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About The Crawford County herald. (Knoxville, Crawford Co., Ga.) 1890-189? | View Entire Issue (May 22, 1890)
Tiie raril Coniiy M PUBLISHED WEEKLY. W. J. McAFEE, Editor and Proprietor. SUBSCRIPTION, $1.00 PER ANNUM. Official Organ of Crawford County. KNOXVILLE, GEORGIA. Entered at the postoffice at Knoxville, Ga., as second-class matter. How many acres of land in Cra wford county will produce a bale each of cot¬ ton the present year? It is said that “what man has done, man may doagain,” and as there are several acres of land within two or three miles of Knoxville from which a bale of cotton per acre has been gathered in past years, it is but reasonable to suppose that the experiment might be repeated on a larger scale. The French Government has decided to again undertake the manufacture of lucifer matches, and to avoid the expense of creating a special department will place it under the tobacco bureau. Mr. Randall’s death removed from the House of Representatives the last of a trio of notable men, who have died within eight months. The first to go was “Sun¬ set” Cox, of New York, and following him was Judge William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania. “For the hundred years or more of out country's history,the dogs have been after the sheep,” exclaims the Prairie Farmer, “but now for the first time the census will be after the dogs; they will be ac¬ counted for the same as the horses, cat- tie, sheep, swine and other animals on the farms, and in cities and villages as well.” Canada will no longer be a harbor of safety and refuge for thieves, for the cx- tradition treaty with Great Britain has been formally ratified, and is now, in the language of the Constitution, “the supreme law of the land.” The Boston Cultivator thinks that hereafter thosj who seek an asylum where they may be safe from the clutches of the law will steer soutli instead of north, and that Buenos Ayres will have a boom. The reignig beauty of New York so- ciety is now Miss Julia Screiner, a niece of William Cullen Bryant. She is six feet tall, and the Prince of Wales says she is the most distinguished-looking American woman he ever met. Where are our American poets? laments the Chicago llerahl. Tennyson, if he could see her, would weave another “Princess” about this Amazonian beauty. And how Byron would have raved over her! “Her stature tall, . ,, „ says , he, “I ,, T . hate a dumpy . woman.” That the higher education of woman in this country is something of very re¬ cent growth is a fact, says the New York btar, ... that . . . apt . to . get . out . of , mind. . , We is realize it in a forcible manner, however, when we read that Vassar College is about to celebrate its twenty-fifth anni¬ versary. That is a short career; but few institutions of learning have, in their first quarter century of existence, a rec¬ ord of more brilliant achievement than that which pertains to this pioneer fe¬ male college. “Of all the accidents which occur thermos’ ItaL'ng ^^the^on Hospital. “It is well to remember that in severe cases the shock due to the fright as well as the burn is the first thing to be considered. If medical help is not obtainable at once, the best thing to do is to wrap the burnt person up in a blanket, put him in a warm place with hot bottles to . , his . feet, - , and , give . him a little hot brandy and water or something. The easiest applications to procure in an emergency with which to cover up the wounded parts from the air are flour or salad oil.” Artificial ice is now an assured com mercial fact, announces the Manufactur¬ ers' Record, thanks to the costly experi¬ ments that have been made in the South to secure it. Its manufacture has been reduced ..... to such a science and , degree of economy that several plants have been established in the North. The most . to . its manufac- sign can ae in rtgar ture is the report that the Pennsylvania Railroad will enter upon the manufacture of their own ice. This company uses some 45,000 tons a jear. and are reported to li.ive arranged to extablish five 25-tor. plants along their lines to supply all the ice used, both in the passenger and re fngerator , . . serr.ee. . One „ plnnt , « report* as already under way. AN OLD FARMER'S EXPERIENCE WITH FARMING. Two Kinds of Farming—Briars—Mis¬ chievous Hogs—Contrary Mules, Etc. Mr. Editor: —There has been a great deal said and written in regard to there the pleasures of a farmer's life. Well, are two kinds of farmers, one who does his own work and another who sits on the fence and has the work done. The latter I suppose to be the one who enjoys the happiness in farming. The farmer who clears out the old fence, and has to work in briars up to his waist before he can get to the old, rotten fence, and every now and then have a big, old briar slash him in the face—that is so nice. Now, this is just the beginning of the year's work, and it continues very much on the same line until the crop is culti¬ vated and gathered. Don’t tell me that njman.or a boy either, is overly happy while he is plowing with his shoes full of dirt and a good size rock in each shoe, to say nothing about the old contrary mule,or ox as the case may be, and every once and a while get a heavy kick from the handle of the plow, and many other things that cause men and boys to use language that they would not like to be heard at a pro¬ tracted meeting. will contend Still the kid glove man that the farmer’s life is the happiest on the face of the green earth. Gentlemen. 1 know what I am talking about when 1 say that the New York drummer sees more real pleasure in one week than the average farmer sees in a lifetime. The farmer has something on his mind all the while to trouble him. The pigs have gotten into the corn field and rooted up his corn, or the old sow has broken through neighbor Jones’ garden and rooted up his potato bed, and neighbor Jones has come over to tell you that if you don’t do something with that old sow, he will be obliged to kill the pesky ohl thing. About the time you get neighbor Jones reconciled and pay the damage the old sow has caused, your biggest boy comes running to tell you that Mr. Smith’s goats are every one in the oat field, and it goes on from one ag- fetation to another the year round. Now, I am ready to agree with Kid Glove when he says that the farmer is the hone and sinew of the universe, but it takes muscle and sweat to bring it out and don’t you forget it. Yours * truly, * • - ScATT. CERES CULLINGS. Good Stands of Cotton—Hail Storm- The Railroad-School Affairs-- Personal, Our farmers have splendid stands for cotton. Miss Delia Jackson is visiting relatives near Dawson, Ga. The track-laying force leading on the from M. & this B. R. It., crossed the road place to Forsyth Monday. 3Iir,s Lizzie Moncrief, of Marshallville, Ga., is in our ville this week visitiug the family of Mr. >1. J. Moore. School here was suspended a few days last week. The teacher is able to re- sume her duties in the school room again this week. A heavy hail-storm passed a Not few much miles east of here Sunday evening. damage was done to crops, as the peb¬ bles were small. Ceres Academy has a faithful and ef- fieent teacher, highly valued by tbe patrons, which is shown by a regular and lud attendance, Dr. T. J. Dewberry’s attention to certain P ati ent during the past three years has been very faithful, if not effec¬ tual. C. ITEMS FROM WARRIOR. The railroad force is building the tres¬ tle work on the other side of .Moran's mill. '' AnoSmr The members of Bethel church have organized a Sunday school. They hold a P ra yer meeting every Sunday evening. There was a heavy hail storm in the neighborhood of Mrs. Cloud's and Mr. Burnett’s on Sunday evening, May 18th. ’?H uire Sterling Tucker, of Howard district, v . is lying on his deathbed. Also ’Squire Alex Cherry, of Vineville. is paralyzed and not able to help himself. The colored school house two miles this side of Macon and another one close tolt ’ were burned Wednesday. Christian It is supposed that some good negro set them on fire. J. SiND HILL SIFTIHGS. Cotton Chopping—Picnic--Personal Editor Herald TT —I TT beg enough , space in your valuable paper for a few lines. The farmers are about through choping COttOD. Miss Minnie Kennedy spent a few da\s with Mrs. Champion this week. The young people had a picnic at Mr. B. J. Champion's mill last Saturday, and Mr. A. J. Manm s.!d th* t he enjoyed it * Mr ' Ed ^ ar Uhampauion's otber mule thr OU2b ran Wlth the 1),0 w the hls , largest cotton, . and knocked , , off enough blooms to make a bale of cotton, W. W. ODDEST OF ALL INDIANS. THE FAIR-HAIEED AND BLUE-EYED MANDANS OP DAKOTA. A Theory Advanced That They are Descended From a Band of Welsh Explorers—Peculiar Traits. In the gallery at the National Museum are portraits of Indians with light hair and blue eyes. George Catlin found such Indians among the Mandans. He dis¬ covered many other peculiarities in the Mandans during the months he lived with them^nd painted his pictures. He de¬ veloped the interesting theory that this tribe was descended from a band of Welsh explorers who landed in North America nearly 200 years before Christopher Coiumbus came in the Santa Maria. There were ten ships which left North Wales under the direction of Prince Madoc or Madawc early in the fourteenth century. They never returned. It is historical supposition that these explorers landed on the west of what is Florida now, or somewhere about the mouth of the Mississippi, traveled into the interior, and gradually amalgamated with the Indians. Catlin concluded that Madoc's men established their colony in what is now Ohio. They may have ascended the river from the Gulf, or they may have marched inland from the coast. After he had lived among these Indians in their fortified city on the Upper Missouri, Catlin traced their course backward, down the Missouri and up the Ohio, to the extensive fortifications in that State. He found Mandan ruins in a dozen places. He became satisfied that the ancestors of the Indians he knew had built these forts with walls twenty or thirty feet high, and with covered ways to the water. There was a striking similarity in the work of construction. Nothing like it was found among other tribes. The specimens of pottery dug from the forti¬ fications in Ohio were like the utensils in use by the Mandans. A visitor at the village could see the Mandan women molding vases, cups, pitchers, and pots from black clay and baking them m the little kilns which they build in the sides of hills. The Mandans alone of North American Indians possessed the art of manufacturing a beautiful and lasting kind of blue glass beads. They had these beads in great quantities when the fur traders first came among them. They kept the process secret. Mandan canoes were altogether different from the canoes of other tribes. They were exactly like the Welsh coracle, and were made of buffalo hides stretched over a frame of willows or other boughs, and were shaped so as to be nearly as round as a tub. These were few of the facts which strengthened Catlin in his theory. He argued that the Welshmen had settled in Ohio and had fortified themselves. They had been warred against by the Indians, and after their ammunition gave out they had been exterminated. But the half- breeds had been spared. Half breeds are always despised by full-blood Indi- ans. These sous and daughters of Welshmen and Indian women had natu- rally associated together in a band. They had cut loose from parent tribes. Gradu- ally they had made their way down the Ohio and then up the Mississippi and the Missouri, stopping for a generation or so in one fortified place, and then moving on, increasing in numbers, pre¬ serving some of the customs and char¬ acteristics of their Welsh ancestors, and trying to find a place where they could live at peace, but aloof from other tribes. Catlin found the Mandans living be- hind a well-built stockade. They had located their principal city where the Missouri made a sharp turn around a reeky ledge. On two sides of the town was this abrupt precipice and the river. On the remaining side was the stockade. This was composed of tim- bers a foot thick, set firmly in the ground, and eighteen feet high. Crevices were left between the timbers to shoot through. Along the inside of the stock- ade ran a ditch three or four feet deep, In this ditch the Mandan warriors found shelter while discharging their arrows at the foes without. Their fortified city was impregnable. Nothing like the Mandan architecture was found by Mr. Catlin among any of the other North American Indians. The lodges were circular, and from forty to sixty feet in diameter. The first work m the construction of a Mandan house was an excavation two feet deep the full size of the proposed building. Around the edge of the excavation were firmly p anted timbers, as closely together as they could be placed. The timbers were of eight or nine inches thickness and aoout six feet high. Earth was banked up against the outside of this wall of timbers. Then from the top of this wooden wall long poles from twenty to twenty-five feet were arranged, with the smaller ends slanting upward at an angle of forty-five degrees. The roof timbers were so closely matched that they pressed agamst each other. The circular roof J** 8 lurllu ‘r strengthened by four or five J* r » e P osts set inside the lodge, and having cross pieces just below the pole mat' of wdlow^t^prevent willow^mat tKole^ S decay and over the heaped and pressed a conple of feet of tenacious clay. The sloping roof soon became as hard as a pavement. It was ^ f athe ™g P lace of tbe during the day. Warriors , lounged on the house- .op to talk of war. The children and dogs played on the roof. Squaws gos- siped there. Sledges and canoes, buffalo skulls and pots found lodging places on the top of the houses. These Mandan houses were built so closely together that between them were only narrow pathways. At a distance the dome-like yellow roofs presented a singular appearance. On nearer ap¬ proach the visitor found himself among a lot of great mud huts. The greatest surprise was after entrance. Then it was discovered that these were wooden houses, dry and dean, and often furn¬ ished with household comforts unknown to other Indians. At the apex of the roof was left an opening three or four feet across for smoke to escape and for light to enter. A single door on the level of the ground was the only other opening in the Mandan lodge. In the centre of the Mandan village was a piazza 150 feet across and circular in form. There the games and ceremo¬ nies peculiar to the Mandans took place. A large, curiously constructed object stood in the centre or the vacant space. It looked something like a hogshead. The Mandans called it the “big canoe.” It looked enough like an ark in its plan to show that the suggestion came from the flood. In the “big canoe” the most sacred symbols and mysteries of this pe¬ culiar people were kept. projected poles, High above the lodges and from the poles hung the scalps taken in battle, the shields and quivers of war¬ riors, the medicine bags and the flutter¬ ing strips of cloth intended as sacrifices t° the Great Spirit. They The Mandans were agriculturists. squashes in raised coru, pumpkins and great quantities. They had no plows, but laboriously chopped the soil with 11068 made from the shoulder blades of buffalo or elks. Their corn was pecu¬ liar. It made ears which were no larger than a man’s thumb, but it ripened early, and matured well even in such high lati¬ tude as the Northern Pacific of North Dakota. White men in what was once the Mandan country claim that it is im¬ possible to raise corn there. The seasons are too short. The Mandans stored their corn and dried vegetables in cellars made six or seven feet deep and smaller at the top, like a jug. In this way they easily pre- served food through the worst winters. Wild fruit was gathered and dried in sea- son. The buffalo meat was jerked, These Mandans were provident people, They needed no Indian agent or Govern- ment annuities. Meal time came twice a day amoDg the Mandans, but the pot was always on and any one had the right to order it off and go to eating when he pleased. Man, woman or child might enter any lodge and eat at will. At meal time the Mandan men sat cros3-legged and ate from dishes resting on the ground in front of them. The women never ate with the men. They, too, sat upon the ground, but in taking their position did it gracefully by dropping down with both feet to one side, Indian traders told Catlin that he would be charmed with the “polite and friend- ly Mandans.” Governor Clarke, of Lewis <fc Clarke fame, described the Man- dans to the artist as strange people and half white, Catlin described them as rather below the average size of Indians, but finely formed and graceful in their movements. Among the women partic- ularly were many whose skins were al- most white, and who had hazel, gray or blue eyes. There was every shade of hair except auburn. The men seemed ashamed of their light hair, and dis¬ guised it with glue and black earth. But the women were proud of theirs,and wore it spread out and down to their knees. Mr. Catlin noticed especially the attention which the Mandans gave to their personal appearance. They were cleanly and much given to personal adornment. Above the city, a half mile or more, the women and girls had a bath- i°g place set apart for them. To this they went every morning at sunrise. On an elevation some distance back of the bathing place sentries with bows and arrows were stationed to pre- ve nt the approach of Peeping Toms, Below the city the men and boys bathed every day. Although there were individuals among them with records for great per- sonal bravery, the Mandans were not a warlike people. They avoided hostilities as long as possible. They cared more for sports and for ceremonies than for fight- in g- Six years after Mr. Catlin’s visit among the Mandans, smallpox was introduced in the city by a fur trading boat. At that time the Sioux were making war upon the Mandans, and the afflicted people were shut up within their fortifications, The ravages of the disease were terrible, Intelligent beyond the average of In- dians, the Mandans became panie- stricken. The disease was so malignant that death occurred in a few hours, Many, on finding themselves attacked, committed suicide by leaping down the precipice. Others, when the fever came pn, flung themselves into the river. Four Bears, the chief, was one of the few who recovered, but he 6aw his wives and chil- dren perish until he alone of his family lived. He walked through the city and wept as he gazed upon the unburied dead. He went into the lodge and cov- ered the bodies * her « w ? th ™ bes - He Cn t U f u P° n tbe P raine , an wrapping v fo“death w “sta^ation.* b.v The traders reasoned with him. He would not live, On the sixth day he had barely strength left to crawl into the city. Returning to his lodee he Z lav down wL" iT beside his On P Of the 2000 people in the Maudau city scarcely 100 survived the- epidemic. Mr Catlin was under the impression that the few survivors, after having' been made slaves by the Riccarees, sought death at the hands of the Sioux in battle, and that the Mandans became entirely extinct. Thomas Donaldson, through whom the Catlin collection of Indian paintings reached the National Museum, has cor- rccted this error. He found that twenty- three warriors, forty women, and sixty young people escaped the smallpox and found a refuge with the Riccarees. The Mandans now number about 500. They live in a village near Fort Buford. The agent says of them: “I am sure that there is not nor could there be produced a band of so many whites among whom so litcle crime has been committed.”_ Globe-Democrat. SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL. Electricity moves 288,000 miles pei second. Krupp has just completed a gun for the Russian Government that has a range of eleven miles. A farmer of Braintree, Mass., has just died from glanders, having caught the disease of one of his horses. The habitual drinking of boiled watei would insure escape from sickness and death to thousands of the human race yearly. It is announced that a photographei named Veresez, in Kla, Transylvania, has succeeded in taking photographs in nat¬ ural colors. Signor Succi, the Italian scientist, has come to the front again with his discov¬ ery of a liquid, the use of which enables a man to go an unlimited length of time without food. A Russian officer has invented a lumin- ous projectile to be thrown from a gun. It is claimed that it will be extremely useful for discovering the movements oi an enemy in a naval contest at night. Silks that are dyed in this country are less heavily weighted and are not sub- ject to spontaneous combustion, bul the Frenchmen often use two pounds and a half of dye stuff to one pound of silk. The rich magnetic iron near Dahlonega, Ga., continues to excite much interest. Thousands of acres are being conveyed by option to outside capitalists, who propose developing it when the railroad is completed. Cheese is one of the very few moderD food substances which arqf ^never grossly adulterated. Its only adulterant, in fact, at the present time is its coloring ma- terial, which is usually ftnnatto, saffron or common carrots. ) \ According to reliably, 20( &x‘>'V xstimt)^ not more than one egg in wo atur- ally in the waters produc ^ >V* V*, / pable of feeding itself, thus a g by far the greatest expec^ ' o will , S [ ruc . tion in the number of o bhe tht%t’ne female. In Europe iron slag is casJ er( ‘ ,-jocks and used for street mvemenft xtirma Mflisa |»W. building. In Cleveland, itf Oir 9 leial factory which converts 1S wool. It is a mass particleJor of vJ ,iaa Wfy tefons filled with glassy 'jL f ' 'X pliant and inelastic. stejP^ t'* ra y pressed The substitution air in of inteidimier Jpm- a gun shirow ■shells containing dynamit' sympat j. .• high explosives is proposed In iVer-W he ad- vantages claimed being boii^f'itvithfluUlis tRe iisMing of power direct from the .M use of air-compressing machinery > One-seventh of the coal. nUned s lost from being broken up too fine i to be burned with profit. A promin it Ik real- road company is now compressing mixing fit ’'into dust with pitch, and (with blocks that burn like hard coal, consumed thej advantage that they are entirely to ashes and leave no clinkers. English stoats and weasels ah being exported to New Zealand from England 1 in large numbers to kill off the rabbits,’ and the rats which have been food for the stoats and weasels in England in- 1 are creasing enormously in many districts.; There is talk of a movement to prevent the exportation of any more rat destroy¬ ers. The natives of Hayti, according to Dr. R. P. Crandall, fear pulmonary consump- tion more than yellow fever or small-pox, and believe it to be both contagious and infectious. All property from a con¬ sumptive’s death-chamber—even jewels and money—is destroyed or removed to a place of deposit, and small houses are burned. An electrician, writing recently on tbe action of electricity on the human body,' says that just what takes place in the human organism to produce death front an electric current seems to be an un- solved problem. One of the theories sometimes advanced concerning it is that when a being suffers death from electric shock it is a pure case of internal rupture or explosion from the generation of gas or vapor. Steam-Heated Family Tombs. An innovation which will doubt¬ less give rise to a considerable amount o( discussion is that of heating mausoleums.' Those of the late Emperor Frederick, of Germany, at Potsdam, and of his father- in-law, the late Prince Consort, at Wind¬ sor, are both being fitted with an elabor¬ ate system of radiators and steampipes. Thi9, however, is a fashion which is not likely to become popular. For the num¬ ber of persons who can afford to main- tain steam engines and boilers for the purpose of keeping their family tombs warm is necessarily limited.— Timet- Democrat.
