North Carolina Newspapers

" .' J0 "III M hr if " if ft iff 111 ill m $ kp ilfl" $1.00 a Year, In Advance. "FOR GOP, FOR COUNTRY, AND FOR TRUTH." Single Copy, 5 Cents. VOL. XIII. PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1902. NO. 39. - 1 4 V I THE IRISH ISA' I,A.DY I'm pitting on (ho slilc. Mary, Where we sat bide by ide, On a bright May morning lonj; ap;o, When iirst you were iny bride. "Tfio corn was springing fresh and green, And the lark sans loud and high, ..And the red was on your lip, Mary, And the love Ikht in vour eve. - i The pin ec is little changed. Mary, The day's as bright as then; The lurk's loud nong is in my ear. And the corn is green again. Kut I miss the suit da's!) o' your hand. And your warm breath on my check. And I still keep listcn'ms: lor the word You never more may speak. ' Tis but a step down yonder lane. The villain: church rttand- near ' The. church where we were Aved. Mary, 1 aco the spire from here. WHAT HAPPENED "TO j& THE BULLION-BOX By M. J. I2H.VEY, La'.e of the Indian Govern raent ' Telegraph Service, Saharunpore, N.W.P., India. This story was related to the author by ,11 r. Hops Kavana-ih, the District Superin t.t nder.t ot Police at Saharunpore. I t "de- . srribes how a native banker resorted to deception in order to safeguard a ease of ""bullion which he was sending by rail to a customer, and how by a clever trick the i-.ontenrs of the box Mere stolen en route, the unhappy banker being precluded from prosecuting'the thieves, although they were -discovered, through the possibility of being involved in saverc penalties himself. -T s r HE tim nf Bhugwandass, .Tey 8 kisson, Singh & Co., bankers J and merchants, of Kangri, "4 was one of the wealthiest :enccn:.s in Upper India. With a far icacij'mg connection all over the penin sulaand even farther old Bhugwan- -!sss, the principal, was Avont to boast Hint his signature stood equally good In London as in Lahore, and that he ' could give you a hooudee (order) which would be honored with the same prcrupHtude in Chicago as in Calcutta. Among the employes of the firm was - a cerlaiu Thotarani, the sou of a for mer client. Failing at the entrance ex amination for the subordinate Civil Service he had been taken on by Bhug- . warnings as an English writer. At the ' lime referred to in this story Thota T.'nn bud been some ten years in the linn' employ, and for a mere copyist he had risen, through undoubted merit -and perseverance, to the comparatively responsible post of confidential clerk "to the managing partner. Now. while Ave must suppose that "TliotiMam had during his career been ' Kuhjei-t to temptations, the equal in ference is that he had hitherto suc- ceedpd in withstanding all assaults on his moral rectitude. Anyhow, up to Oie period I am Avritiug of the man's record Avas clean, and he was looked on by all, from Bhugwandass doAvn ward, as the exemplification of unim peachable integrity. . He had Avorked "1: imp elf into the good graces of his pa tron; he was ever willing, hard-Avork-i::g and ready to please. Often, Avhen others had cleared out at the recog nized closing lime, Thotarani would be found eomowhere- about, prepared to do anything that might be wanted from igniting BhugAvandass's hookah 'and placing it before him to drawing up a promissory note, unlocking the strong room, and counting out 1000 ru pees or so fur some belated borrower. One day the bank had occasion to -end a consignment of bar silver to a correspondent named Pusa, a gold and -silver .smith residing near the small town or Nagina, distant about three hours' journey by rail. The bullion, valued at 4000 rupees, after being duly weighed by Thotnram, was packed and nailed dOAvn by him in a stout deal box all under Bhugwandass's imme diate supervision and the case was then deposited on the floor close to the principal's desk. At noon, 'when most --of the employes left the building for the usual lunch hour, Bhugwandass -signed to Thotarani to remain. When the office had emptied the old man railed the clerk to him and said, in the vernacular: "Did you hear of that case ihout a box of sovereigns being broken into during transit by rail between Agra and Bombay?" "Yes, sir," replied Thotarani, in the same tongue, "I read an account of it iu the Amrita." EMIGRANT. dbffebin". Kut the graveyard lies between. Mary, And my step might break your rest, .Where I've laid you, darling, down to sleep With your baby on your breast. I'm very lonely now, Mary, For the poor make no new friends; P.nt, oh, they love the better The few our Father sends. And you were all I had. Mary, My blessing and my pride: .mere s notmng jpu 10 care 101 now, .Since my poor Mary died. I'm bidding you a long farewell, My Mary kind and true, Cut I'll not forget you. darling, hi the land I'm going to. They say there's bread and work for all, And the sun shines always' there, Cut I'll not forget old Ireland", Were it fitlv times less fair. "Well," continued the principal, sink ing his voice to a whisper, "we must avoid running any suc-h risk! I have got a good idea. Take some black paint and address that case of bar silver to Pusa, Soonar, Soonari Bazaar, Nagi na The clerk did as he Avas ordered. "Now, above the address, Avrite 'Old Nails' iu large letters, fill in the con signment note in the same manner, and go yourself to book the box at the rail-Avay-station. See 'that the Aveight tal lies Avith ours, and do not talk to the railway people about the case. Take it carelessly in a bullock cart Avith you, and go quite alone, so as to cause no suspicion as to the valuable nature of its contents." Thotaram carried out these instruc tions to-the letter. On his return to the kothi (bank) he sought out Bhugwan dass aud handed him the consignment note. He ended up by asking for a week's leave, to proceed to his native place near Bareilly. After transacting his errand at the goods shed he had strayed, he said, on to the passenger platform, and among the travelers in a train that happened to arrive he met a f ellow-toAvnsman, who. had informed him of his uncle's serious illness; it was for the purpose of visiting this rel ative that he now craved the indulg ence. The request Avas granted and, after profusely thanking his patron, the confidential clerk AvithdreAV. Instead, however, of proceeding to his village, Thotaram, disguising himself as an in fantry havildar or sergeant on the look out for recruits, took the next train to Nagina. He was Avell aAvare that the case of "old nails" Avould not ar rive for another four days by goods train, so he had time to mature his plans. He first set to Avork to ingra tiate himself Avith the handful of na tive employes at the small station, Avhieh Avas easily done. He knew there Ave re no military in those parts, and. being a Avell-set-up fellow, he was able not only to pass himself off success fully as a recruiting sergeant, but re ceived permission, as such, to put up on the premises tiil the people poured in to the local fair, which he gave out he Avas going to attend. In a noncha lant manner, and not too hurriedly, he sauntered off to the little mal godam, or gootls shed, where he found the sin gle clerk, a Bengali named Hiralal Seal, doing nothing in particular. Ex erting all his inherent affability Tho taram speedily established a good un derstanding with the babu (clerk), and by closing time he had pretty well as sured himself that the latter would prove only too ready to fall in with his views. .Seal, for his sins, had been shunted to this great distance from Lower Bengal; he Avas an idle, disso lute fellow, but had so far been able to escape the consequences of his bad conduct through the influence of senior relatives holding respectable positions iu the head office of the raihvay. That evening the tAvo met by ap pointment, and Thotaram. intuitively divining the shortest road to the ba lm's heart, treated him to a regular jaunt, after the native idea. Thotarani paid for everything throughout, much to the Bengali's admiration and enA-y. He bemoaned his state of chronic, inv pecuniosity and his Avretched salary of tAvcuty-five rupees a month. This Avas precisely the state of mind Thotaram desired ins comrade to be in. Seated with the babu on the station yard fencing, preparatory to parting for the night, little by little the schem er unfolded his plan. He found Seal not only pliant, but eager to partici pate, and before they separated the two young scoundrels had agreed to help themselves to the contents of a certain ease marked "Old Nails" the moment it should turn up at the Nagi na goods shed. In due course the precious case ar rived and Avas unloaded at the goods shed. Thotaram. by now a privileged loiterer especially in that part of the station premises presided over by Seal took occasion to examine the box. He felt satisfied it Avas intact; in exact ly the same state as Avhen booked by him at Kangri. That eA-ening Seal cas ually mentioned to the choukidars (Avatchmen) and portprs that as he had some returns to get through he should not leave the shed till late. He ordered the lamp-man to prepare a lamp and place it in his partitioned office; had all the doors and exits except one se cured, and told all the underlings to go home, but to return punctually at 0, and that he Avould be responsible for things in the nieauAvhile. Native-like, and nothing loth, Ihe Avhole posse cleared out, aud hardly had the last man disappeared Avhen Thotaram, stealing up to and tapping gently at the unbarred door. Avas admitted by his confederate. The two ' had prepared everything beforehand cold chisels, hammer, pincers and, what was more important than all, a plentiful supply of old nails, which had been collected and smuggled in during the interval of Avaiting. After thoroughly searching every dark corner of the shed, and even walk ing tAvice round its exterior to assure themselves that no one watched them through possible cracks and fissures in the AVoodAVork, they put the case on the platform scales, carefully noted the AA-eight, compared it with that entered in the invoice, aud then gingerly opened the box. This done, they took out the silver bars, and then, emptying the case of the cleats used to hold the precious metal immobile, they replaced the box on the weighing machine .and crammed in old nails till the original AA-eight had been arrived at. After this they carefully re-nailed the lid, using the same holes, and the first act in the robbery had been accomplished! They then descended to the permanent-way Avhieh ran through the shed. Here they dug a hole, kindled a lire, set an iron pot thereon, and melted two of the four bars at a time. This was a very neces sary operation, as the ingots bore the impress of the consigners. This Avork finished, the two conspirators obliter ated all traces of the fire, threAV the melting-pot into the well, and each concealing on his person his portion of the "sAvag" they calmly aAvaited the return of the choukidars and porters. Oirthe forenoon of the next day Pusa came for his case. Everything Avas in order; the consignee produced the rail way receipt, it Avas compared with the invoice, the Aveijlit of the box Avas ver ified, the book signed, delivery taken and the old silversmith set out on his return journey to his village, carrying the box with him in a bullock-cart. In the meanwhile a fcAV days' leave being due to Hiralel Seal that youth applied for and obtained it. He had decided on spending it in a holiday at Kangri, the delights of which town Thotaram had already impressed him with. Here, too. Thotaram said they would find no difficulty in converting their plunder into current coin of the realm. The tAvo therefore returned to Kan gri with a hardihood aud effrontery al most inconceivable, and the confiden tial clerk resumed his duties. But on the very night of their arrival Thota ram Avas seen in the company of a young Bengali babu, a stranger to Kan gri, at a native theatre, occupying front-row seats. Further, Avhen Ja hoora, a famous dancer and heroine of the piece, at the conclusion of the performance applied to the audience for largess, it "was noticed that Thota ram and his Bengali companion each gave her a handful' of rupees. These curious facts reached the ears ofiBhug Avaudass the next morning, and that afternoon, Avhile the banker Avas in the middle of admonishing his protege on the evils attending extravagance there ensued a commotion in the outer court, and amid a storm of lamentations Pasa Avas introduced. He and a servant car ried between them nothing less than the case. - - - x "Behold, Maharaj!" cried Pusa, ad drcssiug the banker, as he tore open the lid and disclosed the interior chock full of rusty nails. "Behold Avhat you sent me in return for my re mittance of 4000 rupees'." For a short while consternation pre vailed, -but BhugAvandass's suspicions did not take long in assuming shape. He pieced the Avhole thing together in a feAV seconds. Thotaram's knoAvledge of the contents, his cwn overweening confidence in the felloAV, especially Avith reference to the false declaration and false superscription, Thotaram's departure on leave, fitting in so Avell Avith a new friend, and last, not least, the happenings of the night hefore at the native theatre all tended to con firm the old banker's opinion that one at least cf the culprits stood before him. Ordering Thotarani not to stir from his presence, Bhugwandass in structed one of his clerks to find Tho taram's companion, and, under a pre tended message from that youth him self, to inveigle the stranger to the bank. The emissary succeeded in find ing his man, and in half aa hour's time returned with the Bengali. Addressing the precious pair the banker accused them point blank of concocting and perpetrating the rob bery, and asked them if they had aught to say in extenuation of their of fence before ho called in the police. Thotaram Avas speechless, but Seal Avas not so easily disposed of. "What," asked he, "did the railway consignment note declare the contents to be? The invoice, the receipt handed in by the consignee, and the superscrip tion on the box itself all notified the same thing 'old nails,' Aveighkig so much, and 'old nails', of the specified Aveight AA'ere duly delivered to Pusa, the consignee. Whj then, do you ac cuse us of stealing your bar silver? Who beyond yourself is there to say that the contents Avere bar silver? Even granted such to be the case, Avho saw us take it out? Who saAv us eA-en as much as tamper with the box? Where are the signs of any such tam pering?" ( "All the circumstances point toAvard you and Thotaram being the robbers," rejoiced Bhugwandass, someAvhat ir resolutely. "Assuming that we arc," retorted Seal, insolently, "supposing you have us apprehended, and the affair goes be fore the magistrate, how will you ex plain your false declaration of the con tents of the case? You have rendered yourself liable to a prosecution under the Raihvay Act for misrepresenting the contents of your box. Come!" he shouted, seeing the effect that his words - had on the unhappy banker, "take us before the magistrate. You shall tell your story, I will tell mine! He will ask for all the documents I have mentioned, and when he peruses them, Avho will he convict me of rob bery, without a scrap of evidence to support it, or you of false declaration to prove which these documents Avill speak, let alone the words on the box?" As he finished speaking he gazed at the banker triumphantly, but the lat ter only knitted his broAvs iu Avccbc gone perplexity. He realized only too well that Bhug wandass, Jeykissen, Singh & Co. were powerless to move baud or foot. Tle scoundrelly Seal had t?iern, as it Avere, "ou toast." All they could do they did, and Thotaram was dismissed frcm their employ, but Seal got off scot-free. That Avas all that happened to the per petrators of as impudent and bare faced a robbery as had ever been knoAvn to have been committed on an Indian railway. But Bhugwandass. Jeykissen, Singh & Co. no longer send bullion under the guise of "old nails." -The Wide World Magazine. Curler's Collection Doomed. The splendid cabinet of comparative anatomy in Paris begun ty Cuvier. the distinguished naturalist, iu 1790, and the completion of which occupied twenty-one years, is to be demolished by the authorities of the Jardin des riantes. Among the numerous valu able specimens gathered and classified by Cuvier are the embalmed remains of the huge rhinoceros brought to his Versailles menagerie by Louis XIV. and which the gay monarch used to visit each Aveek attended by his Court. The carcass thus honored by the Kinp: and his sycophants Avas saA-ed with difficulty by Cuvier in 1793 frcrn the incensed revolutionists, Avho desired to burn it becauso it had been one cf their "tyrant's" amusements. It's nil A-cry well to kiss and make up, but romea can generally make up without Kissing. - - SPEAKING OF SOUP. now It AVas Served in a rriualtiTe Ger man Hostelry. "Speaking of soup," said a promiaent musician who has traveled over a good part of the earth, reminds me of an ex perience I had some years ago while in one of the provinces of Germany I had stopped over in a small town for a day or tAvo, and was at the best hotel in the place. This is not saying a great deal, for the patronage did not justify anything like gorgeousness in the mat ter of service or in the kind and char acter of the food furnished the guests. The proprietor, at any rate, Avas doing the best that he could, and no daubt, I would have got along all rfght but for the peculiar method they employed in serving, soup. I have never seen the method employed in any other place, and to be candid about it, I have not been on the lookout for the unique way of serving the first number on the menu. The first intimation I had of the curious practice Avas Avhen a big, heavy Hollander, with a husky voice, Avho had rushed up behind me, asked 'Soup?' 'Yes,' I replied, and before I knew what had happened he had squirted the soup out into my plate. I was surprised and shocked and nor a little puzzled at first, because I did not know hOAV the Avaiter had managed to squirt the soup into my plate so quickly. I had expected him to bring my soup in the usual Avay, in a plate. But he shot the soup over my shoulder before the echo of the 'ja' had left my lips. I AA'atched him make the round of the table. Ho had the soup in a recep tacle of some sort, that looked like a cross between a bagpipe and something else, and it Avorked with a suction-rod arrangement. If a guest Avanted soup he would press the rod and the liquid Avould squirt out into the plate. It was interesting enough, but, to save my life, I couldn't eat the soup, and in fact, I coulda!t eat anything else in the place. I suppose it Avas all right, but I simply couldn't stand for it, and when I left the place I was nearly starved.' New Orleans Times-Democrat. - Stars by Daylight. "Are the stars visible to ordinary sight in the daytime?" asks E. Walter Maunder in Knowledge. "There is a widespread tradition that they are; that if an observer places himself at the fcottom of any deep shaft as of a mine, a well or a factory chimney which may shut off scattered light and. reduce the area of sky illumination act ing on the retina he Avill bu able to dis cern the brighter stars without difficul ty. Of course, every one knows that Venus from time to time may be seea even at high noon, but then Venus at her brightest is many times over brighter than Sirius. Then, again.-the assistance of a telescope enables the' brighter stars to be discerned at mid day, but the telescope not only directs the eye and greatly limits the area from Avhieh the sky light reaches the observer, but it enormously increases the brightness of the star relative to that sky illumination. The naked eye observation of true stars In full sun light stands in quite a different cate gory. Humboldt, Avho Av-as much inter ested in the question, repeatedly tried the experiment in mines, both in Sibe ria and in America, and not only, failed himself ever to detect a star, but never came across any one Avho had succeeded. Much more recently an American astronomer set up a tube for the express purpose of seeing the Tleiades by daylight, also Avith no ef fect." - Itcoollectlon of Touth. Standing on the stern of an outgoing Staten Island ferryboat at South Ferry the other day Avas a gray haired old man avIio appeared to be greatly, inter ested in the proceedings. "This is interesting," he said, as be turned to me, for he evidently wanted to talk to some one. "This primitire method of fastening and loosening a ferryboat carries me back to the days of my childhood. It is the same wind ing of noisy cog wheels, and the same straining and pulling of heavy gang planks by four men hardly equal to the task. ' .; "Back in 1So5, when I live.d in Cam den and Avent to school in Philadelphia. I used to see that same sort of a pro ceeding, and wondered then if--tfeerp wasn't a better, quicker, easier anil more quiet method of fastening a ferry boat in its slip. It appears that there is not, for after forty-seven years I see exactly the same method used in all Its primitive simplicity. StrafiV Isn't itr-New York Herald.