Newspapers / The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, … / Aug. 12, 1904, edition 1 / Page 1
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jSlje Smitl)firIi> 3Hrrali). price one dollar per tear. "TRUE TO OURSELVES, OUR COUNTRY AND OUR GOD.' single copies five cents. VOL.23. SMITHFIELD. N.O., FRIDAY. AUGUST 12. 1904. NO. 23 A LETTER FRO W TEXAS. A Smithtleldlan Writes of the Boll Weevil He Tells usot the Texas Capital and Other Matters ot Interest. Austin, Texas, Aug. 6, 1904. Dear Lassiter:?I thought a line from a Johnston county man, nearly , two thousand miles from home, might be of intersest to the readers of the Herald. I came by way of St. Louis, where I left Mrs. Sanders to take in the great fair. The writer spent two days and nights in that, city, and was greatly interested in the fair. To see the exteflor of the buildings and the statuary would almost pay one for the trip. The St. Louis Exposition grounds cover 1240 acres, while the Chicago Exposition covered 633 acres, the Paris Exposition of 1899-1900 cov ered 336, and the Philadelphia 236. The grand total cost of the present Exposition and exhibits is $50,000,000. St. Louis is a great city, being fourth in size of American cities, and has a population of about 800,000. I came from St. Lois to Waco, Texas, and was greatly charmed with the country all the way. I passed through Missouri, Kansas and Indian Territo ry. The soil of nearly all this vast territory is surpassingly fertile and I would Judge easy to cultivate. Corn, oats, wheat and cotton are the princi pal crops. Horses, mules and cattle abound everywhere. The soil produces from 25 to 40 bushels of corn and from half to one bale of cotton to the acre. No commercial fertilizers whatever Is used or needed. Yet it is not all : smooth sailing here. For this is the home of the boll weevil. This pest has alreaily infested aboue one-third of the cotton acreage of the State (Tejfas) ami is doing much damage now and will very likely in a few years cover the entire cotton lands of the State. The wevil came from Mexico, where he originated at' 'it forty years ago. And am told : *'t' Mexican lands whence he came have been abandoned for the growing ot cotton. This is a very serious problem for the Texan ' farmer This ,'s truly a great State, compris- 1 ing 26r,.b0b squaii miles, and with a i population of more than three millions Austin is the capital of the State. This morning 1 .od the capital building which is ! to he the best of all tic Southern Capitols. It. Is of, brown . one ver. much lib that of Moore county i f o r State, and very beautiful in design. The grounds are will located. I was much interested in a monu ment to Mr. Davis, and one to tl'ose who were slain at the Alamo. All the school hoys have or should read the life of Davy Crok ett. Davy had many narrow escapes In hi-, long life in the woods In the time of Indian and bear and It is a pity that he should have been slain by civilizi d people. There is a fine li'e size portrait of him in the rotunda of the capitol. I would judge that he was six feet tall and weighed about 200 pounds, a clear blue eye. and a handsome, manly fact what a man First among all the noted frontiers men ( Dan Boone not excepted) gifted as an orator, reliable and self-contain ed in the Halls of Congress and grand in the hour of death. Opposite the Crotkett portrait' noticed a very large painting in oil of the surrender of Santa Anna. This painting is about IB by 20 feet and must have cost a good deal This event occurred the day after the bat tle of San Jacinto, April 22, 1830. Gen. San Houston was in command of the Texans and Is represented lying upon a blanket with his right leg bandaged front the knee down. Gen. Houston is surrounded by his officers and Santa Anna Is attended by his staff. The result of this battle was prolific in many blessings to Texas. It secured Independance from Mexico and annex ation to the United States. I was re . minded of some of the striking expres sions of Gen. Houston during the bat tle: "God and Texas, liberty or death," and, "I will never surrender or retreat | an inch." I have seen somewhere that Gen. Houston came to North Carolina in 1848 or 1850, and advised the adop lion of the free suffrage plank in the platform of, the Democratic party. Gov. David Keed, the Democratic candidate, was elected ajton this platform, the first Democratic governor in a long while. My dates may be w rong. Now. as I am closing this letter 1 am looking upon a busy scene. The bright electric lights upon the streets, the rushing car loaded with the young and gay on their way to the cool and well kept park, the moving forms of hundreds of business men returning to their homes, and as I look out upon all this, something gathers in my throat and to my mind recurs the clos ing lines of Edwin Fuller's "Sea Gift." "As the stars shine down from the skies, and the stars shine hack from the sea, I am still gazing across the grey waters towards the land that t fought for, a land where want and woe are rife, and the burdened people bow beneath the yoke of conquest, and from all the wealth and luxury that surrounds me my heart turns with the yearning of a child bac kto my south- ! ern home." I hope the lioys and girls of North Carolina will read Mr. Fuller's Sea Gift and his Angel of the Clouu. I thing him our sweetest songster. W. M. SANDERS. Another View of the Dispensary Question. To the Democratic voters of John ston county: Th, question that seems to be of more imixirtance to the voters of John ston county today is whether we shall place all the profits of the dispensa ries of our county in the general school fund or whether we shal con tinue to give a better portion into the town treasury in which they are lo cated Perhaps my idea differs from most people's. I believe it's time to wipe dispensarit s out of Johnston county and North Carolina, if possi hie. K ? if we voted open bars out of the county because we thought it would improve the morals of the coun ty (and I believe it has) we know it would stil improve to dispose of the whole thing. We know that moon shine whiskey and open bars were a | curse to our county for years. We know our county has made more more progress for the past five years than it had for twenty, and nothing has helped -o much as restricting the use and sale of whiskey. I thought we adopted the dispensa ries because we wanted to improve the morals of our people. Then if the country districts have been bet tered by removing the whiskey busi ness from them (and they have) why then would we not be bettered by re moving it from the towns? You say. Oh, it would destroy our graded schools. It would destroy the surplus In our town treasuries. Now. gentlemen, let's be honest. Do you believe it's right for us to specu late in whiskey to run our towns or our schools, or our anything? If so, it's right for individuals to do it. You say they are going to have it. Not so with but few, and if you are going to sell it because we can manage it so much better than the individuals, then let's sell it at about the same per cent, profit we sell meat flour, etc and stop ; quarrelling over the profits. In the first place, it's a crime from I a financial standpoint. I believe ev | ery quart sold in Johnston county costs the county at least one dollar and fifty cents. The whiskey costs fifty cents the man Usually loses a i day to drink It, and any able bodied man is worth 75 ctg per day, and there i is always some wear and tear to hors I es, mules and vehicles, or some dev iltry connected with it that costs upon an average of 26 cts. Now I suppose the profits alone on the whiskey sold in the county will amount to fifteen thousand dollars a year. Well, surely we don't more than double our money. That would be thirty thousand dollars spent for It. Suppose every fifty cents worth bought cost one dollar and a half, that would make It cost ninety thousand dolars Annually. That amount prop erly invested and propehly managed for five or ten years would make us one of the most prosperous people in the State. Now there is a moral side to this question, and that is a sad one. We, as people who claim to be trying to help mankind live right that they may die right, are in the whiskey business. We say we are not in it because we think it the right kind of business, but because we think we can handle it in a more decent manner than the other fellow, and we are actually quarrel ing over the profits, and some actually say we can't afforil to stop the bus iness because we are making money out of it. Now that may do for us while we live, but it won't suit us in our dying hours What man in John ston county would say he sees no pros pects of his son. dying a drunkard if the stuff is kept where he is allowed to taste it occasionally? What man can say he will not die a drunkard if he tampers with it? What man would not feel better satisfied about his chil dren if he knew there would never be another quart of the stuff made or sold in North Carolina ", Now is the time to dispose of it in Johnston county. We as a party have taken a stand to restrict the whiskey business (and I'm glad we have). Now as a compromise for the fight that is going on in the county for a division of the profits allow me to suggest that we pass a resolution on August 17th instructing our next Representatives to wipe the whole thing out of the county. I wish every voter in the ! county would be there and express himself and in five years we will be j I prosperous and happy and proud of | ! our act. R. B. WHITLEY. Se.lma, N. C., Aug 9. I Daughtry Replies toPowell I Editor of the Herald. Mr. C. S. Powell published in last j week's Herald a letter, in which he u.-ed this language: "A communication i last week's Herald, signed by Jesse ' Daughtry, appears to me to use ur.- ; nst and uncalled for criticisms and | ir . inuations against the great "Rhi nocnhas' (as Dick Massey, once called I 'him) Sheriff J. T Ellington." I want to say that no fair-minded man, un- j biased and free from prejudice and "other influences, can truthfully say my letter in any way or in any man .:11 r criticised or reflected upon Sheriff Ellington, or that 1t contained one word insinuating against him person ally or officially. It is a pleasure to me. with the other friends of Sheriff Ellington, to say that I esteem him, and regard him as one of the highest types of an American citizen, hone-t brave, true to his convictions, and an able and conscientious officer of the law; and any intimation that this w-i ter Insinuated that Sheriff Ellington is what he ought not to be is gratuit ous and exists wholly in an imagina tive imagination. I simply intended in my letter, to call attention to the fact that "rotation in office is a prin cipal of Democracy' that perpetuation of office has a tendency to centrilega tlon of government, and the Demo ;cratic party through Its leaders. Its speakers and by its platform, taught, the people to beware of that princ" pal which places power and authority alone in the hands of a few. One of the issues in this campaign la the "one man power." If rotation in office is not right then it Is a farce, to hold elections every two years. If rotation in office is not right, let the Demo cratic party at the convention on the 17th of this month pass a resolution declaring that Sheriff Ellington need never again say he is not a candidate hut let the convention force the nomi nation upon him and give him a life estate in the office, and thereby put an end, to use his own language |? a letter published by him lect week? "let this everlasting bickering and nagging cease." If rotation in office is not right let the convention declare, that the ambi tions and aspirations of the young men. in Johnston county, who m.<v desire to hold office, are in vain, that '? doors are closed and that Elishas mantle has fallen to a favored few. 1 do believe, and I again repeat, that perpetuation in office, is contrary to Democratic principals, a continuation in office smells of, and smacks of radi calism; it advances the idea that there is only one man in Johnston county honest enough and has the ca pacity and ability to fill the office oi sheriff. Perpetuation in office suggest the thought of ring rule. JESSE DAUGHTRY. For County Treasurer Mr. Editor:?Please spare me space in your good and reliable Democratic paper for me to mention a name for county treasurer. This office is looked upon by a great many people as being an office of minor importance, or in plainer speaking, some think this officer is not required to possess the courage and ability as that of some other coun ty officer. But when we for a moment think of the money he handles, and his heavy bond we will at once see that this is an entirely a mistaken idea. The term of this office like that of the register of deeds, two terms to the man who makes an irreproachable record, and so far as I can learn the pesent incumbent has been up to the mark of custom and duty. And inas much as such is the case I want to remind the Democratic voters of John ston county of Alex. Wiggs, of Pine Level., the man who has held the of fice two years, and asks us to give it to him for two years more, and two years only. He is a man of natural afflictions, but of business talents, a devoted member of the Primitive Bap tist church, a neighbor to his neigh bors, and a sympathizer of the needy. What more is required of him? Now can we not afiord to nominate him on the 17th without the fear of defeat? I have not heard of any other candidate being in the field, hut I simply offer this card to the Demo crats of Johnston county to remind you of our duty on convention day ac cording to past custom. Please re member this good Democrat. F. C. HAMILTON. Smithfleld, N. C. Wants Same Old Horse. To the Herald: In last week's Herald I see Broth ers Daughtry and Oliver borrowed themselves some "new shoes" and tried their hands or heels at "back stepping" at the expense of our sher iff: so I propose to give them a little sample of the "broad shuffle," and I'm going to do it in my same old "stomp down." I say let's keep our same old sheriff No use swapping horses un 'ess you are going to get bettered The old horse we've got is good enough for anybody. He is gentle and works well any where you hitch him pulls In the new ground just as wel as in the old field; don't fret a bit but does his work ripht and just eats the food you give him and is satisfied with it; don't eat up his own foddei and then run the mules off and eal theirs, nor does he break out into th< corn field and rye patch at night ! Hitch him up where you please and you find him in sleet, rain or snow the same gentle horse he is in pleas ant weather, not backing and kicking and tearing your buggy and harness t: pieces. These fellows that's going around talking about swapping don'i appear to be offering anv boot, or pro posing to do the work for less. Thej count up the ears of corn and bundles of fodder that "old faithful" has ea and that's all they can see about it and if you put them in office that'i : all they'll be able to see there. The1 are too near-sighted to see anythinj except the corn and fodder in thi trough and the next thing you woult hear from that sort of a fellow hi would be "whickering" lor more fod der, so let's not bother with them but keep our same old sheriff, J. T. El lington. .Moral:?Don't try to datfbe In bor rowed shoes, even if they are new. W. L. JOHNSON Smithtield. N. C. For the House. To the Herald: Please allow me space in your col ! iimns to mention the name of a mau for the legislature in whom the people have the utmost confidence, one who has served several times as a member of the legislature from Johnston coun ty and has always proved true to his promises on the stump in every par ticular. There Is no better campaign J er in the county, and we know it is ! of vast importance that we select our ' best men and campaigners. He is personally known by very near every voter in Johnston county, and they know that he will legislate for the whole and not for the favored few. His former record in the legislature is open and above reproach. Not a vote has he ever cast in the legisla ; t.ure that failed to please the people. He is the father of the 6 per cent, in terest law that has been so much ben efit to the farmers of the State. His knowledge and experience will not on ly be of benefit to the people of John ston county, but will go a great way in shaping legislation for the whole State.. This man is E S. Abell, of Smith field. Let us nominate him on thel7th and you will see old Johnston as before, waving the Democratic banner in November. I don't know that Mr Abel wants the nomination, but the people are anxious to have him repre sent them. JESSE PARKER. Pine Level Aug 7, 1904. Ellinqton for Sheriff. There seems to he some dissatisfac tion in regard to the sheriff of John ston county. What is the trouble? Has he been negligent in the perform ' ance of duty, has he squandered the county funds? Has he betrayed any ' trust confided to him by the people? If so. let us look for a better man to , fill his place. If he is guilty of none of these charges, then why should the iioor. hard working people of Johnston I county want to fill his place with a new and untried man? There is no complaint against J. T. Ellington; only the few who say he has had it long enough are complaining, and this is the only charge they attempt to make Now why should the man that has to toil for his daily bread and has no hope or expectation of ever getting any of the county's funds want tc make any change? No. gentlemen, we , cannot afford to change, there is dan 1 ger. It seems to me the basest in . ! gratitude in any people after he ha; I been so faithful all these years tc . want to throw him aside and try some one else. It sems to me that this I question of rotation is undemocratic I These rotation fellows could just as well say the Democratic party of John I ston county has served us faithfullj a long time: now we will turn it ovei ! to the other party. I The poor people of the county hail . better be careful how they ride the old t warhorse out of ranks. Now. gentlemen let us renomlnats J. T. Ellington for sheriff of Johnstot I county on the 17th and we will maks no mistake. C. W. LINDSAY. , Smithfield. Aug. 10. Let the People Rule. t Mr Editor -1 I wrote an article on this subjeci r that I now wish to write' on, aboui i two years ago. It was not published t in the Herald, and you gave me satis , factory reasons for not publishing li t at that time. But from what I havi r seen in your valuable paper lately ? can't help but think that some hav< 3 erroneous Ideas of the principles o' 1 Democracy. I may be the one In er 3 ror. If so I wish to get right. If no j I wish to help others get right. Some aro clamoring for rotation in office suppose a chare- ?il, made in every election. How li ng would it take to get around? Why nine-tenths of the men who will vol.- the Democrat , ? ir ket in the coming election .v. ml. !! > of old age befor* their time won : til around to hold office, e.e-? eiallj an ? office of profit to the holder for profitable offices in the r. ou can show the number by the r.enb.-r of fingers on one hand (and I !< u't know but you could 011 a ? ? e ? ? -,h ? 1 hand that had two or t.hrt ? f.n. ra missing). At any rate, a great'nri fy of Democrats who has spent theii . in the Democratic harness will m \. . see Inside of the office door of their office as a county officer. An I ' re are a few of us >? t ltvu.g * ho I ?? I to keep the old ship afloat through re construction titm and on to tr . ent lime, as well a a ho -t. o? yo j men who have boarded the ship of j Democracy, that dislike very much t > hear men claim that the D"tuo i . I party owes them an office for ^ervicj rendered the party. To such men: The party uwv- iu nothing, but you owe all that yi 1 i or got In the way of good government to the Democrat i" party 1 claim >at the principles of Democracy are ri-'ht. and if a man does not love Democrat ;o principles enough to make him a --rt; for the success of the party without expecting reward in the way of an of fice. why he should go way bar) and take a seat and ?a\ nothing T) - ro tation idea is (in my opinion) the cause of so many candidate , and so much confusion. Almosi ail office seekers seem to think well my t.rno will come n<-xt, and if some or:-- else gets the nominal ii>n, yon a: apt to hear something like the folio* - 1' was unfairly done. There was tri< ery used to defeat me, and I shall have nothinir to do with the be ion, I don't expect to even go to th poll-. My influence shall be of no ise to any u*i? else so long a I fa ' t nominated, etc Why forty yea I tut well as a number of 5 that time, the any calle 1 n to fill the diff-T''tit offices i.- c ' to-<layT Men aiming tha - t owes them an office. I have no obj. ctlon to Ha an n | rotation t^at puts t.he map-: people's choice in office. Th t-wjor ty ought t-t mle. and must ru >:? we are no longer Democrat l.? ? the 1 candidate be who '.* may. i t? u or an old officer The people i ' have something to say In the mate r 1 on the 17th So far as I know I am friend* to each of the men name! ^ so far fur the different offi - but t ! dislike to hear any one, or h;- frl- nds 1 picking up every little mess imaglna 1 hie against a good man, who no ? charge of any unclean act can he ? brought, it matters not whet.lu r he is ' an old officer, or a man w ho never ' held an office. Such is a grade of > pure selflshnec that every true Derm 1 crat should ho above. A few men ? with their friends can can - a gr.-a 1 deal of confusion on conven'ion lay if ? they think more of self th in good gov ' ernment. We need more patriotism and less selfishness in the way of of fice getting, for the good of our coun ' try. Let's go to the convention with I our minds made up to leave all s-Iflsh aspirations behind, and put our best ' men forward, by the people's majority. 1 Then all will go well. Otherwise there > will be confusion. Let's make a little more use of the Golden rule In poli tics as well as other matters. No ore man need think that, he can fill an office better than any other men We have plenty of men In the coun ty who oould fill any office In the t statp. But that Is no reason why t we should down a good man who ba< I held office more than two term- It . should not matter how long an officer y i holds office, If he gives entire satls > faction, and the majority of the peo [ pie want him, and no men should try } to break down a good man. In order f that they might rise to his position, . Let merit win. t JAS, H. SMITH.
The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.)
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Aug. 12, 1904, edition 1
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