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TIFTON GAZETTE, flflUN, GA.
THE TIFTON GAZETTE
Published Weekly
Entered at the Postofflce at Tifton, Georgia,
M Second Class Matter, Act of March 3, 1879.
jj no . u, Herring .Editor and Manager
Official Organ City of Tifton
and Tift County, Georgia.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Twelve Months - .$1.80
Sis Months 78 Cento
SATURDAY NIGHT.
I A Wiregrass Wedding at Christmas Time.
; “Come on, John; I’m going to get married."
The speaker was in festal array. His coat
and vest of black twill fit snug and were button
ed close, while his pepper-and-salt pantaloons
lent variety of color. His tie of brilliant red
was set in a paper collar whose stiffness held
the head erect, and a dazzling plated watch-
chain swung oppulently from his vest front. His
gaiter shoes, with square box-toes, reflected the
sunlight from much polishing, and above ab
breviated pants legs gave glimpses of candy
striped socks. From the upper pocket of his
coat peeped the corner of a blue imitation silk
handkerchief and the lapel of the vest carried
a blaze of color in the shape of a cockade of en
twined ribbon, doubtless the handiwork of his
fiance. Nature made him a rather good-look
ing fellow and perverted art could not entirely
extinguish his handsome appearance. Not even
when he lifted his hat and disclosed hair care
fully parted and plastered down with redolent
oil.
The boy, who looked up at the words and saw
the speaker for the first time, was more or less
indifferently clearing trash off a potato patch
preparatory to plowing in fall oats. Gathering
limbs and bark, they were piled around some
one of the numerous stumps and fired, thus
helping to dispose of two nuisances at once.
“Hello, Jack! didn’t know you were ready
for slaughter,” he answered. “Wish I could go
see the last of you .but I can’t Got to get in
these oats by Saturday night or 1 won’t have
any time for Christmas."
"Oh, come along. I ain’t going to be married
but once, I reckon; and there’s going to be good
eating, and danctng ratU you can’t see straight
Come along; I come by after you. The old folks
have gone on in the wagon.”
Whether it was strength of persuasion, the
chance to see the last of an old playmate,- or
the eating and dancing that tumed the scale-^-
or a little of all three, It matters not, but the
work was dropped and hurrying to the house
the boy changed his working clothes for his
Sunday rig, not quite so festive but modeled a
long the same lines as that of the bridegroom
who waited. Once appareled in his best, the
bay pony was bridled and saddled, and the two
bet out, the bridegroom astride a restive mule.
A few miles gallop brought them up with the
bridegroom’s relatives—father, mother, young
er brothers and sisters, all in a two-horse wag
on, with an older brother driving. Riding be
hind or alongside the wagon and chatting under
some difficulty, they arrived at their destina
tion, the home of the groom’s uncle, just as the
December sun was sinking behind the pines of
the horizon.
"Uncle Bull” had a large family, but they
got along with mighty little room. A single-
pen log house, with overhanging shed but no
piazza, served to shelter nine, and they man
aged without noticing any inconvenience. Sup-
' per was soon spread on a long table between
the door and the fireplace and with good ap
petites, all fell to and did ample justice. It was
hog-killing time and the com wa 8 in from the
fields, with sweet potatoes bulging the hills; so
there was plenty, despite the fact .that there
were two large families, with a considerable
sprinkling of their relatives and friends to
share it.
After supper and the dishes cleared, as the
young men were standing in a long row with
their backs to the wide fireplace, all at once
some one noticed the girls had disappeared.
They had been waiting on the table, then clear
ing the dishes, laughing, joking and talking
when, presto 1 every girl was gone! “Where are
the girls?” the boy asked his elbow neighbor.
“Behind the doors, dressing for the wedding,'
was the rejoinder, a nudge admonishing silence.
Although there was a nip of frost in the air,
both doors to the house stood wide open; they
stood that way most of the time their shut
ters, of heavy pine boards swung on blackgum
hinges, open back against the foot of the bed
steads behind them. There was no other priv-
acy in the single-room house, and there was no
room to dress in the corn-crib. So by necessity
the girls sought the only shelter the home af
forded—between the door shutters and the bed
steads. How they managed is a mystery, but,
while the accommodations were not so ample
as milady’s boudoir, they .found them sufficient
—at least, they got results. There was much
whispering, calling to younger sisters or to Ma,
and much rustling of starched garments—but
they dressed, and dressed well.
When the boy 8 caught on to what was doing,
ed 7 outside until the girls appeared. In
i of bright colors, gay with rtb-
touched wljH}.“ J
cinnamon, they bore
beneath the pines, to the home of the bride. Of
course pairing off; boy and girl, the boy oaten-
taciously walking, in the wiregrass beside the
path, carefully helping the girl over every high
root or log, although the nimble-footed females
could outdistance two out of three of them in a
running jump.
The bride’s home was festive bright. Many
candles lighted the interior, while two blazing
lightwood fires in the yard afforded a rallying
place and as much comfort as was needed for
those who could not get inside. The home con
sisted of house and kitchen, both of logs and
single-roomed. Her mother was a widow, left
when Lee surrendered with a small and help
less brood, and the two houses were old but
they were spotlessly clean. Inside, the living-
room was hung with cedar, arbor-vitae and
other greens, a portion of the cedar being dip
ped in flour until it seemed snow-covered. Aid
ing the many candles, a fire blazed, lighting the
bright faces, reflecting in laughing eyes, add
ing color to red cheeks—while over all hung
the aroma of cinnamon drops, of musk, of hair
oil, and of Hoyt’s cologne.
The bride, in white with a wreath of ever
greens on her hair, waited with her brides
maids, while the preacher chatted in the corner
by the fire. When the groom came in all stood
up; he took her hand and faced the preacher,
and the few words that mean so much were
spoken, while the assemblage looked on solemn
ly and those outside crowded doors and wind
ows and craned their necks to see.
In the kitchen, long tables were laden with
good things. Pound cake, a big bride’s cake
(which was cut and divided), roll cake, jelly
cake, potato custards, dried-apple pies, turn
overs (crab-lanterns), baked chicken, chicken-
pie, fried chicken, and then—pork, potatoes,
beef, biscuit and cornbread, to fill in with. Here
the crowd flocked soon after the ceremony,
Jack and his bride having the seats of honor
at the head of the table, the bridesmaids and
groomsmen on either side. She was a tiny lit
tle scrap of a girl and Jack towered over her,
a six-footer, but although none of those who
saw them married forecast it, she was destined
to rule him through life like a despot.
While the big and much eating was going on
some of the women folks had cleared the big
house, and when the young folks came back it
was ready for dancing, two fiddlers with two
straw beaters seated in places of honor by the
fireplace. They turned their keys, twanged
their strings, rosined and flourished their bows,
and as both violins bust into,
“Oh Worth county gals, can’t you come out
tonight,”
there was the call, "Partners on the floor!'
and with Jack and his bride leading the first
dance, the fun was on.
Fast and furious it lasted until, away to
wards day, they left Jack to his fate and his
mother-in-law and the visitor wended his way
to the home of some boy friends who had kindly
offered him shelter. It was far in the next
day when the boys arose for breakfast, and
when the visitor’s mind turned toward the bay
pony and home, the others said “No; you can
go home any time. Come over to see the girls
across the creek and let’s get up a dance to
night.” It was Christmas time and youth, with
many years and much hard work ahead (al
though he didn’t know much about it then) so
he seized what opportunity offered—and the
oats were not sowed until after the holidays.
The girls were seen, the dance arranged,
and next morning the boys crawled out late—
to eat, to see more girls and to arrange anoth
er dance. And so it went on. For four days
and nights, they
“Danced all night, ’till broad daylight;
Went home with the girls in the morning.”
At last, on the fourth night, along about two
o’clock the boy, for a time tired of dancing,
stood watching the tireless fiddlers with their
flying bows, the beaters, with their bounding
straws, when one of the fiddlers, looking steadi
ly at him and shutting oue eye sung, keeping
time to his sounding fiddle and his patting feet:
“Run along, John, or I’ll tell your daddy,
The way you’ve been a-courting.”
Back his mihd flashed to the home and the
unfinished job he had left four days before. A
few minutes later the astonished pony was led
out, saddled and mounted, and was soon gal
loping on the long way home, while from the
distant house came on the cool night air the
sounds of the fiddles, the call of the prompter
and the rhyme of shuffling feet, to the tune of
“I wouldn’t marry an old maid,
And I’ll tell you the reason why
Her neck’s so long and stringy,
I’m afraid she’d never die.”
That rain Saturday night wa a evidently a
“lightwood knot floater” in Lowndes county.
One news story in the Valdosta Times told
about a farmer gathering a fine string of fish in
his cabbage patch, and another of a five-pound
catfish being found in the road about a mile
from town. Perhaps this to part of a move
ment to populate Lowndes county with fisher
men.
WANTS TIFTON TO GET STATION.
From the Moultrie Observer.
We want to see Tifton get that
station that is coming to South Geoi
have nothing to offer against other ai. .
H ... . but Tifton ha B done a good part by the agricul-
lily white...nd tural school, and the experiment station would
s little resem- make a splendid adjure?to it. Tift county soil
spun dresses of is representative of the bert Georgia lands. All
THE "NIGGER” BOBBS
According to Mr. John
lanta correspondent of the
the “nigger in the wood
crop out in the muddle in Georgia’s highway
department “A grand turnpike over the Dixie
Highway route running from Chattanooga to
the coast, constructed out of automobile fees,
and the balance of the state can go to the hap
py bow-wow," is the situation, shorn of all
"fine frills, deep and shady explanations, tech
nical puzzles and that sort of stuff," as Mr.
Hammond sees it
Over two months ago a map was published
of a proposed system of state highways for
Georgia as drawn by the engineer of the state’s
highway department. It followed practically
the rqutes of the Dixie Highway and left the
entire section between the Flint and Ocmulgee
rivers, south of Houston county, without a single
Class A road. Indignant and emphatic protest at
once went up from all sections of the state and
especially from the counties along the National
south of Macon, against this apparent travesty
on road building.
Delegations from Tifton, Adel, Ashburn,
Cordele, and other points interested, went to
Atlanta and protested against the proposed sys
tem of highways as indicated by the map. These
delegates were assured that the map as pub
lished was only a tentative suggestion. The
state highway engineer admitted that he had
been over none of these routes and said that he
did not draw the map for the purpose of locat
ing the highways but merely as a suggestion
from which a state system could be finally laid
out.
Despite these assurances, several individual
members of the protesting delegations felt that!
there was more behind the suggestion than its
authors cared to be responsible for and sus
pected that there was a purpose of making the
Dixie Highway the nucleus for the expenditure
of the state’s money in road building. Mr. Ham
mond’s article indicates that this suspicion was
well founded.
TO PUNISH LYNCHERS.
There is a strong and growing sentiment even
in the South that the Federal government should
take jurisdiction in the matter of lynchings,
where the states fail to act, and see that the
guilty ones are punished. The Charleston, S.
C., News <and Courier and the Houston, Texas,
Post discuss the matter sympathetically, and
other leading Southern newspapers assume a
very friendly attitude towards the proposition.
The States Rights question seems to have been
wiped out by recent popular movements, such
as national prohibition and Woman Suffrage,
and the right of the state to assume sole juris
diction over the punishment of violations of its
laws may be expected to follow. In the mat
ter of lynchings the Gazette warned the people
several years ago that if the states did not
punish the guilty ones, popular feeling would
demand that the Federal government assume
jurisdiction and it appears to be only a ques
tion of time when this will be done.
MAY RETAIN
The Gazette hm.
that soldier* and sailors ilonofabfy*dischai*M
should be allowed to retain their uniforms, In
the years to «ome, fheie iiUfoSi WU'wSSei
family treasures, to be banded down to des- 1
cendants, or perhaps the men who wore them
in the great world crisis *111 be buried in them
There was a bill before Congress to allow
the men to retain their uniforms but during the
confusion of theUst days of the seseionito fate 1 Now
was in doubt THfe doubt has been —b*
Mr. J. O. Hollomon, Washington correspond
ent of the Atlanta Constitution, who says the
bill was passed and approved February 28
1919. He quotes the measure in full, as fed
lows:
“Be it enacted by the senate and house of
representatives of the United States of America
m Congress assembled, that any Demon who
served in the United States amy, mw o$
marine corps in the present war may, upon
honorable discharge and return to civil fife
permanently retain one complete suit of outer
uniform clothing, including the overcoat, and
such articles of personal apparel and equip,
ment as may be authorized, respectively by the
secretary of war or the secretary of the navy
and may wear such uniform clothing after such
discharge: Provided, that the uniform above re
ferred to shall include some distinctive mark or
insignia to be prescribed, respectively by the
secretary of war or the secretary of the navy
such mark or insignia to be issued, respect^
ively, by the war department or navy depart
ment to all enlisted personnel so discharged
The word “navy” shall include the officers and
enlisted personnel of the coast guard who have
served with the navy during the present war.
“Sec. 2. That the provisions of this act shall
apply to all persons who served in the United
States army, navy, or marine corps during the
present war honorably discharged since April
sixth, nineteen hundred and seventeen. And
in cases where such clothing and uniforms have
been restored to the government on their dis
charge the same or similar clothing and uni
form in kind and value as near as may be shall
be returned and given to such soldiers, sailors,
and marines.”
We congratulate Congress on this act of jus
tice to the men who served their country.
Now, we trust the law will be met with the
proper spirit, and the use of the uniform be not
abused. The sight of the khaki on men going
about their everyday work should not become
common. Men should wear their uniforms for
a few days after discharge, but when they go
back to work they should go in civilian clothes. ' r * nt
To see the uniforms worn at and all times
would make them common, and that we don’t
want.
Keep the uniforms for what they meant, and
they great sacrifice they represent. Wear them
on state occasions, for they are uniforms of
honor. As the years pass, the uniforms will
mean more and more; they and the traditions
that cling to them will become more sacred.
A Uo«^L 0r ,.?'1 ,nt 8a,art *>- »«■
f Ion, Will be Circulated A skin, i
to Commissioner, to Call Kleeti
A, a result of the meeting at the o
bona, 8atnrdsy afternoon, petitions
be circulated asking the Count/
missfonera of Tift to call an election foci
bonds to improve the roads in Tift coua-i
to- • 'AH
Mr. E. E. Hall, Sr., preaided at tf ”
meeting and then waa a discusaioi
the different phaaea of (he road a£
non and need tor improvement?
Count/ Commissioners desired an',
presslon from the people on the quest
of an election and for this mason it s
decided to circulate petition, asking ti
it be called.
For ten /ears Tift count]
•pending from 135,000 to $50,OOO a jm_
on public roads and the result, have
been onl/ -temporary. Except with 0
roads last built there la very little
•how for the money except '.1
grades' Traffic Is so heavy- n
road, which served the purpose tetrj
ago will no longer hold op
Ing for those most frcq'nenUy t
logical remedy and this ie..i_
majority of the tax payers of the county_
The indirect threat against the United States
by Sinn Fein leaders is not entitled to even pass
ing consideration. These people refused to
fight for liberty and they should be made to
take what those who won the war see fit to give
them. People who cannot govern themselves
have no right to expect other people to establish
a government for them. Ireland has had full
opportunity to secure home rule, but being tom
by bitter factionalism cannot agree on what she
wants. If she cannot agree within herself, how
can she expect other nations to agree with her?
We have great sympathy with the Irish people
in their troubles, but we have neither patience
nor sympathy for the Sinn Fein, which was too
cowardly to fight and plotted with the enemies
of human liberty against Ireland’s best friends
Beginning to hear from the people, Republi
can leaders aFe trying to hedge on the League
of Nations question, pretending that they only
wanted amendments, when their first attacks
were on the proposition as a whole. Said lead
ers see where they stand to lose & chance at the
Presidency for the people are in the mood for
no foolishness on the proposition of making fu
ture wars impossible.
THE COUNTRY PRESS WILL DO IT.
From the Fitzgerald Leader-Enterprise.
The Select Newspaper Association of Geor-
through its directors, are launching the
' advertising campaign for Georgia and
gia, th
Diggest
Keep them and care for them, for the time will
come no more when millions of young Ameri
cans will have the opportunity to don them in
their country’s service.
PROVIDE THE MONEY.
Had Tift county had money with which to
build roads, it would not have been necessary
to borrow. Thus the county would have not
only saved interest at a high rate from year to
year, but it would now be saved the embarrass
ing position in which either the county’s credit
must suffer or it must pay out money to redeem
notes for which it received no consideration.
Moral: Provide the money for the county’s
needs.
Money can be provided for a system of good
roads throughout the county by a bond issue.
The Federal government will spend dollar for
dollar with the amount the voters of Tift au
thorize for road bonds. But in order to secure
this Federal good roads money this year we
must act quickly.
Sign the petition for the bond election when
it to presented to you. Nail that Federal
money for good roads while it to going by. We
need the roads.
Georgians ever inaugurated. Concurrently with
the call by President Wilson of a meeting at
Washington of all the Governors of the states,
and mayors of the larger cities, the directors of
the Select Newspapers of Georgia have launch
ed a movement which is destined to do for Geor
gia and Georgians what President Wilson on a
broader scale, will ask the Governors and May
ors to do, providing a public policy of construc
tion to open means of employment for the sol
diers, sailors and marines coming home from the
war. For Georgia the state press will launch
a campaign of “buying Georgia made products”
so that Georgia industry may make places for
the returning victors of our own state. The
>ss will freely furnish its columns for the legi-
ate exploitation of Georgia’s great resources
and in doing so it will have .the financial assis
tance of the manufacturers and distributors of
eorgia products throughout the state.
An era of unprecedented prosperity is ahead
! us and in its unfolding everyone will get- a
isre. The country press, patriotic at all
ready to respond to every call the na-
"One of the worst features of the sale of
whiskey here to that it to sold to a number of
our young boys,” says the Worth County Local.
That is the case everywhere the blind tiger
operates, and that is the phase of the liquor
question that gives advocates of the sale of in
toxicants under legal restrictions their strong
est argument. The blind tiger, beginning by t;
violating the law, will sell whiskey to a child as
quickly as he will to a man, or to a girl ag quick
ly as he will to a woman, if he thinks he will
not get caught. The blind tiger begins by be
ing an outlaw and each step he takes plunges
him deeper into the mire. It is the very worst
form of the whiskey traffic, and when to the
illegal sale to added the illegal manufacture,
the evil is doubled.
Nothing more wholesome could have been
decided on than the determination of the Allied
nations that German officers guilty of atrocities
in France, Belgium, Galicia and other overrun
countries shall be surrendered, for trial, W«
want peace'for all time, but we ;*ant;>at
same time an example to future v gehemion«l
the men in C9iui|llnd will be held responsible
for munier, jetotr.^nd rapine eor 1 -*“* J,v
armies of invasion.
Says John T. Boifeufllet, in the Macon News:
“When one reads the Tifton Gazette it to. easy
to imagine that it la published in a land of sun
lit activities, when HfAand actionar*
moug terms. The sanctum of Editor Heiffing
always seems thatched with roses and redolent
with honeysuckles. All brethren -•* ^—
’' " to
WOMAN CUBES HORSE COLIC
The men were away as usual. >
horse was bad. A Iona woman
not “drench” in the old way. Sha I
ed_np a neighbor aad her men ware's*
it: “We hare Fa'rris Colic 1
that yon drop on the hone’s toq
Mrs.. Neighbor. 80 aha came o,
•nd dropped Farris Colic Remedy on I
hone’s tongas and the horse was i
when the men come home. Moral,
Farris Colic Remedy so the women
cure hone colic. We aell it at GO <
a bottle on the Money Beck Plan. ]
ereon Grocery Co. adr.
LEFT TWO DATS
REF
Private Hilsman E. Gaff i
Friday morning, haring
honorable discharge from ser
Goff is a son of Mr. and j
Gaff, of Fender, and left last.
Camp Gordon. He was rent fn
to Camp Hancock and from
Camp Merritt, embarking for jFn
Nor. 9, just two days baton the an
tice was declared. He landed in
land, went from there to
returned with the Forty-Second Dlri
a few weeks ago.
Hare you figured up yottr low <
this year? We har* paid 82c
weeks. Lang A ,<kv Omega: ,
When TOOT blood is not In i
yew Wttm is UMhls
winter cola*
aROVE'S TASTELESS CMn 1
It contains the welt-known
ertlea of Qrinino and Iron
acceptable to tha most delicate
and la pleatant to tike. Yen