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About Schley County news. (Ellaville, Ga.) 1889-1939 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 1889)
^osrqllg PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY. Subscription $1,00.1 Tear la ADVANCE. 8, DON. McLEOD Editor. The two would lie rulers of Hayti, are still hanging away at each other. They will probably wind up like the kil kenny cats. ■« A bloodless duel between Pat Calhoun ana J. D. Williamson, is said to have appeased the godess of honor. What a queer, capricious old jade she must be! Tomorrow is the day appointed by Judge Gustin for Tom Woolfolk to meet his murdered father, mother, sisters and brother on the shores of eternity. Americus has become such a great railroad centre that t lie citzens have pe titioned the city council not to allow any more railroad tracks to cross Jackson street. It strikes us that the groomers of gub natorial racers are trotting out their can didates rather early, the election for governer is a long way off yet. The taxable property of Georgia is said to be piling up encourageingly, the returns show an increase over last years running high up in the millions. Atlan ta and Columbus, showing the greatest increase. If the legislature is to waste the larger part of each session in quibbling over the state railroad question, we had bet ter get rid of the thing as soon as possi ble. Sell it for what it will bring or even to give it away would be money saved to the tax payers. The editor of the Buena Vista Patriot rolls out all the Georgia editors on the rolling business, he claims to have an old roller that has been rolling since 18- 82 that out rolls all the rollers that have rolled iu his office since it began to roll. “Let’er roll” Brother Christopher. There is nothing small about Ran dolph county, judging from two large well gotton up newspapers she supports (and there is no better way of judging a county than by its newspapers) Now she is considering getting up a big county fair and contesting for the$l,0U0, premi um at the state fair. At a big Alliance meeting near Adairs ville last Friday the wife of Dr. Felton took the stump, a la Susan B. Anthony, and made a rousing speech in the defence of her husband. The Doctor's rather slippery political positions, needs lots of defending, and now if the Doctor will go home, don amotherhubbardand devote Ms talents to the kitchen and house keeping the change would no doubt be beneficial to Georgia politics. This seems to be an age of monuments, after erecting monuments all over the land to the heroes of the present day. T he American people have gone back to look after the memories of the heroes of the past. A two hundred thousand dol lar monument to perpetuate the ment or/ of the pilgrim fathers has just been unveiled at Plymouth landing. The people of Houston county are so enthused over the disposition of their peai'h crop this summer that every avail a ile acre of within two iniies of Fort at ev t mt can be bought or leased will he planted m peach trees this fall, on account of the enormous peach crop of t ns year. It is estimated that fully half a million fruit trees will lie growing around that town next spring. A famine is reported in Samoa and we would not be surprised to hear soon of the same in Hayti, These little onehorse governments, that got along shabbily at best cannot long survive the devastation of local revolutions. After their people have worn themselves to a fraz fighting and starvation stalks in their midst, it will make precious little difference to them who enjoys the questionable hon or of ruling the land. We thought the railroad commission was created and maintained for tl»e ex press purpose of protecting the people against the impositions, discriminations, and combinations of large and powerful railroad corporations. lithe com miss ion has not sufficient power to do this and give all the protection that is claim ed for the Olive bill, the legislature ought to invest it with more. If it can not be made strong enough to aceom _ plish the object for which it was creat ed. then it is a poor thing and ought to be abolished altogether. REUNION YESTERDAY. HUNDREDS OF OLD VETERANS MEET AND SHAKE HANDS—WIDE OPEN HOSPITALITY OF AMERICUS. ELOQUENT AND TOUCHING ADDRESSES —A MOTHER WHOSE SON CaME BACK NO MORE-SUMTER, THE GRANDEST COUN TY ON THE GRANDEST CONTINENT— Plenty to eat and to leave.—A DOUBLE REUNION WITH US.—MEETING OLD FRIENDS AND SCHOOL-MATES OF 25 YEARS AGO— A REALIZATION OF OUR BRIGHTEST ANTICIPATIONS. The Veterans reunion, and big barbe cue at Americus yesterday was a success. Hundred of old confederates poured in from all the surrounding counties. The tide began Tuesday and continued stead ily until late yesterday morning. The surviving defenders of the lost cause found the doors of every house in Amer icus thrown wide open to them, ‘•No hotel bills for old veterans,” was the or der of the day. At 8 o’clock yesterday A. M. all met at the old court house and badges bearing the names of the regi ment or batalion and the battles in which it had been engaged, were distrib uted to the respective commands. A piece of artillery in the grove near the depot began at 9 o’clock to boom the national salute, and enlivening strains of martial music floated from the band stand on the public square. The ad dress of welcome by Hon. C. F. Crisp, began at 10,30, Replete with patriotic sentiment and eloquent pathos, it touched a responsive chord in the heart of every one present. Out a few paces from the rostrum we noticed sitting in a carriage, an aged mother. As her form, now bent by age and sorrow, leaned forward to catch the words of the speaker we, could see the si lent tear drops steal from her eye and trickled down her withered cheek. The cause for those silent tears; we need not ask. Too well do we remember, when a blithesome, manly son, was the hope, the pride and the idol of that poor old mother’s heart, and when the thunders of canon announced the approach of an invading foe, sorrowfully she arrayed her only son in the paraphanalia of war, and impressing upon his boyish brow a mother s fondest kiss, bid him, “Go my son an d do your duty!” Like a true Southern son, he did his duty, but alas! ^iss was the last Impress of a moth er ’ s hps. To-day, the blood-stained sod "Virginia's immortal battle fields cov ers the gallant form of her idolized boy, wbde the gentle breezes raurmer a sad requiem over his unmarked grave, and whispers hopes of that glorious reunion, beyond the mysterious portals of a God promised eternity. Over the speaker’s stand, gently tos-i ed by the passing zephers, floated one of the bullet ridden battle flags of Catts’ Artillery. Baptised in the heart’s-blood of some of Sumter’s most gallant sons, and hedewed with the tears of her fair es f daughters, this old banner had wav ed in the midst of battles most furious clamor, and was lowered only after the ech ^ 8 of last gu n bad died away on 6 13taut - 11 M Mrginia and its gal , an e en ^ rs ou * : numbered, * o\ er J wered and almost annihilated, had down their arms and accepted the stern . arbitrament of war. The unfurl ing of this tattered emblem of Southern devotion, was greeted by an out-burst of most enthusiastic applause from those who had followed it on many a crimson battle fields. The speakers were introduced by Col A . 8. Cutts, whose old command, com prised as gallant a hand of heroes as ever marched in battle array. The touch 0 f time has frosted his locks and lurrowed his cheeks, but his form is as erect and voice as clear as when seen and heard, giving commands above the din and clatter of battle’s fearful carnage. In introducing Henry W. Grady, Esq., the silvery-tongued orator of Georgia, he rc fered to him as the worthy son of a gal lant old confederate soldier, entitled to all the courtesies due to an old soldier himself. Mr. Grady delivered one of his charac teristic soul-stiring addresses, heaping eulogiums upon the valor and heroism of the southern soldiers, the highest en comiums upon the sacrificing fidelity and patient devotion of the southern women, and winding up, it is said by some of the farmers present, with a mwt * xce,le nt alliance speech. Hisdis course was leaned . to with the utmost P ‘tience and greeted oft-times by en Uuisla8t,c applause, At tbe conclusion of Mr. Grady’s ad dr «S8, the old veterans formed in line and n,ar ched to the cotton warehouse and com press sheds of the S. A. M. R. R. cornm a ! ided by Col. Cutts, marshal of * be da T* Under the compress sheds were barrels of ice-cold water and a o° unt ®ous supply of most delicious lem which flawed as freely as the glistening dew-drops from the starry vaults of Heaven. SCHLEY COUNTY NEWS. A ft e/jesting and cooling off, the old veteraris were urshered into the long and spacious warehouse, where long lines of tables stood laden with two hundred of the fatest beeves, pigs, muttons, and kids that Sumter count/ could afford, nicely barbecued and the etcaetera to go with it. With that generous welcome pe culiar to the people of Sumter, the old vets, and all their kith and kin were in vited to help themselves and they did it with a hearty good will. It is estimated that about 10.000 people, big, little, young and old. male and fe male, partook of the dinner’ yet there were many baskets full left. After many hand shakings, mutual congratulations and thrilling recitals of war-time experience the visiting vet erans departed for their respective homes, favorably impressed with the energy and enterprise of the growing little city of Americus which is rapidly becoming the metropolis of southwest Georgia, and pleased with the open handed hospitality extended them by the people of Sumter, the grandest county in the grandest state in the grandest re public, on the grandest continent under the sun. To the editor of the Nrws, the occa sion was a double reunion. Besides shaking, for the first time since, the hand of many an old soldier, whose de parture from Americus in all the pomp and circumstance of war, we had watch ed with the adulation of boyish pride, and whose dangers and hardships we shared in Sherman’s front, ere the cruel struggle had ended, we met again, most of the playmates of our early days. To again meet in Sumter county, after he lapse of a quarter of a cenrury. the friends of our youth and playmates of our first school days, was the culmina tionof our most cheerished anticipa tions. There, were the boys with whom we had played town ball and bull pen in the old field near the old school house, shot pop guns and rolled marbles, under the broad spreading china trees that bor dered the long lane in front, played deer and dog, through the thickly wooded forest near by, chased the passer-by, who dared to halloo, “School butter!” There were the bright-eyed little girls of yore, for whom we gathered the wild flowers and climbed the trees for luscious fruits There too, was the demure little maiden whose sweet girlish face haunted our earliest dre ams of love and whose smile of appro; ation used to swell our boyish heart like the leaven in a big apple dumpling. But O! what changes the mutable touch of time has wrought! In the sedate matron of to-day. bearing a name, to us entirely unfamiliar, ad dressed by great strapping boys and grown up girls, by the endearing title of mother, we woukl never, never have detected the identity of our little girlish ! sweet-heart of long, long ago. Nor in ! the faces of the bearded men and elder j ly ladies presented yesterday, could we trace a single feature of our early friends j until the old familiar nam -of each was j called; then, like the pages of a musty j record book, on memory’s blotted tablet rolled back the entervening years, and again stood before us the boys and' girls of yore. God bless them! It fills our heart replete with joy to shake their j hand once more. Oft-times during these long years that our pathway in life has | diverged far away from their’s, have we longed for the glorious reunion of yesterday and long, long will the recol lection of the 14th of August 1889, make one of the brightest spots on our mem ory,s record book. Representative Gilbert being asked the other day what his branch of the legislature was doing, replied; “Well, ! we are stiU on the Western and Atlantic bil1 We have been on it for the past 8everal da vs, and I think it will take two weeks more before we are through witb The discussion on the eighth 8ection will be nearly long as the third, tlie eighth section being the expediency (d leasing the Western and Atlantic to the West Point Terminal Company or roads controlled by them.” From this it would seem that owning a railroad is pretty expensive business for a state, The running expenses of the legislature is about one thousand dol lars a day and when that august body devotes fifteen or twenty days to a bill to lease the road, it means just that many thousand dollars frittered away in doing what one man of fair business capacity could and would do in one or two days. Better swap off the State road for a bob-tail dog and kill the dog. It was our good fortune while at tending the veterans reunion in Ameri cus, to be entertained by Mr. Hunting ton, of the enterprising and widely known, hardware firm of J. W. Shef field – Co. Mr- H. and his most estima ble wife, were formerly Floridians and in their luxurious home and manner of entertaining, one is reminded of the cultured homes and most excellent pie of Florida’s hospitable capital. FAHMEKS INSTITUTES There a bill is before the legislature pro viding that as soon as practicable, the board of directors of Georgia experi mental station shall organsize and have conducted throughout the state, each during the season most convenient to agriculturists, a series of Farmers’ In stitutes for the instruction of citizens of this state in the better methods of agriculture in its various branches. These institutes shall be held at such time and at such places as said board may direct, The said board shall make such rules and regulations as it may deem proper, for'organizing and con ducting such institutes. The boardmay in theirjdiscretion, employ a lecturer or lecturers, preference, in this matter, be ing given to pratical and successful far mers possessing apitude for the work. Section two appropriate $15,000, or so much as may be needed, forjthe support of said institutes for 1889 and the same for 1890, and the same for all subsequent years, the money to be paid from the state’s income arising from the ispection of fertilizers, these appropriations tohave prec edence of all appropriation what so ever from that fund next after that for the salary of the commissioner of agri culture and that of his clerk, and that for the support of the experiment sta tion, the money to be drawn upon order of the board of directors of the experi ment station. The said board shall have authority to issue annually,{through the department of agriculture, a bulletin which shall contain the proceedings of each of said institutes. If this fifteen thousand dollar out-lay can be made to elevate the standard of farming and increase the profiits on this leading industry in proportion to the out- lay, then the money will be well spent. If there is any occupation under the sun that needs fostering and encouraging it is agriculture. Whether this much desired result can be brought about by the passage of the above billl is a question for our law makers to care fully consider, before voting. HE SCOOPED THE CAMP-MEETING. The cold wave that swept over Florida a few winters ago killed the orange trees of an enterprising yankee who had in vested all his earthly possessions in an orange grove and was just looking for ward to a profitable crop of the golden f ant. L fft i i a s range land with an empty purse and a dead orange grove would have discouraged most men, but not so with this Florida yankee. He did not sit down and wait for something to turn up, but immediately set about to turn up something, going to Brooksville one day, he suddenly came upon a negro camp meeting in full blast, lie had of ten read of the Southern negro but never until then had seen him in all his glory ‘Great Scott!” exclaimed the surprised yankee, ,,here is a chance to get back my lost money, if I had this thing up North it would be woith a dozen Florida or ange groves. Guess I’ll hire it.” Calling the leader aside, at the conclusion of the services the man from New England, in troduced himself and made the parson a proposition. “Wat you mean, put usall inacircus” exclaimed the amazed colored parson. No suh, I’sea minister oh de gospel, hi re’s my credunshuls,” (taking from his vest pocket a well worn and dirtv looking strip of’paper and holding it up) and I'll lib an’ die in de sarbise of de Lawd, I wudn't sell my ligion fur all de money in Fluridy!” “That’s all right, old man. that’s all right! I don't want one of you to renounce your religion or to go into a circus,” put in the busted orange grower, ‘you just get a dozen or two of your members to go with you and I will take you up north, where the people fought bled and died for your freedom, and will rent you a house and pay all your expenses and give you more money than your little farm can ever matte, and you can carry on your camp meeting just as you are doing here* The Lord will be served just as well and you can come back home with your pockets full of money.” This must have struck the “minister ob de Gospel” favorably for in less than three weeks, the frost bitten orange grove had been mortgaged for $500 and the camp meeting was on its way to the bustling cities of the great North. Commenting on the refusal of the Georgia Senate to endorse Blairs, educa tional hill the Monroe advertiser very truthfully remarks! It matters not whence nor from whom such proffers of aid to our educational intere.it, by the general government ,comes, behind it lies the principle of taxation and trans fer of paternal rights to the national government touching the education of our children. The states in their sov ereign capacity are able to educate their children, and they neither need nor want aid from the general government in this direction. SCHLEY COUNTY. Schley County is composed of teritory cut off from Sumter, Marlon and Macon counties It was organized in 1859, and named for one f the old Colonial Governors of Georgia; 0 Schley. Go v ernor Its location is Southwest-Central. Area 180 square miles. General features, hilly, i n t er . spersed with level plateax. The soil i s very fertile fill oyer the county, but varies in color some sticky places in being et weather, red elay, some dark brown' very w some pebbly and some sandy, under-laid with clay subsoil. Cotton, corn, sugar-cane, oats, peas, pota toes, pumkins, melons, rice, wheat, rye, .prunes* bur ly, peanuts and chul’as; peaches, ixsirs pomegranates, cherries, plums, mulberries, apples, apricots, quin’ ces, grapes, strawberries raspberries, goose berries, beets, cabbage, en cumbers, squashes, tomatoes, turnips and oth er Held, orchard and garden products, t?ruw here to perfection. The fence corners, waste places in old field and forest, abound in all kinds of wild fruit such ns blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries whortleberries, May haws, black haws, plums cherries, crab applcs.persiminons, fox grapes, Winter hickory nuts grapes, and chestnuts. muscadines, chinquepins! Besides the native crab, crowfoot and other grasses, many of the best varieties of import ed grasses do well here, especially Bannuda, herds, blue and orchard grass. The no fence law prevails in the county, y c t stock raising is rapidly becoming one of the leading industries of the county some of the finest horses in the South are raised here, and the rich golden butter mid sweet country hams that are daily brought to market by the far mers of Schley, could not be beaten anywhere. Cotton is the money crop of the county, but happily the day has past and forevevr gene when the people of Schley depended on other sections for their meat and bread. Nearly ev ery farmer in the county makes plenty of corn and bacon for home consumptions and many of them make a surplus to sell. No particular attent’on is given to poultry raising, yct the people have all the 7 want for home use and one man with ahorse and wagon keeps busy the year round hauling chickens and eggs from Schley county to Americus. The health of the county is excellent, the av erage elevation being near two thousand feet above sea level and drainage is generally good an epidemic of any diseases, was never known here. The farming people of Schley are inteligent cultivated ami refined as any agricultured peo ple in the world. The county is dotted with school houses and churches, and a half grown person who cannot read and write is seldom, if ever met with, and of the negro race most of them since freedom can read and write. PIEDMONT EXPOSITION. Events of the day admonish us that the Piedmont Exposition of 1889 will attract the largest number of capitalists, invest ors, agriculturists, manufacturers, and practical men general'}’, that ever attend ed a Southern Exposition, who will vis it Atlanta during October of the present year. For this reason it behooves every county and county alliance to be repre sented at this great Exposition, which will be a material factor in adding to the prosperity of the South. It is the earn est request and desire of the Exposition Company, that the material resources of your section be advantageously display ed at our Exposition. We appeal to you on the ground of local pride, State fealty and Southern prosperity, to gather the best samples of your products, and pre sent them here in creditable form. We know it will require time and money, but the results will more than compen sate you for your trouble. What we offer to county or county farmers’ alliance and individual displays; To the county or county farmers’ alli ance making the largest and best display of products, grown or produced by resi dents of the county, $1200. To the county or county farmers’ alli ance making the second best display as above, $700. To the county or county farmers’ alli anee raaking the third best display as above, $300. To the individual making the largest and best display of products grown or produced by him or her, or under his or her direction, $500. To the individual making the second best display as above, $250. lo the individual making the third best display es above, $150. Single exhibits contesting for prem iums in any of the other groups may be included in either of the displays of this group, and individual displays may also form a part of county or county farmers’ alliance displays. The whole of this department is limit ed to articles produced in States of the Piedmont section, viz: Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Ala bama and Tennessee, and all articles ex hibited must be grown or made by the exhibitor. For information, see page 26. premium list. The management of the Piedmont Ex position will extend every facility to Alliances or counties desiring to make exhibits. 1 rusting that we will receive vour ap plication for space at an earlv date, we desire to call your attention to the fact that this is not a Statt*, county, or local exposition, but will be national in its aim and results. Yours respectfully, Piedmont Exposition Co. Atlanta, Ga. It is reported that hundreds of Chinese are evading the Anti-Chinese inngra tion laws by landing in Mexico and cross ing to Americatetitory,
