Newspaper Page Text
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THE TIFTON GAZETTE, TIiFTON, GA., . FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1916.
Ube Litton ©alette
Published Weekly
Entered at the Postoffice at Tifton, Georgia,
as mail matter of the second class.
jno. L. Herring Editor and Manager
Official Organ City of Tifton
and Tift County, Georgia.
SATURDAY NIGHT.
An Old Time Circus Day.
“Boom !-ta-rara-Boom-de-ay!
Boom!-ta-rara-Boom!"
• The motley crowd lining the sidewalks cran
ed necks; youngsters ventured a few steps out
to look down the street Eureka! they were
coming!
With roll of drum and blare of horn, the
band led. Mounted high on a chariot of crim
son, silver and gold (drawn by eight prancing
horses of glistening white, feathery plumes
waving in the sunshine), clad in uniforms
princely regal, the musicians with inspiring
strains opened a day filled with wonderful
things.
For six weeks, since first the marvelous post
ers had appeared, magnifying the wonders of
the animal kingdom and feats of derring-do,
the Boy had counted the days—even the hours,
and waited with the impatience of childhood.
Just a few days before the date emblazoned in
gilded letters on his mind, one of the circus’
advertising men, traveling through the country
in a buggy on last call work, spent the night at
the family homestead and generously volun
teered to carry th e Boy to the circus city, where
he could await the day of days with a relative.
On the way, the Boy came near having one
illusion dispelled. For this fast-talking repre
sentative of the riches of the world was out of
.money; naively confessing that he did not have
the wherewith to pay the bridge toll at the riv
er at the city’s gates. The Boy thought how
this same man had, with princely mien, insisted
that morning on his father’s acceptance of a
dollar bill for his night’s lodging, a thing un
heard of then. And on the father’s persistent
refusal he had thrust the bill into the Boy’s
hand and would not b e gainsaid. And the Boy
wondered; but the tender of the same bill now
as a loan was refused.
"I’ll get the money,”, the man said; and he
did. Underneath the buggy seat were a lot of
left-over circus posters. It was fall tim e am!
the negroes had money. Soon the plantations
along the river bottoms were at hand, and on
either side of the road negro cabins. It only
took a brief display of the gaudy-colored litho
graphs and the offer of them at five and ten
cents each to bring eager purchasers, and when
two stops had been made the bridge fare and
the price of a night’s lodging was in the treas
ure chest
The days passed, as days must, and Circus
Day was here. With the first beam of morn
ing light, the Boy and his cousins were up, and
down by the railroad yards, where the circus
was unloading. They watched the dirt thrown
out for the ring, the driving of the stakes and
the hoisting of the big tent—all by labor of man
and horse, for there were none of the devices
of the present day. Now, all was ready
the parade was passing.
After the band, John Robinson himself, in
beaver hat and jim-swinger coat, drove in state
followed beautiful ladies in dazzling costumes
handsome men in blue and scarlet; then the
massive elephants, th e awkward Camels, the
long-necked giraffes; cage after cage, gilded
and fantastic, with closed doors telling of the
fearful man-eaters that could not be trusted
even to iron bars alone. An occasional roar
at the proper time blanched cheeks ar
sent hearts pounding. And then, of crow
ing wonder, the steam piano! Call it calliop
if you will, but piano it was, and when steam
could b e kept up (which was at rare intervals)
the ears were smitten, as with a board, with
“The Last Rose of Summer.”
Into the big tent the procession passed, ,.nd
we were left outside to walk the lane of won
ders and view the dread posters before the sice
shows. The depths of mythology; the scope 'J
natural history, the store of nature’s freaks and
monstrosities, had been plumbed to gather the
aggregation that now tempted from the pocket
the precious dime—precious because it could
buy so much. But the Boy’s dimes were few and
»oon he passed, perforce with the surging
crowd of white and black into the big tent som e
time before the performance began.
Until today he has never understood what the
reserved seat at a circus was for. Sufficient for
him was the narrow plank, high up near the
canvass roof, where like a king in state he sat;
and the marvelous things of earth passed be
fore him.
Oh, that excruciatingly funny clown! With
bis painted face that sent a nearby babe into
hysterics; his side-splitting jokes; his wonderful
faculty of doing the right thing at the right
time. His witticisms treasured and carried
* home, to furnish anecdotes for a year to come.
There was only one ring and only one clown
’then, but, as Mereutio remarked, they were
sufficient. And to boyhood, the tinsel was all
•Over and gold ; the glass, jewels of first water;
the paint and powder rare work of nature.
Never b
prancing horse, was Queen Titania of Fairy
land, but come for a brief hour to feast the mor
tal eye. For Youth takes what it sees and be
lieves; disillusion only comes with experience.
T.he trapeze performers, the high jumpers,
the somersaulters, as each came, the Boy’s jaw
dropped, and eyes stuck out in wonderment.
Passing along the seats now were the peanut
venders, and of a sudden appetite conquered
curiosity. Followed the boys with glasses of
lemonade, in pink and blue—and thirst suc
ceeded appetite. Not even did disillusionment
come when one of the peddlers of liquid was
seen underneath the seats filling his empty
glasses from parts of those remaining, and a
few minutes later a peanut seller replenishing
his stock by similar methods.
At last it was over. No us e to say concert,
for nothing could eclipse what had been seen,
and tired but not surfeited with great things
the homeward way was wended, what had been
witnessed still furnishing ample topics for pro
gressive conversation.
Perhaps least of all things has the circus
changed in forty years. There is more to it now;
things have come and gone since the days of
John Robinson; but the essential features re
main the same. The circus has not changed be-
;iuse human nature is the same, for after all
the circus is a part of the human man.
If there was no youth or old age with the
heart of youth, there would be no circus; for
ith youth and its illusions the circus is a part.
With the coming of age and the iconoclastic
knowledge that age brings, happy is he who
can still retain that part of the heart of youth
and its imaginations that make the circus still
possible thing.
A big new discovery
cigarette blending
The big thing about Chesterfields is their unique
1 Vod. The Chesterfield blend is an entirely new com-
1 ution of tobaccos. Thisblend is the most important
new development in cigarette making in 20 years.
A? a result, Chesterfields produce a totally new
kind of cigarette enjoyment—they satisfy l Just like
a “bite’’ before bedtime satisfies when you’re hungry.
Del with all that, Chesterfields are MILD, too!
'.11s new enjoyment (satisfy', yet mild) cornea
ONLY in Chesterfields because no cigarette maker
can cony the Chesterfield blend.
cJSyyo"tt*jKiftMi£sff<zccoCbr.
rv a package of those cigarettes that SATISFY 1
g) ^3
(Si
GARBTTES
EVIDENCE FROM ALABAMA.
From the Opelika, Ala., News we publish
story told by an Alabama farmer which throws
light on the partidge-boll weevil proposition.
This farmer killed a partridge and found its
crop so full of weevils that it did not look pos
sible for another to get in.
Last fall the Gazette and a number of other
Georgia newspapers suggested that farmers
prohibit hunting on their lands in order to save
the birds against the boll weevil’s coming.)
Georgia’s Game Warden hurried into print!
with the statement that the partridge did not
eat the boll weevil; the bird stayed on the
ground and the weevil in the air, and they did
not meet, so to speak. Indeed, so positive was
the Warden’s statement that you might almost
imagine it would be better to kill out as many
birds as possible, to give the weevils room to
get away.
Many did not take into account that while
the State Warden is on salary, the revenues
from his office depend on the number of hunt
ing license sold, and if there is no hunting, no
body will want a license—and gave their birds
over to th e slaughter.
Now comes the same evidence from Alabama
that has been published from time to time in
the news from Texas, in government bulletins
and Audubon reports. The farmers of Geor
gia will do well to heed it. They have already
lost one year’s time by listening to bad advice.
10 tov Sc
Also uacLcd20 ZbrlQc
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OTHER CROPS—BUT COTTON, TOO.
TEN PER CENT. BITE.
From the Savannah Morning News.
At a mass meeting at Tifton the other day H.
H. Tift expressed the hope that the farmers will
not give up planting cotton altogether in Tift
county, and gave as a reason that $500,000 is in
vested in a compress, gins, warehouses and oth
er things there, the value of which almost en
tirely depends upon the bringing in of the an
nual cotton crop. Surely the Tift county farm
qrs are not thinking of giving up cotton alto
gether. The boll weevil may very properly
make Georgia farmers do a lot of thinking, but
if they get panicky and decide that cotton can
not be produced at all in weevil territory, and so
quit planting it. the state soon will bo in the
dumps as much as it was in the first few months
of the war period.
There is too much capital invested in provid
ing means of handling the cotton crop for Geor
gia farmers to let the weevil scare them clear
out of sight of cotton. They would be most un
wise to surrender to the invading pest without
giving the hardest fight that is in them. What
they must do, because it is the only sensible
thing to do, is to raise some cotton in spite of
the weevil, and to raise other crops, too. If
they should quit raising cotton, the other states
of the cotton belt would likely profit enormous
ly on that account because with Georgia out of
the statistics the cotton crop would b t > sure to
be far short of the world’s demands and the
price would jump to staggering hights, with
a huge profit in which Georgia would not share,
while Georgia farmers would he trying to raise
crops with which many of them ar e unfamiliar
and for whic.h marketing arrangements have
not yet reached the half way point toward per
fection.
Other states raise cotton in spite of the wee
vil and of course are so mindful of their own
interest that they would he very grateful to
Georgia farmers if this state should be cut off
the list of cotton growing states. Perhaps it is
all mere moonshine to fear that Georgia’s cot
ton crop will be reduced to a negligible number
of hales, hut ther,> evidently is too much dread
of the weevil. The pest is an enemy worthy of
highest respect, worthy of being fought with all
the skill and energy that can be brought to
bear against it, but if the farmers become pan
icky and quit planting cotton they will not only
kill the weevil, so far as Georgia is concerned,
but hit the state and themselves a tremendous
financial blow. The Georgia farmer's program
should be: To learn all he can about how to
BROOKFIELD NEWS.
In the timely editorial from the Savannah
Morning News, republished in the Gazette Sat
urday, sonic excellent advice is given in com
ment on Mr. II. H. Tift’s statement that we
have too much invested in enterprises depend
ing entirely on cotton to think of the total
abandonment of that crop. Incidentally, the
w hole text of the article bears out Mr. Savely’s
much criticised statement that, with proper
effort, the boll weevil in Georgia can be made
ninety per cent, scare and ten per cent, bite.”
The farmers of Tift county are not thinking
of giving up cotton altogether. But they know,
from what they have seen in other sections,
• hat for two ot three years at least something
nust be found to replsce it as a principal m nev
crop. To aid them in this, the business men
of Tifton are preparing to offer them a market
for peanuts, corn, velvet beans and live stock.
With these serving for a few years as lead
ing money crops, all familiar with the situation
are sure that true crop diversification, that
which for fifty years the South has needed to
make it rich, will come. With the raising of
live stock will come the production of ferti
iizers at home, and thus a great leak in the
South’s money crop will be stopped. When
we raise enough in Georgia to feed the people
of Georgia, we will stop the annual outflow
from the state of $140,000,000. and we will not
need so much cotton.
With live stock, pasturage, grain and cover
crops, will come richer soil and a higher state
of cultivation. When all our cotton lands will
produce a bale to the acre, as was said at Fri
day night's meting, then we can raise cotton
despite the weevil—by means of early fruitage
and more intensive cultivation.
No, the people of this section have no idea
of abandoning cotton—the only trouble is to
persuade many of them to avoid ruin by not
planting a full crop next year. But by diversi
fication and soil improvement they are prepar
ing to raise it at a profit under weevil condi
tions. This cannot be done when the weevils
must he kept picked from three or four acre:
in order to produce a bale.
After all, cotton is the South's great natural
money crop; the only one which the great ma
jority of her farmers know how to grow, and
the only one in which she has a monopoly
What we ar e trying to do here is to make ii
possible to grow cotton under new and
changed conditions. And when that is done,
the production of feed crops and the rais
ing of live stock will have such a firm hold on
our people that the peanut and feed mills, the
packing plant and the industries dependent on
cotton will he working here side by side, with
a common interest, and all filling an important
mission in South Georgia’s industrial develop
ment.
$60 an acre for their peanut crop, and hav e a
good crop of hay besides.” : „ , , ,
_ , „ ,, , The Ford fever is still raging hej
Peanuts are one of the crops the farmers Messrs. R. H. McMillan and J.,
of the territory around Tifton will try next year Parrish are the latest victims, bo
as a substitute for cotton. While we do not be- huvi n I-' L piirchased ry a n car y ’esch 6 U-
lieve there is as much money in peanuts as-week.
there is in corn and velvet beans for feed, and; tlu ; attracti^guest 1 of^Mkses’ H
liv e stock as a side line, yet a good acreage j Vorte and Hazel Haisten a few da
should be tried in connection with the other - th M* C °H oua ton Overby, fron
crops. The farmers in this section should not | Ridge, is visiting relatives '
put all their eggs into one basket, and by try
ing all three of the crops are almost certain of
a profit.
So long as the pric e of cotton seed is so
high, and this due to the high price of cotton
seed products, there ought to be -good money
in peanuts, for th e oil men will bp able to pay
a fair price for them. And so long as the cot
ton crop is limited there is little doubt of the
price of seed staying up.
week.
Mr. Henry Sumner, of
spent a few hours in Brookflej
day.
Mrs. Odie L. Taylor
day in Enigma with Mrs.,
mond.
Mr. and Mrs. W. ,
family, went over _
Tuesday to attend
union. There ’
relatives present^
tioas of the
. fight the weevil, and to grow cotton in spite of
such beautiffil things as those! t * ie P e *t; and then to raise other crops in in
breathed.
lady horseback riders (one aii"in silver, another' crc t 8 , in f < *1 a " tities fr °T I. e!lr to year.'building
in crir-e.- hnd wni.i \ s 1M i„ «P “hi land by crop rotation and the cattle m-
I i. JL /E S ui' \ thc ‘fK,dustry. Let him becom c more prosperous with
f nabit g. steturg with each Step of her cotton as one of his crops, despite the weevil.
isjlfei
“NOT A GUN FIRED.”
Georgia is soon to have a game preserve so
well stocked that it can spare plenty of game
animals and birds for less fortunate localities.
It is Blackboard Island, near Savannah, and the
story is told in the simple statement of the war
den in charge: “Not a gun is allowed fired on
the island.”
How much would it contribute toward check
ing the progress of the boll weevil if not a gun
was allowed fired in Georgia’s woods and fields
this fall and winter?
ly iUs
cn<l cl’
builulr.j ur *
nature la < „
have bo much
er» that they
tnr my
n*J]
for t'-t cf tei
A«!!:
if. J.i
Mrs. C. W.j
Sunday for.
In a little over a month the sound of the guns KUest
in the woods will remind one of a tiny battle, for several
It is a pity that our State General Assembly
could not see far enough ahead last summer
to stop the killing of birds this winter. But it jj ow
did not, and the matter is left to the individual The hun
farmer and land owner. tSfun
If those who want to stop the weevil will stop an average I
the killing of birds on their farms and then in- Jhe'mlnSS /
crease their (locks of chickens and turkeys, put- this slight i
ting in a few guineas if they can be had, they 1
will find they have valuable helpers in the fight, becomei
who will work for their board. only"star
“Not a gun fired” would be a fine report
from Georgia” woods and fields this fall.
which i
pure I
liig;
PROFIT IN PEANUTS.
PARTRIDGES DEVOUR BOLL WEEVILS.
From the Opelika (Ala.) News.
Russell Cole, former game warden of this
county, while at the News office Tuesday told
of an occurrence which shows we have a bless
ing in our midst, if we only take advantage of m
it. He says that while sitting on his porch with
with his family a few days ago a covey of back,
partridges flew into his yard. One bird allight-
ed in the hall of his home, which Mr. Cole
caught alive. He said he examined the bird
and found its craw full of boll weevils. Mr.
Cole says he didn’t see how that bird could pos
sibly have eaten another weevil, as its craw
was crammed with them. He says this assur-
e'dlv Indicates that we have a blessing in our
midst if w e ..nly realized it. He said that while
he was county warden the state game warden
wrote h'm repeatedly and urged that hunters
hold down as much as possible in killing part-
A former citizen if Tift county now livingi ridges, as they were the best boll weevil de
nt Arlington, where the boljwee'il got in itsj ft* hie’outoion Vwouiil be theVsf thing that^
worn this year, writes to a rient tore: ^ ! ever happened for onr section if everyone
“Growers of peam is in !his section mad ; j bR j wo n1d prohibit trespassing or si
money this year. T. ■ received from $-'if to in r, so that the partridges might be protecti
nearly I
Medical
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better and
neighborhood.
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