"FOR GOD ,FOR COUNTRY, AND EOR TRUTH." Single Copy, B Cents:' VOL. XI. PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1900. NO. 49 1.00 a Year, in Advance. Population of North Carolina Cillen and Towns. , Washington, Dec. 11. Charlotte, in point of population, ia the second city in the State, and during the decade just elapsed haa , passed Rleigh, and in the matter of increase has left Wil mington in the rear, as is shown by the census figures issued to-day. These figures also show that the tide of im migration is towards the West and that Eastern towns and cities barely hold their own, while the Western cities and towns are rapidly increasing in popula tion. The census bulletin issued to-day gives the figures of 1900 to which a comparison is added from the census of 1890, and ia as follows: The population of certain incorpo rated places in North Carolina having a poDulation of more than 2,000 but less than 25,000 in 1900, is as follows: 1900. 1890. Aaheville 14.694 10,235 Beaufort ..... 2,295 2,007 Burlington .... 3,692 1,716 Charlotte 18,091 11,557 Concord. . ... t 7,910 4,339 Durham .... . 6.679 5,485 Edent0n . . . . 3 046 2.205 Elizabeth.. . -i . . 6,34S 3.251 Fayetteville . . . . 4,670 4,223 Gastonia ..... 4 610 1,032 Goldsboro . . . .; 5 877 4,015 Graham . . . . . 2,052 991 GreenBboro . . . .10,035 3,317 Greenville. . . . 2,565 1,937 Henderson . . . . 3,746 4 191 Hickory .... . 2,535 2,023 High Point. . . . 4,163 3,481 King's Mountain . 2,062 429 Kineton 4,106 1,726 Monroe . . . . . 2,417 1,866 Mt. Airy . . . ... 2,680 1,768 Newbern . . . .'. 9,090 7,843 Raleigh. . . . .13,643 12,678 Rundleman .... 2,190 1,754 Reidsville ..... 3,262 2,910 Rocky Mount . . . 2,937 816 Salem ...... 3 642 2,711 Salisbury 6,277 4 418 Statesville .... 3,141 2,310 Tarboro . . . . . 2,499 1,921 Washington . . . 4,842 3,515 Wilmington . . . 20,976 20,006 Wilson 3,525 2,126 Winston. 10,008 8,018 The Failure of Natural Gas. New York Times, 1 . . During the past two or three years the failure of the natural gas supply has been very rapid. In the Ohio field once famous for its ' 'roarers,' ' and which cave gas under an initial pressure of from 450 to 480 pounds per square inch the gas now has now initial pressure. and compression is necessary to its distribution. In the Indiana field it estimated by experts that onehalf of the total supply been exhausted. The pressure at the wells waa formerly an average of 6zo pounds, very lew now deliver gas with a pressure of 160 pounds and as a pressure of 100 pounds is needed to hold back the Bait water with which the gas-bearing strata are saturated, follows that when further weakened by continued blowing off, the wells will begin to fill up and the flow cease. About 66 percent of the gas in the grounds' has been exhausted, and ot that whicn carries a pressure leBS than 100 pounds compara tively little is likely to be available. The reckless waste permitted when the sup ply was deemed inexhaustible is now much regretted, but in such a case ex post facto wisdom does not greatly profit those who have it. Died From Mistaken Fright. Fall River, Mass., Dispatch. As the result of paralysis, caused through fear that she had swallowed her false set of teeth, Mrs. Hannah Laidlow. of East Main street, ia dead at the City Hospital. The woman was Jpund unconscious Wednesday .night, and after regaining her SDeech. declared that she had swallowed her lower set of false teeth. The physicians declare that the horror the woman had shown for a surgical operation, even though assured that she had not swallowed the teeth, caused paralysis and finally death. Crazy for tbe Want of a Husband. Salisbury Sun. , "Why can't I have a husband as well as other women, why can t i I This was the wail of poor Harriet Owens when she was brought home last night by Deputy Hodge Krider. It has been told in these columns how the poor half witted creature left the county home and wandered away to Cabarrus county, where she was wanted and how the commissioners of that county had notified the commissioners of Rowan that sh? must be brought back. In pursuance of this order Deputy Hodge Krider went down to Concord yesterday morning for the woman and found her in the outskirts of the town. She protested against returning to Salisbury and resisted at first but was finally induced to come back. She Bays Bhe only wants a husband and went to Cabarrus county in search of one when the officers interfered with ber plans. She will be sent out to tbe couDty home today. Former Commiesary-General of Subsistence Eagan, who was under sus pension for using alleged abusive lan guage toward General Miles, has been restored to duty, was immediately retired. HILL AICP'S LETTEIl. The rapid increase of suicides in the south is alarming and provokes the eerious study of our thinking people. Fifty years ago a suicide was a rare event among the white race, and never heard of among the negroes. When it did occur, it was considered an evi dence of ineanity. I do not recall but one instance in my youth and that was a woman who jumped into a deep well when no help was within reach. But nowadays almost every daily paper con tains an account of one or more self murders, and even negroeB have taken the infection, for they will imitate every vice and frailty of the whites. Old Lewis, who is my wood chopper, asked me the other day how it was that the white folks kill "derselves so much, and de niggers dident." "Because," said I, "white folks are more easily overcome with grief, or remorse, or dis tress, than negroes. You negroes don't borrow trouble, nor take it hard when it does come. You don't give your selves much anxiety about tomorrow, or next week, or next year. You don't grieve long over a death in the family; your emotional nature is of alow grade; your marriage relation is loose; in fact, it is on the decline since freedom came. The marriage records show that your legal marriages are 60 per cent. less. according to population, than in the white race, and the decrease gets less and less every yearf Your young men and women don't marry; they just take up and quit when they please, and so the men don't care very much about tbe welfare of their children, if they have any. Besides all this, Uncle Lewis, your race has a' trait of stealing little things, and this accounts in a great measure for their, indifference to the laying up of something for the future something for the winter, or the rainy days, or for old age. If the worst comeB to the worst, they know they can steal or beg. If your young folks, men an women, haven't got but a dollar in the woild, they will spend it for a water melon, or an excursion, and take the chances. Now, Uncle Lewis, you re member when there wasn't a chaicgang in the south, nor a heinous crime nor a brutal outrage, committed by your peo pie, from tbe Potomac river to the Rio Grande. Now there are in Georgia alone over 4,000 of your people in the chaingangs, and there would be 4,000 more if all the little stealings wera pun ished." Uncle Lewis had stopped cutting and was leaning on hia ax helve. "Dat's all so," said he, "and boss I knows it and boss what I wants to know is dis What must we poor niggers do about it?" There is tbe rub. I couldn't tell him, but I did say, "Uncle Lewis, your race has got some mighty good traits. and l like to nave you about us; .you are kind-hearted, good-natured, eaBy to please, and don t carry malice or revenge in your hearts; you steal, but you don't cheat anybody. The white race won't steal, but they will cheat, or take advantage in a trade, and that is worse. If vou trust a negro with any thing he will not abuse your confidence, but a white man will embezzle and de fraud and even the cashiers of banks will appropriate the bank's money, and falsify the books for months and years Every race has its race traits, both bad and good. Some of your bad ones were almostjrun out by slavery.but they have come back again, and all your college education does not stop it. It makes it worse. There is nothing will stop it but work, constant work, every day, under some good employer, work . on the farm is your beet safeguard, or work as mechanics under good contrectors. Your people make good mechanics, and the white people employ them and patronize them just as willingly as they do white mechanics. The negro black smiths and masons get good employ ment here and everywhere, and as for cooking and washing and nursing, your women have it all. The two races would fit together nicely if it wasn't for politics and idleness. An idle negro is a dang erous creature and Bhould be taken up and put to work, lie is much more dangerous than an idle white man, for he has no shame, and fears not God nor regards man. If I were a law-maker, would make continued idleness a crime, for, as lien franklin says, it is the parent of vice." I started to write about suicides, but got to preaching Uncle Lewis a sermon and got off the truck. ' Nineteen hun dred year3 ago Plutarch, the Greek his torian, said that self-murder was cowardice, for a brave man would suffer rather than take the life that God gave him. Self-murder was a heinous crime under the old English law. The estate of the felo de se was confiscated, and taken away from his family. His body waa buried on the highway without a coffin and a sharp stake thrust through it to mark the accused spot. Suicide waa under the ban of the church, and no prayers were said for his soul. In no civilized country has suicide been justified, except in such cases as that of Saul, who fell on his sword because, as he said, "Lest these uncircumciscd Philistines thrust me through and abuse me," Or perhaps that other notable case the scriptures record, that of Judas, whose remorse was so dreadful he pre ferred hell or anything that would be a change. But generally it is "better to endure the ills we have, than fly to those we know not of." Almost every day we read of young men and young women killing themselves because of isappointment or dissipation, or about love or money. They must believe there is no hereafter, or all punishment ends with this life. Surely no Christian man or woman would think of self murder. Wait, wait, young man, young man, young woman; wait, I say suffer and be Btrong; only cowards kill themselves. The soul is locked up in this casket and God only has the key. Wait and trust Him. Remorse for a great crime may atone somewhat for self-murder. Miss Morrison might have killed herself aftc she killed her rival, and it would have saemed heroic. When Othello discovered his great mis take in killing Desdemona, his perora tion was grand as he Baid, ' I took the circumcised dog by the throat and smote him thus," and then stabbed himself and died, for, as Shakespeare says, "He waa great of heart." In an cient Greece and Rome their notable warriors sometimes killed themselves, rather than suffer the stings of defeat in battle. In Japan military officers com mit what is called harakari (ripping open the abdomen) to avoid personal disgrace. But in our land the pistol or poison has superseded all other means of suicide. It would save thousands of lives if the pistol was abolished by law. Not one should be allowed in any house hold; they are entirely too convenient for murder or suicide or robbery or re venge. And the sale of poison should be so regulated that no one could buy it except upon the most careful inquiry as to its intended use. Human lite is too sacred to be endangered by pistols and poison, for, as St. Paul says, "We are made in the image of God." Well, we see that Mr. Crumpicker, or. btumpsucker, or some Buchname, from Indiana, has opened the ball at Wash ington with his usual screech owl howl against the south. He was in euch malignant hurry that he got in the first bill, and it is to reduce the representa tion of the south in congress, lie re minds me of Haman, whose stomach would not digest his food as long aa he 3aw Mordecai sitting at the King's gate, He has begun to build a gallows for us Let him beware, f jr it was Haman who was hanged. Some of these rabid Ke publicans remind me of old Cato, the Roman censor, who hated the Ciirthe genians so bad that he never voted on any question in the Roman senate without adding, "And I also vote that Carthage be destroyed." But nobody cares; we will yet have a schoolbook commission in every southern state The south is moving right along in spite of northern insults and northern liter ature. I see that "Barbara Fnetchie" is to be played in Atlanta. I wonder if that dramatic lie will be patronized by any sell-respecting southern man or woman? Many years ago a yankee troupe came to Rome with 'Uncle Tom's Cabin, and we egged them out of town That's what we done. They may abuse us from afar off, but they shan't come down here and rub it in. Bill Akp, The Situation in China. "The Chinese question," says the New York Herald, "is approaching solution with that deliberation which always accompanies important events, There was a time, not so long ago. when the portents were rather larid, and no one of the diplomats of Europe was bold enough to predict the outcome. The powers rent by apparent implacable dissensions; China was trembling at the possibility of dismemberment, and the wisest statesmen held their place, won dering what the next move would be. Germany was wild with the passion of revenge; England had made a private agreement with her, which might mean anything or nothing; Russia's Czar, who has from the start stood for peace on fair terms, was ill with typhoid, and the United States was left, with slender sup port, to insist on the integrity of China and an mdemity that would not throw the Empire into financial ruin. It is quite safe to say that Russia's well known opposition to barbaric reprisals and the pacific and insistent influence of the United States led to the sober second thought which has produced a remarkable chance in the situation and created tbe opportunity for a settlement which will be regarded as honorable and fair. The outlook at the present moment, therefore, . is decidedly en couraging. . Chicago Dust Storms Cause "Pink Eye." A new disease which attacks the eyes and in many respects resembles "pink eye" is said to be epidemic in Chicago. It is infections and is not confined to any particular part of the city or class of peop!e. One explanation offered for the origin of the malady is that it is due to the clouds of dust which have been driven about the streets since the windy season set in. An eye specialist who has treated a number of cases said: "The disease was first noticed about month ago, but during the two last weeks it has spread very rapidly and has reached the point where it may be lied epidemic." That old chestnut about a white man's Republican party in the South is once more being talked about by those who hope to get Federal offices under the next administration. An advertisement, like a cigar, should be so good thai the firBt whiff or im pression will cause a man to finish it. STATE NGWS, - Jubal Gooch, a farmer, was killed by his young eon at his home, nine miles from Raleigh on the 11th. Jubal waa drunk and was cruelly beating his wife. The son interfered, when the father drew a knife and. chased him. Then the father returaed to his cruel beating. The son returned, got a gun and blew out the father's brains. The police census of Wilmington now being taken promises at the end of first week of enumeration to very much ex ceed tbe population granted by the Census Bureau. All along there has been dissatisfaction at , the manner in which the government enumerators went over the territory and ' a police census has been contemplated ever since they finished their work. Mr. David Steel a farmer who lived near the Iredell line in Rowan county, was killed Saturday by a falling limb, it appears that he had felled a tree from which a limb had broken off and lodged in a near-by tree and while he was working on the tree which had fallen, the limb was dislodged and struck him on the head crushing the skull. Mr. Steele was about 40 vears old and leaves a widow and five children. The trial of a number of Populists for criminal libel, which was expected to create a big flurry at Duplin Superior Court last week, ended rather quietly Friday. The bills of indictment were quashed and all the defendants dis charged. This was after the court had overruled a motion by the defence to have the cases removed to Sampson son county, where defendants lived. It is thought that the tame ending of the affair is due to a private understanding between counsel of the opposing sides. Dr. Kllso at Conference. When the name of J. C. Julgo was called at the N. C. Conference at New bern last week, he arose and addressed the conference. After a few remarks in which he said that he would not stand up in this meeting if he had one iota of malice in his heart toward any man, Dr. Kilgo turned to Bishop Mor rison and said: "May I speak to tbe conference with reference to the trial through which I have passed recently?" Bishop Morrison answered that the con ference would be glad to hear from him He then continued and in his remarks referred to the now famous case in part as follows: "I have tried to do my best in the work i nave been called to do in vour State, I have tried to be a brave man I do not look back, nor do I ask God to let me see in tbe future. The place you have put me is alwavs in the front of the fifiiig line. I am trying to do ruy duty where you have put me. have tried to be true to my boys, and any man who can hold the confidence and love of two hundred boys under the ordeal through which I have re ce'ntly passed has reason to be thankful. The other night when I reached home and two hundred boys met me at the depot and every boy assured me of his confidence in me, I felt that my work had not been in vain. "I do not ask to stay at Trinity Col lege. I did not ask you to put me there, and I do not ask to stay. One thing I do ask is that I may have a place in my church and the confidence of my brethren. My brethren, you have stood by me; you almost broke my heart yesterday with your expression of love. I thank you for it; it is a res or reckon of power to me. I bring to you the expression of appreciation of my companions, Brothers Udell and Duke, for your action in our case, and I pray you may never have to Buffer what I have been called on to suffer. The Decline In the Price Of Cotton uotton took a tumble Monday of as much as 60 points but regained part ( f the loss afterward. The net decline was about 25' points or of a cent. The cause was the appearance of the govern ment crop report estimating the 1900- 1901 crop at 10.109,000 bales. The government is usually accurate in it estimates, hardly ever underestimating the crop. The report can hardly be decribed as a surprise, the most careful and impaitial observers of this year's crop had put it at about 10,000,000 bales. A large number of farmers have sold their cotton at the comfortable price of 10 cents or even a little ' better, but still a yery large proportion of the grow ers are holding their cotton, either in warehouses or on the farms, expecting higher prices. Vanderbllt'M Wealth. New York, Dec. 11. The offiicial schedule of the late Cornelius Vander- bilt's personal possessions, filed today with Surrogate Fitzgerald, ehows that his personalty on the day of bis death, September 11th; was valued at $62,999 8G7.W. The income he erjoyed from Ms per sonality was $1,739,290, which was lees than 4 per cent, cf the market value of the stocks and bonds which he owned. President McKenley and Secretary Gage arelettiDg it be known that they are very much opposed to the proposi tion adopted by the House committee on ways and means to cut down the war taxes by $40,000,000 per year, bec retary Gage advises a cut of $30,000,000 as all that could safely be made. SAM JONES ON HIS TKAVELS. I am now in the midst of the gas belt of Indiana. Towns are thick and thrifty everywhere in the natural gas belt, because natural gas is tbe cheap-: est and best fuel in the world. For heating, cooking and manufacturing purposes it stands alone. AH these towns are reaping a harvest now and give evidence of prosperity unmistak able. I will spend this week on the lecture platform in this belt and am im pressed profoundly with the life and rush, the glow and hustle on the peo ple. Everything prosperous except the churches; as a rule the livest towns have the deadest churches. Saloons, Sab bath desecration, gambling, etc., are marked features of prosperity. Its bad logic and false reasoning that asserts that "wide open" towns are most pros perous because they are run wide open. I heard a fellow on the train declare that the temperance towns were dead and the towns which were run wide open were the prosperous towns. I asked him did he drink and gamble aud play the libertine. He said: "No sir, I don't drink, gamble nor am I un clean." I said: "If you think saloons, gambling hells and bawdy houses give prosperity, you then, sir, ought to go in all over." No he replied, I know they will not add to my prosperity. Then, said I, whose prosperity do they contri bute to ? He took to tbe woods. " A city is but a multipled individual, apd what is not good for an individual is not good for one hundred thousand indi viduals. Let the fools drink, gamble and de bauch, but I propose to do neither, and I will beat any man to the tank who does do them. I see Hoke Smith's eentimerts ex pressed in The Journal last week have been very generally copied throughout the country, he gives a sensible deliver ance of the situation. It's nonsense to talk of the reorgani zation of the Democratic party. The Bryanites are in the majority and will come out on top in any tffort in that directi n. Bryan, Jones, Stone, Altgeld & Co. are in charge and you can't put them out, and you can t sidetrack Bryan until you pan sidetrack the crowd who ruu with him. Bryan has the Democratic party by the tail and won't turn loose. Unless the Democrats revolutionize their platform they had better hold on to Bryan. No candidate could have run as well on the Chicag ) platform aa Bryan did in 1896 and has he did in 1900 and as well as he will run in 1904. When tbe Democrats change platforms then they will get rid of Bryan; not before. Ihe Chicago platform will continue to beat any candidate for the presidency that will run upon it for 100 years to come. If I believed in the Chicago platform I would hold on to Bryan as my candidate. Any man who can poll nearly 7,000,000 fo'tes running on the present Popocratic-Democratic platform is the perpetual, legitimate candidate. How would Hill, Patterson, Whitney or Grover Cleveland run on that platform? They could not walk, much less run. Whenever the brains of the Demo cratic party comes to the front again, then the Democratic party will have i new platform, and perchance, a victo rious candidate in the field. But I am not concerned, as I am a Wooley man of the prohibition stamp. By tbe way, who will be the next governor of Georgia? Who will succeed Senator Clay if he does not succeed him self? rtenry u. Turner ought to be our next governor, Hoke Smith our next senator, if Steve Clay does not want it longer. Senator Bacon is perhaps the strongest man Georgia hasm Washing ton, and Lon Livingston catches more "'possums than any dog in Georgia has in that neck of the woods, and Georgia wants possums, not only for supper, but all the year round, ueorgia has a number of good men in congress, but if you want something done, get Lon. I spent last Sunday in Ciucmnati at the Grand hotel. I meet there my old friend Claude Bennett. I enjoyed his company aud conversation. He is conr ducting a congressional information bureau in Washington City, with great success and numbers among his client age the leading lawyers and business firms of the United States. I also met my friend Dr. Gunsalus, of Chicago. He lectured in Atlanta last week and was en route home from there. Gunsalus is a genial gentleman and bright as a star. He said one of his good church women Baid to him that he was less spiritual as he gained in avoirdupois. I told him be might realize that there was some philosophy ia the statement of the good old woman in Paris, Tenn., who in telling her ex perience, aaid she was getting so large and fat that she feared she would have trouble walking the narrow path. I close this tour at Muncie, Ind., Friday night and spend Sunday at home and begin a three weeks' tour, again, December 6, at liuntsviiie, Ala. I am about holding my Own physi cally. Yours, Sam P. Jones. P. S. How did the legislative com mittees get back off of their last jaunt? Any of them been in for repairs since the Valdoeta trip? 8. P. J. Marion, Inci. The Florida trains on the South ern go on about the 15th of January. CI7K Baltimore Sun. ,' V j In an address before the the Socil of Ethical Culture in New Yt On Sunday, ? . the - Chinese rainu ; compared the 'teachings of: - Cf fucius with the principles of ' Ch tianity. . "There is," he said, v gulf between 'practice' and performs: At this yery moment Chrietian rnisaicJ aries are calling ' for bloodshed al vengeance, and Christian armies a devastating the land, sparing neitl' age nor aex.',' This is scarcely an exa. statement of the case. Undoubted some of the missionaries adopted a polif of vengeance wholly inconsistent wi teach. Atrocities of the most fchockiri character have also been committed? h European Bdldiers. But those wb advocated a policy of revenge were but handful cimnired with the exeat POtV 1 of Christian people. It was tbe influen of the latter which has been decisiv not the influence of the minority, an for this the Chinese Minister has cam for profound gratitude and thankf ulnesu When the first outrages were committee by the Chinese, and later when th foreign Ministers were attached by th Boxers and Inoerial soldiery at Pekin Christendom was startled and in' soin quarters barbarous treatment ofthe Chi nese was advocated. But when th sober second thought asserted itself th demand for moderation was heard, and China was saved from the horrors o: what some calleda "holy war," bu what would have been a war of devasta tion and vindictive revenge. In averting such a war the United States has played a conspicuous partJ It is true that there are extremists in this country, as in Europe, who would have pureued a different course' from that which this Government has adopted. But these radical elements were far from comprising a majority of the American people and their counsels were eiven little weight. When our Government announced its policy it evoked deiisiou from the European extremists, but it was indorsed and sustained by the conservative element, not only in this country, but throughout the world. The final ratification of this policy by the European powers ia due in perhaps a larger measure than Minister Wu has realized to the influence of Christianity. If China had beeen called to account by Turkey, for in stance, it might have suffered a punish ment compared with which the demands of the powers are extraordinarily moderate. So, if "Christian missionaries have called for bloodshed and vengeance"1 in China, and Christian armies have devastated the land, sparing neither age nor Bex," the broader Christianity of the world has called a halt upon such methods and has toned down the demands of the extremists. Minister Wu should feel grateful, on behalf of his country, to those professors and exponents of Christianity who have saved China from wholesale devastation, despite the opposition of Christian extremists. China has been treated outrageously r in tne past by unrisuan nauons. jlc has been robbed of territory, the reli gious and national sentiment of itsjeo ple have been contemptuously ignored or defied, and much of the resentment which its pecple chenehed toward for eigners was justified. But having en tered into treaties with Western nations China was bound by the most solemn and binding obligations to protect the lives and property of foreigners. No doubt so able a diplomatist and practi cal a man as Minister Wu realizes fully that, whatever the provocation.the Im perial Government of China had' no right to join with revolutionary subjects eigners without regard to sex, in mas- Rrinr Rrftrea at missionaries, destrov- ing mission property, and finally cap ping the climax by attempting to kill the foreign Ministers. , Whafceyer the grievances China may have had, the Imperial Government was not warrant ed in the course which it pursued, ' and had to be called to account for its f "crime against civilization." Undoubt- edly some of the European powers, in ; inflicting punishment upon the Chinese, have themselves been guilty of "crimes against cizilization" equaling in sav- agery to the Boxers.- Upon the whole, . however, enlightened, broad-mindd j Christian people have condemned ho crimes committed by "Christian armies" as unreservedly as Minister Wu," and in addition they have insisted upon f a policy of humanity and moderation in the final Bettlement with China. Minister Wu and his country are under f lasting obligations to such Christians j for the influence they have exerted in behalf of a just and equitable settlemeut with China. 1 Davidson College is in fine condition with a large attendance. We learn from j the Kichmond Central Presbyterian that the president, Rev. Dr. Shearer "has within the last few' weeks made another ; liberal gift to the building fund of the j new laboratory, this time $500. Thiaf check together with that of another generous friend of the college, who' insists as onother notable cccaaions of( even more conspicuous kind that hiA name be witheld from publication! supplies the needed money, and the finely equipped labaratory will be ready for service " WHAT CWIitfA OWES TO TIAN SENTIMENT.