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The Henry County Weekly
A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of ;h and Henry County.
VOL. XLV.
Chamber of Commerce
Has Big Interesting Day
The meeting of the Henry Coun
ty Chamber of Commerce at the
court house Tuesday attracted a
splendid attendance, and the day
was full of interest from begin
ning to end.
A pleasant feature was the fine
music of the 45th Infantry Band,
which was much enjoyed before
and throughout the proceedings.
The speeches were excellent, en
tertaining as well as instructing the
large and attentive audience.
Some new members were added
and upon the adjustment of finan
matters the following officers
elected for the current year:
E. L. Reagan, Chairman.
S. C. McWilliams, Vice Chra’n.
A. A. Lemon, Secretary.
Homer J. Turner, Treas.
W. M. Harris, A. G. Combs, A.
C. Norman,'Members of the Gov
erning Board.
Regular meetings were appoint
ed for every first Tuesday.
Ladies of the Woman’s Club
served a good dinner and realized
a neat sum.
Mr. J. W. Middlebrooks
Dies at Locust Grove.
By the passing away of Mr. J.W.
Middlebrooks at 9:30 o’clock, at
his home in Locust Grove last Fri
day morning, that little city has
lost another one of her best and
most useful citizens.
The death of Mr. Middlebrooks
was unexpected, and quite a shock
to his many friends in Henry
county. For a number of years
he had asthmatic trouble, and an
attack of this'combined with cold
and pleurisy, after an illness of
about a week, resulted in his end
ing.
Mr. Middlebrooks had long been
a citizen of Locust Grove, where
he moved from Monroe county.
He served many years as Notary
Public for this district, and pos
sibly a more popular official could
not be found. Always genial,
clever and accomodating, he had
scores of friends by whom he will
be greatly missed. Much sympa
thy is extended his bereaved fam
ily.
First National Bank of Mc-
Donough Appointed
Treasurer of Henry
County.
On January Ist the First Na
tional Bank of McDonough was
appointed Treasurer of Henry
ry county for the year nineteen
hundred and nineteen, as provid
ed in an Act of the General As
sembly of Georgia, on August 19,
1916. This appointment is quite
a compliment to this splendid in
stitution, which stands as a bul
wark in financial circles of Geor
gia.
Henry county is fortunate in
having this strong institution to
act as as its treasurer
GOOD FARM
For Sale.
50.6 acres of good land, 185 bu.
corn, 2000 buidl°s fodder, 2 good
mules 9 & 10 years old, weighing
over 1000 pounds each, 1 new 1%
horse waggon (White Hickory,
wood skein. 1
Implements and all go with the
place for quick sale. S3OOO cash.
John J. Varner, at postoffice.
MCDONOUGH, GEORGIA, FRIDAY. JANI AfU U, I >l9
Letter to Dad.
Tours, France
Nov. 24, 1918.
Dear Dad:
You have doubtless seen from
the papers that this is the day
when we are to write the Dad’s
Vic tory Letter, and that Postmast
!er Burleson has promised that
they shall be delivered by Christ
mas Eve. This letter, as has been
explained, is to be a sort of love
letter from the soldiers of the
American E. F. to their fathers.
However, since I'm not accustom
'ed to writing love letters, and see
ing that the censorship lid is off
for this particular letter, I will be
able to tell you lots of little inci
dents that have been under the
ban so far.
In the first place I may tell you
the route we took in coming
across, just about a year ago. We
caught the good ship “Cedric,” a
great big White Star Line English
steamer. It wasn’t much more
than half filled to capacity, so we
had it pretty nice in that respect.
We w r ent on board ship early in
the morning and pulled out of
New York harbor after the lights
had gone on that exiling. - Right
out by the Goddess we went with
our sister ship, the “Celtic,” also a
troop convoy, and when we woke
up next morning no land was to
be seen anywhere—there was
nothing to be seen but the “Celtic”
that was with us all the way
across.
That day all of us were assigned
to a life boat and told exactly
what to do in case we were torpe
doed, and we were given drastic
instructions about keeping our life
belts with us no matter where we
went. We carried them to the
dining hall, on the deck with us,
and slept with them under our
heads at night. To get us per
fectly acquainted with what was
to be done in case of a submarine,
we had boat drills daily and some
times oftener than that. 1 re--
member our having one at night.
Woe be to the man that didn’t
snap into the boat drill formations
promptly. He got the panning J
out of his young life. Some of
the rules were drastic, such as I
smoking on deck after dark, which
wasn’t allowed under any condi
tion. None of the ships in the
convoy of freighters and one j
transformed merchantman carry-,
ing guns carried any lights what-!
ever at night except the leader,
which carried one and guided the j
other vessels by flashing signals
with the lamp from its masthead.
But I’m getting ahead of my story.
Naturally we all thought we
were headed for France and we
were no little surprised to see
land the next day hove into view,
but it did and we soon learned
that we were entering the harbor
of Halifax, Nova Scotia. So you
see I’ve been to ’Halifax” all right.
By the way, Halifax has the pret
tiest land locked harbor that I
have ever seen. We lay there for
two days and nights waiting for
the rest of the vessels that were
to come across in our convoy, and
about 1:00 p. m. on Sunday, we
sailed out of Halifax harbor bound
for unknown destination, eight
ships in all. One armed convoy
ship, three troop ships and the
rest of us freighters.
We were seventeen days on the
water from the time we sailed out
of New York harbor until •
foot on solid ground again at Liv
erpool, England, and during that
time there wasn’t much \< •-
ment. Our course was a
ending zig-zag. You know
subs were pretty thick those d «
so no vessel sailed straight ah 1
for over fifteen minutes at a h ; \
It was a pretty sight to see all the
convoys change direction at the
signal of the leader, for we all
stuck pretty closely together. We
had cold weather, snow, ruin and
heavy seas for part of the voyage,
with waves breaking over the
vessel’s sides, but I rather liked it.
And then we had some very good,
nice warm weather.
We were constantly on the look
out for the “devil-boats” of the
Germans —lookouts posted day
and night. And daily we expect
ed to meet our convoys of armed
vessels, for we knew that we were
getting well into what was called
the “danger zone,” but the convoy
sent out to meet us, missed us,
and we sighted the coast of Ire
land before we ever met a convoy,
which consisted pf some very
diminutive (six I think) destroy
ers. These little boats aren’t much
larger than good sized mosqui
toes, but they are the fastest
things you ever saw, and go
through the water like a streak
with a gun mounted on the front.
I never will forget a rumor that
was nicked up one night by wire
less that the German fleet had
broken through and was on the
high neas. Thai was aboiit the
time of the sea battle in the Catte
gat, so that is doubtless where the
rumor got started. During the
next few days we hardly knew
whether we were going to get
sunk by the German fleet or taken
prisoner. Our convoy took the
extreme northern route, which
carried us around the north end
of Ireland.
One foggy morning, when you
couldn’t see three feet from your
nose, we were cruising along
pretty slowly and were just about
where the Empress of Ireland had
been sunk by a torpedo, when fir
ing broke out over on our right.
Everybody was keyed up to the
highest pitch of excitement, but
everybody knew just what to do,
so there wasn’t any confusion.
Then our ship went ahead full
steam and a few hours later we
were in Belfast harbor with our
other troop ships along with us.
Our armed convoy wasn’t to be
seen nor the freighters. We had
run into a nest of subs, and had
cut and run for it. The subs got
one of our freighters and crippled
another. We lav in Belfast har
bor two days and a night, and late
one afternoon pulled out for our
final destination. We were much
more heavily convoyed than pre
viously, for the last lap of our
race with the submarines was the
most dangerous. I think every
body was nervous that night, for
there was a heavy sea and for the
first time we were going at full
speed. Nothing happened, how
ever, and about midnight that
night we made Liverpool.
We had all stayed up until Liv
erpool was sighted running close
in along the English coast so close
in places that we could hear the
roar of the surf, and we were al
ways being signalled by rockets
from the coast. The Irish sea is
one of the prettiest bodies of wat
er that I have ever seen. We
s-.-. iho Isle of Man, in fact we
skirted it so close that it seemed
almost us it you could have talked
t 1 c e ople on the shore. On
the morning that the subs run us
in : t Belt’ ist we also had skirted
Hi Sc Kish coast, one of the wild
est looking I ever hope to see.
The morning following our ar
rival in Liverpool we disembarked
a d were hurried on to one of
those queer little English trains
for our tide across the country of
Good Queen Bess—and now we
beg in to realize that there really
was a war on. We saw women
trucking stuff in the stations and
working on the tracks all along,
and we began to see wounded
Tommies and Canucks and a few
Aussies. About ten o’clock that
night we arrived at Winchester,
in the land of King Arthur, and
after a long, weary march under
heavy pack, arrived at Morn Hill,
the English Rest Camp, where we
spent a week. It wasn’t bad there,
but we were on English rations,
which is, I think, 8 cents a day, so
you may judge that we didn’t have
much to eat, which didn’t go very
well with our American appetites
whetted especially sharp by sev
enteen days at sea.
Then one day we got orders to
go. While we were waiting at
the station there a huge Red Cross
train rushed through absolutely
loaded to the gills with wounded,
and then we began to get glad
that we had come over, tor we
began to see just how badly we
were needed in this Big War over
here. Up until then I’m afraid
that I had been a very lukewarm
soldier, but after that we didn’t
much care, for we felt that we
had our woi’k to do over here.
Well, we took train to South
Hampton, and spent the rest of
the day there, and late that night
caught a packet for Le Havre.
This boat was loaded, oh, how it
was loaded down; solemn Tom
mies, Scots in kilts, lively Canucks
like our own fellows, and Aussies
with their hats turned up very de
bonairly on the side. That night
I almost froze. I tried to sleep
rolled up in my overcoat under a
table in a kind of a mess hall
there, but there wasn’t much
room, and it was too cold to get
much sleep. This was a cattle
boat and below we would hear
the stamping of the horses. The
Channel was rough, but nothing
happened and we were at Le
Havre when the sun rose, and got
out: first view of la belle France.
We stayed on board ship all day
with nothing to eat except cold
corn willie and hard tack, waiting
for the tide to come in so we could
make shore.
(Continued next week.)
Lee’s Birthday.
Program.
Prayer —Rev. Gilmore.
Song, by audience —America.
Solo —Miss Rosa Lee Brown.
Duette —Rev. and Mrs. Liddell.
Reading —Mrs. Adam Sloan.
Introduction of Speaker—Rev.
Emory.
Address —Rev. Ashby Jones.
Solo —Mrs. Weyman Sloan.
Solo —Miss Annie G. Thompson.
Prayer—Rev. Liddell.
Friday evening, Jan. 17th, 1919,
at the Baptist church.
Ex-President Roosevelt’s death
at his home at Oyster Bay this
week attracts world-wide regret.
MOUNT BETHEL NEWS.
One thing I am thankful for, F
didn’t resolve on* new year’s day
that 1 wouldn’t say what 1 felt like
saying the first cold blizzard that
came along, for just imagine ris
ing one of those hard frozen mor
nings, with the back out of the
chimney in the living room, the
stove pipe full of sutt and can’t
get a tire to burn anywhere—or
if you do, you “burn on one side
and freeze on ’tothei.” You' try
to prepare breakfast for a starv
ing family of nine, milk frozen to
ice, eggs all bursted, even the
cream and salt frozen hard. And
while you are trying ts thaw
things out, you stand and pat
the floor with frozen feet, and so
on and so forth. Well after all, I
have not said anything that would
cause you to throw up your hands
in holy horror. 1 expected it, you
know I said some time ago if it
didn’t come would miss my guess.
And then too of course we could
’nt fret about such a little matter
as the weather when we think
they are not fighting now over
seas. s
Miss Fannie Lou Wynn of At
lanta spent Xmas with relatives
in this vicinity.
Messrs. Greer Lumrnus Byron
Marston are home from training
camps.
Loy and Nina Strawn spent the
holiday week end in Atlanta.
Miss Pearl Paden, one of the
teachers in Sandy Ridge School,
spent Ntnas at her home in Law
renceville.
Mrs. W. H. Condrey of Atlanta,
who was visiting the family of Mr.
and Mrs. F. B. Stralm during the
holidays, returned to her home
last Tuesday.
And all these holiday items re
mind me of a large Xmas bell
hanging in a window in July, but
I didn’t write last week and noth
ing much has happened since, or
if I have been too frozen up to
get it. Will try to do better next
time, and give news not so stale.
Lots of fine porkers are being
called upon to sacrifice their liv< s
now.
Our hearts were saddened by
news of the death of Mrs. Rosie
Lee Freeman, who died at her
home two weeks ago. Her death
was quite sudden and unexpected.
Mrs. Freeman leaves a little babe
of only one month, a devoted
young husband and many rela
tives and friends to mourn her
loss. She was a daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. A. T. Polk. We deeply
sympathize with those who loved
her best.
F. B. and Loy Strahn are thresh
ing peas for the pulic this week.
Rev. Mcßrayer of the Locust
Grove charge will preach at Mt.
Bethel Sunday at 11 o’clock. Come
out and hear him.
Mis’ Franc.
SIOO Reward, SIOO
The readers of this paper will be
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been able to cure in all its stages, and
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influenced by constitutional conditions
requires constitutional treatment.
Hall’s Catarrh Cure is taken internally
and acts thru the Blood on the Mucous
Surfaces of the System thereby de
stroying the foundation of the disease,
giving the patient strength by building
up the constitution and assisting na
ture in doing its work. The proprie
tors have so much faith in the curative
powers of Hall’s Catarrh Cure that
they offer One Hundred Dollars for any
case that it fails to cure. Send for list
of testimonials.
Address: F. J. CHENEY A CO., Toledo,
Ohio. Sold by all Druggists. 75c.
$1.50 A YEAR
