Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation.
About Schley County news. (Ellaville, Ga.) 1889-1939 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1892)
Schley County News. PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY. Subscription, $1.00 a Year, in Advance. J. €. TRICE, Editor. Chicago is wrestling now with the smoke problem, bat has not jet solved It. ^ In 1884 the popular vote was C00; in 1888, 11,400,000, and it will probably reach 13,000,000 votes in 1 892 . _ In addition to the~usual advantage* conferred by leap year on energetic young ladies, 1892 will give them fifty ihree Sundays in which to employ those advantages. The year is going to be a crucial one for bachelors, predicts the Brooklyn Citizen. Simon Wolf, of Washington, is prepar ing for the publication of a list of the Hebrew soldiers and sailors who have done service in the wars of the United States, including the war of the revolu tion. At the last annual reunion of the Eleventh Corps of the Army of the Poto mac, Geaeral Stahl said that half of his old regiment “was composed cf Israelites with the courage of the Maccabees.” Many of the statesmen and public mer of Chile are of pretty much the same stock as many of our owu people, de clares the Chicago Herald, Their im mediate ancestors were Europeans, and some of their public men are born Euro peans. The new Chilean Minister of Pub* lie Works, Don Augustin Edwards, was born in Chile of English parents. He is a great favorite with the British residents, and a Valparaiso newspaper says. “Those who know him be3t love to think of him as an Englishman.” Science has been meditating upon the subject of the probable increase of the population in the United States, and it presents us with these startling con clusion. Since 1750 the increase has been from 1,260,000 to the neighbor hood, in 1890, of 65,000,000. I f this ratio of increase is a fair basis for pre diction we shall have at the time when the ten-year-old boy of to-day shall be forty years of age, in 1920, something fike 160,000,000 of people in the United States, and* when that man of forty reaches his seventieth birthday (1950) ire shall have close upon 400,000,000 population. Joseph Wallace, in the Popular Science News, says that our climate has cer tainly been much modified within the past 2000 years. “There have been fifteen climatic changes since the begin ning of the glacial age,” he writes, “each change lasting 10,500 years, and each change reversing the season in the two hemispheres, the pole which had enjoyed continuous summer being doomed to undergo perpetual winter for 10,500 years and then passing to its former state for an equal term.” The present epoch of a moro genial temperature at this season of the year in this northern hemisphere began about 1500 years ago, and for 9000 years to come, writes Mr. Wallace, “we may reasonably expect a gradual modification of our climate.” To illustrate the strength of the prej udice against corn in Great Britain, mention may be made of an instance iu the city of Glasgow, Scotland, where it was proposed by a Member of the Poor House Board to substitute maize for costlier food in that institution. The mere suggestion brought a storm about his ears, because of his inhumanity in thrusting upon defenseless paupers a food which was only fit for pigs. American canned goods of all kinds are largely Bold in Europe, but canned corn is al most never seen there. If a demand for it could be created it would mean hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly to the proprietors and workers of our canneries. Agents of the Department of Agriculture have been exhibiting the tereal in this form also abroad with the hope of teaching the people to like it. Wherever corn dishes of various sorts have been prepared and distributed by them they have been received so favpra bly as to give good grounds for confi dent expectation in this regard. The use of the potato, the tomato and the tobacco plant, all of American origin, has spread through Europe and added to the comfort and happiness of millions. There seems to be more hope for corn now than there was for any of those commodities at the beginning. flfTHT/RY OOT7NTY WEWfl. AT OWN. Each leaf, another wakening, sigh\ “Sweet sister, it is day! The last night-bloomins; glory dies; And wheresoe’er a petal lies, The east grows warm and gray. •‘The birds are still asleep; and yet. Amid the silent throng, Like dr sky vapors that beget The dew, dream-winged shades have set The germs of heavenly song.” —John B. Tabb, in Lippincott. A HILL COUNTRY" IDYL BV THOMAS BONN ENGLISH. ITTY M’KISSEM looked at her broth er and sighed, and the sigh was ac M companied by a glance of admira i tion. Hugh M’Kissen was certainly a fine / specimen of young ’ ir mountain JO* manhood. Tall and muscular, with a lithe and sin ewy form, whose * graceful proportion's even the half-ccat, – half-sack, called “a hull tin g-shirt,” could not disguise; a frank and pleasant expression, aud a voice that, in spite of a rather nasal tone when its owner was excited,was full and musical—Hugh was worthy of feminine admiration. He was singularly ignorant of his attractions, and, though bold in peril, fearing neither man, bear nor catamount in single fight, was timid in the presence of women, his mother and his sister ex cepted. The owner, subject to his mother's life-light, of a thousand acres of mountain land, of which one-third was rich “botto;n,” or level land, with horses in stall, cattle in meadow and steers on the hill-range, he was at seven ftnd-twenty a bachelor, while his fellows were heads of families by the time they had come to manhood. He loved his mother and sister, who worshiped him, and he was content. Kitty M’Kissen was not his sister, how ever, nor was she his kinswoman. Eigh teen years before, John Markham came there from the East, and bought a little “bottom-patch” of sixty acres, and set tled on it with his wife. He built a log cabin, set to work awkwardly to culti vate a few girdled acres, and tried to ac commodate himself to an unusual posi tion. Folk around, naturally suspicions of strangers, thought he must have done something wrong to make him leave home. He brought books, not over a hundred in number, which the neighbors deemed to be a great library. His house was neat, owing to his young wife’s taste. The neighbors said: “It’s stuck roun’ with thing-a-majigs till it’s a plom sight 1” Markham worked hard, and so did his wife, and, soon after their coming Kitty was born. She was christened Cath arine Burnett. Three months after her birth her mother died, and Mrs. M’Kissen, who had just lost a child of nearly the same age, offered to nurse Kitty—an offer thankfully accepted. But John Markham caught cold by ex posure, it settled upon has lungs,aud iu less than a year he died,leaving his )ittle possessions to his child. Kitty thrived and soon became known as a M’Kissen, the circuit-rider’s baptismal certificate to the contrary notwithstanding. She and Hugh,w T ho was a mne-year-old boy when she came,had been brought up together. When she was half-grown, Peter M’Kissen was killed by the fall of a girdled tree,and Kitty became the main stay of the house, for old Mrs. M’Kissen, who was ten years senior to Her hus band, bad been half paralytic for years, and passed her time in hobbliDg between her bed, the kitchen-table and the fire side. Frank and good-natured, as well as athletic, Hugh was a popular young man —his fellows accepting his lead and young won en receiving his attentions courteously. But he never threw the handkerchief at any particular fair one, treating all with a shy deference. They did not come up to the standing of Kitty, who had inherited some of the re finement of her mother; and who, hav ing read her father's books over and over again, was credited with a vast amount of learning. That kind of knowledge did not interfere with her housewifely qualities, for she was known to be the best cook and baker as well as the best buttermaker and neatest housekeeper in the county. Huge measured all other girls by her Procrustean standard. Be side, Hugh was not matrimonially in clined. llis home was too comfortable, and he was in no hurry to bring a strange w oman there. But Mrs. M’Kissen thought it high time for her sou to marry, and spoke to him about it. “What’s the need, mother?” he re sponded. “I’m comfortable, and so are you. "Why should I bring a strange girl here—one that ain’t used to us and our ways, upsetting things?” 4 ► l'ou needn’t do that neither,” said his mother. But Hugh was too obtuse to take the hint and went out to salt the cattle. But he communed with himself as he went. “I might spark Lucy Campbell,” he thought. “She’s been East to school, and she’s a sort of hign-flyer, but she’s pretty. Old Jim Campbell’s well off, and he has only young Jim and Lucy. I dunno. I’ll speak to Kitty about it. And there she is at the cows, now.” Kitty was there with her milk patls,and Hugh broached the subject at once. She looked up, blushed a little and then looked down, and listened. “Lucy Campbell!” she cried. ‘^So, Bossl Why don’t the cre’tur’ keep still? Lucy Campbell’s a nice girl; little sharp-tempered, but you’re not; and she never turns a hand to anything around the house; but you’re not look ing for a housekeeper. Give dowD, Boss!” “Well, there’s Nancy Stallins. people are not so well off as Lucy Camp bell’s; but they do say that Nancy is most industrious girl in the neghb’r’d.” “Yes,” said Kitty; “yes, she’s a worker. She never cleans up her dirt, though; and she—she chews snuff. You don't like tobacco in that way, do you, Hugh?” I t M-raph!” ejaculated Hugh. “Well, I dunno what to do. Mother, she's at me to marry, and I declare, except the two, I can’t think of a girl I'd like to have, unless—well, there ain’t one.” “You stupid!” said Kitty, pettishlv. “Eh?” “This Boss is the most stupid cow I ever saw. Now, Bull face!” And Kitty stooped at her pail, aud began a fresh milking. l 4 See here,” said Hugh: “Did you ever see such an uncertain chap as that Si Doss? He’s been here, four times this week about buyin' a cow, stays around hours at a time, aud ain’t made up his mind yet. ’Pears to me he don’t know x good thing when he sees it. ” “There are a good many young mea in the same fix, I allow,” said Kitty. “Si Doss appears to me not to be one of that kind. He knows what he wants, I fancy.” And then, with her filled pail, Kitty moved off to the spring-house. Hugh stood a minute, salt-bag in hand, forgetful of his cattle, when he saw Si Doss riding up aud then dis mounting. Si tethered his horse to the pendant limb of a beech tree, and then strode forward. He had the reputation of being the most forward young man in the country; but he had a very em barrassed air now. “Howdy, Hugh.” “Howdy, Si.” “Folks all well?” “Yes. Your’n?” “Fus’-rate, thank V.’ Our best brood sow’s sort o’ limpish. I allow she’s been eatin’ somethin’ afore we brought her outen the woods.” “Likely.” And then the two stood like ex hausted receivers. At last Doss broke out: “I’ve been allowin’ to git married.” “Yes?” “I’d like you to put in a word for me.” “Me? Who's the girl?” “Kitty M’Kissen.” “Not—our—Kitty 1” “Yes. I'm not quit© sure whether she favors me or not. I’ve been aroun’ some, but someho .v I ain’t got the nerve to speak out. Couldu’t you soun’ her au’ find out?” “Our Kitty! Why, Si, she’s a little girl. She's too young.” “She’s eighteen year old. I hearn Miss M’Kissen say so. You know, though, I’m tol'rable well-to-do, an’ don’t owe no mau a dollar. I love the very ground she walks on.” “Well," said Hugh, after a pause, “we’ll see about it. Anything new?” “Ther6 just is. There's a fellow down to the town—a furriner from the East— S ot U P iQ store clothes an’ mighty sassy lookin’, an’ he’s been inquirin’ about John Markham's folks. Sez he’s a kin to ’em an’ ’s gwine to come and hunt up Kitty.” “No! What’s his name?” “Calvin Burnett. He’s a lawyer where he lives.” “Burnett? Must be kin to Kitty's mother. You told him whar she is?” “Yes; and thar he comes now, on Sol Dingess’s day band mar’.” It was a sprucely dressed stranger who rode up, and, leading his mare, came to ward them. It was not necessary to tell his kinship, for lie “favored” Kitty, as they say in the hills. The same eyes and forehead, but he had a square chin. He explained his business. “Come into the house, Mr. Burnett,” said Hugh. “Kitty will be back from the spring house, presently.” Doss was anxious to learn everything, but as no one asked him to remain, went off reluctantly. Presently Kitty came in, and the newcomer introduced himself as her first cousin, the son of her mother’s brother. “Of course,” said Burnett, “I am very glad to kuow a near relative, espec ially when she’s a pretty girl; but I did not come for that. I am hero on busi ness. Do you kno.v anything of your father’s history?” '"No, sir.” “Oh, don’t ‘sir’ me, Kitty; we are own cousins. Call me ‘Cousin Cal.’ Your father ran off with my aunt, having married her against grandfather’s com mand. Grandfather disowned her, and was very bitter. But when he died, he left one-half of his property to father absolutely, and the other half in trust. The nature of the trust was explained in a sealed paper, not to be opened until after father’s death, and to be carried out by his executor. I believe father knew its nature. The trust money in creased under my father's prudent man agement, and that share of the estate amounts to more than what I inherit. It is nearly twice as much. I opened the paper, and the instructions are that am to pay ft over to the heir or heirs of Catherine Markham. Iam satisfied from inquiry, that you are the heir, Kitty, and Iam ready to transfer to you, under the proper legal form, nearly ninety thousand dollars. I congratulate you. Kitty. You ■will be able to live East, as comfortably as possible, on an income sufficient, I suppose, for a single gentle woman.” Ninety thousand dollars! The amount dazed Kitty, and struck the M’Kissens dumb. It was a fairy tale, and the young lawyer looked like an enchanter. Hugh was considered rich there, with less than a fifth of the sum; but ninety thousand dollars! At last Kitty asked: “Mr. Burnett—Cousin Calvin—must I live there to get the money?” “No. You can live where you like; but if you want to enjoy life, the East is the place for you. You are your own mistress, or, at least, will be at twenty-one. In the meanwhile, the court here will probably let you name your own guardian and trustee.” “Tnank you, cousin. I am glad to know you; glad to have this unexpected fortune, and would be glad to see a place that I have heard so much of. But the only kin I ever knew, though not of my blood, are dear to me. This is my only home. I may visit the East, but I could net stay there.” The news of Kitty's wonderful inherit ance soon spread. Rumor increased it by an additional cipher. It was heard of with a thrill of awe and envy. It was said that the dashing “furriner” was to marry Kitty, and take her away immedi ately; and Josiah Do3s was in the gulf of despair. Hugh knew better, so far as Kitty’s views went, but he felt a sinking at the heart. Kitty would stay, but with such a fortune in possession she seemed out of the common sphere. Burnett, while thedegal forms going on, amused himself by studying this cousin, who was so readily accommodating her self to circumstances and the M’Kissens, especially Hugh. It required no pene tration to see that the latter was in love with Kitty, but seemed not to quite re alize his own feelings; And that Kitty loved Hugh and knew it. “That young man is bright enough in some things, but very stupid in this,” said the lawyer to himself. “I'll play the good genius, for the fun of the thing.” The court at Kitty's instance,appointed Hugh M’Kissen her guardian and trus tee, to the scandal of the young folk, who thought she should have chosen some older man. Hugh and Burnett had divers conferences, before affairs were over. At one of these the lawyer saidi “What a very pretty girl Cousin Kitty isl Don’t you think so Mr. M’Kissen?” “Ye-es.” “She’ll make a figure when she gets into society, too. She is one of the rough gems that take to polish kindly.” “M-m.” “The fact is, X admire her the more the more I know her. I must try ana persuade her to leave the mountains.” “Kitty M’Kissen isn't one of that kind,” said Hugh. “You heard her say that she would stay here, and she is the one to keep her word.” “I beg your pardon, Mr. M’Kissen,” said Burnett. “Her proper name is Catherine Markham, and she is not like ly to change it—in this place. No offense to you; but the name is a good one, and sounds well; but it would sound better if it were changed to Bur nett, in my judgment.” And then Burnett walked off, to take a stroll through the hills, leaving Hugh confused and indignant. “Confound his impudence!” cried Hugh. “Mrs. Burnett! He’s after Kitty's money. Kitty marry him!” Hugh walked out to cool himself and met Kitty coming from the spring house; for Kitty was bora to love cows and chickens, and her money had not changed her ways. She nodded. Hugh kept at her side, and as she reached the porch he said: “I—I want to have a talk with you, Kitty.” “All right. Sit down on the porcb, then, and I’ll listen.” i k Kitty—I—the lact is—” “Yes?” “The fact is— You don’t care for Burnett, do you?” “Care for him? Of course I do. He brought me good fortuue; he’s my own cousin, you know, and he's a very nice man, too.” “Are you—going—to marry with him?” “What a question! I supposo you can ask it as you’re my guardian. I don't see how I could; he’s not a Mor mora, and he has a wife already.” “Oh, Kitty, you know I—” “Well, I don’t know, till I know what it is I know.” “Kitty, I love you.” “Of course you do; we were brought up together.” “It’s not that, Kitty; but why can’t we marry?” “You never asked me, Hugh.” Hugh asked then with a vengeance. He poured out his feelings in a flood of words. Kitty didn’t interrupt him. She liked it. But when he paused for sheer want of breath, she quietly put her hand in his, and said: “You ought to have known that I loved you, Hugh.” When Burnett came back he divined the state of affairs at once. “Mr. M’Kissen,” he said, dryly, “I presume Miss Burnett will have the ap- proral of her guardian in this matter.’’ Kitty did go to the East, but it was .11 Kitty M’Kisseo, and with her husband. After their return there was a house put up on the M’Kissen place which was the wonder of the neighborhood, beta of itself and furnishings. ‘•Such doings!” said Nancy Stalling to a gossip. “You know the house, built outer bricks and rocks—a sorter cross atwix’ a co’t-house an’ a raeetiu’ house; an’ enough rooms in it for a tavern. But I was inside; six wagon loads o’ things was put in; the floors are kivered all over. Yes!” continued Nancy, with the bitterest climax, “kivered with kiverlids!”—The Ledger. SELECT SIFTINGS. Oregon has a fifteen pound turnip. The latest location for a watch is in a door handle, The largest quadruped of California is the grizzly bear. . A Texas man has three buttons worn by Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Va. Willatn Hanks, of Los Oros, New Mexico, has three well defined tongues. There are 208 students from North America at the Berlin ^Germany) Univer sity. A Texan’s pony found the watch his master had lost and brought it to him in his mouth. A novel Viking snip, supposed to be one thousand years old, was unearthed recently from a mound in Sweden. An Oil City (Penn.) snake's eyes, on being photographed, showed an exact reproduction of the face of the farmer who had killed it. A Californian is going to start an ele phant ranch. He intends to train the elephants to pick oranges and hire them out to orange growers. The flat pieces of iron shaped like the letter S which are frequently seen on the walls of old brick buildings is the an cient symbol of the sun. The savant Tremer has asserted his be lief that the celebrated library of Ivan the Terrible was not destroyed in the burning of Moscow, Russia. The women in Bridgeton, Penn., have formally petitioned the Mayor for per mission to carry red pepper with them when they go out after dark. The month of February, 1886, was known among the lovers of the rare and curious in nature as the “moonless month” from the fact of it having no full moon. This can only occur eight times in a century. The finest white pearls are from India, the Persian Gulf and Panama; the finest black and gray pearls from the coast of Lower California. Beautiful pink and red pearls are often secreted by the com mon creek mussels. The deepest trustworthy sea-sounding ever made was 26,850 feet, this depth being found twenty-three miles due north of New Guinea. Deeper soundings have been reported, but geographers do not consider them reliable. Albinus, one who contended with Sev erus for the Roman Empire, was the greatest glutton of antiquity. For one breakfast he ate 500 figs, 100 peaches, ten melons, twenty bunches of grapes, 100 small birds and 400 oysters. Parting the Hair in the Middle. The number of men who part their hair in the middle is increasiug every day. The fashion has grown in the mat ter of dressing hair so rapidly that it would not be out of the way to say that fully one-half the men who formerly de rided this once much-condemned fashion are gradually getting arouud to it. “They begin,”said a well known bar ber yesterday, “by parting the hair a little higher up on the head by degrees, until they finally get it exactly in the centre. I remember very well when it his was hair a very directly rare thing for a man to part over his nose, but all of the contempt and fun which such a proceeding evoked are now replaced by indifference as far as the public is con cerned. Twenty years ago a politician who parted his hair in the middle courted disaster at the polls. Nhw no end of statesmen, prominent or other wise, wear their hair in a dandified fash ion and it does not even call for a re mark. The only thing that the rank and file strenuously and positively object to is a masculine bang. They won’t have that at any price.”—National Bar ber. Manufacture of Dyestuff?. Few instances of modern industrial growth in any one specialty are more surprising than that of the manufacture of artificial dyestuffs. In England, France, Germany and some other countries, but especially in Germany, this industry has attained such prodigious growth that in some cases the extensive works resemble a small town or village. This appears from the published statistics that one of these plants—that of the Farowerke, at Hoechst-on-Nain, where are employed some 1900 workmen, fifty foremen, nine engineers, besides eighty six clerks and fitty-seven chemists. The works cover an area of 726,000 square yards, and from one end of the works to the other the distance is 3300 feet. Be sides a great variety of dyestuffs, the acids employed in their production are also manufactured, amounting in one year to 23,108,000 kilegrams of sulphuric and acid, 12,800,000 of other acids, 3,624,000 of coal-tar products.—New York Telegram.
