North Carolina Newspapers

CI.OO a Year, la Advance. . "FOR GOD, FOR COUNTRY AND FOR TRUTH." Single Copy 3 Cents, VOL. XVII. . PLYMOUTH, N, C. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, i906. : NO. 23 THE NEW tfe was a country Senator, and when lie took the floor The eyes of fellow members slowly turned to look him o'er; Ills hair was long. Ills voice was loud, and whiskers decki-il his t'liin. Ills "newness" advertised itself before he could begin. He paused to gather dignity, with hand kerchief In hand. His movements wer deliberate, but very far from "grand." And well they knew, from former years, about what he would say, But still they couldn't smile in quite the uame old way. '"I'm not a ready speaker, gentlemen," he slowly said, "And eloquence has never yet through me its lustre Hhed. Hut f you'll take my simple life, and its brief pHges gvun, I think you'll all agree that I have been tin honest man. I represent constituents in this great hddy here;. And 1 expect to serve them faithfully from year to year." He i;aus'd in awkward silence, and stroked his beard of gray, l!ut still they couldn't smile in quite the tiame old way. nn y t Atnnn ttahhti Pin-tic i ' y VWI HO During the first two years of our ex periment in raising ostriches in Dam pier Land from 1U00 to 1902 we had to depend for our supplies on the pearlers" of King Sound. There are as yet no regular means of transportation here; but we had a credit account with the general store at Cossack, two hundred and ten miles down the coast, and made an arrange ment with the skipper of one or another of the pearl-flshei-3 to bring us flour, sugar and canned goods, and land them al a little log shed on the beach not far to the west of the mouth of the Fitzroy River. The distance from our inland ranch fifteen or sixteen miles is too great for signalling with rockets or guns. We could only conjecture when the pearler might put. in there. Sometimes her visits would be a month, some times three months apart; and the only way to find out was for one or anoth er of us to go down to the beach. On an evening in March I setjoff to make this trip with our one "brumby" pony. We hadJ)een having seme trouble with the black-fellows, up thai Fitzroy; and they had recently throw's into our stockaded yard a curious hier oglyph picture, scrawled on a kanga roo's thigh-bone, which we had no great difficulty in deciphering, as a threat to kill and eat three white men in the course of two moons and the inference was easy that we were the three. DampierLand and the Fitzroy River district all the way up to Port Darwin are now almost the only region in the world where whites are in danger from aboriginal savages. Here may si ill be found black tribes of the true stone age, armed only with spears, "kylies" and flint axes. It is one of the last haunts of primitive savagery. Provided as we were with modern Tjreech-loaders, we stood in no special fear of these blacks, and took no no tice of their "compliments" on the kangaroo bone, save to keep a sharp watch. They never showed them selves near our ranch. The only dan ger from them, we concluded, was that they might surprise some one of us out alone or'throw their spears or ky lies from the cover of a thicket. These Fitzroy and Lake Flora blacks throw -a spear thirty or forty yards with considerable accuracy; and as for their kyhes, or boomerangs, the dis tance at ' which one may get a rap on the head from this queer missile is al together problematical. With all these North Australian blacks, however, the white settler has one great advantage; he can travel anywhere by night in well-nigh per fect safety except from snakes. For owing to superstitious fears of evil spirits, "Jacky" is generally found ly ing up close by his fire during the hours of darkness. Sight or sound-of anything moving about him at night affrights him, and he crouches, grov eling, trembling, and muttering strange incantations. So we usually made these trips down to the coast by night if possible, when there was moonlight. The March heat, too, is much less oppressive by night. March is the first month of autumn in this soul hern half of the world. After dose-ending from the plateau, my route lay through a tract of low land fiats, covered with high grass and a sparse growth of "flooded gums," the roosting-places of thousands of fr-ulphur cockatoos and bronze pigeons. Everywhere on these fiats the sear, ripe grass came to my brumby's with ers; and while ambling through it here, be broke into a bandicoot's hole and went lame. All these brumbies are addicted to shamming lameness; but I soon found that the little chap had given his near fore le;. a serious wrench, and was in no condition to go on. ' My first thought was now to go back to the ranch and lead- my pony. It would have been far better for me it I had done so. But I was already six or seven miles on my way down to the sound. We needed to know about our .supplies, and I decided to leave the MEMBER. It was his maiden effort, and, while he strove to speak, : His oice would -, sometimes" quaver, and then again would squeak; He talked against monopoly and over reaching trusts They recognized in his remarks the old reformers' thrusts. He cried against corruption, its baneful lust, itnd then He said they should be dealt with by true and unright men. They watched him as witli fervor his form would bend and sway. But still they couldn't smile in quite the same- old way. It was the old, familiar speech they used to call it "cunt," And used to laugh within their sleeves to hoar that kind of rant; But somehow when this new man spoke, although he was uncouth. They seemed to realize that he was dealing- with the truth. Some glanced about with furtive looks, some trembled just a bit. For well they knew those shafts at last had found a place to hit; They were, of course, ridiculous, these tilings he tried to say. But still they couldn't smile in quite the same old way. I'uek. mr rT i mrrmT t attth ni i u 11 lVll41lld.il. pony hitched out in the grass and go on. So securing the brumby, I shoul dered my gun and set off afoot, my provision for the journey being merely, a "snack" of bread and cheese in a leather wallet. I had proceeded but a little way across the green flats when the moon lit sky darkened. Clouds had risen, and soon a hollow growl of thunder burst forth. Within three minutes it was raining copiously. The downpour continued for half an hour; nor did the gum trees afford much shelter, for Australian foliage has a notable tendency to turn edgewise to the sky. This mattered little, how ever, for the thick high grass now wet me to the skin at every step; but I felt somewhat concerned for my cart ridges. Another shower, even more violent, succeeded the first, heralded by a blind ing flash and a roar of thunder. In the course of a few minutes the clay flats were flooded. What was even worse a mist rose, following the show ers, and it became quite impossible to keep to my 'course or find the gums previously seen across the lowlands.' Gladly would I now have retraced my steps to the pony and returned to the ranch; but before I was really aware, I lost my way, and was hopelessly "bushed." Not to make bad worse, I sat down, with my back to a gum, to wait for daylight; and wet and uncomfortable as I was, I presently fell asleep sit ting there. Day had dawned when I waked, but that dense mist still enveloped every thing. Apparently the sun was up, yet for the life of me I couli not tell which was east. For an hour or more I sat there, hoping that the fog would lift, and meanwhile made a frugal breakfast off my bread and cheese. My general impression was that the sea lay to my right; and I finally set off in that direction, walking fast for an hour or two. The thick grass thinned out at last, and I came to a little creek, swollen and turbid. "It is all right, now," I thought to myself. "I will follow this creek down," for I had no doubt that it flowed into the sound somewhere to the westward of our supply shed. Then for fully three hours I followed that creek, expecting every minute to come out on the seashore. At last I grew quite bewildered. I could not understand it, for I knew I had come a distance of fourteen or fifteen miles. Presently the mystery was cleared. Right ahead of me I suddenly saw a broad channel of deep, swiftly flowing water, into which my wandering creek debouched. It was, it could be, noth ing else than the Fitzroy river, wiiieh at its nearest point is twenty miles to the northeast of our ranch. There is no other such large stream in north west Australia. And all the time I had thought that I was going to the west! Now, at least, I knew where I was; and as I was still determined not to give up my trip, I ate what was left of my food, and set off to follow the river to salt water. I had gone but a little way, however when I came to a deep lagoon, or arm of water, which opened back from the river. A strong current was setting into it, too strong to cross: and I fol lowed it back and round for a mile or more, and then found that it broaden ed in a large pool three or four hun dred yards in diameter. As I stood looking across it, I espied what looked lilte a log hut on the far ther side; and thinking that this might be the camp of whits hunters, naturalists or prospectors, I at first "coooed" across, and then, receiving no answer, went round t! ..: , o . It proved to be a log cabin, evident ly constructed by whites, but had been for seme time deserted; grass and a few ycung oat's were growing about the doorway. Except a mildewed copy of the London Times and two beef tins, there was nothing, whatever in doors; and I was about to proceed when, glancing; across the pool, I saw four black fellows, armed with spears and kylies, going along the other shore, one behind another, all bent forward and moving quickly,, as if tracking game. I watched them a moment; and it then occurred to me, far more sudden ly than was agreeable, that I had my self passed along there but a few min utes before on my way to the hut, and that I was the game. The conviction was unmistakable, and gave me a most unpleasant thrill. I felt anything but certain as to my cartridges. But I was not long reflecting that it was best to keep those spear and kylie fellows on the farther side of the pool. So, stepping out in sight, I cocked my carbine and shouted across. All stop ped short and stared at me. Then I saw one of them half-raiso his hand and all lour dropped out of sight in the grass. To let them know I was armed, as well as to try my cartridges, I took aim at the trunk of a large gum-tree over there, and fired. The well-crimped cartridge proved effective, and fol lowing the report I heard the bullet spat against the trunk of the gum. Instantly the blacks sprang to their feet with a defiant "Ooo-arrh!" and disappeared among the trees. But there had been an accent of exul tant hostility in the shout which made me think there might be more to come of it. I now took serious thought as to what I had better do, and was not long in deciding that our ranch would be a good place for me before they raised the whole black country! I knew the general direction of our place from the river, and striking into a five-mile-an hour jog, I soon left hut and pool behind. I had not gone far, however, when I found myself growing exceedingly weary. I had not- eaten much for twenty-four hours; and falling asleep in wet clothes the previous night had been very unwise, I had felt feverish all the morning, and now headache and giddiness beset me. I kept on for an hour, however, com ing at last to rocky uplands, where lay great numbers of immense boulders of mica schist. Some of these were as large as a small house. I climbed on one of them and sat down," where the drooping limbs of a gum brushed the top of it. I felt nei ther energy or care for what might happen. To go on seemed insupport able exertion; an unconquerable im pulse to lie down came over me and I must have dropped asleep there. The sound of low voices roused me, and raising my. head off the hard rock, I saw something which instantly awoke me. A little way back on my trail were what looked to be ten or twelve skel etons, stealing forward. These skel etons carried shields, spears and ky lies, however. They were black fel lows, painted according to their cus tom for war or a corroboree, outlining their ribs and other bones in white daub. The pendent foliage of the gum had prevented them from seeing me. I drew back the hammer of my carbine, and under other circumstances it would have been amusing, at the click, to see those skeleton fellows stop short and look about them. They saw me now; but instead of throwing their spears, they dropped in the grass and wriggled away like snakes in dread of the white man's deadly rifle. Watching them disappear, I slid down from the rock and made off as fast as I could. By this time it was three o'clock of a hot and lowery afternoon; the mists had wholly lifted. My head ached very severely; but I went on for two hours or more, over sterile, rocky hills to the wet of the Fitzroy. Toward the northeast I could see the river low lands and the clumps of lofty, flooded gums which marked its course. I was thus enabled to keep to the direction in which I knew our ranch lay. But it was evidently a long way off still; and as evening drew on, I grew quite discouraged, as much from illness and lack of strength as fear of my pur suers. My plight, indeed, was an unenvia ble one. If I went on after nightfall I was almost certain to be "bushed"; again, and if I lay down and fell asleep, the black fellows might steal up and spear me. But coming before long to a brook, I hit on a ruse for throwing, them off my trail. I first crossed the brook, and went on for fif ty or sixty paces, then came back on my own tracks and waded along the bed of the brook for a hundred yards or so, and finally emerged in a thick et of scrub and weeds on the bank. Here I determined to lie up till morning. Night set in; the moon was not yet up. Bandicoots were scurrying about, giving vent to their harsh squeaks, but otherwise nothing was stirring; and alter ling there, in much discom fort for some time,' I lapsed first into one uneasy drowse, then another, and another, for several hours. A splashing of feet in the brook roused me at last, and I raised myself to peer out from my covert. The clouds had broken away, the moon was up; and there was my painted pursu ers again, still looking for me I Little trail as I left, they had follo ed on Jt to the brook and crossed over, but were now at a loss. For some time they stood', makfag-signs to one another, without speaking; and any thing more weird than their strange white-outlined bodies, like., so many walking skeletons, I have never seen. With my gun well In hand, I lay in the thicket and watched them. After coursing about for a time, recrossing the brook once or twice, they moved away in the direction in which I had been travelling. Clearly, in spite of their usual dread of .darkness, they were spending the night hunting me; but my ruse had bothered them. The heated air had turned cooler and my head felt clearer, but I judged it better to remain there till daybreak; for I looked for the black fellows to come back presently. They did not show themselves, how ever; and as soon as the east grew bright I set off, and in the course of half an hour reached the height of land ahead, whence I discerned the little dome shaped mountain and yel low cliffs to the west of our ranch. I had not quite shaken off the black fellows, however, for as I descended the hills, a confused distant shouting was borne to my ears, and on a bare hilltop,' a mile or more to the south ward, I caught sight of several of them brandishing their kylies and beating them on their shields. By way of a parting salute, I sent a bullet humming over their heads. That was the last I saw of them. On reaching the ranch, I found my two partners in much anxiety as to my fate. One of them had just come in from a trip down to the beach, and had led home the pony, which he had found hitched out by the trail, as I had left him. I had covered a distance of fully eighty miles, and a number of days passed before I recovered from the effects of the journey. The experience taught me never to set off again by night or day without a compass. Beyond doubt these black neighbors of ours had intended to put in execu tion their threat to kill and eat a white man. If they could have sur prised me, they would probably have done so. None the less, I was very glad I had not found it necessary to "shoot any of them, or open a death account with their tribe. Two of them ,have already come to our place of their own accord, and in time we shall no doubt establish friendly relations with them. Youth's Companion, The Rise in the River. It is little short of astonishing to see how little water is required to float the southern river steamers, a boat loaded with perhaps a thousand bales of cotton slipping along contentedly, where a boy could wade across the stream. Not long ago, however, the Chatta hoochee got too low for even her light draught commerce, and at Gunboat Shoals the steamer grounded. As the drinking water on board needed re plenishing, a deckhand was sent ashore with a couple of water buckets. Just at this moment a northern trav eler approached the captain of the boat and asked him how long he thought they would have to stay there. "Oh, only until that man gets back with a bucket of water to pour into the river," the captain replied. Presently the deckhand returned, and the stale water from the cooler was emptied overboard. Instantly, to the amaze ment of the traveller, the boat began to move. "Well, if that don't beat thunder!" he gasped. The fact was, that the boat, touching the bottom, had acted as a dam, and there was soon backed up behind her enough water to lift her over the shoal and send her on down the stream. Harper's Weekly. How Senator Tillman Lost an Eye. Although his brothers were old enough to serve in the Confederate army, Benjamin R. Tillman was a schoolboy of 15 when the great strug gle began. He knew that at 1C he must join the Confederate forces, and his brothers wrote back from the field entreating him to get as much educa tion as possible, because the war might last so long that he would never again be able to go to school. Even at night young Tillman would continue his studies, frequently carry ing a lighted pine knot into the woods and lying down with his books beside it. He was a lank, tall, silent boy, dictatorial and brusque, but a natural student. The heat of the pine torch injured his left eye and a plunge in cold water brought on a tumor that de stroyed it. It was the almost two years illness following this mishap that prevented the youth from serving in arms against the Union. Pearson's Magazine. Airship Possibilities. The following conversation, accord ing to Health, took place between two airship owners: "Have any trouble in reaching Mars?" "None worth montionng. I was fined four or five times for scorching on the Milky Way, and once for loop ing the loop on one of Saturn's rings but that was all." DEATH VALLEY TEAMPS. THEIR SEARCH FOR FOOD, DRINK AND SHELTER. Strange Life of These Chronic Ho boesPrey Upon Ranchmen Re venge ouf One Who Was Ordered to Leave Crimes They Commit The Tramp Prospector. WTiat would you who feed an oc casional hobo from your back door step and wonder at his feet worn from tramping over a few miles cf well laid roads, his clothes grass strewn from sleeping in haymows, think of a tramp wlio covers hundreds of miles a year, whose feeding places are from twenty five to fifty miles apart, whose water ing places are equally distant from each other in short, whose bed and be:1., so to speak, are the vast floor of the desert? Yet there is exactly such a class, real tramps, yet as different from the tramps of cities as day is from night, tramps with nothing to do but eat. They do not have to beg; food comes to them through fear. They do not have to search out sheltering barns at nightfall; a greasewood bush is their shelter, the sands of the desert their couch. In spite of its arid wastes, in spite of the discomforts and the positive dangers to which even well equipped 'travellers on the desert are subjected, says the San Francisco Chronicle, the great sandy plain is come to have a species of tramp all its own, not an outgrowth from civilized places, but an origination of its own, an interesting as well as hovel branch of a worthless tribe. Even Death Valley, the most barren and dangerous of all deserts known to civilized man, has its hoboes who wan der up and down its dismal length through all seasons of the year save the very hottest part cf the summer. The headquarters of all desert tramps are in some small town "on the borders of the region over which they wander. Daggett has more than its share of them. So also has Rands burg, Johannesburg, Ivanpah, and all the rest of the scattered settlements that dot the level plain. 'They are not numerous, these foot travellers, yet in proportion to the population they are probably as plentiful as their brethren of the Coast are around San Francisco and Los Angeles. Their methods of operation are vast ly different from those of the Coast hoboes. Leaving Daggett, Ivanpah or whatever little town they have cum bered during the months of greatest heat, some time in late September or October they strike out alone across the desert. One peculiarity of this class of tramps is that they never move about in companies. Indeed, one desert hobo Is usually the sworn enemy of all the rest of his kind. For cloth inj they have such things as they can beg, possibly a few earn a little money during their months of "idleness" in the town and spend that for clothing, but as a rule they are garbed in more different colors than was Joseph, though of more subdued hue. Over his back the desert tramp slings a gunnysack, in which are a couple of empty tin cans, a beer bottle or two of water and such food as he can beg or steal. Thus equipped, usu ally without a weapon of any sort, he invades a country which has brotight more men to death than any other equal area in the world outside the great battlefields. Usually his first stop will be some twenty-five miles out at a desert ranch or a solitary mining camp. On the way he travels as slowly as his food supply will let him. The cactus fruit is ripening about the time of year in wiiich he reaches the cactus fields, and this helps him a bit on his way, and there are huge chuckawallahs (lizards of two feet in length or more with edi ble tails) to be had for the killing, and with these he can live for some time on a small actual ration. Where night overtakes him he sleeps and by dear experience he knows which water holes he can depend on yet to contain the life giving fluid. Should one of these "tanks" fail him in time of exceptional drought he must push on to the next one or retreat to the settlement whence he came. If either of these is too far for him to reach he dies, as many of his kind have died in the years that are gone, uncared for by man or beast, for net even the dogs of the desert will accompany these tramps on their journeys. Teamsters and prospectors do not stop to bury the tramp when his body is found, which is not often; the sun and the storms of the boundless space take care of him when he dies, as, indeed, they did in life. But if the water hole toward which he tramps does contain plenty of water ho will sometimes camp near it for several days. To these springs, too, come occasional prospectors, alone save for their faithful burros. When one of these whose "nrubstako" was extra large disappears, his taking off is usually charged to the mutes. Mora often, so I am told by old desert men, tome'tramp has felled him with a stone and then, after robbing his saddlebags or the pack on his burro, pushes on in to the heart of the desert. It is days before the dead miner is discovered, sometimes the days run into weeks. and then all trace of the murderer has been covered up and he Is somewhere far out on the winding white trail, liv- lnir rtn rno rnrvn r 1 m ii itii i 11 i i kii a w ful crime to get. ? The circuit of the desert tramps wha start out from Daggett frequently runs entirely around Death Valley. From Daggett they go out to the China Ranch or to Resting Springs, thence ont across low lava hills into the Furnace Creek country and down to the old borax works at the north end of the valley. From there it is a short and comparatively safe hike of a couple of hundred miles into some one o the mining camps, so that their tramp. all told, reaches very close to three- and sometimes four hundred miles. On this journey water holes are far apart and very uncertain, ranches are scattered and the network of trails so interwoven by the feet of prospectors and of burros that they become a veri table maze to the man who does not keep close watch on them year by year. To make this circuit requires at least nine months of the year from late September or October to the last of May. For the remainder of the year as has been said, the tramp loafs around some border town, where he has to behave himself; ropes and tele graph poles and willing men are toi near at hand for the committing o crimes. It is the lonely ranches on the des ert that suffer most from this clas: of wanderers. Coming to the ranel house they insolently demand food an clothing, and they get it, too. If thei do not the haystack is burned thai night, or even the house is set on firs If the family depends on a spring water, as likely as not the water ho will be filled with stones and ear frequently springs along the trail a so treated when the tramp thinks th one of his enemies is likely to pa that way in the near future and d pend on the presence of water in. t tank for himself and his stock. One incident of this kind may told to illustrate the devilish sche: these fellows concoct. A new manaa was sent to the borax plant on i northern rim of Death Valley. He w a most excellent man for the work hand, but he knew nothing of the p pie with whom he was to deal, and first tramp who came along was rou ly ordf red to "get out and stay oi Now the road over which the boi from this particular plant was hat to the refinery was long and dry, the company had placed wooden ta at necessary intervals, keeping tlf filled with water and depending them for the use of the wagon te and their drivers. The tramp, gered and revengeful at his treatn set out along this road and for hundred miles emptied every tank. result can better be imagined tharf scribed; the next wagon train out huge desert wagons, drawn by twj mules and handled by two men ing to the first tank and findin water pushed on to the next; bf time they reached that the men well nigh crazed with thirst, bi water awaited them there, and onj araggea tneir weary bodies, unulf presumed, abandoning the team, I wandered away and died The wagons and the mules, th ter quite dead, were found two- later, but. not even the skeletoj the men were ever seen. The keeps its secrets better than thf and this was one of them. Mi lowed the tramp, some say h caught. The men who followe still live on the desert; I hav one of them, but none can reh whether they caught this par tramp or not. Possibly a pile olf couia ten it it could speak, toi shrift is meted to the man, tramp or mine owner, who r with water on the desert. Moj uable than gold it is, and wort if human lives when thrown in t ance. On the desert, too, there is kind of tramp, by no means inal, and yet one of the most i ing characters of the whole tramp prospector. He makes 5 tl est living of any man in the w excepting the promoter of mines. And, like the prom lives by fleecing the credulc trflmn nrnsnf-rtrir ia fnrovtr i ing a fabulously rich' prosprf jr.. i . i a ., -i . i : uom tue nearc ot tne aesert u laden with samples, suppose his new discovery, but really i on the dump of some establis Armed with these it is littl for him to enlist the help cf tf with mnro mnnpv th:in knnf the desert to develop the " His first demand is, of c "grub-stake. This will cor burro, or two, if the man can out of them, a sack qf hea: flour, molasses and cookinr as weli as other things ncc. work he says he is gc!" take. Thus provi !?fi. i . sets out, camps at soma v water hole arid theio r'"1'1 until the grub-stake gives' j jp of wectef The wheat cro for 1003 , aggregated the total of 8-1, 175,220 bushel oata 74,211,260 lmshe!s. crops the province of Maj duced fully two-thirds.