1.00 a Year, in Advance. FOR COUNTRY, FOR GOD, AND EOR TRUTH." Single Copy, 5 Cents. vol. xr. PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1900. NO. 27. KILL A HP'S I.ETTElt. Fret not thyself bccauso of evil doers. Fret not thyself against him who deviseth iniquity. Trust in the Lord and do good. Wait on the Lord. Those are good sermons and then are others like them in David and Solomon. A man can shorten his life and wear himself out by borrowing trouble, and fretting and worrying about the iniquity of other people. There is a sight of devilment going on more than ever before, I reckon more war, famine, pes tile nee, urest and discontent all .nrver the world, and here in our own blessed land crime is on the increase in our cities, and what with the negro and the corruption of politics and the strikes as sideshows there is enough to run a -.worrying man crazy. Of course we should feel concerned about crime and do what we can to prevent it, but worry ing dees not accomplish anything. Let us preach and practice and be happy still. "Carpe diem," enjoy the day, saith the poet Horace. Why can't everylo 'v in this country be ae con tented and law-abiding as our people here in north Georgia. There are no murders, no outrages, nolynchinga, no fights here in Bartow county. There are no divorce nor burglaries, and no stealing of any consequence. A good old ante-bellum darky did come to see aie the other day to get me to sign his jpem's bond and get him out of jail. "Well, boss you see de man's corn was missin' and he find de basket , at Jim's house, but he dident fine nocorn But Jim aint 'cuscd of stealin' de basket. "The basket is to be the wit ness, I reckon," said I. "Jes' so, boss dat's all and de basket can't talk and tell how it got dar." I was ruminating how easy it is for any well man to make a fair living in this region. During harvest a good worker, white or black, gets one dollar a day, and at other times to cents a nay, and there is a demand for labor Uncle Sam is very old, but he gets to cents every day for working around in the gardenB. His four girls cook and wash and each makes about two dollars a week. There ia about $12 a week earned by that family and they are always happy and don't give themselyes any concern about politics or social equality or Bishop Turner or Booker Washington. It is the high-strung, lazy negroes who are making all the fuss. Now, just contrast the condition of laborers here and in other countries. In India they are starving by the mil lion. In the Philippines and South Africa they are fighting and dying in battle or from disease and pestilence. In Germany a peasant is rich if he has two or three acres of land, and his wife and daughters carry heavy loads of vegetables on their backs to market, while the sons are serving in the army. In Italy the poor work in malarial ewamps or beg in Naples. In Mexico the peons get 37 cents a day in Mexi can silver, which is worth about half as much as ours. In England the poor are kept alive by charity and in Ireland the pea 'an try lose a crop about every third year and the little children go hungry and in rags? What is the mat ter with our people? Why don't they quit fussing quit envying the rich? Why not lift up their voices and thank the Lord for His mercy and goodness unto ua? A diligent man or woman can live for five or six months from a good garden and besides the garden the country abounds in fruit. Peaches, apples, grapes, blackberries, dewberries and huckleberries, I never saw the like. From our own garden we can have eight different vegetables every day besides berries for a desert. It makes me proud to gather them and show them round to the family before breakfast, for - it is my erarden. I dressed it like old Father Adam did Eden. I'm still the boy. am the man with the hoe and I .don't esteem it any hardship, either. Mr Markbam needent preach his foolishness to me, nor do I like the tone of that picture a pitiful man leaning on his hoe and bemoaning his hard lot. Work, labor, toil, sweat, is the common lot and they are the happiest who do it Solomon said the sleep of the laboring man is Bweet. I love to work with the hoe. I love to get all over in a sweat of perspiration. It open3 thepoers and eaves medicine. I love the smiles of approval when I find a new blown rose and bring it to Mrs. Arp and hear her Bay "Isn't it beautiful? She reproached me gently yesterday for cutting down her poke stock down by the garden fence. She said she liked to look at it when the berries were ripe, for it re minded her of the home of her happy childhood, when she and her little brotheia used to pick the berries and make red paint from them and paint doga and cats and monkeys on the . smokehouse and dairy. Well, there is another one coming and I will let that grow for her sake. I want to see her painting dogs on our smokehouse. They remind me of the time when Polk ran against Clay for president and every farmer Democrat who came to town brought a poke stock with berries on it sticking up in his wagon or dangling between his horse's ears. It used to make the Henry Clay wbigs mighty mad. I remember that Dr. Jim Alex ander and Gib Wright got so mad they liked to hav used bad words. They turned red in the face and then their hair turned red and Dr. Jim's is red yet. An old line whig never recovered from Clay's defeat and to this day they slorate every poke berry bush on their plantations. Tomorrow is my birthday and I know from the signs that my wife and the girls are fixing up a surprise tor me some little thing. I suspect it is a table for me to write upon, for the old one is rickety, but I'm attached to it. It is the second one that I have worn out with my ruminations of forty years. These birthdays keep on coming, espe cially in this leafy month of June for my mother, my wife, myself, my daughter, my grandson and grand daughter were all born m June. Not long ago I gave a problem to the young people about my wife's age and scores of answers have come back from them most of them from schoolgirls about twelve years of age. Their solutions are in algebra and are neatly and ac curately done. When my wife was two weeks old I was six years. You see I took her so young bo as to train her up to my notion but you can t always tell, First thing I knew she was training me I haye long observed that girlB are smarter in figures than boys of their age. I know that it always strained my mind to keep up with my girl class mates. After all of the modern meth ods and improved conditions I do not see any difference in the intelligence or quickness of school children now and those of sixty vears ago. I believe that young people were happier intellectually then than now, for they had Icsb trash to read and no harrowing things in newspapers. Then we read Shakespeare, Milton, Gray, Cowper, Scott, Byron, Goldsmith, Cooper, etc. Now it is Bome foolishness by some sensational writer whose works are read and then for gotten. I noted the other day a mor alizing writer's recipe for keeping the spirits up without pouring the spirits down. He says: 'Head a fine poem every day. Look every day upon a fine painting. Hear every day Bome fine music. Forget every day your enemies and remember eyery day your friends and the man or woman who follows this rule is bound to be a Christian." That's good and Dr. Johnson said that ' to look upon and love a fair and virtu ous woman is a liberal education.' That's better. Bill A hp. Remarkable Letter Signed ly 150 Men AVlio Accept Work In St. Lonl. St. Louis, June 20.' A meeting to consider the advisability of dismissing the posse comitatus was held to-day, Governor Stephens, members of the police board and Chief of Police Campbell being present. A letter signed by 150 men now in the employ of the Transit Company has been sent to the strikers whose places they now fill. The letter sets forth that the men lost their places by reason of strikes in other cities inaugurated by the labor leaders, Mahon, Harry Bryan, Sam Lee and others, and says in part: "The organization of every union by them has been followed by strikes, lawlessness anl disorder. New men were employed and a great number of union men who became strikers under their guidance had to seek other employment because the com panies had filled their places with other men. We were of the union men in former strikes conducted by Mahon and . Bryan and were left stranded. Hunger and want came to us. We waited long and patiently for Avork. This strike in St. Louis was planned and inaugurated by the same men. "It was our first chance for work at our chosen pursuit and we accepted it. "As union men in the former strikes, we gave the same treatment to those who came to supply our places which you have given us. Again 'and again limited numbers were invited back, again and again under the advice of our leaders we re fused, until it was too late for us to be reinstated. "The union man of the strike be comes the 'scab' of the next succeed ing strike." Democrats Arc Determined Not to Be Outwitted. Raleigh, N. C, June 15. Speaker Connor was interviewed today regard ing the work done by the special legis lative session, which ended last night. It met the objections of the franchise amendments to the constitution, so far as its standing or fallintf as a whole, very completely indeed. Many bills were introduced, but very few passed. Total of bills and resolutions ratified was only twenty-eight. The amend ment and election law are well protected. The legislature meets again July 21th to keep an eye on the Republican judges of the supreme and superior courts up to the last moment before the August election on the question of the franchise amendment. Republicans say they in tend to appeal the amendment matter to the United States district court; that the latter has organal jurisdiction in such cases under the revised statutes. Chairman Pruitt ha8 called the Mis sippi Populist State convention te meet in Jackson on August 15th to nominate a Populist electoral ticket. He an nounces a complete divorce from the Butler-Weaver-Allen fusion ticket. Mrs. Gladstone, widow of Win. E. Gladstone, the English statesman, died at London on the 14th. Mrs. Glad stone, who had been unconscionB for about 72 hours, died without recovering consciousness. two opposing views of otah- Ellen Thornevcroft Fowler, who baa written Beveral novels of English man ners, has just published through the Appletons a story called "The Farring dons." The author is clever at makine epigrams, and her society people are much quicker at saying bright things man the society people one usually meets. The present story concerns itself with the history and development of Eliza beth Farringdon, an attractive young woman, enthusiastic, artistic and ego ietic. The narrative of Elizabeth's deyel opment, her flirtation and her love ia relieved by the gossip of two women who lived m Elizabeth a native town, and who loved her family. Elizabeth sometimes went to take tea with Mra. Bateson, the cherry wife of one of the foremen in the Farringdon iron worka. Mra. Bateaon usually called in her neighbor, Mrs. Hankey. These two women were excellent foils to each other. Mrs. Bateson cherry and opti inistic, Mra. Hankey Bour and a de cided pessimist. Their characters are clearly drawn, and are worth spending a little time with. Here is a bit from a tea party conversation, with Elizabeth and Christopher aa audience : "'How ia your sister herself?' in quired Mrs. Bateson. 'I expect she's a bit upset now that the fuss is all over, and she hasn't a daughter left to bless herself with. "Mrs. Hankey sighed cheerfully 'Well, she did seem rather low-spirited when all the mesa was cleared up, and Susan had gone off to her own home; but I says to her, "Never mind, Sarah, and don't you worry yourself; now that the weddings are oyer the funerals will soon begin." You see, you must cheer folks up a bit, Mrs. Bateson, when they're feehn' out of sorts. " 'You must, indeed, agreed the lady of the bouse, feeling that her guest had hit upon a happy vein of consolation. 'It is dull without daughters when you've once got accustomed to 'em ; daughters being a sight more comfort able and convenient than eons, to my mind.' " 'Well, you see, daughters you can teach to know theirselves and sous you can't. Though even daughters can never rest till they ve got marnea, more's the pity. If they knowed as much about men as I do, they'd be thanking the Lord that he'd created them single inBtead of fidgeting to change the Btate to which they were born." "'Well, I holds with folks getting married,' argued Mrs. Bateson; 'it givea 'em something to think abouc between Sunday's Bermona apd Thursday's bak ing, and if folks have nothing to think about, they think about mischief. " 'That's true, especially if they hap pen to be men. They've no senBe, men haven't; that's what is the matter with them.' '"You never epoke a truer word. Mrs. Hankey,' agreed her hostess; 'the very best of them don't properly know the difference between their souls and their stomachs; and they fancy that they are a-wrestling with the doubts, when really It is their dinners that are a-wresthng with them. Now, take Bate son hi88elf, and a kinder husband never lived, yet bo sure aa he touches a bit of pirk he begins to worry hiseelf about the doctrine of election till there's no living with him.' "That's a mau all over, to the very life,' eaid Mrs. Hankey sympathetically; 'and he never has the sense to see what's wrong with him, I'll be bound.' " 'Not he he wouldn't be a man if he had. And then he'll sit in the front parlor and engage in prayer for hours at a time, till I sayB to him, "Bateson," says I, "I'd be ashamed to go troub ling the Lord with a prayer when a pinch o' carbonate o' soda would wet things straight again." ' " 'And quite right, Mra. Bateson; it's often a wonder to me that the Lord has patience with men, seeing that their own wives haven't.' " Years later the two women were dis cussing Elizabeth's chances of marriage. Mr8. Bateson hoped she would marry Christopher, the nephew of the man ager of the works, and the companion of Elizabeth's childhood. " 'Maybe the manager's nephew ain't altogether the aort of husband you'd ex pect for Farringdon,' eaid Mra. Bate son, thoughtfully; 'I don't deny that. But he's wonderfully fond of her, Mr. Chist Christopher is, and there's noth ing like, love for smoothing things over when the oven ain't properly heated, and the meat is done to a cinder on one side and all raw on the other. You find that out when you are married.' " 'I'd never have adopted a child mvself.' sid Mrs. Batceon. 'I should always hve been expecting see its par ents faults coming out in it bo umer ent from the peace you have with your own flesh and blood.' 'Mrs. Hankev eroaned : 'Your own t flesh and blood may take after their father; you never can tell.' " 'So thev mav. Mrs. Hankey- so they may, but, as the scripture says, it is our duty to whip the old man out of them.' ' It's dull work for the women who have nobody to order 'em about and find fault with 'em. Why, where's the good of taking the Trouble to do a thing well, if there's no man to blame you for it afterwards ?' eaid Mrs. Bateson in defense of the married state. Mra. Hankey remarked with an om inous shake of the head: 'Mr. Tre- maine is one that has religious doubts.' " 'Ah ! that liver,' said Mra. BateBon, her voice softening with pity, that comes from eating French kickshaws, and having no mother to Bee that he takes a doBe of soda and nitre now and then to keep his system cool. Poor young man !' " 'r bear the young man goes eo far aa to deny the existence of a God,' con tinued Mra. Hankey. " 'All liver !' repeated Mra. Bateson; 'it often takes men like that; when they begin to doubt the inspiration of the scripturea you know they will be all the better for a dose of dandelion-tea; but when they go on to deny the existence of a God, there's nothing for it but chamomile. And I don't believe as the Lord takes their doubts any more seri ously than their wivcB take 'em. He knows as well aa we do that the poor things need pity more than blame, and dosing more than converting; for he gave 'em their livers, and we only have to bear with them and return thanks to Him for haying made ours of a differ ent pattern.' " 'And what do the women aa have doubts need, I should like to know ?' "A husband and children is the best cure for them. Why, when a wo man has a husband and children to look after, and washes at home, she has no time, bless you, to be teaching the Lord his business; she has enough to do minding her own. CARELESSNESS WITH MONEY. The Secretary of tbe Treasury has j very large directory of careless people of people who have money to hum o otherwise destroy, and who appeal to nim ior reimoursement. Uncle Sam is kind enough to restore lost monevwhen he is satisfied that it is actually out of existence, and the Treasury Department has to look after this branch of his financial aflairs. Hardly a day passes that the Secretary is not appealed to to make good money destroyed, and he often receives remnants of bills, more or less recognizable, with queer tales of how the work of destruction was wrought. Oae of the latest applications was from a Vermont farmer, who sent a mass of remnants of bills that approach ed the condition of pulp, and asked for 1280 in return, which, after some delay, he received. He said he had very care fully hidden the money under the raft ers of his barn, and somehow it had gotten into the hay and bran fed to one of his cows. The cow was chewing the green feed when its nature was discov ered. Another farmer, from Kansaa, has sent a lot of chopped bills that he says represent $40. According to his story they were in the pocket of a vest that was hung on a feed cutter, and when it was being operated the corner of the vest that held the money got between its knives, and, with the money, was torn in shreds. The claim is now in process of adjustment. A Boston man took from his pocket what he says he thought was a piece of paper, and burned half of it in lighting the gas. The gas light revealed the fact that he had used a 20 bill for a lighter. A Washington man, a couple of weeks ago, went in person to the Secretary to get $35 for some badly mutilated bills that his playful pup had been exercis ing with for an hour. . A Wisconsin woman sent a lot of tin der that she says was once $90. Several months ago she hid it in a etove pipe hole, into which a pipe from a laundry fire was recently placed. As the pipe rested on the bills tinder was the result. Another woman, this time in India napolis, got $10 in greenbacks mixed with greens she was preparing for din ner, and boiled them into an almost unrecognizable mass. A loving Philadelphia papa has asked $20 for a few stripB of greenish paper and a score of pellets of the same ma terial. He says they once constituted a $20 bill, which his pet boy had torn to pieces, rolled into balls and blown through a glass tube at the cat, canary bird and nursemaid. An Ohio man wante to sell the Treas ury Department a mouse nest for $100. He Bays he had that amount in bills in a bureau drawer, and that the mice ap propriated it in bits to build a home in which to rear their family. This list is continually growing, and the communications eiviner the remark able details are so frequent as to cause no smile or comment in the de ment. Eich one is simply a ne' that follows along a line of redt til it is adjusted. f Rryau'M iVomliiatloii Vei Chicago, June 11.- the Democratic St California, Missouri, gia and Vermont tod Brviin is assnrpd nf t President on the DeV TLe instructiona given; those live State8 carry Mr.V it is believed, considerablyX,,, two-third necessary to nominate The Democratic National Con which meets in Kansas Citv on niyersary of American freedom, two weeks distant. f m f 1 OUR WASHINGTON L13TTKII. Special Correspondence. The political situation todav ia re markably similar to that in 1872, when Grant was renominated for the second time. In the last year of his first ad ministration, a succession of Bcandals burst upon the country, just as the Cuban scandals have done now. No body will have forgotten the great Credit Mobilier fraud, and the subsequent 'Whiskey King" disclosures, which were directly traceable to General Grant's palpable inexperience in civil administration just as those of today are traceable to McKinley 8 weakness and yielding to personal favorites. After Grant had been nominated, a large segment of the Republican party belted outright, as the German and anti-im perialist Republicans are bolting today. True, the bolt did not avail to defeat Grant because the Democrats had the aouth counted against them by the car pet bag governments, and because they did not believe in their candidate. Many thousands of Democrats in doubt ful States sullenly declined to Bupport Greeley, and other thousands voted directly for the Republican candidate and elected him. Here lies the differ ence this year. The Democrats do believe in their candidate; tbey are united; tbey are aided bv a large sec tion of men who once belonged to the Republican party and who either bolted four years ago on account of silver or will bolt on account of imperialism, and the south is solidly for them instead of being solidly against them as it waB in 1872. In other words, the causes which should have defeated Grant exist today, while those that saved him do not exist, making Bryan's election almost certain. The Democratic Congressional Com mittee h88 giyen out a statement show ing to what extent the various trusts have increased the prices of their pro ducts. The list is tco long to print, but the following articles, all of which are made by trusts, will give some idea of the burden laid upon the consumer by these institutions, which have been so foetered by four year8 of Republican tariff and Republican refusal to prose cute even in cases of the plainest viola tion of statute Jaw. All the increases below are from January 7, 1890 to De cember 30, 1899: Linseed oil, from 41 to 50 cents; petroleum, $7.50 to $9 90; sugar 4.91 to 5.12; ipecac, $2.50 to $3.G5; camphor, 38 cents to 51 cents; quinine, 21 cents to 30 cents; sal sodo, 02 cents to 70 cents; leather 20 cents to 25 cents; calico, 2 cents to 3 cents; jute hemp, 2J cents to 3 cents; pig lead $3.95 to $1 G5; tin-plate, $3. to $5.25; Portland cement, $1.95 to $2.25; nails, $1.10 to $2.50; wire nails, $1.35 to $3 20; anthracite coal, $3. 75 to $1.20; glass, $2 57 to $2.89; rubber 94 cents to $1.45. .The only prices to fall were those of farm products. The Year Book of the Department of Agriculture for 1S99, recently issued, shows that the farm products and farm animals in 1899, although vastly increased in quantity since 1890, had fallen off in value to the extent of $706,909,901. This only counts as farm products corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, potatoes, bay and cotton. If the farm products of 1899 had brought the same prices as did the same products in 1890, they would haye brought more than they did by the sum of $2,009,437,584. The farmers raised 1,013,000,000 more bushels of produce in 1999 than they did in 1890, and yet this produce was worth $205,000,000 less than was the smaller crop of 1890. This only calcu lates the cereals. Flit- Scholarship Offered at Trinity College. On recommendation of President Kil go the board of trustees of Trinity Col lege decided at its late meeting to offer 50 scholarships to that institution. These scholarships vary in value from $50 to $75. Forty are for entering the freshman class and five are for mem bers of the sophomore class. The latter two must be candidates for the degree, and the scholarships will be available to them by which to take the junior year. All8holarships must be won by test of satisfactory examination in course of study and proof of character. The college reserves the right to with draw the benefits at any time the stu dent shall forfeit character. The Strujile of a Texu Editor. Farmers' Courier. I will be in the field as census enu merator during the month of Juno. Our cli:':w.ii iwiYjwuLl. tonr-hintr the CHINA BEGINS WAR. OPENS PIRK ON THE FLEET-AN 8-IlOUKS' BOMBAHDMKNT ENSUES. Two of the Fort It low n up and 400 CliIiicMC Killed One Ilrttlwli, 3 Ger mans, 16 UiiMKtan and 1 French man Killed. London, June 19. China declared war against the world when the Taku fortifications opened fire upon the in ternational fleet. The accounts of what took place are still unsatisfactory, the best semi-official information being the dispatch received at Berlin from Che Fu. The unofficial narratives, coming by way of Shanghai, vary widely and bear internal evidence of supplementing me main iacis wun guess wors. une dispatch says that Yorktown partici pated in the bombardment. Another asserts that American marines formed part of the storming force of 2,000. An Asspciated Press dispatch from Che Fu, dated yesterday afternoon says: "The Forts on both 6idea of the Taku are now occupied. The Chinese opened fire unexpectedly. The casualties to the mixed forces were aa follows: Killed, British 1; German 3; Russian 1G, and French 1. Wounded, British 1; Ger man 7; Russian 45; French 1. The Chinese torpedo boats were seized." "Four hundred Chinese are reported to have been killed. The Chinese, when retreating, fell into the henda of the Russian force." " The Daily Mail haa the following from Che Fu: "Two of the forts were blown up. The 32 warships at Taku aggre gated 200,000 tons and carried more than 300 guns." The powers are taking prompt action. Four thousand troops have been ordered to China; 10,000 French troopa are waiting to embark at Saigon, capital of French Cochin China, and 3,000 to 5,000 more Russians have been ordered from Port Arthur to Taku. The Brussels correspondent of The Standard in a dispatch dated yesterday, says: "Russia has massed 40,000 men, with ceven batteries at Kiachta, with orders to proceed to Maimatichin, a Chinese town contiguous to Kiachita, and thence to advance along the tele graph route to the Mongol town of Urga, 200 miles south of Kiachta, and 750 miles northwest of Pekin." The morning papers consider that a state of war practically exists and that the issue is between Western and Eas tern civilization. The Times says that the latest news infinitely increases a sit uation already eulriciently serious. The Imperial Falare Rurned The ICmprenN Commit Suicide. London, June 21. The latest story Bent out by the Shanghai gossipB is that Prince Tuan, president of the Tsung Li Yamen, has burned the im perial palace at Pekin and murdered the Emperor, and that the Empress Dowager has committed suicide. The effect of the bombardment of the Taku forts, as described by the Shanghai correspondents, was gory in the extreme, nothing Ie'fes than "rivera of blood" and "mutilated corpses piled up inside the fo.ts." The, area of Cuba is about 42,000 square miles, exclusive of the Isle of Pines, due south of Havana province. Negro census enumerators in the South did not hnd their jobs either pleasant or easy. The shaft to the'ruemory of the la mented Vance will be unveiled Wed nesday, August 22nd. Yh Tims Coissqq to every elderly woman when An lm. ?rtant functional change takes place, his la called "The Change of Life." l neentiresystem undergoes achange. Dreadful diseases such aa caneer anA consumption axe often contracted at uus ume.