1J1.00 , TTortX- 1 Advanoo. "POU GOD, POIl OOXJlNTTIX'Sr, FOJl TIIUTII." OIulsIo Copy. O Conla' VOL. XI. PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, DECEMBHg lgg NO. 30. : dill arp's letter. Left," left, left! That is an ominous word-r-I . don' t like it. Last Friday, night I closed my mission down in Alabama a most delightful week with balmy weather, moonlight nights and good people to cheer me. I retired happy to dream of home and the little grandchildren and the light that would be shining in the window for me on Saturday night. I: The porter was to call me up in time to take the 2 o'clock train for Chatta nooga, but alas 1 he did not do it, and I awoke to find that the train had passed aud I was left, left, left Oh I the misery of it. Shakespeare says w' that there is no philospher can endure .the toothache patiently, and. I will add or being left by a train when far from home. There is a goneness about it, fo the train-has gone. - 1 The next train would not connect at Chattanooga and I would have to stay there till another 2 o'clock in the morn ing. But all's well that ends well. About daylight I reached my home. All was still and silent. The good old dog was lying at the door and gently wagged his busby tail." The door was locked but the window sash' waa not, and I raised it slowly and softly and was soon in the sitting room, where there was a good comfortable sofa. I knew that the door to our family bed room was locked, and I heard some faint familiar nasal sounds that assured n ii mi 1 . me an was wen. me uiaguose who Mjrjright. In a few minutes I was asleep ( 'and playing, on vthe hamionican - my self, My heavy base echoed . to the tenor in the other room and awakened one of the girls, who whispered : ''Mam ma, mamma, there is somebody in the front room." it's your papa," said she. ""1 know his trombone be still 8nd let Jiimsleep, for I expect he is almost wonTout." ' It was .8 o'clock when somebody kissed me while I was, dreaming of the soldier boys drilling and the officer said left, left, left at ev ery step. Rousing up I received the family embraces, and two little children came running inland climbed all over me and-made me Sappy. '.' Oh? it. beats war, or politics, or a dog law, or any thing. I was escorted into the dining room to breakfast and saw at a glance that the room had beenrepapered with a tinted olive green paper and the bor dering, m atched it beautifully The doorsJSFa tne" "pSrior-weredfr opened that room had been repap( red, too, and was lovely. - Somehow I never could make as much ado over pleasant surprises as my female folks expect, but I did my best and. have expressed my admira tion several times since. -Before I left thpy talked about the old paper that had gotten dirty and was falling off and said that if I would get the paper they would put it on, an! I assented. I am glad that I did, for if I had been at home they would have put the harness on me and made me wait on them all day, for I am the boy. I met a man down in Alabama who said that my letters were demoralizing the women of this country and putting new burdens on the men. "W hy," said he, "just look at me I am fifty five. Years old &n&Weigb: nigh onto2QQ; pounds,- and yet In y wife w ante mfeitoi climb up a step ladder yesterday and fix the curtains back, and I told her I couldn't and wouldn't, for the ladder was old and rickety and I might fall and break my neck or some ol my his wife and plants fle-wers and straw berries and nurses the grandchildren, too.' 'Yes,' said 1, 'that's what he writes, but I don't believe a word of it. He thinks that you women are going to be allowed to vote pretty soon, and he is just fixing to be elected.' Now, Bee here, Mr. Arp, I fought four years in that dogone old war and now I am 4tir.' I ( arti tat a rw i I'm nnr crfvint to climb ladders and tend the flower f-rrden just because you do; that is, if Y'u really do it, which I don't believe." Ad the good, jolly old veteran laughed immensely- : .. '. - . - Next day I made acquairitatiee wijh; a condutor on the Alabama Great .Southern, and he comforted me by say- ing that my letters gave good example it n n,t nnrA nliAor anrl niptnrfifl wha t hflttlfl ' vryugnt 10 ue. oaiu uw, ttu uvb who - ,;iildren at our home, all under age, td my greatest pleasure is in meeting $.m when my run is off, and in help uMhem and their mother to fight the Xtle of life and be contented and en what we have got and be thankful ;od for his tender mt-rcies. Run Sj a train half night and half day is jjS work, but I enjoy my home and tf-all the more when I get with and they are all the gladder to ie." Hike that man and that kind of . When our people realize that 4ie is the best place on earth, and .J mother-is -its dearest inmate we "J have an ideal com! on wealth. Coleridge says: , f V "A mother is a mother still Tli holiest thin g alive." Lyttleton says: . "The lover In the husband may be lost lSut the wife is dtarer than the bride." All the great poets have paid tribute to the home and the mother, for dome is not home without a mother. Of course there are many married women who are not mothers and do not wish "to be. With them children are in- trudera, and the pity is that their moth ers had not been of, similar mind. In New England and fashionable northern circles the maternal instinct has been smothered, and has gone into ah "in nocuous desuetude," as Mr. Cleveland would say. A good gentle Tom How ard said that a Boston mother wouldn't have but one or two children, and Bhe wouldn't have any if she didn't want an heir to inherit the estate. Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote a re markable letter two years ago on the decay of the maternal instinct in New England, and the great increase of di vorces and voluntary separations. Mary Brent Reed has recently published an article on the same subject as applica ble to France. She says that the fash ionable women of the 1 period won't even dress like women. They despise hips and try to hide them. They pre fer to be as slim as race horses, and to conceal every sign of a maternal form. Children are intruders, they say, and if by chance they have any they are put out to nurse and to be reared by un motherly hands. What , an awful pic ture this is what a sad descent from the motherhood of our mothers what a counterpart to the Saviour's teaching when he said, "Suffer little children to come unto me for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Nearly all the great men of the world have been nursed by noble mothers, and it reioices me to know that Mrs. Sarah Butts, of Brunswick, has a book now in press with Lippin cott that will rescue from oblivion the mothers of many of Georgia's great and g6odmen. .With her. it has been a -labor of love. How our biographers from Moses down have lauded the great men "hut paid small tribute to their mothers. - - But the highest heaven is reserved for them, and an eternal fame that will not pass away like, that" the great men acquire in this clialhgeable.world. Alas, poor Dewey, how soon did his garlands wither. But we still have Schley and Brumby and Hobson left, and a host of lesser lights that illuminate the the southern skv. Bill Arp. ; ' Hlot Holding Back Cotton,' . Macon Telegraph. - The claims of the bears that a great deal of thetotton is being held back by the farmers of the South has not yet been substantiated. On the other hand, aeftreful investigation by.reliable par, tieshas developed the fact that there is no disposition whatever "on the part of the farmers in any Bection of the South to hold back their cotton. The con trary seems to have been true; the price ,Qf cottony this fall was eo much better. than, last year, and, in fact, bet tha'n many farmers expected, that, with few exceptions, they took advantage of the good weather and hurried their cot ton to town as rapidly as possible, fear ing that the price might go off and not caring to risk the cha ices of an ad vance. While the fact is well . estab tablisbed that there has been no general movement in the way of holding back cotton, the unsupported assertion of the bears that such a policy has been adopted continues to serve the purpose of the speculators, who are persistent. -VW lirtrP hte of Ore Land; Raleigh, N. C, Nov. 30. The Cam bria Steel Company and others have se cured 10,000 acres of magnetic iron o lands in Ashe county, embracing the Ballou ore bank, which is 67 per cent, pure. The rfj-'alty.-to be paid is 25 fceljUf a tfitoIt is xfeelared; that this is X4 rlchesi'ina ""larges't'depit df ' msrg netic ore in the Southern States. It is said that the Southern railway will ex tend its line from Wilkes'joro, N. C, to Bristol, directly through the ore lands. The Norfolk and Western may alBffftnlUJjA branS lUne there from a point harned ChftrrotYard8rs'"A Penn sylvania firm has also purchased the Gambill copper mine, only six miles from the Ballou ore bank, and will put in at once an extensive plant. Opera tions are resumed, after some ten years' idleness, at the Ore Knob copper mines in Ashe county, and a New York Syn dicate is negotiating tor thenl, J A Mil waukee firm has bought for $40,000 the Elk Kuob copper mining property, also in Ashe county, and has also purchased 20,000 acres of land in its vicinity. Wireless Telegraphy. Chicago, Nov. 30. Prof. W. S. John and C. L. Fortier, of Milwaukee, to-day made a successful test in this city of the wireless telegraphy. ; They succeeded in telegraphing without wires through a suite of seven rooms with all doors closed and through seven walls. Another te9t was made when the sig nals were conveyed through three fire proof vaults and an ordinary telegraph switchboard, in which thirty wires were connected up and about 40 dead wires were located. Notwithstanding the fact that this switchboard contained live wires, the current passed through all of the vaults and through this fcoard. This is one of the moat severe tests that has ever been given wireless telegraphy. A third test was made in which the sending instrument was placed inside of one of the steel vaults and both doors were closed and the combination Jock turned. The signals were then trans mitted clearly from the inside of the vault tc an adjoining room. During the reign of Queen Victoria, beginning in 1S37, Great Britain has had 24 wars. SAM joks disfigured, but still IN THE! IUNU. "The frost is on the puukin and the fodder '8 in the shock." North Georgia waa never so full and flowery in the products of nature as at this time peavine hay, corn, fodder, cotton, 'cotton seed, potatoes, turnips, etc. This is certainly a year of plenty and a fall of beauty. An idle farmer is a vagabond,' a busy farmer is doing well. This is the, prettiest fall I ever Baw, the forest, with its variegated col ors, is charming indeed. A man who iB not happy now with his present sur roundings, has a' bad liver or a bad conscience. The country was never bo prosperous, why, even Cartersville ia building. The Episc ipal church is build ing a beautiful rectory, the Baptist church is building a nice parsonage. I thought Cartersyille was full "grown, but if she is full grown she has had a lick somehow and is swelling in spots. Then we are talking about a cotton factory here and great manufacturing enter prises." Talk is cheap, however. I think we are holding a caucus . daily now on the prospects, and we are at least as well off as one of our fellow townsmen who told me that he had bought a ticket in the- Lonieana State Lottery every month for 20 years, but that he had neyer drawn any prize, but that the prospects for being rich at the end of every month was worth to him all that he had ever invested in the tickets. I tell you there's nothing like, prospects. A man or a country without prospects ought to retire to the cemetery, and amid all these good times we have vari ations along different lines. "We have elections that break up the monotony. As I expected,' they are preparing for a picnic in'-1 Kentucky. Four thousand people with their numbers increasing were gathered at Barberville, Ky., yes terday clamoring-for a fair count. "Nose to nose," the newspapers report the race between Goebel and Taylor,, I have been up in Kentucky. I have heard about that Goebel election law, and if a man's own election law does hot elect him then his law is a fail ure. I ho more believe that Goebel is elected governor of Kentucky than I beheveI am; Kentucky is too evenly divided on political lines to jrun the thing like we do in Georgia and Ten nessee and Mississipi. It will take votes to elect in Kentucky, sometimes a reso lution by a corrupt legislature by a cau cus the night before the election, some times padded returns. We can run that down' "South in Dixie," when it is ab solutely necessary for the good of the party, but up in Kentucky, where the in elligence and virtue and manhood of the State is about as much on one side as the other, the thing won't work, in my candid judgment. Somebody told me the other day that the Georgia legis lature was in session at this present time and that there was a Hall bill up, and I either dreamed or beard that there was a Willingham bill up, yery much up when it isn't down. I learn that it is either now on the table or under the table. We will see what we will see. I read a ponderous, logical, resistless edi torial in The Constitution the other day warning the-people against the disasters which would .come to Georgia from the Willingham bill r that if that bill was passed If' the temperance legislation temperance growth of the last UU years would be immediately wiped out of exiBteace; and. that whisky would flow ankle deep over the State with a dipper.faanging.on every gate, or words to' that effect. '" I expect the Constitution ' and' Jour nal force are all teetotalers and practical tern peranee men,. but.- they are off .on theory and sentiment. - It I looked with disfavor v"upon temperance legislation and-saw the thing as , I see it, 1 would not feel .uneasy enough to write on the subject. The Wintngham bill ought to pass and become' a'law, but I no more believe that it will pass and become a law than I belieyl that the temperance crowd in the legislature are as smart and cunning as the whiskey gang in the legislature. . A bull yearling can de rail and wreck a whole train of cars, engine and all." - A fellow can derail the whole business again at a switch. I don't doubt the temperance majority, or the willingness of the Georgia legis lature in its majority forces to pass the Willingham bill, but I doubt their ability to do it. I believe in the un manageability of the minority when the minority has got more flense than the majority. I mean chicanery and legis lative sense and parliamentary power. Whisky has just got to have brains and money to carry it along. The temper ance element has plenty of force and power until it .collides with the whisky power. I have tested the strength, chicanery and power of the whisky traffic on one side until I waa twenty four years old, and on the other side I have tested it for twenty-eight" years, and I know something about it. They are awake when we are asleep. They are like the fellow who bragged on bis father as a physician and surgeon. He Baid a man camj to his father one day who had knocked one of bh eyes out with a piece of lightwood. He said his father made him catch the big old torn cat, and he took the cat's eye out and put it into the fellow's head. The man asked could he see out of that eye. "Yes," said he, "it was a fit, and he could see as good out of it as he could out of his other eye, and the only differ ence was that the cat's eye was awake at night watching for rats while his own eye was asleep." There's no use talk ing, the whisky crowd has one eye open day and night The temperance people go to sleep early, and are not in a hurry about getting up in the morning. I sympathize with the temperance ma jority of the Georgia legislature when I see how utterly powerless they are in the presence of the .mighty minority. They need sympathy. I am still at home, and in addition to other physical complications and dif ficulties, I was mixed up in a cyclone in my lot the other day. For a moment I was looking on the cyclone in the shape of one horse hitched with one trace only to a two-horse wagon; another mo ment I was lying down on the ground, two wheels of a wagon running over my arm and shoulders, another wheel run ning over my heel. A Georgia cyclone would not have done me up much worse in a shorter time, and my friends all say I needed rest. I am getting it. I haye got one good leg and one good arm and a tolerable fair pair of shoulders, a chin very much disfigured, and soul full of gratitude that I am what I am, and that I am no ammer than lam. When I do get well and the soreness has passed away I shall be glad. I have no broken bones, but I think everything about nie looked broken but my bones. Coming up on the train the otherclay from Atlanta an old negro at Big Shanty selling apples, called my wife "sissy,' ' and told me to buy some ap ples. He knew 1 was her husband. I said, "This is a gay widow I am sitting by." He plied, "Boss, then take her in; she looks like Bhe has got money behind her," to " the merriment of all the passengers. .My wife came 'mighty near being a widow in a few hours, leaving off the "gay," but I am still here and my wife is not a "widow ; wo man." Yours truly, Sam P. Jones. ' Seventh Fever Victim at Normal. Greensboro. Nov. 30. Miss Men Gougan, of Robeson county, a student at the Normal, died this morning of typhoid fever. She had been sick about ten days. During the last days of her illness she was nursed by her mother, who today carried the body of her daughter to her home at Lumber Bridge. The total number of deaths from the fever at the Normal is seven. There is an improvement in the condition of most of the patients, though several of the girls remain critically ill. The di rectors of the college are still in session, and nearly all the members of the board are present. They are still silent. Their conservatism and painstaking efforts to ascertain the cause of the sickness are to be commended. Raleigh, Nov. 30. Dr. Richard II. Lewis, secretary of the State board of health, received to-night a telegram from Dr. Anderson, one of the bacteri ologists of the board, stating thatthe water in the wells at the Teague house, a rented dormitory, and at that of the central well, which was used by all the students of the State Normal and In dustrial College, recently allltcted with a serious outbreak of typhoid fever, is bad. This fully explains the epidemic and ie a cause that can be promptly and completely removed, so that this most useful and popular institution can be re-opened with safety on the date to which it was suspended, January 2, lltOO. . Financial Stringency. Nashville Advocate. In spite of the good, times of which nearly all the --papers are talking, the supply of money, in the great centers, is hardly sufficient to meet the demands. The New York bankers are not able to meet all the demands that are made upon them, and it is fearad that condi tions will grow worse before they grow better. As to the causes that have pro duced this stringency there ia a great variety of opinion. . But it can scarcely be doubted that the reckless speculation of the past year is at least partly re sponsible for it. Another fact of im portance is the growing surplus in the Federal Treasury. Though the expendi tures necessitated by the war with Spain and the present hostilities in the Philippines have been enormous, the government now holds in its strong boxes nearly $300,000,000 in gold. To subtract bo large a sum as this from the ordinary avenues of , trade without ef fecting some disturbance, is a manifest impossibility. It is proposed, as a measure of relief, that the Secretary of the Treasury shall either deposit $50, 000,000 with the national banks, or else buy up large quantities of its own bonds. But neither of these schemes seems to be altogether feasible. Emphatic Enough. The angry parent strode into the parlor. "Girls," he said, "who are these young men ?" "Papa," replied one of the daughters, "this is Mr. Young and this ia Mr. Yates." Whereupon the old gentleman invi tingly opened the door. "Git!" he thundered. And they got. A word to the Y's was sufficient. "I never thought the titne ' wouUA ' ever come when I should be d,r'"dj( hear that piano going," Fogg, a? "instrument" ' house W -"arried d ' to 11 . j - "rlRK.D OF THE GAME." Charlotte Observer. A certain man died in North Caro lina the other day. It was asked of one of his friends of what he died, and the answer was, of whiskey and mor phine. He wad a man of eifts and promise, and it was asked why he should thus dispose of himself, and the reply was, "O, well, he was tired of the game." The answer was full of meaning. The world is full of people who are tired of the game. They haye worried and struggled. t Perhaps they have reared, or tried to rear, children who have been a disappointment to them. Perhaps to them "fortune had looked backward." They have worked hard, and seen no result of their labor; the past has been unfruitful, the future is unpromising. They have thought upon the problems of life and they see nothing in it for them. . They are tired of the game. Hon. Henry Watterson delivered in Charlotte a year or two ago his lecture on "Money and Morals." It was not worthy of him, and was a disappoint ment to his audience, but it contained toward its conclusion this striking in quiry, What is the use ? A man who had become President of the United States said to him that this was the goal of his ambition; that for years he had looked forward to the presidency; that when he finally reached it, he found that his former friends had be come his enemies and that his former enemies had become his friends, and so the chief value of the office had gone he was unable to reward his friends or punish his enemies. Tde question waj, wherefore had he expended his ener gies; why had he spent reBtless days and sleepless nights in seeking some thing that brought no pleasure in the attainment? The answer was, of course, Solomon's Vanity of Vanities. But we lose our course and yet not altogether. Is the game worth the can dle? That is the question which hun dreds of thousands of human beings all over the earth are asking themselves, and the answer they get is in the nega tive. If they are in public life and try to follow the popular caprice they find themselves involved in all sorts of ab surdities; if they follow the dictates of conscience and of right, they lose caste. If, far from "the madding strife,"- pur suing the even tenor of their way, they often find toil unrequited and effort gone for naught, they get tired of the game. The world is full of these luckless ones. Is not the great majority to be so classified ? It is a world of toil and moil, with nothing to show for it when we have run our little race; when all life's duties have been done. It may be a cottage ia left; it may be some acres of farming land; it is tolerably certain to be a widow and several chil dren. It is not quite heroic to get out of it all through the medium of whiskey or morphine; it is not quite the thing to leave to others the care of children which we have brought into the world. But there is the ever-recurring ques tion, Is it worthwhile? and the ever present answer, I am tired of the game. Cotton Seized and Sold During the War. Columbia, S. O., Nov. 30. Governor Miles B. McSweeney today addressed a letter to the Governor of each Southern State, asking for united effort to get Southern Representatives in Congress to work for the passage of a bill refund ing eleven million dollars to Southern people from whom cotton was seized by United States troops during the War between the States. The cotton was sold by the Collector of Customs of New York, and the funds placed in the United States Treasury. The United States Supreme Court has decided that the Government has no right or title to these funds, which are held for the ultimate return to those entitled thereto. . But these funds cannot be recovered except by Congressional action, as legis lation is necessary before action can be brought against the soyereign Govern ment. By special legislation some few claims have been granted, but it is de sired that Congress remoye all restraints so that lawful owners or heirs may be reimbursed. A Senate bill waa intro duced last year, and was reported favor ably by the Senate Committee on Claims, but was lost sight otin some way. A Thirty-Six-Found 'Possum. Spartanburg, S.C., Free Lance. A Spartanburg man traveling in the harness and sadlery business, is respon sible for the following, the truth of which he vouches for: The negroes of Greenville county held a stock show at Pine Hill, in that county, On October 6, and a 'possum, weighing 36 pounds and having tusks 6 inches long, was placed on exhibition. Its tail had been cut off and marked in Pu? mark. He would noj"' ing on hia lands Bv'r have been mark' life-time. He and. i-y '. V RALEIGH A MODERN SODOM. Raleigh News and Observer. A sensation was created here Sunday in church circles by Rev. F. M. Jordan. Mr. Jordan, who has preached ;the gospel in nearly, every Baptist church in the State at one. time or the other, has been here for Bome time superin tending the publication of a history of his life and labors. Sunday morning he attended the . First BaptiBt church and was called on by Dr. Carter, at the conclusion of his sermon on ''Christian Growth," for a prayer. And such a prayer it was! The ven erable preacher witn bowed head seemed to be talking familiarly with God, tell ing Him of the bins of the people,, man by man, and asking the Almighty for mercy and indulgence till they could be called to lepentance. "Oh, God," he Baid, "Thou knowest the majority -of Christians are like wasps larger at birth than at any other time. - And they grow smaller and meaner as time goes on. Thou knowest also that a great many members high up in the church drink beer and whis key and go to dances. Oh, Lord, they call them germans, but that'a just to fool the people. They are regular old dances nothing in the world but fid dling and dancing. We read the paper this morning and there they had print ed the names of all the gala and their partners. Oh Lord, have mercy on these miserable rascals. "Then, oh Lord, a lot of them are giving card parties around here, going into saloons, visiting places of ill-fame and playing the devil generally. No wonder that when they ask a sinner to turn from his evil way, he replies, 'Go 'way, you old devil, we know you.' We heard only this past week of a prominent church member who had been drinking beer ten years and who went home and found his" little boy ' dead drunk and as limber as a dish rag. Oh, Lord, have mercy on these misera ble sinners who pretend they are fol lowing inee, nut wno go arouna wiin , their breath smelling like an old swill tub. We have a little grandchild," Lord, that we were thinking of sending here to school, but, oh, Lord, this is such a degraded, fearfully wicked city, that we are afraid to send her here. Then' there is a college here where the youDg -'t ' men are encouraged to give dances. ' Oh, Lord, have mercy on the president " of that institution. . "Thou knowest there are only a ftw r righteous people in Raleigh. All the -rest are wicked, and were it not for these few good people the whole city . 1 3 . it., a :i ( - 1 v-1 : wuuiu gu w i uc ucyii. uuu wuuiu iaiu down hre and brimstone and destroy it '. -like Sodom and Gomorrah.'! . Willie had swallowed a penny, and his mother was in a state of-, much -alarm. "Helen," she called to-'her. sister in the next room, "send for a doctor; Willie has swallowed a penny !" -The terrified and frightened boy looked up imploringly. "No, mamma," he interpose, "send "for the minister." "The minister?" asked his mother, in- : credulously. "Did you say the minis-, ter?'' v "Yes; because papa says pur , minister can get monev out of any body." - ' - Mrs. Newly wed: "I was going to have some sponge cake as -a surprise "for you, dear, but I must confess it was a failure." Mr. Newlywed: "What was the matter?" Mrs. Newlywed; ?'I don't know for shure, but I think the druggist sent mo the wrong kind of-, sponges." " : -; V . Look En Your Mirror Do yon ee sparkling eyes, healthy, tinted sk in, a tweet expression and a grace ful form t These attractions are the result of good health. If they are absent, there ia nearly always some disorder of the dis tinctly feminine organs present. Healthy menstrual organs mean health and beauty everywhere. Iw3qEMEE'& . r V4-09-r.