The Conyers weekly. (Conyers, Ga.) 18??-1888, September 19, 1884, Image 1
ARCTIC EXPLORATION. Of the Expeditions that nave At * . p,w Find Open -Polar Sea. tempted to an It is but eight years less than three centuries since the first Arctic expedi¬ tion reached the region of polar ice and spent a dreary -winter locked in by the icebergs and shut up in their huts by wolves, srow storms and white bears. Two lives wore sacrificed in this expedi¬ tion, which reached a latitude of 80 de¬ grees and 11 minutes. Three hundred years have passed and the latest, the Greely expedition, touched 83 degrees 24 minutes, the highest lati¬ tude reached since the Dutch navigators spent ten months in the ice oil the island of Nova Zembla. In all these three centuries only three degrees of the jour¬ ney to the pole have been overcome—a distance something less than the dis lance between New York and Boston, a little more than between New York and Albany. significant This fact alone is a com¬ ment upon the valae of these expedi¬ tions which have cost a prince’s revenue and as many lives as have been lost in some noted battles. The Dutch were the great navigators ot the sixteenth century, and soon after achieving their nation’s independence began to speculate upon a passage to China and India by way of the North Pole. Their ideas of that region were fanciful indeed, Some believed, that these seas inclosed a polar continent of perpetual summer and unbroken day¬ light, whose inhabitants had attained perfection in virtue and intelligence. Others thought it peopled with monsters having horses’ hoofs, dogs’ heads and ears so long that they coiled them around their bodies in lieu of clothing. Other tribes were headless with eyes in their breasts, living in incessant fogs and tempests during the summer, but dying every winter and, like plants, re¬ vived to life by the advent of a brief spring. It was believed that the voya¬ gers would have to encounter mountains of ice and volcanoes of fire, together with monsters on land and sea more fe¬ rocious than the eye of man ever saw. But in spite of these terrors, on the 5th of June, 1594, the first expedition to navigate these frozen seas set out from Amsterdam. Their ships and ap¬ pliances were of the rudest description. In place of the stanch modern steam¬ boats built for the purpose they sailed in small, unwieldy vessels built like a tower at stern and stem, scooped in the middle and scarcely able to plow their way through the water, to say nothing of the ice. Instead of the delicate and ingenious scientific instruments consti¬ tuting an exploring outfit of the present day they had a clumsy astronomical ring three feet in circumference on which they depended for ascertaining the latitude. They had no food, no rifles, no compact ammunition, no heavy clothing of fur, no rubber garments, no logarithm, log or nautical almanacs, no tea, coffee, or the hundreds of luxuries, stimulants, medicines, and other stores which now abound in such profusion. The first expedition was turned back by the ice and polar bears, but the problem of a northeast passage to China was considered solved, and the next year a second ship was sent with a cargo of broadcloth, lines and tapestries for the Chinese market which the explorers were expected to reach. Again the iee and the bears frightened them back. But an offer of 25,000 florins to the discoverer of a northeast passage to the east led to a third expedition, the first that outlived a polar winter amidst perils and sufferings, whose story reads as much like the narratives of Kane and DeLong, of Hayes and Greely, as the stories of shipwreck and resene in the days of Robinson Crusoe read like those of the days of Enoch Arden. and Notwithstanding appliances all the discoveries of the year 1884, the Greely and DeLong parties suffered quite as much as the Dutch explorers of lo94; which any one may see who cares to read the account in the third volume of Motley’s “United Netherlands.” He Had it Badly. I see by the papers, father, that all he candidates on the other side have got a Nemesis,” said a South End schoolboy to his pa. ‘ ‘What is a Neme¬ sis, father ? J s it anything J 6 like a bi¬ cycle?” No, my son, a Nemesis is not like a bicycle. A man rides a bicycle, when e knows how, and a Nemesis reverses the operation and rides the man, the Way a bicycle does, occasionally.” “What is it, then?” ‘H m ! what is.it ? Let me see; it is a sort of a moral ghost, as it were, an eth !cal independent, a kicking conscience, a ~~ a —well, a sort of Nemesis, as near as anything.” ‘But what is it like, father ? want - to see one.” ‘If you want to see one real bad, you just drink four cups of strong coffee, eat “ a R a dozen links of store sau and top off with a cold mince pie. 0 this at 9 o’clock p. m., and then go 0 <ed at 9.15 and youli see Nemesises enough before morning to last a life¬ time, Now run away and don’t bother me while I am reading the paper.”— Boston Globe. . Sledges D I I best are generally considered the i vehicles for use in Arctic explora hon, but the rescuers of the Greely j party Be«ch were greatly assisted in their j S by a Schley. . The Conyers Weekly. VOL. VII. THE WAY IT IS SAID. The Sultan awoke with a stifled scream ; His nerves were shocked by a fearful dream ;] An omen of terrible import and doubt • His teeth in one moment all fell out. His wisemen assembled at break of day, And stood by the throne in solemn array. And when the terrible dream was told, Each felt a shudder, his blood ran cold ; And all stood silent in fear and dread, And wondering what was best to be said. At length an old sootnsayer, wrinkled and gray, Cried, “Pardon, my lord, what I have to say : “ ’Tis "n omen of sorrow sent from on high— Thou shalt see all thy kindred die.” Wroth was the Sultan ; he gnashed his teeth, And lifs very words seemed to hiss and seethe, As he ordered the wiseman bound with chains, And gave him a.hundred stripes for his pains. The wisemen shook as the Sultan’s eye Swept round to see who next would try ; But one of them stepping before the throne^ Exclaimed in a loud and joyous tone: “Exult, Oil head of a happy State ! Rejoice, Oh heir of a glorious fate ! “Eor this is the favor thou shalt win, Oh, Sultan—to outlive alt thy kin P’ Plaesed was the Sultan, and called a slave, And a hundred crowns to the wiseman gave. But the courtiers, they nod with grave, sly winks, And each one whispers what each one thinks, “Well can the Sultau reward and blame ; Didn’t both the wisemen foretelL the same V” Quoth the crafty old Vizier, shaking his head, “So much may depend on the way a thing’s said!” A COMER. IN NICKELS. A TRUE STORE. Not long ago the Government of the United States began to coin nickel five cent pieces of a new pattern. But after a few thousand had been struck off it was decided that they were unsuitable, and the coinage was stopped. The fact that so few were sent out made these five-cent pieces very valu¬ able to persons forming collections of coins, because they were so scarce that by and bye none could be picked up among the change handed about in trading. of Many a wide-awake boy got a hint this and profited by it. How it caused one of the schools in a certain Connec¬ ticut town to become a sort of Bourse or Wall street, and two youngsters in par¬ ticular to resemble speculators, is the little story I have to tell. One of the boys we will call Wyx and the other Jordan. The former was a “bull,” the latter a “bear,” in the money market which sprang up in this emergency as quickly as, during the late war, a trade in gold was organized in New York, where profits were gained or lost according as the value of the gold dollar in greenbacks rose or fell. Wyx’s father was a banker, and, therefore, he became “posted” on the value the coins would probably take a little ahead of others, and, in addition to a supply procured at his father’s bank, he went about for several days buying up nickels of his school-fellows and everybody else he could meet, pay¬ ing six and seven cents apiece for them, until he thought he had secured all there were in that neighborhood. He also felt pretty sure that none of his schoolmates could get many, if any more, while he had a chance to do so, on account of his father’s position. As the men who deal in money and railway stocks in the city would say, he tried to make a “coiner” in these coins. If he succeeded, of- course he could ask what he pleased for them (for he would have no opposition), provided anybody wanted to buy badly enough to pay a high price. There is a meat risk in making a cor' ner in somo article which is not neces sary. If more than a moderate figure is asked people will refuse to purchase, and the wrong-doing of a man who seeks to charge too much will thus cor rect itself, even where he has a monopo¬ ly. It therefore happens that men who attempt to make corners usually choose something which people must have at any price—such as wheat, or lard, or pig-iron; yet they rarely succeed, be¬ cause when a man takes that position he arrays the whole country against him, and no matter how rich and power¬ ful he may be, it is all but impossible would to gather into one comer, as you p«?t> « {j-u-’iof sheep, all there is of one , in a great region like the uruaR United States. But I have been lead into a long di¬ gression. Let ns go back to the attempt at a comer in new nickels which oc¬ curred in that Connecticut school dis j. "Thinking bought’ , that he had in all there were afloat in the neighborhood, an a that now was the time to sell at a pro fit or to “realize,” as the brokers call it, Wyx announced one day that he wae COB11I ^ to school next morning with CONYERS, ROCKDALE CO., GA„ FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19,1884. neaps of nickels, which he would sell al ten cents apiece. The boys began to be sorry that they had been so hasty during the previous ten days in letting Wyx have their half dozen or so each, at odIv a cent or two advance, and having grown excited over the way the value had risen, were now quite willing to buy their coins all back at the advanced rate, and a lot more be¬ sides, believing they would go still higher. It therefore looked sure that Master Wyx was to make a great deal of money. Certainly that is the way he* regarded it, and he strutted about with his hat tipped on the back of his head in the most approved Stock Exchange swagger. In these operations, let me say, both the seller and the buyers were taking the right course. Acting on his belief that the coins would become worth more a few days hence than they then were, Wyx had shown good sense in se¬ curing all he could honestly get and pay for. Now, as a matter of fact, and as Wyx foresaw would happen, they had risen, and were really saleable to collec¬ tors down town at ten cents, and some¬ times for more. The other boys were quite right, therefore, in buying them back at that higher rate, and might charge the difference which they had lost to the account of acquiring knowl¬ edge—which is only bought by experi¬ ence, and that is usually paid for in cash! Now, among the boys at that sohool was Jordan. Morning and evening he peddled newspapers, and had growD sharp. He learned when he went home that afternoon that his father was just going to a bank to receive some money. Seeing his opportunity, the lad begged his father to take five dollars of the pay¬ ment in the new nickels. These he could get by asking for them (provided the bank had so many) at their “face value” —that is, five cents. This fact was what Wyx had depended upon nobody’s knowing; but it happened that Jordan did know it, and sometimes a very simple bit of knowledge, speedily acted upon , is worth a great deal, as it proved in this case, for Mr. Jordan suc¬ ceeded in obtaining the five dollars worth which he lent to his enterprising son. Well, Wyx appeared at sohool next morning, his pockets just bulging with nickels. He had no less than two hun¬ dred and seventy-five of them for sale at a dime apiece. Before he had disposed of a dozen, however, Jordan came on the play-ground, and, showing a handful of the coveted coins, immediately offered them at nine cents. The nickel market up to this time had been a one-sided affair; hut now it was divided between the “bulls” and the “bears.” You know it is the habit of a bull to toss everything into the air which he attacks—to raise it; while, on tho other hand, a bear pulls things down and gets under foot whatever he wishes to obtain or destroy. From this has arisen the habit among dealers in money, and what ar< called “securities” (documents sup¬ posed to secure a certain amount of wealth to their possessors), of calling a man who would like to have the price of an article increase, in order that he may sell to better advantage, a bull ; and of calling him a “bear” who tries to lower prices, in order that he may buy more cheap ly. Now, Wyx. of course, was a “bull” on the nickels in this school market, for naturally he wanted to keep the price as high as possible. Jordan, on the contrary, was a "bear,” pulling the price down with all his might to favor a scheme of his own, as we shall see. Thus he offered bis coins at nine cents, and Wyx found his comer “busted.” “I can’t stand this,” he exclaimed, in dismay, “I’ll sell at eight.” “Seven !” shouted Jordan, dropping his price another notch as quick as a flash. “Six !” cried the bull. Wyx was out of all patience, that a fellow should turn up iu this way to ruin his business, To be really like the great railway and telegraph managers, what the rival speculators should have done at this point was to go off into a comer and agree between themselves that both would stick to the ten-cent price. Then, if not enough buyers ap¬ by peared to take all the nickels held both, they would, at the end of the sale, divide what they had made. This would be a “combination,” and “pooling the profits.” But they didn’t do it. Jordan thought he knew a trick worth two of that, and showed himself a true financier. When we left them, you will remem her, in order to undersell the pestiferous Jordan, Wyx had offered his coins atsix cents each. Quick as a wink Jordan spun round and shouted: "I'll take all you’ve got!” and disgust Imagine the astonishment of the outwitted Wyx, who as city men would say, had been caught out in a shower without an umbrella 1 But there was no way out of it. He had made a public offer and it had been taken up. He had to stand by it and sell out, however much he disliked the bargain. By borrowing and scraping Jordan got together the $16.50 needed to pay for his 275 nickels, which he then proceed¬ ed to sell in small lots at ten cents, clear¬ ing four cents on each one by his quick wit, while the first speculator got little or no profit out of his supposed “comer.” The boys bought, but it was with wry faces, for they remembered they had not been sharp enough to take Wyx’s offer of six before Jordan captured the whole lot. They aptly represented the outsiders who speculate in Wall street, and whom the brokers laughingly call “lambs,” because it is their fate to be “fleeced .”—New York Hour. In Summer, Remember 1. That infectious diseases general# are due to filth in some form—most of them directly to diver kinds of micro¬ scopic plants (bacteria) which gain en¬ trance into the system through the lungs of the stomach. Invading the wonder¬ ful laboratories of life—the infinitesimal cells—they disorganize these just as the yeast-plants, multiplying to countless millions, disorganize every particle of the dough—or would do so, if not them¬ selves killed by the heat of the oven, 2. Remember that the best preserva¬ tive against them is high health, which either digests them in the stomach, or repels them from gaining a foothold, and eliminates them from the system. 3. Remember that the next best pre¬ servative against infections diseases is a free and strong circulation of pure air through the house from cellar to attic. The danger is when large numbers oi bacteria gain admittance. There is slight probability that a foothold will be gained by these invaders when their number is comparatively few. 4. Remember that in our cities and large towns the sewers, constantly re¬ ceiving the excreta of the sick, are never free from infectious bacteria; that these readily pass up into dwellings through every open connecting pipe; that these pipes should be kept closed when not in use; and that they should, in no case, enter a sleeping-room, but only into a well-ventilated water-closet. 5. Remember that, in the country, wells are dangerous when they are with¬ in one hundred feet of a privy or cess¬ pool. 7. Remember that while boiling may purity infected water, mere filtering never renders it safe. 7. That all water-closets, cesspools, etc., should be frequently disinfected, copperas (sulphate of iron) being a good and cheap disinfectant for the purpose. 8. Th at a deodorizer is not necessarily a disinfectant. We may kill a bad smell, and not kill the bacteria. Result of a Practical Joke. A paragraph in a Cleveland paper not long since told the sad story of a hoax practiced by three women upon a friend. It seemed harmless to them. It proved almost fatal to the friend, and illustrates a fact that should not be forgotteD, that frights may kill, or may craze the brain permanently. Such jokes are criminal, and deserve a serious penalty. The vic¬ tim of this hoax—Mrs. Bums—had gone away for a short time, leaving her husband and little ones at home. The husband went to work, and the three women thought it would bo ex¬ tremely funny to scare Mrs. Bums. The chairs and tables were upset, and every¬ thing was put “topsey-turvey.” A figure was made and clothed in a suit of Burns’s clothes, and was laid on the floor, its head, tied with a white bandage, rest¬ ing against the sewing-machine. Then the women secreted themselves. Mrs. Burns, who is of a nervous tem¬ perament, came home and was struck speechless with horror at the scene. The poor woman, seeing the inanimate form, immediately supposed that her husband had committed suicide. Tot¬ tering to the house of a neighbor, she gasped out that her husband was dead, and fainted away. A physician was called, but she went from one spasm into another. When she finally revived sufficiently to talk, it was found that her reason had left her. For days she hovered between life and death. Although she is now considered out of danger, the shock has left its im¬ pression upon her mind, and she may never folly recover. Hereditary.—A West Somerset, Eng land, jury issaid to have returned the verdict: “Died by the hereditary visita tion of God,” in the case of a man who had broken his neck when drunk, and whose grandfather had met with a like mishap. NO. 28. THE HUMOROUS PAPERS. WHAT WE FIND IN THEM TO NltllLK OVElt THIS WEEK. HE HAD BEEN TO SOHOOIi. “Where have you been, you young rascal ?” angrily demanded Fitzgoober, as Pinder came sneaking in at the back door, late in the afternoon. “Been to sohool,” slowly answered Pinder, dropping his books and anx¬ iously eyeing the strap his father dan¬ gled so tantalizingly. “Been to Bohool ? Oh, yon little liar, do you think I’m to be fooled that easy ? I went over to the academy and yon hadn’t been there to-day; one of the boys said you had gone fishing. Now, what have yon to say to that ?” Gradually edging toward the door and keeping a chair between him and his father, Pinder raised his soulful eyes and innocently asked: “Well, pa, don’t fishes have schools ?” —Atlanta Constitution. BATHEK SEVERE ON A BASE BALL MUFFE1I. One of the muffers of the Cincinnati Club was attracting great attention in the hotel dining-room by ordering around the servants. Just as the head waiter walked up he suddenly rapped on his glass with a vigor and a four-tined fork. “Waiter,” he cried, “there is a fly in my cabbage." “That’s all right,” said the head waiter, “don’t mind it. There is no danger of your catching it.” The remainder of the meal was fin¬ ished in silence. A CONTAGIOUS FEVER. “An* where are ye bound for, Mrs. O’Raherty, in such a great hurry ?” “Sure, Mrs. O’Elaherty, an’ I’m on me way down to the widdy O’Cairn’s to console wid her. She an’ the ohildren are most starvin’, they are, for Jemmy, their only support, has the fever an’ can’t work any more.” “An’ phwat koind of faver is it he has?” “It’s the base ball' faver, I belave, it is they calls it .”—Kentucky Journal. BESSONS OF EXPERIENCE. Mrs. Slimdiet—“Yes, I know he looks like a nice young mam, but I told him I had no vacancies.” Miss S.—“But you have, ma, and he said he would pay his board in advance. Why didn’t you take him ?” “Beoause he is a market clerk." “But what of that ?” ‘ ‘Everything. He will always be talk ing at table about the early vegetables and other high-priced things just arrived in market .”—Phila Call. EXPECTING TOO MUCH. Little Billy Simpton is aged about 10. Not long since the Simpton family was increased by still another little boy, and a friend of the family, meeting Billy, said to him: “So you have got another baby at at your house. He is a right smart little fellow, ain’t he?” “Humph!” sneered Billy, turning up his nose: “how many smart boys do you expect ns to have in our family?”— Texas Siftings. THE DUTIES OF A SERVANT. "Mamma,” complained a little girl, running into the house, “me and Willie wanted nurse to sit down and let ns pour sand in her back, and she wouldn’t.” “Certainly not. She did quite right.” “Well, that’s what you told her she was to do when she first came.” “I told her that she was to let you and Willie pour sand down her back ?” “Not exactly that, mamma, but you told her she was to mind the children. ” SHE GOT HER SEAT. “Is this seat engaged ?” asked a small, thin woman of a fat man in the New Haven train the other day. No reply. “Will you please take your feet down and let me sit on this seat ?” she re¬ peated in a louder tone of voice. Again no reply. “I read to-day,” she continued still louder, “that a Chicago man has cor¬ nered all the pork in the world. How did you manage to escape ?” At the next station she had the whole seat to herself.— Graphic. CAUSE AND EFFECT. Mrs. Blank—“There it is again. This paper says that Mr. Oldboy has made a million on real estate transactions with¬ in a year.” . Mr. Blank—“What of it ?” “You forget that Mr. Oldboy was one of my early admirers, and I might have married him if I had wished. I did not, and he has remained a bachelor. He is now rich, while the man I mar¬ ried is still poor.” “Well, I might have been rich, too, if-” “If what ?” “If I hadn't married .”—The Call, WAGES AND LIVING. Report of the Massachusetts I.abor Barone —Comparison Between Massachusetts and Gieat Britain. Part IV of the Report of the Massa¬ chusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor contains the comparative prices and cost of living here and in Great Britain for the period 1860 to 1883. The details furnished are very elaborate. The cost of living is acknowledged to be higher in Massachusetts than in Great Britain, and the report aims to show in what re¬ spect. In Great Britain in 1883 grocer¬ ies were .83 per cent, higher than in 1872; provisions 10.32 per cent, lowet and fuel 41.26 per cent, lower. In 1872 groceries were 23.03 per cent, higher here than there; provisions 25.74 per cent higher there, and fuel 60.19 per cent, higher here. In 1883 groceries were 16.18 per cent higher here; pro¬ visions 23.08 higher there, and fuel 104.96 higher here. In 1883 for al grades of dry goods prices were 13,26 per cent, higher here, but for medium and lower grades used by workingmen Great Britain had an advantage of only .9 of 1 per cent. All grades of shoes and slippers show an average of 62.59 per cent, higher here than there, but con¬ sidering only medium and low grade, the price is only 42.75 percent, higher here. In 1883 in all grades of clothing the av¬ erage price was 45.06 per cent, higher here, but medium and low grades aver¬ aged only 27.36 per cent, higher, while the better grades averaged 66.57 per cent, higher. Bents in 1883 averaged 89.62 per cent, higher in Massachusetts than in Great Britain. Here the average rent of one room was 66 cents a week, $2.86 a month and $34.38 a year, while there it was 36 cents a week, $1.51 a month and $18.02 a year. Returns for board and lodging are very complete, and show an average of 89.01 per cent, higher here than there. In 1883 board and lodging here for men averaged $4.79 a week, and for women $3.19. Board alone averaged $3.84 a week for men and $2.56 for women. Lodging alone aver¬ aged $2.20 a week for men and $1.46 for women. The Massachusetts family av¬ erages to earn 65.27 per cent, more than the family in Great Britain. The head of the family averages 80.31 per jent. more here and the total family expenses here are 48.41 per cent, higher than there. Here a family averages to spend 93.89 per cent, of its income and to save 6.11 per cent, surplus. There it spends 98.24 per cent., and has only 1.76 per cent, for savings. The report corroborates the eoonomio laws of Dr. Engel, of Prussia: “The greater the income the smaller the rela¬ tive outlay for subsistence; the percent¬ age of outlay for clothing is approxi¬ mately the same, whatever the income; the percentage of outlay for lodging, or rent, and for fuel and light is invari¬ ably the jjame, whatever the income; as the income increases in amount the percentage of outlay for sundries be¬ comes greater.” The average annual family expenditure in Massachusetts for 1883 was $754.42, and in Great Britain was $508 35. Items of expense here were as follows: Subsistence, 51.76 per cent.; clothing, 16.32; rent, 16.25; fuel, g. 10; sundries, 10.67. In Great Britain they were: subsistence, 56.45; clothing, 15.54; rent, 13.66; fuel, 4.83; sundries, 9.52. Conclusions of the comparison are: “that, on any basis of yearly expendi¬ ture, the prices of articles entering into the cost of living were, on the average, 17.29 per cent, higher in Massachusetts in 1883 than in Great Britain; that of this figure 11.49 per cent, was due to higher rents in Massachusetts, leaving 5.80 per cent, as indicative of the higher cost of living in Massachusetts as compared with Great Britain as regards the re¬ maining elements of expense.” The “grand result” of the comparison is “that the higher prices in Massachusetts are represented by 5.80 per cent.; that the increased accommodations in hous¬ ing and the general higher standard of living maintained by Massachusetts workingmen as compared with the stand¬ ard of living of workingmen in Great Britain is represented by 42.61 per cent, out of the total greater cost of 48.41 per cent, or stated as a direct ratio, the stand¬ ard of living of Massachusetts working¬ men is to that of the workingmen of Great Britain as 1.42 is to 1.” Stone Catting. As an illustration of possible improve¬ ment and discovery, the working of stone may be instanced. This is one of the earliest forms of industry. The first tools were made of stone, and it is among the earliest materials which men began to work upon. Yet the methods an£ tools are substantially the same as they were 4000 years ago, when the monoliths of Egypt were hewn from the real granite, when the vast blocks of the pyramids were quarried, and the mighty ruins of vast antiquity were new. There have beeD certain improvements in machinery, such as channeling machines, steam drills, etc., but these are only the handles of the tools; the bulk of the granite working is still done with mallet and chisel, as it was thousands of years ago. The time will come when some fortunate inventor will discover methods and tools by which granite shall be wrought -with as much facility as iron. “No; they do not live very pleasant¬ ly. In fact, they lead a perfect tennis existence.” “A tennis existence? I don’t see the connection." “Why, they are in the courts most of the time,”