start one iu the stove,
The two most exciting periods in a
woman’s life are when she is listening
to her first proposal and bidding on a
basket of broken crockery at an auc
tion.
A n<rw ! vaHety »f Afcm W Wdi*.
covered . M u „ t#nderer than the old
8tyle of clam> it will not be W for
cbowd but wiU be worked into
chewing gum.
Mrs " Bloodgood-Whatl not an open
^P 1806 nor 8 9tove in the house * How
does your father warm his 8li PP era .
Willie? ^Me (ruefully)—Warms ’em
011 me * ma am '
“A man may smile and smile and be
* villiau.” This probably accounts for
t? 18 existence of so many villainous
pictures of persons who have been told
to 1°°^ pleasant,
The nuisance of the hotel was in the
parlor warbling, “Oh, would I were a
bird.’’ “Well, here’s a beginning for
you,” said the landlord. And he
handed him his bill.
A delinquent walks into the prison
carrying his head high and with a cer¬
tain patronizing air. Pointing to the
constable who is leading him by the
arm, he says:— “Allow him to pass; he
is with me.”
“That is not more than half the com¬
position,” she said, as she turned on
the piano stool. “Shall I play the
rest?” “Yes,” he replied, abstracted¬
ly, “play the rest by all means; play
all the rests you ean find.”
“Miss N-, how could yon think
that I had ever said in company that
yon were stupid; quite the contrary,
whenever your name was mentioned I
was always the only one who didn’t say
so.”
An agricultural journal advises:
“Grind your own bones.” When amen
is in such a condition that he he has no
further use for his bones, he is alto
gether too exhausted to grind them.
He sometimes “grinds his teeth,” but
there he draws the line in the matter of
self-bone grinding.
Wit That wss Appreciated.
Tompkins—Pshaw! Brown’s no wit.
There must be an element of surprise in
what a man says to make it wit. Don’t
you agree with me?
Wilson—Perfectly. That wss a dev.
er witticism you got off the other day.
Tompkins—I forget. What did ]
say?
Wilson—You said, “Here's that fivs
I borrowed from j.u.” Jforptr.
Bator.
u Ik. _. iMmUl
•n»po« m -ik, r a r , 1 k«
f