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THE TIFTOH GAZETTE
Published Weekly
Sntered at the Postoffice at Tifton, Georgia,
Second Class Hatter, Act of March 8, 1879.
>. L. Herring.....
...Editor and Manager
Official Organ City of Tifton
and Tift County, Georgia.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Twelve Month* — $1.80
Six Month* - 78 Cents
SATURDAY NIGHT.
When the Ghost Wa* Nearly Drowned.
i "Why is it, when a boy is courting, others
of his age and sex try to make life as miserable
for him as possible?” asked'the Professor.
“Give it up, unless it is jealousy," the Super
intendent replied.
The two were on their way to a state gather
ing of educators, occupying a red-plush-cover-
ed seat in a hot and dusty railway car. Outside
the May sunshine, the trees in leaf and the
flowers in bloom, with the drum of bees and
the odors of late Spring, were tempting. It
was the sight of three—two boys and a girl-
fishing in a brook as they passed that doubt
less set the Professor to ruminating, and
brought forth the remark. He followed it up:
“Perhaps that’s it. Also, a little natural
deviltry; a desire to tease, and sometimes a
yearning to get even. At any rate, that is the
time of a man’s life when he affords the most
amusement for his fellow creatures.
“I was one of four brothers, and as I was
the youngest, I had the chance for a lot of
fun with the others for which they could not
retailiate in kind. I believe I told you about
the time the boys played that joke on Bill, the
oldest brother, in an effort to Break him from
staying out so late at night, when they put an
otter-skin in his bed. It didn’t break him, but
something else did, for after awhile he quit
visiting at old man Johnson’s, and settled
into sedate ways again.
"Soon after that our second brother, Sam,
caught the fever. He was hard and fast in
love with a girl across the creek from our
house and he was over there two or three
nights a week, until after midnight. Bill al
ways blamed Sam for the otter-skin finding its
way into his bed. He hadn’t said much, for
he was not a fluent talker, but he was laying
low, waiting for his chance. When Sam be
gan to stay out at night, like a steer in late
spring, Bill knew his time had come.
“Sam was as scared of ghosts as a four-year-
old. When he was small the others could get
a rise out of him at any time by calling ‘ghost’
and when they told ghost stories around the
fireside at night, he would be afraid to go to
bed and too nervous to sleep after he got there.
So when Bill began to plan for ‘even’ it was
natural that he should think of playing ghost.
He made him a mask of white cloth on which
he painted red circles around the holes for his
eyes and mouth with poke-berry-juice. He
put on a Roman nose of monstrous size of the
same color, and I can tell you, it made a fright
ful looking object, even in daylight. He got
a big gourd, cut out one side, stretched across
the hole four old fiddle-strings, and when he
drew a stick across them they made the most
frightful groan any graveyard ever gave birth
to. A sheet stolen from Ma’s bed-clothes shelf
completed the outfit.
“The creek was crossed by a foot-log, and
just on this side the run next to our house there
was a place where the lpgs did not quite come
together and a board was nailed across, from
one log to the other. The trees were thick
there and the darkness intense, so that was the
spot Bill selected to wait for Sam. You never
saw a boy playing ghost that did not get scared
himself, and that was the case with Bill. Af
ter all his preparations, he was afraid to go
alone so he let my other brother and myself in
to the secret, and asked us to go with him
"Saturday night, as usual, Sam was away
and about 12 o’clock Bill got together all his
ghost equipment and we slipped down to the
creek. It was as dark as seven black cats
fighting and after we had found our place,
hid in the bushels and Bill had donned all his
equipment, queer little, shivers would run up
and down our spines while we waited. Oc
casionally Bill would try out his groaner, and
• "As he scrambl
ed that he was
couldn’t go bad
had all gone
who had gone
Besides, a fell
girl and tell hi
be hill, Sam remember-:
away from home. He!
the girl’s house, for they 1
THE ACCESSIBIi
Illustrating the accessibi
4 long ago except the girl, sidering its desirability as
soon as she got rid of Sam. Coastal Plain Experiment SI
don’t want to run back to a, tbe census of 1910 the ru
a ghost got after him.
m
or ?*m
thought of was his derringer.
the creek. The bullets hit the footlog like
slapsticks. >.
Bill had just got out halfway the log when
the explosion came. It frightened him worse
than he had frightened Sam, and he turned,
quick, to run. As he turned, his feet tore loose
the bark from the old log, and as the bark
went so went Bill, headfirst, into the waters of
the creek.
"The recoil of the derringer was almost as
fatal as its bullets, for it threw Sam off his
balance. His feet slipped on the hillside, the
pebbles rolled under him and he rolled down
the hill, through the bushes and plunged, ker-
plug! into the creek, almost on top of Bill.
“My brother and I ran to the edge of the
water to stop the fight, but there was no fight
left in either. Neither was there desire to
scare anybody. They crawled out of the water,
Sam’s Sunday best clothes no longer fit for
wear and Bill’s ghost outfit looking like
drowned rat. As they came up the bank,
each looked hard at the other, and bimeby Sam
said:
‘“You played it, didn’t you?’
“ ‘Like you did,’ Bill replied.
“That’s all they ever said to each other
about it, so far as I know."
Did it cure Sam of crossing the creek?”
the Superintendent asked.
“No; worse than that. There were two girls
over there and soon Bill was going with S:.m
for company.”
fifty-two miles of Tifton, as follow^: ,
Couotica Pop. Sq mile Countie* Pop. Sq mil*
Berrien 31.0 Jeff Davis 20.2
Lee
Brooks .
35.8
38.7
Ben Hill......
~— 28.7
84 a
Coffee
Colquitt
Crisp
20.4
61.1
88.1
Mitchell
Pulaski
Telfair
40.4
41.9
Sfifi
Dodge
46.7
422
Dougherty ..
22.9
Turner
43.6
Dooly
51.8
Wilcox
88.6
Irwin
27.7
Worth
29.4
Tift
47.3
BECOME ACCUSTOMED TO A DAILY.
People in Tifton and the section adjoining
missed the Daily Gazette Saturday afternoon
and Monday, while our Whitlock press was out
of commission. We are glad they missed it.
While we deeply regretted the accident and
consequent delay, yet if nobody had missed the
paper, we would have been disappointed. That
such was the case shows that the people of the
territory the Gazette serves have become ac
customed to getting today’s news today,
through this medium. Four and a half years
ago, they depended on other papers for their
daily news and got their local news weekly; from Burke to Camden .
but they will never be satisfied with those con
ditions again. .Having enjoyed the local news
daily, a return to a weekly service is unthink
able. All of which proves that the publication
of a daily paper at Tifton was demanded by
the growth of the city and section surroihiding,
and that it did not come any too soon. Neither
would consent to make the effort to get along
without a home daily paper now. Which is
commended to local advertisers, and all other
men who have the development of this section
at heart. Give the local paper every possible
encouragement, that it may be kept a gqing
concern, for the benefit of all—including its
publishers.
General average of the 20 counties, 39.3 per
square mile.
Only one county within a radius of fifty-two
miles of Tifton had a greater rural population
per square mile in 1910 than Tift, and that
county is Dooly. Tift led all the others. Con
sidering ah average of the 20 counties Tift
stands far ahead of all the others. Remember,
this was the population in 1910 and since then
the growth of the rural population of Tift has
been much greater than that of Dooly.
We are sure that the census of 1920
will show a greater growth in rural pop
ulation per square mile, in Tift county and in
the counties adjoining, than in any other sec
tion of the state.
Take the official map issued by the Railroad
Commission of Georgia in 1916: With a blue
pencil describe a circle having a radius of
four inches equal to fifty-two miles, in every
direction from Tifton. The counties pierced by
the rim of the circle plus those inside (not
counting Tift) are twenty in number. They are
the counties which would be tributary to the
Coastal Plain Station, if located at Tifton. Not
another small city in all South Georgia, or in
the Coastal Plain region, can make so fine a
showing as to rural population as Tift.
Rural population is what should be taken in
to account in the location of this station, for it
is the rural people the Station will benefit
Taking into consideration the great farming
section which immediately surrounds Tift to
gether with the fact, as developed by the fig
ures of the last census, that this is the center
of rural population of the Coastal Plain Reg
ion, and we have illustrated the reason why
endorsement of Tifton as the logical location
for the Station has come from every section of
the Coastal Plain—from Macon to Valdosta;
from the Chattahoochee to the Savannah, and
The next Congress will be asked to enact
legislation necessary t 0 the establishment of a
system of Federal Home Loan Banks. A tenta
tive bill ha$ been prepared and has been mail
ed to all officers and committees of the U. S.
League of Building Associations and copies can
be obtained from the Division of Public Works
and Construction Developments of the U. S.
Department of Labor. In its campaign to
stimulate building activities the U. S. Depart
ment of Labor, in January, invited representa
tives of the U. S. League of Building Associa
tions to a conference in Washington for a dis
cussion of ways and means of increasing the
usefulness of the building and loan associa
tions. It was realized that these associations
played an important part in the home building
activities of the nation and it was the hope of
the Department of Labor that their field of
usefulness might be enlarged. Out of this con
ference came the movement in favor of a na
tional system of Home Loan Banks through
which these associations might rediscount their
..... T , , j securities and make available for further loans
that only made bad matters worse. It looked a greater portion of their assets.
as if Sam was never coming. I _
“ ‘Reckon he’s going to stay all night?’ Bill We did not like the flrst report Qf the indp _
* rumbled - ! lent mutiny of a company of American troops
“Finally, along about two o’clock, we heard m Northern Russia; it read too much like the
him. Bill waited until he was about half way accounts of those Russian troops who voted on
across the run of the creek, where the log was whether to fight or quit—and decided to quit
swaying a little under his weight. Then Bill
brought out a groan that would have paralyzed
a disembodied spirit. Sam stopped dead still.
“Bill fetched another groan and slowly arose,
his head making a dramatic appearance. Sam
got one good look—turned, nearly fell off the
log, and ran to the other end, scrambling up
the hill like the devil was after him, a shower
pf sand and pebbles raining behind. Bill ran
out on the log in pursuit, working his groan
machine overtime.
“Now, one thing we did not know. Sam had
picked up, somewhere, a little double-barreled
derringer pistol. You know how foolish boys
are about, such things. It had a bore like
Therefore, we are not surprised that later news
brought details of how Bolsheviki propaganda
had worked its pernicious influence in the
ranks of the company, through one poisoned
sheep, who infested the flock. Which shows
that Uncle Sam cannot be too careful who he
accepts for enlistment in the new army being
organized. It should be composed of Ameri
cans only. We are glad there were no South
erners in the disaffected company; pity the/
should even claim a border state for home.
DRAFTED MEN HOME IN SEPTEMBER.
The statement that it is expected to have
the peace treaty signed by May 1 is of especial
interest to those who have relatives in the
drafted army. Under the law, these men must
be mustered out within four months after
peace is declared, so if it is signed by May 1
and speedily ratified, the men must be re
leased at least soon after September 1. But
every day that the Senate delays ratification of
the peace treaty means another day the drafted
men may be kept in service. Relatives of men
in the drafted army should bring such pres
sure to bear on the Senators from their state
that they will not dare to play politics with
the peace treaty, but will realize that the
country demands that it be ratified at once.
Tifton is doing its share of the work and get
ting its share of the emoluments—what emolu
ments there are—overseas. Ward Greene,
who is writing those interesting articles from
France for the Atlanta Journal about the Eigh
ty-Second Division, and incidentally writing a
few other things about the country and peo
ple over there, tells how he found as military
policeman at the entrance to the Bal Tabarin,
one of the gayest of the Paris resorts, Duncan
Jackson, a farmer boy from Tifton. Jenkins
not only asked for Greene’s pass and then let
him in, but he talked interestingly of Paris and
the Old Third Georgia, with which he went to
Mexico. His company was quartered in the
Bois de Boulogne, he said, and there were
score of other Georgia boys in it Incidentally,
also, Mr. Greene found Paris no longer French,
but filled with Americans.
Although the soldier discharged from ser
vice is not permitted while engaged in civil
ian pursuits to wear the regulation uniform
without the red chevrons which show that his
connection with the military establishment has
been terminated according to law, the War De
partment announces that every enlisted man
on his discharge will be allowed to retain as
his personal property the following articles of
uniform equipment: “Overseas cap (for men
with overseas service; hat for others), olive
drab shirt, woolen coat and ornaments; woolen
breeches, one pair shoes, one pair leggings,
one waistbelt, one slicker and overcoat, two
suits underwear, four pairs stockings, one pair
gloves, one toilet set, one barracks bag, gas
mask and helmet (for overseas men only.)
Soldiers who have already turned in their
equipment are authorized to redraw them by
Says the New York World: “The last official
American casualty list of the great war has'applying to the proper authorities.’’
been printed. It has been a long and long-1 . ■
continuing daily record of shock and solemn It may be noted that those who are most
the politicians watch the drift and
>n in order to swing on to the
people are not lagging in ex-
- .. fibnttewBtJr in regard to the
League of Nations. Commenting thereon, the !
Atlanta Journal says:
How runs the tide of American public
ment on the League of Nations? There
been many answers in the last few m»nti
of the same purport, but none, perhaps,
significant than the polls recently taken
newspapers in divers parts of the country.'
New York Globe found 25,877 readers in 1
of such a League, and 13,187 against it:
Chicago Daily News, 2,806 for; and 1,1
against; the Los Angeles Times, 1,624 for, knur
85 against So trends the record, going east
and west Nor are the omens different north
and south. The Grand Rapids Press, for in
stance, reports 3,602 for the League, and only
430 against it; the Topeka Capital, 672 for and
188 against; the Houston Chronicle, 1,598 for,
and 59 against Equally favorable and striking
were the findings of the Boston Post—8,664 t<
1,512; the Washington Herald—3,416 to 992;
the Sioux Falls Press. 70 to 87; the Bridgeport
Standard-Telegram—410 to 165; the Des Moin
es Capital— 187 to 49; and the Dallas Times-
Herald—1,059 to 100.
There is no mistaking the significance of
these returns from communities representing
every region of the country and all campB or
political faith. They corroborate and rein
force the evidence of the letters on this sub
ject received by United States Senators, both
Republican and Democratic. Out of approxi
mately four thousand communications of the
kind, nearly three thousand were in favor of
an international league—if not altogether on
the lines of the one now proposed, at least one
in a revised form. It is worth recalling, more
over, that some weeks ago the Twenty-second
Pennsylvania district, ordinarily aS stanch
stronghold of the Republican party as there
in the Union, went overwhelmingly for a Dem
ocratic candidate for Congress in a contest
wherein the chief issue was support of the
President’s peace policies, particularly the
League of Nations.
Because they are a practical people,
humane people, a people who love concord and
justice, a people who wish to spare their chil
dren from the tragedy and terror of another
world war—Americans stand earnestly for the
establishment of a League of Nations.
If the people have been outspoken the press
has been no less so. The Literary Digest re
cently took a poll of 1,377 daily newspapers,
representing all parties and sections of the
United States, and having a combined circula
tion of more than 21,000,000. The question
asked was: “Do you favor the proposed League
of Nations?” “Yes," replied 718, and “No,”
replied 181; "Conditional,” meaning with some
amendments, 478. A majority of the Democrat
ic papers, a majority of the Independent pa
pers and a majority of the Republican papers
were for the League, although more Republi
cans than others asked for "conditions,” per
haps reflecting the sentiment of those Republi
can leaders who are trying to get back on the
band-wagon. Many Republican editors said
that if that party continued to fight the League
the big Republican majorities of last November
will be turned into Democratic majorities on
the next election. Instances were cited to show
that where the League had been made an issue
before the people it had been overwhelming
ly triumphant.
Politicians want office first; principles are a
secondary consideration. It is safe to say that
when they hear from the people the great
majority of the leaders of both parties will
favor the League of Nations and when the
peace treaty reaches the Senate that body will
lose no time in ratifying it. If it should dally
then, it will hear from the people because their
patience with time-serving politicians is worn
threadbare.
The Soviets appear to be rapidly gaining
control of affairs in Germany, whether against
the best the present government of that coun
try can do or with the secret connivance of the
men Who are now in power in that country,
meager information leaves some doubt It ap
peared at first that the organized government
with the aid of the army, had the situation un
der control; now it appears to be fast escap
ing them. Just how much is actual fact and
how much pretense in order to deceive the
Peace Conference into giving Germany better
terms, only later events can develop. Certain
it is, that so long as the army remains loyal,
the revolution can be kept down, but once the
soldiers join in the revolt, the Soviets will win.
Russia was the home of revolution for fifty
years, but it was only when the army went to
pieces that the Empire was lost; the same was
true of Hungary. In reading what news seeps
through from Germany, note what attitude the;
soldiers take.
Admiral Sims, who is back from overseas,
says that when we arrived over there “in
April, 1917, the Central Powers were winning
the war. There were 700,000 to 800,000 tons
of shipping being lost each month and we did
not know how to stop it. We had to adopt a
new method. We did thie. We established
first a convoy system; second the depth charge;
third the listening device. The convoy system
might have been put into operation sooner than
it was but it had undergone a period of incor
rect information.” We need to read a little
stuff like this and-recall what a condition the
Allies were in a year ago, when the British
were fighting with their backs to the sea; the
French were straining every effort to save
their capital, and Russia had thrown down her
a shotgun and loaded, with cap and ball. Sam
bid it out, and always, carried it with him load- pride to thousands upon thousands of families'anxiously inquiring as tor who is going to en-janns and invited Germany to help herself, to
ed to the muzzle when he went across the and of imperishable glory to them and to the force the national prohibition law are the men I understand why a word from Mr. Wilson has
<****—for protection, I guess. '; {Nation, - It is.a welcome disappearance.’’ i who don’t give a hoot if it is not enforced. ! such powerful influence at Parig-
grown <1
being
truck i
being Dyer 4k]
in cebbege on
tbe dty. I.,
Erery other day
In a wagonload of cabbage 1
grocer,. Tbe
double body and thla la ]
cabbage, making rather an
eight. The cabbage Sad
the demand is good.
Beware of Counterfeits!
Some are Taicum Powder*
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Toothache
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Adult*—Take one or two tatti
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repeat dose three times a day, (
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Do not figure that you !
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The ADDITIONAL INSUR
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agency in some ofthel
EST, FAIREST “
the field—why
portion of
you need add
Hon?
Dependable
ourteous attention.
Ralph Puckett)
Ralph Puckett, 1
Telephone 30