W. Fletcher AusbbrijEditor and Manager,
VOL. VI.
lFQR QQD, FOR VQUITTItY AND FOB TRUTH"
$1.00 a yearin advance.
PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1894.
NO. 11.
According to tho Uatholio Herald
jthere are about 152,000 colored Cath
olios in the United States.
Tho colored element is increasing
much leso rapidly than the white
not only in the country at large but
in the Southern States, avers tho Chi-'
cago Herald.
,: i An undue impor tanca is given to the
bullet-prooT armor lately brought out
by Dowe others, tin New York
. Recorder thinks. It; is intended to
protect the vital parts only, and the
head, arms and logs arj oxp:3ol.' In
a conflict th9 ratio oi wjuudeJto dead
combatants is very lnrge, and a
wounded man is as harmless as a dead
one for offensive purposes. Probably
. ft body of inen so equipped would pos
sess a stronger elemsnt of couraga,
and therefore add to it3 efficiency;
but this added daring would only Berve
to bring '.; the combatants closer to
gether, and thereby largely increase
the number of won Wnnl.I nn
: a protected army lose, in the greater
, number of wounded what it presuma
bly would gain in courage?
A repen on tbiTim cultivated bast
fibers of tho United States by Cbailes
Euhard Dodge, special agent in
- charge of fiber investigations, has just
( been issued from the Department of
Agriculture. Among the plants de
scribed aro species found in every sec
tion of the United States, from Maina
to Florida' and from Minnesota to
Arizona. Some of them are jute sub
stitutes, . while others, if cultivated,
Would produce a fibsr rivaling hemp.
Over forty fibisr plants are treated in
the report, the history, of twenty
,forms being given in 'f nil with state-
ments regarding past eSbrts and ex
periments toward ; their utilization.
Special chapters are devoted to the
asclepias or milkweed fibers, okra,
cotton stalk fiber, the common abuti
lon known corameraiallv as "China
jute," but 'growing in' the fenco
corners of every Western farm Colo-
So marvelous have been the triumphs
Hn Viiim an intollonf. in tVin nant.
that the Bochester Post-Expresa be
lieves that he would ; be a rash man
jwho should undertake to" prescribe
boundaries to its discoveries in the
'future. Tor it may be scarcely a de
cade before the very achievements de
clared to be impossible, will be ac
complished fact. Fifty years ago Au
jguste Comte, the famous " founder in
tt ranee oi tne rosmvist sonooi 01 pnu
, 'osopby, of which Frederio Harrison, in
' bSngland, ia. one of the foremost ex
'pounders, declared that there was
'one field of knowledge that would for
jover remain beyond the reach of tho
'human mind. This was' the constitu
tion of the fixed stars and the" ele
ments of which they are composed.
jThe nearest of these stars being many
thousand of "millions of miles- from us,
Comte affirmed that the substances
constituting them must ever remain
locked in tho secrecy of fathomless
space. . So probably they would had
man been able to arm himself with no
. more potent apparatus of discovery
than was known in. Comte's day, or
than would then ; have been believed
possible. For to the most powerful
jtelescopes these far away orbs reveal
jthemselves as little more than shining
1 dots, betraying none oi-tne- secrets oi
.Son. ntr no fcnro. But Comte . had
.scarcely launched his ' prediction, be
fore astronomers began tobit upon
;aud perfect the discovery of the now
isT-iamc; BpeunuLu iuiijoo, uwu
wrenches even from stars deep in the
recesses of illimitable space the nature
and number of the elements of which
they are composed. .. Many - of these
elements are the Bame as those known
to us on our earth and in our sun ;
but some are strangers to our chemis
try. Comte as a positivist was not
'given to modesty indeed .was noted
la dogmatism but even he under
red the possible achievements of the
hii nan intellect. In view of his nulli
fied prophecy, it need not be counted
rash to say that before another half
century has flown, the oft-asked ques
tions, ean we communicato with
Mars?!' and '".can we know whether it
has inhabitants?" may receive an af
firmative answer. For who can tell
with what nzA apparatus of discovery,
eelipsinjr anj mw possessed or
dreamed of, jjaan mey h7 thft tima
ivQ armed himself !" , ...
THE OLD STONS WKIJU ' .
OTj, the old stone well, .
In the shady little dell, ,
Which lay across the meadows where the
sowslhs dwOlU . -Hot?
our tired hearts swelt ,
As we long, more than we'll tell, -Just
to soak In air and sunshine by the old
stone well.
Oh, the faint, eool breeze
That sifted through the trees.
And murmured soft accommpantment to the
; humming of the bees ;
How one's soul 'twould please
To sit there 'neath the trees, ,
And to build again those castles that one's
yoathtime sees.
How as boys we'd play,
On each bright sunshiny day,
In the grass and through the branches till
the twilight gray;;
And day after day, 1
On each load of fragrant hay, .
Boll up gaily to the barnyard In the same old
way.
But the years have sped, .
And our boyhood friends have fled,.
And the pretty girls we used to love long
: since wed 4
But the tale we'll tell,
And with memory sweet we'll dwell,
As we watoa their children playing round
the old stone well.
--Jack Stevens, In Rochester Post-Express.
A PECULIAR WILL CASE.
HE rise of James
McCurdy, a young
attorney in .New
York City, .was at
" tended withv a
number of ; pecu
liar circumstances
. of which the public
1 in general were ig
norant. His brill
iant : work; in the
celebrated Morris
vs. Morris will case
won for him a measure of fame that
would mean much to any young man
in the legal profession. The case was
a hard-fought one, . involving much
labor on the part of the attorneys, es
pecially for the young attorney who
sought to break the will whereby
James E. Morrjs had left his entire
estate to his scape-grace foster-son,
George M. Morris,, and had disin
herited his daughter Edith, who in the
eyes of the world, had ever-been her
father's favorite. McCurdy had
known Edith for . many years and,
while they had never been actually be
trothed, their names were more or less
associated. ' The young lawyer him
self was wealthy, so the match was
deemed a fitting one and Edith, did
not seem averse to his attentions. The
sews that she had been disinherited
was received by the world t with sur
prise. The estate was a large one and
the last act of her father was inex
plicable. No one was more mystified
than James McCurdy. -v
"Of course I don't care myself that
your money is gone, Edith," he said,
"fori have enough for both of, us.
But it does seem strange that that
seoun "
"Don't .call names, Jim," replied
Edith, sadly. "It won't do any good.
I never thought how it would, seeln to
be left dependent, but I dare say I
will get on somehow. I can teach
music or become . a companion, or
paint china, or " " '
"You shall do nothing of the kind,"
he retorted hotly, . "You will marry
me and have everything you want.
Still I do not are to see that fellow
who was never a brother to yon and
you know what a life he led your
ather take what is your just due."
"I don't want to . marry you, Jim,
and bring you nothing." f
You will bring yourself. That is
sufficient. Still, if you will put this
case in my hands, I will see that you
get your just dues."
"You mean take it into tba courts,
Jim?" she cried in consternation.
'I mean just that. Contest tho
TrilL'
"Never! I could-never contest the
will of my father. "
tXI don't believe it was his wilL"
"What, Jim?"
"I think it a forgery.
The upshot of the matter was that
tho will was contested. , MoCurdy
found it uphill work collecting evi
dence. Nothing ' that he could learn
shook his conviction that tho father
was not out of his mind when he made
the will. He bent all his energies to
ward showing that ' the will was a
forged document, but found that he
r-iade little headway in the tfux. TLo
liAvI
fostsjr-auji had a friend, Clarence
Woodruff, a dissipated young man,
and somehow the attorney 'could not
avoid associating him with the forged
document. He had Woodruff watched,
bui in spite of his Zeal nothing came
of the closest scrutiny ef the young
man's actions. Day ofter day kd Wor
ried over the case until, finally, he was
almost in despair. , Edith alone was
calm and indifferent. But now Mc
Curdy had his professional reputation
at stake, and he clung to the prelim
inary work on the cose with dogged
tenacity, although baffled at every
step. ' One day, while pondering over
the matter at his club, his attention
was arrested by a familiar voice :
"Hello, Jim!" -a v
"Jack, old boy 1'.' . :
'. The two men clasped hands and were
soon lunching together and convers
ing with much animation. V '-''
"By the way, Jack," said MoCurdy,
remembering a fad of his old friend,
"are you doing anything in hypnotism
lately?" r :-. y; ; : . - -.
. "I should think J was.; I have be
come quite a celebrity iu an amateur
way on the other side of the water
belong to two London societies. But
how are things with jony. Jim? Mar
ried? No? Going to be? Why that
sigh? Come, unbosom yourself." -
With that Jim related all. the per
plexities of the case in hand and the
other listened with marked attention.
For several hours they conversed and
at the end of that time came to some
conclusiou
"Pooh! I don't believe it will
work, Jack !"
"There is no harm trying. You are
sure you have told me ail about Wood
ruff?" ' -A ; V.. . .
V'Yes."
"He is the man whom you suspect
forged tho will?"
"I do." WN
. "Then if I succeed do you want him
for a witness?"
"No; the other sideare going to
call him. . He was well acquainted
with Edith's father, . and I' believe
claims to have been present when the
will was drawn."
"You must point out Woodruff to
me."
"Very well."
As they left the club a tall, well
dressed fellow passed.
"That is the man," said Jim.
"I won't forget him.-- Tell me where
he is usually to be found.".
The lawyer named several fashiona
ble resorts and the other left him, say
ing at parting :
"I will look around in about a week
and report."
The week passed and Jack was as
good as his word. He appeared in
evident glee.
"It's all right, Jim."
Then the two conspirators went out
and had' dinner at DelmonicO's and
further devised ways and means. The
case came on for trial and Jim pre
sented his witnesses. He asked Edith
to be there that her presence might
exercise a certain sympathetic effect
upon the jury, but she refused, dread
ing the publicity. In opening Jim
stated that he expected to show that
the will filed for probate was a false
and fraudulent document, a statement
received by George's attorneys with
smiles of amusement. It must be con
fessed that the testimony of his wit'
nesses did not carry out this claim.
The best that he showed was that
Edith's father was always kind to her.
loved her and had no reason for disij-
heriting her. When Jim's witnesses
were exhausted, the spectators in tha
court room were foroed to confessed
that he had a poor case. He had
shown nothing; except by the most in
direct inference. The other side built
up what the young attorney .at once
mentally characterized "a gigantic
tissue of falsehood." The principal
witness was Woodruff, who testified
that he had once heard the deceased
say that he, would disinherit Edith.
During the direct examination of this
witness, George sat cool and confi
dent. He had supplied the motive for
the disinheritance and the w itne68
went on to say that the old gentle
man's aversion to counsel on the other
side, who was paying his daughter at
tentions, was the reason be had said
he would leave her without a penny.
The witnessed was questioned at
length and told a story that was most
effective for George. , '
Take tho witness," said tho attor
ney for that young man.
Jim consulted with a gentleman who
was seated directly behind him a
man who possessed a glittering pair of
eyes, which ho had kept steadfastly
fixed on the witness.
? ;Is it all right, Jack?"
"Yes; I'm sure. Go slowly at first,
though. 7 ' ...'
Jim turned to the witness.
"You are sure you heard Mr. Mor
ris say that he would disinherit his
daughter if he did not stop going
with me?" . .. I
Tho witness hesitated, and. finally
answered in a bewildered .way:
- "No; I'm not sure those were just
his words." (
'Did his words imply any such thing?"
- "I can't say that they did."
" George regarded the witness with
consternation, and Jim strode out. in
front of t him and threw out question
after question,
"Did you ever hear my name men
tioned by Mr. Morris?" .
"No."
."Now, did he as a matter of fact,
ever say that he would disinherit his
daughter?" , '
"No-'V . ,
"Why did you say he did?"
"Because George Morris gave me
$10,000 to testify in this ease."
"It's a lie 1" shouted that person.
"Your honor," said Jim coldly, "1
protest against interruption. This is
their witness, your nor, andl assert
that I am following a legitimate line
of questions. I give your honor my
word that we have not tampered with
this witness.. If there has been any
wvong doing, I protest that it was not
on our side." . ,
"You may proceed," said the court.
"Now, Mr. Woodruff,' is it not a
fact that Mr. Morris did not disin
herit his daughter?" ,
"It is.'
"Is it not a fact that in tha true
will he left her everything?"
' "It is.'.' 1 .
Here George whispered to his at
torney : "That hound has sold us out."
'Is it not true that you manufac
ture a will to suit your purpose?"
"It is."
'This was a conspiracy' .between
you and George Morris to defraud an
innocent girl?"
"It was." - v ' ; .
"Where is the.trne will?" .
"In George Morris's possession.
"Where has he concealed it?'
"In his trunk in his room.' .
Here ensued of scene "of-, confusion.
George sprang to his feet with the in
tention of making an assault upon the
witness. Officers were sent to the room
and found the will. .
. It was a peculiar ending to a pe
culiar' case, but - whenever Jack in
these days calls upon Jim - and Edith
and sees how happy they , are in their
married life he does not regret tho
'part he took in the case, although he
did hypnotize the principal wit
ness for tho other side. Detroit free
fcresa, '
Engineers" Eyes.
"This intensely hot weather and
glaring sun reminds me of the grerjt
difficulties a locomotive engineer has
to encounter when the sun is strong
to cause a vivid reflection," said Wal
ter Jour dan, who was for several years
a locomotive engineer, and, who aban
doned 1 the lever and throttle on ac
count of failing eyesight - "I often
hear people enlarge upou the difficult
ties of driving a ' locomotive in, the
dark or during heavy rain, but for my
part nothing ever gave me more anx
iety than continuous sunshine. Color
blindness is frequently nothing more
.than intense: pain in the eyes caused
by watching objects which reflect the
light, and upon which the sun is shin
ing. , In a run of several hours the
glare from the rails, which strikes the
eyes while watching for track obstruc
tions, and more particularly for rails
which have been forced out of line by
the heat, is very trying, and often
when I have left the locomotive after
such a run I . have " found the greatest
comfort in resting in a room where
Egyptian darkness prevailed. A man
is afraid to wear smoked glasses lest
he should be suspected of color blind
ness and loso his position. But some
protection of this kind would greatly
prolong the career of many an en
gineer and f reman.'1 -St, Louis
Globc-Deiaocrat.
BICYCLING IN ASIA.
TUB RKMARFCABLK WIIEiiMNG
TOUR OF TWO AMERICANS.
. " r- . '
'.; ' ' . ;.-V '.
Iu the Capital of Turkestan Rus
' slan Home-Xilfe Around . the
Samovar On the Yast
Steppe A Jlishap- .
j HE story of the remarkable
I - . bicycle tour around the world
-A- by the two young American
. students, Messrs. Allen and
Bachtleben, now running in the Cen
tury magazine, shows ; how many dan
gers and difficulties they bad to con
tend with, and what enterprise and
mastery of resource they displayed.
Their route lay through countries that
were not accustomed to Western visi
tors, and their sjbrange method of lo
comotion ' invariably called out great
curiosity, not unmixed with super sti.'
tious faar. : '
In the August Century the young
men describe their journey from Sam
markand to Kuldja. Soon after leav
ing the former place the lowering
snow-line on the mountains, the chill
ing atmosphere, and the falling leaves,
warned .them of the approach of
winter. A failure to obtain necessary
passports -prevented' them from at
tempting to reacb Ve:rnoy"e, a provin
cial capital near the converging points
of the Turkestan Siberian, and Chi
nese boundaries.
"Permission to enter Turkestan is
by no means easily obtained, as is well
understood by the student of Bussian
policy in Central Asia. We were not a
little surprised, ' therefore, when our
request to spend the winter in its
capital was graciously; granted by
Baron Wrevsby, as well as the privi
lege for one of us to return in the
meantime to Lonion.. This we had
determined on, in order, to secure
some much needed bicycle supplies,
and to complete other arrangements
for the success of our enterprise. , -
"Our winter quarters were obtained
at the home of a typical Sussian'
family, in company with a young re-.
serve officer. ; He, having finished hia
university career and time of military
servioe, was engaged in Tashkend in
the interest of his father, a wholesale
merchant in Moscow. With him we
were able to converse either in French'
or German, both of which languages
he could speak more purely than his
native Bussian. Our good-natured
corpulent host had emigrated, in tho
pioneer days, - from the steppes of
Southern Bussia, and had - grown
wealthy through the 'unearned incre
ment. ' '
"The Bussian samovar is the char
scteristic feature of the Bussian'house
hold. Besides a big Jbowl of cabbage
soup at every meal, cur Bussian host
would start in with a half-tumbler of
vodka, dispose of a bottle of beer in
the intervals, and then top off with
two or three glasses of tea. The mis
tress of the household, being limited
in her beverages to tea and soup,
would usually; make- up in quantity
what ' was lacking in variety. In
fact, one day she informed us that she
had not imbibed a drop of water for
over six years. For this, however,
there is a very plausible excuse. With
the water at Tashkend, as with that
from the Zerafshan at Bokhara, a dan
gerous worm ca'led reshta is absorbed
into the system. Nowhere have ' we
drunk better tea than around the
teaming samover . of our Taskend
host. . No peasant is too poor, either
in money or sentiment, to buy and
feel the cheering influence of tea.
Even the Cossack, in his forays into
the wilds of Central Asia, is sustained
by it Unlike the Chinese, ; the
Russians consider sugar a necessary
concomitant of tea-drinking. There
are three methods of sweetening tea :
to put the sugar in the glass ; to place
a lump of sugar- in the mouth and
suck the tea through it; -to hang a
lump in the midst of a tea-drinking
circle, to be swung around for each
in turn to touch with his tongue, and
then to take a swallow of tea." t ,
" When the spring came the young
men1 began their journey again with
unabated ardor," At Chimkend their
course turned abruptly from what was
once the main route between Bussia'a
European and, Asiatic capitals, and
here they began that journey of 1500
miles along the Celestial mountaii
range that terminated only, when thtjy
' began to descend into tne turning'
sands of the Desert of Gobi.
"The steppe is a good place for
learning patience. -With the absence
of landmarks, you seem never to be
getting anywhere. It presents the
appearance of a bounaiess evei ex.
panst, the very undulations of which
are bo uniform as to conceal, the inter ;
'vening troughs.:.;. Into these, horse
meni and sometimes"! whole caravans,
mysteriously disappear. In this way
we were often enabled to surprise s
herd of gazelles grazing by the road
side. They would stand for a mo
ment with neoks extended, and ' then
scamper away Jike a shot, springing
on their pipe-stem limbs three or four
feet in the air. Our average rate was
about seven miles an hour, although
tho roads ' were sometimes so soft
with dust or sand as , to necessitate
the laying of straw,, for a foundation.
There was scarcely an hour in the
day when we were not accompanied
by from one to twenty Kirghiz horse
men, galloping behind Us with cries
of Yakshet. 1' ('Good !'). "t. They were
especially curious , to see how , we
crossedsthe roadside streams. Stand
ing on the bank,' they would watch
intently, every move as we stripped :
and waded through with bicycles and
clothing on bur shoulders. Then they
would challenge us to race, and, if
the road Dermitted. we would en
deavor to reveal some of tho possibili
ties of the 'devil's carta.'
"On an occasion like this occn
ane of our few mishaps. The ' roa-.
was lined by the occupants of a neigh- '
boring tent village, who , had run out
to see the race. . One of the Kirghiz
turned suddenly back in the opposite
direction from which he had started.
The wheel struck him at a rate of fif-'
teen miles per hour, lifting him off
his feet, and hurling over the handle
bars the rider who fell upon his left
arm and twisted it out of place. WitV
the assistance of the bystanders it w&3
pulled back into the socket, and ban-'
daged up till wo reached the nearest
Bussian village. Here the only phy
sician was an old blind woman of tha
faith cure persuasion. ""He massage'
treatment to replace the muscles was
by prayers and by signs of the cross,
a oommon method of treatment among
the lower class of Bussians. . In one
instance a cure was supposed to be ef
fected by writing a prayer on a piece
of buttered bread to be eaten by the
patient." .
The Bank ol France.
The Bank of France is guarded by
soldiers, who do sentry duty outside
the bankj a watch, being likewise kept
within its precincts. A former prac
tice of protecting this bank was to get
masons to wall up the doors of tlj
vaults in the cellar with hydraulic
mortar so soon as the money was de-1 ti
posited each day in these receptaoles.
Tne water was meu nuuou vu, un
kept running until" the cellar was
flooded. A burglar would thus' be
obliged to work in a diving suit, and
break down a . cement wall before ho
could even begin to plunder the vaults.
When the bank officers arrived each
morning the water was drawn off, tha
masonry torn down, and the vaults
opened. '
' The Bank of Germany, like most
other German public buildings, haa a ,
military guard to protect it. In a very
strongly fortified military fortress at
Spandau is kept the great war treasura
of the Imperial Government, part of
the French indemnity, amounting to
several million pounds. Chambers's
Journal. . '
' "Young men," says . the Lewiston
(Me.) Journal, "who have, to scratch
hard for an education nowadays may
think their efforts and sacrifices leas
arduous if they hear the Bev. - Dr.
Joseph Ficker's account of his begin
nings at Waterville College. Enter
ing in 1835, he walked, with just $5 iu
his pocket, from his home in Parson
field, near the New Hampshire line, ', .
Waterville. With a part of his motif j
he bought a bag of wheat and had it
ground in the mill and took it to his
room in the college. He then bouglii
a jug of molasses, hired a woman to
do his baking, and his cakes and mo
lasses formed his daily food for tha
first term." '
A shortage of billions of feet orpiM
lumber , is pr ioip.l Irom te
jKrthwesteru t:rritcrr.
Y