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About The Pickens County herald. (Jasper, Ga.) 1887-???? | View Entire Issue (May 14, 1891)
PICKENS COUNTY HERALD VOL IV. THE PIRATES’ HOME. How One of the Wickedest Cities in the World Was Destroyed. The Earth Opened and It Was Blotted Out of Existence. When the Spaniards were driven from Jamaica they loft behind them a number of slaves, who sought shelter in the mountains and defied the author¬ ities. These bandits were nearly ex¬ terminated soon after the English oc¬ cupation, but tho remnant later grew to be powerful and greatly, troubled the authorities. They are known as the Maroons, and the story of their desperate struggles for freedom, of the privileges wrung from the whites and of their assistance in suppressing the rising of the blacks in 18G5 reads like a romance. Six hundred of these troublesome marauders were trans¬ ported to Nova Scotia. The descend¬ ants of the ancient Maroons are even to this day a separate people, and still enjoy the privileges granted to their ancestors. Pirates and their bloodthirsty deeds have furnished so often tho plot and theme for the melodramatist and the dime novelist that one hates to write about them in sober earnest. But they were no myths in Jamaica, and no account of Jamaica’s past, however brief, can omit a reference to the part they played in its history, especially , as the most dreadful calamity that ever visited ilie island is connected with them. The Jamaican pirates generally sought to throw over their marauding and pillaging expeditions the sanction of legal authority by obtaining letters of marque, but they were,nevertheless, pirates, pure and simple. One chief after another scoured the Spanish main, capturing vessels, usually Span¬ ish, on the high seas, and when the ocean did not offer enough to satisfy his curiosity and love of adventure, attacked cities and towns,laying waste with fire and sword, and committing horrible barbarities and cruelties. Nothing was sacred to these human devils, and yet they were tolerated for many years by the Jamaican authorities. The island profited by their expeditions, and the last half of the seventeenth century -witnessed a prosperity as great as it was wicked and demoralizing. Port Royal was the capital of the pirate empire, and the Marooners filled it with wealth and debauchery. There they maintained in scmi-barbaric state their great establishments. They lived like men who, with the wealth of princes, did not know when they might die, and who had no fear of God or man. Imagination can hardiy picture the character of the populace of that little city under the sun, or the life within its walls. To it came the-reck¬ less, the desperate, the men most skilled in villainy. With them they brought the spoils of richly laden gal¬ leons bound home with silver and gold, the ransoms of cities and whole populaces, and fleets of merchant ves¬ sels freighted with rich stuffs from all the markets of tho world. All this, and more, was poured into Port Itoyal and was spent with a lavishness and extravagance that is possible only with treasure bought at so slight a cost as that of human life. Nothing seemed lacking to make it the wickedest place on earth; yet the vengeance of the Lord apparently passed it by. But it was only for a season. One day the earth opened and in two minutes the city, its pal¬ aces and its hovels lay at tho bottom of the sea. Thousands of the inhabi¬ tants perished with their iil-gotten gains, and the unburied dead, floating in the harbor or heaped upon the land under a tropical sun, bred a horrible pestilence that carried off thousands of those who escaped the earthquake. Today the waters of the bay hide from sight the ancient city. Was ever retributive justice more terrible or complete. Romantic and exciting as were the lives of all these buccaneers, that of Henrv Morgan, the greatest of the freebooters, was the most so. From a white slave in the Barbadoes, where be had been sold into servitude, he be¬ came, first, the most daring aud suc¬ cessful of the pirates, and later a knight, and, as Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica, th« ruler of that island. “We Seek the Reward of Honest Labor.” JASPER, PICKENS COUNTY, (iA„ THURSDAY, MAY U, 1891. At tlie sucking of Panama he obtained 175 mule-loads of treasure. The Governor who gave him his commie- ston was recalled for that act, but Morgan was knighted, and, as« Sir Henry, turned his back upon his for- mer companions and made & most popular Governor of the colony.— [Boston Herald. “Our Centennial.” Our Centennial Exposition at Phila¬ delphia came next in tho list of world’s fairs after the woful Austrian exper¬ ience, and though not a pronounced financial success, was vastly nearer being such than the Austrian venture. Tho Centennial was opened May 10, and was closed on the next 10th of November, in . the meantime having been open to visitors on 159 days. The total number of admissions was 9,910,966, of which number 1,906,691 had free admission and 8,004,247 paid, the financial outcome being about even, when it is remembered that the city of Philadelphia came into posess- ion of the main exposition building and the art palace, both handsome and permanent structures. The days of the largest attendance at the Centen¬ nial were as follows: Opening day, May 10, 76,712; September 9, 99,984; September 20, 101,498; September 28, which had been designated as Penn¬ sylvania Day, 274,918; September 80, 103,385; October 18, 124,777; October 25, 106,986; October 27, 95,553; November 1, 107,715; November 2, 115,298; November 8, 90,588, and November 9, which had been announced as Philadelphia Day, 176,755. These figures show that the public interest in the exposition did not wane during the whole time of its continuance, but the same fact is more plainly declared by the state¬ ment of admissions each month. Average daily attendance for May, 26,175; June, 36,622; July, 84,863; August, 53,530; September, 93,834; October, 102,358, and during the nine days in November that the exposition was open, 115,315 persons were ad¬ mitted. There were the two prices of fifty cents and twenty-five cents charged for admission to the Centen¬ nial, the latter being for children, and the total amount taken in at the ticket offices was $3,813,749.50. The expenses were somewhat larger than this amount, but neither the United States nor the stockholders lost anything, and the comparatively small deficit was more than balanced by the value of the permanent build¬ ings of which Philadelphia, as stated became the owner by purchase after p the closing of the fair. Had the fair been open on Sundays, it was claimed at tho time, aud has never been con¬ troverted, the exposition would have left a surplus instead of the small deficit it bequeathed to the managers. — [Chicago Inter-Ocean. Birth of a Bison. The female bison at the Zoological Gardens has just given birth to a fine calf. This is a matter for some re¬ joicing, since the American bison is getting very rare. It is even now as rare, or nearly so, as its European relative, the aurochs, and not so very long age it was abundant on the plains of North America. The calf is a reddish-brown color, like the calf of an ordinary domestic cow, and not a bit like its black, shaggy mother. If the theory is true that every shade and variety of' color lias its meaning, this fact is very extraordinary. If the colors of the adult bison have a relation to its usual snrroundings.why should the calf be colored differently? One would have thought that what was sauce for the’goose was also sauce for tho gosling. It has, however, been suggested that such differences between tlie parents and their oflspring are to facilitate recognition, and it is noticeable that the young of many animals are, as in this case, more brightly colored than their parents, and, therefore, more conspicuous in the dusk or twilight. — [London News. A Reasonable Request. Mr. Waffle—Aw, Miss West, kind¬ ly allow me to escort you into the banqueting salon. Miss West—Pardon me, Mr. Waffle, but did yon expect to walk or ride? Mr. Waffle (standing on the dress) —Why, walk, of course. Miss West—Then please get off the train. ESKIMO DIET. - W hftt th(? Natives of South _ and , fc.a ureeil . Their Principal Articles of Food Are Seal Meat and Blubber. • I had read once about Eskimo eating habits—liow once upon a time, for instance, an Arctic explorer offered some Eskimo girls some sweetmeats which were rejected, while tallow candles were eagerly accepted and eaten. Now I was to see an Eskinv/i cat. With many smiles, Peter entered the oabin and sat down at the table. 1 should have apologized to him on ac¬ count of the scantiness of our fare,for we had no candles aud there wasn’t a bit of tallow on deck even, let alone in tho cabin, but I noticed that the butter plate was heaping full, tho eight of which made mo wisli for some of my friends so that wo could make a pool on the number of bites be would take in swallowing the roll. Then Peter sat down and without ceremony helped himself to a lot of baked beans, a piece of dry bread and a largo piece of very lean, salt beef, all of which he bit into and swallowed as a hungry ’longshoreman might have done. Then he took more beans and more bread and more lean beef, and with them several cups of coffee with a great deal of sugar to each cup. lie was a long time getting to it, bat he finally began on the but¬ ter. He had poured his last cup of coffee and was looking about for something to eat with it when his eye fell on a plate of cake, * Taking a small piece he put a small lump of but¬ ter on it and slowly ate the combination with the coffee. To the reader of a geographical magazine it may seein strange, but (he fact is, until 1 saw this man at tho table I had really ex¬ pected to find the Eskimos of South Greenland showing the habits and tastes of those living a thousand miles further up tho coast. I had not quite expected to find them living in snow houses, but I had a misty idea that an Eskimo was a little black Indian whose chief delight among the things brought from a civilized country was the tallow candle. The staple food is seal meat and blubber. Next to that is the little fish taken in the fiord and dried for winter use, known to them as the augniat-fat, and to the learned as salmo villosus. A favorite way of eating the dried aug- mat-fat is to take it by the tail, poke it into the oiiy blubber for a while, and then chew it down. Awful, isn’t it? It is almost as bad as eating sar¬ dines. There is a deal in a name. Blubber is disgusting; oil, if for use on a salad, is delicious and indispens¬ able. I have eaten seal oil and found it (very unexpectedly) i^o good. I bad supposed it would a flavor of fish oil. There is no such flavor about it. It is equal to the best extract of cotton seed—that quality sold as olive oil in all American groceries. Augmat-fat and blubber, under a French label, would be esteemed a luxury in New York as in Arsuk. For the rest, tho Eskimos trade seal oil and skins to their governor for three kinds of hard tack, for coffee, sugar and tea. They catch Arctic codfish (misarkornak in Eskimo, and gadns navaga in the books) and salmon in the seasons; they shoot no end of gulls, ducks, ptarmigans, and tho Arctic hare; they have eggs in endless quantity in the season, and very many foxes arc trapped. The fox is to the Eskimo what the ’possum is to the plantation darkey. He likes to smoke and, under favoring circumstances, will swap anything lie’s got, including his wife, for rum.—[Goldthwalte’s Geographi¬ cal Magazine. Yon Weed a Gnn for These Lobsters. “Once upon a time,” said an expert in matters crustacean to a Star report¬ er, “there were evabs and lobsters in existence for which the modern fisher¬ man would have gone a-Jiunting with the most approved weapons and cau¬ tion. For example, in times ante¬ diluvian there was a lobster which had a body eight feet long and could stretch twelve feet with its formidable arms. Positive knowledge of this giant of long ago is conveyed by geo¬ logical research. It must have con¬ tained meat enough to make a salad for a regiment of soldiers. In those days of long ago everything grew to enormous dimensions, whether animal or vegetable. Frogs were big and ao- tive enough to leap at one hop from the Treasury building to tho Capitol, and othor creatures, particularly those of a destructive sort, were in propor¬ tion. “Only a few little specimens arc left to illustrate tho giant crustacean forms of that ancient epoch. It is known how crabs and lobsters arc hatched , , , from . egg*, resembling , upon birth nothing so much as the animal- cului shown by the microscope in a drop of ditch water. They are as un¬ like tho shell fish they are to become in mature life as a grub is unlike a butter; fly. In the case of the crab the egg clusters are attached beneath the ani- Inal after extrusion, while with the lobster they become fastened to tho tail, which, by its fanning motion, increases the stream of oxygenated air through and among the ovu. “From the egg* of the lobster aro batched creatures not in the least re¬ sembling their parents*—-little fellows that swim with featlher-Iiko locomo¬ tive organs new the surface of the water. At the end of six weeks they develop legs, unless, as is highly probable, they have previously been devoured by fishes or other enemies, becoming thereupon email lobsters of familiar shape. Having reached this stage of growth, the young lobsters become walking animals, and, sinking to the bottom, immediately seek hid- ng-plnces to protect them from their foes. — [Washington Star. The Indian Warriors’ Scalp Dance. The return of a war party is the occasion of a ceremony of general rejoicing on the part of the tribe. The warriors decorate themselves with beads and war eagle feathers, a tuft of long white feathers being affixed to the crown of their heads; red and black figures are painted on their bodies. On nearing their village they raise their voices in song, and bear in their hands branches of pine, on which are hung the scalps taken from their enemies. Arriving at a lodge con- taining their sacred symbols, the chief of the tribe walks in a direction oppo¬ site to the course of the sun, crying aloud an invocation while the circle is being formed. Opposite the door is the war pole, and beside it a square box securely fastened together con¬ taining their mystic symbols. They all sit down on the earth and the si¬ lence is unbroken. At length the warriors rise and follow their chief, who leads tlie way, mako the circle of the war polo, chanting a peculiar in¬ vocation three times. Eacli in the order of succession now enters tho lodge, on whose hearth burns tho sacred fire. Three days and nights are given to fasting. The woman stand beside the door in two rows tho first night of the fast, chanting at intervals in a shrill voice, followed by an abso¬ lute silence. From time to time dur- the fast tjie chief appears with his warriors, shouting the war-whoops, marching around the circle of the war pole and waving the brandies to which the scalps are attached. Finally a gen¬ eral procession is formed, with the chief at the head, eacli in orderly suc- cession, as before, followed by the squaws, and inarch around the chief’s lodge'f rom tho east to the north, where the evil spirit dwells, the warriors singing the death song. After the procession they affix to the roof of the lodge a branch with a piece of a scalp fastened thereto. This is repeated at each lodge of the village to appease the spirits of the dead, aud then the ceremony ends.—Chicago Herald. A Good Test of the Eje. A trick that is goiug tlie rounds just now is to measure by the eye the dir tance to which you must push away the central one of three silver dollars sido by side, their circumferences touching, so that the distance from the lower edge of the central coin so re- moved, shall be equal to the distance apart of the outer edges of the two other coins. You will probably do as everyone else does, put the coins side by side and push the middle one up¬ ward along the table until you think you have done a rash thing by pushing it so far. When yon measure you will find out. It’s an old perversity of the eye.---[Lewiston (Me.) Jour¬ nal. Some cheap things are ever in good j : form—politeness, for instanoe. FOREST GIANTS California’s Majestic Redwood Trees in Danger. Steps Taken to Preserve Them From Utter Destruction. It is gratifying to loam that tho Land Offico at Washington is at last , Ulki to tho ginnt rod- j top8 pre80rV0 | woods of California, which are fa¬ mous the world over as the greatest trees in existence. These majestic monuments of nature are in danger of utter destruction, and it is high time that something were done to save them. In the first place, they are be¬ ing killed oft' by tho mountain fires which are very frequent on the slopes of tiic Sierra Ncvadas, and are due to tho carelessness of sheep herders who who load fiocks far up the mountain’s sides. In fact, there are few of the giant trees of California which aro now wholly uninjured by fire. There are also sawmills building in the neighborhood of some of these grovos of giant trees, and, strange as it may 8oem, they have not the slightest com¬ punction about destroying them, al¬ though many of the larger trees aro, of coifrse, difficult for them to handle, and this fact has helped to keep them from destruction. In the Visalia district there are sev¬ eral groves of enormous trees, the largest of which is 106 feet in circum¬ ference. These forests aro very im¬ pressive on account of tho grand treos they contain, and, although the land was withdrawn from public entry five years ago, a colony of enthusiasts and theorists, who were bent upon demon¬ strating the practicability of Bellamy’s ideas,have settled in the neighborhood, and it is said that they have destroyed , some of the trees. j There is a general feeling in Cali¬ fornia that all that region of forest trees on the western slopes of the Sierra Ncvadas should be withdrawn from settlement. The Government is a i ready taking 8teps to pI . ot ect the redwoods by withdrawing from entry tl;e sections which contain groves of these giant trees. During (lie past two years tho General Land Office has made a careful investigation of the Stockton, Visalia, Mariposa and other districts where the giaut treos arc found, and reports have been sent to Washington of tho exact situation, number and size of these trees. This was done in order that tho Government might have all the information needed for carrying out measures to protect the forests. The trees are always found at an elevation from 6000 to 7000 feet above tlie sea. They are a little south of the Yosemite valley, and south of east of San Francisco. The most famous of these groves is tlie Mariposa, which contains about 320 giant trees, and is carefully guarded from forest fires by a company which makes a business of carrying excursionists to see ttie great trees. The redwoods in this grove cover about four square miles. With proper protection tlie giant trees of the Sierra Nevada slopes will, for many years to come, be among tho greatest lialurftl cnrio8 ; ties o£ California. The General Land Office has entered thor- ouglily upoii the work of saving the trees which still exist, and there is every prospect that the various causes which have been depicting their num- ber w]]1 bc rcmoved and that the trees will still be for many decades a source of great interest to the tourist. —[New York Sun. Just a Plain Sailor. A sea captain, who was going up to Albany to see his friends, came out with U9 on the train, and a Chicago broker who first discerned ins pres¬ ence, gave the boys the wink, and fol¬ lowed it up by saying: < • If we work it right we can get some awful lies out of him. Let some one ask him about sharks aud sea ser¬ pents.” Four of us crowded him into a smoking compartment, and when we had become slightly acquainted the inquiry was made: “Captain, you have doubtless seen some very large whales? How long would you say the largest was?” “Gentlemen, I never saw a whale in my life,” he replied. “I have been sea years, but I never hap- ixmcd to sec a whale,” NO. 28. ‘•Well, you have seen serpents In ho warm 9008?’' “Ncvor saw one there.” “But you must have Boon some ex* tra largo sharks?” “Gentlemen, I hope you will be* lievc mo when I tell you that I never saw a shark except in an aquarium.” “But you have been wrecked?” “Never.” “Ever have a mutiny?” “No.” “Fire at sea?” “No.” “Meet with a pirate!” “No.” “Tidal wave?” “No.” “Ilumph. What sort of a sailor t are you, anyway?” “I’m sorry for.you gentlemen, very sorry, but the fact is I am only a plain, evorydqy sailor, and my mother made me take a vow when I first went to sea that I would always speak the truth. Here arc some good nickel cigarB for you, but as for lying, I can’t do it—not even about sea ser- pents.”—[New York Sun. An Indian Challenge. Two tribes of Indians in the upper part of California had as boundary between their districts, a low ridge where the stream headed. If you should go to where one of these streams, Potter ltivor,rises, you would see still standing a tall pile of stones beside a never-failing spring; on one sido of this cairn was the territory of the Porno Indians,and on the other the land of the Chumaia. These tribes were enemies, a id were often at war. When the Chumaia wished to challenge the others to battle, they took three little sticks, cut notches round their ends and in the middle, tied them at the ends into a faggot, and laid it oil the cairn. If the Pomos accepted the challenge, they tied a string around the middle of the three sticks and left them in their place. Then agents of both tribes met on neutral grounds and arranged tho time and place of battle which took place accordingly.— [St. Nicholas. Sheep-Shearing. Many advantages are claimed for sheep-shearing by machinery, The work is performed more thoroughly than by hand, it being calculated that on an average some ten additional ounces of wool per merino sheep are obtained by its employment, The operation, moreover, is carried out more humanely, the cuts and stabs often inflicted in hand-shearing, more especially when executed as “piece¬ work,” being entirely avoided, to¬ gether with tho consequent damage and deterioration to the pelts. It has been estimated that no less than one per cent, of the animals perish from inju¬ ries due principally to hand-shearing. Tito labor entailed on the operator is also considerably reduced; and aching hands, swollen wrists and cuts or stabs to tho worker himself should be things of the past.— [Tho Ledger. England’s Aged Cardinal. Cardinal Manning, the aged prelate, is 82 years old—one year older than Gladstone. Ilis face is thin and bloodless, his eyes sunken and the wrinkled skin colorless. His kindly blue eyes twinkle merrily and a pleas¬ ant smile occasionally relieves the ascetic look of Mb countenance. He is more than ordinarily tall, and now that his years are upon him his head and shoulders stoop and he is some¬ what deaf. He receives visitors in a plain black silk cassock, with a red silk cap on bis venerable head.—[Pica¬ yune. China Wants Vo Stage Lines. A John Chinaman, who went back home after making his $800 fortune in this country, established a stage line between two Towns where sedan chairs were in use, and inside of a week he was caught up by the authori¬ ties and bis property confiscated. The charge against him was: “Creating great worry and uneasiness in the pub¬ lic mind.”—[Detroit Free Press. : A $10,000 Belt. A belt now being made for a Louisiana electric light company will be the largest in the world. It is to be 6 feet wide, 167 feet long, and will take the skins of 175 animals to com¬ plete it. When finished it will weigh two tons and cost $10,000, or about $10 a square foot
