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About Schley County news. (Ellaville, Ga.) 1889-1939 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1893)
The Morning Ruin. W. J. LAMrTON. rTnPre 's anything delightful In this fleeting vale of tears; K there’s aaythiifgthat’s equal doubt# and fears; ' To dispelling jf there's anything ecstatic Anything to soothe our pains, It ig dozing, gentle dozing, In the morning when it rains. ill the sky is gray above us, And tire daylight on the town . Pises heavy with its burden As the rain comes pouring down. Sot awake, and still not sleeting, We can hear the beating rain, ju a far off dreamy murmur, Thropping on theVindow ptfne. . Thoughts of day and .ril its doings, With a hazyhak), crown Thoughts of night ahd all its dreaming ' Of the gray clouds hanging down. Consciousness is. faintly breaking Through the drowsy silken chains, ADd we catch a glimpse of Heaven In the morning when it rains. —[Detroit Free Press. r * Miss Haines's Brother, Although the bank at Yallev City was called “The Valley City Bank” agd was supposed to be a private insti tution, it was really one of the s€»vf n branch banks belonging to a ' San Francisco syndicate of bankers. I was simply in charge of it on a moderate salary and under heavy bonds, and I had the credit of being a capitalist where no credit was due. The syndi cate erected a one-story building for t he bank. The front of this was railed off in the usual way, and the rear was divided into two rooms, One was used as a private room in which business appertaining to the bank was transacted and the other was my bedroom. I was a young man and single, and I had not only to act as president, cashier and teller during the day, but as watchman at night. The only help I had was a book and he was only with me three half days per week. The re mainder of his time was put in with a shipping firm in the same town. You w ill say this was a curious way of running a bank, but I can find a dozen of them in the territorial of to-day conducted on the primitive principles. I was do business with one six weeks ago the family kitchen was directly the rear of the cashier’s window, a woman who was cooking dinner left the meat frying on the stove to in and cash a check for me. Along side the burglar-proof safe was a trun dle bed, and on top of the safe itself a smoked ham and a sack of flour. It was banking and housekeeping combined. It was figured that I had only one danger to guard against. A tough man might drop in some day and rest the muzzles of his guns on the lodge of the window and order me to pass out the money in sight. The safe was always kept locked, and it was seldom that I ever had more than $200 out side. To prevent any experiments, however, I gave out that I had ar ranged a shotgun battery just where it w ould do the most good, and that by pressing a lever I could blow the body of any bad, bad man through tho front window and clear across the street,' a nd that he would be dead at the end °f his voyage. Everybody believed this fiction to be a /act, and some peo ple were so timid that I had to do business with them away from the win dow. If was expressly stipulated in tty contract with the syndicate that if I received anything for safe deposit it ttust be at the risk of the depositors, a ttl they must be so warned in ad vance. I had scarcely opened for business before a dozen people in town wanted the use of our safe. As we were to do, more or less business with them, I could not refuse to take temporary charge of valuable papers a ttl various sums of money. The bank had been running about three months, when my brother Tom, who had been telegraph operator at % Head, 250 miles away, was trans ferred down to Grand Crossiug, only ten miles away, and he seized the first favorable opportunity to come down and see me. I may tell you that Tom was a mechanical and electrical genius, an «f is now living on the royalties paid him for half a .dozen good things. ^Yhen he had visited for a couple of hours, and he had looked things over, he saicl; .. “You Bleep hero, and you are loaded for bear, but it wouldn't he“ai?y Trick at all for a sharp man to clean you out. It won’t he another three months bo fore symebody will try it. vu, ’! •* “Howl” “Well, you’ll get ft caller in the 'evening probably, and the first thing you know you’ll get a rap on the head, end before you come to he’ll have opened tjie safe and skipped with cash. It’s a combination, X-.sev, but if that caft’t be hit it can be »drilled or blown 'open. I think I’ll make things a little aaier for you. ” The bank hud no cellar, but as stone \tns plenty uml cost only the-labir of quarrying,- the walls were built two feet thick.. To get below-the frost line they had to be sunk nearly five feet." The.space enclosed by the walls was flinty soil, so hard that a pick could scarcely disturb it The floor of the bpnk was a little more than four,feet above tbe earth. Tom was about a.week, working at odd times, to get things in shape. He cut out a trap door in front of the safe, brought down wires and a battery, and when we had finished we had a which he alone had power ovgr from Grand Crossing. By meansof a switch up there he could spring the bolt of the trap door, and the door worked on a spring to close the opening again. A staple in the door and another in the frame permitted the use of a peg, so there might be no fear of accident dur ing business hours. The understand ing we had was that Tom should drop that door every hour between 8 o’clock at night and 7 the next morning and the scheme worked as easy as rolling off a log. 'For the first few nights the click of the bolt woke me up as the door fell, but after a time it failed to penetrate my drowsy senses. I had to run my bank to suit the convenience of the public, and it was never closed before 6 o’clock in the evening, and was often open until 7. As a rule, all persons who wished to use the safe over night came in be tween 6 and 7. I gave each one a re ceipt for whatever he deposited, but Biade no charge whatever. Many and many a night that safe held $25,000 outside of bank money, and on such occasions I felt a bit proud at the con fidence reposed in me. Tom’s trap had been working for a month or more when I received a strange caller one evening at 6.30. A. woman was by no means a rare sight in town, though they were none too numerous, but this visitor of mine was a young woman, stylishly dressed, and as pretty as a peach. I’ll admit right here that I had a jumping of the heart at sight of her, and that when she smiled on me I was as badly flustered as a boy caught' stealing eggs, She WTIS from St. Louis, she explained, and had come out in search of a brother w ho was interested in a silver mine, but had mysteriously disappeared. She would be at'the. hotel for a week or two and wished me to safe deposit $600 in greenbacks. She gave me the same of Miss Nellie Haines to insert in the receipt, and you will of course smile in contempt when I admit that I had to count that money three differ ent times to make it come out straight. I of course offered my assistance in the search for information, and of course she sweetly thanked me and in ' again. She did said she’d come come, and when I saw her by day. light I was clean gone. Regular case of love at first sight on my part, and I have no more excuses to offer. I w r rote several letters for her, and the search for the missing brother was well be gun. For a week Miss Haines dropped into the bank daily in search of news, and one evening during the interval I paid her a call at tho hotel. Saturday afernoon she sent me a note saying she had news of her brother, and that he would be down from the mountains about 8 o’clock in tbe evening. He Should be very anxious to go East by the 10 o’clock train, and would I mind if the two came to the bank at 8.15. While she had to draw out her money it was more than likely that he would have a large deposit to make. If she hadn’t mentioned this latter circum stance I should have taken her money to the hotel, and perhaps declared my love. Saturday evening was always a big evening with the bank, as a score 6r more of outsiders wanted the use of over Sunday. This Saturday evening I had fully $30,000 to* take 80HLEY COUNTY NEWS. cat*o of. .1 got rid of the last customer lTy*8 o’clock, locked the safe door two minutes before Tom sprang trap-<hior, apd then sat down , to wait for Miss Haines and ‘her"brother. Promptly on the quarter, Incur there yvas a knock at the door, and I it und the pair walked in. Miss Haines began saying how greatly obliged they wVre ad I turned to shut the door, aiid she was still talking when hVr ““deAr brother” fetSc’hed me a' clip over the head with a sandbag, and I know no more -for -fifteen minutes. Hvlien I opened my eyes again 1 luyd j»ecn dragged around to the. , wife, .was trod hand and foot and “Mr. Haines” and I were alone in the bank. He on'a chiilr sjnoking away as:Cool as yolr please ahdyyldently waiting for me come back to earth. -Ho was a man a)>out thirty years old, rather good looking, but had a wicked look in his eyes. Even before he spoke I had ured it all out and realized how I had been played for a chiump. It was just 8.30 by .the. clock when my visitor said:, “Conic to, have you?” Well, that’s what I was waiting for. I want'you to open this safe.” 1 “I’ll see you in Halifax first.” “Going to get mad about it, are you? Fve got your keys, you see, but, pf course, I don’t know the combination, You’ll save me a heap of trouble working the machinery. I’ll 'loosen' your hands, but don’t -attempt any' foolisbhess.. I’ve come for the boodle’ in the safe, and I’m going to have'it-at' any cost. • . “But you’ll get it without any help from me.” * He looked at me a momept^.with an evil eye and then took from his pocksb a gag made of a pine stick with ar string tied to. each end. He rose up as if he meant to apply it, but changed ‘ his mind- and sat clown and said : “Sister Nell said you were a soft one, but I hope'you are not a fool. What’s the use of forcing -me to' ex tremes? Not a dollar of this money belongs to you. If you open the safe we’ll make an even divide of the boodle, and I can leave you bound and arrange things so as to make i^ look straight to outsiders. ” ; ; “And I won’t.” “Then I’ll compel you by torture! After I have held a lighted candle to the soles of your feet for fke minutes I think you’ll listen to reason, It is now 8.46. I’ll experiment on the com bination for fifteen minutes. If I hit it, all right; if not, I’ll find a way to make you open the.door J” He knelt clown in front of the safe door, and, of course,' it was my object to keep him there until the hands of the clock pointed to 9 and Tom shot the bolt. Neither one of us uttered a word for five minutes. Then I noticed he was getting impatient and said: ' # 1 ■ . “No doubt you'll "hit the combina tion in time, and that will be bad for me!” “How bad for you?” he queried. “Why, even if you leave me bound and gagged people will be suspicious that it was a put-up job. If ypu had been obliged to use powder and drills it would have been different. ” “Soyouthink I’ll strike it, do you?”. “I hope not, but you go at it like a man who has been there before. Where is Miss Haines?” “Miss Haines? Ha! ha! ha! Miss Haines left her kindest regards and said she might call again! Good-look ing girl, eh?” “I’ll admit that, even though she worked this job on me.” “Y-e-s, good looking girl andebarp er than a steel trap. She thinks a heap of that missing brother, Miss Ha,ines dyes! There! "I think I’ve”— He thought he’d hit it, and he was not far out of the way, but it wasn’t the hit he was looking for. brother Tom was just a minute aheqd of time in shooting the bolt. The robber ut tered a shout and clutched at the air as he went down, and his heels had scarcely disappeared when the door swung back and I was making tremen dous efforts to get ■ my hands free. They were tied at the wrists, and be fore I had loosened them I had rolled over and' over on the floor to reach the staples and the peg and make the door fast. Three minutes later I had a free hand to cut the ropes binding my an kles. It wasn’t much of a fall through the trap, but thl robber struck on his Read and was -/stunned for a minute. iVhen he came to he began cursing in away to make my hair stand up, but I paid no attention, He lmd brought two revolvers iu\d a knife into the bank, but ho had taken them offand laid them on a chair. I pfeked up tiy'se and left tin) place to give the alarm, amlT Iiilvo still j confession to make to yon. I knew that it was a put up job all the way j through, and that “Miss Nellie Haines ’ was a “pal” of the man under the bank floor. She was consequently a wicked womap and deserved no mercy, Call me a fool if you . will, but I said not.a- word to anybody when I outsale and made a bee line for the hotel. She was in the'sitting-room ready dressed to ride down to the de pot when it wt<s time. She was alone, ahd whien I entered the room she ut tered a little shriek and almost fainted. “\y—.where jis-r-is my brother?” she finally.usked as I stood before her. .“Kafely trapped in the bank,” I an swered. • 1 “And yim have come to arrest me?" “No. I have come to warn you that yon may ?(” save yourself. Have iftoney v " ‘ you any “Not more than three or four dol lars,” . r • “You have $600 in the safe. I had , ; forgtutten about jthut.. I will bring it ta.you.V. ‘my—Tnvl r * | ..... ■ • •* ‘And brother? Z. ' < ‘He will keep* until you are itncl gone, and then we’ll tdke h’iin oiit send him'to jaiL”" • '<t.i r ;. I returned to (he bank and got bor money, I saw.hier take, the hotel bps to the depot. I Waited until the train .had come and gone, and then I gave the alarm, and got the robber out and ■jugged bini. ' Later on be was tfeht to •prison f<>r light years/ and the Woman I'have neVer heard of Since. Why did I let her escape?t Well, she was a, handsome woman. That’s the only * Times. exensfc I ever had.—[Chicago i ■ Polar Bears' tfeep' Cool. . , “It will surprise^most people,’ 4 said Superijiteudeut A. E. Brown, of -the Philadelphia zoological garden, to' a Record man, ‘ ‘ to learn that the polar bear stands the flot weather of the dog days in this locality better than the’ African lion. On hpt days the lion will get off’ ‘ his feed; the polar bear will hot. The tropical ahimals in the garden, ” continued the superintendent, ‘ ‘ are the ones mostly affected by the extreme Heat of midsummer, strange as it? may appear. I suppose the reason of it is that the heat here is more moist than thatjof the tropics, and, as it were, of a different character. Whatever mortality occurs among onr animals during a heated term is mostly {impng-the. tropical animals, especially ,the African. -In Hot weather I have watched the polar^ bear go into his tank, and! then, instead of lying in the shade, extend himself in the diroct rays of the sun, where the water on his skin would evaporate. He found out for himself,, I suppose, that evapo ration causes a lower temperature. Again, it is somewhat astonishing, at first, that p.ur polar bear should suffer sometimes as he do<5s from' the severe cold of winter. I have seen him shivering oh one 6f those bitterly cold day*!? when the sky was overladen and the air full of moisture. The moisture was evidently what affected him. In the Arctic regions it is so cold that the moisture is frozen out of. the air. Birds do not like'tBe'heat. It makes them perch with drooped wings. Heat affects riot only the t animate . in the garden but the finance of the 1 garden itself. A difference of ten degrees in the thermometer, ninety five instead of eighty-five, means a loss of several hundreds of dollars in our gate receipts for the* day.” How To Treat "Burns. A free application of soft sdapi to ft burn almost instantly removes the fire from the flesh'. If the injury is very feevere* follow this application with one of linseed oil and dust over-.with dry flour. When this dries repeat the oil and flour until a : good coating lias been formed. Let this remain until it cracks and falls Off ’In a day or-tW. A new sit-in willittlve formed where .the old burned off. * For slight burn was a make a poultice of Indian meal cov ered with young Hyson tea, and moist with hot watery. "' s en * " • \ » --- ■ rt ; > - The dining-room Cunard steamer, of the is 100 Campania, feet hj the new 64 feet, and seats 430 persons. SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. 1 * • a * . ^«^4's4ful experiments have bee# made in burning brick with electridHj. : ' * .*» *'' Mr John Lubbock, who once kept a queen bee for fifteen years, declare# that a t< «t proved that the > • gs were us fertile at that age as they were twelve, years before. Generally speaking we say that the curvature of the earth amounts to about 7 inches to the statute mile; ilw exactly 6.99 inches, or 7.962 inches for geographical mile. * • a j,. What are said to be th«hirgest pair of driving wheels in thevijerld am being constructed for Ti^JlW4*, ew York. Central Railroad. .' when completed, , , wifi*/ be obi (bet i# diameter. >, '/ * ''rji */• . being A new manufactured substance palloJ'|^zi^hj>ei# in Jjj^jlii^.flVw- . many, under a patent, ftii<w'id<’f | «pwnd to be 200 times sweetef 1 and free from obtain otfjectidiqibjp properties of saccharin. The Health Department of NA York ble disinfecting City has paid machine. $960 for It a is potato- dfayn. by horses, fifid can be taken in fljont of an infected house to disinfect ckdmj ifig, bedding, etc. ■> .* t There has not been a total eclijwe of the sun at London since the year 1140, 1 except that of 1715, ami ' Holdtm says there will not be an other until after the opening of the twenty-first century. .1 w • Much interest’is felt in Scotland m • the attempts to utilize Scotch oil— i# which the trade is much depressed— * for iiicreasing the illuminating power of eoaf gas. The mixture is claimed to give better gas, at a lower price. • The last annual circle of wood leaves an accumulation of living cells upo# its surface, and towards midsummer these cells produce an abundance of new ones until the aggregate is suffi cient to form a new annual layer. el-.. - 'f’his process on common trees require# about six weeks. * P According to Topinard, the average height of-Laplanders is 60.7 inches; of Bushmen, 62; of Chinese, 64 ; of Frenchmen, 65 ; of Russians, 65.4; of Germans, 66.2; of Danes, 66.2; of Irishmen, 67; of' Englishmen, Scotch men and Swedes, 67.4; of America# Indians, 68.2; of Patagonians, 70.3. Certain micro-organisms prove to be capable of enduring great changes of temperature; and Forster and Bleek rode have found u few species, having an immense number of individuals, that develop at freezing point. One of them, living in sea-water, produce# phosphorescence at that temperature. The Sagacious Dog. There is a prominent business man in Washington, says the Post, who is something of a dog fancier, and takes pride in a pair of English setters that have held a prominent place in several bench shows in the country. Some months ago one of them developed an incipient case of ophthalmia and wae taken to an oculist for treatment, just as naturally as would have been any other member of the family. The treatment, which consisted of drops to be put in the patient’s eye, proved quite successful and relieved t he trouble for a time, but after a while it came on again, and a second expedition was planned to the doctor’s. Flim Flam seemed to know where he was going, for on entering the square where the oculist hail his office, he raced ahead of his master and got up the step# where he had been but once before, and on the door being opened bolted straight for the treatment-room, in stead of waiting his turn downstairs, as two-legged patients learn to do, to th«#lr sorrow and impatience. This? time the treatment was a zinc solution that was very severe and brought the water in streams from the patient’s eyes, but he took it with his nose in the air, never wincing, and the only sign of feeling he made was to hold out one paw pathetically for hie master’s hand. Not Philosophical. Professor—“Is it not very remark able that storms should always g© * • 4 whirling round and round in circlet as they advance across the continent? r - Pupil (not particularly philosophi- cal)— ‘Oh, I don’t know. They’ve * got plenty of time.”—[Good New–J^ .- >.*
