Sljc jsmitfjfirlJi Hcralb.
Price One Dollar Per Year ? "TRUE TO OURSELVES, OUR COUNTRY AND OUR GOD." Slnfll# Cop|#t riw# c#ntB
VOL. 28. SMITHFIELD. N. C.. FRIDAY. AUGUST 18. 1909. NO. 24
TARIFF REVISION A FRAUD.
New Tariff Only Opens Fight, 1904
Nominee Thinks. President, He
Declares, Has Gained a Little for
Party Honesty by Going Beyond
His Powers.
New York, August 6.?Alton B.
Parker, Democratic candidate for
President in 1904, made the following
statement today on the new tariff
bill:
"The opinion widely entertained
and sometimes expressed in the
campaign of 1908, that the Republican
platform's promise of a revision of
the tariff was intended to deceive
the people, is now fully Justified.
"By bold and impudent speech,
senators and members of Congress
have asserted that the plank promis
ed a revision, not a reduction, of
the tariff duties. Their only reward
is public contempt for their argu
ments demonstrate that the purpose
of the tariff plank was to cheat and
defraud the voters. And at the same
time the action of the majority in
Congress makes them parties to the
fraud 1b that they sought to consum
mate it.
"The President has made a strong
effort to secure at least an appear
ance of party honesty, but the little
that he has accomplished has been
at great cost, for one more precedent
Is established of a chief executive
using his great power to coerce a
co-ordinate and independent depart
ment of government in violation of
the spirit of the Constitution.
"And after all, what shall this
unseemly struggle to gain or retain
largess avail the tariff barons in
the end? Only a little?for it will
be found that this tariff act does
not, like its predecessors, close the
subject for a period of years; but
instead, it and the circumstances sur
rounding its making will but serve
to open again the fight. The final
outcome will wipe out the unjust re
sults, if not the stain, of the fraud."
COURTED FIFTY YEARS.
Kentucky Couple Get Married After
Waiting a Half Century.
Skarpsburg, Ky., Aug. 7.?After a
courtship of fifty years Brum Barnes
and Miss Brach Crouch were married
here at the home of the bridegroom.
The marriage followed close upon
the death of Mr. Barnes' sister,
Sarah Elizabeth. Brother and sister
had lived for many years in their
handsome home on the edge of town,
the brother desiring to remain single
while his sister lived.
The bride is an accomplished wo
man and wealthy.
Still A Beau at 102.
Middletown, N. Y., Aug. 7.?Wear
ing a tall, white beaver hat and a
suit of white duck clothes, Dr. James
Nicholas Van, the well-known negro
of Mount Hope; who claims to be 102
years old, appeared in the streets of
this city today.
Van says he has been the husband
of 14 wives, all of whom were white
women. He is now looking for a
fifteenth wif3 io care for his home
during the r n>ai; ing years of his
life. He is confident that he has
many more ye'i''s- iv. store.?Philadel
phia record.
Moors Torture Spaniards.
Lisbon, Aug. 6.?The Secoli's cor
respondent says that the Spaniards
have lost 500 men killed and 1,200
wounded in the last three days fight
ing with the Moorish tribesmen, and
that 35 officers and 150 men have
fallen into the hands of the Moors,
who tortured them before putting
them to death.
ACCEPTS CALL TO BENSON.
Rev. T. B. Justice Resigns Pastor
ate at Franklinton.
Franklinton, Aug. 9.?Rev. T. B.
Justice, who has acceptably filled
the pulpit of the Baptist church at
this place for the past seven years
offered his resignation Sunday morn
ing. He has accepted a call to Ben
son Baptist church and will begin his
work there the first of October.
Mr. Justice and his family have
made many warm friends here who
are loth to give them up. but are
praying God's blessings upon them
in their new field.
BURDENS OF THE TARIFF.
i How the New Law Will Afect the
Purchasing Public.
It is an exploded axiom that fig
ures cannot lie. In economics the
device most commonly employed to
deceive the public is figures. The
country is to be flooded with ta
bles, comparisons and other mystify
ing data to convince the people that
they will gain under the operation of
the new tariff law. The people are
not expert in analyzing figures, much
less in dissecting the schedules and
all that affects them under the ad
ministration of the tariff; but here
are some things that the people either
know or soon will learn, to their
sorrow.
Instead of a reduction in the cost
of living, which was clearly promis
ed by both parties represented in
Congress there will be an enormous
increase in the cost of woolen and
men's suits, women's dresses, under
ware, and hats made from woolen
fabrics, not because the rates on
these articles have been increased,
but because the present excessive
rates have not been reduced, and be
cause, under these rates, a vast trust
has been formed to control woolen
manufactures.
There will be a large increase in
the cost of cotton fabrics and in
nearly all articles made from these
fabrics, including women's and chil
dren's clothing.
The cost of sugar will remain the
same, and each family will continue
to pay 2 cents a pound more for
its sugar than the same sugar sells
for in London.
There will be no reduction in the
cost of flour, bread, meats or pota
toes, and there will be large increas
es in the cost of lemons and pine ap
ples.
Hosiery will cost more ar.d gloves
will cost about the samf, both of
which articles are excessively ex-!
pensive under the law.
These are only a few of the arti- i
cles entering into large and general
necessary use. The cost will be in
creased on many others and lower
ed on only a few. The reductions
granted affect mainly raw materials,
leaving the people entirely at the
mercy of the manufacturers as to
whether the public shall share in
the benefits of such reductions.
It is submitted that a bill bearing
these general features, having this
broad tendency to increase rather
than lower the cost of living, embod
ies a flagrant betrayal of the peo
ple.
Get your tribute ready. The cost
of living is to be maintained, for a i
time, at. least, in order that the graft
of the trusts shall be protected and
made to flourish.?Kansas City Star.
SCORES OF BABIES DIE.
Fierce Heat of New York Makes
Death's Harvest Rich.
New York, Aug. 9.?Infant lives
went out by scores under the heat |
and humidity of today.
Seldom since the day after the
steamer General Slocum was burned
has the morgue at the Bellevue dock
held so many tiny bodies as tonight,
when 40 lay there?27 sent from the
New York Foundling Asylum and the
others from hospitals and other in
stitutions. Coney Island, whose hot '
sands were unswept by the light j
westerly breeze during the afternoon, j
idded three to the heat's toll of! baby
hood. |
Paid High For His Cider.
Richard Davis, son of Mr. Barney
Davis, who lives on the land of Mr.
J. W. Stephenson near Smithfield,
last Saturday bought and drank so
much hard cider at the cider stand
across the river that it made him
drunk. From there he came to
town but says he did not remember
coming here. Soon after reaching
here he went to the merry-go-round
and tried to take charge of affairs
there, acting In a boisterous manner
and cursing until a policeman had 1
to be called for. He was arrested 1
and locked up until Sunday morning 1
when he was tried by Justice E. J. '
Holt and fined $13.75.
|
"Don't you think Miss Jawkins has i
speaking eyes?" "I'm sure I don't i
know. If she had, her mouth wouldn't '
give them a chance to be heard."? i
St Louis Times. t
A $25,000,000 FARMER.
Sears, Once a Teleg-aph Operator,
Made Millions Out of the Mail Or
der Business and Now Retires to
The Farm to Spend His Remaining
Days.
Chicago, 111., Aug. 7.?Richard \V.
Sears, who has retired from business
with 125,000,000, made in seventeen
years, took charge of the threshing
at his farm at Gray's Lake, 111., yes
terday. At 5 P. M. the man whose
financial career would have been me
teoric bad it not been for his quiet
way of doing things, was out in the
fields supervising the work that the
twenty men who came an hour la
ter were to accomplish before sun
down.
Wearing overalls and wide-brim
med straw hat, as if he were accus
tomed to them, Sears surveyed his
model farm as if it were the only
interest he had in life. He refused
to turn from it and look backward
over the seventeen years that have
elapsed since he left his post as
telegraph operator in Redwood Falls,
Minn., to start the mail order busi
ness that has grown into the great
est in the world.
"Farmer" Sears who has announc
ed that he intends to devote the
rest of his time to his family and
his farm is only forty-five years old.
He was a telegraph operator at a
wayside station when an Eastern
watch manufacturer sent him a
watch with the privilege of returning
It if he could not sell it. He found
that he could sell that watch and
many more. So large did the watch
trade he established become that he
res cned his position and went to
Minneapolis.
In two years he came to Chicago
and began the business career that
ended yesterday with the sale of his
nock in Sears, Roebuck & Co. to a
New York syndicate.
Has Married 3,000 Couples.
Bristol, Tenn., Aug. 6.?The Kev.
Alfred H. Burroughs, striving for the
world's record of Gretna Green cere
monies, yesterday reached the mark
of 3,000 couples, dating from an in
cidental marriage of the kind here
August 14, 1888. The last decade
brought young couples to him at
the rate of 20 to 40 a month. Most
couples married by him came fro-.n
Virginia and West Virginia, where
the law forbids the marriago of mi
nors, except by consent of parents.
HON. ASHLEY HORNE TALKS.
Says He Fears There Will be Not
Much Profit in Cotton Milling in
Near Future.
Raleigh, N. C., Aug. 10.?Hon. Ash
ley Home here from Clayton to at
tend the annual meeting of stock
holders of a number of Raleigh cor
porations in which he is interested fi
nancially, says he is very much afraid
that there will not be any very con
siderable profits in cotton milling for
quite a while at least.
He says the scope'of trade is too
limited. The mills, he says, have
come to be too much dependent on
home consumption in the maintenance
of territory for the sale of the mill
products. Mr. Home says crops in
the Clayton section of Johnston coun
ty are very good but that in many
sections where the farming has not
attained the degree of efficiency that
it has in some of the more progres
sive sections are nothing like so
good.?Wilmington Star.
Bradstreet's Trade Report.
Richmond, Va., August 12.?Brad
street's Saturday will say for Rich- j
mond and vicinity?
Trade generally is satisfactory for
a between season period and the ten
dency is towards improvement. Deal
ers in practically all lines anticipate
an active trade as the fall season ad
vances. Dry goods and notions are
fairly active. Wholesalers of shoes
report increased sales. Fruits and
produce are fairly active. Shipments
of vegetables to northern markets are
up to the normal. In North Caro
lina some of the 1909 crop of tobacco
Is being offered and prices are re
ported equal to those of last year.
Recent rains have improved crop con
ditions, however, the corn crop In
Virginia is reported below the aver
age. Retail trado Is quiet. Collec
tions show improvement.
HE TRIED TO KILL FAMILY.
"Holiness" Preacher Becomes Insane
And Makes Murderous Assault.
Boardman, N. C., Aug. 6.?John
Smith, who boars the optomlstlc ti
tle of "Happy Jack," who lives near
here, and preaches at the "Holiness"
church, became insane and made a
murderous assault on the lnman fain- ?
ily, but h.'ppily his efforts failed. He '
i was overpowered and disarmed be- !
fore he committed any damage. How
ever, the crazy man was possessed |
of si%>t rhuman power and it took a
desperate effort to subdue him.
Smith is a Canadian and has resid
ed here about eight years. He mar
ried Miss Kate lnman and they have
two children. For some time he has
been subject to fits, but no one
dreamed that his mind was unbalanc
ed. An inquiry was held and he was
sent to the insane asylum.?News and
Observer.
Dwelling Burned.
On Thursday night, August 5th,
MJ. Kzekiel Creech, who lives near
Pine Level, had the misfortune to
lose his dwelling by fire. It occur
red about 10 o'clock while he and
his family were at the home of a
neighbor. The fire was discovered
by Mr. Bud Evans, a tenant on the
farm who managed to save two beds.
These are all of the household goods
which were saved. It is said that
the room where the fire originated
had had no fire in it for three
months.
FATHER OF TWINS AT 70.
Hale Old Virginian Now Parent of
32 Children.
Cape Charles, Va., Aug. 6.?John
W. Guy, the father of 30 children,
was yesterday presented by his wife
with twins, a bouncing boy and girl,
making him the father of 32 children.
Guy is 76 years of age, is hale and
hearty for his years and has been
married three times.
Woman Kicked Man With Her Foot.
We often hear It said when a
woman rejects a man that she has
kicked him, but a few days ago a
case of real kicking took place at
Wilson's Mills. The story as report
ed to us is as follows:
Gilbert Jones intruded himself on
the base ball diamond. He was asked
to go off but refused to do so. Con
stable W. R. Parrish was ordered to
arrest him and take him away. As
he started to do this David Avera
was deputized to help. Mrs. Bettie
Jones, wife of Mr. Dock Jones, who
lives at Wilson's Mills, seeing her
son who is about grown being car
ried forcibly from the grounds, de
cided to help him by fighting the
officers. She caught up a small
stick and hit David Avera with it
but the effect of her stroke was un
satisfactory to her. So advancing to
ward him from the rear, she kicked
him several times severely. After
doing this she found a large rock
which she raised with the strength
of a man with the intention, it seems,
of changing the shape of Avera's
head. By much effort on the part
of the people who stood nearby the
rock was dropped and no harm came
of it.
A great trial was expected to
take place last Friday afternoon and
the curiosity seekers assembled from
all quarters to hear It but as Gil
bert Jones submitted before Justice
McLeod and paid the sum of $4.35
the trial did not take place.
A Big Ditch.
Mr. E. J. Holt made a trip to
Wilson this week. While there he
went out to where Toisnot Swamp
is being canaled. The canal is ten
feet deep, twenty five feet wide and
when completed will be about ten
or twelve miles long. This will re
claim thousands of acres of rich land
on which there is an immense lot of
wood and timber. There is a fall of
only about four feet the whole dis
tance the canal runs. Tho swamp Is
about a half mile wide. The ditching
is being done by machinery, the
start being made near Wilson. A
boat was built and launched and on
this boat was placed a huge steam ,
shovel and canal digger which does
the work. Digging this canal will add
much to the health and worth of ' I
the section through which it runs, j <
THAW GOES BACK TO ASYLUM.
After a Long and Exhaustive Hear
ing Justice Mills Declares That Har
ry Thaw Is Still Insane. He and
His Family Greatly Disappointed at
The Outcome.
White Plains, N. Y., Aug. 12.?Har
ry K. Thaw was today adjudged in
sane by Justice Mills in a decision
handed down in the supreme court
and ordered sent back to Matteawan
state asylum for the criminal insane
immediately. Arrangements will be
made to take him back tomorrow.
Justice Mills in his decision finds
Thaw now insane and unable to prop
erly care for himself. The decision
contained 3,000 words and thoroughly
covered the insanity hearing. Thaw
awaited the decision in his celt at
White Plains jail and nervously pac
ed back and forth. When told of
the decision he staggered backwards
and fell upon his cell cot and for a
time could not be aroused. His moth
er and sister were almost overcome
at the news.
Saturday Night's Fire.
The town of Smithfield was thrown
into great excitement last Saturday
night by a fire in its business sec
tion. About 8 o'clock Mr. S. B. Jones
who lives some distance in the coun
try came to the Ellington Ruggy Co.
for five gallons of gasoline for his
new automobile which he had recent
ly purchased. Mr. J. E. Medlin took
a lantern and went with Mr. Jones
to the old wood shop which was used
in connection with the blacksmith
shop near the jail to get tha gaso
line. The lantern was set down 3
or 4 feet from where the gasoline
was to be drawn from the irou tank
in which it was kept. Their idea was
to draw it into a measure from
which it was to be poured through a
funnel into the can. Almost as soon
as they had made a start some of
the gasoline vaporized and went to
the lantern and caught fire which wa:
quickly carried to the gasoline in the
measure and from there to the tank
which exploded setting fire to every
thing. Mr. Jones and Mr. Medlin
rushed away as soon as the first fire
was seen. A little gasoline had spat
tered on a pant leg and shoe of Mr.
Medlin and he ran away carrying fire
with him, but it did not burn him
badly. The fire bells rang but before
the people could get to the fire it
was burning everything around it.
For some time it looked like the
whole of the business part of town
might be destroyed but by heroic ef
fort on the part of the fire cgj&yany
and citizens it was held back. There
were several old buggies, some farm
machinery and two houses burned.
An old house formerly used as the
guard house was the second house
burned. This was another time
when the fire engine came in handy.
Mr. Myatt's Wheat.
Mr. J. Walter Myatt was here a
few days ago and we asked him a
bout his wheat crop. He had just
threshed 620 bushels from twenty
acres which was thirty one bushels
per acre. He planted this wheat the
9th and 10th of November, sowing
five pecks to each acre. The first
week in April he used one hundred
and twenty-five pounds per acre of
nitrate of soda. The wheat follow
ed a crop of corn where peas were
sown broadcast the last time it was
plowed. He says he has found that
wheat does best after peas. His ro
tation is cotton, then corn and peas,
which are followed by wheat. Peas
always follow wheat the same year.
By following this rotation neither
cotton, corn nor wheat comes on the
land but once in three years and peas
are grown on It twice in three years.
BIRD IN BOX TURNS WHITE.
Believed to Have Been Shut Up for
Two Years.
Pittsfield, Mass., Aug. 8.?George
Parker today discovered a white swal
low in an unused oat-box in his barn.
Mr. Parker says the box has not
been opened in two years. He thinks
the bird entered the box before the
lid was turned down In 1907 and has
subsisted on oats in the box, and
that the confinement turned its feath
ers white.?Philadelphia Record.
The more a man denies himself
the more he will receive from heav
en.?Hoiace.
-
FAMOUS ENGRAVER DEAD.
For Forty Years Henry Mitchell Wa?
In Government Employ.
Chelsea, Mass., Aug. 7.?Henry
Mitchell, who since 1 SSti had been
the official engraver of dies for the
stamped envelopes of the United
States government, and who was one
of the best known designers of coata
of-arms in the world, died on Sunday
| at the age of seventy-three. Mr.
Mitchell was born in New York City,
ana had been a resident of Chelsea
for the last forty years.
When a boy of ten he began to
learn the trade of engraving. At
the age of nineteen he executed the
seal of the Maine State Fair, and
before he was twenty had done the
greater part of the work on the na
tional medal for Commodore Perry.
Massachusetts gave him his start
in the field of high-class engraving,
and made him a recognized .expert.
In the same year he finished the
Perry medal he made all the seals
for the Hawaiian government. He
designed and executed the medals for
the centennial exposition when quite
a young man. He began his service
as official engraver of the dies for
the United States government stamp
ed envelopes in 1868.
GENERAL NEWS NOTES.
Eleven people lost their Uvea when
the Okangan hotel at Vernon, B. C.,
was burned Tuesday.
The new battleship South Caroliaa
will be officially tried Vut August
24 off the Maine coast.
Maanah J. C. T. Young, one of the
four widows of Brigham Young, died
at Salt Lake City last week.
The George Peabody College for
Teachers will be erected close by
Vanderbilt University at Nashville.
Ohio tobacco raisers have declined
to pledge themselves to pool their
crop with the Kentucky producers.
Three miners were killed at Tellu
ride, Col., Monday by lightning that
started a fire in the Liberty Bell
ininj.
After trying, but failing, to kill his
| wife and little son, Walter Gipson
committed suicide at Cordova, Ala.,
Saturday.
Paragould, Ark., has passed a law
that no persons shall be an the
j streets of the city between midnight
| and 4 A. M.
Following a jealous quarrel at
j Kansas <'ity Sunday, Grant Siers kill
ed his sister-in law, Mrs. Mary Siers,
and then lock his own life.
Lightning at New Richmond, Wis.,
Saturday, killed every other one of
six horses, standing side by side, 3
of them not being touched.
Escaping from the Pasteur Insti
tute at New Orleans Saturday, John
Higglns, a sailor, went mad at sight
of a glass of water and died.
At Baxley, Ga., Tuesday W. A.
Belcher, a well-to-do planter was
secretly murdered, it is believed ,as
a result of a feud in that section.
After cutting the throats of his wife
and his 16 and 18-year-old daughters.
Christian Hanson, a rich farmer near
Cameron, Wis., hanged himself Fri
day.
H. McConnetl, a business man of
f San Francisco, has American and
! European artists at work on a $150,
000 monument to commemorate the
valor of Union and Confederate sol
diers at Gettysburg.
At Augusta, Ga., Tuesday angry
spectators attacked Umpire Gifford
and he narrowly escaped serious in
jury. A riot call was sounded and
the police escorted the umpire off
the grounds. The attack on him was
due to several unfair decisions.
By disreputable methods, approved
by the courts of Venezuela, ex-Dicta
tor Castro, has been despoiled of a
fortune of $5,000,000 in money and
stocks, his enemies gobbling up his
riches at a mere song. The Venezue
lan Congress refused to receive Cas
tro's much heralded appeal.
Death of a Good Woman.
Mrs. Ella Sanders, wife of Mr. John
H. Sanders, died at their home in
Goldsboro last Friday after nine
weeks' illness. Before her marriage
she was a Miss Peterson and was
reared In the neighborhood of Mr. C.
S. Powell near Smithfleld.
Carrie?"Somebody ought to knock
the conceit out of him." Harry?"If
they did there would not be enough
of him left to hang clothes on."?
New York Evening Telegram.