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About Schley County news. (Ellaville, Ga.) 1889-1939 | View Entire Issue (July 11, 1889)
The First Grandchild. “Grandmother F’ called the farmer, and there came Out through the vine wreathed porch a blush ing dame, Surprised and eager at the strange new name. The clock within rang forth the chime for eight, “A message? Read it—quick—how can you wait?" Her husband, smiling, leaned upon the gate, At arm’s length holding in his trembling hand The crisp, white sheet, while he the writing scanned, Then road once more, with voice almost un manned : “ ‘Thy granddaughter salutes tli9o, ‘‘Baby BeU,”’ Mother and child, thank God, are doing well.” A moment’s silence on the proud twain fell. She broke it soon, “Grandfather I con grat”— “What, me?” the good man cried, lifting his hat— Grandfather?-—me? I hadn’t thought of that I” —Anna A. Preston, in Harper’s. IN THE NICK OF TIME. Miss Lily Somer3, night telegraph operator at the Floodwood station, sat before her table on which the telegraph instrument clicked busily, a thoughtful expression on her face. A face whose expression was its charm, that never could be called pret ty, but that, nevertheless, suggested a possibility—only a possibility—of being handsome. For there is a vast differ ence between pretty and handsome. Pretty people seldom know very much; but to be handsome a person must have brains, an inner as well as an outer beauty. Floodwood was a forlornly desolate spot, and one where any woman, except Lily, would have been afraid to come, much less to stay alone all night with nothing but the wind sadly sighing through the wires overhead and the shrill shrieks of the wild cats away up on the mountain side to keep her company through her nightly vigils, But to her there was something fascinating in the very desolation of the place. From ear ly childhood she had been accustomed to commune with nature in her wilder scenes, and played and wandered at will in the mountain glens and canons. With no foolish old woman or silly nurse girl to frighten her childish senses with sto ries of hideous ghosts and monstrous goblins, she had grown to womanhood naturally brave and fearless, In truth she did not understand the meaning of the word fear. Her office was nothing more than a roughly built shanty, seven or eight feet square, with a small window in each end and one in the door which faced the railroad track. It had been hurriedly put together with green lumber while the road was in course of construction, with the intention of only using it temporarily until a better one could be built, but, as usual in such cases, it had done duty for its original purpose ever since. The rough, unpainted boards were badly warped and shrunken by long ex posiyo to the elements, and in many places large knots had fallen completely out. No doubt in the winter time the bleak mountain wind cheerily whistled through those many apertures, and while one side of the unhappy operator was being nicely browned like a piece of toast by the red-hot stove the other side would be refrigerated like a frozen rabbit. It was about 1 o’clock In the morning ■when Lily leccived an order from the train dispatcher, which read as follows: To Operator, Floodwood:—H old No. 21 until No. 23 arrives. E. K. C. On receipt of this order she immedi ately displayed the red signal light, which is furnished all telegraph stations for this purpose, in a conspicuous place, in plain sight of passing trains, and also where it could be seon *rom the office window. The necessity for this order and posi tion of the two trains, briefly stated, aro as follows: No. 22 had arrived at Silver Creek, ten miles west of Floodwood, a few m minutes after No. 21 had pasicd Red wood, which was thirteen miles east of Floodwood. As No. 22 was late and could go no futhcr on tho schedule, ac cording to the rules of tho road, they would be compelled to lay at Silver Creek until No. 21 arrived there, unless they could get orders by telegraph to meet them at some other station. Flood wood being the only intervening tele graph office between tho two trains, the SCHLEY COUNTY NEWS. dispatcher gave the above order to that station, and as soon as it was properly acknowledged by Lily he sent another order to No. 22 at Silver Creek, which read in this manner: To Conductor and Engineer No. 22:— Meet No. 21 at Floodwood. Approach care fully. E. K. C. The intelligent reader will readily un derstand that by means of these orders the two trains would meet each other at Floodwood in perfect safety, notwith standing that one of them knew noth ing of the arrangement. To explain: If No. 21 should arrive first, they would be stopped by the red light, which showed that there were or ders for them at this station. The con ductor and engineer would immediately proceed to the telegraph office, where the operator -would deliver them a copy of the order to hold them for No. 22. This would be sufficient, and they would wait until No. 22 arrived. If No. 22 should arrive first, the execution of the order would be yet more simple. No. 22 would take siding, and as soon as they were clear Lily would be at liberty to take down the red signal lantern, and allow No. 21 to pass without stopping. No. 22 having arrived, the object of the order was already fulfilled. If both trains should happen to arrive at the same time, the red signal would stop No. 21,and as No. 22 had instructions to “approach carefully,” they would do so, expecting to find No. 21 occupying the main track. Lily perfectly understood the import ance of the order she had just received, and during the long hour which wore slowly away she kept careful watch of the signal light which, however, con tinued to burn as brightly as ever. At last she heard a rumbling noise away in the west which gradually became louder and louder and more distinct. By this time she knew that No. 22 was coming and would probably get in on the siding before No. 21 should arrive. The rumbling became louder and louder each moment; the earth began to tremble, and the peculiar vibration in the air which gives warning of a yapidly approaching train hummed loudly in her cars. She began to feel anxious, as they were evidently coming at a high rate of speed, and not approaching as carefully as their order had instructed them; she also had not heard the whistle which is always sounded by trains -when ap proaching a station, and this omission increased her fears that something was wrong. But she was given no time for fur ther reflection, as the train now dashed around a curve not a hundred yards dis tant, running at full speed. Lily flew out and stood between the rails swinging her hand lamp wildly across the track and shouting at the top of her clear young voice. But no at tention was paid to her signal, the train coming madly on, with such a rattle and clash that it drowued the sound of her voice. The roaring, rushing train was now upon her, and she barely had time to spring from the track and escape with her life. With a rattling crash and an awful rush, of air the hissing, throbbing monster sped swiftly past her, while the clang, clank of the car wheels passing over a loose splice near by was so rapid that it resembled the rapid hammering on the anvil in a blacksmith shop. For a moment Lily was unnerved and bewildered, but suddenly arousing her self to action she rushed into the office, and seizing a piece of firebrick that did duty for a stovo leg, sho turned and hurled it through tho window of the cabooso that was just passing. An in stant later the red lights in tho rear end of tho train had disappeared around a curve in the cut, and the rattle of the run away train quickly lessened in the dis tance. Lily's heart throbb ed painfullyand she was seized with a sudden fit of shiver ing, which most persons of delicate or ganizations aro subject to when under great excitement. As soon as she had somewhat recovered she went into the office, and calling the train dispatcher, who answered at once, sho said: “No 22 passed at full speed and No. 21 not yet arrived!" “My God!” telegraphed back tho dis patcher as swiftly as his frightened fin gers could form tho letters, “the crew must be asleep. They will striko in that cut and pile up fifty feet high! Heav ens! This is horrible!” Lily then went on to explain that sha had attempted to awaken them by throwing a brick through a caboose wiu- dow and on hearing this the dispatchei opened his key without waiting for her to finish and said excitedly: “Bun to the east end of the siding, and, if you see them backing them up, throw the switch and let them in on the siding. No. 21 is not due here five minutes, and there is a chance for them yet.” “I have no switch key,* 1 said Lily. “Break the lock with a hammer, a rock, or anything,” was the quick reply, “Run, fly 1” Lily seized an old ax that was lying handy, and, with a vague idea that she might also need the red light, she took it into her other hand and flew up the the track with speed of the wind, at the imminent risk of falling and breaking her neck in the inky darkness. Once she stumbled and fell, and the lantern was dashed from her hand and went roiling along the ground far be yond her reach by the sudden impetus which her fall had given it, but without pausing to regain it she sprang to her feet and bounded on. The switch at the end ol the siding was fully half a mile from the office, and about the same distance from the beginning of the cut. If No. 22 could back in on the siding in time they would be safe, but if they attempted to back down the main track past the telegraph office they were liable to be overtaken by No. 21 before going half the dis tance, as, according to the dispatcher’s figures, No. 21 should now be very close. As Lily reached the switch a pair of gleaming red lights suddenly appeared around the curve in the cut, and she knew that the train was already rapidly backing up, and that she had not a mo ment to lose. Feeling for the lock in the darkness, she then struck it several heavy blows with the ax, which she still retained. Luckily, one of the blows taking effect, the broken lock dropped to the ground. She then grasped the switch lever and lied to throw it over, but it resisted her utmost efforts to move it. The train was now only a short dis tance away, and with the energy of de spair she braced her feet against the switch standard, and, putting forth her strength in one mighty effort, the ob stinate lever came over with a sudden jerk and No. 22 glided safely in on the siding. The shrill scream of a whistle was now heard in the cut, and as soon as the train was clear she again exerted all her strength and threw the switch back to its former position. A headlight now flashed around the curve, and a moment later No. 21 rushed roaring along. Lily, by her bravery, promptness and presence of mind, had averted a terrible calamity. At 1he official investigation which took place a few days later the entire crew of the runaway train acknowledged that they wero asleep, and that the con ductor had been awakened by a brick thrown in at the cabooso window. The only excuse they had for their neglect of duty was that thoy had been on the road for thirty-two consecutive hours without sleep or rest, and that they were completely -worn out. Notwithstanding the fact that the management of the road was responsible for requiring the men to run the long double trip, the entire crow ware sum marily discharged for neglect of duty, as though man's enduranco was an infal ible bank, to be drawn on at pleasure! Grim Humor. It was at Tonquiu. The young Count do T-, who was serving as a private in a light infantry Frdnch regiment, had his skull fractured by a bullet during an engagement with the Black Flags. He was taken up for dead, and removed to the ambulance. “He won’t recover,” said the surgeon-major; “one can see tho brain.” At this word, the patient suddenly opened both his eyes. “You can see my brain?" ho asked; “I beseech you, major, write at once to apprise me father of the fact; he made me join the army, because he pretended I had no brains.” — Argonaut, Not an Intentional Smile. Miss May Morningside—I’m very sor ry to hear of your brother’s death, Mr. Villers; but you’ll p rdon me if I say that I see no reason to smile over it! 3lr. Yorke Villers—Oil, doar, no! Fta not smiling, don’t you know! It>—iw must be this eyeglass I'm trying w taep in! A sign writer—The stotwqjraptac. BURMESE CUSTOMS. ideal Love-Making and Simple Marriage Ceremonies, An Inveterate Habit with Men, Women and Children. I bought two cigars to-day of a woman in the bazaar, writes Trank G. Carpenter from Rangoon, Burmah. They are each a foot long, and one looks for all the world like a pooily de veloped ear of corn with the husk on. They are vcr y mild . and have little to ' bacco in them > Being made of owher lcaves in connection with the tobacco. All of the Burmese people smoke—men, women and children. I have not yet seen any babies leave the breast for a whiff of a cigarette, as the books on Burmah state they do, but I see many three and four year old children smok ing, and the Burmese maiden learns to smoke as soon as she can walk. All of the girls are adepts in rolling cheroots, and in Burmese courting the girl gives her lover cheroots rolled with her own bands and the two take, I doubt not, whiffs about in the smoking of them. It is common to pass the cigar from one friend to another, and in a group of three girls, whom I watched having their fortunes told under the shadow of the great golden pagoda, I saw that one cigar did for the trio. The Burmese do not court iu the day time. Love making goes on during the evening, and the lover never calls until the old folks have gone to bed. He always brings a friend with him, and the maiden dresses herself in her best and paints and powders for the occasion. Elopements are common and the lovers are so romantic that they undertake them many times when there is no oppo sition on the part of the parents. After remaining away for several weeks they come back and ask for forgiveness, and the marriage is then often celebrated, though not before. The Burmese marriage is a very slm pie affair. It consists ordinarily of the eating rice together in the presence of friends and of saying that the two pro pose to live together as man and wife. The matches are sometimes made by the parents and sometimes by professional match-makers. The most common method, however, is by the young peo ple fixing the arrangement for them selves and carrying on their billing and cooing the same as we do at home. The Burmese groom furnishes the wedding breakfast, and lie carries it to the bouse oi the bri le. After the marriage rice is thrown after the couple and they are ex pected to pass seven days in seclusion, though this is not common. The newly married pair live with the bride’s parents for several years at least, and in case that one of these parents dies the other becomes an inmate of the family for lifetime. It is presumptuous for a young man to set up housekeeping im mediately after marriage, and he is sup posed to work for a certain time for his wife. The favorite time for marrying is in April and May, and most of the Burmese are married le'ore they are twenty. As to property rights, the woman’s money is kept apart from the man’s, and she has an equal right with her husband in the property earned during married life. In case of a divorce she gets back all of the money she brought into the family and half of the earnings. She has a right to her own earnings, and the laws of divorce are more iu favor of her than her husband. She can get a divorce if her husband is poor and unable to support her, or if he is idle and luzy. If he is always ailing or if he becomes a cripple after marriage, she may bo divorced, and on the other hand the man may get a divorce for three reasons. The first is if his wife has no sons. Tho second is if she does not love him, and tho third is if she persists in going where lie forbids her. In addition to this, divorces are permissible by mutual agreement. They are not common, however, not reputa ble, and it is a Burmese saying that a divorced woman needs small wooing. Another Burmese saying is that: “Monks are beautiful when they are loan, four-footed animals when they are fat, men when they are learned and women when they are married.” Burmese women are treated well in the family and they are the equals of the men in family affairs. They have their say in all business matters and the only place in which their inferiority is notice able is in religion. Tho Burmese are Buddhists, and a Buddhist woman has no chance to go to heaven save by her soul at death passing into the body of ■ man. If she is wonderfully pious dur ing thii life, such a transmigration may take place, and I note that the chief worshippers at the pagodas here are women. Buddhist teachers put woman much lower in the scale of morality than man, and they maintain that the sins of one woman are equal to the sins of 3000 of the worst men that ever lived. There are about two hundred million Bud dhist women in the world and none of these have any other hope of immortality than this. Living as they do, the Burmese can not have much of home life. The houses of the great majority tire more like tents than anything else. They are made of plaited bamboo walls thatched with palm leaves, which are pinned to the rafters of bamboo the size of fishing poles. The most of the houses are of one story, and this is built upon piles so high above the ground that you can walk under the floor without stooping. Under the house the live stock of the family is kept, and there is sometimes a work-room inside this lower foundation. The house has no furniture in an Ameri can sense; the family sleep upon mats and they keep their heads off the floor by resting them upon bamboo pillows. Still they are ■wonderfully civilized, con sidering their surroundings. They are the kindest and most manly people I have met since leaving Japan, and their women are bright, intelligent, and in the cases of the younger ones, beautiful. The Cheerful Coyote. J. T. Beckwith and a few other live neighbors of the Santiam bottoms, near Jefferson, clubbed together recently and expended $50 for the purchase of two fine foxhounds, and the result has been the slaughter of eight ravenous coyotes in the last two or three weeks. These hounds have already almost paid for themselves in scalp bounty, while there is no telling how many dollars -worth of animals they have saved. There is a little joke on these same enterprising farmers of “the bottoms” which is worth telling. Some months ago Mr. Beck with, G. G. Glean, Mr. Steiver and others organized a club of 25 members for the extermination of the wily brutes, and when one of its members killed a coyote he received $1 from each mem ber of the club in addition to the bounty. This arrangement worked to a charm until one member more deter mined than the rest became enthusiastic in the chase, followed a big fellow with such perseverance that he chased him to his hole and there found and captured the two old ones and a litter of eight on the high road to development. Then came the demand for $10 from each member of the club, which made some of the quiet farmers belonging to it take a tight grip on their wallets and refuse to pouy up, and the club issued a mani festo of repudiation and burst—dis solved partnership and withdrew its dec larations of organized warfare. A Puzzled Porker. Out on a Yolo county ranch a few years ago a small band of hogs were confined in a lot fenced iu with logs. In one part of the fence there was a hollow log, shaped something like a joint of stopepipe, one opening being inside the lot and the other outside. One day an intelligent porker discovered this fact and thereafter went out and re turned at his own pleasure. The owner of the ranch happened to witness the mode of egress of the hog one day and decided to put up a job on him. By slewing tho log around a little he so contrived as to place both openings of the log inside the lot. In a few mo ments the hog ran up to his usual exit and passed through the log. Imagine his surprise when he walked out the other end of the log and found himself still inside the lot. He looked about him in a puzzled way, scratched his car, and tried again. Same result. “Well. I’ll be hanged,” grunted the bog, Again he ran into the log and ran out again with the same result. He became wild with rage and dashed through the log so often and so fast that the smoke began to issue from the cracks. Then he gave it up as a bad job, and, so the owner of the hog says, never went near the fence until tho day of his death. Willing to Divide. Presti ligitateur (during his grand gold-piece act)—“I could take $20 gold pieces from your pockets all night. ” Seedy Individual—“Go ahead, pard; I’ll give ye half.”
