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A COUNTRY MERCHANT’S TRIALS. jVeu' York Sunday Times. “ What’s butter?” she exclaimed in a shrill voice. “ I mean good butter, none of your nasty, lmir-streaked stuff, but number one, gilt-edged creamery, fit for General Grant or Henry Ward iieecher, or” here she paused to see “Why that pesky man didn’t bring it in.” Du ring the pause the proprietor, whom long years of experience had made shy of elderly, iron-clad females, edged out, and suddenly remembering that some thing needed fixing in the store room, sent his clerk, an oily-tougued vouth, to the tender mercies of the butter-maker. By the time the ehange was effected, the weaker half appeared, bearing a firkin of aromatic something that caused the clerk to think of “ Araby the blest.” “ Set it right there, Jothura, so that the boss can look at it, though I don’t presume he’ll care about examining any thing that I bring.” “ Heavens, no,” ejaculated the clerk ift an undertone, 4< a smell is enough.” “ Where’s the old man?” broke forth from the old lady, who perceived for the first time the metamorphosis. “ I want to deal with men, not with boys who don’t know good butter from a tub of lard; trot out your boss, bub, if you want to truck with our family.” “The proprietor is engaged—.” “ I don’t care if he’s married, I guess he can ’tend to first-class customers.” “ But, madam, you did not allow me to finish ; the proprietor is engaged in watching at the bedside of a dying child, to which he wa3 summoned a few mo ments since.” “ Heaven bless that boy,” murmured the “ boss ” from his position at the key hole of the store room door; “ heaven bless him; he will be an honor to me before he leaves my roof.” “Young man, if what you say is true, and you seem too young for a deliberate liar, I’ll try’n get along with you ; now, just tell me what you can give me for that butter and give merback thefirkin.” The young man nerved himself, lifted the cover and beheld a mass of streaked stuff in a partial state of decomposition. “I can give you—.” “ Don't think I’m a hog and want you to give me 50 or 60 cents a pound, for my neighborsknow that I never ask ed you over 30 cents, even if I could have got 35 in Chicago; and I shan't ask you any more, so, if you want it for 30 cents, take it along and sling down some prints for me to examine.” “ Really, madam, I don't believe we could give 30 cents; the market is flat on butter.” “But they don’t get such butter as that every day.” “ That’s so, madam, neither do we, | and they don’t know how to appreciate such butter when they do get it.” “Well, what can you give me—24 cents?” “ No, ma'am ; owing to the unusually crowded state of the market, the large quantity of oleomargarine now manu factured, the depression of the hog mar ket and the poor prospects of an Eastern war” (“I’ll advance his wages,” mur mured the old man.) “ I can offer you but 5 cents per pound, and throw in the firkin,” “ Five cents per pound and me give you the firkin ! Young feller, I would not give you the firkin for that, you peak-headed ape, you had better gd off somewhere and hate yourself to death, you pug-nosed, thick-lipped fool, you, you, —Jotham, bring that butter here this minute and don't stand there with your mouth open from ear to ear, hear ing your own lawful wife abused by this white-livered counter-jumper, who don’t know how to treat a lady who is respec tably connected, and whose only fault is being too willing to stand everything.” Jotham patiently lifted the firkin and started for the door, when the old lady seeing that the clerk didn’t act as though he intended to stop her, spoke in a mild er tone: “See here, my youthful, maybe your mother died when you was young, and you failed to get brought up right, and, come to look at you again, I believe I have seen peakeder heads than yourn, so don’t feel angry and I'll throw off the four cents aud make it straight 20 cents. What do you say?” “Madam, you are in error as regards my maternal ancestor; she is living at the advanced age. of eighty-four years, and I can safely say that I never suffer ed from a ‘ bringing upshe always brought me up, somstiincs very suddenly. With reference to the cone-like shape of my head, I assure you it was caused by the odor of prize butter like yours, which invariably lifted me, and the cen tral portion of my cranium being more liable to distention.” “Ob, you little fool; don't stand there lengthening your barn door of a mouth K’ith jour long-winded abuse of a lady whose shoes you ain’t worthy to take off.” „ ~ , “ A feat I don’t care to try, said the thoroughly aroused clerk. “ What’s that yon’re saying about my feet? If it wasn’t for the law', Id let vou feel the moral suasion they contain, but I won’t waste words with a knock kneed tadpole like you. Jotham, jerk that butter out justas soon as you can. And Jotham staggered out, bearing the oderiferous burden, while the old lady, with many a snort and jerk, followed. As soon as the merchant saw that the danger was over, lie emerged from the store room hurriedly, shaking the clerk s hand, he exclaimed: “ Holy Moses, but you are a brick. I would have had to give in to that old vampire and take her butter nolens vo lens. I’ll double your salary, and you can come and see'my daughter any time; The Hartwell Sun. By BENSON & McGILL. VOL. Ill—NO. 48. yes, go now, marry her if you want to; a man that can get rid of an old woman who is determined to sell a firkiaofsuch stuff’ can marry my mother-in-law if he wants to. Now, go.” And the young man went. Staring Starvation in the Face. Abbeville (5. C.l Medium. Within our recollectidh there has never been a season of greater financial de pression, more absolute want and less hope for the future in this county than at the present time. The long-continued drought has almost wholly ruined the crop, and good farmers say that, even with the most favorable seasons from now until the crop is gathered, it cannot make more than a two-thirds yield. The mer chants are beginning to refuse advances to their lien customers and many poor families in the county have already been on a “jail diet.” Several wagons left town on last Saturday and the Saturday before without supplies, and eight color ed men told us that the merchants had closed down on them and that they could get nothing more to eat. This, perhaps, should be explained by saying that supplies have been refused only in those cases where the parties have taken up the full amount of their original liens. However this may be, there is a scarcity of something to eat in many homes, and the future is very black to the farmer who is working on shares with mortgaged crop and bought guano. The situation is truly alarming and enough to excite most serious public con cern. We have had no crop year at all like the present since 1845. The drouth was very severe in that year and the crops an almost total failure, so that the people had to send to the mountains for their supplies; but the country was wealthy then and there was no suffering of any consequence amoug the people. Now the case is very different —the far mers are going to make nothing by their own efforts and there is no money to buy supplies from any outside market. The price of cotton last fall was so low that the farmers in many cases were notable to settle the indebtedness of that year, and with no money and bad credit they began their operations for the present year. It is tKat tko uiup cui, plus of last year was exhausted by the end of the winter, and from the time the seed was sown up to the present, in the majority of cases, the farmers’ hands have been living on advances by the merchants. How to escape the hard fate of the future, and how the country can be extricated from the troubles into which it has fallen, we confess our inabil ity to discover. Nothing but the most miserly economy and the blessings of God can save our people from actual want and starvation. A Peace-Making Lawyer. Youth t Companion. Lawyers are not supposed to merit, as a class, the blessing pronounced upon peacemakers. But even Dr. Johnson, who hated the legal fraternity, was once led to write an epitaph on a peace-mak ing lawyer. The doctor was passing a churchyard, and seeing some people weeping over a grave, asked a woman why they wept. “Oh,” said she, “we have lost our precious lawyer, Justice Randall! He kept us from going to law—the best man who ever lived.” “ Well,” replied Johnson, “ I will write you an epitaph to put upon his tomb.” It read: God works wonders now and then— Here lies a lawyer an honest man. If Johnson had lived a century later, and make the acquaintance of Judge Ryland, of Missouri, he might have written a similary epitaph. More than once the Judge was heard to say : “ I would rather give SIOO out of my own pocket to avoid a suit between neighbors than to gain £SOO by prose cuting one.” This pacific lawyer was once asked by a gentleman belonging to an influential family to bring a suit against a brother for slander. “Go home,” said the Judge, after lis tening to the complaint, “and fall on your knees three times a day fora week, and pray God to forgive you for harbor ing such unkind feelings against a broth er. If at the end of that time you are still determined to bring the suit, return to me, and we will consult about it.” “That is strange counsel for a lawyer to give,” remarked the man, amazed that a lawyer should decline a suit. “ Yes,” was the reply; “ but it is the best I can now give you.” Before the week had ended, the man returned and told the Judge that he had concluded bring the suit. Central Georgia Meekly: If North Georgia proposes to force the rest of the State to accept it as its political master, by claiming all the offices, it may be that Middle and South Georgia will kick. There is something due this sec tion, and, with all due deference to oth ers; we propose to have some recogni tion. There are some able men in this State, but they should not claim that they own it. They might possibly be mistaken. HARTWELL, GA., WEDNESDAY JULY 30, 1879. The State Capital. Central Oeorgia Weekly. A bill is now before the Legislature to accept from Atlanta the ground and $65,000 in money or bonds, and release her from her promise to build a State House. The people of Georgia should put a veto on that proposition. Atlanta made the proposition to build the Capi tol building to secure the seat of Gov ernment, and if it is to remain in that out of the way place, we are for hold ing her to the full letter of the bond. But we are opposed to the capital remaining in the Northwest corner of the State, and we are opposed to At lanta or the State putting up public buildings there. Atlanta should be re leased from her promise, and at the same time should be notified of the fact, that the capital of Georgia will be, when the time comes, located where common sense and nature intended it should be—at the Central City. It is nothing less than an imposition upon not only the people of the State but upon Georgia's future generations, to locate permanently the capital at Atlanta. If that is to be, then cut the State in two sections from east to west on a line through the centre and make another State of South Georgia, as Virginia was divided. To compel Southern and Middle Georgia to go to the northwest corner of the State to reach the capital is an outrage. Twenty years from now, if not sooner, the pop ulation will be so great, and the inter ests of the people such as to demand its removal from its present site to this more central and convenient location. The capital cannot and will not remain where it now’ is, and to put up public buildings there, or ask Atlanta to do so, is supreme folly. Stop right where you are, gentlemen of the Legislature, and when you legislate for futurity, don’t blind yourselves only with the present. If you legislate for the fu ture, which you do when you talk of a State capital, see that you also look to the accommodation and the interest of that future, and not to the present alone. Do the Dying Suffer Pain ? Tier rrut lllLlT W Tftlu!|£ ol LiOiilli. It is au unpleasant subject; *but it con stantly obtrudes itself, and there has been much speculation as to whether mental or physical pain attends the act. Observation teaches us that there is lit tle pain of either kind in dying. Ex perience will cometo us all some of these days, but it will come too late to benefit those who remain. It seems to boa kind provision of nature that, as we ap proach the dread event, our terrors di minish, and the coward and hero die alike —fearless, indifferent and resigned. As to physical pain, Dr. Edward 11. Clark in “ Visions;” says : “The rule isthat unconsciousness,not pain, attends the final act. To the sub ject of it death is no more painful than birth. Painless we come; whither we know not Painless we go ; whither we know not. Nature kindly provides an anesthetic for the body when the spirit leaves it. Previous to that moment and in preparation ■ for it, respiration be comes feeble, generally slow and short, often accompanied by long inspiration and short, sudden expirations, so that the blood is steadily less oxygenated. At the same time the heart acts with I corresponding debility, producing a | slow, feeble, and often irregular pulse. As the process goes on, the blood is not only driven to the head with diminish ing force and in less quantity, but what flows there is loaded more and more with carbolic acid gas, a powerful anes thetic, the same as that derived from charcoal. Subject to* its influence the nerve centers lose consciousness and sensibility, apparent sleep creeps over the system; then comes stupor and then the end.” A long, lean, lank, North Carolina excursionist struck Atlanta the other night, and after asking at every hotel he could find if he could “ stay all night,” he finally struck the National and tackled Maj. White. Laying a dilapidated carpetsack on the counter he remarked : “ Kin I stay all night here ?” “ Sorry to say we are plumb full.” “ No rooms ?” “No, sir.” “ Get in a bed with anybody ?” “ Every bed in the house doubled.” “ Could 1 sleep on the sofa in the parlor ?” “ No, sir. Two men on the sofa now.” “ Could I sleep in the hall and put my head on a door sill ?” “ No, sir. The hall is full of people. You would get tramped on.” The tar-heel scratched his head a moment, and added: “ I say, Mister, have you got a limb in the back yard that I could stand hitched to.” Uncle Jumbo was caught with a stolen chicken hid in his hat, and when asked how it came there he replied: “ Fore de Lord, boss, dat fowl must a crawled up my breeches leg.” Devoted to Hart County. IVhat an Old Man has Noticed. I have noticed that all men are hon est when well watched. I have noticed that purses will hold cents as well as dollars. I have noticed that in order to boa reasonable creature, it is necessary at times to be downright mad. I have noticed that silks,broadcloths and jewels are often bought with other people’s money. I have noticed that whatever is, is right, with a few exceptions—the left eye and left leg and the left side t of a plum pudding. I have noticed that the prayer of the selfish man is, “Forgive us our debts,” while he makes everybody that owes him pay to the uttermost farthing. I have noticed that he who thinks every man a rogue, is certain to sec one when he shaves himself, and he ought in mercy to his neighbor, to surrender the rascal to justice. I have noticed that money is the fool’s wisdom, the knave’s reputation, I the poor man’s desire, the covetous man’s ambition, and the idol of them all. That Barrel. Detroit Free Freie. Just as the last rays of the setting sun were gilding the church spires and white-washing the back kitchens of De troit the other nfternoon a man and a barrel were discovered at a stairway on Monroe avenue. He‘was a small man and it was a big barrel, and the pedes trians who saw him keep looking up 1 he stairs and back at the barrel inferred that it was his intention to elevate it to the third story. But how? “ I'd rig a tackle and pulley in that third story window,” said the first man who halted. “ That’s your easiest way and there’s no danger of accident.” Ho leaned against the lamp-post to calculate on the length of rope and the lift ing power required and along came a second man who took in the situation at a glance and said : “Go and get some scantlings four teen feet long and lay ’em on the stairs. Then two men can roll the barrel up there as slick as grease.” The little man looked around in a helpless sort of way, and a third man came blustering up and called out: “ Want to get that barrel up stairs, eh? Well, now, fasten your pulley at the head of the stairs and ten men down here can Snake the barrel up In no time. Where’s your tackle?” By this time the crowd had increased to twenty, and was pretty evenly di vided between a dead lift through one of the front, windows and a pulley at the top of the stairs, but the man who suggested the skids had a very loud voice, and was determined to enrry his point. Taking off his coat lie said : “ I know what I’m talking about, and I say that I can skid that barrel up there alone. You just wait a minute.” Ha crossed the street to an unfinished building and returned with a couple of two by four scantlings and laid them on the stairs, and the crowd numbered fifty. “ You want this barrel on the third floor do you?” lie asked the little man. “ Yes—but—but—.” * ! But what?” - “4V,ky, I was waiting for my wife to pnrr.ujipsT-*,.- ... --ur rt... vt"- 1 hall. She’s all ready now, and I’ll take it up.” And the little man shouldered the barrel and trotted briskly up stairs be tween the skids. It was empty. How They Ran. Oil City Derrick. Old Skinner is a great lover of war reminiscences, and is not slow to tell of his own exploits in that way. As with most men who prize themselves on a war record, Skinner always gives the best side of his tales to his own army. He was telling one of his grandchildren re cently of a famous battle in which he was engaged. His description of the flying balls, booming of cannons and charge of the troops was very vivid, and the boy listened with increased in terest. At last when Skinner stopped to fill his pipe, the little boy said : “And aid the enemy run?” “ Did they run?” asked Skinner. “ Great Scott, how they did run ! My dear boy, they ran so like thunder that we ran three miles to keep out of their way, and if we hadn’t thrown our guns aw ay, they’d have run over us sure.” God’s Book of Reineinbranre. “ I)." in Columbia HryUler. Rev. Dr. Smelzer, President of the Female College at Walhalla, preached at St. Andrew’s Church, in this county recently, and in the course of his re marks the learned theologian announced some advanced ideas in the science of nature. He said that impressions once produced were never obliterated nor lost; that the universe is a huge photo | graph machine, and that impressions once made upon the broad canvas of , space remained there a perfect picture ; for all time to come. To illustrate, he $1.50 Per Annum. WHOLE NO. 152. said, the battle of Manassas is still floating through space, and the carnage of that bloody tragedy may still be seen in all its phases; hence the deeds of men arc self-recording, and the Deity can look over the universe and behold the various events of each man’s life. Continuing his remarks, he said the deeds of this life are indelibly recorded upon the memory ; all thought is inde structible ; men cannot forget their own acts ; memory tnav be fickle for a time, but when our record of life comes to a close the whole scene will pass in re view as a grand panorama. Cows and Turnips, Editors Sun : T like “ Bob Short’s” suggestions in The Sun in regard to shelters for our cows, and I think a few in regard to their food will not "be amiss. From experience, I find tur nips to be among the cheapest and best food to be had for cows. 1 always save some seeds, which I mix with those 1 buy, and sow in drills ; by doing this I can cultivate my turnips and have them early. As the largo ones are drawn for use the smaller ones have a better chance to grow ; hence, I have as early turnips as anybody, and as late. There is no mistake as to cows keeping pi first-rate order, and the ex tra quarffity and quality of milk and butter received fully compensates for the trouble. This is especially recom mended now that the drought lias to a great extent cut off our supply of other i food. Now, with “ Bob Short’s ” shel ter and my food, why can't the old | cows be happy and our children rejoice ; in all the good fresh milk and butter they want ? W. J. W. Skelton. What Cthistitutes a Rogue. Jennie Woodville in Lipencott'e. Our youngest child seemed to have a vague, indefinite fear of rogues, and a very imperfect idea of wlmt a rogue might be, and was always asking ques tions on the subject. One morning while his nurse was dressing him, I heard him enquire: “How big’s a rogue, Betty? Can he hear a mile?” flOuU iVulw.ltllia I very little older rose to explain : “ WTiy, Bob, you’ve seen many a rogue. A rogue is tlies’ a man. i’apa an’ Uncle Bob looks exactly like other rogues.” “Is papa an’ Uncle Bob rogues?” asked the youngest with innocent won der. “No, chile —dat dey aint!” said Bet tj’, as she filled his eyes with soap. “ Yo’ papa an’ yo* Uncle Bob is jes’ as ornes’ as anybody, ’cos rogues is folks Wtiat steals an’ gits catch /” How to Tell a Horse’s Age. The editor of the Southern Planter says : “The other day we met a gentle man from Alabama, who gave us a piece of information as to ascertaining the age of a horse after it had passed the ninth year, which was quite new to us, and will be, we are sure, to most of our readers.” It is this: After the horse is 9 years old, a wrinkle comes in the* eyelid, at the upper corner of the lower lid, and every year thereafter he has one well-defined wrinkle for each year of his age over nine. If, for instance, a horse has three wrinkles, he is twelve ; if four thirteen. Add the number of wrinkles to nine, and you will always get at it. So says the gentleman, and he is confident it will never fail. A Cunning Wife. The Chicago Tribune says that a young wife of that city, who is anxious to keep her husband at home of evenings flatters him about the exquisitely dainty proportions of his feet, and induces him to wear boots about tjvo sizes two small for him. lie is on his feet all day long in town, and when he comes home at night, she has a soft chair and a pair of loose, cool slippers for him and by the time he, with great drops of agony pearling on his brow, has got off his boots, he comes to the conclusion that there is no place like home after all, j and has no desire to go down town to the lodge or to sit up with a sick friend. ■. Concerning future rewards and pun ishments Colorado furnishes the follow- 1 ing illustrations, which occurred re cently in a court in La Vcta, where tiie testimony of a Chinaman was objected to on the grounds that he did not un derstand or regard the obligations of I an oath. To test him he was interro-1 gated thus: “John, do you know anything about God ?” “ No ; me no belly well acquaint with him.” “ Have you no Joss in China!” “Oh, yes, gottee heapee Joss.” “ Where do you go when you die ?” ( “Mego to San Francisco.” “ No, you don’t understand me. When Chinaman quit washce all time, and no live any more, where does he go ?” “Oh, yes, mo sabe now. If he bell}' goodee man he go uppee sky. If he belly badee man, he go luppee down hcllec, alloc samee Mclican man " CORRUPTION IN Hlflll PLACES. Ogfetfi&rpe Keho. It really appears that of late years our tax-payers are made to contribute as much to the stealage fund as for the necessary support of the State govern ment. At every session of the Legis lature new rascalities arc bought to light, aud a portion of its members arc deputised to unearth them. These com mittees, after a thorough j-esenrch, will, with a grand flourish of trumpets, an nounce that our State has lost large sums of money in a certain depart ment; that the head of said depart ment is exonerated from all blame or complicity in the robbery, but knowing that some scape-goat must bo found, they fix upon a poor, unknown subordi nate and pour out upon his head their i vial of wrath. Now, it seems passing strango tri* ns that these wholesale frauds should be committed immediate ly under the eye of the chief (whose duty it is to guard and watch his charge) without his knowledge and consent. This is entirely too thin, and the over burdened tax-payers know it. These subordinate clerks are merely cat's paws, used by their masters to pull funds out of the public till, and upon whom they ’can set the Legislative hounds when their trail is discovered. As an evidence of this, we are reliably informed that there are now in Atlanta a number of State officers who accept ed positions a few years ago bankrupt politicians, and. upon the meagre salary of $2,000 or $3,000, have not only sup ported their families in princely style but accumulated fortunes. And it is in the offices of these men that those gigantic rascalities were discovered, and it wa9 these men that the Legisla ! live committees hold up before the peo ple ns guileless patriots. Away with such sickly whitewashing reports, say we. The people look to (he chief, not his chosen assistants, to watch over and guard their interests and he alone will they hold responsible. Their repre sentatives may swallow that coat of whitewash, but the tax-payers will not endorse it. Not even in the palmiest days of Radicalism has roguery held such high carnival in Atlanta as within the past four years. First nearly a quarter of a million mysteriously disappears from the State's treasury, under “honest” Jack Jones, and no one is responsible. Quickly in the wake of this it is found that a corporation is* blackmailed out of $30,000 to secifrc Gov. Colquitt’s signature to certain legitimate bonds. Then we arc informed that a personal friend to the Governor is paid $30,000 for doing a job of lobbying in Wash ington ; and scarcely had the mutter itnrs of.*-“ l - ,: " '—-w-jjd -wrlien • the new’s is received that an obsciire lawyer is paid another princely fee by the Executive for a job that could have been accomplished just as well by our representatives in Congress. Now comes the disgraceful announcement that, not content with the spoils furn ished by the treasury of Georgia, these high and hpnorable (?) men at the head of affairs have turned their attention to the widows, orphans and private citi zens throughout the State who were the possessors of wild lands. By a shrewd and well-concocted plan these guardians of the public have forcibly stolen thou sands of acres of the most fertile lands from the people and transferred it to themselves. It is a robbery only equal ed in magnitude and audacity to the ; famous Yazoo fraud. Will these rob beries be exposed and punished ! No. Whitewashing committees set to work ; and painted the chiefs as white as drifted snow. This exhibit may pass muster in the shade 6f the Kimball Opera House, but when the perpetra j tors arc exposed without to the storm of public indignation that thin coating will quickly be washed away and they will all be exposed in their rottenness, corruption and blackened characters. The fault with our State government rs that we are too ready to give office to bankrupt politicians. The man who is riot able to manage his own affairs with success is not fit to be trusted with the intricate business of a State government. From our Governor down to his most insignificant appointee, we have men who rendered every civil pur suit of life they undertook a notorious failure, In selecting his appointees' and advisers Gov. Colquitt seems to have had an eye only to broken-down, bankrupt adventurers. With such a man at the helm of State and such surroundings, what could the people expect but disaster ? But thank God the tax-payers have not much longer to grin and bear this prostitution of their high offices. A day of reckoning is near at hand, when the people will rise in their might and not only overthrow but rebuke by a crushing vote these unworthy servants. Let us make a clean sweep, and with the inauguration of new men have new measures. The Marietta Journal says : Human spittle is poisonous to a rattlesnake, as much so as a rattlesnake’s bite is poi sonous to a human being. Dr. Wil cox says he has caught a rattlesnake many a time around the neck and spit copiously into its mouth, and then turn it loose, when the snake would become sick, wiggle about, turn over and die. A clergyman solemnized a marriage the other day and at the close gave out the hymn, “ What shall the Harvest Be.” An audible smile passed around among the guests. Why are good resolutions like a squalling baby at church ? Because they should always bo carried out.