y 100 a Year. In Advance. - "FOR COUNTRY, FOR GOD, AND EOR TRUTH." Single Copy, scents. VOL. XI. PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1900. : " NO. 15. J? J i V NKHKASKA DEUIOClt AT1U PLilTPORllI Al'PnOVEO MY W. J. HKYAN. " . The following is the platform adopted by the Nebraska State Democratic con vention lust week amid the greatest en thusiasm : 'We, the Democrats of Nebraska,' in convention assembled, do hereby reaf firm and indorse, in who.'e and in part, in letter and in spirit, the platform adopted by the .Democratic national convention held in Chicago in 1806'. "We favor amendments to the fed eral conftitution specially authorizing an income tax and providing for tbe electiou of United States senators by a Ijt- direct vote of the people. "We oppose government by injunc tion and the blacklist, and favor arbi tration as a means of settling disputes between coroorations and their em ployes. "We observe with approval the sup port given by " Democrats throughout the country to the movement looKiug toward the municipal ownership of municipal franchises. "We favor the priucipalof the initia tive and referendum wherever it can be applied. ''We are in favor of liberal pensions to deserving soldiers and to their de pendents; we believe that names upon the pension rolls should not be arbi tral ily dropped,) and we believe, as stated in the la6t national platform, that the fact of enlistment and servicesbould .ip be deemed conclusive evidence against ' disease and disability before enlistment. "We are in favor of the immediate construction and fortification of the Nicaraguau canal by the United States. "We condemn the Dingley tariff law as a trust-breeding and extortion-inviting measure, skillfully devised for the purpose of giving to a few favored that which they do not deserve and of plac ing upou "the whole people many bur dens which they should not bear. "We welcom3 the opportunity of fered this year to take the federal gov ernment out of the hands of the Re publican partv, which has abandoned American ideas and American ideals, and at the command of corporate wealth has plotted against the financial inde pendence" of the individual, and now contemplates the nullification of the declaration of American independence. "We pledge ourselves to wage an un ceasing warfare against all the trusts the money trusts, the industrial trust and the international land-grabbing trust. "Instead of a system which would chain our nation to the gold standard and compel it to participjUe i all tbe disturbances which come to European nations, we demand an American" finan cial system, made by the American people" for themselves, to be secured by the immediate restoration of the free and unlimited coinage of gold and sil ver at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. "The Republican ad mic is 'ration has admitted thegold standard to be un satisfactory by appointing a commission to solicit foreign aid in restorijg the double standa d, and a Republican con gress, even while trying to make the gold standard permanent, has confessed judgment against the standard by at tempting to revive the delusive hope of .international bimetallism. "Instead of the system favored by 'the Republican party, under which na tional banks are to be permitted to issue :and control the yolume of paper money ifor their own profit, we reiterate our de " imand for the financial system which recognizes the government's sovereign ;right to issue all money, whether, coin or paper, and we demand the retention of the greenbacks as they now exist and dhe retirement of national bank notes as rapidly as greenbacks can be sub stituted for them. "We believe that private monopolies wre indefensible and intolerable, and we condemn the national' administration for its failure to enforce the present law against the trusts or to recommend a more effective law. "We f avr a state constitution which will prohibit the organization of a monopoly within the State and also pre vent a monopoly organized elsewhere from doing business within the State; but we further believe that congress should supplement the efforts of the State by legislation which will require every corporation, before engaging in inter-state commerce, to show that it has no water in its stock, and that it has neither attempted in the past ncr is attempting to monopolize any branch of business or the production of any article of merchandise. Tn Ho nlatfnrm of I860 the Repub lic .n party declared that the mainten ance of the principles promulgated in declaration of independence and em bodied in ihe federal constitution, 'That all men are created equal; that they are endowed with inalienable rights; that governments are instituted to secure their rights; aDd that governments de rive their just powers from the consent of the governed,' is essential to the pre servation of our republican institutions, but the Republican party, uoder its present leadership, is endangering tbe preservation of republican institution by placing the dollar above the man in thee nstruction of government, and of violating the principles that it ouce declared to be essential. "We condemn the Porto Rico tariff bill recent'y passed by a Republican house of representatives of a bold and open violation of the nation's organic law and a ilagrant breach of good faith. "We assert that the constitution fol lows the fl'g and denounce the doctrine that an executive or a congress, created and limited by the constitution, can exercise lawful authority beyond that constitution, or in violation of it. Be lieving that a nation cannot long en dure half republic and half empire, we oppose wars of conquest and colonial possessions. "Tne Filipinos cannot be citizens without endangering our civilization; they cannot be subjecte without en dangering our form of government, and as we are not willing to surrender our civilization or to convert a republic into an empire, we favor an immediate declaration of the nation's purpose to give to the Filipinos, first, a stable form of government; second, independence, and third, protection from outside in terference, as it has for nearly a century given protection to the republics of Central America. "We favor tbe expansion of trade by every legitimate and peaceful means, but we are opposed to purchasing trade at the cannon's mouth with human blood; neiiher do we belieye that trade secured and held by force is worth the price that must be paid for it. We are in favor of extending the nation's in fluence, but we believe that that influ ence should be extended, not by force and violence, but through the persua sive power of a high and honorable ex ample. "We oppose mili'arism. It imposes upon the people an unnecessary burden and is a constant menace. A small standing army and a well-equipped State militia are sufficient in time of peace; in time of war the citizen soldier should be a republic's defense. "We believe with Jefferson, in peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, and entangling alliances with none, and we regard with appre hension the doctrine advocated in some quarters that this nation should, in its dealings or diplomacy, show partiality toward any of the European nations. "Not because of hostility to England, but because we believe in the principles of a republic and reject, as did our fore fathers, the theory, of monarchy, we sympathize with the Boers in their heroic efforts to preserve their national integrity. The failure of Republican leaders, who four years ago expressed sympathy for the Cuban patriots, to feel an interest in the struggle of the Dutch in South Africa, shows the para lyzing influence of the imperial policy to which to commit thiB country." The Yankee and the Butter. Charlotte Observer. Dr. E. O. Guerrant, who delighted a large audience on Tuesday night with his lecture on Morgan's raiders, is interesting both in public speaking and in conversation. lie has abroad knowledge of men and aifairs, and a happy faculty of being able to tell an apropos anecdote to illustrate any point that he wishes to make. In talking with some of his friends hereabout the type of the gentleman gamb'er in Kentucky, Dr. Guerrant gave an idea of that character by re lating an episode in the life of Bishop Kavanaugh, of Kentucky. Years ago this worthy divine went to New York on a visit, and one of the first persons that he saw on the streets was a gam bler who had formerly lived in the Blue Grass State. The sight of a face from home caused the gambler to drop conventionalities, and, shaking hands with the Bishop, he asked the latter to lunch with him. .The Bishop accepted, and the two men went into a near-by restaurant. Now the Bishop belonged to the old school of gentlemen, but his table manners were primitive. During the course of the meal he reached over and used his knife to cut a piece of butter from the dish in the centre of the table. A dapper, fidgety Yankee, who was sitting at the table, immedi ately called the waiter and said : "Take that butter away and bring a fresh dish." . The gambler's eves flashed. From his back-pocket he drew an immense bowie knife, and cutting off a large slice of butter, dashed it into the face of the fastidious man. Then he turned an drawled out: "Waitah, remove this Yankee and bring in a fresh one. Bishop, help yourself to the butter 1" Creelman Eiponea JMcKtnley's Plan. New York, March 15. The New York Journal publishes the following from James Creelman at San Juan de Puerto Rico "Information has been received here that the administration Senators at Washington have privately made the following extraordinary admissions : "They have stated that the real pur pose of tbe Puerto Rican tariff is to avoid fulfilling 'he fourth article with Spain, which allows that nation equal trade rights with tbe United States in the Philippine Islands. "These Senators have also admitted to the Puerto Rican delegates that if the constitution followed the flag and 5ov erel Puerto Rico, it, the constitution, would afro cover the Philippines. "In that event the whole trade of the late Spanish possessions would be thrown over to Spain, wheroas it was hoped by some future tariff device to cheat Spain out of her solemnly secured treaty rights." OVlt WASHINGTON LETTER, Special Correspondence. The act of Senator Beveridge, of Indiana, in introducing a free trade amendment to the Porto Rican bill, with the proviso that the Constitu tion shall not be understood to be ex tended to that Island, has stirred up tresn difficulties among the Republi cans in Congress. . The worst of the situation, from a party standport, is that Mr. Beveridge took his action after consultation with the President, and it is understood that the Presi dent advocates .the measure. If this ia so, McKinley has flopped again, leaving the thirty odd Republicans in the House, whom he induced to vote for the original bill, out in the cold. The action of Mr. Beveridge has not only thrown the entire Indi ana delegation into the greatest con fusion, but it has upset the course of procedure of the "peace" commit tee of the Senate. However, no ac tion will be taken for some time yet, and it is tondly hoped by the G. O. P that some means out of the tangle may be found that will still bleed Porto Rico without wrecking the party. The country need not be surprised if it wakes up some fine morning to find itself involved in a war in China ine meaning oi tne mysterious con centration of the Asiatic squadron in Chinese waters has at last leaked out, and shows, as many people imagined it would, that the United States has practically engaged to do England's Oriental work for her while she is sup pressing liberty in South Africa. It shows, too, that there was more truth than poetry in the stories of a Brit ish-German-American alliance. From a source that is absolutely accurate, the facts in the case have been ascer tained. The maneuvres of the Ameri can fleet, which is now the largest in existence at any one place, are di rected, not towards a lot of miserable Chinese rioters, as has been intima ted, but towards our old time friend, Russia. The Administration and Great Britain, putting their heads to gether, have concluded that Russia meditates directing the powerful ar maments that she has collected against China, where, with the con nivance of the Empress, she will ex pel the British and other nations and divide up Chinese territory between herself and France. The chances are that the Russian designs are directed merely against Britain, but this, from the Administration standpoint, is as bad as if they were directed against ourselves. Secretary Hay is there fore taktng every precaution to pre vent Brtish interests being injured in China while she is busy in South Af rica. He has collected in Chinese waters, on one pretext or another, the Oregon, Monadnock,New Orleans, Castine, Newark and Atlanta. The British and German fleets have also been quietly increased and Japan is working night and day to get her ves sels in readiness. Altogether it is evident that the President means to fight for the Chinese trade if there is the least need of doing so. Having declared war against the Filipinos without any authority from Congress, he will not find it difficult to repeat the process with regard to Russia. Besides it would be a good idea to fire the American heart just before election. The United States troops in the Philippines are about to be withdrawn to the seacoast until after the rainy season. President McKinley objects to this because of the effect an unhn ished war in those islands will have on the coming election, but there is no way out of it. The large forces maintained in mountain districts pursuing Filpinos soon will have to be withdrawn to the coast towns, leaving small de tachments to look after guerilla bands. General Otis has made no official report as to his view of the present situation after five months of active campaign work, in which Gen. Lawton, Gen. McArthur and Gen. Young were the most active and de termined pursuers of Aguinaldo and his supporters. It cannot be forgotten how freely it was predicted by army experts both here and at Manila that with an army of Go, 000, affording an active field force of 40,000, the uprising would be crushed before the wet sea son, Aguinaldo captured and the war at an end. But dispatches giving ac counts of fighting are still being re ceived every day. .Negroes Told to Keep Oat of Politics. Raleigh, N. C, March 15. The commencement of Shaw University, one of the leading negro colleges in this country, occurred to-day. There were four graduates in law, twelve in medi cine and fix in pharmacy. Tbe Rev. O. E. Winship, editor of the New Eng land Journal of Education, delivered the address. President Meserve, in de livering diplomas, advised the negroes to keep out of politics, though he urged them to exercise the right to vote. "The negro has accomplished two things in politics," be declared; "one is the passage of the Jim Crow car act, the other his disfranchisement." There .arc heroes and heroes, but the Ohio man who recently eloped with his mother-in-law is in a class all bv himself. INDIA'S AWFUL FAMINE. Rev. Justin E. Abbott. In Leslie's Weekly. India has been called a land of dreams. It is now a land of horrors, as her people fight with plague and famine. It is no nightmare, but a terrible reality. Thousands of once strong men are now skin and bones, with a terrible knawing of- hunger within. It is a pitiable sight to see tall, manly men so terribly reduced as to be hardly able to walk, yet somehow making their way some where to find food. More pitiable are tbe women who, with a keen sense of modesty,are fighting womanfully with their fast-rottening rags, and their children emaciated, fretful, crying, or too weak to cry, adding to their terri ble' personal suffering from days of in sufficient food. - The bodies, finding no nourishment, turn into the those little skeletons that one can hold in one's hand. Thousands of families like these, having exhausted every possible re source, sold and pawned the last ar ticle of their possession, having lived somehow for a time on coarsest of wild fruits, or roots, or -weeds anything to satisfy that awful craving that comes from days of starvation tramp many a long, weary mile to find some government or other relief. There is the scorching sun by day unusually scorching this year the pangs of thirst as well as hunger, for every stream is dry; and when the sun goes down, out in the open fields, with nothing to cover them, they shiver all through the chilly night. Other missionareis describe finding abandoned children in dying condi tion, whom they have been able to save, or failed to save, because too far gone. The familiar famine scenes are witnessed of famishing people fol lowing grain carts and struggling among themselves for the stpay ker nels that fall by the way. Aband oned children are found subsisting on clods of earth and every possible thing that has nourishment in it, filling up with water to drown the gnawings of hunger, and producing those painful monstrosities bodies swollen out of all proportion, but with sticks of legs and arms, and a head that is but a skin-covered skull. And the babies grow weaker and weaker in their hungry cry, or si lenced by opium, rapidly turn to pitiable little skeletons that move with emotion the strongest hearts that look upon them. What wonder that a despairing mother, unable to endure the sight and tempted by her own famishing body, sells her little one for a few handfuls of grain; and when the famine is over beats her breast in anguish for her little one, gone she knows not where. The vast camps are being filled. The anxiety and concern of govern ment and officials are greatly on the strain.. All departments of the ad ministration, native and otherwise, are called upon to exercise the wisest caution and the utmost vigilance to to see that none worthy are neglected and those not actually reduced to suffering take not the place of the needy. And it should be borne in mind that the prospect . must grow gloomier for months to come, up to at least the beginning of the rains in the month of June next. The gravity of the situation needs to be recog nized. The Viceroy personally and the government of India are giving their undivided attention to this. Contributions for the relief fund should be sent to Treasurer F. II. Wiggin, care of American Board of Foreign Missions, 14 Beacon street, Boston, who cables at short intervals the amout available, thereby attord ing immediate relief to the sufferers in India. Sew Ilamiiahle's Governor Pleads for Fast Day. The Fast Day proclamation of Gov. Rollins, of New Hampshire, is as follows: "I hereby appoint Thursday, April 19, as Fast Day and call upon the people of our State to observe it in its true and best sense. "When the country was in its in fancy and dangers surrounded it on every hand, our ancestors felt the need of a protecting and guiding power, and sought it prayerfully, leaving us this annual rite as a sacred inheritance. Now that we have at tained a strong and lusty manhood, now that we are a vigorous, wealthy people, having safely passed the per ils of our youth, we are apt to forget the strong arm upon which our fore fathers leaned. Instead of abolishing Fast Day as a worn out and useless custom I would call our people to a renewed observance and a better ap preciation of the real significance of the day. "I would ask that large body ol men who seldom, if ever, cross the the threshold of a church, to kneel once more where they knelt as chil dren, and see if the church has not believe l some message ior mem. i off the blindinsr and depressing in it 1 ences of doubt and materialism I to look at life once more through I - ? w I clear, earnest eyes of youth an . y the light of the faith of our fat f would bring a solace and satisfa like the benediction that to ? after prayer.' " NUS. ARP IN FLORIPA. Going, goiDg, gone! For two weeks it had been the family talk will the maternal ancestor go to Florida or not. Her posterity down there had been calling her long and frequently and finally sent her a liberal check where with to provide a suitable paraphernalia and pay her way to Jacksonville. It was an awful struggle. The girls hinted that if she was not going she ought to send the check back, and when at last she bought ihe beautiful silk mohair Henrietta Maria Vendetta, or woids to that effect, and turned it over to the dressmaker, it looked like she was certainly going, but I had my doubts. She wanted me to decide the moment ous question, but I looked solemn and maintained a dignified neutrality. "If you are going," said I, "of course I will go with you, for where thou goest I will go, but you must start next Tuesday eve and stay a week only, for I have got to go to Carolina again the last of next week." Still she hesitated and gave no certain sign. Ihere were posterity at home that she feared would fall into a well or get bitten by a mad dog, or get run over on the street, or catch the measles or something else, and every time they came to greet her, her eyes would get watery at the thought of leaving them. Neighbors and kin dred urged her to go for she h; d not been an far as Atlanta in five years, and needed a change of air and water and scenery. And so we escorted her to the tbe depot and there were so many to kiss and so many parting injunctions about the children that she had liked to have been left after all. - For ten miles she never said a word, but looked out of the window and ruminated. An acquaintance on the car came forward and that relieved the monotony and we got to Atlanta in due time and after a short stay left fur Florida. Now we are both glad that we came, for we made our kindred happy and will make some more happy when we get back. This evening we visited the ostrich farm, the Florida zoo, which of itself it worth a trip to Jacksonville. I wish that all the children could visit it for it is a bigger thing than a circus or menagerie; it is muci larger man u was two years ago, for now, besides over a hundred ostriches the proprietors have many varieties of the most beau tiful birds in the world. They are of exqtiiBile plumage pheasants, ducks, parrots, pelicans, cranes and there are deer, monkeys, crocodiles, otters and many other creatures that are never seen traveling around and are things of beauty that would dehgnt the little foiks. Mv wife savs that it is the best show for a quarter that she ever witnessed. It is worth that to see tbe otters playing in the water. Tbis zoo is an established success and a specialty for Jacksonville. Crowds visit it every day and the tour ists buy feathers and eggs most liberally. The street car takes you there for a nickel and they are always full. We are going to Pablo Beach tomorow and to St. Augustine next day, and keep on the go all the time as long as the letters from home tell us that all are well. What a wonderful change has come over the city since I first knew it, when there were about 10.0GO people and it was under the ban a suspect a home for pestilence, and the tourists' hurried through it to safe havens. Now there are 35,000 people, and during the winter half as many more. The city has been thoroughly sewered and drained and is supplied with the purest water and the streets and walk ways are all paved and everything looks clean as a parlor. - The pestilence that walketh at noon day will not walk here any more. And then what a change of diet has come over us. E irly vegetables, early oysters and shad and pompano, and straw berries for (Ie8nert every day. I sent some orange blossoms home yeeterday but requested tbe girls not to get married until we return. My wife and I are being rejuvenated. Fine clother, fine diet, and nothing to do but receive attention, will regenerate maternal an cestors. And it helps th? Vetera is, too. I thie morning like I can jump over a two-rail fence and cut the pigeon wing a small pigeon. But I never said anything about our brief stay in Savannah, that grand old city that Georgia is proud cf, and it is still the most beautiful and interesting city in the South. It3 parks alone are a monument to Oglethorpe. Its broad streets and sVade trees and flowers are things of beauty. Its churches and public buildings are time-honored and impressive. Now just ponder it for a moment when I say that I saw Savannah for the first time sixty-seven years ago, and I do not suppose there are a hundred people living who saw it before then. My parents and brother and myself sailed from there to Boston in 1833. We returned to Georgia by land ia a carriage. It took us two months to make the long journey, and we never crossft"t'aikoad for there was nor-! - pro88e8 ma that for flMiquity? aujoc Xboy ehl- uca b.r r s first gallussf g. But I verily believe I can chop more wood in a day than Marks can and I could outrun him but for my corporosity. Bill Aep. Ton-Cent Cotton and Silver. Baltimore Sun. It is not meant for an unkindness to say that 10-cent cotton demolishes the best argument Mr. Bryan ever had for silver inflation. Planters of cotton can now see' that cheap silver does not nec essarily mean low-priced cotton, but that cotton, like grain and other things, rises and falls under the law of Bupply and demand. Popocrats told us that we should never again get above 5-cent cotton so long as we had the gold stand ard. The hand that "struck down" silver struck down the honest farmer, and the only hope of the latter was to remonetize silver. Yet here is cotton going skyward, while silver still lies prostrate and tbe Gold Standard bill has been passed by Congress. The goldbugs seem to be having their way, but, nevertheless, cotton goes up. The fact is that cotton, grain and silver go high or low according to sup ply and demand. Now that the cotton supply is small and the prospective de mand is large, prices naturally advance. When grain was scarce, not long ago, it went above a dollar a bushel, not withstanding tbe low price of silver. Experience since 1896 has shown clear ly that there is absolutely no connec tion between the price of commodities and the price of silver. Oceans of rhetoric have been prured out by the tilverite oratore to proye such a connec tion, but facts refuted them. Some apology ia now due from the orators to the voters whom they misled in 1896. A Family murdered and Burned. Raleigh, N. C, March 22. Among the m6st horrible crimes in the history of North Carolina, ranks that of early this mornine at Garner's, five mitea east of this city, when a negro, Tom Jones, commonly known in the county as "Preacher" Jones, murdered Ella Jones and her oldest daughter, Ida Jones, and then set fire to the beds in which were bodies of the murdered vic tims and four others, all children, rang ing in years from a baby one month old to the largest boy, who was not more than 5 years of age. The work was done with an axe, tbe murderer, according to little 7-year-old Laura Jones, who escaped with her younger sister, deliberately and coolly striking tbe mother four times and then making two heavy strokes into the body of the oldest child. The house was completely destroyed by fire and the bones of the foui youne- est children are now distributed among the ashes, which a'.one remain to tell the story of the , conflagration. The body of Ella Jones and that of Ida, the 13.year-old child, were burned beyond recognition, and are lying on the ground charred to a crisp and with the whole bodies cut open and displayed to view. As Capt. ICttld Would Hun , Baltimore American. . Newimper From the Bowersville Clarion: "Next week we will begin running this paper as Capt. Kidl would have run it. De linquent subscribers may expect a call from us with their accounts stuck in the muzzle of a six-shooter. Otherwise this papor will be running as the sheriff would run it." Rev. O. C. Horton, a Baptist minister of We:t Durham, in charge of three churches, dropped dead Saturday even ing in Pinty Grove church at the close of his sermon. "Sweet Bells Jangled Out of Tune and Harsh." Shakespeare's description fits thou sands of women. They are cross, des pondent, sickly, nervous a burden to themselves and their families. Their sweet disposition are gone, and they, like the bells, seem sadly out of tune. Bat tiiere is a remedy. They cajb use McELREE'S Wine of Cardui It brin organisTv ay all terrors by strenV well r ital organs. Itfitaamo, ' it T( y 3 coming, ay revit&ijrit, UrU. It ve centtfi y,Xns hrou"-,. in owlng.ry,;' v. -,cood." f .4