. 1.00 a Year, In Advance. -.' "FOR COUNTRY FOR GOD, AND EOR TRUTH." Single Copy, B Cents. v
VOL. XL; v PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1900. NO. 26.
( lflLIlti;N NOT WANTED,
T.Y MI13. JEI FEHSON DAVIS.
New York World.
The immense wealth now concen
trated in the hands of a few families, in
conjunction with the desire of the many
less favored ones to vie with those more
fortunate, has set the standard of lux
urious requirement so high in New
York that the home as it is remembered
by so many of ua ia almost disestab
lished. It was a separate domiwle, set
iu en ample yard, not to say grounds,
from which all strangers were excluded
except as invited and temporary guests.
Now it only exists, in a metropolis,
'''for the very rich. The great mansions
of the city's less populous days are
utilized to accommodate boarders by
. those who have narrow incomes. In
the crowded cities these are the refuge
of people of moderate means to some
extent, but more frequently apartment
houses have grown up as more like a
home, and families are found in trreater
numbers there. In these caravansaries
peonle are crowded into a few rooms
and of necessity they and their children-
are in a measure interdependent upon
the other occupants.
There is a certain comity among the
lodgers, especially where the partitions
are thin and the space very circum
scribed, which enforces the duty upon
each familv to see to it that their neish-
hnra arA nnt dist.iirhfifl or lnnonveni-
.ced, and therefore the family must
be quiui . crying tuiiijU auu juer
allv an ill child does crv. will unset a
whole floor full of ordinarly rrindly, con
siderate people. Consequently the land
lord or ianitor of the suite is sorely put
about. When one enters the door of
the department house, and generally in
the more luxurious of them, the first
question asked by the euave agents is:
"Haye you children in your family? We
do not lease to- families with children.
Perhaps there is a placard on the
door to save the proprietor trouble.
announcing: "No children or dogs
taken:" or if the children or lodered.
"Children and doga not allowed in the
halls." 'The buildings can be filled
easily with childless couples, they say.
and tenants who' have no children of
their own do not want be annoyed by
those of other people; besides, children
- are destructive to furniture, carpets and
walls. In some of the poorer tene
ments, copying the fashion of the batter
lodging houses, where there is a miser
able oilcloth only on the floor, one
reads: "Children not allowed to play in
this hall." Indeed, in many a home
there is a sign invisible, but none the
less prohibitory, "Children not wanted."
n. . , 11 .1 1 1 I J.
i niiuren. JiKe me leners 01 uiu must
: keep aloof from every one except their
. own family, and in many caees these
find them burdensome. It is an awtul
charge to bring against modern civiliza
tinn that it ia not makine proper pro
vision for the comine generation.
Once, in a similar state of society, chil
dren were a precious possession prayed
- and longed for, a sacred trust, , a uou
given well spring of joy and hopo in the
hnrnp. Vint now thev are to some extent
considered a nuisance, an affliction and
to he avoided if possible, and if not, to
be merely tolerated. The hotela reject
them, so do the boarding houses and
renting agents, and the rents demanded
for a detached entire house, taken in
eoniunction with the increasing dim
" culty of getting servants and the very
high wages they command, seems to
condemn the poor little Ishmaehtes,
whether their parents desire it or not,
to a loyless luture in toe pent-up apart
ments of lodgings.
The economic objections to- large
families have prevailed so universally
in France that now the government is
wrestling with the problem of a steadily
diminishing ratjo of births to deaths.
Tt is a melancholy fact that few Utee
families are to be found in the gret
- cities. The large families are generally
the children of the very poor. These
unfortunates overflow onto the side
walks, their only playground, and there
they associate with all sorts and condi
tions of desolate "cabin-cribbed" chil
dren. They are sorely tempted by an
example set them of filching from the
little booths and stalls the cakes for
which they long but cannot acquire
honestly, and gradually habits of theft
are acquired and other evil ways
"harden within and putrify the feeling."
The children of the rich are too often
given over to the charge and compan
ionship, first of nurses and then of gov
ernesses, as their ages may indicate. Is
it possible or even reasonable to expect
that these will look after the building
up of the character of the children or
the culture of their moral nature as a
parent would? The hereditary tenden-
cies of a chiM can only be known and
appreciated by its parents. Certainly
the governess must work experimentally
and in the' dark, aa well as without an
enlightening love to guide her. I once
asked an insubordinate very small girl
wh was alone and crying hysterically
on her father's stairway after she had
got into an altercation with her gover
ness, "Why are you not a good little
girl?" She sobbed out, "I cannot be
good because she does not love me."
This is the gravamen of a good many
of tbo complaints children make with
out knowing the origin of tneir troubles.
They do rxo associate with their mothers
ii?r an intimate way.
I have been astonished when driving
in Central Park to see so few children
in the splendid equipages which roll by
in endless succession. Very often there
is a dog, sometimes one of considerable
size, on the seat with the mistress, but
very rarely a child. I do not know
whether it ia unfashionable to take
children or whether it is considered
better for their health to walk.
I heard a bright, devoted girl one day
say to her mother after being unavoid
ably separated for many years from her:
If mv ludement had not approved of
you after seeing bo little of you in my
childhood, I could not have loved you
and been your friend as I am, for all
sense of your motherhood had died out
of my heart."
Mr. Robert Dale Owen from his large
experience in London and other crowded
cities of the old world came to the con
clusion that children would thrive best
isolated from their parents and collected
together in rural hamlets,- where they
should be attended by nurses not of
their own blood a kind of co-operative
incubative nursery. He thought the
improvement of the coming race would
be wonderful in a generation, but he
was wrong, for a child must be nour
ished by a personal love as well aa bv
food, bo his efforts failed, as all mere
theories do. It is easy to condemn
remedial plans aa unpractical, but alas,
to formulate a practicable one ia much
more difficult. There ia a certain vir
tue in having attempted, if in vain, to
solve the problem.
The pressure of congregated millions
necessarily, if they all must live in the
city, crowded into a limited Bpace, is
bringing about an unnatural state of
feeling in the hearts of the overbur
dened, hopeless poor. Every daily
paper has among its advertisements:
"A fane boy for adoption; relinquish
ment entire." "A pretty baby girl,
perfectly healthy, for adoption," and bo
on through the dreary items. It is not
a supposable case that these mothers
desire to part from their little ones, but
the conditions of their lives are too
tragic to admit of their aiding another
mouth to those which cry for food.
The persona employed in charitable
work among the poor in New York city
say that "the number of destitute and
neglected children in New York city in
creases beyond the power of philantropic
and religious bodies to cope properly
with their needs." "There ia asteadily
growing feeling among the poorer peo
pie," these same authorities declare,
"that the government ia obliged to sup
port their children. But their parents
are not willing to relinquiah the right
to the producing capacity of their chil
dren. They want the state to relieve
them of the cost of support while they
are too young to produce anything, and
return them when they are old enough
to become wage-earners."
These parents want to get rid of their
children when they require attention
and support; when they are old and
strong enough to work they are wel
comed back. The child when it ia a
wage earner is a desirable factor, but
not otherwise.
The children of today are character
ized by wonderful mental and physical
activity in proportion to their ages. This
perhap8 ia the outcome of heredity from
the etrenuoua life their parents have
waged against want. People rise to the
demands of their age, and the needs
and deprivations of the very poor in a
crowded city are fast weeding out the
feeble or diseased units among them,
as none but the strongest survive. These
seem to be given us a hardier, more
alert race of children, who of course
are onlv the more able for the perpetra
tion of crime unless they be guarded
when yery young from the tempations
of their environment.
The plans of the much depreciated
slaveholders in the south to promote the
comfort and health of the little negroes
under their charge might very well be
studied with advantage to the wizened,
careworn little white children of New
York. Of course their patents must go
to their work in the fields. The chil
dren were never set any task until they
were ten years old, and even then it
was a very light one. This left a large
number of infants and children of al
most everv age, the latter as tricky as
little monkeys and as little amenable to
reason, to be tended and kept out of
harm's way. This was most satisfactor
ily accomplished by having a roomy
place where they were to remain under
the care of a reliable old woman, who
fed and watched over them until their
parents returned from work, and a more
free, healthy, happy nttie set 01 cnn
dren it would be difficult to find in any
country. .
If the rapid transit plans are aa suc
cessful aa it is hoped they will be, the
wage earners of the future will easily
come from some suburb where children
are not tabooed.
I believe the sureBt way to aggrandize
and elevate our country and our most
pressing duty is personally to watch
over the children and train them in the
paths of virtue to see that so far as we
can prevent it, tne cnnaren ao not
'Know the grief ot man without Its wisdom,
SiuS Into Hum's uespair wnuoui us cmm.,
V. Jefferson Davis.
James It. Keene, the famous stock
operator, who ia now in Europe, is said
to have bet f-'i,uuu mat w. J. iryan
will be elected president this fall. Mr.
Keene says he will return to the United
States in time to work for Bryan, and
K'eene'a frienda say he will contribute
to the Democratic campaign fund.
It ILL ART'S LliTTIiU.
When we were little school boys it
was a big thing to spell "Baker." When
we reached "crucifix" we had visions of
expansion and suspenders and when
we progressed to "unintelligibility" and
"incomprehensibility" we thought there
were no more worlds to conquer. But
there were, for away on near the last
page was a catalogue of jawbreakers,
such as "ph-th-is-ic," which we called
"tisic," and "michilimackinac" and
"bonny clabber," etc. We innocently
supposed that the old blue back spelling
book contained all the words in the
world, but by and by we found out that
we were only in the rudiments. The
little dictionaiy and English Reader
and Murray's drammar and Smiley's
Arithmetic were all ahead of us. In
course of time, however, we learned to
parse, which ia a Latin word taken from
"quae pars oratione" what part of
speech. Then we mastered the rule of
three, which is now called proportion,
and soon advanced to tare and tret,
which we whispered was "enough to
make the devil sweat." About this time
we began to wear shoes all the year
round and to brush our hair, and had
picked out a sweetheart and held her
hand on the sly when we stood up to re
cite, and sometimes we used the look
ingglass to see how the downy'beard
was coming. When well up in our
teens we were promoted to the institute
and introduced to Latin and Greek and
Algebra and HiBtory. I remember the
first Bentence in theold "Historia Sacra,"
"Deus Creavit coelum et terram intra
sex diess" God created the heavens
and the earth in six days. ' It was like
a confession of faith and made a more
lasting impression, for we had to study
it out and parse it. I remember our
history and how Thomps Allan, who
had been poring over Alcibiades, Per
icles, Thucyides, Sophocies and Demos
thenes, suddenly came on a sentence
beginning with the word "besides, and
ha called it "bes-i-des" and thereby got
a nickname that Btuck to him through
life.
But we old men have long since for
gotten our Latin and Greek except the
small words that make up much of our
modern English. Eyen a limited knowl
edge of Latin and Greek is a great ad
vantage and great comfort in defining
our language. It ia of inestimable value
to professional men, to doctors and
druggists, botanists and horticulturists
and those who cultiyate flowers. But
nobody can readily read Latin or Greek
nowadaps except the professors and
teachers in our schools. Not long ago
I pondered over a Latin preface in a
verv old book and had to give it up.
turned it over to Professor Davee and
he rendered it very beautifully and no
doubt correctly, but his good wife told
me as a secret that he worked on it
every night till midnight for a whole
week with his coat off and the perspira
tion oozing from his classic brow.
I was ruminating about these things
because I came across some words to
day that I never heard of and had to
consult the big dictionary for a mean
ing. Of course we have to make new
words all the time to keep up with in
ventions and science, but these words
are old, as old as John Calvin and they
seem to have created a mighty discus
sion in making up the Presbyterian
confession of faith at Westminister Ab
bey 250 years ago. ' I was perusing an
editorial in a New York paper in which
it was stated that over forty presbyteries
of the northern church were in favor of
amending the confession of faith and
going back to superlapsarianism, which
was the doctrine of John Calyin. That
the Westminister confession was sublap
sinarian and not Calyinistic. . That was
a revelation to me, and so I have been
reading up on these abstruse things and
find that there was a long and bitter
discussion at Westminister as to wheth
er God decreed the doctrine of election
before the creation of man or after he
fell. Calyin declared the former, which
he called eublapsinarianism, but the
Westminister assembly declared that the
decree of election and reprobation was
not determined on by God until Adam
had sinned and fell. I tell you, my
Christian friends, tboBe two long words
are to the common mind as unintelligi
ble and uncomprehensible as were "un
intelligibility" and "incomprehensibili
ty" to me when a school boy. I have
got along without them all these years
and I am not going to strain my mind
with them now. There is . enough in
the sermon on the mount to guide us
and comfort ua in the journey of life.
Those oldtime theologists were desper
ately in earnest in doctrinal matters,
for they were in a mighty controversy
with a mighty foe and no man had a
right to believe as he pleased and be at
peace. Even Calvin had Servetus ar
rested and burned as a heretic because
he denied the trinity of the God head.
Servetus was a Unitarian in faith and
a good man in all the relations of life.
Sometimes I fear we have too much
complexity of doctrine. I mean some
of the preachers and theologians of the
schools. The people are all right and
give themselves vefy little concern
about doctrine. They want preachers
to preach about life and duty, how to
live and how to die, It is not doctrine
that takes converted people into this
church or that church. It is associa
tion predilection our fathers were
there or our mothers or our special
frienda, and we worshipped there or at
tended Sunday school when children,
and we feel more at home there. The
peculiar doctrines of this church or that
church are not considered. Not one
member in ten can tell the difference
between Calvaniam and Arminianism,
and I doubt whether a dozen confessions
of faith can be found among the mem
bers of any Presbyterian church in the
state.
What the humble Christians of any
Protestant church want is a simple
Christian faith untangled with abstruse
doctrines and long words of learned
length and thunderihg sound. They
put our heavenly Father away off al
most out of reach, though St. Paul de
clares that he is very near to every one
of ua. I recall Borne verses that come
home to me whenever I hear a preacher
indulging in doctrines concerning elec
tion, predestination and free agency
and shooting away over the heads of
the people.
A parish priest of Austeritv
Climbed up a high church steeple
To be nearer God. and from there hand down
His word unto His people.
When the sun was high.
When the sun was low.
Fie sat unheeding sublinary things,
Aud with the Liord was ever pleading.
Now and again when he heard the creak
Of the weather vane a turning.
He closed his eyes and said : "I know
From God I now am learning." .
His pious thoughts he dally wrote.
Thinking that they came from heaven;
He dropped them dowu on his people's heads
Twice everv day in seven.
In his old age God called and said :
"Come down and uie,"
And he cried from out the steeple,
"Where ait thou Lord ?"
And the Lord replied :
"Down hero among My people."
That is a beautiful hymn that Mrs.
Adams wrote "Nearer My God to
Thee," and it would grieve me to have
it left out of the new hymn book. She
was a very pious and gifted woman,
though she was a Unitarian. Com
plaint has been made that the hymn
ignorea the trinity, but it waa founded
on the story of Jacob's dream and there
ia no trinity in that. Let it stay there.
Dr. How, Mrs. Prentiss and Mr. Charles
Robertaon have three other8 close by on
the same subject that have the same
meter and enongh of trinity to satisfy
anybody. Many of the most beautiful
hymns in our collection were written by
non-Protestants and non-professors.
Some of them are by Roman Catholic
prieBts and some by Tom Mcore, who
was said to be the most licentious poet
in all England and did not belong to
the church. He wrote a volume of
hymns and among them is "Come Ye
Disconsolate." Who would rule that
out?
These reflections on old Father Jacob
and his ladder provoke me to say that
it must have taken a doctrine of elec
tion and Borne amazing grace to have
kept him in the favor of God, for he
was a selfish man and kept an eye out
for his personal gain. He began by de
frauding his brother out of his birth
right and later on tricked his father-in-law
out of his cattle, and after he
awaked from that dream at Bethel he
tried to make a bargain with the Lord
and said : "If God will be with me ind
give me bread to eat and raiment to put
on, and I come to my father's house in
peace, then shall the Lord be my God."
Almost any sinner would do that now
and even some church members will
vow to give a hundred dollars to the
church if they make a thousand on a
certain speculation. Bill Am1.
Confederate Veteran Appeal to Slate
School Roard lor Impartial
HiKtortes,
Columbia, S. C, June 8. The state
board of education met this evening to
adopt a standard by which bids shall be
made in September, when books to be
used in the public schools for a period
of seven years will be selected and con
tracted for. General C. R. Walker,
commander of South Carolina Veterans,
appeared before the board under ap
pointment of Generala Gordon, com
mander, and Lee, chairpian of the his
torical commission, to make this fight
for veterans for the use of fair and im
partial . histories. Funds to carry on
this fight were provided in Louisville
and General Walker's entire tijae will
be devoted to this work.
Governor McSweeney, chairman of
the board, specially invited General
Walker to address the board. He
forcibly and eloquently presented the
subject. General Walker did not ad
vocate any special histories, but ex
plained the principles which should
characterize the books to be adopted and
urged that any not so written be not
used in the schools. He urged that the
United Confederate Veterans represent
the largest body of southern people,
associated to see that justice is done the
south, and while they primarily repre
sent the confederate war period, they
are composed of representative citizens
of the whole south, and their action w
indorsed by. the Sons of the Confeder,
The Philippine War,
The Pittsbure Po6t sarcastic
"Of course the backbone oS'
ipoine rebellion has been
log with 15,000 men,
Otia declared waa amp
for he prophesied a ye
insurrection would boo:
waa increased to G5.000
General MacArthur tele
wanted three more regn
ry, aim mey nave uccu ui
the Pacific. Gen. Lawtou"K
i i i ,y
100,000 will soon be reached a.1
of progress.
The untisn are nnumg out t.i
Boers are not too badly whij j
make trouble and a heap of it
invading army.
THIS COLONELS YARNS.
A certain Colonel Fontaine, of Missis
sippi, has a local reputation as a spin
ner of yarns. Here are some speci
mens :
"When General Grant had Pember
ton cooped up Vicksburg it became
highly necessary that we should com
municate wiih him and let him know
that the eyes of his country was on him
and that we was cheering of him. We
waa 150 miles above the town, and be
tween us and it was a mint of Yankee
gunboats. They was tearing up'n down
the river all day and night, chompin'
the wattah and snortin' like hippopota
muses. I volunteered for the duty and
this is how I did done it : I stuck the
letter to Pemberton in my shirt and
swum out into the stream about dark,
and waited for one of them dinged gun
boats to coma along. Them days I
could swim for twenty-four hours and
never feel it. About midnight one
come tearing down. As she went by
me I grapbed the gunnel, a foot above
the water, and hung on. She was goin'
fifteen miles an hour and my laigs
floated on the surface, but it made no
difference. All the way down our boyB
was shootin' at her from both banks
and that made it interesting for me.
One bullet hit the hand by which 1 was
holin' on here ia the scar now but I
nevah lost my hold. ' We was just ten
hours makin' the run. When we hit
the upper aidge of Vicksburg, I swam
ashore, handed over my letter to the
general, went into the wattah agin,
went through the Yankee fleet and
brought up fifty miles below. I got the
thanks of the Confednt Congress for
that, but the records was burned."
"One time J was walking through the
woods up in the Yazoo country with my
shotgun on my shoulder. It was 10
o'clock at night and darker'n the inside
of a cow. Suddenly I heard close by
me the deedly rattle of a snake. I
knew that in another minute I would be
a dead man. I brought my gun down,
fired one barrel m the direction I sup
posed the snake to be, saw him kwiled
by the flash of the powder and before it
died out killed him with the other bar
rel. I'm pretty fast with a gun.
"Fishin' in the Yazoo is good some
timea and bad sometimes, but there is
always catfish. I waa after 'em once.
There had been a heavy rain, the river
was bank-full and I was usin' a
hand line. Suddenly I felt a slight
tug and began to draw in. The fish
pulled heavy for a light biter, but I
hauled away. When I got my hook to
the bank, on the end of it was nothin'
in the world but a stone jug about two
gallon size. The hook waa down in the
jug. I broke the thing to get the hook
out, and when I did so uncovered a
gaspergoo that must have weighed five
pounds. That fish got into the jug
when it was little and staid in until it
was too big to get out. The mouth of
the jug was upstream and it lived on
such food as drifted In."
"I'm a surveyor by trade and I don't
lift my hat to any man that ever carried
a chain. Once I was engaged to survey
au enormous body of land in Western
Texffe. It was an old Spanish grant
and the deed said that a grindstone had
been used to mark one of the corners.
That was 200 years ago. Well, I got
my bearin's aud started out. I survey
ed twenty-six miles north by northeast,
thirty-one miles east by southeast,
eighteen miles south by southwest,
twenty-six miles west by northwest and
thirty-one miles north by northwest by
north.. When I got to the end I said to
the flagman : 'This iaitl Strike your
pole here.' He struck it hard and it
went through the whole in the center of
the grindstone that was then a foot under-ground.
We dug a hole to set the
post in and there was the stone."
Boxers made Up of Coolie, River
Ulon, ItaiulltM and Criminals;
The membership of the "Boxers" so
ciety is made up of coolies, river men,
idlers, pirates, bandits and criminals of
all classes. But their leaders, although
unknown to the European authorities
in the far east, are unquestionably men
of ability and shrewdness.
The "Boxers" may be considered as
simply a pajrt and parcel of them
hrtnarv nromipanda in Chlla
cietv differs little
J i j o
known at diffe.
ty of Heav
society, 'Vf
Flags
MTV
THE COTTON ACREAGE.
The Agricultural Department Put It
Down aa 35,553,000 A ere, an In
crease of 2,036,000, or 8.7 Per Cent.
Washington, June 11. The statisti
cian of the Department of Agriculture
estimates the total area planted in cot
ton at 25.553,000 acres, an increase of
2,036,000, or 8.7 per cent, over the
productive area of last year. He esti
mates the increase at 7 per cent, in
South Carolina and Alabama; 8 per
cent in Texas and Georgia; 9 per cent,
in Louisiana and Tennessee; 10 per
cent, in North Carolina, Mississippi and
Arkansas; 15 per cent, in Indian Terri
tory; 18 per cent, in Oklahoma; 25 per
cent, in Virginia and 27 per cent, in
Missouri. In all these States the in
crease is more or lese localized, being
least where the production of cotton ia
the most dense and greatest in those
regions where cotton growing has hith
erto been less extensively engaged in
and where physical conditions are not
in all respects the most favorable to its
production.
In general the increase has been re
stricted by the scarcity of labor, the
high price of seed, the enlarged area in
fall-sown crope, and in certain sections
by exceptionally unfavorable weather
conditions. Along the northern border
of the cotton belt, land from which
wheat has been harvested is being hur
riedly planted in cotton, but the Ameri
can amount is relatively considerable
and allowance has been made for it in
the estimate.
The average condition of the growing
crop on June 1, was 88.5 as compared
with 85.7 on June 1 of last year, 89.0
at the corresponding date in 1898, and
87.1 the mean of the June averages of
the last ten years. A condition of 82.5
is with one exception the lowest June
condition in 20 years. The condition
in Texas is 71, this being the lowest
June condition in 2G years and 1G points
below the 10-year average. South Caro
lina, Alabama and Tennessee are 2
points, and Mississippi and Florida 3
points and 1 point respectively, below
their 10-year averages. On the other
hand Louisiana reports 1 point, North
Carolina 2 points and Georgia and Ar
kansas 3 points above their 10-year av
erages. A largely increased use of fertilizers
ia reported from the older States and
wherever the necessary labor is availa
ble and planters are- not too much dis
couraged, unusual care is being exer
cised in cultivation.
AU sections have been visited by
agents of the Department within the
last week, and results reported and em
bodied in the present report. The work
will be continued throughout the srrow-
iner season and should anv modification.
of the acreage figures be found note
worthy, report will be promptly made
to the public.
Keen interest is being taken by offi
cials at national Democratic headquar
ters in the reports of Democratic
States conventions. Up to date 24 States
have held conventions; of these 23,
representing 464 delegates, have in
structed for Bryan. Maryland and
New Jersey are unpledged, the former
having 16 and the latter 20 delegates.
Bryan now lacks only 2 -instructed
voters of having a majority of the Kan
sas City convention.
Dr. Hunter McGuire, of Richmond,
who was stricken with paralysis some
weeks ago, is dpmg quite well. He is
able to walk about and to go driving
every day. He also takes nourishment,
but has not been able to speak.