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? ! THE TIFTON GAZETTE
Published Weekly
I (t the Postofflce »t Tilton, Georgia, as Second Claia
Hatter, Art ol March 8,1879.
Gazette Publishing Company, Proprietors.
J. L. Herring Editor and Manager.
Official Organ City of Tif ton
and Tift County, Georgia.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Twelve months
Four
Six Months
. $1.50
60
..76
SATURDAY NIGHT.
all the clues 1 foil
self sometimes in'
The Wandering Boy and the Old Folks at Home.
When he settles down to business, Old Man
Fact has Young Man Fiction backed up against
the ropes; when he swings his mitt with the full
steam power of Truth behind it, Romance sim
ply gasps and take s the count. Every day or so
this is illustrated; here is the latest, in a true
story which began at a home in upper New York
state and had its culmination in a small sawmill
town in South Georgia t
; Forty years ago, August 1, 1879, John Welsh
left his home in Saratoga Springs, N. Y. for a
business trip to Troy, informing his parents that
he would return the same day. He disappear- lost
ed a s if the earth had opened and swallowed j
him and until the day of their death the anxious
father and mother never saw him again. On his
dying bed his father expressed the one regret
of his life that he couuld not clasp the missing
boy in his arms. John Welsh was 22 years old
at that time and his family consecrated their
lives in an effort to find what had become of him,
ed up; except to lead my*
imminent danger of death.
That he would answer himself if he were among
the living is certain; he was loved and admired
by all who knew him and would have no cause
to absent himself. He was 6 foot 11 inches in
height; very fair skin; dark brown hair; blue
eyes; very broad shoulders; very erect carriage,
with the letters ‘J. W.’ tattooed on his left fore
arm. Would be now around 60 years old. Ask
your chief of police to help, and please answer.
I will be most grateful.”
John Welsh’s relatives now know where to
find him. Before the letter .was received, Welsh
had left Wilacoochee to make his home in Fit*
rida, but this new home was well known and the
Postmaster at Willacoochee notified Mrs. Shep
pard of his whereabouts.
The editor of the Troy Sunday Budget also
kEhlDS.
filiate Howard Taft
J
PLAYING
Charles Evans Hughes
and Elihu Root represent the brains of the Re
publican party, tfljrerefore, they represent that’
conservative element which knows that the party
in Congress must ratify the Peace Treaty and
with it the League.bf Nations. ■■■■■■
Borah, Knox, Johnson, LaFollett# and their
kind represent the radical element ipf the party
A WORD FOR THE ENUSTEO MEN
“Don’t 'adc‘ i
which, knowing full well that the
League must be ratified, pander to the anti-Wil
son vote, the’ pro-German' vote and the reaction
ary vote by open' and pretendedly unalterable
opposition to everything that came from the Par
is Peace Conferei
In the East, tl
iddle West and. the North
west, there is a strong pro-German vote. The
German voice was silent while the war was on,
but now it is being heard and next year the Ger-
wrote the Postmaster at Willacoochee, enclos-l man e i em ent expects to make itself feft.at the
ing clippings and asking him to have Welsh ei- pollg Already, Germans in New York am
ther affirm or deny Mrs. Sing’s statement. The
same information that was given the sister was
sent to the newspaper man.
But if they ever see him again, those still liv
ing of the family he left in Saratoga Springs
forty years ago will find it difficult to recognize
John Welsh. The picture printed is that of
a young man in hi s early twenties. Now he is
old and grey and a grandfather, but he is still
the John Welsh they hunted and mourned as
“OfjE MAN DON’T MAKE A MARKET.”
“One man can’t make a tobacco market,”
said a gentleman from a distant city who is very
much interested in the development of this sec
tion and who was in Tifton a few days since.
“You have superior railroad facilities here, a
Afterthe death of his parents his brothers and 1 commodious warehouse exceedingly well loca-
sisterg continued the search, without results. j ted, and one of the best tobacco warehousemen
80 QCEEI
Soon after his disappearance an item appear-jin the business. -Tobacco buyers are already
ed in a Saratoga paper that Welsh had been favorably impressed with Tifton and with all
condemned to die on the gallows for the murder! these you should have one of the best tobacco
of his wife near Jefferson City,- Mo. Members markets in South Georgia. But it will take the
the family hurried to Jefferson City, only to
flnB that there was no such case on record and
they finally became convinced that John Welsh
had been murdered and that the story was sent
out to lead his relatives on a false trail. Attor
neys and detectives were employed, but without
result. Years went on; men and women in their
$rime grew grey and decrepit and passed
away; children grew' to man and womanhood,
married, filled their allotted sphere and passed
on; another generation was born and took its
place; the great war shook the foundations of
two continents and in its holocust burned away
- the old order of things and a new one took its
place. Meanwhile, the family of John Welsh
searched, despaired, and finally gave him up for
dead.
And all this time Welsh Was living at the little
eawmill town of Pine Bloom, on the Brunswick
and Albany railroad, now the Atlantic Coast
Line, near Willacoochee. He went to Pine
Bloom in 1885 and went to work at the saw mill
of B. B. Gray, where he remained for 26 years.
There he married a Miss Mollie Hinson and rear
ed four children—tw 0 sons, Edward and Walter,
and two daughters, Katherine and Hattie. He
is'living now at Bagdad, Fla. Those who knew
him at Pine Bloom have no douubt about his he
wing the long-saught John Welsh of Saratoga
Springs. His family physician, Dr. Jefferson
Wilcox, who did his practice for 26 years, often
heard him relate the story of his disappearance,
said his people were wealthy and had spent
fortune looking for him. He said he had al
lays gone under his correct name and had never
ted to elude them.
[is family now know his whereabouts, and it
lufe to modern newspaper methods. The Sun-
lay Budget, of Troy, N. Y., recently resurrect
ed the story of the missing John Welsh, and be
sides featuring it, sent copies together with pic-
out the East with request that they publish.
This was done and a copy of The Grit, of \Vil-
This was done and a copy of The grit, of Wil
liamsport, Pa., containing the story and photo
graph, fell int 0 the hands of Mrs. W. T. Sing, of
Route 2, Jacksonville, Fla. Mrs. Sing had mar-
' tied Edward Welsh, John Welsh’s oldest son,
and had often heard his father speak of leaving
■ home in the manner described in the newspaper.
She wrote to the Williamsport paper and gave
the information that John Welsh was at Willa-
lee six months ago. This was sent by the
unsport paper to the Troy paper and by
a transmitted to his sister, Mrs. K. E. Shep-
I, 449 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, N. Y.
at once wrote to the Postmaster at Willacoo
. vu^e to verify the information, and this letter
f \ is pathetic in its revelation of hopelessness
out of forty years of search and heart-
lding disappointment, as well as confidence In
the wandering one. She enclosed newspaper
clippings, and said:
"The enclosed will be self explanatory.
Mease do your utmost to prove that I am wrong
-in my opinion, for I look on the communication
united co-operation of Tifton and Tift county
people—some of that well-known Tifton spirit,
to make the tobacco market here a success.
“Tobacco is essentially the crop for the one-
horse farmer. Large planters can grow it at a
profit, but the small farmer who has his own
help can put in a few acres of tobacco to greater
advantage and realize a greater profit. The
season is so short and the yield per acre so large
that it offers opportunities no other crop can
give. I earnestly believe that it is the great
money crop of this section for the future. W
began growing tobacco in this portion of South
Georgia less than five years ago, yet despite un
favorable weather conditions the crop this sum
mer will probably sell for more than the great
est peach crop ever harvested in Georgia. Of
cinnati are demanding “German propa;
German education-and German kultur in
ica.” It is this German vote Borah, LaFi
et al., are playing for,
During the war, the Administrat
many enemies. It was necessary to ma1.
in order to win the war. To the vote o:
enemies the Republican radicals are playing
with every string of a harp that is tuned with
misrepresentation and strung with falsehood.
In the far West there is a strong anti-Chinese
and anti-Japanese vote. . To this Johnson and
his ilk are pandering by distorting and misrepre
senting the Shantung affair—although when
Germany seized Shantung twenty-one years ago
not a Republican protested because of their
friendship for the German vote in Wisconsin
and the Middle West. —
With the radicals making grand-stand plays
in the Senate for every disloyal vote, while Taft,
Hughes and Root caters to the loyal and conser
vative Republican vote—the vote of the Old
Guard—the Republican party is playing both
ends against the middle for success at the polls
in 1920.
Meanwhile, the Peace Treaty and the League
of Nations will be ratified.’ The Republicans
will not dare refuse ratification and go before an
outraged people next year. Mr. Taft, Mr.
Hughes and Mr. Root are making this ratifica
tion possible and at the same time allowing the
radicals to save their face—such as it is—by
unimportant reservations and interpretations,
many of which are already incorporated or cap
be finally discarded as non-essential.
Like the Germans, the Senate will finally rati
fy the Peace Treaty. They do not want to, but
they will have to. Like the Germans, they will
protest and talk and delay, but finally, like the
Germans, they will walk up and sign.
tee about the war,” said Major
Clark Howell f 2r., juflt back from overseas. “The
enlisted men fought and won it and if there are
any bouquets going around, they deserve every
'one of them."
Major Clark Howell, Jr., is the son of Editor
Clark Howel^of the Atlanta Constitution. At
She outbreak of the war he went into the officers
training camp and won a Captain’s commission.
He went overseas with the 326th Infantry in the
famous 82nd Division and won his promotion by
gallantry in action. After the Armistice Major
Howell was one of the two officers in his Division
selected for a four months’ course at Oxford
University, England, where all of his expenses
were paid and his pay continued. H e was one
of 150 Americans assigned to Oxford in the edu-
cational plan inaugurated in the A. E. F. early in
the year. Major Howell has just reached At
lanta after finishing his course at Oxford, and
in an interview in the Atlanta Journal has some
very kind words to say of the British—a novelty
among the American soldiers returning from
overseas.
Major Howell’s tribute is a deserved one for
the men in the ranks. After all is said, they are
the men who won the war and in th e course of
time this credit will be given them. Major
Howell displays far-sightedness in being among
the first. ?
When war was declared many young men
whose training and education fitted them for
officers entered the training camps because the
army needed officers as well as men. Others
sought the preferred positions because they
thought them easier or the danger less. The
great bulk of American manhood, rich as well
as poor, realized that the army needed more
private soldiers than anything else and enlisted
as such. They did not intend to remain in the
army after the war was over and their only ob
ject was to {ret the job finished as quick as pos
sible.
Recognition of these men and their disinter
ested service may be a little tardy, but it is
coming. Major Howell has well expressed
what will soon be universal opinion.
Editor
Tifton,
Dear Ur.
of July 17th
the Gazette,, aa
“AN
‘Bather a queer)
veloped lb Lownd
•ehti a problem is]
■traction.
“The County
for contract* to build,
across the Wi
National Higbvay,
“ft was advei
only one hid was
missioners Co:
decided to do the'
ordered the m
iny steel and cement,
chiner, ete. About the time they wert
ready to proceed their attorney - advised
them that it waa not lefal for them to- do
the work. Then at a sacrifice they had
to let the contract. The expenditure for
the bridge was much less than the county
spends every month or so for road buUd-
inr.
[f a county can build roads why can-
uot the seme authorities build bridges
w-here the expenditure for bridges is much,
less? Here appears to be a legal aplit-
ting of hair to a point too fine tor the
layman to understand. —Tifton Gazette.”
This article' plades the county attorney
in' tile attitude of having waited nntii all
the expenditures for material etc., had
been made, before advising the Commis
sioners that it was not leral for .them to
build the bridge, which is erroneous. . The
county attorney advised the Commis
sioners as to the law, relative to bridge
construction after the first advertisement
BEGINNERS SHOULD BE PATIENT.
course your people have much to learn about
Says the Valdosta Times:
growing, cutting and curing tobacco, but that
will come in the course of time. Meanwhile,
Tifton and Tift county business men should bend
their efforts towards making the market here a
success.”
Words so true that they leave little room for
comment. Our people invested a quarter of a
million dollars in a packing plant last year to
promote livestock raising; now they cannot let
the opportunity pass to put a little energy and a
little individual effort into making the tobacco
market here a success. Tobacco offers an op
portunity to this section second only to the live
stock industry. With Tifton’s facilities it
should be a central market and to make it such
every man interested in the development of the
city and county should devote his energy. The
tobacco crop should bring a million dollars in
cash to Tift county this year; properly develop
ed, the industry should bring five million here
next year. If prices stay up it affords the small
farmer an opportunity to win financial indepen
dence. But to interest the small farmer, a cash
market must be assured; a market at which he
knows he can get the best prices. To give him
such a market is up to the business men of Tifton
“One man don’t make a market ’’
Tackle the tobacco proposition with the Tif
ton spirit.
An aged Grady county woman is about to
realize one or two of her life dreams, judging
from the Cairo Messenger, which says: “A Cairo
motor company had quite an usual experience
Tuesday morning when one of the oldest ladies
in Grady county walked into its place of business
and bought a Ford. This purchase was unsolic
ited and came as a surprise as the lady above
mentioned is 84 years of age and has never own
ed a car. In placing the order she stated that
she wanted to live long enough to 0 wn and ride
in her own Ford and vote twice, and see all
branches run with whiskey and a dipper hang
ing every three feet along the streams so that
every fellow could drink to his heart’s content ;
also wanted to see half the woiid planted in to
bacco, so that everybody would be able to ride,
smoke and drink.” She can ride and smoke
from the destroyer or one of his agents all she wants to, but we expect sad disappolnt-
ire and cast doubts on the fact that myjment awaits her on the drinking proposition, un-
was murdered. I had many such in my Jess she is brave enough to tackle bone-dry
for Mm. Nothing ever yet came of [moonshine.
j j
' ‘ ' - '
BUZZARDLETS GOING HOME
'
According to some reports reaching Valdosta
there is some disappointment being manifested
by new tobacco growers in this section on ac
count of the low price received for some of their
tobacco last week.
It is pointed out, however, that these growers
should not be discouraged nor disappointed, for
the reason that they have not yet given the new
crop a fair nor a thorough test. The offerings
so far have been the first cuttings, and the best
tobacco, as a rule, has not been cured and offer
ed on the market, and again, the growers have
not yet learned the art of grading their tobacco.
The Times several days ago pointed out that
grading was an important factor in selling to
bacco successfully. Only the best tobaco should
be packed together. It should not be mixed, for
if there is low and high grade tobacco in the
same.packing, it will always sell at the price of
the low grade. When the growers understand
this and learn how to grade they will then be
giving the new industry a fair trial and it can
not be judged unless this is done. Those who
are most disappointed so far will find that their
tobacco was low grade and it was mixed, and
was the first cutting, which is not the best to
bacco on the stalk. Judgment on tobacco as a
successful crop should be withheld until its
growth, care and curing, as well as grading, is
understood by the growers. Then if it does
not bring good prices, the reason will be plain
that it is not a paying crop.
No one should be discouraged at this time
until these other things have all been carefully
worked out.
To which the Moultrie Observer adds:
The Times gives good advice in the above. No
new crop can be produced with the greatest pro
fit the first year it is tried. If you think so,
watch a farmer from the north or west, who
tries out cotton the first year after he moves to
this section. '
Successful tobacco growing will come with
years of patient study and painstaking effort.
The same is true of peanuts. Many have become
disappointed and turned from peanut growing
too quickly. The peanut crop is a good one.
It is a mistake for one who lacks experience to
grow a big crop the first year, especially, when
there is an insufficient amount of labor or an
insufficient number of harvesting and threshing
machines available. Those who will finally
make money raising peanuts are those who
stick to them year by year, and make some im
provement in cultivation and process of harvest
ing and marketing eafch year.
We have known some farmers to go In too
heavy in the hog business the first year and lose
money.' There is evidently good profit in hogs,
but It is profit that only those who are prepared
to raise nogs and know how to handle them can
make.
and before the second. The second ad
vertisement was then run in. the Valdosta
Times. In the absence of the attorney
the Commissioners rejected the only bid,-
and resolved to build the road, and went
on buying material. Later, the attorney
his own motion filed with the Commis
sioners a written option.
You ask “if a county can build road*
why cannot the same authorities build
bridges”? The answer is; because the-
laws say not.
Turn to section 387 of the Code of Geo
rgia of 1910, and yon will find that It
reads, in part, as follows:
“Whenever it becomes necessary to
build or repair any courthouse, jail, bridge
or other public works in any county
in this State, the officers having charge of
the roads and revenues and public build
ing of said county shall cause the same
to be built or repaired by letting out the
contract therefo r to the lowest bidder at
public outcry, before the courthouse
door, after having advertised the letting
of said contract as hereinafter provided.”
Then follows a provision for the rejec
tion of bids and the building by contract
or sealed proposals to he invited in the
same manner.
Section 388 provides the character of
the notice.
Section 389 provides that the above re
quirements are not applicable when the
work can be done for less than $300,
Section 422 provides that iu case of a
county bridge between counties the work
may be done without letting the contract
when the work can be done for leas than;
five hundred dollars.
The Supreme Court of Georgia, in the
cases of Garrison et al. vs. Perkins 187
Some of the buzzardlets the Chicag 0 Tri
bune has been hatching for several years are
finding their way to the home roost.
Lajt week' we read of continued race riots in
Washington,, right at the doors of the capitol,
so to speak, where for half a century the “bloody
shirt” was waved threateningly at the "South.
At the time we remarked that, while we de
precated lawlessness and mob violence any
where, if race riots had to come, we had rather
hear of them in Washington than any other
place except; Chicago.
Now Chicago is undergoing its period of law
lessness, when the races clashed.
Perhaps after the smoke clears away, good,
will cQjae all. It will he recognized that the. “!?uwl
race question is national, not sectional, and the
different portions of the country in which
there is an outbreak will have the sympathy and
good-will of other sections that have likewise
suffered.
Meanwhile, comment on the Chicago situa
tion can perhaps best repeat the words the Tri
bune used in regard to the South "only about
one year ago:
"Chicago is uncouth. Chicago is uneducated.
These things’could not take place in a communi
ty where the people had been taught to respect
the law and Jove good order. The rest of the
nation should take the matter in hand and teach
Chicago to respect human rights and human lib
erty.”
“We thank thee, Jew,” for those sweet words.
LEAVE THEIR WIDOWS IN WANT.
Comes from Macon a news story of the widow
of a former policeman of that city who shot her
self through the heart because she was in want
and could not earn a living. The story is not un
usual, too ordinary, in fact.
We are not familiar with the history of this
particular officer but w e doubt not that many
times during his life he risked his bodily safety
in upholding the law—in defense of the peace
and good order of the city. After he is gone
his widow ended her life because she could Bo
longer procure the means of sustaining life.
Doubtless had th e peliceman lived past his days
of usefulness, he also would have felt the pinch
‘County authorities having charge of
tft^ roads and revenues of a county can
not build bridges of the character re
ferral to in section 387 of the Code of
1910 except by letting out the contract
therefore, according to the provisions of
section 387, et seq., aad the former of
these cases held that “where the Ordinary
of a county, having charge of. county af
fairs, bought steel and other material *53
used the same in the construction of
bridges of the character referred to in
section 387 of the Code, the purchase price
of such material was not a valid charge
against the county which could be en
forced by the vendor of the material.” •
On inquiry of Hon. Clifford Walker,
Attorney General of the State, and other
attorneys, as to whether doing the work
under the Federal aid plan changed the
legal status, they expressed the opinion
that it did not.
In reply to the same question propoun
ded to the Secretary of Agriculture of the
United States, who is charged with the
responsibility of making the rules and re
gulations governing road construction
under the Federal aid plan, he cited sec
tion six of the Act of Congress approved
February 28th, 1910, which reads as fol
lows:
‘The construction work and labor in
each state shall be done in accordance
with its laws, and under the direct sup
ervision of the State Highway Department
subject to the inspection and approval of
the Secretary of Agriculture (meaning of
the United States), and in accordance
with the rules and regulations made in
pursuance of this act.”
It seems therefore, to be the law that
bridges to cost over $300 should be built
by letting same to contract There are
of want and suffering.
All of which leads to the thought: Why do
not municipalities provide some form of health,
life and accident insurance by which faithful
officials may be provided for in old age or ill
health, or their families cared for after the one
who provided for them is gone! This would
not be charity—it would be good business- ,
Perhaps 'we will have something like this
icipal, state and county affairs are
i, not political, principles. When
ernment tinder a commission and
•e officials whose tenure is tern-
also provisions tbit the contractor must
give bond. It such be the lav, and la a
bad lav, it ihonld be repealed. If sot
repealed it ehonld be followed.
Very truly jronra.
O. SI. Smith,
County Attorney, Lovndea County, Qa.
,,4
A Traveling Man’s Experience. '
Yon may learn aomethlnx from the fol
lowing by W. a Ireland, a traveling
fifty centa and told him to bny me a
bottle of Chamberlaln’a Colic ana Diarr
hoea Remedy and to take no rabatitate.
I took a doable dole of It according to
direction* and went to sleep. At five
o’clock the next morning I waa called by
my order end toek a train for my next
■topping place, a wett man,”: ‘ ■