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TgEGOHSTITPTIOK
CLARK HOWELL Editor
ROBY ROBINSON Business Maniger
e "**r* J Bt FaatafTtea as SeeaaA
Claw Mail Matter, Mar. 11, 1873.
I
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Convicts on the Public Roads.
Ihe act of the legislature allowing '
counties to elect the employment of ;
their short term felony convicts on
their public roads promises to be pop
ular from the jump-off. Already Ful
ton and 7 roup counties have filed ap
plications for all the under five years
sentenced convicts credited to them.
Reports from some other counties
*re to the effect that as soou as their
commissioners or grand juries can act j
they also will apply for their own j
short term men to work on their pub- i
lie roads.
Every county in Georgia that can '
muster from the penitentiary rolls a '
sufficient n .ruber of such convicts as j
to promise their practical use on the ! ■
county roads should put in their appli- j
cations at the earliest practical mo- ! '
ment, meanwhile preparing for their ! ]
keep, guarding and employment. Os ' ’
the 2,200 convicts, in round numbers, i j
one-third, or fully 750 of them, are un- ;
der sentences of less than five years, i
This is enough to enable half the conn- j ;
ties in the state to have profitable i t
road-working gangs, and the results i j
would be speedily manifest in every ■ f
county where they would be employed. ; 1
The amount of work that 750 able- ; r
bodied convicts, working 312 days per i :•
year, would perform will build and ■ i
put in first-class turnpike condition [
more than 600 miles of roads, or two | t
broad macadamized highways from i a
one end of Georgia to the other, were <
the work done on such continuous 1
lines. But when the work is done (
from county centers into the country 1
districts the general and distributed ■ f
ralue of the roads is greatly enhanced. • }
The test of whether convicts can be ! i
profitably employed in road building ‘ c
under county management is one that
the people are waiting to see fully t
made. If it proves to be a profitable t
thing the system will expand year by i
year and the age term of the convicts ■
allowable for such labor will be raised ]
until the few not so employed will be
only those derelicts whom the state |
could not hire out and has to care for !
in confinement more as a concern of ;
humanity than punishment.
The Constitution hopes to see the ; ■
short-term convicts rapidly taken over ,
by the counties and the state soon
begin to reap the substantial benefits ’
that always and everywhere follow ,
first-class county road systems.
A Battle Royal in Cotton.
In an effort concerted by the mill- J
owners of the east to break down the i ’
price of cotton they have shut down I :
many mills, stopped the whirr of him- i 1
j reels of thousands of spindles and ; <
sent thousands of operatives into idle- ‘
ness. .
Their explanation is that, they have 1 1
surplus stocks that they dcsite to t*
duce and that they cannot q*.*t pti< es
for cotton goods that will warrant ■
further manufacturing at the present i
price of cotton. ■ 1
Both these claims may be plausible; I
even substantially true. But what are ,
the mill-owners and their employees .
going to do about it? The holders of I
the cotton now marketable seem to be i
able to hold it and we do not hear
of Scully and Billy Brown and the
other btillv boys kneeling around the
big gates of the eastern mills begging
their owners to buy that, cotton at any
old price. In fact, the taurine push
seems to be in a far happier humor
than the mill-owners and the mill
hands.
The manufacturers can afford to
stop their mills— they have something
laid by to live on for a few months
or wars. as their case may demand.
The mill hands are the people who
are retting the limp hand in this af
frir Most of them must work or
starve. And those who have savings
n- ls t withdraw them to pay the meat
and wheat men of the west for sub
sistence and that weakens the money
surplus in eastern banks for financier
ing manufactures. , m. t
But what about the new crop? That
what is worrying the mill people in
the cast The American Cotton Man
ufacturers’ Association has just, been
holding a session in Boston to discuss
that verv problem. If they have been
able to solve it to their satisfaction
they are keeping the secret most pro
f°On the other hand, the British man
ufacturers are also talking with them
selves about the cotton conditions
that are likely to prevail. They must
have cotton. They cannot afford to
let their machinery he idle, their
hands turned out to loaf and emigrate
or their foreign trade to fail, li they
cannot get cotton at one price they
must take, it at whatever pr-ce
There is where the Brownies are
likely to make a play that may cause
the eastern mill barons to drop their
candy England can put up the money
' a “■' L hu v the cotton out ot the
in advance to
Brown bulls offer her manufacturers
concessions—in other words do as
Jeastern manufacturers do when
hey sell their goods cheaper abroad
thS they do at home-they can get
all the money needed to corner the
new crop as they have done with the
tail end of the old crop.
It is a great game and as long as It
goes on and the southern cotton
planter owns the table and gets the
benefit of a part of every play In his
“Kitty” he will not complain. Just
now his sympathies are all on the
side of the dealers headed by Brown.
Enforce the Vagrant Law.
The amended vagrant act is now
the law of the state and imposes sol
emn duties upon the constabulary and
judiciary of the slate, under their
oaths, and which they ought to per
form with every diligence and impar
tiality.
The law is plain and easy to under
stand by every peace cfficer in the
state. It defines who are vagrants to
the eye of the careful officer and puts
the burden of proof on the suspect to
satisfy the court that he is not subject
to the law. The law is almost auto
matic in its operative character and
only needs the initiative of a fearless
official to set it in motion.
The manner of the passage of the
law shows that the people of the state
are dead tired as supporting a mass
of measly vagrants, few or more of
whom infest every community in the
commonwealth. And first of all It
must be understood that this law is
not wholly aimed at the negro loafer
and tramp. It was enacted and in
tended to apply to the vagrants of any
race without discrimination. There is
less excuse for the white vagrant than
for the nomadic or parasitical negro.
Wo rather expect the negro to shirk
work when he can subsist in any oth
er way, but we also expect white men
to have the self-respect of their r.
and prefer work rather than the com
mon repute of being drones and dead
beats.
Loafing white men are an excuse
; for loafing negroes and it would be
(i neither honest nor lawful to wink at
j the white vagrant, no matter if he
should be a sort of privileged charac-
I ter about town, and put the screws of
; the law to the equally recognized ne
i gro roustabout who fetches and car-
I ries for the white loafers.
In this matter the city and county
officials throughout the state should
knuckle down to their obligations and
get. busy. Large enterprises in the
state are crying for labor. In the
meantime ablebodied men parasites
are in every town living from the
wages and home-earnings of wives
and children. Hunt them out and tell
them that the new motto of Georgia
is “work or walk.” There is a job
for every man in honorable labor. If
he refuses to take it, let the state fur
nish him work ar. dishonorable labor
and keep him at it until the lazy itch
is sweated out of mm.
The Constitution feels that the
time is opportune to urge municipal
and county officers to vir with each
other in cleaning out the vagrants and
let it go abroad to all the world that
Georgia is not running a loafer’s lotus
land. Then the vagabond will hunt
for and catch up with the job he has
'off
our Georgia grass.
The New York Sun approves of
the Calvin vagrancy bill on the
ground that it is “a new method to
make southern negroes work.’’ It
says of the enforcement of such a
law:
Incidentally, ti o. under that situation
the negrovs will be sure of considerate
treatment as laborers. If they will work
and give up loafing they will be a pecu
liar! v fortunate laboring class—very much
better off than are tile run of their race
at the north. Usually, too, the south
prefers negro labor when it can get It.
Projects to promote negro immigration,
on any considerable scale, to Africa or
to the north, are looked on witli great
and natural disfavot at the south. It
wants the negroes, but It wants them to
! work
The Suu says, as we have said.
that it will be hard io supply the
place of the negro as our chief labor
element with any other class from
anywhere. He is the white man’s bur
den in the south more than anywhere
else on earth, and The Sun justifies
any just and reasonable methods the
south may adopt to break tip his hab
its of idleness, crime and self-debauch
ery and enforce upon him the duties
of labor and self-support.
The people of the south have no ill
will toward the negro. They oppose
the potentialities of his bulk in local
government because they know that
he does not know, and but few of his
kind ever can know, the ethics and
import of a citizen’s political duties.
But if the negro will labor he will
always find work and wages sufficient
to make him the most independent
and happiest of the labor classes of
the world.
Roosevelt and Miles.
The suggestion from Boston to
make General Miles a candidate for
the presidency in opposition to Roose
velt within his own party really takes
the rag off the bush.
The argument for trying such an
experiment doomed to defeat from the i
start, is based on the unprecedented :
action of the president in refusing to j
dignify the retirement of General !
Miles from the head of the army with >
any laudatory comments upon his serv- ■
ices. Only the formal fact of his re- |
tirement from command is to go on |
the records of the country. His forty j
years of service from a subaltern to
a lieutenant generalcy and tho com- ,
inand of the army will hereafter have .
to be learned from other sources than
a congratulatory envoi letter from the
chief magistrate of the country.
Os course, there is no mistaking Mr.
Roosevelt’s intention to thus put a
parting indignity upon General Miles,
but that will not suffice for a cam
paign issue inside the republican par
ty. Mr. Roosevelt already has a lead
pipe cinch on the nomination and the
i .Jeremiahs of a grievance and the
I Boston anti-imperialists can no more
I stand up against the Roosevelt grafter
I combine than a pony cart can run
i away from a red devil automobile,
i Besides, if Roosevelt is to be op-
I posed for snubbing Miles, he can rack
out a paragraph from the speech he
made at a banquet in New York in
1898, to celebrate the Spanish war vic
tory.' In it then Colonel Roosevelt
said:
In General Miles, the hero of the civil
war, do npt forget General Miles, the hero
of the long and weary campaigns
against the .Sioux, the Cheyennes and the
Blackfeet.
He went on to laud Miles and the
men with him in all stresses of cli-
THE WEEKLY CONSTITUTION: ATLANTA, MONDAY. AUGUST 17, 1903.
mate, perils and drafts upon their
courage and endurance. Perhaps,
President Roosevelt can explain why
he has forgotten all those things
just now and only remembers that
Miles has had the courage of certain
convictions as head of the army that
did not yield to the ideas of the pres
ident.
It is no fight in which we, as demo
crats, can be interested. As an out
sider looking through a hole in the
canvas we can say without imperti
nence that the treatment of General
Miles has been so contrary to custom
as to shock the just sense of the
country, but even that treatment is
I not of so personal a character with
■ the active political factors of the
republican party as to warrant the
slightest hope that General Miles can
get within hailing distance of the
starter in the next republican nation
al convention.
Vardaman’s Vote in Mississippi.
The northern newspapers are com
menting with some unnecessary acer
bity upon the fact that Major Varda
man received a plurality of the votes
for governor in the recent Mississippi
primary. The interest they take in
the fact is because Major Vardaman
made his canvass almost wholly on
the issue of dividing the school fund
of the state between the white and
colored children proportionately with
the taxes paid by each race.
The result of the primary was not
conclusive and the final heat is to oc
cur August 27, when the choice will
fall upon Major Vardaman and Judge
Critz, the two candidates having the
highest voles in the late primary.
Colonel Noel drops out and his vote
will doubtless determine between
Vardaman and Critz. As Noel stood
for the present plan of apportioning
the school funds according to school
population, it is more than likely that
the bulk of his friends will fall in the
Critz column, in which case the Varda
man paramount issue will be over
whelmed with defeat. The actual re
sult of the second primary will, there
fore, be awaited with something like
national interest.
The people of Mississippi are unus
ually progressive and prosperous.
.They have just completed a fine new
capital building and made perhaps the
largest appropriations to public educa
tion that have been made by any
southern state. They are not likely
to take the backward step urged by
Major Vardanian and his small plural
ity in the late primary is no assurance
of his success in the next one.
The real significance of the Varda
man and Money voles in Mississippi is
wholly missed by our northern con
temporaries. They represent in a
very emphatic way the protest of Mis
sissippi against the policy of Presi
dent Roosevelt and the republican
party on negro equality issues. The
Indianola postoffice affair was plied
by Major Vardaman and Senator
Money and the people of the state
aroused to resentment against the
president's avowed purpose to make
them accept negro federal officials or
be penalized for their rejection of
them.
It is an easy thing to drive Ameri
yojiit .of self-defense and
ually confesses this truism in his
Durbin letter on lynching. And if he
were to try his negro-grafting policy
bv appointing negro postmasters in
the white towns of Ohio, Indiana or
Illinois he would speedily be brought
to face the same'sentiment of opposi
tion that was presented in Mississippi
and South Carolina, Northern senti
ment in favor of opening official doors
of hope to the negro is like to Josh
Billings’ preference of a place to have
a boil —‘ on the other fellow.”
The Mississippi vote for A ardaman
should be a warning to the president
and his party that their pernicious ac
tivity in forcing negro officials upon
southern white communities is an en
mity against the negro more than
against the whtes. The latter will al
ways find a wav to defend themselves
against such enforced attempts to
make them accept negro equality.
The Statue of General Lee.
Recently Dr. Lyman Abbott, editor >
of The Outlook Magazine, commented
upon the Emory college speech of
Judge Emory Speer. Dr. Abbott took
occasion to say appreciative things ot >
General Lee, of whom Judge Speer .
spoke a eulogy, and to give full credit ,
to the great Virginian as a patriot.
Now Dr. Abbott is being bombarded
with letters from northern correspond
ents denouncing the right of General
Lee to the title of “patriot,” because j
he chose allegiance to his state rather (
than to the union. Their screeds are I
of the common sort emanating from
the narrow-eyed folk who yet think
the civil war was a rebellion. . For
that reason they oppose with a mighty
expenditure of vehemence the placing
of a statue of Lee in statuary hall in
the capitol at Washington as one ot
the two allowed to Virginia.
The people of Virginia and of the
south do not care a baubee what these
fanatics think or say about the patri
otism of General Lee. At the time he
• was called upon to act and choose be
! tween his native state and the north
i ern idea of “the nation,” the “union”
: was already broken. The question of
, secession was no longer under debate.
■ States had already ordained the union
j at an end and had resolved to resume
! their sovereignty. Virginia was one
of the secedents. General Lee was
j faced only bv the choice of going with
his native state, or joining her de
clared enemies in an effort to coerce
and punish her for her act of resum
ing her rights to state sovereignty
and self-government.
Had Virginia elected to remain un
der the constitution, Lee’s duty would
have been to remain with her; as she
elected to withdraw from the union
and repudiate further allegiance to the
constitution, his duty was still to go
with her. No mere epithet of her ene
mies could, or yet can, change the le
gal, moral and patriotic righteousness
of his decision. What has happened
since that decision is altogether an
other story —one in which Lee took a
noble part—and that will not affect the
glory of his character in the judg
ments of just mon as long as the world
stands.
If the objection to Lee’s statue is
based upon the fact that he rendered
service to the Confederate States of
America it is not good. Georgia pro
poses to contribute a statue of Alex
nader H. Stephens, who was vice pres
ident of the Confederate States, and
no objection has been heard to her
purpose from any part of the United
States. West Virginia already has in
statuary hall the statue of ex-United
States Senator John Edward Kenna,
who was a confederate private soldier
and wounded while fighting the old
flag—and nobody objected to the plac
ing there of his statue.
The University of New York sub
mitted a plebiscite to one hundred of
the most competent judges of famous
merit in the nation to nominate Amer
icans to be honored in its Hall of
Fame. Only twenty of these judges
were from the south and fifty-one
votes were required to elect. But
twenty-nine Americans received elec
tion and the thirteenth was Robert’
Edward Lee!
It seems to us that the folk who are
now opposing the statue of Lee for the
capitol are in a hopeless minority.
The Eldorado in the South.
The strongly optimistic figures for
southern study that we discussed last
week we supplement today with a
remarkably clear and strong article
from Richard H. Edmonds, of The Bal
timore Manufacturers' Record, printed
on this page.
Mr. Edmonds is a journalist of high
repute for understanding and accu
racy. He speaks from personal in
vestigation and by the card of scrupu
lously correct statistics. The picture
which he presents of the forthcoming
prosperities of the south in the lines
of her industries is one that captures
the imagination and speaks to the
pride of our people in a peculiarly
stimulating way.
The cotton situation is plain. The
law of demand and supply explains it.
'1 he users of cotton goods from the
Hottentot with his clout to the Paris
ienne with her filmy skirts, compel
the manufacturers to make goods—
and the manufacturers must come to
us for their raw stuff. So long as the
outside world grows less than one
fourth what it uses of cotton and we
use but two-fifths of what we grow,
there yon are! It is another case of
Brer Rabbit “just havin’ ter climb de
tree.” If we do not break the prices
by our own folly in domestic econo
mies the world must come begging
with cash in hand for our surplus cot
ton.
The man who held his actual cotton
last year sells it in Atlanta for 13 to
13.50 today, and the Brown crowd is
bidding 15 lor it in New York. Herein
lies the tremendous opportunity of the
southern people to use their capital in
keeping the cotton market and trade
within their own control. With that
once fairly accomplished the south
will be panic-proof and prosperous be
yond any record of her past.
But to the $600,1" 0,000 of our raw
cotton and cotton seed sales there re
main to be added the earnings of our
railroads, the value of the finished
goods of our cotton and other facto
ries, our vastly profitable fruit and
vegetable crops, the proceeds of our
mines and quarries. The census shows
that the manufactured products of the
south exceed our- agricultural products.
Putting the two together we are
shown to be clearly beyond the line of
mere self-support. The, south is mak
ing monev, accumulating surplus, im
anu enlarging tire living —,—
From The Banker’s Magazine, a
leading banking authority, we could
extend quotations to show the solidity
and conservatism of our lanking sys
tems in the south. They stand second
to none in these essentials.
In the ■ outh our educational plants,
state, sectarian and private, are being
greatly improved and the percentage
of illiteracy among 'he people is stead- i
ily going down toward th' o iiimum I
point. Technical efficiency in agri- i
culture and trades is approving. i
Morals are better regard' 1 public !
and private life and crin ■ i under
good control. Capital and imputation
are inquiring their way bi 4 more
insistently every year.
What interest can such® people
have in prophecies of caidity and
creeds of discontent? Wjare for
prosperity and the deep seel deter- •
inination of our people :t« foster ’
and further it. Whoever Beets to ! '
make headway with a gospa lamen- i
tations in the south will it-that he [ I
is estrayed from his proplpasture, [ 1
, if there be any pasture T in this j f
! country for such an ass. ;J • i
With our prospects as ts are set ■ f
j forth in the incontestable js of the ! r
! artcles we are printing aninnment- ! r
ing upon, the southern t>i” may
well look forward to a p® of un
precedented prosperity.
_ —• 1
The Durbin Lets
; The letter of Presidenloosevelr
' to Governor Durbin, of liana, is
■ filled with common trut f ethics
j and good government th o right-
■ minded citizen will coni As an
‘ expression of the presicl ■ horror
■ of some of the heinous ts< s for
j which men are lynched, is oppo
sition to lynch law unde circum
stances and his desire to speedy
and certain operations o court's
set to administer justic Tt the
laws of the state, the let - timely
I enough and j n
i tone and phraseology.
j The letter, however, have
I been better addressed. ( or Dur
-1 bin does not deserve th inction
; the president seeks to r upon
j him. He Is not a tit Am . repre
| sentative of respect for aws of
I the state over which he rnor.
iOn the contrary, he en. h e eV il
| distinction of violating tirantee
| of the national constitu nd the
comity of states by refus deliver <
up to a sister state an cd and '
fugitive accomplice in tl rder of '
the governor-elect of ister
state.
And in the very matte 1 which
the president complimenjtin the
latter refused to delivertiminal
who caused the Evansvii to the
judge and court asking lion for
trial. If this be the sclovern-
I or the president pleads note of
the states —then God hl coun-
‘ try!
* 1
As to Southern P<»
The latest and best of
i many of the reputable t )f the
i north is to the effect t ' was
more noise than wool al south- j
ern peonage excitement, eases
were found in four st e j n
Georgia, one in Florida. South
Carolina and a batch t ad in
but two counties of Al Since t
the prosecutions of th s by
southern men who are Je of f
state and federal courts our friends In
the north have cooled off and now
agree that peonage is not a concert
ed conspiracy for the reenslavemsnt of
the colored brother.
In this connection The San Francis
co News-Letter has something to say
thdt puts the boot on the other leg,
so to speak. It says:
The southern states did not adopt the
System, except in isolated cases, until the
United States acquired the Hawaiian is
lands and recognized the prevailing con
tract labor system, a system of labor con
trol far more brutal than the peonage
system and infinitely worse than African
slavery in the south. The Hawaiian sys
tem gave tlie overseer or foreman of la
bor the right to arrest without warrant
and imprison a laborer for the slightest
inattention, and still more, the imprison
ed man had to pay the expense of such
imprisonment and add to his time of ser
vice the days or months he was so con
fined; and again, if a contract man lost
time through illness the time so lost had
to be made good before his contract could
expire by limitation. It was the worst
form of slavery known to civilization,
and it had the protection of President
McKinley’s administration.
Considering also that peonage in
the south got its suggestion from the
freedman's bureau, that used to hire
out negroes, fix their wages and flog
them, as we know to have happened
in several instances in this state,
when they deserted their jobs, we
think the old Jerusalem rule would be
a. good one for all hands to adopt,
north and south —and that is, that
“everybody shall sweep first before his
own door!”
Northern Self-Effaced Voters.
Nearly one-third of all the males of
voting age in the United States do not
appear in the last presidential election
returns. The total vote in 1900 was
13,959,653, while the total males of vot
ing age was 20,829,819. From which
it figures that 6.870,166 of the latter
were either disfranchised or indiffer
ent to and neglected their electoral
duty. And if you will deduct from
that last sum the entire number of
negroes of voting ago in the forty-five
states, being 2,026,851, you get 4,843,-
315 white males of voting age who
were effaced by law and by their own
act from the returns, or nearly two
and a half times the total number of
possible negro voters in the entire
union.
It would be interesting to know why
it is that in a section of the union
where the right to vote is looked upon
as “the chief end of man,” to forage
on the shorter catechism, so many of
the manhood suffragans of those states
fail to get to the ballot box in such an
all-important election as that of 1900,
when “McKinley, the gold standard
and prosperity” were all in the balance
against “Bryan, half-dollar dollars and
the national doldrums.”
For instance, the esteemed Fortland
Argus might tell us why in Maine,
with 217.633 manhood suffragans, only
105.720 got to the polls and a majority
—lll,943 —failed to make connection
with the sacrament of freedom at the
ballot boxes?
Likewise, the more esteemed Spring
field Republican might throw the
search-light of its always reliable il
lumination upon the reason why 414,-
801 Massachusetts manhooders threw
ballots, when there were 843,465 of
them in the state? On what pleas did
° ... xvf -. ihp x n> Or to IjQ .CXflCt
booths, as much as to sa v ‘‘ll,e cou
try be d—d!"
With the same enlightening gener
osity the Hartford Courant could ex
plain why of 280,540 votables in Con
necticut only 180,118 actually voted
and 100,222 went fishing or using their
toes for clam-rakes?
The Evening Post could get busy
with the facts in the New Y r ork case
, where 620,624 eligibles did not partic
ipate in “the solemn duty.” The Phil
adelphia Press could easily help us
to a knowledge of the wherefore of
644,029 Pennsylvanians counted in the
state’s voting population failing to an
swer to the Quay roll-calls at the bal
lot boxes. And The Cleveland Leader
could tell why 172,150 Ohio howlers for
the right of the negro to manhood suf
frage did not thunder in the election
returns?
Those six states showed up short of
-.079,632 votes, or 52,781 more than
all the negro votes in the United
States, north and south. Tu’ese, there
fore, are interesting and important
statistics. In the general search for
an agreeable arrangement of the suf
frage problem in general it is quite
needful to have the explanations we
now call for and we trust our nominat
ed contemporaries will not delav tak
ing the stand to tell the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth!
To Sidney Lanier.
’ ™ ou a . rt a singer of tho Southern seas.
• ... arit?l clouds and amber sunrise dyes
Hie sallow sands” and marshes whence
t the cries
Os seagulls haunt the corn fields. Thou
the bees
And all that breathes and blooms in
odorous leas
Dost, know .and love. With wistful eyes
Inou yearn’dst in absence for soft Georgia
skies
lo bend above thee when thy mellow flute
Make music for thy head in listening halls.
Hie spirit of the forest joys or grieves
At thy command. Thou priest of shrines
long mute.
1 he light through whispering branches
on thee falls.
Their minstrel thou, the Poet of the
Leaves.
-GRACE W. LANDRUM.
Dr. Buckley’s Retort.
New York Mail and Express: Here is
the latest tale going the rounds as to
Dr. Buckley, the famous Methodist edi
tor, orator and wit:
Dr: Buckley was a speaker at the re
cent alumni luncheon at Wesleyan. He
began, as usual, in a low tone; and, al
most immediately, an over-anxious un
dergraduate, who was looking on I'ront
the gallery, called out, 'Louder!” With
out changing his pitch, Dr. Buckley re
torted:
“That young gentleman will be able to
hear me distinctly if he will only use .
'the full length of his ears.”
Sherlock Holmes.
“And you say that when you grabbed
the poker the burglar turned and fled?” -
said the great detective.
“Yes. that is correct,” said the lady J
whose house was broken into.
“Ah.” said the great detective, “that is
a sure clew; he was undoubtedly a mar
ried man.”
Two Divorces Since.
Chicago Tribune: Playgoer—lt seems to
me I have heard that you and Mlle Hy
keek are relatives.
Tragedian (scowling darkly)—l suppose
I might be called her husband, twice re
moved.”
Always Visible.
Mrs. Growells—You spend most of your
time finding fault.
Growells—Well, I don’t have to spend
any time looking for it since I married
you.
jC, Stanton,
The Best World Still.
It’s a sad old world when the sun don't
shine.
But there ain't no use repinin’;
There's a bright, sweet spot where the
roses twine,
And Love when the sun ain’t shinln '.
And the winds may blow.
And the frosts may kill—
It's the best old world
In the country still!
It’s a cold, cold world when the silver's
gone.
But there ain’t no use bewailin’;
The seas run high, but the ships sail on,
And the sailors sing with the sailin !
And tiie winds may blow’.
And the llghtnin’ kill—
It’s the best old world
In the country still!
**• ♦ •
Nuggets from 3-eorgia.
Ain't it funny dat when a man strikes
prosperity he fergits all about how po he
wuz 'fo' he got dar?
De trouble 'bout some mens in dis
worl’ is—dey too much lak balloons; Dey
knows how ter fly, but dey dunno how
ter light in de right place.
Riches takes wings sometimes, but
poverty is with us always, kaze it can't;
git ter whar de wings is, en is most
inginrully laid up wid de rheumatism.
A Chorus.
Cotton fleecin’ all the fields—
All hands for Georgia!
See! the wealth the harvest yields—
AU hands for Georgia!
Golden leaves will shew the plain—
Mills will grind the sugar cane;
Honey for your lips to drain!
All hands for Georgia!
*•• • •
The Music of Earth.
’Pears like heaven comes so night to
earth
We hear some whispered words;
Angels in competition
With sweetest mockingbirds!
But still our birds outsing them all.
And won’t be soon forgiven
Fer sending of them angels,
In sorrow, back to heaven!
••• • *
A Rose from Marcelle.
Life has its sorrow and sighing—ah, well!
For the tears of the years here's a rose
from Marcelle!
A rose from a garden where few of ’em
grow
And I reaped but the red thorns the rose
leaves below’!
In a sweet land of Mem’ry a moment I
dwell
With the dreams that it brings me-a
rose from Marcelle!
And the dark heaven lightens—a rain
bow appears
And a star seems to shine through a
tempest of tears!
And I say; "There is hope o’er the hills
of the dark.
And shore-lights to welcome the ocean
tossed barque!"
And with radiant dreams for a moment
I dwell—
The dreams that it brings me—a rose
from Marcellel
Brother Cooley’s Sayings.
De man what th’ows his money away
.. terday wfil have ter work fer de man
Dey ain’t no use ter ter fly high,
onless you knows exactly des whar. en
when, en how you gwine ter light.
Wen I sees a po’ man tryin’ ter play
rich man fer des one day, I takes my
umbrella, en goes home, en prays de
I Lawdf "Have mercy on dat fool!’’
• • • * •
A Difference in Seasons.
"Br’er Williams,” said Brother Dickey,
"you all time talkin’ ’bout wantin’ ter
go ter glory in a chariot er fire. Mow'd i
you like ter try it in do middle er Au- |
gust?”
"Br’er Dickey,” replied Brother Wil- i
Hams, “w'en I made dem remarks we !
wuz deep In December, en de white
snow wuz all over de ground!"
Two Maxims.
“No use ter pray ter de Lawd ter give
you 'charity: De better idea would bo
ter surprise him by havin’ it befo’ han’.
Fer de good Lawd sake quit growlin’,
cn try ter persuade yo’se'f dat you hap
py one blessed day in tie year!
The Golden Harvest.
Away with alt the sorrow—the grief that
makes us sigh!
We’ll reap a golden harvests believers.
by-and-by !■'
Bear well the noonday heat—
The bitter storms that beat;
There’s rest for all the weary, and th<
resting time Is sweet!
Away with all the sorrow—the grief thaf
glooms the yearg!
A star there is Jn heaven that glimmers
through our tears!
The sorrows and the sighs
Make, rain around the eyes,
But the morning breaks in splendor—the
light is in the skies!
•«* « •
Some Georgia Philosophy.
De Lawfi make us thankful fer all <j a
weather we receive, fer es we melt tn
summer, we sholy won’t freeze next
fall.
In dis worl’ whar we livin' at we weep
over de sorrow, but never shout hallelula
w’en de good times come.
You can’t ride ter heaven on a railroad,
en even es you could, ten ter one but
you’d git ter de station two hours after
de train had done pulled out.
The Business End.
A Blllville poet sings as follows ot the
uncertain rewards of literature;
“Many a man on the road of life
Succeeds where another, fails;
Johnny is writin’ stories.
And Billy i s splittin’ rails.
Johnny is makip' a name and fame
(He says) While the years roll on;
But—Billy is makin’ the money.
And Billy's supportin’ Johnl
••• • •
The Lazy Scolar.
“Consider the lilies, how they grow”—
They say is a golden rule:
But—how can I consider ths dues
When I'll soon be off to school?
No time for considerin’ nothin’.
For, mad will the teacher seem
it I just consider a lilv
All day, iq a swunmln’ stream!
A Georgia Revival Song.
Watch out, believers! ;
Es you want de robe en crown
lou mus' kep yo lamps a-burnin’
W’en de
Sun <
Goes 1
Down! 1
i
Es you wants ter git ter glory
Whar de saints its loafin’ roun’. t
You mils' keep yo' lamps a-burnin’ c
W’en de t
Sun t
Goes r
Do wnl .
Sarge
SEVENTY- FIVE thousand a month
paid out for laborers in the granite
industry of DeKalb county.
How is that for a great county?
Thirty thousand dollars is what it
takes to pay the granite workmen every
pay dav at tne little village of Lithonia
alone—and it we mistake not that p..y
day happens every two weeks. But to
be sure that we make no overes'.'.aate,
wo have put the pay roil for the county
at 57.1. though 1 presume that the pay
roil at yt.ine .fountain 1.- fully up to that
at Lithonia, and if tills is every two
weeks instead of monthly the amount
above should be doubled, thouga my
mind i-: confused on this.
People at a distance are liable to con
clude that Stone Mountain is the source
of supply of this granite of our county.
This is not true. Lying south of l.itlio
nia for mi.es are vast fields of this gran,
ite, while from any vantage ground of
Lithonia, itself the eye can scan vast
plains of the granite with a mountain
here and there to tne number of five or
six—however, all this Is known in the
commercial world as "otone Mountain
granite.’.’
Traveling south from Lithonia, In a
region known as Arabia, the traveler is
amazed with the appearance and quan
tity of granite that meets the eye. One
naturally exclaims "Granite, granite,
granite!’’ and it is the best in the world.
At different places an almost level rock
surface stretches out for a mile before
one, gray and grim, in the impression
it makes. In the distance, to the right
and the left, in front and behind, moun
tains of this grim granite looks down
just as they have looked through the cen
turies of time and as they will look till
centuries shall roll us to the end. Man
may come and man may go, but the.~e
same gray sentinels will stand, defying
the elements and creating wonder among
men.
We had passed out of this granite re
irion proper, and had come to the nour
ishing farms along South river, when our
attention was attracted to a mountain
away in our front and in another county,
the county of Henry.
The sun was sinking low in the west,
and hovering around this mountain of
Henry like a land in the distance were
millions upon millions of bats. These
bats were already in countless numbers
i around the mountain, but they were still
pouring from the depths of the thing in
I a roaring stream of fury.
( M e learned that this was known as
Rock mountain, and that for time beyond
> the memory of the oldest this same
j stream of bats had been appearing on the
| afternoons to return with the coming of
| morning’s light. These bats spring from
I a great eave in this mountain, and no
■ man could guess just how long bats have
I made it their den—perhaps since the world
j began, in time these bats by the mil
i lions have died and went to decay in
! side this cave, and it is strange that
| some enterprising firm ha 3 not thought
I of devising some means to get this ani-
■ mal decay from the cave as a commer
cial fertilizer, it would be as great, per-
' haps, as the guano of Peru, and all of us
; know the value of Peruvian guano. The
■ day will come, no doubt, wfien this will
I be accomplished and add another source
I of revenue to the section and to Geor-
I Sia '
j 1 here are strange things in this granite
■ region of DeKalb, just as there are
I strange things and great opportunity ’
j ail over the south that the stranger at
i a distance never dreamed of. Ever;
; thousands of Georgians do not know
' i ' v< * woiumno ta matte, s
at a distance, when we could find
tore at home as strange as any, s i
romances S pi c6d with thQ £Oftness „.
pathos or thrilled by th e fire of aI
, venture to the fullness of the hea; . s
content, and never leave the terric ■ ;
j nt our own state to find it.
■ In this granite region mav he four ,
nmie of th e hardy sons and daughter-
i Scotland than any other territory ■ '
he same size in America, and it i a?
to Georgia's advantage. They are t
rood people, all d ]ive by the
leir brow in an abundance fHat is knowr
by but few of thoso who labor for ih-.r
dailj bread. Going among these ot< h
- - them just as t v
pear in their native land. They sing : ,
I songs of Robbie Burns in the moth. -
I tongue of the poet, till one like me
; when there that he sti Us “a
| banks ot Bonny Doon.” or are
,to the murmur of -'Afton’s sw-ct „ ltPl = '
j mOre rii '” th” .sweetn.--
of this Scotch home life than we p,,,!.]
I Picture the impression of merit that
flongs to these ha rdy men ,
where so'abundam ° ,ndUStry ’
wlwwork X Ch thi- e n ° ta!! the
o? native conn r h:'‘ e ' X'
regk>n eP WhhT “T ‘ he far ™ P ‘ r ' «
ferinJ” a^'lc ’uhi>t'” suf-
m 1 h ' s <ns P o sltion to en-,-.,
n other pursuits than farming and'?,
labor upon public works rathet than to
Plow and to hoe is manifest all over
Georgia, and this is the regret
week we made a trin to »
of t Ithnnk , lri P t 0 the tnw>,
or idthnnia ..nd wound and twisted ove
a Ig territory around that place Wher?
we found prosperous negro labored liv
ing on former visits now tn- , 11
vacant, and the
Ihe same applies to white 3 'J'
mest impossible- to get farm hands a ‘n d
this is the burning need of today. Ther«
must be some way to secure tld? lab o n
L is distressing to see the fal r
of Georgia being turned out to sedge
and briars. The trend is that way. Put?
ic works and manufactories bld highe
or this labor than farmers can afford
to pay, and this Is the blight. It is a
delusion also. The truth is that these
Renting higher wages do not turn out
that way :n the long run. The poorest
teants upon the farm has cows and pigs
around him. There is never a time thl
they are strained as these high-paid pub
lie oiks hands are strained.
But these higu prices have their fasci
nation, and it i s entirely idle to trv to
convince the average laborer that there is
any delusion in the matter.
The thing to do is to go to work to
supply this farm labor. Jt is the ktcj'
question that confronts Georgia and the
south. All other “problems” aro inslgtf
ficant to this question of working the
fields. Farming must go on. Everything
else may stop and the world wiil wag
along without much jar, but stop farm
ing and there would be such a jar as to
ruin the world.
I do hope that the great men of this
country will drop everything and take up
this question of supplying farm labor
It must be done, and it should he begun
at once. SARGE PLVNKETT.
The republican governor of Wisconsin
is not talking for buncombe when he de
clares: “We are building up colossal for
tunes, granting unlimited power to cor
porate organization and consolidating and
massing together business interests as
never before in the commercial history of
the world, but the people are losing con
trol of their own government. Its foun
dations are being sapped and its integrity
dt-stroyed. There is but one remed - -
the return of the people to the "land,
toe fathers of the republic
through the medium of democratic vic
tory next year.