TRAGIC INFLUENCES IN LIFE.
Would You bf (ireat? Then Expert
Suflering: For it is the Stufl Great
ness is Made Of.
1 have been reading the tragic, in
spiring story of a grei.t man.
His work has enriched the life of
every generation since his own: but
his life was a long, dark day of suffer
ing.
The man was Ludwig van Beeth
oven.
He was born in u humble cottage
in Bonn in the year 1770. His parents
were poor, but that is a minor matt' r.
The parents of most great men have
been poor. ?
Tragedy entered Beethoven's life
not by re: son of his parents' poverty,
but because they were utterly inca
pable of appreciating the fine spiri
tual gift that was in the boy.
Hia father had no thought but to
exploit the son's musical talent. At
the age of eleven he was playing in
theater orchestras und carrying bur
dens far too heavy for his young
shoulders to bear.
His health was poor: there were
none to appreciate his genius: a id in
the glory i f his young manhood, when
ho was just beginning to feel his
power, his life was clouded by an ir
remediable calamity. He began to lose
his heating.
Think of it.
A musician, dependent on the fine
harmony of sounds for his success ?
and deaf at twenty-six.
Poverty-stricken, unloved, betray
ed and flouted by the n< phew for
whom ho had sacrificed everything,
this unconquerable spirit yet gave to
the world music that has gladdened
the hearts of millions of men and
women in every land.
1 have no friend; I must live alone
(he said). But I know that in my
heart God is nearer to me th in to
others. 1 approach Him without fear;
i have always known Him. Neither
am 1 anxious about my music, which
no adverse fate will overtake, and
which will free him who understands
it from the misery which afflicts
otherBj i
And^t another tim< : ,
I want to prove that whoever acts
rightly and nobly can by that alone
bear misfortune.
No mi'.n ean read t,!:ese words, re- ,
membering Beethoven's life, without
feeling bis own soul enriched and
strengthened.
It is n significant thing thai a large
proportii n of the great lives of his- 1
tory have been conceived in suffer
ing and nurtured on disappointment
r.nd pain. |
W?: Ll ink of Lincoln as the great
story teller. Hut if you would know |
the real Lincoln, look at the deep
lines in his face. j
Napoleon conquered the world; yet (
he almost never laughed. He was
never really well; never rose from
his bed feeling rested; he was so de
pressed ar a young man that he se
riously contemplated ending his life.
It was a famous writer who said: ,
"What lias been well written has been
suffered."
"The li\es of the great heroes were
lives of long martyrdom," says Ro
main Holland in the iife of Heethoven
from which I have quoted. "A tragic I
destiny willed their souls to be forged
on the anvil of physical and moral ,
grief, of misery and ill health."
There is this consolation to you in
your hours of disappointment and
distress ? that suffering is the stuff
out of which true greatness grows.
Yield to it weakly, and it will de
stroy you. Rise a conqueror of it, and
by that act you become a finer spirit,
. a trreater man or woman.
"I, if I be lifted up, will draw all
men unto me," said Jesus of Naza
reth.
By "lifted up" he meant "lifted
up on the cross" ? crucified. Only by
his suffering ;.nd death could he be
come the Cure and Saviour of the
world.
Thi're was no short cut, no easier
way, to greatness and glory for Ilim:
and there will never be for any man.
? Bruce Barton in Every Week.
Farmers and Patriotism.
During the height of the Liberty
Lou Bond campaign just closed many
rural communities subscribed pro
{< -rt '?< ately less than the people of
tov lis The fact was claimed in cer
tain cfur rters to show lack of patriot
ism tfi tt. ?? part of farmers. We deny
the insertion and denounce the ignor
ance of wilful misrepresentation of
those guilty of the aspersion.
The fact has little real significance
and is easily explained by natural
causes. First, however, we insist that
in the present, and every past war in
which our country has been engaged,
the patriotism of the American far
mer has been a shining fact. The
minute men of *7fi were country boys.
It was a farmer who left his plow in
the furrow and rode his plow-horse to
Bunker Hill to assume command of
the litfle army of patriots. It was
ipstly farmers who composed the
4k' Lundy's Lane and
ii
who won the battles on Lakes Cham
plain and Erie.
It was the predominatingly agri
cultural States which sent their volun
teers wfth Taylor and Scott. It was
the farmers of country New England
and the Central West which filled the
armies of Grant and Sherman. It was
country boys who flocked to the stan
dards of Lee and Jackson. It was
large towns which made "Copper
heads" and saw the only draft riots.
The Rough Riders were countrymen
except for a few venturous spirits who
had learned country ways.
Not only are country boys forming
the larger part of the new national
army, but their commanders insist
that tho highest efficiency <|f this
army demands this leaven of country
character, strength and loyalty.
There can be no doubt whatever
that the real cause for the apparent
relative slow response of farmers to
the call for subscriptions to Liberty
Bonds was due to the failure of those
in charge of the campaign to either
appreciate the point of view of the
farmer or to unde rstand the difference
between the method for reaching him
and that effective with town people, j
This essential difference was used j
with conspicious success in Green |
county, Missouri. A public bond rally
was held in every country school house
in the country where the issues wire
explained by men in whom the farm
ers had confidence. Then every resi
dent of the district not present at the
school house was; personally visited
by a district committee the next day.
The result wa3 one of the largest per
capita subscriptions in any agricul
tural county in the country, largely
exceeding its allotted quota.
Those willing to vilify the farmer,
or ignorant of his real position, have
used other facts to his disadvantage
in this connection. They tell uu that
the demand of the farmer ? voiced by
every national agricultural organiza
tion ? that farm labor be made a
favored class in army exemption is
unpatriotic. It is more logical and
far more true to fact to believe that
the real motive behind this course is
purely patriotic. It is adopted as the
only sure way of meeting the war
shortage of labor needed for the pro
duction of food crops indispensable
to the success of our armies in the
field.
A resolution unanimously passed at
the recent annual session of the Farm
ers' National Congress ? with twenty
seven States represented by delega
tes -sheds some litfht on the attitude
of some of those now engaged in mis
representing the farmer.
It (this organization) specifinlly de
mands from the national congress ad
ditional legislation, at the earliest
possble moment, increasing the per
centage of taxation on excess war
profits, to a point at least equal to
that now in force in our allied warring
countries, to the end that the greatest
possible peneentage of the cost of war
shall be borne by those who profit
most by war, in the belief that the
conscription of wealth is a measure
of necessity fully equal to the con
scription of men.
This will go hard with some of the
profiteers ? it is intended to ? but the
farmer stands for it and he will see
that it comes to pass.
Meanwhile his patriotism has stood
every test? including the giving up of
higher prices for the wheat he sells
and the accepting of higher prices for
the bread he buys.? Southern Rural
ist.
TEN PRUNING PRINCIPLES.
Pruning the root system lessens the
food supply and so retards top growth.
I Pruning the tops invigorates the
branches that remain, the root sys
tem being unchanged .
Removing the terminal buds induces
forking and checks wood production.
Unpruned trees tend to wood pro
duction.
Summer pruning reduces the strug
gle among leaves and twigs for light
and produces stronger buds for spring.
Winter pruning removes superfluous
buds.
Remove dead wood at any time.
Generally the best time to prune is
j in the early spring.
Early winter pruning is not desir
able as the healing has to wait till
i
spring.
I*rune yearly, not oftener. ? Rogers
Tree Book.
John Charles McNeill Book Club.
Benson, Dec. 20, ? The John Charles
McNeill Book Club met with Mrs. J.
1 11. Rose, Thursday afternoon, at three
o'clock. The meeting was called to or
der by the President, Mrs. Whitten
ton. After the minutes and roll call,
the election of officers for the cominpr
year was in order. Officers were elect
ed as follows: President, Mrs. J. R.
Barbourf Vice-President, Mrs. O. A.
Barbour; Secretary and Treasurer,
Mrs. M. T. Britt; Chaplain, Mrs. W.
O. Rackley. The books were distrib
uted, and the club adjourned to meet ,
with Mrs. T. T. Lanier in January.
Delicious fruit salad and \yafers
were served by the hoste $ J
i > ?
THEY WILL BE REMEMBERED.
Statesville Landmark.
Folks who can hark back to the
period immediately following the War
between the States, remember two
thing*:
Men who had dodged military ser
I vice, either by direct desertion or,
through deception and fraud, were
held in contempt; and this feeling for
them generally extended to their
families and their descendants through
the years ? visiting the sins of the
fathers on the children. Some of th?
type wejre practically ostracised;
'others, more fortunate, were tole
rated. Hut few people respected them
and the feeling cropped out on all
occasions.
Another type held in secret con
tempt, and often in open contempt,
were men who profiteered during the
War. They may have been too old or
'physically unfit for military service;
lor may have served in some civil ca
pacity, that permitted them to stay
I at home. After the great conflict,
when the country was devastated and j
j the masses destitute, a few men were i
| found well fixed. TJjey had taken ad
vantage of opportunities and made a
stake, sometimes at the expense of
men away at the front, or at the ex
pense of the government, which was
in the end at the expense of all the
people. They were referred to as men
who had "kept out of the war" and
made money while their friends and
neighbors were at the front.
When this world conflict closes all
the types mentioned will be objects
of public wrath, and if any there be
who are falling in any of these now ]
they had better take heed. The day
will come when they will feel public
wrath. The slacker who dodges mili
tary service through deception will be
marked. Morally he is no better than
the deserter he who runs away. A
greater offender is the slacker in civil
life, not liable for military service,
who refuses to do his bit; who doesn't
buy Liberty Bonds, War-Savings Cer
tificates or Thrift Stamps; doesn't |
contribute to the lied Cross, the army
Y. M. C. A. er any of the worthy
causf ; to help m:.ke life easier and
better for the men in the ranks; who
sneers at meatless and wheatless days
and laughs at food conservation;
whose sole purpose is to get what he
can and do nothing, while others
struggle that such as he may live.
Next and the greatest offender of
all ? although he is only a few de
grees worse than the last type de
scribed is the man who engages in
profiteering in foodstuffs; who char
ges unreasonable prices, makes un
reasonable profits, engineers deals and
manipulates markets to make big |
mwney at the expense of the people
who must go on short rations be
cause they can't pay the price. A
highwayman is an honest man end a
gentleman compared with the hypo
crite who robs under cover of law.
God forbid that the military forces
of the Huns shall ever set foot on
American soil; but some people could
be reconciled in a measure to their I
coming for a little while if they would
deal only with the last two classes
mentioned ? the slaters in civil life
and the profiteers. AH that could be
done to them they would deserve.
Live Stock Shortage in Europe.
/
The Food Administration ras re
ceived directly from the French gov
ernment figures showing the decrease
of livestock in France as a result of I
the war.
On December 31, 191(5, according to
the official French figures, the cattle
had decreased to a total of 12,341,900,
as compared with 14,807,000 in 1913,
or 16.6 per cent; sheep decreased
from 16,213,000 in 1913 to 10,845,000
December 31, last, or 33 per cent;
swine decreased from 7,048,000 in |
1913, to 4,361,900 at the close of last
year, or 38 per cent.
The per capita consumption per an
num of meat in France at the present
time is estimated by the French gov
ernment at 69.61 pounds of beef, 11.16
pounds of mutton, and 21,48 pounds of
pork.
The French figures emphasize the |
recent statement of the U. S. Food
Administration that the nations of
Europe are now rapidly depleting their
supply of livestock, and must there
fore depend largely upon the United
Stater, for their meat and dairy pro
ducts after the war. ? Southern Plant
er. I >
Talye Care of Farm Implements.
If ever there was a time when it
was more important than another that
farmers should gather up their tools
and implements and place them in dry
sheds for protection it is now. The
prices of farm tools and machinery
are gradually going up and there are
now net enough manufactured to sup
ply the demands. Therefore, in order
to have tools and implements necess
ary for producing the crop next year,
savo those which you may have on
hand. You may not be able to secure
them next spang at any price. ?
Southern Planter.
Announcement !
* ?
We wish to inform our customers and
friends that January 1st our business goes
into a cash system. We will not charge
any more goods after December 31, 1917.
OUR REASONS
Our Government Officials say to eliminate
waste and reduce the cost of living in every
possible way. We know of no better way
to do this than to pay cash for what you
buy for several reasons.
FIRST. We eliminate all the extra expenses of
doing a time busiress such as extra help to do the
business, loss of bad accounts, mistakes and loss of
friends, having to pay enough profit to make up for
the fellow who will not pay at all and sometimes
lawsuits and lawyers fees for collecting ard many
\ many other things too numerous to mention that
^naturally go along with a time business. All these
things the customer who buys on time and pays his
account has to pay for.
Buy for Cash!
If you trade at a cash store your money buys
more, ycu save the difference which is your duty to
yourself, your family and your country.
If you pay credit prices you pay for what you
get and also help pay for what a good many other
people get who do not pay. N
Charity begins at home. If you get your money
before1, you spend it you naturally and easily save
some of it.
If you spend your money before you get it you
are bound to remain poor.
You are offered credit not for your good but for
the good of him who offers it.
OUT OF DEBT YOU ARE INDEPENDENT
IN DEBT YOU ARE A SLAVE !
Our cash system will eliminate all extra expenses,
reduce the cost of living to the minimum and save
you money. WHY NOT TRY IT?
Our store will be closed Tuesday, January 1st in
order to arrange our stock of goods and prices for
the cash system.
We are going to discontinue some of our lines
and for the next thirty days we will sell our stock of
Farm Implements, Castings, Hardware, Wagons,
Buggies, Harness, Etc., at sacrifice prices.
We invite you to come to our store and let us show you
how much a dollar will buy. We will buy what you have
to sell and can sell you what you need to buy.
THE CASH BUYS IT CHEAPER AT
Roberts, Corbett
& Woodard's
SELMA, NORTH CAROLINA