THE CHARLOTTE MESSENGER.
VOL. IV. NO. 8.
THE
Charlotte Messenger
IB PUBLISHED
.Every Saturday,
AT
CHARLOTTE, If. C.
In the Interests of the Colored People
of the Country.
Able and well-known writers will contrib
ute to its columns from different parts of the
country, and it will contain thottest Gen
eral Nc-ws of the day.
Tits Messenger is a first-class newspaper
and will not allow personal abuse in its col-
It is not sectarian or partisan, but
tidej-cndent—dealing fairly by all. It re
serves the right to criticise the shortcomings
of ell public officials— commending the
■worthy, and recommending for election such
men as in its opinion are best suited to serve
the interests of the people.
It is intended to supply the long felt need
of a newspaper to advocate the rights and
defend the inter.sts of the Negro-American
c--pei tally ill the Piedmont section of the
Carol i nos.
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
(Always m Advance.)
1 year - - - *1 so
months - - - 100
0 months - . 75
3months - - -
‘J months - - ,
Single Copy -
Address,
W. C. SMITH Charlotte NC‘
Printing in China.
Os course, the Chinese were ahoid of
Europe, says R. R. Eowkcr in Harper'e
Maqacinc. Their chroniclers record
printing upon silk or cotton in the cen
tury before Christ, paper being attributed
to the first century after Christ, It is
certain that many hundred years ago they
had begun to put writing on transfer
paper, lay this face downwa'rd on wood
or stone, rub off the impression or paste
on the transparent paper, cut away the
■wood or stone, and take an impression in
ink which duplicated the original First,
probably, they cut the letters into the
block, leaving white letters on black
ground, which method, Didot thinks,
was known to the Romans and was the
process referred to by Pliny; afterward
they cut away the block, leaving the let
ters raised, to print black on white. This
last process is attributed to Foong-Taou,
Chinese Minister of State in the tenth cen
tury, who was driven to the invention
by the necessity of getting exact copies
of hit official documents. Indeed, there
is adetailed tradition of a Chinese Guten
burg, onePi-C'hing, who, in 1041, carved
cubes of porcelain paste with Chinese
characters, afterward baking them, and
literally “setting” the porcelain types by
help of parallel wires on a plate of iron
in a bed of heated resinous cement.
Th< .■so types he hammered or planed even, i
and pressed close together, so that when
the cement hardened they were practi
cally a solid black, which could be taken
to pieces again by melting the cement.
But i’i-Ching was born out of time, in
the wrong rountry and to the wrong
language. The Chinese word alphabet
contains at least 80,000, possibly 240,-
000, characters (the National Printing
Office at Paris made types for 4:1,000),
and for the lesser number the Chinese
compositor would require a large room to
himself, where he could wander among
500 cases “looking for a sign,’* while
(‘hinesc wood engravers will cut on jxar
xvord, or on the hard waxen composition
used for that oldest of existing dailies,the
Pekin Gazette, an octavo page of char
acters for forty or fifty cents—a hun
dredth part of the cost of the coarse
work, a thousandth of the cost of the
finest work here. The Chinese printer,
without a press, but with a double brush
like a canoe paddle, inking the block
w ith one end, and pressing the paper laid
on the block with the dry bush at the
other end, prints 2,000 sh*“ets a day, on
one side only, which are then bound into
a book by making the fold at the front of
the sheet, and stitching through the cut
edges at the back. A fair-sized book is
Mild for eight or ten cents, and there is
little inducement for improvement.
Playing cards, invented probably in Hin
dostau as a modification of chess, and
then engraved on ivory, were made in j
China and Hindostun centuries ago, and j
thence they seem to have made their way j
into Europe, probably through Baracena I
or Jews, before 1400.
It is claimed that Franklin and otheri
have captured the lightning and lu»r
nessed it in service, but a good deal of it
seems to to be wandering around still in
n wild state, doing a great dc*l pf dam- i
»** ... I
POPULAR SCIENCE.
The largest guns now used on ship
board are calculated to penetrate 30
inches of iron, 10 to 20 of gtanite and
75 feet of earth.
The death Vate of the world is com
ptatai about 67 a minute, 97,790 a day,
and 35,639,835 a year, while the birth
rate is 79 a minute, 100,500 a day, and
36,792,000 a year.
A photographer at Pesth has succeeded
in taking photographs of projectiles,
fired from a Werendler gun, while hav
ing a velocity of 1,300 feet per second.
The projectiles appeared on the impres
sions enveloped in a layer of air, hyper
bolic in form.
Photographic outfits are being placed
on board all United States men-of-war
with the purpose of illustrating de
spatches. All points of value in naviga
tion are to be photographed and the
pictures arc to be preserved for reference
at the Navy Department.
Cultivated in groves, the average
growth in twelve years of several va
rieties of hard wood has been ascertained
to be about as follows: White maple
reaches 1 foot in diameter and 30 feet in
height; ash, leaf maple or box elder, 1
foot in diameter and 20 feet in height;
white willow, 18 inches and 40 feet ;
yellow willow, 18 inches and 35 feet;
Lombardy poplar. 10 inches and 40 feet;
blue and white ash, 10 inches and 25
feet; black walnut aud butternut, 10
inches and 20 feet.
A French savant has propounded a
theory that coal was originally a liquid
generated by the decomposition of infe
rior vegetation in an atmospere highly
charged with carbonic acid. The carbon
of the jelly-like mass thus formed, after
passing through various transformations
into asphalt, petroleum, bitumen, etc.,
finally assumed the form of coal. The
author cites various facts connected with
the occurrence of coal, which, he thinks,
are better explained on his theory than
by the usual one.
Dr. A. B, Griffiths, an English physi
cian, has just published a communica
tion which is of great importance to hor
ticulturists and agriculturists. He de
monstrates that iron sulphate is an anti
dote for mauy of the most virulent epi
demics which attuck field and garden
crops. These diseases are due to micro
scopic fungi, whose structures are
built up in a somewhat different manner
to the corresponding parts in other
plants. It appears that the cellulose in
these fungi is acted upon by iron bul
phate, whereas in the higher plants tLe
cellulose of the cell walls is not influ- (
enced. Tlic iron sulphate destroys the
cellulose, but does not afTect that of
the attacked plant. It is, therefore, an
antidote and destroyer of such parasitic
germs and fungi as the potato disease,
wheat mildew, etc.
During many years spent in Tunis,
Colonel Roudaire surveyed four great de
pressions or “shotts,” extending lx*low
sea level in such a position that they may
he filled with water by means of a canal.
These depressions named Tedjcd,
Djerid, Rharsa and Melrir—could thus be
rhanged in a lake more than seventy-five
feet deep, and having an area of 3,164
square miles. The creation of this lake
and the consequent improvement of
much surrounding country formed the
favorite project of Colonel Roudaire, and
now seems likely to be accomplished
in spite of its author's death. The ar
tesian wells tried in the district, and
from which a revenue in aid of the canal
was expected, are proving successful.
The first well, sunk in 188 » to a depth of
295 feet, commenced yielding water at
the rate of 1,760 gallons per minute, and
has now increased its flow to 10,800 gal
lon:! per minute. According to Sir F.
de Lcsseps thcbai.ksof the river Mclah,
which fifteen months ago were deserts,
are now populated; and very shortly the
canal will be commenced.
Mr. Eugene G. Blackford, the New j
York Commissioner of Fisheries, has
*>een investigating the condition of the j
••yster, and his report contains much in. j
teres!ing information concerning that
bi%aWe. In 1800 the vast majority of :
the oysters sold in the markets of this j
country was from beds of oysters of nat
ural growth, while to-day sixty per cent, j
of the annual product of oysters is from
planted beds. Os the 409,186 acres of
! land available for oyster growing but |
I 15,586 acres contain oysters of natural
! growth in sufficient quantities to pay for
,t he cost of gathering them. The natuiul
j growth beds of Rhode Island and Cou
j necticut are practically extinct, and even
the great beds of Maryland and Virginia
are being rapidly exhausted.
When a ringer's throat is raw, you
can’t expert hersongs to he well done. j
The ruby la just now the most fashion- 1
j able precious stone. j
CHARLOTTE, N. C„ SATURDAY, SEPE. 3, 1887
“ SNAPPERS.”
THE TOOTHSOME AND PUGNA
CIOUS FRESH WATER tURTIiB.
Relished as a Delicacy in Pennsyl
vania— Peculiarities of the
Snapping Turtle—How
It is Caught.
A Harrisburg (Penn.) letter to the
New York Timet says: Snapping turtle
soups and stews arc dishes never seen on
the bills of fare of New York restaurants
or hotels, and the New York free-lunch
counter has not yet added them to itfc
list. In Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pitta
burg, and, in fact every town on the line
of the Pennsylvania Railroad in this State
big enough to have a restaurant or a free
lunch route, the snapping turtle, or
“snapper,” as this pugnacious fresh-wa
ter chelonian is locally called, is a deli
cacy that is sure to draw a crowd whenever
and wherever it is aerved.
A peculiarity of the snapping turtle is
that beneath its formidable shell are hid
den 9 different kinds of meat, and every
one is well flavored, tender, and juicy.
The snapper does not provide stakes, like
the green turtle, although it grows large
enough, almost attaining in deep, slug
gish waters weight of forty-five pounds,
but a turtle of that size is of great age
and his meat is strong and unsavory. The
choice turtles are between five and ten
pounds in weight.
With the exception, probably, of the
snapper of the waters of the southwest
of the Mississippi with its three-cornered
head knobby shell, and long, thick legs,
covered with spiny warts, the snapping
turtle is the ugliest-looking member ol
chelonian family. Its head is one-quar
ter the size of its body. Its jaws are
hooked like the beak of a bird of -prey.
Far forward on the upper jaw are set
its large, prominent, yellow eyes. Its
powerful scaly legs terminate in long,
sharp claws, four on the front legs and
three on the hind legs. Its tail is halt
as long as its body, thick at the base,
running to a sharp point, and crested
with a saw-like row of bony scales. The
shell of the snapping turtle resembles s
mosaic of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
When angered, which it becomes on the
slightest provocation, the snapper rises
erect on its powerful legs, and with its
long neck extended to its full length, its
tail straightened, out like a small alliga
tor, and its yellow eyes glaring with fury,
it approaches the object of its rage by
savage jumps, drawing its neck into the
shell and shooting it out again with
I lightning rapidity when within striking
distance.
A fisherman who lands a forty-pound
snapping turtle in a boat will find that he
and not the turtle is caught, as the
writer knows by experience. The head
of a snapper of that size will weigh ten
(sounds, and a man might just as well
have an alligator close his mouth on
him as to have the jaws of that head get
a hitch somewhere on his leg. In the
South the negroes call the snapping tur
tle “alligator cooter.”
The snapping turtle is an awkward
pedestrian, lint in the water it is quick
as a flash. The wary and sudden trout
is no match for the great ampliibcan,
and no enemy of the trout is more per
sistent and destructive. The snapper
lies in wait beneath the surface of ponds
and streams, where aquatic fowls, es
pecially goslings and ducklings, arc apt
to swim, and, coming up as fleet and
silent ns a shadow under the unsuspect
ing prey, seizes it with one snap of his
jaws, and it disappears beneath the sur
face without an instant's delay. The
snapper is partial to muskrats, and
watches at their holes for them. If no
rat appears the turtle makes his way in
to flic burrow by the suhterranenn pas
sage the muskrat always tunnels to his
nest and seizes its game on its own thresh
old. Reptiles of all kinds, especially
the water snake, are a favorite morsel
! for the snapper, and fish know the turtle
1 to their sorrow.
Old river hunters declare that snapping
, turtles arc so wise that the moment thry
I hear the sound of a gun along the water
, they know some one is himting birds
j that feed along the shores and in the
■ reeds and flags. Then the snapper gets
itself in position to look out for
wounded birds that fall into the water.
If any fall they are the snapper’s meat.
The snapper has its home in streams
1 and ponds. In C entral Pennsylvania it
is found principally in the stream”.
Every female lays not less than twenty
eggs, the average number being thirty,
Bhe goes some distance from the water,
in tho middle of June, digs a hole in the
ground directly downward, aud a foot or
so deep. Then she runa a tunnel off
from the aide of the hole at the bottom a
I foot or so long. In that she makca her
! nest and lays her eggs, always in the
I forenoon. Sometime* the lemsie snapper
will dig three or four holes before she
finds a place to suit her. After the eggs
ntli laid she covers them and flits the hole
tip with dirt, and smooths it down with
gteat cart. The eggs hatch in ten days,
and the little turtles at once dig their
way to the surface and lose no time in
getting to the water.
The snapping turtle, unlike the ter
rapin, is at its best during the Summer
months, although it is always in demand
while hibernating. The snappers bur
row in the ground in November, and
remain there until April. They are
caught in large numbers in Cumberland,
Franklin, Dauphin, Perry, Lebanon,
Snyder, Schuylkill and other counties.
They are fished for by men and boys,
both by setting out lines in the stream,
baited with meat of any kind, and by
“poling” them. The snapper finds
muskrat holes a favorable retreat, and
■wherever these are known to exist the
fisherman knows he will find snappers.
He has a long pole with a hook on the
end, and, following along a stream where
there are muskrat holes, ije lowers the
pole down into them as he finds them,
If there is a snapper there the fisherman,
or hunter, rather, can tell by the contact
of his pole, and he jabs his hook into the
turtle and hauls it out. Sometimes the
anapper will resent the intrusion of the
foie by closing his jaws on it, and will
old on until drawn out.
In the western part of the State, near
Burgettstown, is a stream called Raccoon
■Creek. It is noted for the great number
of snapping turtles that abound in it.
It is the only place known where hunt
ing and fishing for snappers is car riel on
regularly and systematically. The hunt
ers have camps all along the stream.
They fish with the baited cut-lme hook,
aud hunt the snappers with rifles. This
is done by taking a favorable position on
the hank and watching up and down
stream for a turtle to crawl out of the
water to sun itself. A rifle ball in its
head will keep the snapper out for the
rest of its days.
A Horse that Carries Newspapers
An Indinnnpolis correspondent ol the
New York Journal is respors hie for the
following picturesque yarn:
In this city, whereas a rule everything
that goes can be seen or had, there is one
novelty of which few other cities can
boast. It is a horse that delivers daily
to regular subscribers the Cincinnati
Enquirer. This horse, the property of
William Amyst, has been trained to do
this work by his owner, and so thoroughly
has he learned his daily route that at no
time in the past six months has he for
gotten one subscriber or patron.
The owner himself has been the horse's
instructor, and taught the sagacious ani
mal to know the streets, alleys and lanes
of Indianapolis and the houses of sub
scribers. The horse became famous for
his fast trotting, stopping promptly and
in good time at every place. He knows |
his business so well that when in the
middle of any block where there should he
the last subscriber, he will turn around,
taking through an alley for a short-cut to
the next patron. The novelty of this
delivery of a great newspaper has made ;
subscribers for it, by people who buy it
because they like to sec the horse come
once a day regularly and perform his re
markable feat of leaving his master off
at tho right house. Indianapolis, like
other cities of any size, has al I competition
that is wanted in the newspaper business,
but when the Enquirer adopted the new
system of delivery—something of an
original and different idea altogether
from what has ever been in vogue before
—it knocked out small rivals, leaving an
exclusive field for itself.
It is a common thing to see a dog come
to the front gate for his master’s paper;
but when ahorse conics along to give it
to the dog—that act supplies the missing
link in the circulation of metropolitan
dailies, and much doubt is expressed
whether or not some other and more
genial device will ever lie heard of that
in all respects will supersede this mode
of delivery. The horse's ability may be
readily estimated when I say that he de
livers to no less than 420 subscribers,
scattered all over Indianapolis and the
suburbs, taking over five hours to com
plete the task. The memory of this noble
animal is certainly wonderful. Gentle
as a lamb, ho trots in 2.55 when neces
sary to have the first package at the
prominent news-stand of the Bates House
ahead of all other dailies. So accurate
is this animal in his daily course that the
large sum of SBSO has been offered by sn
admirer, but was refused, the horse cost
ing three years ago only $75.
It is estimated that the amount of
money expended on new buildings this
yesr throughout the Union will be more
than $700,000,000. But for the labor
troubles in the spring much more could
have been invested in LuUding opera
tions.
LADIES’ COLUMN.
How Ladies Count.
“Did you ever notice how ladies
count?” said a dry goods clerk. “I do
not refer,” he continued, “to women in
business, but the majority of ladies who
shop. They seem to have some intui
tive way of reaching results, very differ
ently from the way men calculate money
matters. What do I mean? Well, stand
here and watch the next lady who counts
her cash, and you will find that most of
her arithmetic is done on her fingers.
She may not snap them down ‘one, two,
three ‘four,’ but there is a slight move
ment of the muscles and lips that tells
one that she is counting by them all the
same. Some never count the money
over, but accept it as right. Others
count it over and always say it is short.
Now you see, of those six ladies who
have received change while we have been
talking, only one has counted her cash,
and she counted it over twice before she
was satisfied. I have given this matter
considerable study, and am led to infer
from my observations that the average
female mind has no correct sense of num
bers.”—Detroit Tribune.
• Her Dowry.
The best, dowry a wife can bring to her
husband, says the Youth’e Companion , is
ft true and faithful heirt, and a sincere
desire to he to him all that is expressed
in that old-fashioned word, “help-meet.”
The question of other dowry, such as
chattels or land or money, should always
he secondary, and is when marriage con
tracts are made in the right spirit. A
very old lady, known to the writer,
amuses her friends by giving the follow
ing inventory of the things contained in
the dowry she brought to her husband:
“In the first place,” she says, “I
thought the world and all of Reuben,
and so did he of me; and neither of us
ever changed our minds.
“Then for other dowry I had from my
home, one young cow, one colt, four
head of shotes, six hens, and a dominick
rooster, one cat, one feather bed, six
good sheets, one new brass kettle, one
n arming pan, fourteen quilts and six cov
erlets, six pewter spoons, six plates, four
tups and sasscra, two knives and two
forks, a bushel of seed corn, two chairs,
ten pounds of wool and ten of flax, a
glass molasses pitcher, and s pewter
sugar bowl.
‘‘l tell you folks thought Reuben had
done mighty well to get me in those
days, and I think so, too. So did he;
and lie never thought different. That’s
the best part of it.”
Insuring Maidens.
In Denmark there is a society known
as the Maiden Assurance Society; its aim
is to provide for Indies of well-to-do
families. It shelters and cares for them,
and furnishes them with "pin money.”
Its methods are thus described: Thl
nobleman —for the association is peculi
arly for this class—as soon as a female
child is horn, enrolls her name in a cer
tain association of noble families and
pays a certain sum, and thereafter a fixed
annual amount to the society. When she
reaches the age of twenty-one, she be
comes entitled to a fixed income, and to
a suite of apartments in a large building
of the association,with gardens and park
about it, inhabited by other younger or
older noble ladies who have, in like man
ner, become members. If her father
should die in her youth, and she should
desire it, she has shelter in this building,
and at a time fixed her income. When
site dies or marries all this right to in
come lapses, and the money paid in
swells the endowment of the association.
Her father may pay for twenty years and
then her marriage cuts off all advantage
of the insurance. But this very ehanca
must enable the company to charge lower
annual premiums aud make the burden
less on the father insuring. He has, at
any rate, the pleasant feeling that his
small annual payments are insuring his
daughter’s future, and giving her a com
fortable home and income after he is gone.
It is obvious that the chances for marriage
among a given number of women can b*
calculated as closely as those of death.
The plan has worked well for generation*
in Copenhagen.— Manehester ( England)
Policy Holder.
Frihion Note*.
Figured black tulle over a akirt of
colored silk is liked for evening weai.
Many of the newest tailor-made auita
have the white pique waistcoat and col
lar.
Numerous fancy trimminga appear
upon the long wriata of the neweat
gloves.
Bolid silver chains for girdles or for
looping up dresses are among new and
novel things seen.
Coarse braids are more stylish than any
of finer wear for dressy hats, either in
bock or in colors. . .
Term $1.50 per Ain. Single Copy 5 cents.
Latest Parisian bonnets are by no means
as high as they were and are exceedingly
simple and pretty.
Light white silk, voile or muslin takes
the place of heavy satin or moire for warm
weather wedding dresses.
Gauze ribbons are still the prettiest
possible trimming for the white lace
bonnets *o stylish this season.
A sash bridle is stylish on either
white or colored costumes and takes
the place of a sash in finishing a cos
tume.
Honey comb work is used for the yokes
of thin fabrics instead of shirring, and is
attractive for washable or thin woolen
fabrics.
Cock’s plumes are stylish on traveling
hats and for generally knock about wear,
as they perfectly stand any sort of
weather.
A beautiful costume of striped pink
silk of black and white combined with
eliantilly lace is as elegant as anything
seen this season.
Among the newest dress trimmlDgs are
metal embroidery. Gold, silver, bronzo
and iridescent threads are worked by
machine in beautiful deigns, and tho
foundation being afterwards cut away
leaves an open work pattern, gWing tho
tffect of lace.
A House Invaded by Rattlesnake*.
Just over the line in Marion county,
Georgia, a wild mountainous section of
the county, a man by the name of Becker
has lived for several years. Mr. Becker’s
home is the ordinary one-room log cabin
of that section, and his family consisted
of a wife, several small children, and half
a dozen dogs. The Becker homestead
is located in a picturesque ravine, near a
cumber of small caves, in the mountain
side. Last week Mr. Becker, returning
at sundown from his day’s labor, found
his family some distance from the cabin
clinging to each other in abject terror.
The half dozen dogs lay dead in the yard,
ftnd over their swollen bodies crawled
and hissed hundreds of rattlesnakes.
The floor of the cabin and the entire yard
were covered with the poisonous reptile*.
Mrs. Becker informed her husband that
>arly in the afternoon several snakes
irawled into the yard, coming from tho
Erection of the nearest cave, which was
ibout 200 yards away. These were
promptly killed by the dogs, but in a
’ew minutes others came in such numbers
;hat the dogs were overpowered and
stung to death by the poisonous fangs of
:he reptiles. They soon began to come
n still larger numbers, and several of
;hem entered the house. Mrs. Becker
ind her children then fled in terror, and
est the reptiles in full possession of the
oremiscs. In the semi-darkness even
;he bold mountaineer did not dare st
ack the hideous invaders of his house,
ind carried his family tp tho house of a
leighbor, where they remained during
;he night. Early in the morning Mr.
Becker returned home, only to find the
makes still in possession and largely re
inforced. He summoned acveral of hi*
neighbors, aqd the party, armed with
ihotguns, returned to the cabin to ex
terminate the reptiles. Volley after vol
ley was fired into the writhing mass, but
still snakes continued to crawl out of the
brush and coil themselves in the yard or
cabin. After killing snakes for an hour
the party left, and the reptiles were still
in possession of the cabin.— Birmingham
(Ala.) Ana.
Bill Nye.
The New York Graphic has the follow
ing sketch of Bill Nyc, the humorist,
now of the World :
Bill Nyc's exact age and birthplace are
topics which afford considerable scope
for speculation. He is certainly, how
ever, under two score in point of years,
and if he was not born in Wisconsin he
has lived long enough at Hudson, in that
State, to call it home. Somewhere in
the neighborhood of eight or nine years
ago Nye was a country pedagogue in one
of the Northwestern counties of Colorado.
Spelling-bees were all the rage at that
period in his vicinity and he wrote an
account of one given in his school-house
and sent it to the Denver Tribune. O. H.
Rothaker, who ia now publishing a
splendid newspaper in Omaha, was the
managing editor of the Tribune who re
ceived Nye’s first humorous offering.
He recognized it as a piece of good work,
printed it, and secured the ambitious
schoolmaster as an occasional correspond
ent by placing him on the list of dead
head subscriber*. Nye wrote in this
manner for several months, and then
concluding that funny journalism was
hi* forte he removed to Laramie,
Wyoming, and started the Boomerang.
He made money by the venture, and
eventually become the postmaster of that
flourishing little city. Failing health
rendered his return to Wisconsin neces
sary. His recent temptations and tribu
lations are too commonplace for com
ment. , . .