Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation.
About Jones County headlight. (Gray's Station, Ga.) 1887-1889 | View Entire Issue (April 7, 1888)
COUNTY 0* ❖ *^sssj3saJ|ia^. J M I w * IjdHWLj Y) A, v V <> n u “Oar Ambition is to make a Veracious Work, Reliable in its JP *;• Statements, Candid in Us Conclusions, and Just In its Views." VOL. I. THE MINISTRY OF SONO. Not the child's song with careless laughter rising From rosy Ups in childhood’s sunny days, Not that sweet strain which youth delights in singing, Are life's heat melody and truest praise. Gladsome are these, and beautiful; their ca dence Floats down long years; life’s morning song seems best; Although maturity, with sighs, confesses Her children's songs bring pity and unrest Who soothes the ear of grief with hint of pleasure? things Who comforts age with hope of to be-, Why have youth’s song and life's maturer measure No common keynote in life’s harmony? None know—and yet, from out our care and clamor We hear the wondrous music silence holds. In piteous need, one human lamentation Most beauteous strain ot sympathy enfolds. Joy's happy lav and grief* heart broken waiiing No concord know, till scum poor, stricken heart, With faith sublime, turns from its own re pining To comfort with a song some life apart. As even song of bird seems holier, sweeter, Than any note the noonday’s riot knew; So that faint voice from desolation rising May solace and uplift the wide world through. —Edith K. Perry. WITH EIS LEFT HAND, BY OPIS P. BEAD. There lived in the neighborhood of Bearwallow, Ky., a notorious “bully” named Alf Featherston. Unlike the aspiring man of a mining camp he did not rest his reputation upon the knife nor the burning of powder, but upon the vigor of his arm and the agility of his body. “I don’t hanker airter killin’ a man,” he often remarked. “I jest wanter break some uv his bone* an’ see him grin like a ’possum.” One day, while a number of mon were at work on a log meeting-liouse, Alf came along, and, after lending a helping hand in fbc placing of a large log, he turned to the men and said : “Hands, I see some putty stout lookin’ timber ’mungst yoi, but I ear. whup any man in the crowd.’’ “Now, All,” replied old man Sum nms, “we air engaged in puttin’ up a house uv peace, an’ it would look rather out of keepio’in us to stop and tight.” “The very foundation uv yore shebang is built on blood,” Alf rejoined, “an’ I don,t see why you air so mealy-mouth over this here log contrapshun. They tell me that when churches wuz fust built folks uster git around ’em an’ hit each other with clubs an’ hack out one another's blood with scythe blades an sich.” “I ain't goin' to argv with you, Alf,” said old man Summers, “fur I don’t reckon it makes no diffunce to you whuther the church wuz baptized in blood urrain water.” “Ur ambier, ” suggested Alf. “I say I ain’t goin’to argy with you. Boys, who’s that a cornin’ yander?” “SimPeters,” some one replied. “That jest stan’s me in hand,” said Alf, with brightening countenance. “I had one little flirt with him wun 9 t an’ I didn t give him quite enough, as I have beam that he wa’n’t sadisfied.” “Mawnin', hands, mawnin’!” shouted Sim as lie approached. “Bundin' a sheep pen, huh ?” he remarked as he came up and glanced at the logs scat tered about. “Sheep pens air mighty fine - thing-, — Uncle - Summers, -but reckon you’ll have to chink ’em putty tight to keep the goats team gif tin’ ia.” “I reckon we ken manage to keep you out, Sim, ’ the old man replied. The men roared, and Alf, after snorting con temptuousiy, said; “Oh, he chawed you that time; jest naohully chawed both yore years off.” “Wall, now,” Sin rejoined, “he’d hare a mighty big job ef he wuz to un dertake to chaw off both uv yourn.” “ You ! et him ur anybody else would; not becarc my years is so big but beeaze they air the inherited property uv sich a man.” “Oh, let up about bein’ sich a man,” Sim replied. ■ • VV e ain't hearn nuthin’ fur a year urtwo but how good a man you third: yoi air. You air ez big ez crap morigage.” Alf— “Ves, an' ez strong.” Sim—“Yes, an’ez much uv a cut throat." Old Summers— "Co;. <•, air a gittin'a leetie too dost to each er.' ! Alf—“He ain't gittin’ none too to me. I kea stand anything uv sort, I ken. I wuz raised three in abed, me. I don't kcer how elost a man to me, cz long cz be sticks to trutb -” Sim—“But the closter a man sticks the truth the furdcr he is away jou.” Old Summers—“Come, gentlemen, GRAY’S STATION, GEORGIA, SATURDAY, APRIL 1888 - don't jnowl an’ jower. It ain’tbeeomin’ in men to ackthater way. Turn to here an’ he’p us up with that big side log.’’ Alf—“I ain’t thinkin”bout he’pin’ up with no log. I’m thinkin? ’bout walkin’ somebody’s log, me.” Sim—“Mine, I reckon.” Alf—“Yourn.” Sim—“You better put spikes in yore shoes ur you mout slip off.” Alf—“Oh, I’m rough shod. Sim Peters, I kea whip you with my left hand.” Sim—“That's what you said some time ago, but when I got to pushin’ putty hard you tuck two hands, an’ woulder tuck three ef you’d a had ’em.” Alf—“If I did take two hands it wuz bec:i 2 e I forgot myse’f.” Sim—“No, I think it wuz fceeaze you recollected yourself. Gentlemen, I ain’t had no peace fur a good while, on ac count of this yere feller. Ever’whar I go I find that he has been thar just befo’ me, givin’ it out that he ken make me climb a tree urgo down iu a sink-hole, an’ I’ll tell you what’s a fack, ef this sorter talk ain’t stopped, somebody’s goin’ down into a hole never to come out ag’in.” Ay—“Who wuz it that snapped a pistol at me last fall? Who wuz it that flung a hatchet at me one day when I wuz drunk?” Sim—“I ain’t on the witness stand.” Alf—“You wouldn’t tell the truth ef you wuz.” Sim—“Ef the truth wuz told about you the folks would run you outen the neighborhood.” Alf—“That mout be, but nobody cever hung my daddy.’ 0^ d Summers—“Come, Alf, don’t ta lk thater way.” Sim-“My daddy wuz hung—hung by the bushwhackers, an’ yore daddy, -Alf Feather,too, wuz the scoundrel that Hed tbe I0 P L ‘-” Alf—“An’ they tell me that he put up a mighty fine job. Bet that ain’t got nothin’ to do with the pi nt in question, I ssi 'd that I ken whup you with my left hand ’ Old Summers—“Now, boys, we don’t want any fightin’ here; do we, Brother Hensley?” Brother Hensley—“Wall, I b’levethat under the sarcumstances we mout ez well have a little. Neither one uv these fellers is any account, au’ it would be a good thing fur the neighborhood ef they wuz both out uv the way. I say let ’em fight.” Alf (to Hensley)—“An’ will you see that nobody interferes?” Hensley— “Yes.” Alf— “Not even ef I am about to till him?” Hensley—“Not as long as you only use your left hand, as you agreed to da.” Sim— “I’il see that he don’t use none hut his left han’.” Alf stood with his rigbi hand resting on a stump. Sim, after Remarking that he would see that Alf used none but his left hand, silly tooic up a broad-axe, and, with a lightning-like blow,chopped off Alf’s right hand. The hand rolled eff the stump and fell upon the ground. The church builders stood as if stupefied. An expression of horror settled upon Alf’s face. He made no outcry. He held up his right arm as though he would examine his wrist. Blood spurted in his face. Sim stood waiting for him. “Onlyyour teflhand this time,” said he. Alf sprang upon him and caught him by the throat. “Part ’em! part ’emshouted old Summers, “Hands off.”’ exclaimed HeDsley. ‘‘One hand’s off, at any rate. Just stan' back, now, gentlemen, an’ let ’em have it out. The community hain’t got nothin’ at stake.” Alf choked Sim down to the ground choked him down between two logs. “Part ’em, for heaven’s sake!” old Summers pleaded, “Stop—let’em alone,” Hensley de manded. “Heaven ain’t got nothin’ at stake here.’’ “He'll bleed to death, Brother Heuj sley.” “J et him bleed. He wanted a diffi kilty, now let him waller in it.” Both of the men had ceased to strug gle, still, Hensley would permit no one to approach them. Some of the horri tied workmen took up tneir coats and turned away from the sickening sight, “Take ’em apart,” said Hensley. The church-builders turned over one of the logs and nervously removed Alf's stiffening fingers from Sim’s throat. Both men were dead. —Arianeaw Traveler. c j Hamlin, owner of the fast trot t ; Qg mare ne!!e Hamlin, with a record o{ lately refused an offer of $30,000 for her, made by a party of j Cuban gentlemen. j In Burlington, Vt., the street cars have been put on runnel’s. T! A I K DlJii 1/.UI.IO* THE MOST ATROCIOUS TIESPER ADOES OF THE WRIT. How They Worked — A Woman Whose Pleasure Was Assassina tion in Cold Blood — Ten Victims in One Graven The atoi 7 of the Bender family illus trates the possibilities for crime and gain t}lat » new country sparsely settled always furnishes. The Bender family consisted of an old mao and his wife and a son nnd daughter Kate. They kept a sort of wayside inn, with a saloon attach went, about ten miles west of a little vil la 3 e called Galesbuig.in Neosho County, Kansas. Here travelers often put up for tile night,and it was usually the case that the J t0 °h lodgings for eternity. Their scheme was an ingenious one, and it wa3 successfully played upon many a lonely man traveling through the country, whose doom was forever sealed the instant he darkened tbe Benders’door. When they mw a traveler approaching some member of the family would stray out of the house and bu9 7 himself by the wayside, and as tb ® traveler came along would ac cost him in a pleasant manner, asking him where he was going, and if the time was anywhere about nightfall, he would be assured that he could not reach bis destination, and proposed that he step iu and remain over night. Such an ap parently hospitable oiler was seldom de clined. The interior of the house was pur posely arranged for the double purpose of murder and robbery. The front room was separated from the back by a thin curtain, arranged similar to those that are put over folding doors. When a man entered whom they intended to rob and murder, he would be invited to take a chair with his back to tlie curtaiu, so that when he sat down his head would be against the curtain. Sometimes sev eral travelers stopped over night at once, on which occasion as many members of the famiiy as possible wouid secret them selves behind the curtain, and, each se lecting a victim, would await the right moment to brain them. If a stranger came along, who for any reason chose to change his seat, then the family became exceedingly jocose and entertaining. The old man told funny stories of early times and hair-breadth escapes on the plains. Games were proposed and all sorts of merriment indulged in. Among the games would be one in which the traveler had to get down on his knees o a pillow and close his eyes. The pillow would be placed directly over the trap door, and at the right time Kate would step from the curtain, and, dealing the kneeling victim a blow on the back of the head with a large hammer, follow it up by a blow ou the temple with a smaller hammer, which finished the traveler. The trap-door was then pulled and the victim fell into the cellar below. People were missed, and there were frequent inquires for strangers who had been seen in the town of Neosho, but whose whereabouts could be traced no further than the neighborhood of the Benders’ house. The Benders were re garded as tough characters, but nothing of a positive character was known against them. The immediate < ause of their discovery was a woman whose hus band resided in Eastern Kansas. He ex peoted to settle in the western part of the State,and took his departure,agreeing to return by a certain timeand to br ing his wife along. T ime rolled on, and not re turning,his wife started in search of him. As luck would have it she was overtaken near night at the Benders’, and took a room there. It was a room in the second story, and looking around she saw on the bureau a small locket which at once at traoted her attention. Opening it she saw a picture of herself that she recollected her husband always wore. Then her suspicions were thoroughly aroused, and she resolved to watch an opportunity to escape. She did not retire, but putting out herli ^ ht re *°!ved to watch by the window and await developments. It was a bright moonlight night and the window opened upon an orchard. Soon she saw a light moving around in a mysterious manner. Without making any noise she succeeded in making her escape. She moved toward the spot in the orchard and closely watched the movements of the people. When they had disappeared she went to the spot and found a newly made grave. ( analyzed with terror at the narrow and fortunate escape she Iwd, for she realized that the grave was dug for hersejf,she remained upon the prairies ia hiding unt.i morning came, when, repairing to one of the neighbor;;, she re fated what she had seen, and showed the locket as proof of her story. The news toon spread, and what had been suspicions before became hard facts as •rue as Holy Writ, A posse of citizens was at once organized and they repaired to the Bender resideuce, but the birds had flown. Their stock and cattle were found, and their horses tied to a wagon. They fol lowed after them, sconcing the country, but whether they overtook them or not, or meted out to them the grim justice that they so justly deserved, is one of the unsolved mysteries. On their return the members of tho posse refused to talk, and tbe: e have been various rumors that the family escaped and fled to Germany with their ill-gotten gains; that they are living in Texas or Mexico. There were a number of graves found on the Bender place, ten being in one spot, besides several bodies in the cellar. The hammers that were used by Kate, the daughter, who is described as the most fiendish of the gang, are now ia the possession of a man named Bailey, who holds an official position in Parsons, Kan. She was a repulsive-looking, large boned, raw and awkward woman, with a slinking gait and masculine ways. Her forehead was lotv, her eyes deep-set in her head, and her lips thick and chin and lower jaw large. Old man Bender had an unkempt appearance, with long, shagglety hair, and a full beard that was scraggly and dirty. The father and daughter were two as repulsive-looking beings as could be conjured up, and their many .crimes entitle them to a lead ing place in the criminal history of America .—Cincinnati Enquire!'. The Vaiue of Eggs. Eggs are a meal in themselves. Every element necessary to the support of man is contained within tbe limits of an egg shell, in the best proportions and in the most palatable ferns. Plain boiled, they are wholesome. The masters of French cookery, however, affirm that it is easy to dress them in more than 500 different ways, each method not only economical, bat salutary in the highest degree. No honest appetite ever yet rejected an egg iu some guise. It is nutriment in the i\o3t portable form and in the most con . intrated shape. Whole nationsof man kind rarely touch any other animal food. Kings eat them plain as readily as do the humble tradesmen, After the victory of Muhklorf, when the Kaiser Ludwig sat at a meal with his bnrggrafs and great eapitaius, he determined ou a piece of luxury—“one igg to every man. and tw o to the excellently valiant Sehwepper man.” Far more than fi b—for it is watery diet—eggs are the scholar’s fare. They contain phosphorus, which is brain food and sulphur, which performs a variety of functions in the economy. And they are tie best of nutriment for children, for, ia a compact form, they contain everything that is necessary for the growth of the youthful frame. Eggs are, however, rot only food—they are medicine also. The white is tbe most efficacious of remedies for burns, and the oil extendable from the yolk it regarded by the Russians as an al most miraculous salve for cuts, bruises and scratches. A raw egg, if swallowed j n time, will effectually detach a fish bone fastened in thethroat, and the white of two eggs will render the deadly corrosive sublimate as harmless as a dose of calo mel. They strengthen the consumptive, invigorate the feeble, and render the most susceptive all but proof against jaundicein its more raaligant phase. The merits of eggsulo not even end here. In France alone die wine clarifiers use more than 80,000,010 a year, and the Alsatians consume fully 38,000,000 in calico print ing and for dressing the leather used in making the fhest of French kid -glove?. Finally, not to mention various other employmeat9for eggs in the arts, they may, of course, almost without trouble on the farmer’s part, be converted into fowls, which, in any shape, are profitable to the seller and welcome to the buyer. Even eggs-slelh are valuable, for allopath boineopith alike agree in regarding as the purest of carbonate of lime. Standard. Proof Positive, Mr. W. Hawker, Bournemouth, says; -‘To me, a Warwickshire man, the most conclusive proof that Shakespeare wrote ‘ An tony and Cleopatra’ is the line in which Antony salutes the Bepc-nt of the XJe as ‘nay chuck.’ This term of euiearmcnt is still heard among the pedantry of the Midland counties; and to suppose that a classical scholar, such as *acon, should have introduced a homily provincialism, so English, and so utterly destructive of tbe unities, into an Egyptian tragedy is so improbable that 1 pin ray faith to the Stratford butehe-’s inspired son as the author of that tovust imagery rather than to the mantle of the great but pedantic Verulai^”— tendon, Timet. \ , _________ There tfe twice as many colored Bap tkts as Here are white in the State oi lji»sistipp, STRANGE FIRES. PECULIAR CASES OP SPONTA NEOUS COMBUSTION. Reinai-kablo Instances of How This Mysterious Agency Brings Eire and Ruin When Least Expected. The Scientific American says: The fre quent occurrence of (ires from spontane ous combustion has led us to more frequently refer to the subject iu these columns than we should, were it not iin poitant to everybody to be constantly on the watch to see that the causes for these more or less disastrous fires do not exist on their premises. A late uurnber ot Since and Hard ware gives a list of fires which have recently occurred from this cause. In a manufactory of plane bits in Chicago a sponge had been used to trans fer the wafer by capillary attraction from a water box to an emery wheel, on which the bits were ground. The sponge wiped off the fine steel particlos from the wheel, and they were collected in the celH of the sponge and kept con stantly wet. The sponge was finally laid aside, and after a week or ten days it was discovered that the mass was spontaneously ignited, and if if had not been for its timely discovery another mysterious fire might have resulted. In a factory in New .jersey where oiled stock for planes was operated on by bor ing, planing and mortising machines, causing shavings and fine particles of wood, which were saturated with linseed oil, to collect on the floors, it was noticed that a great increase in the temperature look place when the sweepings -which had been moistened by sprinkling—were collected in a pile. On a subsequent occasion it was found that a barrel ot shavings and chips from the boring and mortising machines were so hot as to be almost ready to ignite. Another barrel contained shavings made in planing oiled stocks. On these being moistened with water they soon begun to heat, and the temper at me continued to rise until the next day, when it was found that the shavings began to char. The barn-1 was covered with a metal plate until the next day, when, on being disturbed, the mass burst into flames. A number of bales of Sea Island cot ton stored in a warehouse in New Jersey were found to be on fire. When the lire was extinguished at one spot it would start at another. The cotton Lad been ginned on a rolling gin, which, iu crack ing a portion of the seed, had caused the oil in the seed to become mixed with the cotton, and the result was spontane ous ignition. In the manufacture of a cement or putty composed of whiting and boiled linseed oil, which, after being ground in a mill, was put in-barrels, a fire was dis covered under one of the barrels standing on end. The floor was partially burned through when the discovery w'as made. In grinding the oil the mast became warm from the friction, and a small part of the oil had leaked through the common barrels while in this warm state. It was discovered in time to prevent much dumage. An engineer placed a bunch of waste— which had collected in cleaning up a mill —ia front of a boiler, in order that the fireman could use it the next morn ing in starting up a fire. During the night it spontaneously ignited, set fire to the kindlings which had been made ready for the morning, raised sufficient steam t outflow off ami alarm the watch.- man. Pome years since a gentleman was ex perimenting ia coloring Southern moss for decorative purposes. In one of his experiments he used a very thin paint or varnish, but slightly colored with a pigment. He dipped the moss in the mixture and then squeezed out as much as possible by the hand. The resuitnot proving satisfactory, he threw the moss in a box and placed it in the closet. A few days after, tbe odor ot something burning led to the discovery that the moss was charred, and almost ready to - Old Letters of Some Use. The ubiquitous office boy has diseov ered a Dew use for old business letters, which lie now sells to various firms at from 10 to 50 cents a hundred. The buyers use them for the addresses con tained therein, which are duly copied and in turn sold to sewing machine and patent medicine men, who use the lists in sending out circulars, fu many of the large, cheap jewelry establishments, where orders are received from every part of the globe, these letters furni. h quite a source of income to the collect :>ri. — JeuceLr't Monthly. The chapel in which Wesley preached for nearly half a century was recently bought in at auction for Li, 500. NO, 22. FUN. “Put up and shut up.”—-the stoves and doors .—-Danville Breeze. Nothing so vitally reminds us of the brevity of life as u thirty-day note.— Dri/'t. A young woman who married a one legged man says it doesn’t take much to make her husband “hopping mad.”-— Norristown Herald. Landlady—“Jane, pass Mr. Dumley thesait for his egg.” Dumley—“Thanks t not any salt. This egg is none too fresh as it is .”—New Fori Sun . If you will notice it, the grandest Op portunities for making money are always open to the man who never had a cent he could call his own. —Boston Transcript. In a school not a thousand miles away from Augusta an urchin, iu answer to the teacher's question: “What are the parts of grammar?” said-. “Syntax, etymology and er-er-er doxology .”—A ugusla Jour nal. Gold handled umbrellas are coming into fashion. The handle is so arranged that it can be taken off. This is an im provement on the old stylo, where tire entire umbrella was taken off.— States man. Visitor (at insane asylum)—“Who is that poor fellow who jumps and yells so whenever your door.bell rings;” Keeper — “Oh, he used to be nigbt clerk in a drug store. There am lots of those chaps in here."— Drift. Several diamonds were found in a meteorite which full in the town of K rasnoslobodsk, Russia. They will be given to the individuals who are able to pronounce the unme ot the town. Now is the time to got up clubs. —Pitttlwg Post. A commercial traveler was braggiug about the magnitude of the firm he rep resented. "I suppose your house ia a pretty big establishment?” said the cus tomer. “Big? You can’thave any idea of its dimensions. Last week we took uu inventory of the employes and found out for the first time that three cashiers and four bookkeepers were missing. That will give you some idea ot thu magnitude of our business." The Savage Stage of Childhood. Like the savages of to-day, those fierce progenitors of ours must have delighted in the torture of captured enemies. Thus, during long age3, compassion was unknown, and it appears to have been lately acquired by the new dominant races. Indeed, even among so highly cultivated a people as the Romans, It re mained ulmost unknown until a compara tively recent time—say 1,500 years ago —in proof of which may be noted their heartless fondness for the bloody sports of the arena. The emotion of pity, then, appeared late in the history of the race, atid iu view of the law of our development, which curries us along the path our an cestors trod, how can we expect our boys to be anything else but cruel? How far is it judicious to go in trying to alter the natural course of a ohiid’s mental growth by imposing on him ideas which in due course he will not share until later? This last question is inviting, but we will not go into its solution at pres ent, contenting ourselves with obser ving that because a boy shows no compunc tion at giving pain to a captive bird, or calmly lacerates the feelings of a family or quarrels merely to give himself u few soon-neglected pets, is no reason for ex-, peering him to grow up a monster of cruelty. And we will further venture to -s wgg o ' i t D int mu ch of the immorality of boys is a necessary consequence of their descent, as a corollary which follows the aphorism of my friend; “A good boy is diseased .”—Popular Science. "He” Changed His Micd. A pleasant-looking elderly man occu pled a cress scat alone in a Third avenue elevated train. The ear was nearly full, uu d when a well-dressed girl, accom pauied by au equally well-dressed young man, boarded the train at Twenty-third s r r eet there were no seats left together, kllt ( •)„, young woman took possession of the one beside the elderly man, and her escort fouud a vacancy opposite. They did not seem pleased at the separation, and the elderly man,noticing this, turned to the girl beside him and courteously slid: “If you wish your friend with you 1 am perfectly willing to exchange places with him.” Without a word of thanks the young woman leaned toward her companion and called; “Colne over here, Charley; he is willing to change.” The kindly expression faded from the elderly man’s face, and he said coldly: “Your friend can keep hi<t seat, young woman. ‘He’ has concluded to stay where J;eis.”— Ncv, Tori Tribune. One hundred arid twenty thousand copies of the song, “Hock-a-Byc Bjiby." Yave been sold.
