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CHARLOTTE MESSENGER
r*4i • i•' » f • » § \
VOL. I. NO. 7.
- Reparation.
My feet still tread the old familiar ways
once I thought so peaceful and so
sweet;
As brightly as of old the glintiDg rays
Os sunshine fall athwart the quaint old
street.
Reypnd, the purple hills tower to the skies,
Unaltered as in childhood’s happy years,
When on them oft I gazed with wond’ring
eyes—
To-day I see them through a mi9t of tears.
The peaceful scene, to other eyes so fair, *
Bnt jars upon my wbarv, aching heart;
The glaring sun but knocks at my despair—
I long to sit in solitude apart.
And yet it must not be. The work of life
Must still go on, though hearts be lone and
sad;.
No cowardly withdrawal from the strife
Gan give us peace or make our hearts glad.
■j
You with your bitter, burning sense of wrong,
Your disappointment keen, which none can
know,
The hopes that in your breast rose high and
strong
Now humble to the dust at one fell blow;
I, with my blind mad struggles ’gainst the fate
Which, cruel and relentless, bids us part,
Repenting humbly, now ’tis all too l£te.
The pride and coldness which estranged
your heart—
We both must labor on -you far away
Amid the city a endless toil and din,
I in this quiet village, till the day
When death shall call us from this world of
sin.
Life’s mys’ries then will fully be explained,
Misunderstandings vanish like a dream;
Our long-lost happiness will be regained
In fuller, purer measures than we deem.
No shadow then of grief, distrust, or pain
Shall Aim the brightness of that far-off
shore;
In perfect peace and unity again
Our hearts shall live in love forevermore.
c. c. w.
JONES & CO.
A SAX FBAXCISCO IDYL.
I guess pa and ma were pretty rich
one time, tor when they came to Cali
fornia it was on their wedding-tour, and
cost lots—came by the way of New
York and Washington and Panama city
ingMjHaHTyft, and ma brought a maid
to wait j.p her and pa had a servant
naSMCDw ; and when w 4 got to Cali
fornia—l ■ say we : I’m only fourteen
now”;" Wat I was not born then, though
that don’t matter, I gness—pa had lots
of money. I was born at the Lick
honse, and you ought to see my baby
clothes, Jones & Co. haven’t the kind
of gdods them was, because Mand has
drawled'them all to pieces. Maud is
the hjiby. Six years old, Maud is, and
if won’t die long before she will be a
clerk; fbr Jones Sc Co. First babies
always have the nioest things. Ma says
first babies are like second wives.
Well, I am of the opinion that after
pa west into his bouse on Van Ness
avenue, he went into Stoek, whatever
that n4an*. Going into stock mnst be
a canons business, and sometimes pa
came home looking splendid, and
wanted to "buy everything, and langhed
at ma for being so mean Bndaot get
ting better clothes, and then he wanted
to’ dHv4“fn the park and go to the
tlieatrtj. -‘One day he came home with, a
brand new carriage and a span Os long
tail horag, and a cooohman and foot
man. Than sometimes pa oame home
and looked very bine, ana talked about
stocks, and I began to watch pa and
noticed that sometimes when he
laßgmeilrtJie loudest he looked as if be
wantedto cry, and then he sold the
hoiSßTßnil then the honse, and the fur
niture was sent to the auction and ma
felt very bad, and pa wasn’t like him-
more and never told me stories
nor %nel me ; and once, when Maud
wMMatap in his arms he kissed her
and cried, and when I told ma she
gdiWMijrTß did not feel very well, snd
then she rated. After this we went to a
boardtotf-imfese—a nasty, musty board
ing- hopesT , Everything was well
enongbt -only a boarding-honse ain’t
likehfonfe.,’
Then the-baby oame, and it died, and
ma almost Hied; and I heard jpa say to
the min that kept the boarding-honse
tbathe was pretty tight up, but it was
all coining out right; and the next day,
pa"3id«'i have any watch nor any
sleeve bbttons I didn't seem to notice
it, because I saw that maybe he had
sold them to pay board; and I heard pa
and ma away in the night, and
sometimesnna cried, and pa would look
in the mtysing just as if he hadn't slept
a wink, sad I don't believe be had.
Once.it Wia dreadful. Pa came home
tipfyi.Jndl never saw.ma feel ao bad,
nsveri aodithen they talked it over, and
finally tna-went home to grandpa'a in
New York, with Mand, and I stayed
CHARLOTTE, MECKLENBURG CO., N. C„ AUGUST 5, 1882.
with pa to go to school. Then pa kept
getting worse, and worse, and went to
live in rooms and eat at restaurants;
aud pa stayed out late at nights, and I
guess he drank more than was good for
him, and I thought something had
to be done. So 1 said to pa one day :
“Pa, let’s go into business ana open
a store.”
And he laughed and said, “What kind
of a store.”
And I said, “Oh, a candy store, or a
stationery store, or a thread and needle
store, just such as women keep and little
girls help in.”
And pa langhed and said he wonld
think 'of it, and when he came home
that night I asked him if he had thought
about it, and he said he had not, and I
said he had better, and he said he
would; and that morning he didn’t go
out, but stayed at home and wrote ma
a long letter. So next day I went into
a store on Polk street, kept by a nice
old lady who had a bad husband, where
they sold everything, and she said in
French they called it lingerie. I did
bot know what she meant, because it
was French, and I asked her if she did
not want to sell her store, and she
said :
“Do you want to buy a store, little
girl?” And I said: “My pa does.”
And she smiled and said she guessed
the sheriff would have a store to sell in
a few days. I said I wonld tell pa,
because ho knew Mr. Nunan, the sheriff.
It was one of Mr. Nnnan's men that
sold pa's honse and furniture for him.
And the next day I told pa about the
store and what a nice one it was, and
he had been a dry-goods man once,
and had a large store, and sold silk
dress goods, and velvets and furs, and
laces worth more than SI,OOO apiece.
I don’t exactly know what pa did,
but I think something “turned up” a
few daTS afterward, for I heard him say
he bad made a "raise;" and he showed
me more than SI,OOO in gold and notes,
and for a day or two he carried them
in a side pocket, and mostly kept his
hand over them, for fear they wouid
jump out and fly away; and pa bought
me some shoes and a hat, and stuff for
aprons, and I made them myself, and I
never saw pa look so happy since ma
went away, and one day he said to
me:—
“Vevie, I have bought the store on
Polk street, and you are to be my sales
woman and partner.”
And sure enough, in a few days we
went into the store, and over the door
was a great big sign of “Jones Sc Co.”
and pa said I was the “Company," And
when I said, “And so, pa, you are
‘Jones'?” he blushed, aud I guess he
didn’t like his old friends to know that
he was selling needles and thread and
tape and things. We had two snug
little rooms in the back of the store to
sleep in, and I made pa’s bed and swept
out the rooms and tidied things. At
first pa shut up the store when he had
to go down town on business, but after
a little while I tended it, and when
there were two customer* in the store I
waited on one, and it wasn’t long before
I could make change and sell thing* al
most as good as pa oonld; and by and
by, when he went down town, I tended
store, and we had splendid times. We
went out to a nice plaee across the
street for our meals; I tended store
when pa went, and pa tended store
when I went.
One day pa came in and looked dread
fully troubled, and then I said; “Fa,
ain’t I a partner, and don’t partners
have a right to know everything, and
ain't you hiding something about Jones
Sc Company?” ’
And then I found out that pa had
bought too many things for the store,
and that a note for SI,OOO had to be
paid, and that’s what made pa feel bad.
And then I thonght and wondered how
I could get SI,OOO, and I kept on think
ing over everybody that I guessed had
SI,OOO, and everyone that I guessed bad
it, I guessed would not lend it to pa.
And then I thought about the rich Mr.
Flood, and said; “I will go down to his
bank and get it, for h6'e got more than
a thousand millions, and down to the
bank of Nevada the cellar is full of gold,
and of course he don't use it Ml the
time, and before Mr. Flood’wants it ril
take it back and pay the interest.” And,
then I jumped up snd hurrphed for
Jones Sc Co., took my best bonnet and
put on my gloves, took off my store
apron and. oombed my hair,- and got
into a car, went to the Ntvada bank,
told the oletk I wanted to borrow SI,OOO.
and he langhed<aod said be guessed I
had better see Mr. MoLane. I asked
who Mr. McLaje Iras, and the clerk
said Mr. McLane Was the president, and
was in the bsek room, and I went into
the back room, and Mr. McLane said:
“Well, little girl, what can I do for
you?” li Is
And I said: “I want to borrow one
thousand dollars."
Mr. McLane opened his eye* and
turned his ahair around and looked at
me, and said: “A thousand dollars,”
with as much surprise ss though SI,OOO
was all the money he had in the bauk.
Then I began to get scared and cried;
and then I told Hr. McLane all about
pa and “Jones & Co,” and what we
wanted to do with the money, and that
I would pay it back to him; and he
looked kinder pnzzled, and asked me
what pa's name was, and I told him and
where the store was, and all about ma
and Maud, and how the haby died. I
guess that was not very much like busi
ness, and,l don't know what Mr. McLane
wanted to know all that for. Then he
looked at me again, and I guess he
wasn’t going to let me have the money,
when a gentleman at the other desk
came up to where I was sitting on a
chair, and Mr. McLane said:
“Well, Flood, what do yo.u think of
this young merohant ?’'
And then I knew it was .the rich Mr.
Flood, and I looked into his eyes, and
he said:
“ Let her have the money ; I will en
dorse her note.”
Then I jumped up and kissed him,
and he kissed me; and Mr. McLane
made a note for ninety days, and I
igaed “Jones Sc C 0.," and Mr. Flood
wrote his name on the back of it. I
took the money away in a canvas bag
that Mr. McLane- said I mnst bring
back, and I took the money to pa ; and
didn’t he look surprised when I poured
out the great big twenty-dollar gold
pieces on the counter. Then I told
him what had happened at the bank,
and when I asked him if he didn’t
think I was a pretty good business
woman after all, I guess he felt real
ashamed.
After this I never saw anything like
it—such lots of carriages and such nice
ladies kept ooming every day, and
most all of them traded with me,
and pa wag just as happy as he could”
be. Jones & Go. was making lots of
money. When I took Mr. Flood's
money back, I just marched right
through the bank, past the big coun
ters, into Mr. McLans’s room, and I
took very good care to let the clerk
that laughed at me before see the bag.
Mr. Flood was in there, and Mr. Mc-
Lane and I opened the bag. Mr. Flood
came up and laughed, and Mr. McLane
langhed, and I heard Mr. Flood tell
Mr. McLane they would have the lunch
to-day. And then Mr. Flood told me
if I wanted to borrow money again, not
to go to any other banks, but come to
his; and I thanked him, and Mr. Mo-
Lane brought my note canceled by a
great blue “ Paid ” stamped across the
faoe, right over where I wrote “ Jones
& Co.” Then I told Mr. Flood that
when we felt able to send for ma 1
should come over and borrow some
more money, because I wanted to buy a
house for ma and Maud, so that they
Wouldn’t have to go into any more
nasty boarding-houses, and Mr. Flood
said I should have all the money I
wanted.
When we sent for ms and Maud,
grandpa gave them the money to come
and so we didn’t have to borrow any
more ; and we took a nice cottage, not
very near tbe store, for pa didn't want
ma to know about Jonee A Go., though
I was just crazy to tel) her. For several
days we fooled her. She thought pa
had a store down town, and I was going
to sohool. I told lots of fibs about
being detained at school, going down
town, and all sorts of stories to account
for being home late. One day who
should I see ooming - into the store
but ms. .
“Have von any pearl shirt bnttons,
little girl? ’ said ma.
“Yes, ma’am,’’ said I, looking her
right square in the eye.
“Goodness, gracious I” said ma. “Is
that you, Vevie?"
I said, “Beg pardon, ma'am, what
did you want?” And then'ma looked
at me again.
I had a store apron.on aad a small
cap like a French girl; and because I
wasn’t very high pa bought me a pair of
wooden” brogans, with felt buttons, into
which I slipped my feet, and they made
me.four or five inches taller; and ma
stared at me, and then laughed and
said:
“Oh, I beg your pardon, little girl;
you look so much like my daughter
GenevievJ that I thought you were
her."
Then I beard pa snicker down behind
the counter. He had seen ma eome in
and he hid. Just as soon as ma went
out pa jumped up and laughed and
said : “Snatch off yonr apron and cap,
Vieve, and run round the block and get
home beiore your mother,” , '
I did so, and when ma got home she
was the most surprised person you ever
saw. We knew this thing wouldn't last,
and so that night we told ma all about
the house o 1 “Jones Sc C 0.," and ma
kissed pa and Baid be was a noble fel
low, and “just as good as gold,” and
that she “never wss so proud of him in
all her life, and fell to kissing hipa and
crying and taking on. I never saw ma
aot so foolish in all her life, and pa said
she wss “making love to him over
again.”
Well, now the story is about over.
Ma came down to the store to help. At
first she looked kinder sheepish, espec
ially when some lady came in she had
known at the Lick house, but she soon
got over all tnat and began to make
bonnets and we had a millinery store,
and then she insisted upon saving the
expense of a seperate house, and we
moved into a larger store next door with
nice rooms fixed to live in and a nice
show window for bonnets; and little
Maudie is beginning to be handy
about, and all of us work, apd we are
just as happy as the days are long and
have lots of money.
I have never seen Flood but
once since, when I went down to the
'bauk unbeknown to pa, and told Mr.
Flood and Mr. MoLane that any time
‘they wanted to borrow SI,OOO “Jones
*& Co.” would lend it to them; and they
laughed and said, "Couldn’t tell, stocks
might go down.” And then Mr. Flood
said, “if all the people he had given
and loaned money to would pay it back
as I had, he didn’t think he would get
busted in a long time.”
And then I saw the clerk that langhed
at me and I smiled at him and bowed;
and since then he has been buying all
bis gloves at the store. I told him I
’thought he used a great many pairs of
gloves, and he said they wore ont very
fast counting money. He is dreaaful
particular about his gloves, and if there
.s nobody in the store but me, he is
‘sometimes half an hour picking ont just
tbe kind he wants.
Pa has bought a splendid gold watoh
—a real stem-winder ; and we—
Jones Sc Go.”—have bought a nice
large lot on Governor Stanford’s new
cable railroad and it; and if the
times are good this stfnSiet, as pa thinks
they will be, we shall have a house es
our,own again. • .
How Japanese Bailies Are Welcomed.
One curious custom in vogue, says a
Yokohama letter, is tbe exhibition of a
fish on every honse where a boy has
been bom' to the family daring the
year. This showing is made daring the
month of May, and on the sth of that
month there is a high festival held, the
relatives and iriends of the family mak
ing it the occasion of presenting gifts
and toys suitable for boys, as well as
giving clothing fitting for the little
chap. All sorts of child’s gear is to be
seen on exhibition at this time, and no
boy is neglected. The boy is the pride
of tho household, the parents testifying
their joy in feasting all comers wbe
honor them by their remembrances.
The (firl babies are not forgotten, but
they are accorded another day and a’
separate festival time, this being the
third day of the third month —and 3d
of March. Then, instead of the fish
floating as a symbol, the-doll is to be.
keen in abnndance, and all the toys
known to the girl world are lavishly
displayed. There is very muob of pride
exhibited on both of these ohildish fes
tivals, as the gifts presented are. osten
tatiously displayed by tile fond parents
for tbe admiration of their friends.
Diminutive suits of armor, tiny swords
and bows and arroVs, toy horses, with
fall suits of trappings'—in foot, every
imaginable thing that goes into the
make-up of the Japanese warrior of the
olden time are on parade on the sth of
May; while the 8d of March brings forth
all that is representative of the life and
fancies of the feminine gender. There
are many who are not content to await
the fall advent of tbe time for the dis
play of the fish emblem, se that' during
the latter part of April it is no uncom
mon thing to see an immense fish,
sometimes two, so constructed that it
is filled by th* breeze, floating from a
bamboo pole, heralding the glory that
has its lodgment in the house from
which it is exhibited.
• A Formidable Weapon.
A carious piece of artillery has ar
rived at Windsor Castle. The weapon,
which is -believed to hpve, come from
some Eastern country, has seven barrels,
-the bores of whioh are rather larger than
those of ordinary rides, laid horizon
tally upoq a wooden carriage, the cen
tral one being longer than the rest. At
the breech is a groove for a train of
powder to the. touchholes, -ao that all
the barrels can be discharged simulta
neously. _ '
Haring the year 1881 no less than
1,14$ persons were killed and 8,676
injared; by railway accidents in Great
Britain ; but of this great nnmber only
forty-two met with their deaths and
1,161 received injuries from causes
entirely beyond their own control.
Again, of these forty-two persons killed
only twenty-three were passengers, tod,
as tbe roads carried altogether more
than 606,000,000 passengers, there sfas
Only ■ one death to- 26,000,000 pad*
senders.
It is tba crashed grope that gives <Mt
the blood-rad wise. It is the suffering
soul that breathes the sweetest, mala
dies here below.
fe. ... ...... *»#•»-$ lif "*** ■
W, C. SSITB, h&lafer.
ITEMS OF IMERBBT.
A-cloud of flies so swarmed about the
steeple of a church in Detroit the other
day as to produce the appearance of
smoke, and tbs Mm engines warn sailed
out.
With twenty nawjsilzpa(ts,in process
of building and additions being made
to the passenger and freight steamers
on her riven, Florida bants a remark*
able season of prosperity.
Lake Worth, in Florida, is only 200
yards distant from the Atlantic, and
extends parallel with it for a distance of
thirty-five miles.
A tea plant is imported in Georgia
which has thriven through all sorts of
seasons, yielded three or four annual
crops of good leaves; and is now a
thrifty shrub seven and shall feet high,
with eight Jeet sprsai of limb.
The Valley Falls flax mills of How
York have"contract< cf with the Govern
ment for 503,000 pounds es twist, which
is to be used in the Postoffice Depart
ment, This is thp largest contract
male by the Government for twine at
one time, and is sufficient to last a
year. A *• -
Fifty miles from the junction of Salt
river, Arizona, with the Gela,there comes
into it a stream of salt water. It is
supposed that the interior of the
mountain, out of which the stream
flows, is largely composed of salt. If
there were appliances for evaporation
sufficient salt to supply the markets of
the world could be manufactured here.
There are several beautiful examples
of hinges in the natural world. Among
-them we may cite the maSon spider of
the tropics of Booth America. The
fubterraneaa cell of this animal is
tapestried with silk and closed by an
; earth-kneaded door, hung upon a silken
.hinge, and self closing with an elastic
spring after each entrance or exit of tho
cavern’s occupant.
Governor Stone, of Mississippi, has
pardoned one Thomas H- Cook, who
was under a ten years’ sentence for
manslaughter, upon his written promi~'
to abstain from the use cf intoxicating
liquors aud the carrying of concealed
deadly weapons for the term of ten '
years from January 28, 1880. The par
don is to be void if Cook shall, within
the time specified, nse as a beverage
intoxicating drinks or carry upon has
person concealed deadly weapons.
• HIMOKOIK.
He had lost his knife, and they aske<r
him the usual question, “Do you know
where yon lost it?” “Yes, yee,” he re
plied, of course I do. I’m merely hunt
ing in these other places to kill, time.”
Indianapolis has a reporter who can
write np the proceedings of the police
court in such a laughable manner that
people get themselves arrested to give
-him plenty to write about.
Here it is: A wealthy oil merchant
in Chin-a-Kha, China, has become a
Christian. If he is like some Ameriem
•Christians we know of, bis customers
had-better begin to measure the oil
they buy.
“Father, when a hen sets on an egg
three weeks and it don’t hatch, is the
egg spoiled?" “As”*n article of diet the
egg is henceforward a A#ore; hast a* a
.species of testimonial it iq striking
aromatic and expressive.”
They’re not wholly bad ont HfcaHvffie
way. While they win* fixing tbe repe
to lynch a man two dogs got into a
caucus, and the lynchers kindly paused
in their work to let the viothn see •which
animal got linked. r
The political season is walking np a
i trifle, and the women of the land find
their husbands very busy “caucusing.'*
There is nothing tike it. When a man
gets caucus struck it is all day and
good-bye to-his family, * ’” “
A I wouldn’t Be fn Egypt,* said Mfs.
McGill, last week, “for all the wealth
of Creosote. ” Seeing a look cl as ton;
ishment on the face of her auditors, she
added, “Creosote, you know, was an
old Boman god, and everything he
touched turned into gold*”
‘ But why did you leave her so
hasttfj?” asked a sympathizing friend
who was trying to console a laser for
his separation from tho object of hie
; idolatry. “Oh, it was m sudaen impulse.”
“What sort of an impulse?’ “I don't
know, exactly,” returned the sbßmw.
thoughtfully, “but it mnst have been
at least a No. 12.”
' “Mamma, dear,” said a New Haven
girl just- inthe flush of aariy woman
hood, “I have something to tail jop»
’George has proposed, and I have ac
cepted.” “My cbftd, i cannot think <*
you disgracing vonrseif. Gamas i*
not a suitable match for yon. Besides,
fais wonld make him it ohe of the
bmily, and he wonld'pay ao Ssor*
poard.” Thus will bo seen the ineom
sstihllitj nl a bnmdim Inman till I*ll
- love with on* of th* boarder*.