North Georgia times. (Spring Place, Ga.) 1879-1891, May 21, 1891, Image 1

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NORTH GEORGIA TIMES. : C. N. KING. I Proprietor .8. B. CARTER, f THE PIRATES’ HOME. How 0ne of the Wickedest Cities in the World Was Destroyed. The Earth Opened and It Was Blotted Out of Existence. *r When the Spaniards were driven from Jamaica they left behind them a number of slaves, who sought shelter iu the mountains and defied the author¬ ities. These bandits whre nearly ex¬ terminated soon after the English oc¬ cupation, but tho remnant later grew to be powerful and greatly troubled the authorities. They are known as the Maroons, and the story of their desperate struggles for freedom, of the privilege*’ wrung from tho whites and of their assistance in suppressing the rising of the blacks'in 1865 reads like a romance. Six hundred of these troublesome marauders ■ were transr ported to Nova Scotia. The descend¬ ants of the ancient Maroons are even to this day a separate people, and still enjoy tho privileges granted to their ancestors. Pirates and their bloodthirsty deeds have furnished so often the plot and theme for the melodramatist and the dime novelist that one bates to write about them in sober earnest. But they were no myths iu Jamaica, and no account of Jamaica’s past, however ' brief, can omit a reference to the part they played iu its history, especially as the most dreadful calamity that evor visited the island is connected with them. The Jamaican pirates generally sought to throw over their marauding and pillaging expeditions tho sanction of legal authority by obtaining letters of marque, but they wore,nevertheless, pirates, pure and simple. One chief after another scoured the Spanish main, capturing vessels, usually Span¬ ish, on tli^ higii seas, and when tho ocean did not offer enough to satisfy his curiosity and love of adventure, attacked cities and towns,laying waste with fire and sword, and committing horrible barbarities and cruelties. Nothing was sacred to these human devils, and yet they were tolerated for many years by tho Jamaican authorities. The island profited by their expeditions, and tho last half of the seventeenth century witnessed a prosperity as great as it was- wicked and demoralizing. Port Royal was the capital of the pirate empire, and the Marooners filled if with wealth and debauchery. Tliero they maintained iu semi-barbaric state their great establishments. They lived like men who, with the wealth of princes, did not know when they might die, aniFwho had* no fear of God or man. Imagination can hardly picture tiie charter of the populace of that • little city under the sun, or the life within its walls’. To it came the reck¬ less, the desperate, tho men most skilled in villainy. With them they brought the spoils of richly laden gal¬ leons bound home with silver and go’.d, the ransoms of cities aud whole populaces, and fleets of merchant ves¬ sels freighted with rich staffs from all the markets of tbe world. AJ1 this, and more, was poured into Port Royal and was spent with a lavishness and extravagance that is possible only wit h treasure bought at so slight a cost as that of human life. Nothing seemed lacking to make it the wickedest place on earth; yet the vengeance of the Lord apparently passed it by. -But ic was only for a season. One day the earth opened and in two minutes tlie city, its pal¬ aces and its lmvels lay at tho bottom of the sea. Thousands of the iuhabi tants perished with tlieir ill-gotten gains, and^the unburied dead, floating in tbe harbor or heaped upon the land under a tropical sun, bred a horrible pestilence that carried off thousands of those who escaped the ‘earthquake. Today the waters of the bay hide from sight the ancient city. Was ever retributive justice more terrible or complete. Romantic and exciting as were the lives of all these buccaneers, that of Henry Morgan, the greatest of the freebooters, was the most so. From a white slave in the Barbadoes, where m e had been sold iuto servitude, he be ame, first, the most daring and sne uessfui of the jflrates, and later a ’ t, and, as ^ieutenant-Governor yOf that island. SPRING PLACE. GA„ THURSDAY. MAY 21, 1891. At the suck tug of Fauama he obtained 175 mule-loads of treasure. The Governor who gave him his commis¬ sion was recalled for that act, but Morgan was kuighted, and, as Sir Henry, turned his back upon his for mer companions and made a most opular Governor of the colony.— ostou Herald. “Our Centennial.” Our Centennial Exposition at Phila. delphia came next in the list of world’s fairs after the woful Austrian exper¬ ience, and though not a pronouuced financial success, was vastly nearer being such than the Austrian venture. The Centennial was opened May 10, and was closed on tho next 10th of November, in the meantime having been opcu to visitors’ on 159 days. Tho total number of admissions was 9,910,966, of which number 1,906,691 had free admission and 8,004,247 paid, tho financial outcome being about even, when it is remembered that the city of Philadelphia came into posess ion of tho main exposition building and the art palace, both handsome and permanent structures. The days of the largest attendance at the Centen¬ nial were as follows: Opening day, May 10, 76,712; September 9,99,984; September 20, 101,498; September 28, which had been designated as Penn¬ sylvania Day, 274,918; September 80, 103,885; October 18, 124,777; October 25, 106,986; October 27, 95,553; November 1, 107,715; November 2, 115,298; November 8, 90,588, and November 9, which had been announced as Philadelphia Day, 176,755. These figures show that the public interest in the exposition did not wane during tho whole time of its continuance, but the samo fact Is more plainly declared by the state¬ ment of admissions each month. Average daily attendance for May, 26,175; June, 86,622; July, 84,863; August, $8,530; September, 98,834; October, 102,358, and during the nine days in November that the exposition was open, 115,815 persons were ad¬ mitted. There were tho two prices of fifty cents and twenty-five cents charged for admission to the Centen¬ nial, the latter being for children, and the total amount taken iu at the ticket offices was $3,818,749.50. The expenses were somewhat larger than this amount, but neither the United States nor the stockholders lost anything, and the comparatively small deficit was more than balanced by tho value of the permaneht build¬ ings of which Philadelphia, as stated, became tlie ownor by purchase after the closing of the fair. Had the fair been open on Sundays, it was claimed at tho time, and has never been con¬ troverted; the exposition would have left a surplus instead of the small deficit it bequeathed to the managers. —[Chicago Inter-Ocean. Birth of a Bison. The female bison at the Zoological Gardens has just given birth to a fine calf. This is a matter for some re¬ joicing, since the American bison is getting very rare** It is even now a* rave, or nearly so* as its European relative, tho aurochs, and not so very long ago it was abundant on tbe plains of North America. The calf is a reddish-brown color, like the calf of an ordinary domestic cow, and not a bit like its black, shaggy mother. If the theory is true that every shade and variety of color has its meaning, this fact is very extraordinary. If the colors of the adult bison have a relation to its usual surroundings, why should the calf be colored differently? Oqp would have thought that wbat was sauce for the goose was also sance for the gosling. It has, however, been suggested that such differences between tbe parents and their offspring are to facilitate recognition, and it is noticeable that the young of many aqjtyals are, as in this case, more brightly colored than their parents, and, therefore, mqsp conspicuons in the dusk or twilight.—[London News. A Reasonable Request. Mr. Waffle—-Aw, Miss West, kind¬ ly allow me to escort you into the banqueting salon. Miss West—Pardon me, Mr. Waffle, but did you expect to walk or ride? Mr. Waffle (standing on the dress) --Why, walk, of coarse. Miss West—Then please get off the train. ESKIMO DIET. Whit the Natives of South Greenland Eat. Their Principal Articles of Food Are J^eai Meat and Blubber. I had road once about Eskimo eating habits—how once upon a time, for instance, an Arctic explorer offered some Eskimo girls somo sweetmeats which wore rejected, while tallow candles were eagerly accepted and eaten. Now I was to see an Eskimo eat. With many smiles, Peter entered the cabjn and sat down at the (able. I should have apologized to him on ac¬ count of the scantiness of our fare,for we had no candles and there Wasn’t a bit of tallow on deck even, let alone in the eabin, but I noticed that the butter plate was heaping full, the sight of which made me wish for some of my friends so that we could make a pool on the number »f bites he would take in swallowing the roll. Then Peter sat down and without ceremony helped himself to a lot of baked boans, a piece of dry bread and a largo piece of very leau, salt beef, all of which he bit into and swallowed as a hungry ’longshoreman might have done. Then he took more beans and more bread and more lean beef, and with them several cups of coffee with a groat deal of sugar to each cup. He was a long time getting to it, but he finally began on the but¬ ter. Ho had poured his last cup of coffee and was looking about for something to eat with it when his eye fell on a plate of cake. Taking a small piece he put a small lump of but¬ ter on it and slowly ate the combination with the coffee. To the reader of a geographical magazine it may seem strange, but the fact is, until 1 saw this man at the table I had really ex¬ pected to find the Eskimos of South Greenland showing the habits and tastes of those living a thousand miles further up the coast. I had not quite expected to find them living in snow houses, but I had a misty idea that an Eskimo was a little black Indian whose chief delight among the things brought from a civilizod country was tho tallow candle. The staple food is leal meat and blubber. Next to that is the little fish taken in the fiord and dried for winter use, known (o' them as the augmat-fat, and to the learned as salmo villosus. A favorite way of eating tho dried aug¬ mat-fat is to take it by the tail, poke it into the oiiy blubber for a while, and then chew it down. Awful, isn’t it? It iB almost as bad as eating sar¬ dines. There is a deal in a name. Blubber is disgusting; oil, if for use on a salad, is delicious and indispens¬ able. I have eaten seal oil and found it (very unexpectedly) good. I had supposed it would have a flavor of fish oil. Ttero is no such flavor about it. It is equal to the best extract of cotton seed—that quality sold as olive oil in all American groceries. Augmat-fat and blubber, under a French label, would be esteemed a luxury in New York as in Arsuk. For the rest, the Eskimos trade seal oil and skins to their governor for three kinds of hard tack, for coffee, sugar and tea. They catch Arctic codfish (misarkornak in Eskimo, and gadus navaga in the books) and salmon in the seasons; they shoot .no end of gulls, ducks, ptarmigans, and tho Arctic hare; they have eggs in endless quantity in the season, and very many foxeB are trapped. The fox is to the Eskimo what the ’possum is to the darkey. He likes to smoke a favoring circumstances, will Bwap anything he’s got, including his wife, for rum.—[Goldthwalte’s Geographi¬ cal Magazine. Yon Need a Gan for These Lobsters. “Onca upon a time,” said an expert’ in matters crustacean to a Star ’report¬ er, “there were crabs and lobsters, in existence for which the omdern fisher¬ man would have gone a-hunting ^ith the most approved weapons and Cau¬ tion. For example, in times abte diluvian there was a lobster which had a body; eight feet long and could stretch twelve feet with its formidable arms. Positive knowledge of this giant of long ago is conveyed by geo logical research’. It must have con¬ tained meat enough to make tgggpd for a regiment of soldiers. | days of long ago everything ’ ° enormous dimensions, whether animal or vegetable. Frogs-were big and ac¬ tive enough to leap at one hop from the Treasury building to thg Capitol, and other creatures, particularly those of a destructive sort, were in propor¬ tion. “Only a few little specimens art loft to illustrate the giant crustacean forms of that ancient epoch. It is known how crabs and lobsters are hatched from eggs, resembling upon birth nothing so much as tho animal cula) shown.by the microscope in a drop of ditch water. They are as un¬ like the shell fish they are to become in mature life as a grub is unlike a butter fly. In the case of the crab the egg clusters , , ave attached , *, , beneath tho am- . mal . . after ,, extrusion, . -while with the , lobster . . they .. . become fastened „ , to , tho tail, , which, by its fanning motion, .. . ... the stream of , oxygenated . , . increases air through and among the ova. “From tho eggs of the lobster aro , hatched . , . creatures , not ..... m the least re sembling ... their . parents—little * ........ fellows ,, that . swim . with feather-like „ . locomo- , • tivo .. the surface , of , the organs near water. At .. the end , of „ . weeks , they six develop , , legs, , unless, , as is ..... highly probable, , ,, they have previously , , , been devonred , , , by fishes ,, , or other .. enemies, . ’ . becoming ... thereupon small „ lobsters , , . of familiar , ... shape. . Haying „ . reached ..... this stage of growth, the - young lobsters become walking animals, and, jinking to tho bottom, immediately seek hid fig-place* to protect them from their foes. — [Washington Star. .....— — V .-——-. The Indian Warriors' Scalp Dance. occasion Tire return of of ^fy-ar 'lemony party of general is the . rejoicing on iW part of the tribe. Tho warriors decorate themselves with beads and war eagle feathers, a tuft of long white feathers being affixed to tho crown of ■ their heads; red and black figures \ are painted on their bodies. On nearing their village they raise their voices in song, and bear in their hands branches of pine, on which are hung tho scalps taken from their enemies. Arriving at a lodgo con¬ taining their sacred symbols, the chief of the tribe walks in a direction oppo¬ site to the course of tho sun, crying aloud an invocation while the circle is being formed. Opposiie the door is the war pole, and beside it a square box securely fastened together con¬ taining their mystic symbols. They all sit down on the earth and the si¬ lence is unbroken. At length tho warriors rise aud follow their chief, who leads the way, mako the circle of the war pole, chanting a peculiar in¬ vocation three times. Each in the order of succession now enters tho lodge, on whoso hearth burns tho sacred fire. Three days and nights are given to fasting. The woman stand beside tho door in two rows tho first night of tho fast, chanting at intervals iu a shrill voice, followed by an abso¬ lute silence. From time to time dur the fast the chief appears with his warriors, shouting the war-whoops, marching around the circle of the war polo and waving the branches to which the scalps are attached. Finally u gen¬ eral procession is formed, with the chief at the head, each in orderly suc¬ cession, as before, followed by the squaws, and march around the chief’s lodge from the east to the north, where the evil spirit dwells, the warriors singing the death song. After the procession they affix to tho roof of the ...... lodge a branch with a piece of scalp a fastened thereto. This is repeated at each lodge of the village to appease tlie spirits of the dead, and then the ceremony ends.—Chicago HerafjL A Good Test of the Eye. A trick that is going the rounds just now is to measure by the eye the dis* tance to which you must push away the central one of threo silver dollars side by side, their circumferences touching, so that the distance from the lower edge of the central coin so-re¬ moved, shall be equal to the distance apart of the outer edges of the two other coins. You will probably do as everyone else does, put the coins side by side and push the middle one up¬ ward along the table until you think you have done a rash thing by pushing it so far. Whdn yon measure you will find out. IPs an old perversity of tho eye.—[Lewiston M (Me*) Jour¬ nal. - ■>ft : /4vv\; Some cheap things are ever in good form-politeness, for instance. l s Vol, XL New Series. NO. 16 . FOREST GIANTS. California’s Majestic Redwood Trees in Danger. Steps Taken to Preserve Them From Utter Destruction. It is gratifying to learn that the Land Office at Washington is at last taking steps to preserve the giant red¬ woods of California, which arc fa¬ mous the world over as the greatest trees in existence. These majestic monu " ients oE uatur ° are * an f * ot " ttor dMtru * t .‘ on ’ a ' ,a 1 U 1S h, « h 1,m0 that something were done , to save „ In tho first ,, place, they arc bc . killed otl bv the mouutain . tires „ mg ; which ,. , are very frequent on the ,, slopes ' of .„. the Sierra Ncvadas, , ’ and , are dne . to „ the carelessness , of „ sheep herders who who lead flocks far up f, tho mountain , . , s r sides. Iu T fact, , , there few of the are giant ... trees ol ft California „ ... . which ,. , are wholly . „ uninjured . . , by , fire. . There ... now also , sawmills . building .. .. . the .. are in neighborhood . ,, , , of , of . these some groves °f .... gmnt treos, and, , strange as r. it may . seem, they .. . have noi the slightest ..... corn punction about destroying . .. them, al- , though “ many ' of the larger * trees are. ' of . . difficult .. for . them to . . handle, course, and fact lia8 holpod to keep tUom from deatruotton . In tho Visalia district there arc sev¬ eral groves of enormous trees, the largest of which is 106 feet in circum¬ ference. These forests aro very im¬ pressive on account of the grand trees they contain, and, although the land was withdrawn from public entry fivo years ago, a colony of enthusiasts and theorists, who were bent upon demon¬ strating the practicability of Bellamy’s idea*,have settled in the neighborhood, and it is said that they have destroyed some of the trees. There is a general feeling in Cali¬ fornia that all that region of forest trees on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas should be withdrawn from settlement. The Government is already taking steps to protect tho redwoods by withdrawing from entry the sections which contain groves of these giant trees. During the past two years tho Gonoral Land Office has made a careful investigation of the Stockton, Visalia, Mariposa and other districts where the giaut treos aro found, and reports have been sent to Washington of the exact situation, number and size of these trees. This was done in order that the Government might have all the information needed for carrying out measures ’to protect tho forests. The trees are always found at an deration from 6000 to 7000 feet above the sea. They are a little south of the Yosemite valley, and south of east of San Francisco. The most famous of these groves is the Mariposa, which contains about 320 giant trees, and is carefully guarded from foreSt fires by a company which makos a business of carrying excursionists to see the great trees. The redwoods in this grove cover about four square miles. With proper protection the giant trees of the Sierra Nevada slopes will, for many years to come, be hmong .the natural curiosities of California. Tho General Land Office has entered thor¬ oughly upqn tho work of saving the trees whkh still exist, and there is ) every prospect that the varions canses ! which have been depleting their ntjrn be ,. wlll bo -removed and that the trees ! will still be for many decades a source of great interest to the tourist. —[New York Sun. Just a Plain Sailor. A sea captain, who was going up to Albany to see his frionds, came out with us on the tvajn, and a Chicago broker who first discerned his pres¬ ence, gave the boys the wink, and fol¬ lowed it up by saying; ‘ ‘If we work it right we can get some awful lies out of him. Let some one ask him about sharks and sea pents.” V‘ • ’. ,. Four of ns crowded him into smoking compartment, and when we had become slightly acquainted inquiry was made; 4 . “Captain, 7611 have doubtless seen some very large whales? How would you say the Ihrgest was?” “Gentlemen, 1 never saw a in aiy life,” he replied. “I have at sea for 26 years, bat I never P«»e»l to see a whale.” “Well, you have seen serpent* in hs warm seas?” “Never saw one there.” “But you must have seen some ex¬ tra large sharks?” “Gentlemen, I hope you will be Hove me when I tell you that I ni - et saw a shark except in an aquaria; ” ‘ ‘But you have been wrecked ?” “Never.” “Ever have a mutiny?” “No.” “Fire at sea?” “No.” “Meet with a pirate!” “No.” “Tidal wave?” “No.” “Humph. What sort of a sailor are you, anyway?” “I’m sorry for you gontlemcu, very sorry, but the fact is I am only a plaiu, everyday sailor, and my mother made me take a vow when I first went to sea that I would always speak the truth. Here are some good nickel cigars for you, but as for lying, I can’t do it—not cveu about sea ser¬ pents.”—[New York Sun. An Indian Challenge. Two tribes of Indians in the uppet part of California had as boundary between their districts, a low ’ridge where tho stream .headed. If you should go to whore one of these streams, Potter River,rises, you would see still standing a tall pile of stones beside a never-failing spring; on one side of this cairn was the territory of the Pomo Indians,and on the other the land of the Chumaia. These tribes were enemies a id were often at war. When the Chumaia wished to challenge the others to battle, they took three littlo sticks, cut notches round their ends and iu the middle, tied them at the ends into a faggot, and laid it on the cairn, if the Pomos accepted the challenge, they tied a string around tho middle of the three slicks and left them in their place. Then agents of botli tribes met on neutral grounds and arranged the time and place of buttle which took place accordingly.— [St. Nicholas. Sheep-Shearing. Mauy advantages are claimed for sheep-shearing by machinery, The work is performed more thoroughly than by hand, it being calculated that on an average somo ten additional ounces of wool per merino sheep are obtained by its employment, The operation, moreover, is carried out more humanely, the cuts and stabs often inflicted in hand-shearing, more especially when executed as “piece¬ work,” being entirely avoided, to¬ gether with the consequent damage and deterioration to the pelts. It has been estimated that no less than one per cent, of the animals perish from inju¬ ries due principally to hand-shearing. The labor entailed on the operator is also considerably reduced; and aching hands, swollen wrists and cats or stabs to the worker himself should bo things of the past.— [The Ledger. England’s Aged Cardinal. Cardinal Manning, the aged prelate, is 82 years old—one year older than Gladstone. His face is tbin and bloodless, his eyes sunken and tbe wrinkled skin colorless. His kindly blue eyes twinkle merrily and a pleas¬ ant smile occasionally relieves the ascetic look of bis countenance. He is more than ordinarily tall, and now that his years are upon him his head and shoulders stoop and he is some¬ what deaf. He receives visitors in a plain black silk cassock, with a red silk cap on bis venerable head.—[Pica¬ yune, China Wants No Stage Lines. A John Chinaman, who went back homo after making his $800 fortune in this country, established a stag# line between two towns wdiere sedan chairs were in use,^and inside df, a week he was cadght up by the authori¬ ties and his property confiscated. The charge", against him was: “Creating great worry and uneasiness in thepnb lio mind.*’—'[Detroit Free Preis. A $10,060 being Belt. A belt; now made for a Louisiana electric light company will bo the largest in the world. It is to be 6 feet wide, 167 feet long, and will take the skins of 176 animals to com plete it; When finished it will weigh two tens and cost $10,000, or about $10 a square foot