THE REPORTER. rT'fiPpll sJSj.fi l ." Dj3tl|(:TON, M It tor * Amvriutc &*i!or. .MILV 20. 1877. COMPI / soxv ■>:/> rcA /ii>v. This subject is being discussed by a number of ihc papers of the State, all of whom appear to favor (he measure and urge its adoption upon the next Legislature. The subject of education is one of vital interest to the prosperity oi say people, and no other subject is of more importance to the people of North Carolina. It is a public shame that thousands of our citizens, grown up men and women, are to-day as ignorant of letters as Ihey were at their birth ; and thousands of o'lildren, capable of great things in the future, are growing up in tho same illiteracy that has blight ed the lives of their parents and marred the pr ispcrity of our State. Society and oivilitation demands a new oondi tion of thiugs. Half of tho vice and penury that now afflicts community is the outcrop and legitimate result of ed ucational neglect. There is no greater degradation lhan ignorance, and it is the most prolific source of every descrip tion of evil. No species of virtue can flourish within tho shadow of its pres ence, for the rank weeds of prejudice, bigotry and vanity smother out of exist ence the sentiments of true refinement. But bow can improvement be effected .' It is claimed that compulsory education has resulted satisfactory in States where it has been tried, and would oonfer great beoufit. upon the people of North Caro lina. We claim thatthe passage of such a measure by the next Legislature, with no other legislation in aid of education, would be hurtful and unwise. Many of our people are financially unable to educate their children. The present free school system is farcical and worth less ; conferring no benefit upon children and of no assistance to pifents. The teachers, in some instances, are notori ously incompetent, and often besotted vagabonds, selected and employed by a committee of- similar stripe, who aro as ignorant of moral requirements as they arc of the customs of the inhabitants of the mooD. And these schools, such as they are, are limited to only a few weeks in every year. Such # management and such a system is a disgrace to the Slate, and should be abolished, even if the people are allowed no olbef in its stead There are people who would gladly educate their children, but who are un able to pay their tuition in a private school. There are others who imagine themselves too poor to spend money upon the education of their children, but who, nevertheless, can readily find a surplus dollar or two with, which to buy whisky or waste in other extravagancies. And there are others still who regard their children as stock property, the same as their mules and cattle ; and they regard their whole duty discharged when they feed and olothc their children for their labor. This class are generally poor and uneducated; and they imagine that the chief end of man, and the height of human ambition, centers in a large crop of tobacco. If a free public school was established at their doors, they would appreciate no advantage from it, and without compulsion their childreu would receive no benefit. We do not wish to be misunderstood as opposing compuLory education, or claiming that the State has no duty rest ing upon it in connection with this sub ject. We do not favor a measure com pelling the attendance of children to subscription schools, when we know that a large number of our people will be utterly unable to meet the expense thus incurred. It would be direct class leg islation, and oppressive to the poorer classes of our people. In fact, the poorer the parent, and the greater the number of his children, the more oppressive would be the effect of such laws. But it seems to us that the State has a duty in this matter devolving upon it,and pa triotism should compel its performance. Let the State provide a general system of free education, for all classes of chil dren between prescribed ages, and then we will welcome compulsory measures No man should be allowed to deprive his child of the advantages of an education in order that a few pounds more of to bacco may be produced upon the farm. Society aud the' country should not thus be cheated out of their claims upon the rising generation; and the laws of the State should come to the rescuo Let the pj.iple have the advantage of a lib er 1 school system, and then they should be'compelled to educate tbeir ohildren Nor do wo tucan to exclude the col ored people from the advantages of this system. They should have their free and continuous schools for the benefit of tbeir children. The errors to whioh they now eling are more the result of ignoruuee than constitutional depravity. Kduca tion affords thaonly hope of their sue cessful and intelligent citizenship. No claw of onr people oan receive a full benefit from any measure which does not iuohidc the iuleresMt of all. We sin cHSsly hope the" next General Assembly will give the subject of a free school system ts most serious attention. —> GENERAL A. .V. SCALES. A correspondent of the Ualeigh Ob server, writing from Newborn, pays glow ing tributes to the character and quali fications of our worthy member of Con gress, Oeu. A. M. Scales, and urges his claim to the Speakership of the next House of Representatives. We believe that DO truer man could be selected to fill that responsible position, and that few could fill it more satisfactorily to the country. Wo endorse and concur in the views of the correspondent, and re publish them, knowing that they will be acceptable to a Iflrge majority of the people of Stokes. The writer says : "We see that the name of this dis tinguished, gentleman [General Scales] is mentioned for the Speakership of the next House of Representatives. He is the very uian for the position. Cool, sagacious, able and thoroughly informed, be would bring an array of talents and moral qualities to the management of our political interests, which would at once allay all anxiety and alarm, and reflect the highest honor upon our galiant old State We have knowo General Scales ever since we studied law together at Chapel Hill twenty-five years ago, and we have always considered, after Wil liam A. Graham, our safest and strong est guide in all extraordinary political emergencies. Why shou'd North Caro lina not have the Speaker in the next Congress? Her brilliant career in Con gressional debate, her firm conservative course iu the presence of recent dangers and excitements, and her magnificent triumph in tho last election, have ren dered her conspicuous in the sisterhood of States. General Scales will not only dignify tho position of Speaker, but he will make it a potential agency in the great work of reconciliation and of Southern development. Iu saying this, we do not intend to subtract one particle of credit from our other patriotic and efficient representatives. We are proud of them all. They are a body of men who would ennoblo tho history of any country or people. We simply mean to endorse the designation of one of the most gifted, reliable and devoted of the number for one of the most critically important stations in the Republio. By all means let us have Scales." ■ »■ • More Rascality. ' A recent dispatch from Columbia, S C., say«: Joseph Woodruff, the Presi dent of the Rrpuhlican printing compa ny, which robbed the State of a large sum of money, was put upon the stand to day. There is a prevailing belief that Woodruff, who is just now in a very delieato and interesting situation so far as his liberty is concerned, may turn State's evidence upon his associates in this big swindle. Some of the robbers have left the State, and are doubtless at this moment enjoying their iilgotten gains in fancied security. Woodruff being compelled to remain, it is thought he will make a cleau breast of it. It would be better for him if be should Tbe evidence given before the committee yesterday and to-day implicates D. T. Corbin, better known io South Carolina as "Munchausen" Corbin, formerly United States district Attorney. In the misappropriation of the State funds knowu as the "Phosphate Royalty," to secure his election as United States Sen ator from South Carolina, Corbin, it is said, gave each member of the Maokey House two hundred dollars for his vote to scud h m to the Uoited States Senate. He was elected by that so called House of Representatives, and went to Wash ington and claimed his seat over M. C. Butler, elected by the Wallace, or lawful House. Corbin got wiad of tbe evi dence wbioh would most probably be given agaiost him, and on yesterday sailed lor Europe. His splendid future in the United States Senate, which was sa lavishly boasted of by his political friends here, will thus he cut short, aud Butler will doubtless be seated. There is, perhaps, not a man on the face of the earth who, on beiug thrashed at school when a boy, didn't promise hioifccli that if he ever got to be a man he would thrash the teacher in return ; but DO boy ever kept sueto a promise, except in a case related by the Detroit Free Press. Thirty years ago a teacher in Michigan struck a boy on tho hoad with a ruler, and tho other day the boy, grown to be a uian of forty, met the teacbcr and requited the blow with what is popularly known as "a genteel thrashing" It that ruler bad been heavy enoogb, and had been used with sufficient force and frequency, the boy would have forgiven, if he bad not for gotten it, long before he reached the age of forty. WASHINGTON LETTER. [From OojJOwn Correspondent.] WASHINGTON, D. C.,) July 19, 1877. J The National Republican is suffi ciently silly a» to say that the President , ex poets the Republican party will here after carry sevcrul Southern States bo- i sides those which were last Fall counted | for Hayes. As there is hardly a oorpo ral's guiird of white Republicans in any of them, aud Fred Douglass says the colored men, left to themselves, will in evitably go with their old masters, the . Republican'* assertion or Mr. Uayea' belief would seem to be in direct oppo sition to facts and probabilities. In so + ber truth thero is no little hope among j intelligent supporters of the Adminis- | tration that any Southern State can be carried this Fall, and the most that is looked upon as possible is to prevent the annihilation of its support in some of the Northern States. Already tho tri umphs of Hayesism is put, by its more judicious friends, in the far-off tiooe-y-i vaguely described as before the end of the term. • f-k The programmo of Southern travel of Mr. Hayes aud members of the Cabinet now includes, it is announced by author-1 ity, many short excursions North an 4 South, the headquarters being iu this city. A trial closed here last week whicb has excited great local interest. Two men had been arrested on the charge of keeping a gambling house, and the place was brokeu up by the police. This was the result of an attempt made a year since to put a stop to gambling. Finally the jury returned a verdict of noL. guilty ; and as the accused could prob ably have been convicted if any of the "profession" could have been, we may consider it certain that punishment for gambling with cards in Washington is played out. Oa Monday Mr. Hayes pardoned the only person e"er impris oned here for "selling policy." While these two facts are to be considered as the end of legal interference with g imb ling, the stir made has had the #ffect of causing tha gamblers to be more guard ed iu their manner of conducting busi ness. Various clubs have been organized in which lovers of games may eojoy their misery without polioe surveillance or any interference whatever. There have been published through out the country, of late, reports of epi-, demies in this city. These, it is certain, are gross exaggerations. Our death rate for this summer is large ; but, while it seoms wrong to raise a "race question" on such a subject at suoh a tiuic, a few facts ought to be published. The mor tality among the white people here is less than that among white people in any other city of equal size on the continent. Deaths of negroes, especially young ones, swell what would otherwise be a low rate to what is certainly a large one. The lower class of colored people die off like sheep, owing to causes not perhaps fully understood, but partly because of the filth, irregularity and vice of their manner of living. General Howard does not seem to be just the commanding officer to fight the Indians. In the first place, the Generali is constitutionally unable to believe any thing bad of any one. He can find more virtue in an Indian or an African of the lowest class than history records of all the Indians md Africans who have lived. Neither has he any experience ID Indian warfare. If the war is to oontinue, the Government will probably find its advantage in sending some other oommander to the front. DEM. Not Drunk, but Sleepy. Stonewall Jackson slept a great deal, though the men of his command believeiF that he never took repose. Whenever he had nothing else to do he slept, es pecially in church He could sleep any where aud in any position, on a chair, under fire or on horseback. During a night-inaroh lowa.ds Kiahinond, alter the battlei l with McClellan, writes Col onel Kyd Douglas, in the Penutyleania Time *, "be was riding along with his drowsy staff, nodding and sleeping as he went. We passed by groups of men sit ting along the roadside, aud engaged in roasting new corn .by the fires made of fcncc-rails. Oue group took us for cav alrymen, with an inebriated captain and one ol the party, delighted at the sight of a man who had found whisky enough to bo drunk, sprang up from the fire and, brandishing a ro*»ting-car in his hand, leaped down into the road and, seizing tha General's horse, cried out, 'I say, old fellow, where the devil did you get your liquor ?' In an instant, as the Gen eral awoke, the fellow saw bit mistake; and then bounding from the road he took the fence at a single leap, exclaiming. 'Good God, it's old Jack !' and disap peared in the darkness." Our Public Schools. That the children of North Carolina must bo educated is a proposition that no man will now deny. The thing must be done, aod the only question for ua to consider is, how can it be done best, quickest and cheapest ? Our own experience, as well as that of other States, tells us that it cannot be accomplished by means of private schools. Private schools and private academies answer, perhaps, well enough for rioh people, who care but little what the education of their children costs them, but for the great mass of the people that great body of people who have to pinch and save every penny to make both ends meet—the system of private schools will not answer, and the State that relies upon it practioally shuts the door of tho school-room to ninety-nine in every hundred children within her borders. It is through State aid and through State machinery alone that adequate educational facilities can be afforded to tho children of our State. % Public schools alone afford to the masses 1 The means to give their ohildren tho ed ucation so neoessary to transform them into good citizens, aod to enable them to earn an honest living, for ohildren do not become peaceable, law-abiding citi zens if left to grow up in a state of na ture. Education is as neoessary to the growth of the citiien as food is to the growth of the man. Publio schools, then, we must have in North Carolina, and in overy portion of it. Nor can we be content with badly organized, inefficient schools, with in competent teaohers, for such schools as these are perhaps dear at any price, but we must have well organized schools, conducted by good instructor*. In such schools, aod in such alone will the tax payers get the worth of their money. There is one objection, howevrr, urged against a well organized system of publio schools that has some torce and srme truth in it, but it is a force aud truth that will satisfy the tax-payer and the parent, and the Legislature as well that the system ought to be adopted. The objection is that the teachers oannot make as much money under the public system as they could under the private school system. 'lt may be that this is true, but we respectfully submit that the great object aimed at to providing n system of publio schools is not that teachers may grow rich, hut that the - children of the State may get the best education at the lowest price possible The objection, if objection it be, is no objection to us. # The time has come when North Car olina must do her duty, aod her full duty, to her ohildren, and welt may she be willing to do it, for her duty to her children is nothing but her duty to her self — Raleigh Observer. The Internal Revenue System. The Hillsboro Recorder very sensibly says "if the system cannot be repealed, that is, the lovy of the internal revenue tax, still it may be so modified as to be effoctivo without being offensive. The machinery may be changed, the present instruments displaced The suggestion lof Mr. Robbins is practical and wise. I "Let the distiller [and the tobacco man ufacturer too] list his products for taxa tion to some official sitting at the court house of his oounty, at certain stated periods for this business, swearing to his statement, and made liable for perjury j for falsely swearing in regard to it, and »for double tax for not listing." Our people are not dishonest when trusted, and we do not doubt double the money would then reach the treasury, h than is now suffered to reach it hrough the hands of the present collectors." Mullen for Consumption. correspondent of the Plantation writes as follows about the power of a |Well known plant. "I have discovered a remedy f.-r consumption. It has cured la number of cases after they bad com menced bleeding at tho lungs, and the flush was already on the check. It is the common mullcn, steeped strong and sweetened with sugar, and drank Ireely. The herb should be gathered Wore the end of July, if convenient." This is going the rounds If the reader will get the North Carolina Al manac for 1876, he will find the recipe in full. We know tho history of the mullen cure John Satterwhite, Esq , a clever and honest citizen of Graoville, was ourcd by the use of mullen tea and 1 lightwood. The history of it first ap peared in the Oxford Torch Light in March, 1875. In March 1876, a fuller statement appeared. Mr. Sattcrwbito was cured in 1873, and is still living, aged 66. So the Plantation's corres pondent only "discovered a remedy for pulmonary consumption" that was known io North Carolina years ago.— Wilming ton Star. NEWS OP THE WEEK. STATE NEWS. Millard Oline, of Iredell county, son of Benjamin Cline, was placed in jail ' last week for a forgery perpetrated upon his father. The Department of Jnstioe disavows any intention of arresting Marshal Doug lass of North Carolina. There is noth ing to wariant proceedings against bin) on file in tho Department. Charlotte Observer : Three ohildren, all aged about eighteen months, were buried at the same time Sunday after noon in the burying ground at Center Churoh, in the southern part of Iredell county. Aft. Airy Watchman: We regret to learn that Mr. Daniel Eldridge, a highly respected citizen of this county, sud denly dropped dead at his residence, in the upper part of the county one day last week. Mr. Eldridge was about 45 years of age, and leaves a wife and sev eral children to mourn his loss. Piedmont■ Press : Two convicts re cently escaped the guard at Henry's, and broke into a house near Turkey Tail, Burke county, got citizens cloth ing and carried off a number of other artiolesof value. Soon after they were in the house they were observed by Mr. John Tato, the road master, aud after a lively chase of three miles he and Mr. Curtis succeeded in oapturing one, a white man named Powers, who was in for three years The other convict was a negro aud was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Dr D T. Boyntou.of Knoxville, Ten nessee, tho newly appointed Commis sioner of Pensions for this, with several other States, arrived in the city yestcr day morning and took rooms at the Yar borough House. He comes to take formal possession of the books and papers of the late Commissioner Tourgoe, and we suppose on nnd after this date our State will be spared the affliction of Tourgee, even as a Federal office-bolder. Boyntoo is the son in-law of the late Parson Brownlow—but his headquarters are to be in Knoxville, Tennessee Raleigh Observer. Durham Tobacco Plant: Rev. J. B. Martin, pastor in charge of the Flat llivtr circuit, on his way from Fletcher's Chapel to Chapel Hill, spent last night in Durham, with Mr. J. S. Carr. Early this morning Mr Martin repaired to tho stables to look after his horse, when he was bitten by a black spider. In a very short lime the poison diffused itself over the system of Mr. Martin, and he suffer ed the most excruciating pain. Dr. Carr was at once sent for, and all that medical skill could avail was dune to relieve bis sufferings. Asheville itizen : Oar correspond ent in Jackson writes us, that on Mon day last A K. Taylor, Esq., a good oit izen of that county, was in his field hoeing corn, and about 11 A. M. an as busMii in auibush tired at hiu back, the ball passing through his left side between the hip and the ribs It is thought that the wound will not prove fatal. Up >n inquiry two young men of the neighbor hood were absent, gone to the mountain to look alter stock. Suspicion seemed to rest upon theui and the next morning they were arrested, and alter hearing before Justices Watson and Davis they were held to bail to await trial at the next court. Charlotte Observer: On Tuesday last, the dwelling of Mr James W. Ro geis, who lives about 12 miles east of this city near Hornet's Nest, was struck by lightning, aud catching fire was en tirely destroyed At the moment that it was strnck Mrs Rogers was in the garden, and there was no one iu the house except a young baby whioh was asleep in a cradle. As soon as tho mother discovered what had occurred, she rushed in the house to her infant, which she found to be unhurt. Discovering that the building wis then in flames, she oar ricd the child aud its oradle into the yard. The fire spr. ad so rapidly that she only had time to remove one feather bed from tho burning b'uilding. The house and its contents were oonsumed in a few moments. GENERAL NEWS. An onion weighing four pounds seven ounces has been raised on Amelia Island, near Fernandina, Florida. Another outrage has been oommitted upon an American vessel by a Spanish cruiser off the coast of Cuba. The Indian Chief Joseph, surprised and killed thirty-one Chinamen near Clear Water, Idaho Territory. The promoters of the Liberian emi gration scheme claim to have enrolled the names of 2,500 colored persona in Charleston and 30,000 in the State of South Carolina who consent to emigrato A portion of the command under Gen. Ord crossed into Mexican terri tory the other day and pursued and caught a band of robbers who had be«n preying upon American oitixens. The whitea and blacks of the Ellen ton district in Bouth Carolina, held a meeting last week and passed resolutions of peace and good will. The prosecu tions in the State and Federal courts will be stopped. Chicago papers report the presence there, and in oiher large oities, of Frenoh agents contracting for provisions for war purposes. Specific instructions sre given as to how the food shall be paolced with a view to its preservation, and easy trans portaiien and distribution in rations.— Enough food has been ordered to sustain a large army during a long campaigo. These operations are considered signifi cant in tiewof the condidion of Western Europe. A gentleman living in Cottonwood, CaL i few nights ago awoke from sleep an J "aw his daughter, who was ft som nambulist, passing through his akamber. Fie stretched oal his hand and awoke hor, when ahe suddeuly fell dead. John Stone Pnllen, formerly a New Orleans sugar merchant, member of the Louisiana Legislature, and a Colonel in the Confederate army, who loaned 8200,- 000 to the Confederate Government, am} was beggared by the results of the far, died in a wretched tenement in Grand street, Brooklyn, last week, and was saved from burial at the publie expense by the oharity of his poor fellow-tenants. He was born at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was educated for the ministry, bat on leaving college he embarked in the sugar business. O'Brien, foreman of the grand jury which indicted the Louisiana Returning Board, Rays that there only four Demo cratic members on the jury out of ail teen. Their action was entirely on their own volition ; no prominent politician appeared before the jury until summon ed. Among the witnesses were Green, ex secretary of the Board ; Blanchard, ex-State registrar of votes, and several registrars and clerks who had been oon nccted with the manipulation. He says there wag plenty of testimony, not only from witnesses, but from documentary evidence, to convict the Returning Board, not only of fraud, bat of perjury Bnd of altering public dooumenta. The testimony is also stated to be very dam aging toother prominent persons outside ot the State. POMTIOAI, NEWS. The Republican party of Mississippi has been disbanded. j It is stated that Senator Conkling will refuse to endorse Hayes' Southern policy in the coming session of Congress. The grand jury of New Orleans seems to be a bigger thing than the late Eleo toral Commission; it is going behind the returns. The Temperance party in Ohio havo a full State ticket in the field. They assert that the largest temperanoe vote ever cast in that State will be polled in October. Washington dispatches report that President Hayes has determined to rec ognize Dial as President of Mexioo. It is also said that Mexioo has made ar rarigements to pay all just claims of our citizens who have lost property by raid ers from Mexioo. A striking illustration of the hard times among politicians as well as among thcr folkb is afforded in the fact that among the special polioe sworn in at the Capitol the other day were two ex-Gov ertiors, one ex Judge and one ex-Con gressman, and several prominent State politicians who have been hanging aboat Washington lot months waiting for some thing to turn up. Gen. Wm. Mahone, one of the lead ing candidates lor the Democratio nom ination for Governor of Virginia, repre sents himself to be earnestly in favor of the publio school system of the State and the preservation of its fund iutaot. Especially does he think that the beat interests of the State demand that the large class of persons recently admitted to the privileges of eitisenship should receive careful and ample instruction in every branch of learning that may fit them for a proper discharge of its dutiea and responsibilities. FOREIGN N*Wf». Italy has reoognixed Diaz as President of Mexico. CoLtinued fighting is reported at Mo. nastir, Bjela and Coreat, between the Russians and the Turka. The campain in Asia Minor seems to have resulted in the defeat of the Rua sians, and will have to be fought orer again. ■ ) Official dispatches leave no doubt that the Turks, by force of superior numbera, have driven the Rowans away from • Kara and summoned Baysxid to surren der. They have also made a successful descent near Batons. The Russians have occupied Tirnova after a severe confliot. The Turka op posed the invaders with their character istio stubbornness, but the Russian cav alry behaved splendidly, and the Turka were compelled to evaouate the town. The Rusaiana have advanoedaa far aa Monastir in the direotion of, and twenty five miles southwest of, Rataehuk. A battle is believed to be imminent in thin direotion. Russian detachments march ing upon Selvi and Plavena, whieh are unfortified, have burned four villagea be tween these points. >'■ • Pehth, July 18.—The passage of thn- Balkans has produced the moet profound oonstcrnation here. The Hungarian journals energetically demand the linne diate action of Austro-Hangary agaiaat Russians. The simi-offioial organ* are less caiphatio and urge dolay until after the first decisive battle. This last campaign has proved the most disastrous to the Turks of any at tempt they have ever made to ovsroome the Montenegrins Prom the day thai Suleiman Pasha and Ali Saib set oat to effect a junotion and crush Prinoe Nik ita's little army with their united foreee, it has been one grand oarnag*. Out of 15,000 baahi baiouks who entered Mob* tenegro with the Turkish army fully 11,- 000 are now dead or miasing. Thia la independent of the loss among the reg ular troopa, who formed the bulk of lha army. There are 2,000 Turkish wounded at Sentari, and 1,000 more are expected to arrive.