COTTON PRICES ARE WEAKER. React Sharply After Further 1' pi urn. February Consumption Large. When the extent of the recent rise is considered, it is not strange that eotton has developed reactionary ten dencies. Since the month opened, there has been an extreme advance in the ?ptions of from about $5 to $8, the latter on the March delivery, and the spot quotation has gained fully $6 a bale, or from 17 cents to 18.35 cents, ilainly in response to strength at Liv erpool, continued buying trade inter ests and adverse weather advices, the best figures of the current movement were reached on Monday, when March touched 18.40 cents, May 18.10 cents end October went within a point of the 17-cent level. Yet yielding quickly followed the initial upturn, as success ful traders found profits tempting, end, and around mid-week sharp re e tion was caused by selling that was aot all liquidation by speculative holders. Pressure against the list at that time was largely explained by apprehensions regarding overseas shipping conditions, intensified by the ? inking of the Algonquin, and the break in wheat was i^so an influence. But after a rise of 100 to 150 points ?nd more within less than a fort eight the decline, which carried March back below 18 cents, May to about 17.50 cents and October to 16.75 eents, was not surprising, and in the later sessions the downward move ment met with more resistance. Instead of being bearish, as some people expected, Thursday's report ?n domestic consumption was quite the poposite. It showed that Ameri ewn mills last month used 547,200 bales, exclusive of linters, against ?03,700 in January and 540,700 bales in February, 1916. Allowing for the ehorter month, the figures were bull ish, and at 33,117,000 active spin dles set a new precedent and com pared with less than 32,000,000 a year ago. Yet the exports were dis appointing, being little more than kalf those of February, 1916, and re iect the difficulties in overseaes ship ping. ? Dun's Review. Rice to the Rescue. There are several reasons which make rice, in its connection with pres ent agricultural and economic condi tions, of unusual importance. Agri culturally, rice is of chief importance to the South. Economically, it has treat significance for the whole coun try now suffering from the most crit ical food situation of its history. Be fore considering some of the more im portant features of these two separate but closely allied questions, some of the more pertinent general facts should be fixed in mind. Rice has never been a popular gen eral article of food in our country. Yet it forms the chief standby in the regular diet of more people through out the world than any other single food. More people depend upon their daily rice for sustenance than depend upon their daily bread. The fact that the chief consumers of rice, as a whole are less advanced than those depending upon bread as the staff of life has no direct bearing on the rela tive merits of the two foods. Rice eat ers are not improved in efficiency or character by change to bread, and bread eaters lose no power by substi tution of rice. In aute-bellum days, the American rice crop was grown almost exclu sively along a few rivers near the coast in South Carolina and Georgia. The remains of many single old plan tations, larger than the present total area of rice in these two States, are still extant. Of late years, the pro duction has developed almost exclu sively in Louisiana, Arkansas, Tex as and California. In 1915 the crop of these states was as follows: Acres Bushels South Carolina . . 3,700 ( 90,000 Georgia 900 20,000 Louisiana 401,000 13,714,000 Texas 200,000 7,930,000 Arkansas 100,000 4,840,000 California 34,000 2,268,000 The total acreage for the whole country was 802,600 acres, with a yield of 28,947,000 bushels. In connection with this total pro duction for the country it is quite sig nificant that during the same year we imported 5,931,173 bushels. It is, therefore, clear that even thought we are not a nation of rice eaters, we produce only about 82 per cent of the rice we actually consume. Even on the present basis of consumption our production could be increased nearly one-fifth without supplying present home demand. Although the rice of commerce, and, until quite recently, most of the American crop, is grown where sur face irrigation has been possible, the development of the Arkansas rice sec tion opened up a new phase of the in dustry. Artesian water is now relied on for irrigation so extensively as to have become an important factor in the production. There are millions of acres of land in the artesian basins of South Georgia and the Gulf States admirably adapted to successful rice growing. It is important to bear in mind that rice is not really an aquatic plant. It merely has great power of water re sistance. Water is used not as an es sential to the development of the crop, but as the most economical means for giving the plants a good start when transplanted, and for kill ing the grass, otherwise so serious a pest to the young rice. American rice is today almost exclusively grown by machine cultural methods similar to those followed with other cereal grains. Upland rice is adapted to enormous areas of the more level and heavy Southern soils with no greater efforts than needed for other grains. Rice, therefore, may be made a satis factory food grain crop in sections where other grains are not feasible because of lack of suitable climatic and soil conditions. To the Southern farmer rice pos sesses one advantage in which it is wholly different from other grains. It is distinctly a spring crop, while suc cess with most of our grains makes fall sowing almost imperative. This gives the rice grower a chance to break his land in the fall, then to harrow and sow in the spring, thus di viding the labor. The present chief importance of rice is not its agricultural adaptation to Southern conditions. Its food value far outweighs all other considerations. We have not in mind merely supplying with Southern grown rice the demand now met by the 18 per cent of im ported rice. We urge the very great importance and economical advantage of the increased use of this great ar ticle of food. Few foods are capable of use in so many appetizing ways, and always with hunger-satisfying results. It is bread, vegetable and dessert. Cooked with a few beans, as the Japanese use it, rice is both meat and bread. Had the people in New York who re cently rioted for bread and clamor ed for potatoes, only accepted rice as a subsitute, the purchasing power of their money would have been surpris ingly increased and their hunger sat isfied. Rice is wholesome, nutritious, pal atable, satisfying, and above all, most economical. There has hardly been a day in thirty years when rice has not been a part of our own personal food ration. We are not discussing a theo ry but actal practice. We are jus tified in advocating "Rice to the Res cue." ? Southern Ruralist. SHARP REACTION IN WHEAT. May Option 15 Cents Below Recent High Level. Railroad Situation a Factor. At a time when some interests were predicting- $2 for the May option in Chicago, wheat turned sharply down ward. Reaction was not surprising, in view of the recent rapid upturn, but it was carried further than expected, May falling below $1.76 a bushel on Wednesday. This represents a loss of fully 15 cents from last week's high level, and the decline has done much to shake confidence on the part of the bullish contingent. Speculative holders were active sellers of the nearest de livery and fears of a transportation tie-up largely explained the liquida ting movement, with talk of a pos sible restriction of exports a con tributing influence. In the latter con nection, Liverpool advices intimated that rigid economies in England have reduced import requirement materi ally, and there were also renewed re ports of arrangements being made for the shipment of wheat there from Australia and India. Meanwhile, re cent crop news from the winter wheat belt has been less pessimistic, and the more favorable turn in prospects in duced some early selling. Yet there were subsequent complaints of de terioration through drought in the Southwest and, as the break of 15 cents in prices obviously strengthen ed the technical position of the mar ket, there was quite a sharp recovery in the later sessions. With wheat receding sharply, lower quotations for flour were logical, though mills were rather slow about making reductions. No conspicuous sales were noted, but in the aggre gate quite a fair business has been effected of late, principally ih spring patents. Production has not maintain ed its recent increase, falling during the latest week to 416,000 barrels against 424,000 in the previous week and 427,000 barrels a year ago, ac cording to the North Western Miller. ? Dun's Review. Baseball In Fayetteville. The Boston "Braves" of the Na tional League, and the New York "Y inkees' of the American League, will play a game of baseball at the Fayetteville fair grounds on Monday afternoon, April 2, starting at 2:30 o'clock. The Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce is responsible for the com ing of these big teams to this sec tion. United States Super-Dreadnought Utah Photo by American Press Association. The rtnh Is a 21,825 ton warship, consist of ten twelve-incli jruns. and she 521.5 feet Ion*. Iler main t>atter1e? lias a crew of 1,014 otlkvrs and men. DRY GOODS PRICES STRONGER. Buying in Primary Markets Develops Scarcity of Some Merchandise. On the whole, dry goods prices are either held steady to firm, or are gradually rising again, particularly on gray cottons for printing, convert ing or manufacturing. In several di rections the curious condition has been shown that where there is any pressure to sell buyers become in different, yet when goods are wanted it is not easy to find them in the qualities or quantities sought for im mediate use. Many mills have been accumulating orders, while others are gradually catching up with business that has been in hand for some time. Irregular transportation conditions make it difficult to rely upon the prompt arrival of merchandise due, yet the number of cancellations heard of for non-delivery is very small, many of the goods having been pur chased at prices that cannot now be duplicated. A great deal of inconven ience in distribution is resulting from the changing of many set prices, in stances being numerous where other goods are .substituted because of ad vances forced by higher costs of pro duction. Retailers who purchased for advance delivery last fall are now re ceiving many goods whose replace ment costs on today's markets at first hands are as high as the prices job bers asked for five months ago, and the process of passing the higher prices along to consumers has been interferred with by the very high costs of food. Hopes of improved shipping oppor tunities are entertained as a result of the new attitude of the govern ment, yet foreign trade is irregular on textiles, due in part to unsettled conditions in markets like Cube, Peru, and elsewhere. While business has been in good volume in many direc tions, merchants are constantly alter nating between confidence and doubt when future plans are under consid eration. ? Dun's Review. Southern Literature. Charlotte Observer. A writer in The New York Post comes forward with the opinion that "the old Southern complaint that Southern literature is unjustly neg lected has lost its force since Cable, Page, O. Henry, James Lane Allen, Sidney Lanier, Joel Chandler Harris and Charles Egbert Craddock have sold as many copies of their works as North contemporaries of equal abili ty." The Post's contributor thinks it possible that some of the older writ ers of the South "have been forgot ten in undue time," and he sets forth that William Gilmore Simms and John Esten Cooke "are still read in the South; and visitors to any South ern bookstore will find inexpensive re prints of the novels and histories of the latter for sale. They are unknown even to college students of Ameri can literature in the North, though "The Yemassee' is as good as some of Cooper's novels that survive, and 'The Virginia Comedians' is an in teresting and faithful picture of Vir ginia society before the Revolution, though a crudely executed narrative." We are told of a small volume of se lections illustrating "Southern Life in Southern Literature," indicating some writers of essays of humorous obser vations who might be studied by his torians, as well as by those interest ed in literature. We quote: "A. B. Long-Street's 'Georgia Scenes' is probably all but unobtainable, but it has life and vivacity; William Tappan Thompson's 'Major Jones' Letters,' is another book of Georgia life of the same quality." Joseph G. Baldwin's "Flush Times in Alabamf and Missis sippi," is also quoted as one of the better of the old-time Southern pro ductions. A very high estimate is plac ed on David Crockett's "Life by Himself," ai d it is the opinion of the contributor to The Post that "such men as these are better worth the trouble of resurrecting than the weak poets that the South forty years ago used to think would have, if given their deserts, a place beside Whittier and Lowell," a point not worth dis cussing in this connection. It is sig nificant, however ? this late recogni tion coming into manifestation of the work of Southern writers of the past. It is quite true that most of their works are out of print, but neverthe less they have enriched the libraries of the land. Where can there be found a finer standard of literature than that left by the civil and military writers of the Confederate war period? The works of Semmes and of Maury and of Maffit have enriched the world's store of knowledge of the geography of the seas and of peoples and coun tries, and while strictly historical in character yet deserve to be included with the most classical of the litera ture of the country. The histories of the States are all good, many of them prepared by masters of the Eng lish language. And of modern writers there is much more to be said than is covered by The Post's writer. The books by Corra Harris are developing a popularity which is astonishing the country ? astonishing it, perhaps, be cause of the fact that a book by a Southern writer could possibly gain an instant and an immense amount of public popularity. We thould argue that Southern writers, by mere force of talent and ability, are breaking down the barriers of prejudice which ha? so long operated against *heir productions and which has made it hitherto impossible that the works of Southern authors could become as popular sellers as "the works of Northern contemporaries of equal ability." The signs of the times indi cate thrit Southern literature, old and new, is coming into its own by rea son of its very merit which is being forced into the recognition of the lit erary world. GIANT ZEPPELIN IS DESTROYED Airship Falls 11,000 Feet in Com piegne While Great Crowd Cheers. Several Sighted in Raid Over France. Paris, March 17. ? From 11,000 feet in the sky, French expert anti-air craft gunners at Compeigne to-day brought down in blazing fury a giant German Zeppelin, one of a number apparently returning from a raid on England. It fell in one of the main streets of the city, a charred mass, those of its crew who remained aboard burned into unrecognizable masses. Two or three of the crew, mad with pain of the flames and certain of death, pre ferred to meet it otherwise than in a mass of fire and jumped thousands of feet to the earth. The great Zeppelin broke in two just before it landed, a blazing, al most molten mass. The wreckage was still smouldering late to-day. OLD BEULAH NEWS. Misses Sadie Peedin and Clara Thompson, of near Pine T^evel, spent Saturday night at Mrs. Emma Star lings'. Mr. Barney Edgerton and Miss Martha Pittman and Mr. Luther Pitt man and Miss Clyde Smith attended church at Niagara Sunday evening. Mr. and Mrs. Luther Watson vis ited Mrs. Watson's parents in the Sanders Chapel section last Saturday night. Mrs. Jane Aycock, of near Kenly, is visiting her brothers, Messrs. Rufe and Tom Parker. March 17, 1917. Two-Page Paris Papers Appear. Paris morning papers have appear ed for the first time with only two pages. The Martin publishes an ironi cal drawing, with a note asking the readers to look for further informa tion to page 4. Morning papers will publish two pages only on Mondays and Thursdays. ? London Globe. British Columbia Paper Shipm nU. During 1915 British Columbia ex ported to the United States 47,319,178 pounds of news print paper, valued at $1,002,527; in 1916, 57,055,77s pounds, value $1,209,466. (The val ues include freight and other charg es). The invoice values per pound for the different grades of news print ex ported were: White ? rolls 1.92 cents, sheets 2.02 cents; Pink ? rolls 2.07 cents, sheets 2.17 cents; canary, 2.07 cents. ? U. S. Commerce Reports. AFTES1 GRIPPE Yrs Findley JCade Strong By Vinol Sevcry, Kans. ? "The Grippe left mo in a weak, nervous, run-down condition. 1 was too weak to do my housework and could not sleep Alter trying different medicines without benefit Vinol restored my health, strength and appetito. Vinol is a ^rand medicine and every weak, nervous, run-down woman should take it." ? Mrs. Geo. 1'i.nih.ky. Vinol sharpens the appetite, ; M ? digestion, enriches the ' >1? and builds up natural strength and energy. Tiy it ou our guarantee. HOOD BROS., Drutrjjists, Smithfield. N. C. I Want to Hear From You The Spring is here and the Spring sewing will be on hand shortly, and I want to sell you a New Home Sew ing Machine to do your work. If you want to buy a machine I want to hear from you telling me just where you live and who you live nearest to, so that I can find you easily. State also how much you can pay on a machine. I want to sell you. J. M. BEATY Smithfield, N. C., March 1, 1917. EI). A. HOLT Dealer in I High Grade Coffins, Caskets and Burial Robes, Princeton. - North Carolina NOTICE. The undersigned having qualified as Administratrix on the estate of S. T. Bar ham, deaceased, hereby no tifies all persons having claims againts said estate to present the same to me duly verified on or before the l