North Carolina Newspapers

THE CHARLOTTE MESSENGER. VOL. IV. NO. 26. »w THE Charlotte Messenger IS PUBLISHED Every Saturday, AT CHARLOTTE, N. C. In the Interests of the Colored People of the Country. Able and well-known writers will eontrib nte to its columns from different parts of the country, and it will contain thejatest Gen eral News of the day. Ths Messenger is a first class newspaper and will not allow personal abuse in its col umns. Itis not sectarian or partisan, but independent—dealing fairly by all. It re serves the right to criticise the shortcomings of all 'public officials—commending tho worthy, and recommending for election such meu as in its opinion ore best suited to serve the interests of the people. It is intended to supply tho long felt need of a newspaper to advocate the rights and defend the inter, sts of the Negro-American, especially in the Piedmont section of the Carolina^. SUBSCRIPTIONS: (Always in Advance.) 1 year fl 50 8 months - - - 100 0 months - - 75 3 months - - - 50 2 months * - -35 Single Copy - - - 5 Address, W. C. SMITH Charlotte N C, A bill has been introduced in the United States Senate by Senator Dawes, of Massachusetts, to impose a license tax of SI,OOO per annum upon manufacturers of adulterated lard, SSOO upon wholesale dealers in the same, and SSO upon retail dealers. The bill provides that adulter ated lard be sold only in packages branded and labeled, so that all pur chasers may know what they are buying. A tax of one cent per pound is levied upon all domestic adulterated lard, and a duty of two cents per pound on im ported adulterated lard. Penalties are provided for violations of the provisions of the law Smokers will te interested to know hat near Albany there is a firm which nakes large quantities of paper for the mrpose of be ng manufactured into agars. The plan of operation is said to >e this: The paper, on rca hing the to >acco warehouse, is repeatedly soaked in , strong dc»2 ciio.i of the plant. Itis hen eut up and pressed in molds, which ;ive to each sheet the imitation of the genuine lea! lobacco. So close is the mitation that expert tobacco men and i&bitual smoker * have been deceived, kt a recent gathering in New York, :igars made from this paper tobacco were jassed around and declared excellent. Hany of those present declared the cigars acre made from rare brands, and so well iras the imitation carried out that ono nan actually insisted that there could be so mistake about the cigars being gen line tobacco. Professor Levasseur, the eminent stat istician, has recently prepared for tho International Statistical Institu’e an elabo ate series of tables on the popula tion of the various continents and coun tries. In cat mating the world’s popu lation, says the New York At in, the tendency has doubtless been lo exagger ate the number of inhabitants in uncivil ized regions, and in countries like China and Japan, where the census methods are inadequate. For the greater part of Africa and many islands of the Pacific statisticians have only the data afforded by travelers. For many years explorers have been urged to use great care in col lecting facts upon which estimate* of tho density of populations might be b>sed. Os late years this interesting subject hai received more attention than formerly, and much new material, particularly in equatorial Africa, has been gathered. Pro fessor Levasseur estimates the population of the world at 1,484,000,000, He has faith in the substantial accuracy of the recent estimates of the population of China and Japan, bssed upon the latest official reports. T here ha* been consid erable controversy with regard to the population of these countries, and the opinion of Sir If. Alcock, Sir Rawson Kawson, and other statisticians that China contains about 400,000,000 of people will derive considerable weight from the fact that Professor Levasseur has reached the same conclusion. ODD CITY TRADES. INTERESTING VOCATIONS CAR RIED ON IN NEW YORK. How Many New Yorkers Earn an Honest Living-The Ragpicker —Society Men to Hire— Poems to Order, Etc. Passing along any of the city’s old thoroughfares from the Battery to Union Square, says Jumes J.Clancy, in the New York World , a sharp-ejied observer may note signs that indicate singular pursuits and processes. In dingy streets he will come across curious little old-fashioned stores and shops, which wear a lethargic air, as if no business were ever transacted i in them, yet which in reality are the habitats of lucrative specialties. Glanc ing at stories higher up he will doubtless wonder how* the goods they produce can ever find a market. But trade and com merce have many almost invisible chan nels through which rich argosies may float to the sea. Nestling away up near the roofs of dilapidated buildings may often be found the laboratories and dens of alchemists and wizards whose brains have laid the foundations of huge fac tories and whose inventions penetrate to the remotest corners of the continent. The precious stones displayed 'in the gorgeous windows of your jeweler may have been handled and mounted in a dusty loft; the perfume that exhales from my lady’s handkerchief was prob- ' ablv distilled, bottled and packed in a j grimy atmosphere a hundred feet above j the sidewalk. TJIE CHIFFONIER. Speaking of the queer trades of New York, of course the ragpicker is one of the first images to spring before the mental vision. The business is now almost wholly in the bands of Italians, who “district” this and neighboring cities in a fashion to suit themselves. It is no uncommon thing to see a woman of that nationality swinging onward with free, elastic step, while on her coil of glistening black hair is poised a sack of old paper and other rubbish as large ns two feather-beds. I atterly many of them have come to ow n or hire hand carts, and the voice of the erstwhile riant junkman is has loud in the land. Ob viously there cannot be a very large profit for most of those who scoop up fragment of paper or textile fabrics from gutters and ash-barrels; still, some of them have grown wealthy in it, and strange tales arc told among them of lucky one? who have stumbled on bonan zas, by finding rings or bank notes or purses in the course of their perambu lations. The ragpicker who knows his business invariably keep* a sharp eye on the verge of the curbstone during his early morning rounds. At almost any of the hotels you can hire the services of a gent’eman who knows the town like a book, and who will undertake, for a specified considera tion, to show you the sights—a phrase which is generally interpreted to mean the nether side of Gotham. The student of sociology is expected t > foot all the bills—how moderate or extravagant they will be depends on his own wish and taste—and he will be assured of a safe return to li’s hotel under the pilotage of his cool and vigilant cicerone. HIRED MALE GEESTS. Have you struck it rich in pork or mines or some other speculation and wish to solidly establish yourself on this crowded isle of Manhattan? If so. you can find here experts who will instruct you how to furnish your house, who will go w ith you to select the articles, or will order them for a commission; who will teach your wife and daughters how to dress, will supervise the purchase of your tableware and give you lessons in etiquette. More than this; you can en gage the services of a specialist to make everything go smoothly at your first formal dinners, served by a fashionable caterer; and if your acquaintance is limited, you can secure well-dressed and vivacious gentlemen to sit at your hos pitable board, drive away ennui by their bright conversation and dance gracefully at your receptions. This system of pro viding irreproocnablc guess to till vacant spaces was the felicitous thought of a clever sexton re cntly deceased. The system survives and fills a long-felt want. Morerver, if you wish it, you can for a suitable sum mortgage a professional humorist to entertain your guests during the evening, or cm tempt an alert man ahout town to corral some lion of the hour and exhibit him in your dining room. It takes a metropolis to support a painter of black eyes. In a leas populous or less bellicose community his vocation CHARLOTTE, N. C., SATURDAY, JAN. 21, 1888 would not keep the pot boiling. Whether a man gets his eye blacked in s friendly bout with glove* or by slipping on a ba nana-peel in the street or in an alcoholic brawl the resultant discolqration is always unwelcome. It is also slow to cure, but not to be disguised. Next morning he can slip away and have the marks so skillfully hidden under a coat of paint that even his wife or landlady can not perceive any evidence of the ordeal through which he has passed. If you die in New York, the notice of the fact has scarcely appeared in cold type when your friends will be visited by alert canvassers who are prepared to give a life-like portrait or other memento of you. Close on their heels follow the energetic scouts of some florist, who are dismally anxious to provide a wreath, harp or pillow of appropriate blossoms at the lowest market rates. Usually these purveyors are escorted to the door with impressive speed; nevertheless they con trive to drum up trade and make a liv ing- Should the owner of a saloon or office be dissatisfied with his laundress, he car get his towe'.s furnished and daily changed by a supply company. Some wiseacre has said that New York wastes as much food as Paris uses. This is not altogether true, at least in our day. We do not cook as skilfully and frugally as the French, but we utilize our scraps and remnants more carefully than of yore. The material sent away from tho tables of a big hotel is now in dustriously garnered and carted off to some of the minor restaurants, where it is reconstructed into toothsome and wholesome dishes for habitues who count their pennies before investing in a meal. Many a savory morsel that fails to tempt the palate of a millionaire thus finds its way under the belt of a tramp. New York is a great depot and mart for statuary. Here you can have any conceivable idea wrought out in bronze, marble, zinc or plaster of Paris. Most of the elaborate designs are still import ed, but standard originals are repro duced among us in endless variety of material and size. One is liable almost any day to meet in Broadway or the Bowery a squad of men carrying objects that rudely resemble the human form and may remind you of primitive Egyptian or Aztec statuary. The ob jects consist of wooden frame-works padded out with hay or shavings or rags, and covered with stout bagging or canvas. Some represents men standing, others men sitting or reclining, others boys, women or girls in various attitudes. All of them are duly clothed in fine ap parel and do duty as dummies in cloth ing houses. Still another form of sculpture now gone to desuetude and decay is that of ship carving. With the departure of our merchant marine the old-time figure head has also departed, and but two establishments now remain wherein one can procure, if desired, a grand old Nep tune, or a smiling Aphrodite to deck the prow of a gallant clipper. Talking Os aquatic matters, some men contrive to tarn their bread in precarious or gruesome occupations along the river. They gather up the flotsam and jetsam which the tide brings in or out, and not infrequently they grapple “ meat for the Coroner”by recovering the bodies of suicides or persons accidently drowned. They have their feelings like other men, but they cannot afford to be sentimental. Log of wood or lifeless corpse—their bu-iness is to clear away all such encum brances and incidentally make the opera tion as profitable as they may. A guild of specialists in the same element is that of the divers who go down amid the bones of shipwrecks. Rat-catching is a queer avocation which has its experts and votaries in the big city. The rat-< atchers have differ ent methods for ridding a house or ship of ihcse pests. Our c ity furnishes profitable occupa tion to many lapidaries, but there is only one large establishment wherein precious stones of all kinds are cut aud polished as well as mounted. The experts who do this work are mostly men who have learned their craft in Amsterdam. Within the past few years, however, THE BLACK-EYE PAINTER. New York and Boston have been train ing some excellent cutters of diamonds. Apropos of thes* costly carbons, there are dozens of men in New York who buy, sell aid exchange diamonds without having any fixed place of business. They carry their offices in their hats, their stock in their pockets. | The occupation of gold beater is a rather isolated one. Its votaries may be I found in out-of-thc way corners and i stuffy little shops, energetically pound ; ing away at the grains of yellow metal in ' 'jags of tough parchment until a dollar I is fattened out to such infinitesimal I thickness or thinnes* that you may car- Eet an acre with it if the wind does not low it uway. In queer corners, too, reached, by nar , row aud tortuous stairs, you generally | find special ids who fashion mathemati . <al, nautical and philosophical instru ! incuts, f-onic of them earn a good deal j of money by working the ideas of invent ors into models. Rising from the material to the ideal field, tho city harbors many laureate*, | who pro luce alleged poetry to order. I No mute, inglorious Miltons are they,but j always wound up to a normal pitch of ' inspiration. Drop your cash into tho mouth of their purses and, like one of those patent weighing contrivances, the machinery is set in motion. They will grind you out a fervid love poem, an acrostic, a sentiment for an album or an obituary dirge with neatnea* and de spatch. Some of them advertise exten sively and ply a lucrative business. Ladies living in small towns and vil lages miss much of the pleasure that makes life worth living to their city sls- POEMS TO£»RDKR. tors by being visit the great bazaars of trade and do their shopping themselves. However, if they are not content to buy their goods by sample, they can procure anything they neea or desire through the medium of purchas ing agencies in New York, which will guarantee to forward any article, from an anchor to a needle, or to match any shade of dress goods, and will obtain in formation on any conceivable subject. £ome agents make daily, tri-weekly or weekly trips to the city from outlying districts and fill all orders consigned to them. That the corn crop is booming may be inferred from the fact that New York City supports two score chiropedic estab lishments, in many of which there are several operators, usually of the gentler sex, as are the majority of patrons or pa tients. Either lovely woman squeezes her foot more tightly than man does his. or else the angelic half of creation is less able to endure the torture of corns. The manicure establishments are less numer ous than the chiropedic, and for obvious reasons. Nevertheless upward of fifty experts find employment in caring for the hands and finger-nails of male as well as female fashiouables. Some of them make their visits on stated days like physicians and exact large fees. Five firms manufacture and import ar tificial human eyes, while several others provide the cheaper semblance* of eyes that taxidermists insert in the face? of birds or beasts. The taxidermist's call ing is no longer a novelty, but he daily required to exe ute startling orders for the stuffing or burial of household pets. No less than nine establishments pro duce artificial limbs. The havoc of our civil war gave a tremendous impetus to inventiveness in that direction, and our artificial limbs are nnequaled in the world. A considerable export trad* has THE CHIROPODIST. been easily built up. Two firms act as general purveyors of leeches to the hos pitals and drug stores, and at one of these houses you can also have a balloon built for you. In Thirty-second street a pair of enterprising partners hang out their shingle as “1 uppers and Leeehers.” Several artificers live comfortably by virtue of their skill in mending broken china or bric-a-brac. One firm cultivates the specia'ty of designing and laying mosaic floors. Three nura smatists reap a profit in selling or exchanging rare coins. In this age of steel pens, gold pens and fountain pens of every variety, some conservatives will be pleased to learn that one house still shins the old fash oned quill of our grandfathers by the gross. An enterprising man in Thompson street has a virtual monopoly of the preparation of popcorn. Another firm has no local competitors in tortoise shell work. Thimble making keeps four establishments busy. Eight raa«ter sw eps, with their assistants and the in incide ntal aid of numerous fires, suffice to look after the chimneys of the town. Should you have a penchant for dogs, birds, cats or beast or reptde of any kind, there are places here where your taste can be gratified and your pets nursed and cared for in your absence or their sickness. You can purchase a monkey, * parrot, an alligator or an elephant; can stock an mpiarium or an aviary of any dimensions, and can have it regularly attended to fora stipulated fee. Should you want old issues of newspapers, “Back Number Budd*’ will supplv them out of his store. Should you desire to advertise on fences, you can find here a bill-poster who will make a contrac t for the whole continent or any part thereof. Brokerage is a vast and varied business. New York has brokers that deal not only in stocks, bonds, real estate, foreign ex change. loans, shipe and provisions, but in every marketable commodity, from arrack and ivory to whalebone and wool. There are even broker* who deal in sausages, and there are seven merchants who accumulate shekels bj furnishing the community w ith tr'pe. Fire citizens pocket comfortable incomes by purveying Croton water to shipping at this port. Three individuals in the big city hara the temerity to proclaim themsclve* tuners of accordions. Tha‘ many of our most polished and gi-ded swells are agents employed to popularize certain brands of champagne is a fact that scarcely needs iteration even in a list of odd trades. They receive handsome sa’aries, with a large margin for expenses. VMM. ■*•*». IMi Xewi.t Arrtved Englishman (to newsboy}. —** How marvelously cheap newspapers are in New York to be sure. We have to pay more than double the price in London.** Newsboy -extendinghis hand) —“You can pay douh e the price now, sir, if it will make you feel any more at home, , sir.”— Term l t Si ft in ok A Turkish Woman. Hon. S. S. Cox, ex-Minister to Turkey, says in his latest work on that country that the Turkish ladies are decidedly conversational among themselves. Their veils constantly grow thinner, and they ga?e with interest upon Paris fashions. The Turkish dress of thirty years ago is almost obsolete. The women of the harem are less indolent than formerly. Like Gautier, Minister Cox caught glimpses of Turkish women unveiled. “It has often been my fortune, or mis fortune. to come unexpectedly upon some of these beauties of the harem when aloof from their eunuch or other guardian. Those on our isles are fond of labyrin thine rock rambles. I often came upon them in covics of half a dozen in the sweet nooks and shades of the woods. It always struck me as strange that they should have so much care for their faces when they did not seem to be otherwise | fastidious ** Musical Notes. j Tin Horn. “Hello, Drum, I hear j you’ve been beaten?” Drum.— “Oh, you be blowed.” — Life. A Severe Test. i “If I should tell you, dear,” he said, ] “that my love for you had grown cold; . that 1 had ceased to care for you, and I that the happy time when I shall claim j you as my ownest own will never, never be, would it really be a trial to you, darling: * “Yes. George, shyly admitted the girl, “it would be a breach of promise trial.** —A« York Sun. Categorical. Teacher—“ John, what are your boots made oft •* Hoy—“ Os leather.” “ Where doe* the leather come from?” “ From the hide of the ox.” “ What animal, therefore, supplies you with boots and gives vou meat to eat?” ••Mr father.”— Wat/iingta n Critie. il« Could n't Alford It. A mother was urging her son to pur- I chase an overcoat, an<l lie was insisting that he could not sfford one. “Very well, then,’ said she, "you will get pneumonia; sec if you don’t." "No," said he, "I won’t get that either; 1 can’t afford anything now." Wouldn't do It. "No; don’t ask Kobinson to say a , good word for me. He wmldn’t do it” “ Doesn't he like yous ” “ No, he hi. owed me ten dollars bor rowed money for more than six months." J — KpocS* Terms. $1.50 per Amim Single Copy 5 cents. WASHINGTON. WORK OF THE 80TH CONGRESS i A Few of the Bill* Which Were Inirodnc ed In (he Senate and House. Jan. 13.—Senate—In the Senate today the annual report of the public printer was presented, urging larger appropria tions for modern machinery, ana increas ing facilities for the government printing office. Mr. Sherman presented an Amend ment to immediate deficiency appropria tion bill to provide that six per cent in terest from the tirfic of the future of the deficiency bill of last year be allowed dn items including in both bills. The bill to refund direct taxes to the States from which collected came up for discussion. The debate was interrupted by a motion by Mr. Riddleberger to go into executive session. This was at the end by a tie, and was renewed and defeated by a vote of 2G of 97. The motions to go into ex ecutive session were made with a view to forcing action upon the Lamar nomina tion, but as several of Mr. Lamar’s friends had assisted on a postponement until Monday, they did not vote with Mr. Riddleberger. The direct tax bill was then laid aside, and Mr. Vance took the floor for a speech in favor of tariff and in ternal revenue reduction. Mr. Vance said lines had been drawn closely by the President’s message on the subject of the surplus and taxation. The contest had to be fought squarely and the question had to be decided unequivocally on its merits. That question was, should taxation lie enforced for the support, of the government, or for the enrich ment of private individuals? Should money be collected from the people for public, or for private purposes? No re putable hypothesis could be formed which presented any other phase of the question. The. question was, where should the reduction of taxes begin? The proposition of most of the Democratic Senators (following the lead of the Pres ident) was to begin and end with tariff taxation. The Republicans (on the oth er hand) proposed to begin by reducing only in part internal taxes, and by ad ding to the free list those things com ing from abroad which did not compete with things made in this country, and the duty on which was therefore all rev nue. For himself he proposed to begin both jvils as he found them—excessive internal taxes and excessive tariff taxa tion. In North Carolina there was cause of complaint against each, but there was far more complaint as to the method of in ternal taxation than there was to the amount. Which, he asked, should not the excessive tax be repealed or greatly modified? The exigency which called it into existence had long since passed away. It involved the right of a man to do what he pleased with his own within the bounds of the law of liberty; it involves the right of the farmer to sell the product of his labor to any purchaser who offered the best price; it involved the right of the husbandman to utilize the fruit of his orchard instead of leav j ing it to rot on the ground; it involved the still more momentous question wheth er the poor man’s cabin should be indeed his castle, protected by the organic law, whether it might be ransacked at any hour of the day or night by a petty offi cial “dressed in a little brief authority ' in search of tribute- for an overflowing treasury. The people of North Carolina cared little or nothing about the tax on spirits or tobacco. They would pay it cheerfully if they could be spared tbe oppressive and vexatious methods and machinery of its collections. .It was not a question (as was often so triumphantly stated) of a choice between free whisky and free blankets; because the duty on blankets was now practically prohibitory anil they would not be any cheaper if the excise on whiskey was removed. Mr. Vance proceeded with much detail. to il lustrate many of the inconsistencies in the staff, partly as being against the articles consumed by the poor and in fa vor of those consumed by the rich, he declared the central theory of the staff was iniquity, and that he was opposed to .the whole thing out and out, and he should not vote to put anything in the free list, the tax on which was pure reve nue. lie should strive earnestly to re duce taxation on the necessaries of life, and he should discriminate in nothing except against luxuries and in favor of the helpless and unprotected. At the conclusion of Mr. Vance's speech the subject went over, and Mr. Gray proceed ed to make a constitutional argument against the educational bill. He felt it incumbent on him to enter a protest against a measure so full of danger and so monstrous in its provisions. Senators who were urging the bill believed in higher law than the constitution; be did not doubt their sincerity; they were re lieved from all scruples on that wore; he appealed to Southern Senators and asked then whether their knowledge of human nature, their experience in life, instructed them that there was any rea sonable hope that the people of their States, after eight years of demoralizing dependenc eon this golden stream from the National Treasury, would again de clare for their independence and would thrust away the hand still held out to feed them. In the course of his argu ment, Mr. Gray asked what truth had been so clearly established during the last century as this; that the greatest means of liberty and the highest type of citizenship ami civilization had been achieved and maintained by local self government. This was an educating in fluence which the bill ignored and tend ed to destroy. The largest amount of land held in the United States by an alien corporation is that owned by the Holland Company, in New Mexico. It embraces 4,500,000 acres.