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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