"FOR COUNTRY, FOR GOD, AND EOR TRUTH." Single Copy, 6 Cents VOL. XT. PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1900. NO 42, 1.00 a Year, in Advance. , WHS. W. II. KKLTON ON ll UM SCHOOLS; rOJII'llliSOIIY AT TEWItAWCK IfAVOHIiD. Atlanta Journal. The editor of the Thomasville News takes issue with me concerning my for mer article, and says: "Mrs. Felton it in error" when I made free to critisc the general indifference of parents aud euardians to the advantages of our public school s vetem. The Thornasville News decides that the difficulty is owing to our inferior teachers poor teach, poor attendance! I am acquainted witn the workings of the State Normal school at Athene, ,-nnd it does appear that we can have tl&achers fully prepared and qualified to conduct public schools in the country if even small effort is made on this line, and our county Bchool commit Bioners are much to blame if they do not require teachers to be qualified before they are given a license to teach iu any public school. Far better; to allow a school term to lapse thau to entraee and pay a person to teach who is not nrenared to do eood work as a t acher. A good teacher should always be paid a liberal Balary, but there are many who are teaching who could not make half of their present salary at any other business they might engage iu. There is great hue aud cry about poor pay for the teachers, and there are said to be somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 teachers drawing nay from the state's .-treasury. . fi "But the pay, small as it is in some localities, beats a poor farm to death as a reward for labor. A young man from an adjoining county called at our house some months aeo. He had been teaching a five- months school at $10 a month in the county I live iu, and received $200 iD cash for his five month's work. He laughingly remarked that his father had encouraged him to countinue, be cause he had made much more clear money at teaching in five months than his father's farm bad cleared in 12 mouths with harder woik. It should be a first class country teach er who is paid $40 a month. A .poor young man or woman who can earn $40 a month is doing well, and "doing well is hard to beat." I am not convinced with the reason ing of the able News editor. We might have schools at every road crossing, and good teachers ready to t)ach, but the fact remains that parents and guardians recognize no personal obligation to make the roll of pupils what such payment from the state de mands, or what our legislators expected when they decided to offer to them "free, gratis, for nothing," the benefits of free schooling. The taxpayers are bearing enormous burdens to supply money for these public schools. This money is obliged to come, or every dol lars worth of the tax payer's property is subject to levy and sale. This school tax is collectable at the end of the law. Now will the editor ot The News tell its readers what pecuniary obligation rests upon the patrons of these schools to carry out the Btate's intention to ed ucate all the children comprised in school ages ? I have personal knowledge of a school, where an excellent teacher was engaged to teach a country school. He waa promised fifteen regular pupils but the indifference of us patrons was so greai that he had serious difficulty in getting fifteen to attend. At different times during the four months thirty-tw o names wore on the roll but the attendance averaged lees than half that num' er in four months. The school com mis sioner was very kind to the ieopie in this vicinity. He did his very best to encourage the patrons to patronize an excellent teacher, but there waa no im provement at the end of four months and the teacher gave up his task, to go to a larger school in another state, with better salary attached. Here, the state has been liberal, the teacher was ex- c p'.ionally well prepared, the necessity was great, and the Uilliculty lay exactly where I declared it to be, in the neglect or indifference of the pationr. No system of public school instruction Ciu become stable and permanent with out compulsory education. In the ver nature of things this neceseity exists. When the state puts its iron hand in your pocket and forcibly extracts a part of your income for the payment of teachers, to instruct the indigent, thai money should be scrupulously applied to the purpose as explained and there should be equal force applied On purenb to oblige the pupils to attend, aftei such school money haa been forcibly taken and applied to the purpose a? designed. Otherwise, this demand for school money becomes simple tyranny Vh are Ditchine this good money intt. a bole clear out of Bight. It is like pouring water on the Band the money is spent and no sign remains. I understand the inability of appre ciative patrons to inspire negligent neighixrs to patronize a school. It does seem a pity that really anxious parents and guardians should be denier! free schools because numb-scull patrons have no interest in keeping their chil dren at school ;yet, on the other hand, it ia a shame and injustice that people should be sued and sold out by the sheriff to raise the school tax money for a topu'atioii who are too indifferent to receive or accept the benefit of this wonderful opportunity. If somebody would take the trouble to count up the tax money expended in Georgia's public sehofl system, since the experiment was made in the state, it would startle the commonwealth. For over thirty yea rsthe children of white and Mark have been granted public school education in Georgia, yet the chaingang convicts have grown from 350, in 1874, to nearly 3,000, in 1900. The difficulty lies exactly in the open disregarii shown by the people who should senel their children to school and who fail to compel their attendance. There is no proper appreciation of the benefit. Reform must come at this point to make the system a success. Partiwau IMohiiiicmw. News and Observer. Sixteen negroes have been summoned by Holtou to give evidence agaict the Democratic registrars at Greensboro Why ? ; Hoi ton hopes to scare Demo crats so that they will let unqualified negroes vole in the November election There is another reason : Butler is bust ly engaged preparing trumped-up charges against the Democrats which he will present to the Senate at its next session. Jle knows be must walk the plank, but he wishes to make fair weather with the Republicans by giving them some basis upon which to begin I heir crusade against full Southern representation in Congress and in the electoral college. mis is the game the usioni8ts are trying to play. In the first place, the Democrats will hold the election in No vember as they held it in August. No arrests or futile threats of punishment will force them to let unqualified ne groes vcte. They have made up their minds on that score and will not be moved from it. In the second place the scare of loss of representation doeB not scare the people of North Carolina 1 hey know that under the Constitution Massachusetts and other States that limit suffrage must also lose, and that there are many obstacles in the way of carrying out the plan of cutting down Southern representation. They will fight that as they fought the Force Bill and if ehey should lose they will accept their defeat as they accepted the bitter ness of reconstuction and labor and wait until they can make the cruel act return to injure those who forced uni versal suffrage for the negro, which, af ter a time resulted in an injury to the national Republican party. "Ucddln' Up" in China. Charlotte Observer. One of the most vexed que- stions for settlement in China is that of indemni ties to be paid. Itlay, one of the least involved and interested powers, wants $8,750,000 indemnity. If her claim is just, with this amount as a basis it has been calculated that Japan should have Zo times, Kusaia lo times, Great Bri tain, Germany and the United States 10 times, as much, and that all togeth er it would take $000,000,000 to assuage the mental anguish that the Boxer riots have inflicted upon the nation. I would tax China grievously to pay this sum. Something like $"1,500,000 is about all she can Btand, it is said, if the money is to be raised from the customs duties. Sir Robert Hart, the great mathematical and methodical English man, who is in charge of the Chinese customs, collects now a 5 per cent, ad valorem duty on all imports into China, The collections eaeily suffice to pay the interest on China 8 debt to all quarters of the globe from which she has bor rowed money. But if this ad valorem tarifl is increased to an amount requisite to raise more than the above mentioned f 1.500, 000, it would amout to a prohi bitive tariff, would drive away the argosies of commerce, close up the avenues ofrevenue and kill the goos that lays the golden egg. buch, at least, is the calculation of The New York gun. The Chinese, we believe, are already heavily taxed for raising their internal re venue, which moneys, we suppose, are used to pay royalty and run the government. But perhaps part of her indemnity will have to come this way uie indemnity plan is generally re garded as the way around annexation and slicing up and of maintaining the "open door." However, Chinese ports or Chinese provinces will, presumably, have to be occupied as security for promised indemnities. Who, then, will occupy what and for how long? In deed, to use the phrase of the country-house-wife, "retldin' up" in China is a ticklish job. Fraiikn Had Iti-on Indicted. Raleigh, N. C, September 27. The rand jury of the superior court here today returned a true bill agaiDSt ex Slate Stoiator J. A. Franks, of Swain ounty, for perjury. The case is a sen sational one. Franks is a republican aud was a member of the state election board. Two years ago a man named George W. Justice came here from Asheville as a lawy er, stole a number of lawbooks from the courthouse and was arrested on the charge of larceny. Franks became his security, giving justified bond for $50, and swearing he was worth that much in excess of all in- lebtedness. Justice fled the state and went to Alabama, forfeiting his bail. An execution sent to Swain county for the amount of Franks's security was re turned with the statement that he wrp worth nothing. The bill against him which the grand juty today returned as true wxs drawn last July. All efforts to induce the authorities of Alabama to arrest Justice haye failed. j RILL ARPS L UTT 12 U . Uncle Sam is dead. Good old Sam Pitts. He never changed his name when freedom came. "My old master was a good man," he said. "Dar was good ieople den and bad people jes' like dar is now black and white, but de black has got wusser and wusser since dey got free. Effen a black man had a good master be was mighty well off, for he didn't have no sponsibility. Effen I bin sho of a good master and my wife and children been sho of one and we all live together ontill we die . I wouldn't keer anything bout freedom. Niggers got too much freedom any how. My old master used to make der nigger gals get married and take a man and stick to him, but nowadays dey don't marry at all hardly. I got a lot of grandchildren what haint got no daddy to speak of and I don't know my sons-in-law. Dey don't come about in daytime. Dats what killed my old wo man. She jea bo mortified and so shamed she never got over it. So many spurious children all round callin' her granny. Effen a white woman do dat way she is disgraced, but a black oman don't keer; she shine as big as ever and dey don't turn her out?n de church. In de old times she got a whippin and dey ort to have it yet. White folks dun quit whippin bad niggers; dey send em to chaingang, and dey don't keer for dat. I hear dat dar is four or five thousand in dar from Georgy. How'b dat dident have nary one before de war. Gwine to school too mirch I tpek and work too little. Don't know what is gwine to come of all dese growin' up niggers. Dar is a dozen or more round de depot or trampin' around town doin nothin' all de time livin' offen dey mammies and smokia' dese little paper Beegars." Old Uncle Sam didn't talk much, but sometimes he would lean upon his hoe or his ax and "spress his feelins." It did him good. He has been chopping my wood and helping me in the garden for thirteen years and we will miss him He fell down paralyzed with his hoe in his hand. He was "the man with the hoe" to the very last, but he never was poor, for he made a good living and had many friends and owned a comfortable house and lot. They sent to my wife for some grave clothes and he will be buried in a right decent suit of mine and we will go to his funeral. I was ruminating bout this good old nesro who had seen thirty-three years of slavery and thirty-Beven of freedom and knew the good and the bad of both conditions and then my thought wan dered to the malignity of those who have slandered us so long without a cause. Here is a book of poems by John G. Whittier and thirty seyen of them are pitiful appeals for the poor slave and invoking heaven s curses upon his master. He knew no more abo t slavery as it really was than he did about Barbara Freitche and he fed the yourg people of New England upon poetic li' 8 for thirty years ani instilled into their hearts that hatred from which they have never recovered. Strange it is that smart people will write about things they have never seen. Now, the idea of an uneducated negro slave getting down on his knees and making an apostrophe to the north star and yet that is the title of one of the poems The Slave's Apostrophe to the North Star." That nigger was posBum hunt ing right then, but the poet makes him to say: 'Star or the North, T look to thee, "Thy light und truth shall set me free." But enough of this. The question still survives what will become of the negro. And that other question looms up before us, what will we do with 10,- 000,000 more of them over in the Philippines? A more senseless war was never waged. It was conceived in sin and is being carried on in iniquity. Prosperity! Yes, it is war that glossfs ver Buffering aud death and grief with a coat of prosperity. But it is nothing but a coat. War always produces a semblance of prosperity, for armies havstobe fed and clothed and equipped. Ships have to be built and cannon made and a thousand things lollateral to these show activity and give employ ment to labor and to capital. This activity began with the Cuban era broglio and etill goes on, but in the long run somebody will have to foot the money bill. The bill for blood and suffering will never be paid. Who w ints the war but contractors who are growing rich from their profit? When I was last in Texas I heard a cattle man say he hoped that Russia and England would get up a ngbt, for he had 100,- 000 held of cattle that would go up 50 per cent in a day. Daily wages dont 20 up, but everything the laborer is obliged to consume has advanced. How bout cleak hire, male and female, in the towns and cities. How about child labor in the factories not all the fac tories, but in most of them, for there are not many Gunby Jordans at the head of southern cotton mills. What a beautiful tribute bis people paid him n Columbus when he returned from Europe. What a tou.hing ovation those factory workers gave him. Why can't the owners of every mill do the lame by their operatives and secure their love, which is worth more than a crown of gold. I read in an Atlanta paper about a woor woman who swore her son would not be nine years old until next Christmas, but her husbane. certified to the superintendent of the mill that he was eleven bo as to get him a place, for no boy under ten would be employed. Later News has just come that old Uncle Sam is not yet dead. They be gan to dress him for the grave and suddenly he showed a sign of life. Maybe he will live to have his obituary read to qim who knows. I read my own many years ago in a western paper when the original Bill Arp died in Texas and the editor thought it was I. But Uncle Sam will hardly live through the night. Bill Arp. P. S. That multitudious poem has not ceased to come. Yesterday brought a cpy from Minnesota and one from the state of Washington. Only 347 have been received up to date. I can hardly find thanks to go round. B. A. The Situation. WashlnRton Times. Reports from the Middle West are of the most encouraging nature to the sup porters of Bryan and Stevenson. Mr. Hanna is foreed to admit that Indiana is "very doubtful," So is Illinois. Michigan is by no means as safe as could be wished by Mr. McKinley's political managers, and even Wisconsin is "demanding attention." In New York the Democracy is more thoroughly united than it has been for a dozen years, if we are to accept the statement of representative leaders there. Richard Croker pledges a hundred inoueana majority lor the ticket in Greater New i ork, and if he is able with the aid of Tammany to make good this pledge there is no reason why the thirty-six electoral votes of the Empir State should not be given to Bryan xne circumstance that tour years ago McKinley carried rew York by aplural ity of two hundred and sixty-eight thou sand is not an Insuperable barrier to Democratic success there this year me voters ot that state are more changable than the voters of any other part of the country, and it is quite as probable that a big majority can be reversed as that a small one may be. It is a fact of vast significance that Democratic voters gave Mr. McKinley his enormous majority in 1896, and ueraocrats can take away as well as give. Blood hounds from the penitentiary were put on his track and an exciting chase ensued. He was discovered in a tree on the outskirts of the town, and was taken below to his victim, who posi tively identified him. The negro was taken to the edge of the village, and, suxrounded by the mob, shivered with fear. The preparations for death were quickly made. A rope was fiuDe over the limb of a big oak and the men stood ready to lend a hand at the rope. Then a halt was called and the manner of death discussed by the mob. To decide the matter a vote was taken and the balloting showed a majority of the crowd to favor death at the stake. The stake was prepared and the negro was bound to it with chains. Pine knots were piled about him and the flames were fired by the husband of the negro s victim. As the flames reached to the wretch's llesh his wild cries upon God for mercy and help could be heard for miles. The crowd looked on, deaf to his criea, and in an hour the negro was reduced to ashes. Towneend, before being bound, con fessed the crime, and said he waa also imi-licated with Alex. Floyd, who was hung a couple of weeks ago for an at tempted assault on Miss Kate Pearson. As this is the second white woman assaulted in this vicinity within a month, it is believed there is a conspiracy among the negroes. $672,470.20 lor SHltt-ren. - Austin, Texas, Sept. 30. Governor Sayers today prepared the following statement relative to the Texas flood sufferers: The amount of money received by me up to 12 o'clock noon of September 30, 1900, for the benefit of the storm suffer ers on the Texas coast is $G72,47G 20. This sum includes $3,892 59 that re mained in my hands of the fund contri bution for the relief of the Brazos River Valley sufferers last year. It also in cludes all drafts and authorizations to draw and which are in transit and are yet uncollected. "This statement, it must be borne in mind, only embraces moneys and re mittances that have been made to me directly and also amounts for which I have been authorized to draw. "During the present week I will sub mit to the people of the United States a complete itemized statement of the en tire fund that has come into my hands, giving the amount and source of each contribution and also the manner in which the sum total received by me has been expended and distributed. "Every portion of the storm-striken district is being provided for." The South Carolinians should not complain because many North Caro linians voted in their recent primaries. We believe in reciprocity up here. In many of our elections we have had the issistance of South Carolina talent; but it was always black, and inasmuch as ve lent the South Carolinians white nen to heip them out in their recent .;onteet our neighbbors over the line seem to have the better of the proposi tion. Charlotte Observer. STATE NEWS. The Winston registrar cases are to be tried before Judge Boyd at the October term of the Federal Court in Greensboro. Mr. H. T. King, editor of King's Weekly, of Greenville, had his hand badly mashed Friday by getting it caught in his newspaper press. John Farren, colored, who has been in the penetentiary for lees than a year for killing a negro woman of Salisbury, has been pardoned by Gov. Russell. The hangman got in his work at Clinton and at Tarboro last Friday. At Clinton Archie Kinaaula paid the penalty for the murder of Jno. C. Her ring, Oct. 27, 1898. At Tarboro, on the same day, Chauncey Davis was hanged for the burning of a residence, May 8, 1899. Senator Butler ia the most progressive kicker in North Carolina. He . ia ar ranging an indignation meeting cam paign. Of course he iB exceedingly in dignant losing one's grip on a $5,000 job, with absolutely nothing in prospect, is enough to beget indignation. Ala mance Gleaner. The prize family, for size, in North Carolina, has just moved to Greensboro, and settled at Proximity. The family consists a husband, a wife and 21 chil dren. The head of the family, A. M Farrington, was, until recently, widower with a number of children He married a widow with several chil dren, thus gaining the distinction of be ing the head of the largest family in the State. Mr. R. F. Black, of Light, this county comes to the front with the biggest snake Btory of the Beason. Mr. Black says that one day laBt week he discovered an enormous chicken snake in bis hen ery. He shot and killed it, and say by actual measurement the snake was 10 feet long. It had devoured two half grown chickens before it was killed Lexington Dispatch. Col. A. W. Shaffer, of the State Board of Health, is making an examination of the water supplies of leading towns in the State. Col. Shaffer, who is one of the director? of the Board is making an these examinations under the direc tion of the State Board of Health for the ascertaining the existence of disease geirms, if any such exist. The analysis is made by the State bacteriologist. C. M. Ray, who is one of the editors of the Mill News published in Charlotte, will be sued for libel by Rev. J. F. Aus tin, who has been a prominent labor organizer in this State. In an editorial published recently some very serious charges were made against Austin by the Mill News, and he was spoken of as one of the most dangerous lecturers because he was capable of as much meanness as aeyone in the crowd. The Central Carolina fair, at Greene boro, promises to be a big affair. It will be opened formally October 9 by Judge James E. Boyd. Its greatest novelty will be the dog show, the first yet given in this State. George Gould, Pierre Lorillard, Mackey and other Northern sportsmen, who have exten sive kennels and control many thous and acres of land near Greensboro, have joined the local sportsmen in making the dog show notable. The Greensboro Water Supply Com pany is in .the hands of a receiver. This action was taken before Judge James E. Boyd, of the United States Circuit Court, sitting at chambers in that city Satur day morning, and was brought about at the instance of Guaradian Trust and BoodineCo,, of Baltimore, holders of $110,000 bonds of the water supply company, insolvency is charged in that the company has not paid the in terest on its bonds. Mr. R. R. King is appointed receiver by Judge Boyd. Mr. Woodson Daniel, who lives in Davidson county, was in Lexington a few days ago, wearing a pair of pants which he has owned and worn a good deal every years for 60 years. He bought them in Mr. John Murphy's store in Salisbury sometime during the fall of the year before the Tippecanoe campaign in 1840, that being the fall of 30. Mr. Daniel is 82 years old and rode a mule from his home, 18 miles distant, and back in the afternoon. The pants are navy blue with a small bronze Bilk check. It is yet very strong goods. He said it sold for $1 per yard. Weaterit Democrats Koaxt Wolcotl. Victor, Colo., Sept. 29. The Demo cratic county convention and club of Victor, Colorado, adopted the following resolutions unanimously: "Whereas, Governor Roosevelt and party were not received in Victor with the tolerance and courtesy due to the governor of a sister state therefore. Resolved, lb at we, the Democrats of Victor in conyention assembled deploie the spirit of intolerance and discourte y displayed on that occasion and disave w all responsibility for the disturbance of the speakers in a public . hall and for the subsequent violence indulged in by members of the Republican marchirg club; further, Resolved. That we also deplore the folly that induced the Republicans of Colorado to provoke the disorder by bringing Governor Roosevelt to this city under the auspices of the cordially detested traitor and renegade. Senator Edward O. Wolcott," The man Kmsaule, upon whom the sentence of the law executed at Clinton Friday had better reasons than he knew for his objections to being hanged by a Populist Bheriff. A horrible, sickening botch was made of the business. It was Lord Bacon who wrote: "I think . -i u i . 1 ; t uatUIU uvs UiC glean ntvug it - should be so long in dying as I was in being born." It was not nature, but the Bheriff of Sampson, who inflicted upon this murderer some such punish ment as the wiee man desired to be spared. Nine minutes at the first attempt and eight at the second, with the interval between the two added, must have meant the better part of a half-hour consumed in transferring this wretch from this world to another. Charlotte Obeerver. A Letter From Home. Atlanta Constitution. William, this is wrote to you to let you know that cotton is 10 cents an' the sheriff has levied on all you made. Also to inform you that your two mules has been took for a note you didn't pay, an' that your house ketched on fire an' burned down Wednesday. Also to say that gold has been found on your place, and your creditors arediggin' of. Hopin' this will find you enjoyin'all happiness, an' that you will have a merry Christ mas, when it comes, I remain, dear William, the same as ever." GENERAL NEWS. The enrollment at West Point Mil itary Academy this year ia the largest in its history 428 cadets with still 53 vacancies. The first record of death in a football game thia season has been made in Chicago. The returns may now be ex- peuicu iu (juujc iu ui a iivciy rate. After a quarrel which has exteuded over two weeks, two young men of prominent families, of East Point, a su burb of Atlanta.met Friday evening and fought with pistols. One of the men, Sheffield Harrington, was shot in four places, and the other, Walter Hudson, waa wounded once. Both are believed to be fatally wounded. "Society in Wyoming haa hit upon a novel amusement, says the Washing ton Times. The entertainment ia called an 'onion sociable,' Six young ladies take an onion into a room, and after one of them has taken a bite out of it a young man is admitted. If after kisB ing them all, he faila to tell which of them bit the onion all the girls are obliged to kiss him." Head of Mormon Church and Ilia Wives. Salt Lake. Utah, Dispatch, Sept. 27. Three of the sons of President Snow, of the Mormon Church, have filed information in the church courts charg ing that their father has refused and neglected to support his legal wife, their mother. They declare that she is in destitute circumstances and that the favorite wife, with whom (h nrPQuUnt lives, ia conspiring and exercising undus influence to induce Snow to deed bis property to her and her children to the exclusion of his other wiyes and children. All Snow s wives except one live in hovels while the favorite occupies with him. a palatial residence and has numerous servants, horses and carriages. The "Cltjr of Charlotte" Burned. Kingston, O., Oct. 1. The private car of the North Carolina Exposition finrriTMinxr- holnnoinor In that Btata 1 j i -e-5 v vui. Kjvatc, nao burned to the ground here this morn-, ing. William Jiason, the manager, and an assistant were awakened by a dog and barely escaped with their lives. The car contained exhibits of the min eral and agricultural resources of North Carolina, and waa valued at $18,000. A Homicide In Stanly. Albemarle, Oct. 2. Last night about 8 o'clock Frank Swarengen, who lives near Porter's, eight miles from Albe marle, became involved in a row with Will Hinson, which cost him his life. Swarengen was ehot by Hinson five times, dying in an hour and a half after the shooting. It seems that both men were partners in a government distillery and a dispute over some whiBkey was the cause of the homicide. Hinson did not attempt to escape, but was arrested by tne snenff. NecentMary With Low Shoe. "I don't see why you have to have such expensive silk stockings," he growled. Purely as a matter of economy." she rephed sweetly. "Economy 1 W here does the-econo- my come .2 ?" "Why, yo-i dear, blind old fellow 1" she exclaimed. "'Haven't vou ever no ticed that with low shoes and beautiful silk stockings a woman's skirts never drag in the dust and the mud T" Clear Yourself or Get Out. Winston-Salem, N. C, Sept. 29. United States District Attorney Holton ia quoted today with having told Mr. Blackburn, the assistant difsHct at torney, that he must either prove the charges made against him (Blackburn) by the Wilkesboro Chronicle false or withdraw from the Congressional race. Love alone interprets all life.