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VOL. XX. No. 937.
ATLANTA, GA., JANUARY 20, 1894.
PRICE: $2.00 A YEAR.
For Tlie Sunny South.]
The Package of Old Letters.
In a little Rosewood casket, that is resting on
the stand.
There’s a package of old letters, written by a
cherished hand.
Will you go and bring them, sister, and read
them all to-night ?
I have tried, but could not, for the tears that
dimmed my sight.
Come up nearer to me, sister, let me lean upon
your breast;
For the tide of life is ebbing, and I fain would
be at rest.
Bring the letters he has written, he whose voice
I’ve often heard;
Read them over, love, distinctly, for I’ve, cher
ished every word.
Tell him that I watched his coming, when the
noontide sun was high,
And when at eve the angels hung their star
lights in the sky,
And when I found he came not, tell him I did
not chide,
But I spoke in love about him, and I blessed
him when I died,
Place the letters, and the picture, close beside
my pulseless heart:
We for years have been together, and in death
we will not part,
I am ready now, my sister, you may read the
letters o’er,
While I listen to the words of him that I will
see no tnore.
And ere you shall have finished, should I calmly
fall asleep,
Fall asleep in a<
eath to awake not, dearest sister,
do not weep.
Anon.
AN EXCITING EXPERIENCE.
A Race for Life out of a Fast-Spread
ing Forest Fire.
“The most exciting 1 experience I ever
had,” said T. B. Spencer to the corri
dor man at the Lindell, “was in a for
est fire near Manistee, Mich. I bad
visited a small lumber camp and re
tired to rest in one of the bunks pro
vided for the choppers. I was awaken
ed by a strong' light from the north,
and going outside the wooden shanty
it seemed to me that the entire world
was on fire. It cracked and snapped,
danced and jumped as if the demon of
fire was holding a high carnival and cel
ebrating the end of i he world. From
every side could be heard sounds like
the firing of cannon arid the shrieks of
dying human beings. It was the fall
ing of the boughs and the sighing of
the wind, but I never heard so horrible
a sound nor witnessed so weired and
terrible a sight.
“Hastily awakening the other men
in the camp I mounted a horse and
fled from the flames. But the horse
could not keep pace with the progr-ss
of the fire. The lurid heavens look
ed as if they were at molten heat ; the
air was stifling; the smoke almost suf
focated me, while falling leaves and
boughs burned my horse, and the sick
ening odor of burning flesh added to
the horror. Within two or three hours
I was in an opening wh<-re I was no
longer in danger,’but my horse was
badly injured, while my clothing was
toll of holes where embers had struck
nie - I will take my chances with cy
clones or earthquakes, but not with a
burning forest again.”—St. Louis Globe-
Democrat.
IT KILLED HIS NERVE.
Ooe Experience With a Woman Cured
Him of the Book Agency Fever.
! e ,® an had answered an “agents
fmi! * ■ n °tice in person, and when he
d was to sell a book he backed
aj.
d°n't you want it?” asked the
uy-. 7 011 can do well with it.”
“I’ve V t- can V’ he replied, firmly,
to taib v £ a d enough and know how
mv nerv but Ilot for books. I’ve lost
ri^hr *7 111 tlm t line. I used to be
Went about two years ago I
women ; w,th a book of interest to
time I ’hn U i St to i a a week of spare
first housed T 1 got a set>ba ° k - Tbe
e * struck was presided over
the
by a woman who was about
scrawniest specimen I ever saw.
“ ‘Good morning, miss,’ I says to her,
thinking the ‘miss’ would catch her,
which it did temporarily. ‘I have here
a book which I’m sure will interest
you. It is just what you want; tells
you how to remove wrinkles and traces
of age; how to make a thin, scrawny
neck plump and firm; how to cultivate
a perfect complexion; howto restore
an old face to youth ; how to turn gray
hair back to its original color; how to
make a bad figure perfect; how to de
velop sunken cheeks round and full;
how to shape the limbs, hands and feet;
how to make thin hair grow; how to
make women beautiful; how to—’ and
right there I stopped. I don’t know
what made me do it, but something in
her expression warned me, so to speak,
and all at once it struck me that what
I was talking about and what that
woman was didn’t coincide exactly,
and I had put my foot in it. Anyhow,
somehow I got out out of there in a
wrecked condition, and since that fatal
moment I’ve had no heart in selling
books. Not much,” and he walked out.
—Detroit Free Press.
A REMARKABLE DUEL.
It Was Fought on the Old Indian
Plan With Death-Dealing Clubs.
“The most remarkable duel T ever
witnessed,” said William A. Gladwin
to the corridor man at the Southern,
“was away out in Montana several
years ago. It wasn’t one of your Jin
de siecle affairs of honor, nor was it
a glove contest for points; it was sim
ply an attempt to decide who was able
to give and take the most punishment.
Two burly fellows in our prospecting
party had a difference which they
wanted to settle by shooting each
other, and it was only by disarming
them both that we saved their bullets.
The men were very surly after being
deprived of their six shooters, and for
some hours did not speak. Then they
approached each other and conversed
with a calmness which some of the
party mistook for a burial of the
hatchet, and the wag of the crowd
handed over his plug and invited them
to ‘chew the pipe of peace.’
“A few minutes afterwards each man
lounged off into the adjoining timber,
going in opposite directions. Feeling
nervous I struck out after them. I
lost the track of the man I was follow
ing and despaired of finding him until
I heard a sickening thud, like a man’s
skull being battered. I followed up
the sound and was soon the involun
tary spectator of a brutal duel on the
old Indian plan. The men had drawn
lots for first blow and the loser had
stood his ground while his adversary
tried to fell him with something very
like a club. As provided in the code
the men took turns in giving and re
ceiving blows and when I got up each
had had two, if not three chances to
brain the other. Each had his face
covered with blood and was beginning
to be feeble. I stood for a moment
overcome with horror, and then, draw
ing my revolver, came forward and
compelled the combatants to quit.
Neither suffered permanently from
his punishment and the exponents of
one of the most brutal dueling codes
ever heard of lived to become fairly
friendly with each other.”—St. Louis
Globe-Democrat.
was to the multitudinous pricks of
Lilliputian missiles.
Inexhaustible, supplies of food, too,
were furnished by the forests and
swamps of the vast European conti
nent to the terrestrial leviathan, which
accordingly multiplied and throve ex
ceedingly. Then was the bulminating
epoch of the proboscidean family
Thick-hided animals with tusks and
trunks attained a larger size, ranged
over a-wider area of the earth’s surface
and existed more numerously and in
greater variety than ever before or
since.
Mammoths wandered into Ireland and
Scotland, they tramped by the score
though the thickets of the world, they
roamed in great herds along the flats
and valleys of Central Europe and
across the endless oak-clad plains of
Russia and the now barren trundras of
Siberia. Italy reared elephants of its
own (elephas meridionalis); another
antique species of large size (elephas
antiques), was met with from Yorkshire
to Atlas; even Malta swarmed with
pigmy elephants of two, if not three,
separate kinds, while the huge masto
don was the chief representative of
the genus in North and South America.
—Edinburgh Review.
TURKEY HUNTING.
Training the Tame Birds to Lure the
Wild Ones Into Catching Distance.
FORMER ELEPHANTS.
Europe and the British Isles Once the
Feeding Groundsof Huge Animals.
The great Northern elephant per
ished as a species in the prime of life.
It had lived under the most prosperous
“Tame turkeys can be trained to hunt
wild ones,” said Major A. S. Willis.
“I owned one called Dick, down in
Polk county, Tenn., that ohtained a
State reputation. I was offered $100
for him at one time, but then I thought
he was a phenomenal bird. Since his
death, however, I have discovered that
the talent fo** hunting wild turkeys is
not uncommon among tame ones. The
call of the wild fowl differs from that
of the domestic one, but the latter can
easily learn the former’s calls if the
hunter is patient enough to teach him.
The tame turkey can be taught so that
he can he taken to the woods and will
then send forth the challenge call. If
a turkey cook is within hearing, .an
answering note of defiance is invaria
bly made. This is replied to, and
finally the wild turkey will come very
cautiously until he sees the tame one,
as he is a suspicious creature. But
when he sees the turkey his fears are
gone and he starts at once to do battle.
Then the trained turkey runs and the
hunter shoots.
“The advantages of this method of
hunting are very great. While a
hunter can imitate a tnrkey call pretty
closely, there is an accompaniment
made by striking the ground with the
wings which cannot be reproduced,
and without this the game is suspi
cious. The hunting turkey must be
taken in hand when very young and
constantly drilled, but beyond the
patience required very little skill need
exist upon the part of the trainer.”—
St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
The Only Marble Bridge inThls World.
“The only marble bridge in the
world, I believe,” said Henry E. Caul-
kins to the corridor man at the South
ern, “is on the Marietta and North
Georgia Railroad, in Whitfield county,
Ga. At the time it was built Southern
marble, which now ranks the market
for building and furniture work, was
supposed to be of no value, as it was
thought too hard. The railroad ran
through a mountain country with
hills of solid marble. It was the only
stone to be had, and all the piers were
constructed of it. For some time
broken marble was also used as ballast
along the line of the railroad, but it
has been replaced with a little less
valuable material now. The bridge
conditions. Its enemies were few ^as five piers, and is a great curiosiry
and comparatively impotent. Alone
among contemporary animals, the
saber-toothed tiger occasionally, per
haps, got the better of an antagonist
which must have been less sensitive to
the flint-tipped arrows of mere human
assailants than Ship Surgeon Gulliver
to those who know its history.”—St.
Louts Globe-Democrat.
In France large quantities of charcoal
are made from seaweed. Twenty tons
of fresh seaweed or four tons of dry
weed produce one ton of charcoal.
A WITCH OF TO-DAY.
By MARY E. BRYAN.
(Copyright. Commenced in Christmas Number.)
CHAPTER VIII.
A HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS—A DIS
AGREEABLE CUSTOMER.
“A hundred thousand dollars!” he
repeated to himself as he walked along
the streets, unmindful of the men that
jostled him on either side. “Whose
money is this, my own or my double’s?”
It was his credit, his collateral, that
lay back of the speculation; but the
opportunity, the luck, was mine. Have
I no right to any of it?”
He was busy balancing the question
in his mind, when he felt himself
grasped by the arm. He turned and
saw a man with a puffy face, a rum-
blossomes nose, a filthy, neglected
beard, and a figure . clad in dirt, ill-
fitting garments that seemed to have
come out of some old clothes shop.
“How do you do, Mr. Van Zandt?”
he said. “So you’re back at last!
called at your fine lodgings yesterday.
I glimpsed you passing on Broadway
I’d been lookin’ out for you these
many months.”
“Any business with me?” queried
York, looking suspiciously into the
yellow, villainous eyes.
“Well, yes; important business.
We’ll talk it over right now, if you
please.”
“The street is not a place for talking
over important matters,” York
answered, moving on a step, for the
man smelled as vilely as he looked.
“Oh, ho! You don’t care to be seen
with me walking by your side. Your
swell friends would stare, no doubt.
Well, Mr. York Van Zandt, I’m not as
distangy-looking as you, I allow, but
I’m thinking it may happen before
long that you’ll be thankful to change
places with old Solon Earle. The
law’s for poor as well as for rich in
this country, and the newspapers,
too.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll make my meanin’ plain to you,
if you’ll give me a hearin’. Since you
object to bein’ seen in my company,
we’ll turn down this side street and go
into that little shop. There’s nobody
there but an old shoe cobbler, and he’s
that deaf he couldn’t hear it thunder.”
York hesitated, but his curiosity
urged him to hear what this disreputa
ble looking individual had to say.
What was the meaning of his threat
and his reference to the law? This
must be the same person who had been
inquiring for him, or rather, for his
double, of the servant at the apartment
house. What hold could such a
creature have upon a gentleman—a
member of a Fifth Avenue club? Or
was the man a semi-idiot, allowed to
run at large because he was harmless?
His eye belied the latter supposition.
Cunning and shrewdness were in his
glance. The brain behind such an eye
as that might be cranky, but it was not
harmless. It was the eye of a knave,
not of a fool.
York decided to do as the red-nosed
vagabond suggested—turn with him
into the side street and seek the
privacy of the deaf cobbler’s shop.
The little bald-headed tinker of broken
shoes was hard at work at his table
when they stepped in. Evidently he
was mending a shoe for the red-nosed
one. He made a motion to that effect,
and York, looking down, saw that his
new acquaintance had a run-down
slipper upon one of his feet. The
mate to the shoe that covered the
other was in the cobbler’s hand.
They went to the back part of the
shop and sat down on a bench. A
small boy was there sorting a heap of
old shoe soles and bits of leather.
“Go out and play. This gentleman
will pay for your time,” said York’s
companion. “But first go into Doc Ma
honey’s, next door, and bring us a flask
of old rye. The gentleman will pay
you for that, too.”
“Is this just a dodge on the tramp’s
part to get a drink?” thought Yofk;
but he took a dollar from his pocket
and gave it to the boy, who made signs
with his fingers to the cobbler and
went out, returning in a minute or
two with a flat black bottle. The red
nosed one held out his hand for it with
an eager glitter in his blood-shot eye.
“Now you can go to the dime museum
and see Guiteau’s head and the eye that
Dicky the Pet gouged out for the
Pittsburg Angel,” he said.
The boy went at once, and the man,
turning to York, asked :
“Will you drink? No? I didn’t sup
pose you would. ’Tain’t the sort of
beverage you take on Fifth avenue.
I’ll help myself, if you’ll excuse me.”
He put the bottle up to his big,
flabby mouth and drank a quarter of
its contents before he withdrew it with
a sign of profound enjoyment. *
“I needed that to nerve me up'” he
said. “I’m all broke down this past
year, I’ve gone through so much. I’ve
had my heart torn to pieces with shame
and sorrow—my only child destroyed,
my humble home made desolate, and
my dear wife brought to death’s door,
all through the wickedness of a rich
man. What ought to be done with
such a devil?”
“Prove his misdeeds and let the law
punish him,” York answered.
He had been looking straight into
the shifting eye of his vis-a-vis while
he uttered his grievances, and he saw
there only hypocrisy and poorly con
cealed cunning.
“That’s what I ought to do; that’s
what my lawyer advises me to do. He
says I could get big damages, besides
sendin’ the man to the penitentiary
and may be to the gallows. But I
ain’t a hatrd-hearted man; and besides,
I’m proud, if I am poor, and I don’t
want to bring my family disgraces be
fore the public in a law court. I was
born a gentleman; I had niggers to
wait on me, and fine horses to ride.
I’m too proud to let my troubles be
known unless I’m driv to it.”
“Well, what has all this to do with
me?”demanded York, whose instinctive
reading of the man kept him from
feeling any sympathy in his story
“What have you got to do with my
wrongs ? That’s a pretty question to
ask!” broke out the man, setting down