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OCILLA DISPATCH.
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OCILLA, GEORGIA.
HENDERSON & HANLON, Publishers.
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If tlie fa<l among American girls for
marrying foreign priuees keeps up the
sultan Of Snln will bo sending over
presently for quotations on half-dozen
lots.
Another suggestion is to change
the name of “automobile” to “auto-
kineton,” because the latter word is
pure Greek. It would doubtless re¬
main so to the average American.
The French-American Historical
society has just been formed in Bos¬
ton, whose object is declared to be to
promote the careful and systematic
study of the bistory of the t’nited
States, and especially to bring forth
in its true light the part which belongs
to the French race in the evolution
and formation of the American people.
The charter members number about
50 persons of French origin from
many parts of ibis country.
The old-fashioned toy house that
told us it was going to be fair because
the woman came out of the house,
and that it was going to be stormy
because the man stood to the front,
gave us the natural idea of the wife’s
and the husband’s place. In matters
fair and gentle and domestic the wife
is properly the head; in stormy, stern,
and especially in out-of-doors affairs,
the husband is the best head of the
house, or his wife is unfortunate.
Although a very large proportion of
the 8450,000,000 worth of goods
which Africa imported in 1898 came
through the British colonies, the
United States sold the dark continent
goods amounting to $18,000,000 and
purchased in return African products
valued at $10,000,000. The imports
of the Transvaal in 1898 amounted to
$104,000,000, while its exports were
valued at $54,000, 000, the latter con¬
sisting chiefly of gold aud other
minerals.
Our bill for ammunition during the
Spanish war was not one-fifth as great
as the amount expended annually
by the British navy in practice.
Forty-five thousand dollars’ worth of
ammunition was fired at Montojo’s
fleet in Manila Bay and $100,000 was
expended in following up aud destroy¬
ing Cervera’s fleet. Each round fired
by Dewey cost about $9.50 and the
average price of the rounds fired by
Sampson was $14.25. These prices
indicate the preponderance in the
fights of small calibre guns.
Geoige Dewey may have begun to
be a hero late in life, as he says, but
he is a real hero, because he is so
human, observes the New York Sun.
We know from his manner of speech,
his sympathies, his toleration, his
brave natural carriage aud the bold
but gentle light of his eyes that he
must have been the same Dewey
all his life that he is today. The man
was always ready f<;r the opportunity
to be great,but it did uot come to him
until the first of May, 1898. It has
probably puzzled him to find that he
has grown so famous, and that in the
estimation of the world he is to take
his place among its great men for all
time—puzzled him because he is so
modest and so incapable of being
anything but the plain, unaffected
character whose worth his friends,
and whose great qualities his brother
officers, have known all along.
There is always something interest¬
ing in the discovery, or even the sup¬
posed discovery, of a new malady.
The race rejoices in nothing so much
as in talking about its physical disa¬
bilities. We have a loug succession
of troubles in connection with the
bicycle. It is only natural that the
new rival of the wheel should keep
in the swim aud produce its own
peculiar troubles. A piece of dialogue
iu the Automobile Magazine shows
that tli9 expected has happened. A
young woman is the subject of the
conversation “ ‘Puts on a good many
airs,’ said one neighbor to another, a3
they walked home after the rapidly
disappearing automobile. ‘You’d
think that she invented the horseless
carriage aud owned the only one iu
use, instead of taking a few rides by
special invitation. Aud did you
notice that she’s getting the automo¬
bile face?’ ‘I noticed she looked
kind of queer.’ ‘Yes proud and
puffed up, as if she were somebody
better’ll any other woman. That’s
the way they all look.’ ”
OUR ADVERTISING RATES ARB
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A ( Woful Thanksgiving.
By Harioq Harlaqd:
HE fact was we had never
spent “a Thanksgiv¬
ing” in the country.
And in town the Pil¬
\V. 4 grims’ holy day has de¬
generated into an ’Arry
and ’Arriet “blowout.”
It was decided in
family council to hie us in a body to a
country box among the hills, where
we had enjoyed four idyllic summers,
aud there keep the hoary old festa as
Yankee pre-Raphaelite observed. aquarelles tell
us it should be
Bnow fell two days before the im¬
portant Thursday. All the better! It
would bave been all the best had the
storm held off until we were actually
housed and could read “Snow-Bound”
over blazing logs answering roar for
roar, the “grand old harper” smiting
and twanging the oaks anu hickories
of the grove.
We took the 9 o’clock train from the
city. It was crowded, mainly with
one sort and condition of men. Each
of them was presumably going to the
old homestead—gray, yellow or white,
backed by the invariable red barn—
“for Thanksgiving.” Some chewed
orange peel to tone down their breaths
to the decorous prejudices of the old
folks at home, others inhaled bad
cigars in the “smoker,” and brought
the evil incense into our car. At least
two-thirds munched peanuts and
strewed the floor with the shells. One
and all talked loudly and laughed
boisterously. A red-hot stove at each
end of the car brewed the reek of
whisky, tobacco, orange peel and
roasted peanuts into a nuisance.
It was an accommodation train, halt¬
ing at every “turn-out” to set down
trippers moved by filial piety or farm¬
house romance and poetry to maintain
the traditions of the day. At the end
of the fifteenth mile we came to a dead
standstill, A coal train had been
wrecked aud must be cleared away be¬
fore we could go on. We were stranded
in the exact centre of an uncomely sodden ex¬
panse of fields covered with
snow aud criss-crossed by blackish
stone fences. Now a farmstead was
visible for over a mile on all sides of
us; half a dozen mean huts knotted
into a sort of settlement about some
railway coaling sheds, and twenty dis¬
reputable loafers lounged from them
to inspect the wreck and our train.
The one sort and condition of men af¬
filiated right speedily with these, and
whereas paterfamilias made divers
abortive excursions in various direc¬
tions in quest of a draught of milk
and slices of bread for his hungry chil¬
dren andareasonably clean spot where
materfannlias might retire for awhile
from the growing strife of tongues
dashing against the becalmed train, it
was but too evident that mountain
dewand Jersey lightning were to be
bad for good fellowship and for money.
All babbled, more or less tipsily, of
the day we were celebrating, drinking
to it with every imaginable form of
expletive, and some that, until that
unhappy hour were quite unimagin¬
able by materfamilias and her terrified
younglings. The average American’s
one idea of a holiday is license, and
the one idea- increased and prevailed
as the hours dragged by.
We were halted at 10.30. At 3 the
rails were free and the celebrants of
the honorable anniversary tumbled
tumultously into their seats, the one
idea uppermost.
All over the broad and teeming
laud turkeys had offered their brown
breasts, reeking with richness, to the
carver’s blade; cranberries bad bled
by the million; pumpkin pies
and plum puddings had :ur eited the
tens of thousands of sensible people
who had stayed at home and feasted
conventionally. Since our early break¬
fast we had eaten just one water cracker
apiece; we were lame with long sit¬
ting, sickened in body by foul air and
in soul by foul language.
What was left of spirit and hope re¬
vived with each mile left behind us.
Materfamilias told stories to the con¬
fiding innocents of the sleigh drive
they would have from the station, the
dinner and fire and fun awaiting 113 at
home. We had managed to get off a
telegram to our caretaking gardener
at 11 o’clock, ordering him to send to
every train until we came and to keep
the dinner hot.
At 4.30 we alighted at the shabby
little station nearest our idyllic cot-
tage. No sleigh was in waiting; not
a living creature was in sight, and the
station was locked. A bitter wind
moaned up and down the valley, and
the unsympathetic sun was hardly a
yard above the hills. Paterfamilias
shouldered the two-year-old baby and
led the forlorn procession “across
lots” of unbroken and stiffening snow.
By the airjino we projected for our¬
selves the walk was a mile long. We
were wet up to the knees with snow
water and exhausted to faintness when
we reached the gardener’s lodge at the
entrance to our grounds.
It was shut fast; no answer was
vouchsafed to our knocking; no faint
bine reek arose from chimney. The
children had behaved heroically up to
this instant. When their father an¬
nounced darkly that the villains had
never got his dispatch and had taken
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“WE WERE WET UP TO THE KNEES WITH SNOW WATER AND EXHAUSTED TO
FAINTNESS WHEN WE REACHED THE GARDENER’S LODGE.”
themselves! off upon a Thanksgiving
spree of their own baby began to sob,
and silent tears glazed the purpled
cheeks of the eldest girls.
“This is the tassel upon the cap of
the climax!” said their mother in
deadly calmness. “We will go to the
house and break our way in. Since
starve we must, we will starve in our
beds, under plenty of blankets.”
She took a child by each hand,
paterfamilias reshouldered the weep¬
ing baby, and we pulled our feet out
of the congealing snow. A plantation
of evergreens hid the turn in the path
at which we had our first glimpse of
the cottage. A weak cry from the
children, an astonished snort from
paterfamilias, a devout ejaculation
from the mother, broke into the gusty
air. For royal banners of smoke,
tinted by the glowing west, streamed
from every chimney, each window was
stained by scarlet fire-gleams from
within; Frank, our faithful watchdog,
bounded from the poreh with a bay of
welcome, and at the joyous yelp the
front door was flung wide.
Our telegram had arrived in good
season; the sleigh had gone to meet us
by the road, and, being a little behind
time, had missed us, who came across
lots. While our trusty retainers made
breathless explanations the odor of
roast turkey was borne to us upon the
flood of warm air pouring through hall
and doorway. Dinner would be on
table by the time we could get our¬
selves into dry clothes.
Never did another dinner taste so
good; never was wood fire more jolly
than that in which the children roasted
chestnuts, and beside which pater¬
familias smoked the cigar of content,
aud materfamilias dreamed aud moral¬
ized. To the home nook, “curtained
and closed and warm,” came the shout
of the wind-god, a very pagean of re¬
joicing for mishaps overpast and for
tho abundant compensations that
crowned the outgoing of our one
eventful Thanksgiving Day.—New
York World.
Jacksonville, Fla,, has a successful
! ostrich farm, the only one in the
j United States outside of California.
Whence Came Turkey.
Despite the query, “What’s in a
name?” more than one conjecture will
rise at the festive board, How did Air.
Turkey get his name? The turkey,
it must be confessed, is rather unfor¬
tunate in the matter of names. It
was introduced into England about
the year 1541, and, not knowing
whore it originally came from, the
folks there thought from its manners
and appearances that it must be a
Turk, and so called it a turkey bird.
But not only was the poor bird de¬
prived of its birthright as a native
American in its English name, but so
ignorant were the so-called men of
science, supposing a turkey was some
sort of guinea fowl, they called it
meleagris—so it happens an American
bird is a Turk, and a turkey is, in
name, a guinea fowl. The turkey be¬
longs to the family of scratehers. All
of you have seen turkeys, so a de¬
scription of the bird is superfluous.
You remember the livid blue head,
red legs and the copper bronze color
of the plumage, each feather with a
velvet black margin, and the long tuft
of bristles on the neck. The tame
turkey is sometimes white or parti¬
colored, and varies in color, The
wild turkeys are all the same color.
Some animals and beasts improve
and become larger and finer-looking
animals when brought under the
dominion of mankind, This is not
the case with the tnrkey, which has
deteriorated, having lost weight and
beauty by being domesticated.
A Novel Idea.
The hostess of a last-year’s Thanks¬
giving dinner secured enough yellow
gourds to put one at each of the dozen
covers in simulation of the Thanks¬
giving pumpkin. Each of these gourds
held a tiny, growing fern in its little
clay pot, the color effect around the
table being extremely gcod.
THE TURKEY'S LAMENT.
I’m a melancholy turkey—sad ami.
For a reiiru of awful terror draweth nigh.
How I dread the smelt of pie,
And the cakes and tarts piled high,
For I know that I must die
Thanksgiving Day.
What avail my sparkling eyes, just like jet,
Or my slim and stately neck, proudly set?
Though my glossy feathers shiue,
On my flesh will people dine,
And pronounce me luscious—fine,
Thanksgiving Day.
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How I wish I had been batched some ocher
bird, dove’d
Chicken, goose, duck or be pre¬
ferred—
Any fowl but what I am,
In this land of “Uncle Sam,”
For I'm slaughtered like a lurnb
Thanksgiving Day.
How I sympathize with Marie Antoinette!
How that dark and bloody axe haunts me
yet! neck
Soon on my ’twill descend,
Make of me a sudden end,
Was a sadder verso e’er penned?
Thanksgiving Day.
—fcjusun Hubbard Martin,
BREAKIN G THE W ISHBONE.
When to Lose the Wish ami When to
Win It.
DESIEE to warn
you that a oka
ing young widow
who wants to
vi break a wish¬
bone with you is
one of whom yon
should beware.
She is very
tantalizing, ohio,
clever, and, oh,
so awfully sorry
you didn't got
your wish! The
V, I young widow is
a mind reader
and knows just
what your
thoughts are while you are holding
the bone aud looking down into her
eyes. If you have to look up into a
widow’s eyes, there may be some hope
for you, but when she looks up and
you look down she can read every one
of your thoughts. By the way, there
is oniy one, only has been one, only
can be one, thought passing through
a man’s mind when he is breaking a
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‘i AM SO SOBBY YOU LOST.”
wishbone with a charming young
widow—possession! She knows it as
plainly as though written indelibly
upon your forehead. That is her
particular forte. And when you break
tbc bone and.find yourself possessed
of the short end she will look up into
your eyes with a look that will cause
yonr poor back hair to crimp and say,
with that pitying tone of voice never
so well modulated as by a widow:
“I am so sorry you lost!”
No matter what the after result of a
good dinner may bring forth, you can¬
not help but hie yourself away to
some quiet resort obscure from pry¬
ing and meddling eyes aud bury your
disappointment in books or blues.
But when you break a wishbone with
a sweet young girl it is a very different
thing. Sweet younggirl’s hearts v/ere
made to be broken like the wishbone.
You secure a deal of paradise while
breaking bones with a sweet young
girl, whereas you get generally worm¬
wood and gall when you break bones
with a fair widow. You throw all
your art into the. act of breaking a bone
with a young girl, but wheu you break
a bone with a fair widow you throw
your heart in against her art, and she
bents you nine times out of ten.
The best place to break a bone with
a fair widow is in the corner of a snug
sitting room, with the lights turned
low. A man’s heart fire glows more
vividly upon his cheeks then; also it
is more fun for the widow. She quite
prefers earnestness of purpose and is
ever ready for a tilt of hearts against
arts. You might win a prize in the
lottery of life if you would break a
bone with a fair young girl with your
heart, as fixed upon the one purpose—
possession—»s it was with the widow.
Did you ever break a bone with a
staid old aunt whose fortune you hoped
to poss.ess? If you lose your wish,
your fortune is made, for she’ll put
you down as a real nice nephew with¬
out sordid fancies , but if you win she’ll
pierce you with a look and say:
“I expected you wanted me to hur¬
ry up aud die.”
Always make it a point to lose your
wish when breaking a bone with an
expectant aunt who has a fortune.
A New Plum Pudding Ilecipe.
A Thanksgiving plum pudding rec-
ommeuded by Mrs. Lincoln, as rich
enough, but not too rich to disturb
the digestion of the children, is made
with crackers. Six butter crackers
are rolled fine and soaked in three
pints of milk. A quarter of a cup of
butter is creamed with one cup cf
sqgar, a half-teaspoonful of salt, and
one teaspoonful of mixed spice, to¬
gether with six well-beaten eggs. This
is all stirred into the milk audapouud
of the best stoned raisins added. It
is put iu a deep pudding-dish, well
greased with cold butter and baked
for three hours in a moderate oven.
It should be stirred several times dur¬
ing the first hour to keep the raisins
from settling. The seorot of the bak¬
ing is that it should be slow. The pud¬
ding is served with the usual lemon
sauce. .
Funny Stories o t Early Thanksgivings.
Many funny stories are told of tho
early Thanksgiving days, such as the
town of Colchester calmly ignoring the
Governor’s appointed day aud observ¬
ing its own festival a week later, in
order to allow time for the arrival, by
sloop from Now York, of a hogshead
of molasses for pies. Another is re¬
counted of a farmer losing his cask of
Thanksgiving molasses out of his cart
as*ke reached the top of a steep hill
and of its rolling swiftly down till split
in twain by its fall. His helpless dis¬
comfiture and his wife’s acidity of tem¬
per and diet are comically told.
Decorations For the Feast.
The deoorations of the Thanksgiving
dinner-table should be seasonable.
The fruits and flowers that belong to
the late autumn are the ones that
should grace the November board.
Chrysanthemums are particularly ap-
proprial 1 and their decorative effect
is excellent.
BOERS IB FORCE
OVERRUN NATAL
British Claim Great Vic¬
tory In Belmont Battle.
THE LOSSES WERE HEAVY
Advancing Britons Find Boers In Wait¬
ing On All Sides—fleal Situation
Still Obscure.
Advices from London under date of
November 24, are as follows: Before
anxiety as to the situation in Natal
has been relieved, there comes news
of a great battle at Belmont. This
happened sooner than was expected.
Only the official account is yet to hand,
but so far as can be gathered, the
fighting appears to have been almost
a repition of tho battle of Elangs-
laagte. A dispatch of the previous
day estimated that the Boers in that
vicinity numbered 2,000 and that they
had five guns, and judging from the
absence of any statement to the con¬
trary in the official report, it is be¬
lieved that the British were slightly
superior in numbers to tho enemy.
The Boers had chosen a position
with their customary skill ’and were
strongly entrenched. The British had
to carry three ridges in succession,
apparently the guards bore the brunt
in carrying the last ridge by a bayo¬
net charge, after its defenders had
been shaken with shrapnel.
Nothing is said as to whether tire
positions so gained were held.
Complete British Victory;
The secretary of war has received
the following dispatch through Gen¬
eral Forrester-Walker from General
Methuen, dated Belmont, November
23d:
Attacked the enemy at daybreak
this morning. He was in a strong po¬
sition. Three ridges were carried iu
succession, the last attack being pre¬
pared by shrapnel. Infantry behaved
splendidly and recived support from
the naval brigade and artillery.
“The enemy fought with courage and
skill. Had I attacked later I should
have bad far heavier losses. Our vic¬
tory was complete. Have taken forty
prisoners. Am burying a good num¬
ber of the Boers, but the greater part
of the enemy’s killed and wounded
were removed by their comrades.
Have captured a large number of
borses and cows and destroyed a large
quantity of amunition.”
The report concludes with a long
list of casualties.
Situation Still Obscure.
The situation iu Natal remains ob¬
scure. Fighting is reported at both
Estcourt and Ladysmith. It was at
first reported that heavy firing had
been beard in the direction of Willow
Grange, leading to a belief that Gen¬
eral Hildyard had made a sortie.
Later dispatches announce that Gen¬
eral White sortied from Ladysmith
and inflicted a demoralizing defeat
upon the Boers.
It would be premature to give full
credence to either report, What is
quite certain is that Ladysmith, Est-
conrt and Mool River station are all
isolated, and the Boers seem able,
after detaching enough troops to hold
three British forces, aggregating 17,-
000 men, to push on toward Pieter-
maritzburg with some 7,000 men.
A disquieting feature of the whole
campaign is the fact that all the ad¬
vancing generals report meeting the
Boers in force. In review of the bril¬
liant success of General Joubert in
partially paralyzing the relieving col¬
umns, the question is being asked,
what would have happened had he sit¬ at.
the outset of the war, instead of
ting down before Ladysmith, pushed
to Pietermaritzburg?
General Galacre’s report that the
Dutch are rising increases public anx¬
iety, as ittends tocoufirm rumors that
have long been current. A special dis¬
patch from Durban announces that
more big naval guns were lauded
AVednesday and hurried to the front.
Prince Christian Victor left Mooi
River camp before it was invested,
bearing dispatches to Pietermaritz¬
burg.
HORRIBLE CRIME REVEALED.
Murderer Dissects His Victim---Sus-
pect is Arrested.
A dispatch from Newport News, Va ,
says: The discovery of the mutilated
.body of a woman in Phoebus Thurs¬
day morning was followed by the ar¬
rest of Louis August, an artilleryman
at Fort Monroe, who is charged with
the murder. r
The victim, Annie Benedict, a
mulatto woman, was found by a soldier
from the home lying nude on her bed.
Tim bedding and floor were spattered
with blood. The woman’s body had
been cut open and the entrails re¬
moved and placed in a bucket by the
bedside.
nOTHER AND CHILDREN SLAIN.
Were Clubbed To Death and Bodies
Were Fearfully Mutilated.
Thursday evening the horribly mu¬
tilated bodies of a woman and her
three children were found at, their
home on a small farm about a rnilo
from the town of Montgomery, Pn.
The coroner left at onee for the scene
of the tragedy. Details are meager.
The bodies were horribly mutilated,
the murderer ovideutlv having used a
club iu committing the crime.