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About Schley County news. (Ellaville, Ga.) 1889-1939 | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1892)
Schley County News. PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY. Subscription, $1.00 a Year, in Advance. J. C. TRICE, Editor. A well-known railroad man,discuss ing the • influence of the wind on trains, says there are times when an Eastern-bound train from Denver, Col., could make schedule time with out one pound of steam. The latent estimate places the num ber of American bison at 1096,distrib uted as follows: '254 in captivity in American zoological parks; 20.) wild ones in Yellowstone Park, protected by the Government; 85 wild ones in other parts of the United States; and seven in parks in foreign countries. The school for the boys of the Apache tribe at Mount Vernon Bar racks, in Alabama, is a success. The Apache boys there are taught to speak the English language and to give up tiie ways of savagery; they wear white fluek trousers and coats; they even surrender the glory of their tribe, which is their long black hair, and some of them are said to be anxious to “make money.” A good move in the reform of con victs has been made at St. Petersburg, Russia, learns the San Fraucisco Chronicle. Several philanthropists have begun subscriptions for the es tablishment of workshops for criminals who have served their terms in prison. When such men do not have trades llicy will be trained so that they may ejun their living. This reform will save many who would otherwise drift back into crime. The Medical Record publishes an article by an American physician who recently made a voyage from Eupopc to this country in an emigrant ship. He says that out of 153of the steerage passengers whom ho examined, not one half were found to be physically sound, though the unsound passengers were not afflicted with such diseases is would prevent them from landing at any of our ports. “If this ship load is a fair sample,” ho says, “the amount of disease imported annually into this country must be appalling.” The British horticulture*! papers are renewing their attack on American apples on the ground, explains the New York Times, that they contain arsenic, and the attacks are being gen erally copied in the daily press. The charge is that growers sprinkle arsenic on their trees to prevent the ravages of a moth which eats nothing but apples and pears. All the papers do not take tho same side, and one points out the weakness of tho charge, as arsenic would not be applied when the trees are in fruit. Tho editor of the Horticultural Times, in England, is the author of the “arsenic scare,” as it is called here. Immense quantities of American apples arc sold in Eng land and bring high prices, which per haps explains the reason for the attack. It is reported that Tank Ivee, a cul tivated Chinaman who is lecturing throughout the United States on his native land, has given a valuable li brary of 38,000 volumes to tht Uni versity of Texas. Some of tho books are old manuscripts, but the most of them are in English print. All are valuable bound books, which he has been twenty years in collecting, and are valued by competent book judges at from $120,000 to $150,000. They all refer to China, and are represented to be the most complete collection of the history, literature, religion, arts, etc., of the Chinese in the world. One work of seven volumes weighs 140 pounds. The donor dictated to the governor’s stenographer the data for drawing up his deed to tho state. This provides that lie shall deliver llie books to the state conditioned that the state pro vides a suitable building for properly preserving them, with the donor’s label on them, rebind them when needed, and not allow any division of the collection, which is to bo desig nated as the “Tank Kec Library.” He further provides for giving a certain sum, which w ill be expressed, the in terest of which will be used for pur. chasing new books. The professors are to be the trustees of the gift. in 1881, after considerable agitation on the part of the Scotch-Gaelic so cieties, a column was added to the fa!iedule of that year’s British census for “habitual” speakers of Gaelic. The number of “habitual” speakers was found to be 231,594, or G.19 per cent. But as many persons who could speak Gaelic did not “habitually” do so, the inquiry at the recent census was simply—could they speak Gaelic. The total number wa3 found to be only 231,602, or 5.72 per cent, of the present population of 4,033,000—this is one in seventeen of the population. Says the New York Press: “In the naval warfare of the near future the deliberate, accurate marksmanship for which the American navy has always been famous would be of the highest moment. In the all important matter of battery equipment the cruisers and armorclads of our new navy will sur pass foreign vessels of the same tonnage. Aside from their ample ar mament of the best modern steel rifles of four, six, eight, ten and twelve inch caliber, our new warships are all abundantly supplied with six, three and one pound rapid fire guns, Hotch kiss revolving cannon and Gatling guns. Our battleships and cruisers now building, as well as our cruisers already constructed, are fully qualified to hold their own in a modern sea fight against the finest foreign ships of their respective classes afloat.” Tho reasons that have been advanced from time to time against the intro duction of various applications of electricity arc numberless, but an ob jection has been made to tho use of the telephone in a French town which may be characterized, confesses the Chicago News,as distinctively original. The manufacturers and merchants of Limoges found that the development of their business was being seriously impeded from the want of telephonic communication and they accordingly petitioned the chamber of commerce of the city to be allowed to produce it. That body after – long discussion refused to take part in the establish ment of a telephone fine connecting Limoges with Paris. These wiseacres gave as their reason for the decision that the telephone ‘‘would injure the smaller traders in the town by enab ling the inhabitants to correspond too easily with the large shops in Paris.” Henry Laboucliere of London Truth complains that Lord Rosebery in his “ Life of Pitt,” does not make it clear why the Great Commoner, after en joying for seventeen years an annuai income of $50,000, got hopelessly into debt. For Mr. Pitt had neither wife nor child and possessed no expensive tastes. Macaulay explained the matter years ago on the score of the fabulous extravagance that prevailed iu Pitt’s establishment on Downing street, where the servants plucked and plundered the premier without mercy. Tho butcher’s bills for one week showed that 900 pounds of meat alone had been ordered, and the reckless waste in other directions was equally great. Had Pitt devoted one-quarter of an hour a week to liis household accounts, says Lord Macaulay, he need never have faced the disgrace of bankruptcy. Our own Robert Morris, as Professor Sumner shows, though able to manage the finances of a nation, could not direct his own house hold agairs. Mr. Panachand Parakh, refer ring in the Times of India to recent long fasts in occidental coun tries, says that in India fasts of thirty to forty days are common among the .Tains, from among whom once in each year some individual comes for ward and undertakes to fast thirty, or even sixty days. They do this with nothing but water to drink and will die rather than taste food during the prescribed period. Quite recently two Jains of Bombay fasted, one for sixty-one, tlie other for thirty-eight days, at the end of which time, hav ing been congratulated by 25,000 Jains who went for the purpose, they recommended taking food in tlie man net- prescribed by their own hooks and Shastras. In commemoration of this event, all the chief bazaars in Bombay were closed and about 5000 Jains, male and female, fasted all day, while a largo sum was spent in securing tho release of cows and other animals from the slaughter house at Bandorn. SCHLEY COUNTY NEWS. The Mastery of Love* Love was a stranger, Without lock or key He unlocked my bosom And took my heart from me. Now my heart is subject Everywhere I go. Be a gentle master, Love, To one who loves you so. In a few days and weeks, In a few months or years, Love brought me sorrow, And the salt, salt tears. Oh, Love, come with laughter, Or, Love, come with woe, Deal but gently with the heart That leans upon you so. The bee’s wing is fragile, The lark’s egg is small, That you took was little, But it was my all. Bear the captive where you will, To high estate or low, But be a gentle master, Love, To one who loves you so. -[Dora Read Goodale, in Harper's Weekly. THE SMUGGLERS. On the French frontier, opposite Spain, stands the town of Querterac, like a watch-dog guarding the en trance to the valley, and on either side, the mountains which seem to have been gashed just here, continue their monotonous way as far as eye can reach. * Querterac is a very old town con taining G000 inhabitants; iu former days it was fortified, isolated and dif ficult to approach. Up in the neighboring mountains live a people whose reputation is as doubtful as their nationality—a much mixed race, ten times crossed with Gascons, Basques, Catalans and Bohe mians—and their favorite occupation is highway robbery, or smuggling, to say the least. For this reason, as well as because of the situation of the town, the custom-house of Querterac is one of special importance. Frontier guards keep continual watch over the narrow valley which forms the only passage between the two countries, there being nothing but lofty peaks and dangerous ravines for many leagues on either side. Towards the middie of this century, i wind from Africa brought terror and desolation to Italy, Spain and France. Cholera! The people were filled with con sternation. In Querterac, which was .me of the first to he attacked, nothing was to be seen but empty, deserted streets, aud houses closed from top to bottom, as if in a state ot' siege. Those persons who succumbed to the plague received no help nor care, for Pity was the first to die. If a beggar approached a farm house, ho was greeted with a shower of stones or gun-shots, and the dogs were let loose upon him. Among tho peasantry, fear was complicated with folly, aud the people circulated absurd tales. “The cholera is not as bad as it seems,” said they, “many persons be lieved to have died of it have in reality been poisoned by enemies—a mouthful of drugged water, a slice of bread sprinkled with arsenic—it does uot take much to kill one.” Then the people of the valley began to suspect the mountaineers of being responsible for the evil. “Those vagabonds up there mean to kill us all,” they cried. Among the custom-house officials the pestilence found twenty victims in a few days’ time, and those surviving, stricken with fear, neglected their duty of watching the frontier. One of them only stood to his post, an old sergeant named Valgenod. Ho was a born hunter, a customs-officer by nature, for he could scent a smuggler three hours in advance, and a bundle of contraband tobacco three leagues away would set ‘him sueeziug. “ It would be absurd for an old officer like me to die of the colic!” he declared, and night and day lie made his rounds as usual, doubled the guards, took the place of those tvlio were struck do wn by- the general foe, and kept one eye un ceasingly turned towards the moun tains where the miscreants perched, hidden by their rocky homes. He knew them very well,and a hundred times ho had fired on them, when they had been skulking about on dark nights. They could not get the best of him, al though, perhaps, there was one In had to watch continually, a gray-board named Meritas. Ho and Valgenod had had many a contest of wits together, for Meritas was a smuggler bv tem- perament and instinct just as Valge nod was a customs-officers; it was his vocation. It was impossible to sur prise him, and ho had invented so many tricks and strategems that he was the acknowledged leader of the whole band. Away up in the clefts of the mountains he stored his mer chandise, tobacco, silks, skins, Span ish laces and spirits; and by little these goods were brought into Franco. “Confound that Valgenod—but for him—ah, but for him!” the smuggler used to say, longingly. “That villain, Meritas! The day after my death, he he will bring the whole of Madrid into France!” was the officer’s indignant exclamation. And the two men respected while they hated one another. The Bohe mians had a tine opportu nity to enrich themselves dur ing the plague, for sheep, goats and cattle roam uncared for through the meadows, far from the barn yard, and at night they call to each other with long, sad lowing; instinctively, they formed themselves into groups and would have followed anyone who called to them. In the death-stricken villages many houses were left open and deserted, the kettle j still hanging from the crane, the table set for the mid-day meal just as the dread spectre had found it. Robbers would have nothing to do but to walk into these ownerless homes, and then with woll tilled sacks to return to their moun tains in all safety ; and what matter if some one ventured to interfere with them?—knives are sharp, and who would notice one more corpse among so many dead ? The mountaineers, however, did not stir from their lair. Why was this? Because they, too, were dying. It seemed, indeed, that they were carried ofi‘ in greater numbers than the people of the valley, and when the force of the pestilence was sub siding in Querterac, the “vagabonds up there,” continued obstinately to die and to be buried. People wow dered and admired, lor every evening at dusk, three or four wagons fol lowed by mourners came down to the cemetery. These miserable pagans treated their dead with religious respect, instead of casting them into the streams which rushed swiftly through the ravines! The spectators ran away when these wagons appeared, and the mourners passed on through empty streets. One evening about twilight, Ser geant Valgenod, ever on the lookout, saw a wagon drawn by a broken winded mule coming towards the city gates. Behind it walked Meritas and a few of his tatterdemalions, singing psalms in their degenerate patois, while the long outline of a coffin could be seen on the wagon. Valgenod drew himself up and saluted in mili tary style as the funeral train ap proached, for the dead are always de serving of respect, whatever the liv ing may have been, and as he passed the custom-house, old Meritas, his eyes red and his face pale, raised his great, gaunt arms towards heaven and sobbed out: “My wife, my wife!” “Poor fellow,” thought Valgenod, and he lighted his pipe quickly and felt deeply touched. A short time after a similar pro cession came down the mountain road; this timo there were three coffins on the wagon, and Meritas walked be* hind. It was night and the lurid light of the torches carried by the atten dants cast fantastic shadows upon the walls of the customs-building. The old smuggler, tore his hair as lie lamen wit 1 ked^^^ifjd mprfSfyZp'fy: the air with his „• sons! Give me back f w hoarsely, while thcHyftotte ^i^n.od ‘ s.Tl tiled.".ij»V£o times, and post bared lliqjr heads out of rcspdct.'for the father’s -jgfrief. This was frtpeated every evening. Meritas, who was generally the 'chief mourner, lost by the epidemic not only his wife and sons, btit also ins daughters, nieces, ne phews and cousins. His despair was so great that lie had to be sup ported by his attendants, and one day he besought Valgenod to kill him and end his misery. l i Ilia brain is turned—’tis no won der.” said the officer, who felt his former respect for his old enemy deepening into affection. This lasted for three weeks, and the people of Querterac were suprised and dismayed to find that pestilence still raged in the mountains, thou»lj it had disappeared ° from the valley. ' One evening three funeral wagons came across the bridge as usual, ami one of the muleshaving gone too near the edge, the wagon lurched f rom side to side, and the coffin was thrown out at the feet of Sergeant Valgenod. Immediately Meritas and the oilier mourners spread out their arms like great wings and fled at fujj speed towards the mountains leav. ing the officers to gaze thunder struck, at the coffin, of which the lid had burst open, and instead of a corps there rolled out four bundles of mer chandise carefully labelled. “To arms!” cried Valgenod, “fire!” and the whole post went in pursuit of the smugglers. Too late, however, and when the other coffins were found on examination to contain the same cargo as the first, Sergeant Valgenod tore his hair in exas eration. But the people of Querterac were in an ecstacy of joy when they learned that not a single member of the moun tain band had died of the plague. The dread visitor had passed away at last, but the smugglers had improved the opportunity and made their for tune. Sergeant Valgenod gnashed hia teetl: in rage, and swore that the next arrival from the mountains would be searched, even if it were a skeleton I —[From the French, in Epoch. ■•Jr' Other People’s Privileges. “The presuoiptuousness of some people is past endurance,” remarked a lady recently in conversation. “J allowed my little girl to spend an af ternoon with a friend, and when she returned her little ears had been pierced and a pair of earrings hung iu them. I looked upon it as an unwar. ranted piece of impertinence, and the present of the rings did not reconcile me to it in the least.” “That reminds me,” said another lady, “of my experience with med dlers—for I cannot call them anything else. I sent my little daughter out to walk with a friend who, because the child complained of a toothache, took her to a dentist and had two of her baby teeth pulled. When I remon strated she said she had paid the bill. It was the loss of the teeth and the fact that anybody dare to meddle with my privileges that I regretted. Who could forgive such stupidity?” Another lady told her story: “My father sent me a very fine hunting dog, which a friend offered to bring through puppyhood for me. I saw the dog occasionally and ho was getting to be a beauty, when one day my friend walked in and banded me, with a very triumphant air, two $10 bills. “ ‘I sold Jasper,’ she said, ‘for 1 knew you would rather have the money than the dog.’ “1 informed ligr, as soon as I could speak, that I wouldn’t have taken a hundred dollars for him, or parted with him at any price, and she re garded me as if doubtful of my She was another of those well-mean ing blunderers who arrogate to them selves the rights of their friends.”—• [Detroit Free Press. Uses of Paper. There seems to be practically no limitation to the uses to which paper can be and is applied. To the long list of articles intended for personal use, and in the smaller details of con struction of rolling stock, such as wheels, axles, etc., thqrc has been added a more extensive application to the needs of every-dav file by tho building of a hotel constructed of this material. This novel residence, which has just been finished, and U situated in Hamburg, lias been made entirely of paper boards, which, it i? said, are of the hardness of wood, but possess an advantage over the latter in that they are fire-proof, this desirable end being effected by impregnation with certain chemical solutions. — [Ch icago Times. The Way of the World. Tho spirits of youth are clastic ani soon throw off the burden of grief. “I’ve nothing to live for now,” sighed the young widow after tho funeral; “my fife is ended.” Two days later she refused to take the gown made for her by tho dress maker because it wasn’t stylish enough.—i'Ncw York Press.
