The Sun. (Hartwell, GA.) 1876-1879, August 15, 1877, Image 1

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I'mnpiuoctlnK- Yes, in your last week’s issue somebody hoped' those “ whieky drinking devil* " would keep away from the campmeeting. Now. what a glorious idea that was ! M hat right have sinners to seek the society of saints!* Begone, ye vile reprobates! don t you know that Christ didn't die for }ou. Don’t the Bible plainly say that Jesus came into the world to call the righteous and not sinners to repentance ! Let me tell you how much worse the whisky drinker is than other people : he becomes intoxicated and makes a fool of himself, and his friends ashamed of him. ehave lots of liars who go about to deceive and swindle. We have hosts of tattlers who are spreading hate, envy, and discord among families, neighbors and friends. Again, we have the profane swearer, ac cursed of God, unless full of repentance; he is one whom all our boys try to emu late. We will stop with the blackguard one who shocks both saint and sinner. Now, friends, what do you think? Any man or'woman is disgusted with a drink ing man, therefore he has no influence in comparison with those who lie, swindle, cheat, tattle, swear, or use vulgar language. Bv drinking moderately or to excess, I dis gust you. By lying 1 cause you to curse your best friend. Swindling will take the bread from your wife and children's mouth. To cheat you, will be taking what is not my own. Tattling perhaps will damn my own. yours and our neighbor's souls all in hell. The Bibic says •• Thou shalt not swear.” Blackguardism is too infernally low down to notice further; and yet, ye saints, one of your little bog* used so much vulgar language to me one day last week that even the coarser feelings of my nature were horror stricken. And yet come to the campmeeting. ye liars, swindlers, cheats, spreaders of hate and cursing blackguards !—come ; ye arc wel come ! Most of you are welcomed to our best society. Our wives and daughters will give you a smile and a kind word when they meet you. But get behind me, ye poor, unfortunate whisky drinkers, for 1 will have nothing to do with you. Hold ! hold !! my friends, there is one popular character in Church, State and good society, who I suppose is welcome to the campmeeting, or anywhere else. That is the hypoerite. What do you think of him? I know you can't find his equal in Heaven, and my humble opinion is that you might ransack hell from dome to pit and you couldn't mate him. Now. you who know me, know where I stand and where T fall. If your Bible tells you to exclude those who drink and no one else, why do so. But if it tells you to exclude all sinners, why make a clean shucking at once. Don't single out one and slay him, when perhaps he is the least guilty of all. Remember , I don’t advocate drinking or drunkenness ; but. friends, don't be partial. There will be no mixed crowd in eternity. Heaven will echo to the shouts of the saints, and hell will quake with the wails of the damned. And now, you “whisky drinking devils,” keep away from where God is worshipped, where His Gospel is preached ; for didn't He send His only Son into the world to suffer and die an ignominious de th on the Cross to save the saints and not the sin ners ? S^UIBOB. An Open letter to the Constitutional Convention. Cor. Chronicle <£ Constitutionalist. Gentlemen of the Convention : A friendly word or two with you. ou <lo not constitute the “ ablest and most in tellectual body of men ever assembled in Georgia.” The provincial press has told vou this, and it is cruel to undeceive you. But it is necessary. Your autobiogra phies in pamphlet form have deceived no body, not even yourselves. This device of an Atlanta bohemian was a pleasant little prelude to your labors, flattering of your personal vanities, and altogether harmless to any one, save the future readers of bi ographical encjmlopaidias. The members of every Constitutional Convention, save that of 1867, were your peers in everything, your superiors in many. Even that mili tary mulatto hybrid contained men who have proved themselves to be better stitution tinkers than yourselves. They have left upon record the draft of an organ ic law which you seem unable to equal or surpass. You have been in session eigh teen days, have nearly exhausted the leg islative appropriation, and have accom plished but one certain result, viz,: the re jection of your work bv the people, of whom you are but a fraction, and a vulgar one at that. You are not really dificient in intelligence or patriotism. Among you are some eminent men. You all had been in the habit of going about among your neighbors with special care or espionage, and your constituents and masters had come to believe that you were capable of attending to the ordinary duties of every day life. Because you desired to go to the Convention they reluctantly sent you with fear and trembling as to the result, and their worst forebodings have been more than realized. • Afteragrcat waste of wind you have framed a bill of rights which would have reflected credit upon the composing powers of a boy of thirteen. 1 f there is a hoy of thirteen in the state who would fa ther its grammar, no argument is needed to prove our common school system a fail ure. and the educational bureau an expen sive and useless excresence. You have tackled the Executive Department article, and with pragmatical ignorance have plas tered it all over with the photograph no tions and ideas which seem to prevade your minds upon all points of Constitu tional law. Indeed you seem to be ani mated, but by a single purpose, viz: to emasculate a great State which for the time being unhappily lies prostrate and power less in your hands. My pen has done you rank injustice m that last paragraph and I hasten to make amend. You all seem to be candidates for something, from Gov ernor down to Justice of the Peace. It is safe to say that not more than halfa dozen of your body have parted with political and official aspirations. And you seem altogether oblivious of the errand upon which you were sent. The call under which you have assembled was to rciisc 81.50 A YEAR. the Constitution of the State. The people did not desire anew one. It is problema tic if they even desired a revision of the old one. The incessant agitation of the capital question at length forced the call of a Con vention through the Legislature by a bare majority. Avery small popular vote after much personal persuasion and the ap peals of the press sent you to revise a good organic law as to those portions in which it was defective or objectionable. And un der this warrant you have dipped your hands into the public purse and have pre sumed to dig down and overtopple the so cial and political fabric of the State. Your boast that you are doing work to last for generations is bosh and balderdash. Con stitutions do not outlast the parchment up on which they are written. The world moves slowly, society changes and States grow. Courts, the special guardia sof constitutions, do not let them stand. Yours would not stand a minute before a Justices’ Court. In these dull days your sessions are not without matter of interest and amusement to the lookers on. But. gentlemen of the Convention, the people are paying too dear ly for the amusement. There's a piquant relish of the old time in witnessing Toombs bully and badger you with his dogmatic assumacy and bald assertions. It is the first time since the war that he has had an audience as respectable in numbers and intelligence, and he makes the most of the opportunity. And Gus Wright, as a riii gio-polit cal acrobat, is unequalled. lie is always fresh, lithe and full of impossible notions and ideas, which he gets off with a grace and agility novel and pleasing. The mere political student can lind mo bet ter school than that afforded by Squire Wofford, who, true to the instincts and traditions of the Cherokee, skillfully lays the pipes for a Gubernatorial campaign, by calling to Cuftee to come up to the ballot box without money and without price. The political economist and financier may ponder upon and learn wisdon from the sol emn sentences of the Rev. Josiah Warren, of Chatham, as he anticipates the thunder of Toombs’strike of railroad coporations. It is funny, but even my old friend Jack Guerrard, of Savannah, who is apt to jerk out his chunks of legal lore very much after the fashion of chucking dice from a box, has caught the infectious afflatus, and upon so dry a point as imprisonment for debt, indulges in an undulating eloquence and a voluptuous rhetoric which recalls the best efforts of Tom Hardeman and Loch rane in presenting tin trumpets at a fire man's tournament. And where, permit me to ask, in the annals of the world is there to be found a nobler example of mis directed courage in discharge of duty than that afforded by Mr. Key, who rallies and rises, and rises and rallies, amendment in hand, to be immediately and incontinent ly floored by those parliamentary athletes George Pierce and Porter Ingram. Pardon this diversion, and 1 proceed with the matter in point. As I have already observed, it is an unpleasant necessity to tell you the truth. But outside of the fact that you have driven Herbert Fielder to his inkstand, you have accomplished nothing so far be yond the certain rejection of your “olla podrida ”by a popular vote. The Repub licans will rail}', organize, and strike it solidly. They will be actively aided by all of the outs, and by all of those officials and their friends to whom you have applied the salary guillotine. Colquitt is not par tial to you. He was supposed to be averse to your assembly, though he voted an open ticket as a matter of policy. He has a strong following of henchmen inside and outside the Grange, lie did not mean any thing by trying to preside over your organ ization. Bob Ely told him that such was the law, and Ike Avery assured him it had been the etiquette of all similar occasions. Don't imagine that Colquitt is a fool. Some intelligent and discriminating people may have so thought after looking at him and listening to him talk. But I know him, and such is not a fact. Another threat from you in regard to the Agricultural Bureau, and the State administration is on your back. But I weary }-our patience, and perhaps intrude upon the precious time of men engaged as you are. My only ex cuse is your good and the welfare of the people. After a careful reading of your proceedings and speeches, my heart goes out to the poor victims of your economy, from old man Warner, who will not have money enough to buy a ‘‘black veil,” which he so delights to wear, to the petty page who will have to forego the pleasure of peanuts. And as I scan your work at Constitution making, I am amazed at the Erovidential foresight of the much abused ,egislature which could provide for certain coming contingencies, by an enlargement of the State Lunatic Asylum. Good-bye, friends? Give Nat Hammond, Gus Reese and Aleck Lawton fair compen sation and a competent clerk, and they will make a revision of the Constitution in three days that will give universal and en tire satisfaction. As for the balance, come home, and come at once. We have not looked on a picture so pitiable as that pre sented by you, save to one uncovered by the strikers in the North. Come home ! Georgia does not need politicians and Con stitution-patchers. Come! The plow stands in the furrow, fodder ripens under a har vest moon, the cotton boll smiles to the kiss of an August sun, and the crow-feet from the crest of potato ridges wave defi ance to the sable statesmen of the land. The field is inviting. Your State calls. Come ! A Sovereign. A lady correspondent is scandalized be cause she went into a grocery the other day and saw the clerks sitting around in their shirt sleeves. Good gracious madam, that is nothing. We went into the most fashionable dry goods store in Burlington the other day, and the clerks were all standing around in their trowsers legs. HARTWELL, HA., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1877. “Blow Your 41m ii Horn.*' I p, up, from life’s dreaming, be faithful and true. The earnest find ever thereV muiethiMfi; to do. That gives a shrill note at dawn of the morn ; If you'd win in life’s battle then blow your own horn. The mind may be stored with the lore of the sages. And tempered with wisdom gleaned from life's pages. But the world is no better because thou wert born. If your wisdom lacks force to blow your own horn. We prize the spring violet, modest and blue. Its perfume evolves though ’tis hidden from view. Its sweets are distilled through the breath of the morn. For nature is always blowing her horn. What matters it to us what the critics may say. If we're trying to walk in the straight, nar row way. A true honest man will a palace adorn. And though elbowed by rascals may blow his own horn. Wliy the Benilcr* Have Xol Been Dl*- covered. Ketr York Sun. You wouldn’t have believed that such a rough-looking old chap could read at all. but after the train left St. Jo he pulled a St. Louis paper from his pocket, settled back in his seat, and for half an hour he was busy with the news. All of a sudden he threw the paper down, with a wicked oath, and. reaching forward, he touched a fellow-passenger on the shoulder, and blurted out: “ They are fools, sir, cussed fools !” Who,” asked the astonished traveler. “ Why, them newspaper men ! Blast their eyes ! Can't they take a hint with out a kick ?” “ What do you mean?” He picked up the paper and pointed out a paragraph, which read that old Bender, the Kansas murderer, had been seen in Maryland, and then growled out: “I'll give ten thousand dollars to any man who ever sets eyes on old Bender, or any o' the rest o’ that family!” “ What do you know about the Ben ders ?” asked the traveler, greatly interest ed all at once. The old man chuckled, as if greatly pleased, but after a moment his face grew serious and stern. Leaning over to get closer to the traveler, he whispered : “ I knew every one o' the devils, from the old man down ! God never made a wuss lot! I lived up in Kansas within twenty miles o’ their private burying ground J” “ You did ?” “ I did. and I’ve eaten more'n one din ner in the room where they used to shoot their victims from behind a curtain ! Some times, when 1 git to thinking of the sitting at the table in that little room, and old Bender behind the curtain, not twelve feet away, ready to put a bullet through my head, why, sir, the cold chills go over me till it's like having a shake of theager!” “ But lie spared you?” “ So he did, and I could never guess why, ’cept that there are five brothers of us,* and he might have argued that the other boys would make a sharp hunt if I was missing. Travelers who didn’t wear any better clothes nor I do, and wdio didn’t seem to carry any more money, halted at the Devil's Hotel for dinner, and were murdered, robbed, and put under ground in less’n hour!” “ Was there nothing suspicious about the house itself—nothing in the looks or ac tions of the family to put the traveler on his guard ?” asked the passenger. “ Yes, there was, and then agin’ there wasn’t. It was a lone house, with no neighbors to spy and meddle; but it was a handy place for one to stop and get dinner. I reckon that a hungry man, riding a tired horse, don't be suspecting as much as a detective would. Old Bender wasn't very purty, but he’d pass muster as well as a thousand others out this way. The only mean thing about him was the way he got around. lie didn't pick up his feet like a man, but sort o’ slid here and there like a cat. He didn’t look ye in the face if he could get rid of it, but looked over beyond ye. Still, I've seen honest men do the same way.” “And the others?” “Well, less see. There was the old man. then there was an old she-devil around there who was alius knitting stock ings and singing religious songs. She was fifty years old or more, and was probably his wife. Then there was a woman about thirty years old called Kate. She wasn’t good-looking nor bad-looking, and nobody could have told what a bloody heart she had. The papers said she was Bender’s daughter, but 1 don't believe it. The pa pers hadn't as many ways of finding out as I had. Some of them never mentioned the old woman at all. and yet she was right tiiere all the time. Then there was one or two chaps hanging around there most o’ the time. One o’ them passed for Kate’s husband, but I don’t believe they were ever married. I think the pair had laid in witli the old man to open the tavern, help Ido the running of it and the murdering, take half the profits., They were a rcg’lar gang o’ horse-thievesv robbers and murder ers, and nobody will ever know what rela -1 tion they were to each other.” “ The papers had an awful story to tell when it come out.” said the traveler. “ So they had, but they didn't tell it bad enough. Those pale faced chaps with lead pencils over their cars didn’t git around there to see the worst of it. 1 tell you. sir, there never was such another gang of cut-throats in this country. They had been killing away.and killing away for years. Leastwise, some of the bodies had almost gone to dust, and it takes time for that. When a man came along there who looked to have money they popped him over, no matter whether he was a stranger or lived only a dozen miles away. The bodies were buried down cellar amt around the house, and I \spect that we didn't find half o’ them. When they first commenced killing they probably took the corpses fur ther away to bury 'em, and were more careful to cover up all the signs. I'll give you my word that the gang put over twenty travelers out o’ the way.” “ And what finally aroused suspicion against them?” “ Well, several things. The chap who passed for Kate's husband had too many horses to sell. They got reckless, and left revolvers, riding-boots, fancy overcoats and other such things in sight. Then Senator York's brother was murdered there, and the crowd who was on the hunt for him tracked him to old Bender’s to a dead cer tainty. The old man stood up as hold as a lion, and even asked them to search the house. If the} 7 hadn't been bluffed, they would have found two corpses in five min utes' search. 1 wasn't with that party, but with a second, and we got arounu there that night. The Benders had taken the alarm ami made tracks.” “ Isn’t it curious that the family could have escaped the country, when hundreds of men were on the lookout for them ?” observed the traveler. “ Waal, yaas,” slowly replied the strange old man. “ And how do you account for it?” He chuckled and looked out of the win dow. There was an interval of three or four minutes, during which he chewed at his tobacco. Finally, he said : “ They won't find old Bender in Mary land. nop in Mexico, nor anywhere else on top the earth, and they needn't look for any o’ the rest o’ the gang.” “ Are they dead?” “ Party likely they are, stranger! When you see any more newspaper items about any of the Benders turning up, you jest ax yourself if corpses can turn up and walk around !” “ When you and the others discovered that the family had fled, what did you do?” asked the traveler, hoping to draw the old man's secret. “ Sat right down and sucked our thumbs, of course?” he chuckled. “That's what we did ; but some of the rest had more pluck. They started out on as plain a trail as they wanted to Toiler, and before sunrise there wasn't any further use of any body hunting for the Benders !” “Why?” “Why? Well, what's the use of look ing for anybody after they have been shot full of holes and planted? I reckon that the old woman quit knitting and singing religious songs jest about daylight! ’Bout that time, also, that she-devil Kate and her hoss-thief of a husband pulled hair and called each other hard names for the last time. The stranger who was with the family might have been a hoss-thief, a preacher, or an angel, but I guess our boys didn’t wait to ask many questions !” “ And old Bender himself?” “ I guess he didn't git away, stranger ! T guess there are men in Kansas who could dig up what’s left of him without much trouble! Law is good enough in some cases, but in other cases it is ’bout as well to plant a fam’ly in sandy sileand not have any fooling around !” “ And that's the reason the Benders have not been discovered?” “ Purty much the reason. I reckon, though folks can keep on looking if they want to !” Killed by a .Maid who bad been Slan dered. lowa City, lowa. .July 28.—0n Tuesday evening Gale Hollingsworth of W Lite Pigeon, Keokuk county, w as shot and kill ed by Miss White for alleged slander. .She met Hollingsworth, and gave him a written statement confessing that he had causeless ly slandered her, demanding that he sign it. He denied the charge, and refused to sign the paper, upon which she drew a re volver and shot him. not fatally. He ran, and she pursued, firing a second shot, which took effect. He climbed a fence, but, overcome by his wounds, fell to the ground. Miss White then ran up. placed the muzzle of her pistol to his head, and fired a third time, killing him instantly. Hollingsworth was a middle-aged well-to-do fanner, and leaves a wife and family. Miss White is a maiden of good family, who has always borne a good reputation. At last accounts she had not been arrested. “ New Mown liny.” Detroit Free Fre.ee. A day or two ago a family containing four ladies halted on Woodward avenue, near the Holden Road, ami one of the females sniffed the air and cried out : “ Ah ! how delicious is the scent of that new-mown hay !” “ Ah ! ah ! ah !” the rest of them cried out as they elevated their noses. A man in his shirt-sleeves was leaning over the fence, but they did not see him until he cried out: “ I begs your pardon, ladies, but the old horse fell into the ditch there three days ago and died, and I didn’t find the body till an hour ago. I’ve sent a team to haul it away, and I'm sorry about the smell. Drive along a little and you'll get to wind ward of the corpse !” A fellow in New- Orleans is said to have eaten a box of castile soap to get rid of freckles. He still has a few on his face, but inside he isn’t freckled a bit. A INirlaiwn Mlor>. l ately a traveler passed in a carriage along the Avenue du Neuilljr; the night was dark, all at once the liotnes stopped, and the traveler saw the animals had met an obstacle. At the same moment a man raised himself before the horses and utter ed a crv. “Why don’t you take care.” said the traveler. “ Ah,” cried the man, “you would do better, instead ofhalooing, to lend me your lantern.” “ What for?” “ 1 hail three hundred Trances of gold on iny person ; inv pocket has broken, ami all is falling in the street. It is a commis sion with which my master has trusted me. lfl do not tiud the money I am a ruined man.” “ It is not easy to find lltc pieces on such a night ; have you none left?” “ A es i have one.” “ Give it to me.” The man hesitated. “ Give it to me ; it will be the means of recovering the other.” The poor fellow gave him his last coin. The traveler whistled ; a beautiful Danish dog began to play around him. “Here,” said the traveler, putting the coin on the nose of the dog. “ book.” The intelligent creature sniffed a moment at the money and then began to run the road. F.verv minute he returned, leaping, and depositing in the hand of his master a Napoleon. In about twenty minutes the whole sum was recovered. The poor fel low who hail got his money hack, turned full of thanks, toward the traveler, who had now got into his carriage. “ Ah. you are iny preserver,” said he ; toll me at least your name.” “ I have done nothing.”said the traveler. " Your preserver is my dog; his name is Rabat Joel ;” and then whipped his horses, he disappeared in the darkness. NUMBER 51. A 4<><>l One. During the first year of the war, says n Vermont paper, when change was scare® and some large firms were issuing money of their own. a farmer went to n store in a neighboring town and bought some goods, and gate the merchant a five dollar bill, of w liicii he wanted 7‘ Cents back. The mer chant counted it out and handed it over to the fanner, who looked at it a moment and inquired : “ What’s this?” “ It’s my currency,” said the merchant. “ Wal. 'tain’t good for nothin’ where I live.” said the farmer. “ Very well,” replied the merchant, “keep it until you get a dollar’s worth, and bring it to my store, and 1 will give you a dollar Gill for it.” The farmer pocketed the change and de parted. A few weeks after ho went into the same store, and bought goods to the amount of one dollar, ami paying over the identical seventy-five cents, he took out a handful of pumpkin seeds and counted out twenty-live of them and passed them to the merchant. “ Why,” said the merchant, “ what is this?” “ Wall,” savs the farmer, “this is my currency, amt when you get a dollar’s worth, bring it to my place and I will give you a dollar bill for it.” Hum m Rebel Nurircoii Snivil Pretldfnt lls' Arm. A e " Yard Tribune. At the battle of Antietam ami South Mountain a colonel was wounded—his arm fearfully shattered—and he was borne from the field by his brothers and a private sol dier. They carried him across the coun try a long toilsome distance, every step of which was tortuc to the sufferer, to the house of a Maryland Union farmer. Then came the unbiquitous Yankee surgeon with his glittering knives and cruel saws, and made hasty preparations to amputate the ailing member. The farmer vehemently protested, declaring that the man would die if the arm was cut off. The surgeon insisted that the patient would die if the arm was not taken off, and the Colonel’* brothers coincided with the surgeon. But tlie determined old farmer dispatched his son on his fleetest horse across the fields to the other side of the mountain after his friend and neighbor, a country physician and rank rebel. When the rustic Kscula pius arrived, there ensued a long conten tion with the Yankee hewer of bones over the sufferer, but the result was that the arm was saved, and after some weeks of careful nursing, the Colonel galloped off to join his regiment, a comparatively sound man. He subsequently Became Governor of Ohio, and now fills the Presidental chair. Not I'll a I Way. Detroit Free Freer. Seated on the extreme end of a narrow bench in the Central Market yesterday was a boy who seemed to have made up his mind that life was a sham and happiness a myth. He was solemnly and intently gazing at a collection of four cabbage heads. six beets, a peck of onions and three cucumbers, when along came a young man and asked : “ What ails you ?” “ Struck !” was the solemn answer. “Have eh? flow'd you come out?” “ I was working for (fad at fifty cents a day,” sadly explained the boy on the Jiench. “ I was the only hand, and I thought if I struck for a doflar a day he’d have to shut up shop and be busted or come to my terms.” “ And did it turn out that way?” que ried the other. “ Not quite. The old man didn't seem a bit terror-stricken, but he bounced me through a window and hired another boy to do my work at three shillings a day !” “ What'll I do? asked the other. “ Well, I s’pose I’ll have to go around telling the boys that capital has ground me into the dust,” was the tearful reply. The Fort Valley Mirror assumes all tho responsibility for this item : “ A Hard shell Baptist minister remarked while preaching at Union church last Sunday that he hoped when the Methodist got religion again they would homestead on it.” Mr. Emory Speer was elected the allum nus trustee, vice C'apt. Jno. Rutherford, whose term expired. The vote stood Ru , therford, 22 ; J. N. Respess, 2o; Speer. -18. Mr. Speer is the youngest man that ever held tnis office.