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MUZZLE ON MAIL CLERKS.
(From Ridgway’s.)
Here is an illuminating little tale
concerning our government. In July
last, there was a wreck on the Great
Northern Railroad near Diamond
Lake, in the state of Washington, that
cost six lives. Exposed to death in
the wreck were two railway mail
clerks, William Donaghy and P. Van
lippoley by name. Various versions,
official and otherwise, were given as to
the cause of the accident, and finally
the mail clerks wrote letters to Spo
kane newspapers telling what they
knew about it.
Donaghy in his letter had the tem
erity to tackle James J. Hill, presi
dent of the Great Northern Railroad.
He declared that the roadbed was de
fective, that trains were run at dan
gerously high speed, and that upon no
system over which he had run in a
lifetime devoted to the railway and
railway mail service had he seen
life held so cheap. Here is a frag
ment of Donaghy’s letter that is liter
ary:
“Then why this suicidal speed? Be
cause the schedule calls for it, and
engine drivers are expected to make
it. Not only are they expected to
make it, but they are continually and
eternally pounded on the back until
they do make it or go in the ditch.
“Occasionally an engine driver,
through regard for his own and other
human lives, refuses to take such des
perate chances. What is the result?
He is called up ‘on the carpet’ and
not very politely informed that unless
he can make the time a man will be
found who will.
“The man has spent the best years
of his life working up to a position
which enables him to begin to clothe
and feed his family, and cannot af
ford to begin life anew. He becomes
desperate. He says to himself, ‘I
will make the time or die trying.’
He tries —and his last run, the fire
man’s last run, the postal clerk’s last
run, the messenger’s last run, and,
incidentally, the last ride of a few pas
sengers ends in Diamond Lake.’’
For thus speaking their minds the
two postal employes were promptly
fined S3O apiece, and each was sus
pended from his run for ten days by
the great government of the United
States, and that no other postal em
ploye should ever fall into their dis
graceful error, W. S. Shallenberger,
second assistant postmaster general,
issued the following muzzling order:
“It is deemed essential to the proper
administration of public business that
officers and employes of this office
shall maintain respectful official rela
tions with railroad companies and oth
er carrying companies, as well as with
their superior officers. Railway postal
clerks must not engage in controver
sies with or criticism of railroad offi
cials involving the administration of
the postal service by furnishing infor
mation to the newspapers or public
ly discussing or denouncing the acts or
omissions of such officials as affecting
the postal service. Clerks violating
this instruction will be subject to dis
cipline and possible removal from the
service.
“All information, criticism, or com
plaint which clerks or officials can give
from personal knowledge or obtain
from credible sources looking to the
betterment of the postal service and
the comfort ar d safety of their persons
while official.y employed, should be
forwarded through their superior offi
cers In order that prompt investigation
and proper action may be taken.”
This od)jus order is still operative,
and the t ict that an anonymous pro
test from a party of mail clerks comes
to Ridgv ay’s shows how badly bull
dozed arc the men affected by it. That
they feared to sign their names tn the
<xnnrounh».tlon In pitiable
Peculiarly exposed to the villainous
ly bad management of American rail
roads are the railway mail clerks.
Their cars are nearly always carried
near the engines, and there is scarce
ly a mail train wreck in which one or
more of them is not killed or maimed.
Before the Shallenberger ukase was
issued they were the only men in the
train crews with souls free from con
trol, but now they, too, are ironed and
the public may get their testimony
only through the censors at Washing
ton.
Mr. Shallenberger may be a pure,
kindly soul, untouched by the influence
of the railroads, but it would be inter
esting to know. His sense of humor
is surely deficient. Can you hear a
mangled postal clerk saying to a rail
way official, “Please, kind sir, it was
good of you to kill me, but won’t you
notify my wife?” or, “Please, good
sir, when you get time won’t you lift
your box car off me and pull your
coupling pin out of my chest?”
It * *
TAKE IT.
By Janies Walker Heatherly.
If a man shall steal an ox or a
sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall
restore five fold for an ox and four
fold for a sheep.—Exodus 22:1.
If John D. wants to give back the mon
ey,
Take it.
We’ve all robbed bees of their honey.
Take it.
If he wants to turn it loose,
Don’t stand there like a goose.
Grab it and put it in use.
Take it.
“Tainted!” What of that?
Take it.
Rush in with your hat,
Take it.
In this old world below
Os sorrow, sin and woe
Money makes the mare go,
Take it.
No matter how he got it,
Take it.
Put it to a good use, and unspot it,
You burn his oil at night
Take his (?) money, wouldn’t be right?
Difference, None, It’s all right.
Take it.
If he writes you out a check.
Take it.
Lay your arms around his neck,
Take it.
Don’t refuse his (?) yellow stuff.
American dollars ain’t no bluff,
John has had it long enough,
Take it.
* h n
CARNEGIE AND ROCKEFELLER’S
GIFTS.
Carnegie founded his libraries upon
steel company stocks. When the great
properties were taken over and the
billion dollar company formed Mr. Car
negie got all his properties were worth
in first mortgage bonds, and the many
millions of stock which he got besides
was “velvet.” The high financiers
put on the market more than the mar
ket would digest. Old Russell Sage
suspected they were indigestible, and
they proved to be. Then Carnegie
took some of his velvet and went to
founding libraries. When he laid the
foundation of a library It was in steel
company stock, and there was a pro
viso with the gift that the stock should
never be sold below par. -Banks all
over the country took the stocks as
collateral. Some loaned 90 per cent
on it. Every Carnegie library Is an
auxiliary bull for the steel company
stock. The bottom went out, however,
but under the fostering care of the
tariff this billion dollar financial in
fant is recuperating.
Now, Rockefeller hap caught on
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
The $32,000,000 he has given to the
general educational fund is in stocks
of railroad companies and other com
panies he and the Standard pirates
control. Thirty-two millions Is not
over 5 per cent of the water alone
there is in stocks of railroads like the
M., K. & T., which Rockefeller owns.
By scattering this very slight mois
ture from his enormous supply he will
enlist the whole educational interest
and enterprise of this country to pro
tect and keep at par the enormous bur
den of fictitious wealth upon which we
must be taxed. For this little sop
thrown to the “educational interests”
he has welded his fetters and secured
the aid of thousands to help him reap
for many, many years what others will
sow. WM. C. PLUMB.
Paw Paw, Mich.
R * R
THE TEAR.
(From an Exchange.)
Oh, Sonny Boy, what will you do
With the careless glee of boyhood
through?
The gleam of laughter, the ripple of
fun,
The throb and thrill of childhood done?
The tender plant of a love that grew
Where only self and mother knew.
Must the sap be chilled in its fragile
life,
By the brazen glare of stress and
strife?
The tear that left its grimy trace
O’er gentle Shame of a slight disgrace;
Ah! boy. will the well from which it
sprung.
Fresh and pure when life was young,
Grow hard and frozen in wintry cold.
With boyhood gone, and manhood old?
The feet that, unshod, trod the hill;
The whistle that echoed the woodbird
thrill,
The shout of joy. the wild hurray,
They only last-through boyhood’s day.
But. ah. that tear the well of h*fe,
Keep it. bov. through storm and strife;
For the rainbow gleams that hold it
fast
Will light your way to the very last,
it a* te
A LETTER OP REMONSTRANCE.
Hon. Thos. E. Watson,
I have been informed that you are
opposed to immigration from Furnpe.
on the grounds that hordes of foreign
ers. less desirable as citizens than the
negroes are would be landed on our
shores. With all respect for vour
broad-mindedness and sunerior intel
lect I beg to differ with vou.
With all of our boasted freedom the
women of the southern states are
slaves to fear: no woman can f°el
safe tn her own home when her hus
band is absent: the unmentionable
crimes recorded In the daily papers,
keen her in agonizing snsnmise. lest
a similar fate should befall her or
pos°lblv a n r ecious daughter at any
unguarded moment.
Our country c c n no longer he called
“The Home of the Free and the Land
of the
ouake with deadly horror of the hlack
demon who stalks at will—a continual
menace to their holnlessness.
Ts this black shadow, which has
rohhed country women of all that is
worth living for. were I’fted. thousands
who go about their d»Hv tasks with
heavy hearts, would feel that the gates
of Parad’se had b°en onened unto
them. Oh! Mr. Watson, vou who have
such wide Influence, whose opinion
carries such weight, weigh well the
imnort of your words, on so vital a
suhlect.
Surelv the In*ux of a people of our
own color would be a protection. We
not only need them to cultivate the
soil, but we need them to h«ln us so
far outnumber the tracks that we need
no longer live in daily dread of the
horrible Crimea they commit.
M R M
"So Easy to Fix” Pumps
4 For Wei s
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54 Mar etta Street ATLA\TA, GA.
REAL ESTATE.
Those desiring to move to South
Georgia, the most prosperous section
of the state, can secure bargains in
city property, farm lands su»w mill or
terpentine sites, by writing to
C. C. TYLER,
Box 272, Moultrie, Ga
Davison
and
Fargo
COTTON FACTORS
AUGUSTA, GA.
LARGEST AND FINEST WARE
HOUSE IN THE CITY. PROMPT
AND CAREFUL ATTENTION
TO ALL BUSINESS.
Typewriters
AT
Half Price
We have a large assortment of all
standard machines, which have been
slightly used, that we will sell on
guarantee, viz.:—
Fay-Sho or Rem-Sho ..$25 to S4O
Williams (All Models) ..S2O to S4O
Remington (All Models) sls to S6O
Densmores (All Models) sls to S4O
Smith Premiers S2O to S6O
Yost (All Models) sls to SSO
Write for special prices on any other machine
made. We have them in stock.
Atlanta Typewriter
Exchange
Seventy-one North Pryor Street
ATLANTA, GA.
References: H. M. Ashe Co., Cen
tral Bank & Trust Oorporntjon, R G.
Dun & On
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