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li W WO VO v THE CAMPAIGN .
VOLUIIE 25.
HICKORY, NORTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1894.
HTJ1IBEH 36
WHAT THE
TARIFF MEANS,
Relation of the New Law to the
Plain People Whom It Affects.
SUGAR ALREADY ADVANCED.
Domestic Whiskey'1 Advance of Twenty
Cents a Gallon Offset by a Seventy
Cent Reduction in Imported Goods.
For many months men wise in tariff
knowledge have been telling in vol
uminous, technical language and -with
circumstantial detail as to ad volorem
and specific duties, what might be ex
pected when the new tariff bill went
into effect. There are many plain peo
ple who have followed these discus
sions only in the most general way, and
the changes have confused them.
Now that this bill is a law, a thing
with jiower, these plain people went to
know what effect it will have upon
them. They want to know what bear
ing it will have upon their daily life,
upon the things they eat, the things
they wear, the things they hope to own.
They want to have a general idea,
which can best be gained by present
ing specifically the difference in the
cost of articles which are bought ev
ery day.
The advance of a quarter of a cent
apoundin the price of sugar, which has
been made by the grocers is one that
strikes home. There was in all prob
ability be a still further advance.
The Sugar Trust has advanced the
price of sugar twice within two weeks,
making the total advance one cent a
pound. But the retailers have not fol
lowed closely in the wake of the trust.
They have advanced the price only one
half a rent, for the reason that the
dealers know their customers will not
stand the whole advance at once. But
the grocers must raise the price of su
gar in keeping with the trust's price,
although it is done more slowly.
Under the McKinloy bill raw sugar
was free. The new act places a duty of
40 per cent ad valorem upon it, and
adds to that one-eighth of 1 per cent
for refined sugars. This makes the
trusty absolute master of the sugar
market, and the plain people will have
to pay tribute to it.
There are other instances where the
plain people are directly and immedi
ately affected by the new tariff bill,
but those, provisions in it which are
regarded as the greatest strides in the
direction of tariff-reform will not be
felt for months to come. .
The result of the removal of the du
ty upon salt is problematical. Gro
cers say that salt is now so cheap that
it is doubtful if a sufficient quantity
will be imported under the new bill to
make an appreciable change in the
price to the consumer.
There will be a marked decrease in
the price of fancy groceries. Exactly
what it will be cannot be determined
just yet, for there are scores of knotty
loints to be decided by the customs
officials, and until these decisions are
made there will be . no change. But
in those things in which th ere can be
no dispute prices were changed imme
diately by the bill becoming a law.
The householder who has been pay
ing $2 a case for Bass's ale finds that he
can buy it for 1.00 a case, Macaroni
is a penny a pound cheaper. Brandies,
liquors, cordials and other spirits im
mediately dropped 13 cents a quart
bottle in price. These are among the
direct effects of the bill becoming a
a law. Imported cheese and canned
k'oods are among the articles under dis
pute. Dried currants and citron will
be cheaper, but it is too early for them
to come in.
Now this matter of liquors is a very
iuqortant one. to many persons. It is
pretty generally known that the Inter
nal Revenue tax upon whiskey was in
creased from IK) cents to $1.10, or 20
cents a gallon. To offset this the im
port duty upon spirits, which includes
Brandies, Scotch and Irish whiskeys,
gins, liquors, cordials and the like," is
decreased from $2.50 to $1.80, or TO cents
a gallon.
This makes a difference to persons
who buy these things by the bottle
or the case. A bottle of whiskey is
usually considered a fifth of a gallon,
so that the regular advance upon a
quart bottle of whiskey would be five
cents. But the dealers, particularly
the large grocers, say that for the .
present they will continue to sell whis
key at the old rate; this is, for some
time to come, a man can buy a bottle
of whiskey for $1 or $1.50 a quart, or
whatever rate he has been accustomed
to pay for the grade he fancies.
On the other hand the consumer
will have the advantage of the lower
duty in imported spirits. There is a
general drop of 15 cents a bottle.
Every man who uses tabacco wants
to know whether this bill is going to
affect the prices of the cigars which he
smokes. Most of them have a distinct
remembrance of the effect of the Mc
Kinley bill. After that became a law
regular customers found that cigars
which had previously cost ten cents
were increased to two-for-a-quarter,
and the two-for-a-quarter cigars were
advanced to 15 cents straight. It was
all caused by the increase in the duty
on wrappers. Before the McKinley
bill the duty was 55 cents a pound
on the average. McKinley increased
the duty 400 perwsent., or $2 a pound.
The new bill fixes it at $1.50, but this
reduction will have no effect upon the
prices of cigars sold to the consumer.
It takes about three pounds of wrap
pers for 1,000 cigars. It is much easier
to distribute an advance of $4.50
over 1,000 cigars than a decrease of
$1.50. The jobber and manufacturer
will get the benefit of the $1.50 differ
ence per thousand between the old
rate and the new.
Now as to the matter of clothing, it
is more difficult-to determine the exact
benefit which shall result Uom this
law. The greatest benefit will not b
immediate, for it has to do with free
wool, the part of the new act which
does not become operative until Jan.l.
Under the new law the duty Avill be
5o per cent, ad valorem. The reduc
tion of duty, wTili therefore be 44 cents
per pound weight. -
The average weight of double-width
spring wollens for men's wear is 1G
ouces, and the reduced cost will be 44
cents. The average weight of double
width fall wollens for men's wear is 26
ounces, and the reduced cost will be G4
cents. .
In a general way, therefore, after
Jan. 1, our double-width foreign spring
goods of about 1G ounces weight, will
be sold at say 50 cents per yard less
than now, and double-width foreign
fall goods of about 24 ouces weight at
75 cents per yard less. Lighter weight
goods will have less reduction and
heavier weights will.have no more.
American goods, having been already
somewhat rednced in the last spring
and the present fall seasons, will there
fore not generally be subject to as
much reduction as the foreign goods.
Foreign wool will be admitted free
immediately, but it will take several
months to produce goods from such
wool, and therefore there can be no
reduction in foreign or domestic goods
during the coming season.
It requires three-and-a-quarter yards
of cloth to make a suit of elothes.
Therefore the nw act makes a saving
of from $1.50 to $2.25 on each suit of
clothes. Domestic goods will be ev
en cheaper than they are at present,
wqpl having reached the lowest price
ever known. The cheaper grades of
goods will cost more a year from now
on than they do at present.
There is a great saving in carpets.
These all carried double duty under
the old law. Now they are taxed sing
ly. Aubusson Axininster carpets which
were worth say $3.40 under the old
law, under the new are worth but $2.80.
The GO-cent square yard duty "is re
moved from' them. Saxony, Wilton
and Tourney velvet carpets will cost
just 40 cent a yard less. Ingrains
which cost $1 a yard are made 16 cents
cheaper.
"Woolen underwear is made much
cheaper by the removal of the duty on
weight, 49 cents on each pound in ad
dition to an ad valorem reduction.
But as has been said, this reduction
in woolens does not go into effect until
Jan. 1.
Hickory Male Academy
The present term of this Academy
opens Monday Sept. 3rd, 1894. A first
class Primary and Classical course
will be taught. Terms of tuition rea
sonable. Patronage solicited.
J. W. GOODMAN.
Principal.
SECREST
IN CUSTODY.
AFTER SIXTEEN YEARS HE
WILL HANG.
The Noted Murder Brought Baok to North
Carolina Upon His Release from the S. C.
Penitentiary History of His Crime.
On Monday the sheriff of Richland
county, South Carolina accompanied
by the deputy sheriff of Burke coun
ty, passed throug Hickory with no less
personage, in custody, than Hoke C.
Secrest, one of the coldest-blooded
murderers now on earth, who should
have bean executed sixteen years ago
for his crimes.
March 5, 1877, at night, he murdered
his wife and four-year-old step-daughter,
in a few hundred yards of the res
idence of Mr. II. A. Adams, in Burke
county, near the "Western North Caro
lina railaoad, burying them in one
grave, excavated by himself during
the silent watches of the night. When
the gastly work was accomplished, his
victims slain and their bodies put out
of sight, the "miserable wretch re
turned to his home in Union county,
from whence he conducted his vic
tims, and strange to say escaped ac
cusation until in January 1878, when
a Burke county hunter found his
dogs feasting upon carrion drawn by
them with great difficulty from a hole
in the ground. Examination revealed
the horrid fact to the man that his
dogs were feeding on human bodies.
They were driven off and the country
aroused. Many suspicions were com
municated from one to another, and all
sorts of rumors floated in the com
munity, but shortly the villian's trail
was scented: a fact here and one there,
put the authorities upon the track of
the murderer leading to his arrest
at his father's, near Monroe, N. C.
January 19, 1878. ,. "'
When we sift the facts in this c&e
and fully perceive how broken threads
of evidence served in the apprehen
sion of this murderous scoundrel, we
are forced to confess that a higher
power than man commands, laid the
unbroken chain of testimony against
Hoke C. Secrest. He . leaves Union
county, March 1, 1877, with Mrs. Mag
gie Stevenson and her little girl,
travelling in a buggy. At Charlotte
March 2nd, Mrs. Stevenson wrote a
letter back home to a friend; at Lin
colnton, March 4th, she writes to Mr.
S. B. Stevenson her brother-in-law; on
March 5th, Secrest andj Mrs. Maggie
Stevenson were married in Newton by
Rev. J. C. Hartseil, and the marriage
being given to the public by the
newspapers, the fact returned in this
way to her friends in Union county.
Persons now residing in Hickory saw
the parties late in the afternoon of
March 5, 1877, when they passed
through this city going westward.
Now, when the bodies of the mur
dered wife and her daughter were
found in Burke county, four miles
west of this city, and the fact was
generally known, Rev. Mr. Hartseil
remembered that the preceding sum
mer, he received a letter from Union
county asking for any information he
might possess of the whereabouts of
Mrs. Maggie Stevenson, the lady he
had married to Hoke C. Secrest,
March 5, 1877. The letter to a friend
which Mrs. Stevenson wrote from
Charlotte, and the one she had ad
dressed to her brother-in-law from
Lincolnton, coupled with her mar
riage at Newton, brought Secrest
within fourteen miles of the dead
bodies in Burke. The discovery of
the double, yea treble murder, be
coming known, the suspicions sylla
bled by Rev. Hartseil sent pursuit to
Union county for the true murderer,
Secrest. He w5s arrested, tried, con
victed and sentenced, garments on the
dead being identified by friends, but
be tore the day of execution he was
adjudged ine and sent to the luna
tic asylum at Raleigh from which he
eventually iu.ule his escape, locating
in South Carolina. Sometime there
after he stole a cow, taking her to
Columbia and selling her was arrested
and placed behind the bars, but, be
fore trial, it became known he was an
escaped lunatic, and being returned
to Raleigh was of course never prose
cuted for stealing the cow. He re-
j mained at Iialeigh until the eoinple-
ton of the Morganton Hospital, when
he was transferred to it.
From this institution he finally fled,
and nothing was heard from him
thereafter until about eighteen months
ago, when he was sent to the South
Carolina penitentiary, from Spartan
burg country, S. C. for an assault
with intent to kill. His term having
now expired in the aforesaid institu
tion he is again in the Burke county
hospital, and, uuless law is travesty
upon justice.he will quit the boundary
of the asylum to ascend the scaffold.
The creature should die! Maggie Ste
venson" death should be avenged in
in the blood of her murderer. The
sacrificed life of Minnie Luola, his
step-daughter, calls to us from the
ground for the blood of Hoke C.
Secrest. Let there besuch acrystfliza
tion of righteous judgment against
her murderer that the courts will not
refuse to command his prompt execu
tion. - '
Mr. J. A. Perry, of Morganton, the
special agent who brought the mur
derer Hoke C. Secrest- from South
Carolina to the Morganton jail, says:
"In accordance with Governor Carr's
instructions, he was going to take his
prisoner to ! Morgonton. He says it is
now pretty clearly proven by the state
ments of the South Carolina prison
authorities, that the man's insanity
was all a dodge,and it was more than
likely that , he would, in the next
month or two, be given another trial,
be convicted, and finally be made pay
the penalty of his brutal crime."
It is quite evident that public con
fidence in the insanity plea heretofore
made ; for Secrest is lost and that he
will now die on the scaffold.
Reunion of Veterans.
There was a grand and gala .reunion
of old Confederate veterans at Morgan
ton last Thursday and Friday. There
were over 500 old vets, who registered
and took part in the festivities. It
was a grand outpouring of those good
men who proved by their valor their
right to be- called Confederate veter
ans from Burke, McDowell and adja
cent counties.
There were about 1,000 visitors and
altogether, with those, from Morgan
ton, there were about 2,000 people on
the fair grounds, where the encamp
ment was held, on Friday morning.
A Confederate veterans' camp was or
ganized and speeches were made by sev
eral persons. Our own Col. J. G. Hall,
a veteran, was called on, and made
thematalk. Being taken by surprise,
he surprised them by convicting all the
old veterans of being petty pilferers.
He asked for all those who had
never at sometime while in the army
stole a pig, or chicken, or roastingears,
or robbed a beeguin, or got into a 'tater
patch, or fruit orchard, to hold up
their hands. There was only one hand
held up, and that man said he had
made a mistake that he had forgotten
about one occasion; it had slipped his
mind.
Judge A. C. Avery made them a grand
speech of welcome and recounted some
of their deeds of valor and chivalry.
The old boys are solid for the Judge, as
he is for them.
The average age of the men was a lit
tle over GO years.
Now a Corn neat Trust.
Kjlxsas City, Mo., Aug. 22.- John
B. Sherwood, of Indianapolis, is here
completing arrangements for the for
mation of a corn meal trust. Reclaims
a number of big companies have
signed. "
Three of the American diamond cut
ting establishments are engaged in
shaping black diamonds lor mechan
ical purposes, for glass cut terVuud en
gravers, or for use in the manufacture
of watch jewels.
Resolutions of Thanks,
Resolvkd. That Catawba Lodge,
No. 54, K. of P., tender their hearty
and unanimous thanks td the ladies
who so kindly and generously assisted
in our recent entertainment. We are
deeply sensible that much of the
pleasure and success of the entertain
ment is due to their earnest efforts
and skilful management.
That we also tender thanks to the
lady manager, and her assistants, for
the delightful hiumc which added so
much to the real pleasure of the even
ing. For we are sure that this part
of the "feast was not less enjoyable
to every one who "hath music in his
soul. "
That the city papers be requested
to publish these resolutions, that we
may give this public acknowledge
ment of our appreciation of these ser
vices, so highly and generously ren
dered. J. A. RAMaAV, i Com.
J. D. Elliott, f
A CANDIDATE
FOR CONGRESS.
The Democratic Standard Rear
er lit the Sth Congressional
District.
HON. WM. NORTON ROWER
Who will Brush the Brushles And Sweep
The Bull.
The woods are full of candidates,
but there is only one bull in the Brush -ies.
About next November he will
wish he had been in a china shop.
He would have fared better- We
herewith present the picture of the
gentleman who will wipe up the floor
with him. We are unable to present
his picture at this juncture as our ar
tist who makes those kind has gone to
Charlotte.
William Horton Bower, of Yadkin
Valley, Caldwell county, was born in
Wilkes county, North Carolina, June
0, 1850; received an academic educa
tion at Finley High School, Lenoir,
N. C, and other -academies; finished
his education at the ago of 1G and
lived on a farm till 18G9, when he stud
ied law in the offle of Col. G. N. Folk,
ofLenoir; was licensed by the Supreme
Court of North Carolina to practice
law in 1880; in 187G removed to Cali
fornia and remained there teaching
till the summer of 1880, when he re
turned to his native State; canvassed
his county for Hancock in 1880; in 1882
was elected Representative in Legis
lature for Caldwell county without
opposition; in 1884 was elected to the
State Senate; in 1885 was appointed
solicitor of the tenth judicial district
by Governor A. M. Scales; in 1880 was
elected solicitor tenth judicial dis--trictfor
four years without opposition;
in 1890 was candidate for Domocratic
nomination for Congress, but was de
feated on the 147th ballot by W. H. II.'
Cowles, and was elected to the Fifty
third Congress as a Democrat, receiv
ing 1C.8CG votes, against 13,213 votes
for Joseph O. Wilcox. Republican;
:;.5G4 votes for R. L. Patton, Populist;
I 05 votes for William M. White, Prohi-
j bitionist, and 3 votes scattering.
Mr. Bower was re-nominated by ac-
clamation.on tne 2jtn or J uly In the
Democratic congressional convention
held at Wilkesboro, where he was nom
inated two years ago by a unanimous
vote by tlx convention of that year.
On tlfe 25th of November, 1802, Hr.
I Bower was married at Newark, N. J.,
- to Miss Anneta Monthaler, of Betiile
1 hem, Pa., an accomplished lady who
is related to many of the leading Mo
ravian families In Salem. N. C.
His district, the 8th is composed of
the following counties: Alexander,
Ashe, Alleghany, Burke; Caldwell,
Cleveland, Forsyth, Gaston, Mitchell,
Surrr, Watauga and Wilkes 12 coun
ties; population, 190,784.
Mr. Bower is booked for 25,000 voU
at this next election.
North Cxiiolixa i
f!4TAW!JA COUXTY.
Com. Office.
a. i$ol
Ordered by the Board of County
Commissioners that there, shall be an
entire new registration of the voters
of Hickory Township before the elec
tion to be held on the Gth day of No
vember 104.
Bv order of the Board.
G. W. COCIIKAX,
Clerk Board of County Commissioners.
The registration books will be open
at my store in Hickory from Sept. 27th
until Oct. 27th. 12 o'clock.
S. K. Killiax, Registrar
For North Hickory Precinct.