North Carolina Newspapers

r 1 TAN BARB. H UNTIL JANUARY 1, 1889, 75 CZEZCsTTS. un TIL JANUARY 1, 1889, 75 OZEISTTS- VOLUME 1. CONCORD, N. C, MAY 4, 1888. NUMBER 17. STANDARD TBI STANDARD 1 11 Hardware Headquarters. SEE HERE, rilERCH&MFS, MilllCS, UIGIIIEERS, ,!II1ERS, Farmers and Everybody Else Can be suited in Hardware at YORKE & WADS WORTITS at bottom prices for the CAS U. Our stock is full and complete, A splendid line of Cook Stove. and cook'ng utensils in stock. Turning Flows, PloT Stocks, Harrows. Helling, Feed Cutters, Cornshellers, Tinware, Guns, Pistols, Knives, Powder, Shot and Lead, Doors, Sash and Blinds, Shingles, Glass, Oils, White Lead, Paints and Putty a specialty ; Wire Screens, Oil Cloths, wrought, cut and Horse Shoe Nails, and in fact everything usually kept in a hardware store. Wc will sell all these goods as cheap, quality considered, as any house in North Carolina. Our warehouse is Oiled with Carriages, Buggies, Wagons, Reapers, Mow ers, Hay Rakes, of the best make Ou the market, which must and will be sold at the lowest figures. Be sure to come to see us, whether you buy or not YORKE & WADSWORTH. P. S We have always on hand Lister's and Waldo Guano and Wando Acid at prices to suit. Y. & W. GREAT VICTORY OVSR HIGH PRICES! THE 1ST 1 DEAL Til S 3? IR, I 3ST Gr The undersigned once more comes to thrf front and avows his determiiiat.on tjjlead all competitors in the good work of saing the people moue and su'p plying them with a superior quality of GENERAL MERCHANDISE. We are 'loaded to the muzzle," and if our s.tock is not speedily reduced, there is danger of an espl sion when we fire off our big gu . Everybody liiust Vstand from under," for th bottom has dropped out ol LOW PRICES, and if anybody gets caught when it falls, somebody is sure to get hurt. Now Open your eyes, bargain hunters, and if you are close calculators and know a go d thing when you see it, come and see me if you want to save money by buying yonr Dry Goods, Hats, Boots and Sloes, G roceries, provisions and other articles of home use. A specialty on flour, which cannot be purchasod elsewhere of the sama grade as cheap as I will sell it Don't sell your country produce before calliug on P. S. Thanking- you for past favors, I hope by fair dealing and reasonable prices to merit a continuance of the same. R. A. B INii W RACKET STORE IN CONCORD A NEW FIRM! More Ik a Slaughter in PEICES I Come and see our beautiful stock consisting of Calicos, Dress Goods, wins, a Full stock of Notions, MeD's Furn i.shing Goods. A full line of Linen and a large lot of Jewelry. Also Tin Cups, Buckets and many other things. ABRAHAMS & FELDMAN, . Formerly of Baltimore. Next door to Mrs. Cross' Millinery Store. U lo uriefl lace, The Weekly News-Observer The Weekly News and Observer is a long ways the beBt paper ever pub lished in North Carolina. I is a cred it to the people and to the State. The people should take a pride ia it. It should be in every family. It is an eight page paper, chock full of the best eort of reading matter, news, market reports, and all that. You cannot af ford to bo without it. Price $125 a year. We will furnish the Weekly News and Observer until January lbt, 1889, for 91. Seud for sample copy Address, News and Observer Co., Raleigh, N. C. SEASOIT! NEW HLIilElt. S'ORE. I would inform the ladies of Con cord and surrounding country that I have opened a new Millinery Store At ALLISON'S CORNER, where they will find a woll selecfei stock of Hats and Bonnets Ribbons, Co lars, Corsets, Bustles, Kuchiug, Veiliog, &c, which will be sold cheap for CASH. Give me a call. Respectfuliy, 6 3m Mrs MOLLIE ELLIOT TOP THAT COUGH. For to delay is dangerous Mooses Cough Syrup is the best, for coughs, colds, hourseness, Bronchitis, cr-up. whooping cough and diseases of the throat and lungs, as many attest who have used it. For sale at Fetzers drugstore,- WISIIINQ, BY JOHN O. SAXE, Of all amusements of the mind, From logic down to fishing, There isn't one that you can find So very cheap as " wishing !" A very choice diversion, too, If we but rightly use it, And not, as we are apt to do, Pervert it and abuse it. I wish a common wish indeed My purse was somewhat fatter, That I might cheer the child of need, And not my pride to flatter ; That I might make oppression reel, As only gold can make it, And break the tyrant's rod of steel, As only gold can break it ! I wish that sympathy and love, Anl every human passion That has its origin above, Would come and keep in fashion That scorn, and jealousy, and hate, And every base emotion, Were buried fifty fathoms deep Beneath the waves of ocean. I wish that friends weie always true, And motives always pure ; I wish the good were not so few, I wish the bad were fewer ; I wish that persons ne'er forgot To heed their pious teachings ; I wish that practicing was not So different from preaching. I wish that modern worth might be Appraised with truth and candor ; I wish that innocence were free From treachery and slander. I wish that men their vows would mind. That women ne'er were rovers ; I wish that wi"es were always kind, And husbands always lovers. I wish-in fine that joy and mirth, And every good ideal, May come erewhile throughout the earth, To b9 the glorious real ; Till God shall every creature bless With his supremest blessing, And hope be lost in happiness, And wishing be possessing. And now I do appoint myself Executive committee To go towoik and carry out These wishes good and pretty. But theu it takes a number. (I am zealous ; you are witty And wise besides ;) please come and work With me on this committee. J. G Scilud. TUX GAMBLER. The first principles in gambling that ever my mind was taught were received in taking part in that great game which the inconsistency of our legislators makes lawful 1 mean lotteries. It seems unaccountably strange to me how our lawgivers many of whom are ministers of the gospel, and all of whom deprecate gambling as one of the most promi nent curses with which society is afflicted ; I say, it seems strange how these men can reconcile to their con sciences and to their preaching the numerous gambling grants they have made and arc making. They would shrink from allowing the petition of that man who asked liberty to es tablish a house where cards and dice might be used in games of chance ; but they readily grant the petition of a set of individuals to convert the whole state, or county, into a vast gambling place wherein to play that game which is infinitely more ruin ous in its consequences than all the other schemes put together. I said I received my first princi ples of gambling from dealing in lotteries. I reasoned thus : If that game is not gambling, and if that game is not unlawful in which we stake a sum of money and depend altogether upon chance for success or defeat, and in which the proba bility is much against us of our get ting back the sum we ventured out, and when there is but a mere possi bility of receiving more than the amount staked, surely then those games, in which the chance of loss is smaller, and which require skill and judgment to play, cannot be gambling cannot be unlawful. So I went to the card-table and to the dice-box. I remember the first game of cards that I ever played. 1 was sixteen years old, and some of my partners were aged men, men who were old enough to be my father, and who should have cuffed my ears and sent me home. But no they praised my dexterity in handling the cards, flattered my judgment, and taught me to glory in my skill. Thus while they made rich my vanity they made wretchedly poor my pockets. G reater men than myself may with equal truth advance this same sentiment. It is true.I did not play for much ; we only staked a small, sum, just to make the game interesting; we scorned, to cast a thought on the loss and gain ; we played for amuse ment, not for the purpose of making money. This was. the language we used to ourselves. But let an unin terested observer look over the table at which we were playing and watch the eagerness with which the stake was seized when won, and the work ing countenances of the losers, and perhaps he would put a different construction than mere amusement on the deep and intense interest each individual manifested. The truth is, profit and loss are the ruling spirits at a game of cards or a throw of dice. I know not which of the two has the mo influence to keep a young man at the gaming table. If we are fortunate, the desire is awak ened for more, and the hope encour aged that luck is on our side. Per chance we pride ourselves on our skill in the gaine, and so we resolve to try again ; ajid if we are unfortu nate we will try again to repair our loss " luck was against us," " may be fortunate neit time," and a thou sand reasons the devotee of the play can make to jhimself for trying again. j I was then a clerk in a store, and as my funds failed me I had recourse to my master's drawer. Dollar after dollar of his money went that way, without his knowledge. In a short time I could toss my glass of spirits and whiff my cigar with as much grace as the most finished gentleman, and I was perfect in an oath. I be came an adept in play, and soon played deeper games. Yet, with all ray cunning afid judgment, many a midnight has seen me hurrying home with a heart terribly heavy in conse quence of a pocket proportionably light. I was the only son of a widowed mother, and on me her future hopes rested. Oftentimes would my con science bitterly reproach me for my conduct when, on entering the house at a late hour in the night, I found my aged and louemother sitting up patiently waiting my coming; and when she expressed her tears that l should injure my health by too close application to my business tor 1 was so base as to deceive that fond and trusting parent by telling her that business of the store kept me away from home and when she ad viced me to relax a little, awfully did my heart rise up against me and re prove my wickedness, and again and again did I determine to forsake the " evil ways " that I had been tread ing. But some nights I won, and then an intense thirst for more led me back to the table, and on other nights I lost, and then I would try again to make it up. Soon, however, was that widowed heart to be shattered and bleeding; soon was it to be overflowed with the gall of bitterness. For a week or more I was peculiarly unfortunate, losing every night more or less. It may be supposed that this continued ill-luck affected me considerably, ami that my master's drawer had to suf fer by it. This was not all. To drown the regret experienced on ac count of my losses I had recourse to frequent and liberal potations. The niore 1 lost the more I drank. I had often deceived my mother, who fre quently detected the smell of spirits when 1 entered the room, by telling her I had been working among the liquor in the store. For a while this excuse answered. But when every night I entered the room 1 brought with me the scent of spirituous li quors her suspicions became awak ened. Never, never, shall 1 torget the hour the terrible hour when a mother's hopes were blasted and her fond heart plunged into woe: returned from the gaming-table at a late hour, past midnight. That night I had been unusually unfortu nate, in consequence of which I drank freely and became much ex cited. To have seen me at the table, shouting and drinking and singing, one would have thought me the hap piest fellow in the universe. My purse w as completely drained, and I played on " tick." But in my then frame of mind money was no object to me, and so I played and lost played and lost occasionally raising a stake, until I became deeply involved in debt. I cared not. I kept on my riotous course of shout ing, swearing and singing until the company broke up- My mother was anxiously waiting for me, and " My dear ..son, how glad I am you have come," went to my heart like a burning arrow. My ex citement had not worn off, and I saw she eyed me suspiciously, so I hur ried off to bed as quickly as possible. From the effects of the liquor I had swallowed I was soon asleep. How long I was asleep I know not, when I was awakened by something drop ping on my face. On looking up I beheld my mother at the head of my bed with her hands clasped and the big tears of agony rolling down her time-worn cheeks. In a moment I suspected the worst, and I hid my head in the bed-clothes. She had been bendiug over ine, and I was awakened by a mother's tear ! I dared not lift my face to meet her eye, but I drew the bed-clothes closer around me. Oh ! - how my conscience smote me I Oh ! how my heart struggled with shame ! Death ! Death ! how I wished for you when I heard my mother's voice, trembling with age and agony. "George, George! that I should have lived to witness this hour! Would to God I had followed you to your grave in your infancy L My child! my child!!' she frantically and broken-heartedly screamed. " Woe is me, that I have lived to witness my son's shame !" I strove to stop my ears to shut out her voice, but in vain. The words sounded in my ears with hor rid emphasis, and so to my dying day will they ring. The discovery of her son's vileness, the sudden crushing of her hopes, were too much tor her, and she sank senseless on the bed. It was a long time before she re vived, and heavily smote my con science as I gazed, by the dim light of the lamp, on her pale face and felt the coldness of her forehead as I bathed it with vinegar. I was fearful life had entirely forsaken her, but at last she came to. I could not stand and meet her look, and was turning to leave the room when in a faint voice she requested me to stay by her. I was struck with the altered tone of her voice. She did not speak reproachfully, but so calmly and tenderly that the tears gushed from my eyes in torrents. It almost broke my heart to listen to her, and there was something in her tone that thrilled fearfully through me, so that every word she uttered caused a dead, sinking chill at my heart, it was so unearthly and hol low. " Stay, my son," said she, taking my hand between her own, the ice ness of which made me shudder, " I wish not to chide you. But, oh! George, if you value your peace here and yonr eternal happiness hereafter, leave off drinking ' taste not, touch not ' the accursed poison ! 0, God !" she fervently added, "strengthen him to resist temptation turn his footsteps from the path that leads to the dark and dreadful pits of de struction ! My son," she added in a thicker voice, " if you respect your mother's memory if you respect your own character remember and be guided bv her last words taste not" " Mother, mother ! what ails you ?" I screamed, for I saw her counte nance change suddenly. The blood began to settle about the eyes, which became glassy, and a pale "streak en circled her mouth, while her breath grew shorter. " I swear mother I swear uever to touch another drop of the accursed stuff !" I uttered in a hurried and trembling voice. A gleam of satisfaction shot across her face for a moment as she with difficulty articulated : " George, remember vour oath !" These were her last words, and barely were thev uttered ere I, the only living being in that still cham ber, was bending over her lifeless form. Never, reader, never may you be placed in like situation. I stood bent over the corpse of my mother in agonizing reverie until the gray, cold lijhtof morning broke through the chamber windows, rendering more ghastly her looks, before I was aroused to a full sense of my misery. But why detail all my feelings ? I proceeded to a neighbor's house, acquainted them with my mother's death, stating that she died suddenly in the course of the night after she had visited me in my chamber and awakened me from sleep. I said not a word respecting the cause, but re quested their assistance in laying her out, tic. My mother was buried, and over her new-made grave I renewed the eath I made to her while living, and also swore to forsake gambling and all wicked practices. Since her death I have never known a moment's peace of mind. My vicious conduct pre vious to it is continually rising up before me, blasting my happiness. I have kept sacred my oath. How can I forget it ? How can I forget that night in which I became motherless ? Never may I forget it ! Although its remembrance is a source of con stant, agonizing pain to me, may it always be fresh in my memory. I can make no other atonement for my early crime. A Sister's Love. There is no purer feeling kindled upon the altar of human affection, than a. sister's pure, uncontaminated love for her brother. It is unlike all other affection ; so disconnected with sellish sensuality so feminine hi its development, so dignified, aod yet withal, so fond, so devoted. Nothing can alter it, nothing can suppress it. The world may revolve, and its revolution effect changes in the fortunes, in the character, and in the disposition of bnr brother ; yet ir he wants, whose hand will so readilv stretch out to supply him as a sister's ? And if his character is malingned, whose voice wiil so readily swell in his advocacy ? Next to a mother's unquenchable love, a sister's is pre-eminent. It rests so exclusively on the tie of consan gunity for tits sustenance ; it is so wholly divested of passion, and springs from such a deep recess in the human bosom, that when a sister once foudly and deeply regards her brother that affection is blended with her existence, and the lamp that nourishes it expires only with that existence. In all the annate of crime, is it considered anomalous to find the hand of a sister raised in anger against her brother, or her heart nurturing the seeds of hatred, envy or revengs in regard to that brother. When thou art temped to throw a stone in anger, try if thou canst pick it up without bending thy body ; if not stop thy hand.. The Ways of Persian Servants. One may derive a nevr-failing Bource of humor from a study of the lower classes in Persia, who present a combination of wit and simplicity, a happy-go-lucky disposition, with shrewdness and cunning, that is charming so long as one observes it as an outsider and does not become himself a victim of their wiles. Nat urally one cannot fully appreciate the humorous side of a transaction when he himself is the sufferer, in dignity or purse. The Persian servants are indeed queer people. Their chief business appears to be to get presents and to steal. Two words for the former is pishkesh. Every Persian considers it proper to present pishkesh, be it a bunch of flowers, a dish of fruit, a tame gazelle, an embroidered robe, or whatever they can best afford to give or the position of the receiver appears to suggest. It would be a gross error to be so simple as to ac cept the pishkesh without giving fully is equivalent or more in money, for the present is giveu as a delicate hint of favors expected in return. Sometimes one may decline to receive the gift of an inferior, but never of a superior. One can only get even by sending a pishkesh in return. One day a jolly, foxy little carpen ter, who had done a few jobs for the writer, brought me a pishkesh. It was a neat paper rack of black wal nut, exactly the thing I wanted, but hd found it impossible to find at Teheran. "It's not bad," I cautiously re marked. "I am glad it pleases the Sahib, replied the carpenter, glowing all ever with ill-concealed delight ; "I brought it to you as a pishkesh, a present." "Ah, indeed," I replied; "I'm oblige to you. But nov, how much do you expect for it?" "Why, said he, "it's a pishkesh." "Yes, I understand that ; but how much do you want for it for your pi esent ?" "You know its value better than I do,'1 said he. "Well, how will two tomans (about five dollars) suit you?" His face fell, and he shrugged his shoulders. "Will three tomans answer, then ?" "As you please," he replied, pock eted the money, and left. A few days later a European gen tleman, calling on me, curiously ob served this paper rack, and asked where I found it. I told him that it was a pishkesh from Mehment Has san, the carpenter, who, I had since learned, had made seversl for other p-entlewen of the European colony. My friend burst out laughing. "The rascal ! why, I gave him the pattern, and he was to make it for me the very next day for two tomans. He has not b?en near me since." Ox The Uxsugarsess of Sugar.: There is no white sugar. It is not crystalline, but conglomerate ; it is not sweet, and, if you put it into hot water, a strange phenomenon ap pears. For the purpose of what a strange degenerate Scotchman ("May God assoil him therefor!" is the prayer even of the cold-blooded pock-pudding Englisher) calls "the barbaric observance of whiskey toddy," it is, or ought to be, known to all men that you dissolve the sug ar in the hot water before- adding the whiskey. The experiment is crucial with modern sugar. In at least the vast majority of cases a dirty, cloudy solution is the result, bringing sometimes most unjust ac cusations on hapless servitors. As u ed in tea, coffee, and other op .que and deeply colored mixtures, this abominable characteristic of modern sugar of course escapes observation. But let anyone try his sugar in the colorless solution, and if hedoesnos see a scapy cloud diffuse itself he it a luck man. The scientific person whose aid has been called in to screw the last gram of sugar, or so- called sugar, over the' legal amount of the harmless beet, so as to secure profit, best knows what means he takes to secure this result. How a Horsehair Becomes a Snake. Dr. Page asked us if we didn't want to see a horsehair that had turned to a snake. We did, and he drew a bottle fiom his pocket, filled with water, in which was what appeared to be a diminutive snake, five or six inches long, writhing and twisting, as if anxious to escape from the bottle. When put in the bottle it was nothing more than a hair from a horse's tail. Dr. Mathews Says the hair does not undergo change, but that invisible animalcules that gen erate iu the water collect on the hair and make it twist and squirm after the manner of a snake or worm. It is held by good authority that many of the socalled animalcu1es have been shown to pe plants,, having locomo tive powers somethiug like animals; the motion,, however, is not suppo sed to be voluntary. But the horse hair makes a first-class snake all the same. Hartwell Sun.. SIXTY YEARS AGO. How People Lived In Days of "Aul Laos Syne. Most of the readers of newspapers - of the present day are too young to know from their own experience how entirely without the comforts, which are now within the reach of even those of moderate means, were their fathers and grandfathers. Let ice tell of a few items of life in 1825 say in Philadelphia, which in those day was considered the first city in the union. Let me begin with lights-and fires, the two indispensa ble objects in housekeeping. Tha whole economy of the home rested on what were called matches. Not the matches we are familiar with but a buudle of pine sticks, thickly saturated with brimstone and smell ing vilely. Then came the tinder box, with its flint, steel and tinder. Pateifamilias was roused in the- middle of a cold winter night the baby had the croup, or something else was the matter he had to go to work, in the dark, and knock flinty steel and knuckles for some time,, until a spark caught the tinder and enabled him to light one of those vile matches, and then the candle, and then make a fire. Tallow candle were used in wealthy kitchens. A lamantines were a long way off. Two spermaceti caudles wero enough to illuminate the parlor, and they did it, too. The family read and Bewed by them ; their eyes had not been, forced up to the unlimited useof gas, which did not make its appear ance until ten years later. The first advance on candles was the Argand lamp, which gave a beautiful light. Next came the Solar lamp, which gave a more powerful light than the Argand, and finally came gas at first a very poor, badly smelling af fair, one light being used where not half -a-dozen burners are at work. The fire& were all of wood in those days, and a beautiful light was a fine hickory fire in a large chimney ; but fires were not burning all over the house. Parlor and dining room, nursery and mamma's bedroom had them, but the younger members of the family, (male and female) gut up and dressed in cold rooms, very of ten being obliged to break the ice in their pitchers before they could wash. Dressing was more rapidly done in those days than in these when every room ha J its hot air reg -ister and not-water pipe from tha kitchen. Round the parlor fire were gathered all the family in circle,, getting as close to the hearth as pos sible, and the heat extended only a few feet into the room, most of it being cold. No fire, no heat in tha halls ; one came out of the cold outer air into a hall nearly as cold. No leaving doors open then. Sand bags were at all the windows to keep the air out. In fact all the best people lived in what now would be considered not only discomfort but misery. But they were as happy,, and enjoyel life quite as much as we do with all our modern conveniences, and I have no doubt they . were healthier than the present race, which spends its in door life in con tinuously baked hot air. With the introduction of hot-air flues, warm ed halls, etc., the family circle wan broken up, the domestic charm at tached to it disappeared, and noth ing has taken its place. Coal fir en came before the furnace heat, and were a great advance, in heat, upon the wood fire, though not so hand some or cheerful. Coiainercial Ad vertiser. a A Few Old People. Rev. James Goie, colored, died near Gaiusboro, Tenn., a few day, ago at the age of 100 years. Mr. Dawson, of Marion, Ind.,be-. gan marrying 1832, and now, at tha age of 75, has jast married his seventh wife. The late Mrs. Philo Scoville was the oldest woman resident in Cleve land. She settled there in IS1G. and' in that year was one of the chief founders of the first church there. Mrs. Matilda Turner, a colored woman living iu Pittsburg, is 105 years old. She was born a slave ou a plantation in Fairfax county, Va. She shows sigu3 of her great age, but is brisk and cheerful, aud bids fair to last for several years. Mrs. Hannah Hodgdon, of Rich mond, Me., thinks she stands a good chance to be a cantenarian. Her grand mothpr lived to be 103 years old, aud she, herself,, though 92, haa never worn giasaen, sees a3 well a, ever, does much fine sewing and id remarkably well and active. Peyton Wilkes was born in 1791 in Bedford county, Va., and married his wife, Anna Wilkes, who was born in Washington county, Va., in 1797.' Tuey were married in 1815, and set tled iu Washington county, Oro., iu 1315,. in Greenville. Wilkes is one of the pensioners of the war of 1812; Ill-fitting garments Lw suits. All men are not h n lea a, but some men are home less than others,.. It is not altogether strange that a bee-trothal should lead.ta a. honeymoon..