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A GOOD RULE.
The Honorable Mr. Mills, of Texas,
is not a statesman so to speak. He
is hardly a good member of Congress,
not for the lack of industry or intel¬
ligence, but that he is an unwise and
impractical man, with a sharp temper,
and if possible, a sharper voice. He
is vigilant and noisy, is often heard,
but rarely’ accomplishes anything
save occasionally to vote right.
If ,.e delights to tackle one thing
more than another, it is a point of
wrier, which he <•• n contuse n a
mom m. while tt takes his colleague,
’• • a ,t«. a long tim to m» i lie it
»! . il tu*‘ ex <'p*ion of a
i“v •on i bet s, IVo .. J/.rnigau and
la wucre. who know nothing at all,
and some who do not pretend or
assume to know any tiling, Mr.
3/d is and r. Reagan really u. der-
starnl less about the rules by’ whic i
parliamentary bodies arc governed
than any member save Keifer.
But even Mr. Mills lias, by long
and continued practice, succeeded in
piercing the bull’s eye, or. to use the
vernacular of Texas, has plummcd
the cross. He has introduced a resolu¬
tion to amend the rules so as to ex
elude cx-members of congress from the
privileges of the floor. Mr. Mills is
right. He is a most persistent man
and if be will devote himself to this
by night and by day until success i8
achieved, his fame will have been set
beyond all peradventure.
At present, ex-members of Congress
are entitled to the privileges of the
floor, provided the application is made
for the privilege in writing, accompa¬
nied by the statement that the party
making the application is not inter¬
ested in pending legislation, This
is regarded as an oath or pledge and
is exacted to prevent lobbying. This
result has not been obtained Alnu-s
every member of Congress who is
defeated for rc-election, and who
cannot get a subordinate position in
the House or in some branch of
governmental service, and who can
juggle a railroad out of a free pass,
or reach Washington City by any
other means, goes bacA* there and
goes into the lobby for pay. Being
entitled to the privileges of the floor.
Congressman cannot escape him, and
he possesses an immense advantage
over the lay brethren of the profession.
And on every day of the session tl.est
men may be seen on t:ie floor, in the
cloak rooms aud the corridors busily
plying their trade. All causes com
bined do not so lower and retard the
public service as these people who
come from both of the great political
parties. Public measures, no matter
what their merit and importance, arc
the mortal foes of the lobby, and are
always antagonized by bills in wliich
private schemes and interests arc
skilfully or clumsily concealed. We
have seen these fellows running about
the house like the pages ou a call of
States, and more than once abso¬
lutely handling the bdls on the clerk’s
desA*.
It is a disgrace and growing
outrage on public hones-y an*l decen¬
cy, and ,»»r. .* ills is aiming a bl w
exactly at the right poiut where it is
likely to do the most good. There
is no sense or reason iu granting
this privilege to cx-Congrvssuicn.
The reason is against it, for the hall
does not comfortably contain its
regular members. Good sense would
build up barriers against a lobby
rather than open the way to the
hucksters of men s votes and con¬
sciences.
Mr. Mills is too late with bis
movement, for this session, at least.
It is more than questionable if he
possesses the requisite tact, influence
and ability to enforce this measure;
but, as we have before remarked, he
is a persistent man, and persistency
will accomplish much Let him hang
on to this movement in season and
out of season and he will bring
supporters to his back. Congressmen
will begin to see and appreciate a
measure that is likely to relieve them
of the presence and pressnoe of these
privileged lobbyists, and in time these
fellows may have to oool their heels
in the corridors along with the common
herd.—Macon lelegraph.
The San Francisco Bulletin, com¬
menting on the veto of the Chinese
bill, says: ’The President has not
done a good day’s work for himself,
the Republican party or the country
at large.’
TOCCOA NEWS
Bj i dw SCHEAFER \
VOL JX.
MOSES SW IN LIN * CAREER.
BltOUGHT TO AN i nexpect:.d end.
New York, March 28.—f ranklin
. Moses, ex-Governor of ^outh Car
olina. and tor years a | rotessional
swindler, was a prisoner to-day at
police headquarters on the charge ot
swindling Freeborn J. Smith, a
Booklyn piano manufacturer, out of
one hundred and seventy-five dollars.
There are quite a number of charges
against him, and during the day’ he
was identified by a number of his
victims, who will appear against him
to-morrow at the Toombs police
courts. He was arrested at Broadway
and Twenty second street to day by
detectives who had been searching
for him for two weeks.
On March 11th Moses called on Mr.
Smith, and representing himself as
Richard H. Colquitt, a brother of
Governor Colquitt, of Georgia,
succeeded in inducing Smith to cash
a chock for one hundred and seventy-
five dollars. The check, which was
drawn on a southern bank, was
returned protested.
£. Crowell, of the Phoenix
Insurance company, also entertained
Moses under the name of Anthony
White, of Greenville, S. C., and
cashed his checA* of $130.
Howard II. Stewart, of 61 W’all
street, also cashed two fifty dollar
checks for Moses, who represented
himself to be General Curtis, state
commissioner of North Carolina,
accidentally left without money in
this city after banking hours. Stewart
also informed the po.ice that a num -
her ot Wall street men had been
similarly victimized by the ex-Gov
ernor, and Lie promised to produce
the victims in court to morrow.
B. H. Hazell of the Charleston
steamship line, of Boston,also
that he lost $*230 by the check
ations of the prisoner.
Charles R. Flint, the partner of
Mayor Grace, wisely declined to cash
checks presented.
\ oses’ biography for the last five
years, as written up to night, connects
him with a continuous scries of
swindles, mentioned from time to time
with the names of the victims therein,
but none of which were at the time
accredited to Moses. One of these is
a swindle, perpetrated upon a prom¬
inent Trans-Atlautic {Steamship
company bv a man who pretended to
nave discovered the Fenian plot to
blow up tneir steamers, a>>d for bis
information received a reward stated
at $10, 00.
A LAND OF WONDER
Nevada is a land of curious natural
phenomena, says the Eureka (Nev.)
Leader. Her rivers have no visible
outlet to the ocean. She has no lakes
of any magnitude. She has vast
stretches of alkali deserts, however,
that give every indication of having
been the beds or bottoms of either
seas or lakes. Down in Lincoln
county rhere is a spring of ice cold
water that bubbles up over a rook and
disappears on the other side, and no
one has been able to find where the
water goes. At another point in the
same county is a large spring about
twenty feet square, that is, appar¬
ently, only some eighteen or twenty
inches in depth, with a sandy bottom,
The sand can be plainly seen, but on
looking closer it is perceived that this
sand is in a perpetual state of unrest.
No bottom has ever been found to
this spring. It is said that a team¬
ster, on reaching this spring one day,
deceived by its apparent shallowness,
concluded to soak one of his wagon
wheels to cure the loosness of its tire.
He therefore took it off and rolled it
into the ^iter. He never laid his
eyes on that wagon wheel again.
The mountains are full of caves
and caverns, many of which have been
explored to a great distance. Speak
iog of caves, a rodeo was held last
Devoted to News. Politics. Agriculture and General prgress-
TOCCOA, GA., APRIL 15. 1882.
spring over in Huntington Valley,
During its progress quite a number of
cattle were missing and for a time
unavailing search was made for them.
At ast they were trace 1 to the mouth
of a natural tunnel or cave in the
mountain. The herders entered the
cave and following it for a long
distance, at last found the cattle. Jt
appears that they had probably
entered the cave in search of water
Jt had finally narrowed so that they
could proceed no further A’cithcr
could they turn around to get out.
They had been missed some days,
and, if they hud not been found, must
inevitably have perished in a short
time. As it was, they were extricated
from their predicament with difficulty
by the herders squeezing past and
scaring them into a retrograde move¬
ment by flapping their hats into the
faces of the stupid bovines,—Mc¬
Duffie Journal.
A MODEST CLAIM.
Savannah News.
Kellogg, of Louisiana, so-called, is
again brougt prominently before the
American people, but as is usual with
him, in no very enviable light. Not
satisfied with ihe popular odium
which is attached to kis name on
account of his misdeeds in Louisiana
during the Grant regime , and still
later as the usurper of a seat in the
United States Senate from that State
— to which all the Radical sophistry
which has been iiiged in his defense
could never give him even the slight¬
est primn facie claim—he seems to
have no shame, and has now seized
and received through Hoar, of Mas-,
sachusetts $9,0G0 from the public
treasury—in addition to what he has
already illegally received—to reim¬
burse him for the expense he is
alleged to have incurred in his efforts
t * retain his seat' against its rightful
claimants.
Apart from the flagrant injustice
and unlimit d impudence of Kellogg
in presenting this claim, the fact that
he has done so and in accordance,
too. with precedents furnished by
Congress fuanishes food for reflec¬
tion. The practice of defraying the
expenses of contestants for seats i i
the Federal Legislature is one fraught
with naught but evil. It is not only
a severe tax upon the people, but it
is a direct invitation to disappointed
seekers for Congressional honors to
console their grief with a liberal grab
from the public money vaults. To
this, no doubt, is largely due the
great increase of late years in Con¬
gressional contests and while this
custom is allowed, it may be regarded
as pretty certain that the contests
will continue. In fact, it is hard to
imagine any more pleasant and easy
way to make a snug little sum than
for a man to run for Congress, and
then, even if he be defeated by the
most overwhelming majority”, to de¬
clare that he was fraudulently ‘ousted
out,’ present his claim to Congress,
aud after spending one or two seas¬
ons in pleasure at the Federal capital,
receive several thousand dollars of
the people s money as a generous gift.
So nice indeed is all this that it is
almost come to be a profession among
certain Radical politicians, especially
in this section. Certainly it has
become one of the commonest nuis¬
ances at the capital.
Alluding to this particular claim
of Kellogg, the Boston Tost is led per¬
tinently to remark that $9,000 would
buy a large edition of catechisms and
spelling books for the wards of the
nation, and, aside from the question
of Congressional jurisdiction, the
money would be far better thus spent
than in paying Mr. Kelloggs bills in
enabling him to hold a seat which,
but for the party decree of his asso¬
ciates, he long since would have been
compelled to vacate.
Genuine cheerfulness is an almost
certain iudex of a happy mind and
pure good heart.
HOW ME. PARSONS WOOED,
‘I never knew precisely’ wliy’ she
broke her engagement with me,’ said
Mr. Parsons solemnly. ‘I think she
used to love me. She said so anyhow,
and I think she meant it. I tried my.
best to deal fairly with that girl.
Soon after she accepted me I said to
her one evening:
‘Annie, you know that it often
happens that marriages turn out
unhappily because people do not
understand each other beforehand.
You think you know me now, but you
really know very little about me.
"You do not comprehend my nature
and my peculiarities as you will ten
years hence.’
‘She admit ed that it was so, but
she said she couldn’t see what on
earth wc were going to do about it.
“I will tell you what we can do
said I. ‘There is a noble science
known as phrenology. It enables us
to read a man’s inner nature. The
bumps on his head are the symbols of
his soul. A phrenologist fumbling
about over a man s skull can discern
whether he is cruel or selfish
passionate or unfeeling. He cun tell
whether a certain spirit is the kind of
a one to form an affinity' for a certain
other spirit, and whether the two are
likely or unlikely to be congenial.
‘She said she hadn’t very much
faith in it; but I assured her she was
wrong. I told her I would have my
head examined by a competent phre¬
nologist, and would get him to
describe my charactcris'ics in writing
in full, so that she could study meat
her leisure.
‘She said she thought that would
be splendid, and I thought so, too.
‘So I paid a professor to feel my
head all over and to put the results of
his exploration on a piece of paper.
It was not quite so favorable as 1
expected it. I admit that I paid him
five dollars extra to strike out his
assertion that my oombati veness was
eleven and my philanthropy minus
two. I may have done wrong, but
my motives were good.
‘Anyhow, the evening l was to take
it around to her the thought struck
me that she might want to satisfy
herself of the correctness of the
report, and so I went to the barbers
had my head shaved cLsc,
and then I got the professor of
phreuology to map out the whole
schemed’ bumps on my scalp with a
paint brush and ink, dividing the
skull off into sections, so that it
looked like the ground plan of a
cemetery. V\ hen the ink was dry 1
put on my hat and went to her house.
I saw the servant girl looking curi¬
ously at my head as I put my hat on
the rack, but she said nothing and J
went into the parlor.
‘Pretty soon Annie’s father came
down and said I would have to excuse
her that evening. I was right sorry.
But I banded him the manuscript,
and bending my head down asked
him if he would be kind enough to
run over the cemetery lots and verify
the written statement. I saw that he
looked vexed about something, but
he seemed rather interested, and so
after he bad read the manuscript and
carefully glanced over my scalp, I
asked him if he considered it, upon
the whole, satisfactory.
‘Perfectly so,’ he said ; and then I
said that the professor told me I had
some bumbs that were not even found
upon Daniel Webster’s head.
•He said something about that
being ‘surprising’ and then he added,
‘But the matter does not concern me,
Mr. Parsons.’ •
‘Why uot?’ 1 asAed, ‘Your son-in-
law’s affairs concern you, don’t they?
‘Then he got up and said that I
was not going to marry’ into the
family ; that my engagement with his
daughter was broken otf. As soon
as be said that he walked out of the
room, aud of course I went away, but
to this day J. never learned what was
i TERMS—$1 50 A YEAR.
NO. 40
the matter, and I don’t know vet.
Hard, wasn’t it. And it will be three
mon ths before the hair will grow
a & a ' n 1° cover the cemetery lots.
Mr - Parsons sadly sneezed three
times as he finished the story and
tied a fresh knot in the silk handker-
chief which enveloped his head under
bis hat.—Our Continent.
TREATING A COW AS YOU
WOULD A LADY.
Chicago Tribune.
A man came into the office on
Tuesday with a black eye, a strip of
coat plaster across his cheeA, one
arm in a sling, and as he lcaucd on a
crutch and wiped the perspiration
away from around a lump on his
forehead with a red cotton handker¬
chief he asked it the editor was in.
Being answered in the affirmative he
said;
* Well, 1 want to stop my paper,’
and he sat down on the edge of a
chair as though it might hurt.
‘Scratch my name right off. You
are responsible for my condition.’
‘Can it be possible? we inquired.
‘Yes, said ho. Tam a farmer, and
7cecp cows. 1 recently read an article
in your paper about a dairymen’s
convention, where one of the mottoes
over the door was, ‘Treat your cow
as you would a lady,’ and the article
said it was contended by’ our best
dairymen that a cow treated in a
polite, gentlemanly manner, as though
she was a companion, would give
twice as much milk. The plan
seemed feasible to me. / had been
a hard man with stock, and thought
that may be that was one reason my
cows always dried up when butter
was forty cents a pound and gave
plenty of milk when butter was only-
worth fifteen cents a pound. I de¬
cided to adopt your plan and treat a
cow as I would a lady 7 . I had a
brindle cow that never had been
much mashed on me and I decided to
commence on her, and the next morn¬
ing after I read your devilish paper
I put on my Sunday suit and a white
plug bat that I bought the year Gree¬
ley’ run for President and went to the
barn to milk. I noticed the old cow
seemed to be bashful and frightened,
but, taking off my hat and bowing
po.itely’, I said : ‘Madame, excuse the
impropriety of the request, but will
you do me the favor to hoist!’ At
the same time I tapped her gently on
the flank with mj plug hat, and,
putting the tin pail on the floor under
her, /sat down on the milking stool.’
‘Did she hoist?’ said wc, rather
anxious to know how the advice of
President Smith, of Shcboy’gan, the
great dairyman, had worked.
‘Did she hoist?’ ‘Well look at me
and see if you think she hoisted.
That cow raised light up and kicked
me with all four feet, switched me
with her tail and hooked me with
both horns, all at once, and when I
got up out of the bending in the stall
and dug my hat out of the manger
and the milking stool out from under
me and began to maul that cow I
forgot all about the treatment of
horned cattle. Why, she fairly gal¬
loped over me, and I never want to
read your old paper again.’
We tried to explain to him that
the advice did not apply to brindle
cows at all, but he holfbled out the
maddest man that ever asked a cow
to hoist in diplomatic language.
CUPID GETS AWAY WITH MARS.
A VIRGINIA ELOPEMENT SUCCESSFUL
IN SPITE OF AN ANGRY FATHER’S
FIST.
From the Norfolk Ledger.
A day or two ago a young lady in
this city, whose matrimonial tenden¬
cies did not meet the favor of her
parents, concluded to elope with the
man of her choice, and the arrange¬
ments were made looking to a speedy
union in the land of *tar. pitch and
turpentine.’ The Elizabeth city :.nd
Norfolk railroad furnishes au easy
means of transport to a section where
the consent of parents is not a prere¬
quisite to connubial felicity* and
where embarrassing questions as to
ages, etc., are not. heard. To the
Berkley depot of that road she ac¬
cordingly hied, and with her own
swain impatiently awaited the toot of
the whistle for starting on her mo*
mentous errand.
Before that welcome sound was
heard, however, the ‘old man,' who, it
seems, was up to the tricks of young
lovers, appeared upon the scene in
search of the truants. He found his
daughter on the platform of the car,
and endeavored with force and arms
to induce her to alight from the train
and accompany him to the paternal
mansion. She struggled for her free¬
dom, being encouraged by her lover,
who, for his interference, had his
head punched by” the irate parent.
in the meantime the train moved
olf, and the aforesaid ‘old man,’ or
party of the fiist part, being of a
somewhat obese habit, and withal
not very nimble upon his legs, was
compelled to relinquish his hold upon
his forward offspring and was left
standing upon the platform,, survey¬
ing in mute wrath and rueful visage
the swiftly vanishing cars which were
bearing the young lovers to a haven
of safety, whence he sadly wended his
to his desolate home.
TOO UTTERLY RICH.
A pretty good story is told about
Land Agent Milder, of the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe railroad, who
one day had a party .of eastern far¬
mers in tow, try ing to sell each of
them a farm in the rich Arkansas
valley. Milner had taken them into
his light wagon, and behind his
spanking team of bays and given them
a grand ride, lasting all day r . He had
done his best to make them enthusias¬
tic by rehearsing the stories, which
he had at tongue’s end, of the marvel¬
ous crops of the valley, but to all
intents it was ‘love’s labor lost,’ for
they would not thus. This annoyed
Milner, but he had his revenge in his
reply to one of the party 7 , who, with a
sardonic smile, asked : ‘Well, Mr.
Agent, is there anything that won’t
grow here?’ ‘Fes, replied Milner,
‘pumpkins won’t.’ ‘What!’ exclaimed
the cynical land buyers together,
‘pumpkins won’t?’ TVo,’said Milner j
•there arc men in this country who
would give $250 an acre for land that
would mature a crop of pumpkins.
They never had been able to get a
crop since I’ve been here, and that’s
ten years.’ ‘IFell. how strange ! Why
is it?’ said lana-buycr No 1. This
was Miner 1 s chance, and. with a
serious expression, lie replied : ‘Well,
sir, that soil is so rich that the vines
grow so fast they wear the pumpkin
out dragging them over the ground.’
—Kansas Sketches.
SUSPICIONS AROUSED.
Tt wasn’t that!’exclaimed Mr.
Sanders indignantly, ‘You see* I
didn’t say a word at all.’
‘/low’d she find out, then?’ asked
one of the party.
‘Why, I went home and she asked
if it was me. I told her it was. Took
the chance on that, you know. Then
she asked me if 1 had been drinking*
I told her no. And there I stopped.
Never said another word.’
‘But you say she caught on some¬
where. How was it.*
VJust a blunder I made When f
told her I hadn't drank anything, she
was satisfied, but when I come to get
to bed I put on my overcoat instead
of my night sLirt. And that excited
suspicion.—Texas Siftings.
AS FA R ASHE KNEW.
A stranger from the East was
having his boots blacked at the post
office when an alarm of fire was
turned in. As he saw the steamer
rush out he inquired of the ‘shiner’
at his feet:
‘Bob, what sort of water system
have you got in this city?’
The boy spit on bis brush, looked
op and down the street, and finally
answered:
‘ Well, as far as I know anything
about it, they all take water after
their gm V
The reply seemed to be thoroughly
satisfactory to the stranger.—Detroit
Free Press.