' 1 . - " . . . 1 ' ; 7 1 iy
$1.00 a Year, In Advance. . ' FOR GOD, FOR COUNTRY, AND TOR TRUTH." Single Copy, 5 Cents.
; VOL. XIV, ' PLYMOUTH, Nl C, FRIDAY. JANUARY 8, 1904. NO. 42.
1 1
GROWING OLD.
BI MABOAKET E. SANG8TEJt.
Is it parting with .the roundness
-Of the smoothly molded cheek? :
Is it losing from the dimples
Half the flashing joy they speak?
Ia it fading of the luster
From the wavy, golden hair?
Is it finding on the forehead
, - Graven lines of thought and care?
Is it dropping, as the rose-leaves
Drop their sweetness overblown, .
Household names that once were dearer,
More familiar than our own?
Is it meeting on the pathway y'
' Faces strange and glances cold,
While the 6oul with moan and sniver
Whispers sadly, "Growing old?"
Is it frowning at the folly '
Of the ardent' hopes of youth?
Is it cynic melancholy y"
At the rarity'of truth? ,
Is it disbelief in loving?
Selfish hate or miser's greed?
Then such blight of nature's noblest
" Is a "growing old" indeed.
UTJXnXUTTJXTLJriJTJTjr
X-y HE Grand Trunk road is
t ) tlle maiu al'terv of India.
O O It runs without a break
T K crss the breadth of the
'ZtCT-' land from Karachi to
Bombay.,
A cyclist who had ridden round the
world on his bicycle once described it
as 1500 miles of the finest cycling track
on earth.
' ' It is made of kunkar, a kind of stony
growth found on sandy ground and re
sembling sandstone. When ground
' tine and mixed with water, this -yields
a mortar-like substance which," gives
a surface to the road as hard and
smooth as a billiard table.
But once this surface is worn
through the kunkar reverts to its
native sand. Henee-the centre of the.
Grand Trunk road, which is always
kept in repair for light traffic, is like
asphalt, while on each side of -this
track is a broad lane for heavy coun
try traffic, where the dry sand lies a
foot thick and the broad-wheeled ox-
carts raise a pillar of dust as" they
proceed and leave a trail like- the wake
of a ship behind them.
On each side of the main track is a
row of trees, and on each side of the
side track is yet another row. There
are thus four rows of trees in all 'to
shield the 'wayfarers from 'the", in tob.
orable heat and glare of the vertical
; sun.
Along this great highway the rnany
sided life of India flows and eddies.
It is peopled almost entirely by the
natives in their dirty cotton clothing,
with bare brown legs showing be
neath. The sahib keeps to his iron railroad
and leaves the people of the country
to their prehistoric slow moving rate
of progress. Here and there the crim
son garments of the lower class women
and the different hued trousers of the
Mohammedan women in special, make
a splash of color amid the crowd of
white-robed pilgrims.
There goes the graceful figure of a
woman, straight as a dart beneath her
brass fotah of water. Better, however,
not to look at her face; very few of the
Indian peasant women have any beau
ty of feature, and the hard labor of
work in the fields under an Eastern
sun leaves thorn old and shriveled up
before their time.
Here comes a native lady in a burka,
and you could not look upon her fea
tures if you would. The burka is " a
long, shapeless garment of unbleached
calico, which completely envelops the
figure from the crown of the head to
the feet; it has a lacework mask for
the face, through which only the eyes
are visible. It is astonishing how sel
dom this or any other native raiment
seems to get washed.
A herd of goats strifggle -untended
down the highway.- Farther along
some immense cattle with branching
Jliorns block the traffic. A - fast trot
ting little "bullock of the hump-backed
breed, harnessed to an ckka, bumps
merrily along the -centre of the road,
v A boy flying a kite-cannons into the
'passersby. Two; professional, singers,
"surrounded by a small crowd of women,
v'ahd. children, stand under a'branclAftg
if;5Ipal tree, opening and shutting. tlro'iv;
Vnoitths alternately as they give vent
to a monotonous chant.
A fakir stalks by, clothed only in
& loin cloth, with long matted hair
and his head and body covered with
ashes, a withered arm held straight
in front of him. Look at those Tathan
soldiers with their baggy white
3 ' C
. But the silver thread that ehineth" '
Whitely in the thinning tress,
1 And the pallor where-the bloom wag,
..Need not tell of bitterness;
'And the brow's more earnest writing
Where it once was marble fair,
May be but the spirit's tracing ,
Of the peace of answered prayer
If the smile has gone in deeper,
And the tears more quickly start, '
Both together meet in music
, Low and tender in the heart; ' .
' And in others' joy and gladness,
When the life can find its own.
Surely angels learn to listen
To the sweetness "of the tone. -1
v.
On the gradual sloping pathway,
As the passing years decline.
Gleams a golden love-light falling
Far from upper heights divine.
And," the shadows frdm'that brightness
Wrap them softly m their fold,
Who unto celestial whiteness
Walk, by, way of growing old.
4
breeches ' 'and huge black puggaris,
swaggering through the crowd with
the contempt of the warrior for- the
country bumpkin.
Along the. .portion . of the Grand
Trunk which lies between Allahabad
and Benares, one day in late Septem
ber two Englishmen were strolling
at 'their ease.- It - was just at the
change of the seasons when there was
still some bite in the sun in the day
time, and it 'was not-too cold to sleep
in the open air at night. . The two men
were chid "in native garb of dho.ti and
puggari, partly for lightness and ease
in traveling, and partly to conceal their
fallen fortunes from their own com
patriots. . .
But though their faces were burnt
to the hue of the riatives themselves,
their nationality .was evident at a
gltmce to the passersby. There is
something in the swin'g" of an Eng
lishman's walk that distinguishes "him
from the down-trodden Tlindu, while
the size of his chest- and calves alone
would mark him out from the narrow
built, red-shanked natives of the
plains.
The simple villagers salaamed, -to
them as they passed, the Mohammedan
women with trousers tight from .the
knee to the ankle, the sign of "he
oldest i profession in the world," be
stowed on them the deer specially re
served for the "sahibs," and even the'
soldiers saluted fheni. 'Although they
yere but two penniless tramps, their
progress was' that of the conqueror
through a conquered land.
The men, whose names were Spen
cer and Mitchell, were a conjuror
and his advance agent.' They had been
engaged in an .up-country, tour .when
the hot weather came on, audiences
were not to.be found, funds were ex
hausted, and finally they were obliged
to take to the road. . : -
With the homing instinct of i Eng
lishmen, they were making for Cal
cutta and the sea. " They levied their
living from the country; through which
they passed. The fields of wheat and
grain by the roadside furnished them
with grain, which they, ground between
two stones and baked into ehupatties.
The mango tops yielded their luscious
fruit to add a savor to the frugal meal.
As it grew toward midday and the.
heat of the sun became overpower
ing, the two travelers took refuge in a
shady . grove;- while the villagers retired-
to their houses for their midday
sleep. Spencer remarked as they: sank
down lander a tree:
'Tin deuced hungry. A -vegetarian
diet doesn't satisfy me at all. I .wis.li
I had something more substantial to
eat."
"Have a chew of opium," said Mitch
ell, producing a block of the drug about
two. inches square from his pocket.
"The natives say it's very staying."
"No thanks," said Spencer., "A beef
steak's more in- my line- Where did
yjoii get it?-"I didn't lAiow you were a
drug eater." i
"I am not. I picked this up in the
Lucknow, serai the other day, and
never thought of it again until this
; minute."
"Presently only a single "'figure was
"left iU-tne landscape;. &dy3ncing. slowly
toward them along the centre of the
roadway. As the man approaclied
nearer, Spencer turned to his compan
ion and said:
"Have you noticed that that man has
been tracking us for the last three
days, ever since we left Lucknow?'
"No; I've never seen him before."
"Well, I've not been an entertainer
all these years without learning to use
my eyes, and I've seen him watching
us. And what's more, he's tried to dis
guise himself in three or four different
ways, which looks suspicious."
"But," said Spencer, briefly, "It's only
your imagination. As we haven't got
a pice in the world, what can he get
out of us?"
"That's just what I intend to find
out," said Spencer, quietly; "it may be
worth knowing."
"Salaam, sahib," said the man as he
came up to them, and he produced, a
pack of cards and some coins from a
calico bag, squatted down in front of
them on his hams and arranged his
voluminous draperies over his knees.
. "A traveling juggler, by all that's
holy," said Spencer, with, a grin. "I
wonder if he's any good. In spite of
the traveler's yarns about the mango
trick and the vanishing rope trick, I
never met a native conjurer yet that I
couldn't give points to myself." .
"I don't think this chap's any good,
.anyway," said Mitchell, critically
watching the exhibition. "I'm no ex
pert, but I can see the coins dropping
into those skirts of his and the cards
disappearing up his sleeves in the most
obvious manner."
"The worst fraud I ever struck," re
plied Spencer. "It looks as if he'd
just started in this line for our bene
fit. Here, sonny, give he hold of that
bag of. tricks of yours, and I'll show
you how it ought to be done." .
The Englishman stood up in front
of the astonished native, bared his
arms to the . elbow, and went through
the same tricks one by one. But this
time there was no bungling, the coins
disappeared into the air, and the cards
reappeared from the trunks of thd"'sur
rounding trees.
As he watched the astonishing ex
hibition the native's eyes got gradu
ally larger and" larger, till at last he
fell on his knees in the dust at Spen
cer's feet, beat frantically on the
ground with the palms of . his hands,
and literally howled in Hindustani:
"Oh! sahib, protector of the poor,
spare me, -1 see that you are a great
guru, and know, everything. Only
curse me not with the evil eye, and I
will confess all."
"This chap's got something on his
mind evidently," said Spencer. "What
did I tell you about those disguises?
Say on'Maccluff-Bolouthna," and he
gave the native 'a kick to emphasize
this'last command. ' "
''O'h,:'koly one!," whined the native.
"I am :a- poor man and the servant of
others. ' Blanre me not for what I am
now about to .tell you, andwvhat a wiz
ard likeyou must know, already."
"Of course I know it," said Spen
cer sternly, "but you must, confess your
crime before you can be forgiven."
"It was you honor's friend, babuji,
that was the beginning of trouble. He
picked up a pearl of great price in the
Lucknow serai three days ago."
"That's a lie,'.',, said Mitchell. "I
wouldn't be traveling on shank's iryu-e
now if :I had.": But Spencer, said
quietly: .
"The pearl was concealed in a piece
of opium. Say on, who was the own
er of the pearl?"
"Its owner was a rich merchant from
Ceylon, whose servant I am. lie was
taking the pearl to sell to a great rajah
in Punjab."
"Oh, holy one, the sahibs are some-.
times zabbardasti;- angry men. My
master feared that if he asked for the
pearl the sahibs might beat him and
take it away. - But if you did not know
the value of what you had found, he
might getit back by craft."
"Therefore you came as'a juggler to
search owv clothes under pretense of
looking for coins. And if you failed to
find the pearl?"
"Then my master has hired four bad
maches with lathis, and they will come
in the night. and beat you on the head
and take away the pearl by force."
"Achha, it is well. You are forgiven.
Go,"," said Spencer.
"And the pearl?" suggested the na
tive, humbly,
"The pearl." , roared Spencer at the
full pitch of his lungs. "Soor ke
butcha. You come here and confess
to a plot to rob and murder us, and
then expect to get back your aceiirsed
pearl. Jao nikal jao, son of Satan, be
fore I destroy ypu!"
" At this sudden outbreak the native
turned, hastily and fled for his life,
learing the two Englishmen convulsed
wit h la ugter under the ; trees. f r "
"Well, our fortunes are looking up,"
said Spencer. "Let us have a look at
this pearl of great price."
Mitchell produced the block of opium
once more, and cutting it open they
found a pear-shaped pearl about half
an inch long and of great luster re
posing in the centre.
"By Jove," exclaimed Spencer,
"that's something worth having. It's
worth a cool five thousand, or I'm no
judge of gems."
"What shall we do?" asked Mitchell.
"Do?" echoed Spencer. "Why, what
should we do but hurry into Benares
to-day and take the train for Culcutta.
The price of this pearl will set us up
in business again in style. And I have
no desire to have four thugs after me
on the Grank Trunk." Calcutta Mail.
Spotting the Married Men.
"There's a married man," said a
man Avho stood in front of a depart
ment store in Brooklyn, on Saturday
night. The one to whom he pointed
was standing on the corner.
"How do you know?" the man with
the detective instinct was asked.
"Oh, it's easy to pick them," he re
plied. "There's another, and there's
another." He pointed to two others
who were sauntering back and forth,
one young, the second gray-haired and
smoking a cigar. "Xow, that fellow
there, with the baby buggy, is easy,"
the speaker continued. "You can't
make any mistake about him. Their
wives are in the store, spending the
week's allowance' and the men are
waiting for them. You know men hate
a department store.
"There! Wasn't I right?" he 'eked as
a woman came out of , the storeand
walked away with one of the men.
After a time another woman appeared
and was joined by one of the saunter
ing men. Then out come the woman
who belonged to the baby buggy, and
after depositing an armful of small
packages at the feet of the baby that
party moved on.
"How did you come to notice this?"
the student of human nature was
asked.
"I learned it by experience," was his
answer.
Just then he lifted his hat to a wom
an who came out of the store. She
slipped her hand under his arm and
they walked away together. New
York Press. . : ..,t.r.
Must "Work Out "West.
The moment that winter breaks and
save in the high altitudes, winter west
of the Mississippi is a mild and com
fortable thing in comparison witu our
Eastern weather the police of St. Jos
eph, Kansas City, Denver, in fact of
all the towns and cities, wage relent
less war on vagrants. The wide roar
ing prairies, the railroads, the mills are
all insatiable in their demand for un
skilled labor... Crops rot in the fields
for 'lack of harvesters, mills are idle
for lack of men to drive the heavily
laden -wagons to their doors. The idle
will not work so long as they can
beg or steal. In the West they have
little chance for either.
On the average fifty men a week are
arrested in Kansas City during the
months, of June, July and August. The
police wisely refuse to burden the
city with their support, and instead
give these men the alternative of going
to work honestly, and for high wages,
or breaking stone for the improvement
of the abominable Western roads. The
choice nearly always is for the better
paying labor; Great wisdom is shown
in the distribution of these men. Only
one or two of a, gang are sent to any
one camp. Leslie's Monthly.
The Irishman's "Ad."
General -A. Ii. Chaffee, who com
manded, in the war game off Maine,
the Department of the East, was talk
ing one afternoon to some reporters in
Portland. The hypothetical loss of the
fleet had Deen discussed, and this sub
ject reminded General Chaffee of a
story. He said:
"Speaking . of losses, there was an
Ohio Irishman once who lose a gold
watch. . lie. told one of his friends
about it.
" Tt is a fine Swiss watch.' ho said,
'full jeweled, adjusted to three posi
tions, and to heat and cold. It's worth
$325.'
"'Well,' said his friend, T hope you
get it back.'
'"Oh, I'm likely to get it back,'
said the Irishman, 'for I've advertised
it in the lost and found columns of
eleven papers.'
" 'What reward have you offered?'
, "'Four dollars.'
" 'Four dollars? Why, man, that's
not a fair reward for a gold watch
worth -$025,' the friend exclaimed.
" 'Whist,' said the Irishman, 'that's
where I'm foolin' them. I'm adver
tisin it as a silver watch.' "
One-third cf the college
now are women.
:raduates
A LINE TO CARRIE.
Oh! Caroline 'a so very sweet,
From rippling curls to twinkling feet.
No rnagicry of rhyme is meet
To sing her beauty near divine;
A V enus as to form is she
Her waist 's slender as can be
To lend it more of symmetry
I would not care to add a line. ' m
To note the grace with which she moves, 1
Ana grace ana iorm ana iace dui prove jp
I do no wrong to thus enshrine
Her in my heart of hearts, and say
With all a lover's naivete: -
"One charm along improvement's way
I would "not add to Caroline." A
Roy Farrell Greene, in Puck.
Bad Man "Have you killed youc
man?" Cholly Gotrox "Aw, no. Me
chauffeur attends to all that, ye know.'
Judge. i
"Grandpa, what is a morganatic mar
riage?" "A morganatic marriaget
H'm. That must be a marriage for
money." Life.
"Bali! Her husband is only a chear
duke." "Don't be uncharitable. Per
haps he was the most expensive duke
to be had at the time." Puck. i
This new locomotion they say is quite dear
Though unlikely to injure or kill.
It isn't the automobile that you fear , fi
So much as the automobill. j1
Washington Star. "
"I don't want poverty, en I don't
want riches," said Brother DiekeyJ
"All I want is plenty of political cam!
paigns, en canderdates a-runnin' all del
year roun' !" Atlanta Constitution. j
"One of Scharper's friends was tell
ing me he is in financial straits!" "Ah!
Some of his friends are charitable.)
"How do you mean?" "The uncharit
able ones call them 'financial crook
eds.' "-Philadelphia Tress.
A Scot in a kiltie of plaid
Fell sick and exceedingly sad.
"Hoot! 'tis funny," he said,
"I've a cauld in my haid,
When 'tis only cauld legs I have haid."
Philadelphia press.
Spartacus "Dear, dear! Another
man ends his life with a bullet!"
Smartacus "Well, it seems to me that
life with a bullet would be a thing
most anybody would want to end so
lonesome and uncongenial." Baltimore?
American.
"Yes," said the bank official, "we
need a runner for the bank. Have you
had any experience?" "Well, sir," re
plied the applicant, "I've lived at Loue
somehurst for years, and I've caught
the 7.39 train to this city regularly;
each day." Philadelphia Press. ,
Drummer "Let's see! There is a
show of some kind in the town hall to
night,isn't there?" Landlord Petty
ville Tavern "Sure thing! Miss Agnes
Ammidon appeared here in 'East
Lynne' in 1S74, and pleased the people
so well that she's consented to play a
return date to-night." Puck.
"Aren't you going up in it yourself?"
asked one of the spectators. "No," an
swered the inventor of the flying ma
chine. "This is merely a trial trip, and
I have decided to send ohe of my as
sistants. At this critical stage of the
invention I cannot afford to run any
risks. Are you all ready, Jacobs? Fol
low the directions I have given you
and you will be perfectly safe." Chi
cago Tribune.
"No, I am not in favor of this move
ment to have all the automobiles num
bered," asserts the first citizen. "But
it seems to me to bo a wise provision,"
argues the second. "Not at all. What
should be required is that all pedes
trians wear a number. Look how.
much trouble there is Q,very day over
identifying some of them who have
obstructed the path of the automo
bilist." Judge.
The French Telephone Service.
The telephone system of France
seems to be in a most inefficient state,
and complaints are coming in from all
quarters. Communication with Paris
from the suburbs is said to be practi
cally impossible, one man having
waited twenty-four hours in order to
get a connection from Trouville. The
central office in Taris is utterly unable
to cope with the great increase in the
number of subscribers. It is now pro
posed to raise $2,000,000 for the pur
pose of enlarging the entire system.
The income tax returns show that
citizens of Great Britian have invest
ed abroad $5,03040,500. i