Newspapers / The Roanoke Beacon and … / Jan. 24, 1902, edition 1 / Page 3
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THE END OF DI WIIXtAM There waa never & voice proclaimed the place, There was never a guard around it, Just a corner turned in the Lane of Life, And, ere I could marvel, I found it A wicket-gate in a moMering rall With a wild vine over it springing, And a cowled shape on the low stone seat By the wicket sitting and singing. "Smart men of Araby, Pilgrim and Tala din, Join in the goodly array Knights of Plantageuet, horsemen of Sal adin wJ All the world crowding the way." In wonder I turned, and over the road I had trodden, a mist was stooping, And in it was thunder of viewless hoofs, Tumultcuous myriads, trooping To that one portal: The ways of the world From afar and anear came to it, And the gatekeeper sang as, one by one, He ushered the travelers through it. "Hither rode Launcelot, parted from Guinever Princes and Beparmen bold Some like a Charlemagne, riding in min iver, Some in their gaberdines old." P 1he thousands of Norwe gians and Swedes get upon the prairies of Dakota twenty years ago, comparatively few read or understood English. It was surprising, though, how quickly they adjusted themselves to their new en rironment. White the women worked In the prairie fields with the men, while all were tillers of the soil and carriers of burdens, they yet found time to master much of the new tongue, to open American schools and to pur chase American books and newspapers. When the first hard winter came many of the men and women willingly went to school on such days as the blizzards permitted and pored over spelling books and arithmetic with the chil 'firen. A brave people were these de scendants of the Vikings. They were pillaged by speculators on one side and fought by the elements on the other, but the thought of surrender sever entered their minds and they conquered both adventurers and storms In' the onri In the Hay Meadows school district was a Norwegian family by the name of Torgeson. The mother, Anna, was perhaps twenty-two or twenty-three years old. The father was thirty. The three children were toddlers, too young for school and books. Nevertheless when winter school opened Anna Tor geson, with one child at her breast and two at her skirts, forced her way i' - " 'III L , GOING TO across the prairie to the sod school house and asked for admission. Tor geson himselt.did not go with her. He ''was-one of thefew who opposed any 'effort to changethe order of things 'that had prevailed In the home land. He proposed to be aXNorsenian to the last of his days. HeVould speak In no tongue but his own. Ajle would go to no church but the "kirt and that not existing on the prairies' he would do without worship. He wore his psaked hat, his o.led coat, his skin trousers and avoided his American neighbors except as he was forced to trade with them. Although he soon understood a few words of English when a land office collector came for the last payment on his final proof notice he would speak to him only In the Norse tongue. Then the Strong arm of the Government reached eat and Torgeson was frightened. He THE , ROAD. HEBTKT WOODS. Then opened the gate, and liliea I saw Tn t.hp onnl errata rwi i n n- anrl wnvini A murmur of bees was borne on the breeze, A tinkle of nvuicts laving Velvety banks where the riders reclined The beggar and king, the sage and the lfrj-o "Light, light, ye gentlemen, cease from your wanurang, Won is the ultimate quest. cages irom counseling, fools from your maundering. Rest ye well. Silence is best." But when I would enter, that keeper gray With a skeleton Jineer staved me. "Not yet," he whispered His iinger was co.d, And the look of his eve affraved me " 'Twas fancy untimely showed thee the gate, (She oniv the future may borrow), Go. now; the feet of the galloping hours Shall bring thee aerain and to-morrow.' "Rest ye now soberly, striving is done for you. Finished the chase and flight If ye were winners or losers is one for you, Rode ye for wrong or for rit,ht." Youth'a Companion. broke his vows and spoke in English until the title to his land was clear. But being conquered In this fashion angered him. He resorted frequently to strong drink, and the entreaties of his wife and his friends could not keep him from it. The nay . Meadows district was a temperance community. The settlers from the distant lands of the North were strongly religious, hard workers, moderate in all habits, kindly to all who met them. That Torgeson should be the only one among them to fail to "rightly accept the new life in the Republic pained them. They earnest ly labored with him, but he would not listen. When Anna Torgeson ma3e known her desire to attend the district school he swore loudly and at first said she should not go. Later he an swered to her pleadings: "Go if you will, but you put some thing between us two you will never get over. I am as my fathers were. If you would be different, all right. But it will go hard with both of us later." Anna Torgeson was straight of limb and blue of eyes. She was beautiful when Torgeson made her his bride. Motherhood had added to her charms. She had mind, too quick-witted intel ligence, a rare aptitude for knowing the best and clinging to it. For her children's sake she believed that she ought to attend the district school. THE SCHOOL. When Torgeson finally gave his con sent she wound her arms about his neck and kissed him long, but Tor geson pushed her away and growled. He would not surrender. He came to America but for gain; when that was had, he would return to his f olkland, unchanged. . All through November and Decem ber of, that dreary winter Anna Torge son made her way to the schoolhouse and worked for mastery of the Eng lish tongue. Torgeson stayed at the fatui, minding the cattle and their fodder, or brooding over his pipe and cups. Tiiat his wife should not side with him WHS the bitterest thing he had to endure. He was not a bad man only a cruelly obstinate one, and having started on the wf9ng path, he would not turn back and find" the right one. Uc might hava maN his "wife's winter a bright one. lie might hare taken out the sledge and driven her and the children the short mile to the schoolhouse, but he would not. No matter how deep the snow and fierce the winds he let them go nlone, un aided, unless neighbors gave them a helping hand. x When January, the worst month of the season, came, he made no effort to assist them. So wide was the gulf between husband and wife now that he even let' the New Year's Day pass without the home celebration they had never missed before. Even that night when Anna Torgeson came to where he brooded in his chair, and, weeping, begged him to bo the man of their first days, he pushed her from him and answered: . "I am not of your?- I have cot' changed. It is you that has changed. Let me be." Anna Torgeson went on with the school, praying every night to her God that her husband might yet awaken and be one with her again. In the school she was the most apt pupil. She was the first to learn to write English, and the first to be able to spell English rightly. Her neighbors, many of whom had known her before her marriage, "rejoiced over her progress. "Torgeson will be proud of his wife yet," they said. But Torgeson remained bitterly against her. Only the babies gave her love and comfort. A January day came when the sun rose warm over the snow-covered prairies and in the air there was a false whisper of spring. The Hay Meadows folk on their way to the school shook their heads. They had learned that this beauty of nature, at such a time, meant coming terror of blinding sleet and deathly cold. All through the morning the sunshine flooded the interior of the schoolhouse and the water dripped from the snow covered sod eaves, but the pupils with in did not trust the warmth. At noon they ate their lunches by the open door, but none failed to notice the grcwing grayness of the sky in the north and the change In the sweep of the wind. When school closed a frightful bliz zard was upon them. The thermom eter had fallen to far below zero and the air was filled with sleet that cut the skin like chopped j?Iass. The twelve pupils- of the school looked at each other in the growing danrness. Every woman present had a man to guide her home but Anna Torgeson. Every child had a man protector but the chil dren of Anna Torgeson. The rest of you will go on," said Anna Torgeson. "There is some fuel here. I and my children will stay un til this Is over." Some offered to guide her home be fore they went their own way, but she said the storm was growing worse every minute, and they must hasten for their own safety. They scraped together such food as they had left from noon and gave it to her. It was not much for four mouths, but for the baby there was Anna Torgeson's breast. Just as the others prepared to leave, Anna Torgeson called to one: "Stay a moment. Torgeson will worry. I will send a note. Get It to him somehow when you can that he may know I am safe." And she wrote in English: ' "Dear Husband: I am safe In the school with the babies. . Don't worry about me. ANNIE TORGESON." Late that afternoon, with the most awful storm he had ever known howl ing about his. home, Torgeson got that note, and the beaver did not. dare leave him for his life, so fierce was the blast. "I can't read it," grumbled Torgeson. So the other read It to him, and then Torgeson crumpled it in his hand and said: "Let her stay there. She cares more for the school than for me." He sat before his good fire hour after hour, and once and awhile when he thought he was unobserved he would glance at the writing of lie note he could not read. At midnight he could stand it no longer. He was Torgeson, the obstinate, but his wife and babies were over in that schoolhouse without much fuel or food. He took with him the man who had brought the note, and they brought the horses out of the stable and they fought as men never fought before against snow and cold, and they gained the school, a mile away, in two hours, and Torgeson beat open the door and the blast came with him, but the anger and the old pain had gone from him forever. Bending over the stove to keep her self and babies alive, Anna Torgeson heard his voice, knew by Its note that out of the horror he had struggled with to i-each her new lovw and hope had come, and she leaped to him and was caught in his arms, never to be J put from mm again u. l. uieveiauo, in the Chicago Record-Herald. Fish of Other Day. The discovery in the sands of .TertI anyage, at Woking, England, of well preserved exa-mples of the teeth of pre historic sharks and the remains of other fish. Is announced In Nature. The find is regarded as an unusually Interesting one, and the material has been turned over to the experts of the British Museum for examination. I I Convict Labor on Roads. J T' HE suggestion Which was I some time ago made In these I columns that able bodied in mates of prisons and peniten tiaries be set at work building im proved roads seems at last to be acted upon to a considerable extent, and with gratifying results. The convicts In the State prisons are as a rule other wise employed, but those In charge of the penitentiaries have not been able to provide work in prison shops for the prisoners under their control, and so have sought it outside. In eight or more counties of this State the pen! tentiary prisoners are employed either at road building or at crushing stone for road building. It is not known that any bad effects have been experienced from the undertaking, while "the good effects are numerous ; and obvious Among the latter these are eonspicu ous: The prisoners have the physical and moral benefit. of healthful labor in the open air; the prisoners are made to pay their way instead of being a heavy charge upen the community; the construction of good roads Is promoted and the cost of them is decreased; and the number of prisoners is diministed, for tramps and other "sons of rest" 8 void counties where committal to the penitentiary means stone breaking and road building. It may be added that one of the chief objections to the system the offensive parading of con victs in the public view has been found groundless, for no one would take the penitentiary prisoners work ing on the roads to be other than or dinary laborers. There is reason to believe -that this system might profitably and properly be extended throughout the State, and be applied to the inmates of State pris ons as well as of penitentiaries when other work fails. The prisoners might also be employed at repairing and maintaining the roads after they are built. - Most of the prisoners at Sing Sing are now at work, but it is not long since that most of them ' were idle and were seriously suffering, mor ally and physically, from enforced idleness. And yet within a few hours' drive of Ossining are hundreds of miles of road that are in their badness a reproach to the community and a cause of vexation and of actual pecun iary loss to all who are compelled to use them. We do noc mean, of course, that counties and towns are to wait until prisoners can be secured to bu'ld good roads. But whenever and wher ever able bodied prisoners are idle the reproach of bad roads Is aggravated twofold. All roads should be made and kept good, and all prisoners who are able to work should be kept at healthful and profitable work. These are two rules which should be con stantly observed, and between which an intimate relationship is to be found. New York Tribune. ' Benefit For Road Taxes. Those who objected to the high taxes for road improvement, last spring may find themselves more heavily taxed with bad roads than If compelled to pay cash to the collector. In some por tions of the State farmers are almost blockaded when heavy snows fall or the frost is leaving the ground. More benefit is derived from road taxes than from any other sums expended in the community. Philadelphia Record. An Example of the Benefits. An example of the benefits of good roads to a country town is well set forth by General E. G. Harrison, of the Road Inquiry Office, Department of Agriculture. He found that good roads made Morristown, a little New Jersey village, a centre of culture and sociability because the people for miles around, finding travel on the highways easy and comfortable, sought relaxation and improvement and drove into the town to find them. And still better, the good roads gave a great Impetus to free rural postal delivery. He says: In that section more than double the number of miles were covered by car rier than on common roads, and now these mails are delivered from house to house at less expense than when the mail was carried under the star route system from illage to village, and left at the store or postoffice; a saving of $800 on those roads. I was interested In getting the result of that free rural delivery, and here It is. I will give It to you In round numbers, so you can remember It. It was es tablished and went In force in July. 1S0S; for the mouth of July a little short of 1500 pieces were carried. In the month of December of that year 2300 were carried. Now, take the same mouths in the year 1S99. In July there were 3300, and in Decem oer. 8000 pieces carried, and a little over. Now, yon see. there is some Improvement there. That might be nu lines of business, but It Is more likely that it stirred up social interest and letter writing, which all tends to develop the country. Now. here Is a further result. ' Youccow the city de livery Is by rules of the Postoffice De partment only put In cities, and It Is established where the' city's popula tion is 10,000, or where the annual receipts of the postoffice are $10,000 and over. The result of this is that now Morristown, N. J., has a city de livery, because the receipts have cnue up to the required $10,000. Theseu--some of the results of the system of good roads. New Ycrk Tribune. A Great Work Undone. No greater work remains undone In this country than the Improvement of country roads. -i TROUBLE WITH THE CASHIER. Lunchroom r Feeding Thousands Find It Hard to balance Up. One of the most difficult positions to fill in the big retail establishments where automatic cash registers are in use is that of cashier. The question is not so much one of honesty, as of abil ity to perform the work day by day without too great a margin of error. None has. found so 'great difficulty in this connection as the owners of 'Dig quick lunch establishments, where "change" has to be made quickly at the rush hours of noon, and when but little time is allowed the cashier to check receipts with the . fignreg marked up on the register. The cashier at one of the largest downtown places was recently dis charged simply because she was often "off" in her change; that is, the cash register and the amount turnedin aU night did not tally. It mattered littlb io the company when there was shortage,- for, according to agreement. the cashier made it up from her salary. On many occasions there was even overcash above the amount recorded. The young woman turned in this over cash faithfully; the company dis charged her for having any overcash- at all. When , the young woman., was dis charged. It may be noted incidentally, she had become a great favorite with the customers, and when .t was learned- that they -were to see her no more behind the cashier's desk, some one started a petition, which was signed by over 600 names and turned In to the management. The management decided to give the young woman, an other chance if she would come and apply for the position, which shc de clined to do. Another cashier was taken on in her place and lasted exactly four days. Another girl succeeded. ' "She lasted two days. Still another came and lasted four days. In all eight girls were tried out behind the marble desk. and then the company was no better off than at first Days came when there were shortages to be taken out of the young women's pockets, and others when they honestly turned " in what was over and above the amount on the cash register. Bnt the shortage and the overcash continued, and the company has decided to give up ex periments and charge the difficulty not to the incompetence of the cashiers but the difficulty of filling the position without mistakes. The trouble is said to be that'-the 2o00 or 3000 changes made during the day are not, as in dry goods stores, or other concerns, more or less scat- tered throughout a day, but are all crowded into an hour or so. The r$ii at which one girl makes change durjig that one hour Is at the rate of 12,000 in a day of nine hours. New York Times. Damage Bone by a Horse'e Hoofs. A Boston automobileenthusiast with a penchant, for figures has calculated that a sharp-shod horse " pulverizes twenty-four pounds of road material on a macademized . highway for each mile traveled. Tie arrived at this re sult, says Automobile Topics, by care fully collecting, with the aid of an en velope and a tine brush, all of the ma terial loosened by two of the equine's hoof-beats. This performance he re peated in widely separated sections of the cultured city, and collected the material disengaged from the road sur face by six hoof -beats, and which is usually blown away in the form of dust. On weighing this material he tound that he had .03GG pounds, or , 0061 pounds per hoof -beat. Multi-; plying this by 10Q0 steps per mile for each foot or 4000 steps in all he found that It totaled twenty -four pounus. a ruDocr-iirea automooue, u j says, makes practically' no impression on the roadway. From which he con cludes that horses and steel-tired Vehi cles are the sworn enemies of the auto mobile so far as good roads are con cerned. Some kind of a law to prevent the rapid deterioration of roads under steel hoofs and narrow steel tires should, he thinks, be enacted at once the sooner the better. The Water In Wood. Chemists have come to the conclu sion that forty-five, per cent, of water is present In the composition of green wood. Even when the lumber is sea soned, they hold that It is impossible to drive out all the water, ten percent of which remains cve,n In highly sea soned wood. Cuban railroads are compelled t their charters to carry mails fret
The Roanoke Beacon and Washington County News (Plymouth, N.C.)
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Jan. 24, 1902, edition 1
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