1 "I0fttt-10 1 $1 00 a Year. In Advance. "FOR GOD, FOR COUNTRY, AND FOR TRUTH." single Copy, 5 Cents. VOL XII. PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY APRIL 19, 1901. ' NO. 7. 4 i. BILL A HP'S LETTER. - This month did not begin right. April means to open, but it did not open. It waa an April fool. Noth ing shows in my garden but the peas and onions. The flowers make no progress. There is no sweet south wind to breathe upon them no sun Bhine. On Monday the grandclhil dren imposed upon me with their Hindoo pranks. They gave me a cup of chocolate with whipped cream on top, and it was nothing but soapsuds. I pretended to be fooled, but I wasent; I paid them back in various ways. The Hindoos started this childish custom away back in the ages, and it still pleases the children. And now Easter day is at hand and that is an other name that came down from the Pagans. Ostera. was their goddess of spring and it was corrupted into Estera. How these old heathen names do stick to us. The names of the days of the week and of the months came from them. So did the planets and the constellations. Even the prophets and Job had to take them from the Egyptians. But the Scotch people don't call it Easter They say Pascha day. or passover day They won't pattern after anybody but John Knox, and he said Pascha. But there is a reason for calling it Easter, lor the coming ct spring the open ing of the earth and the flowers is emblematical of the resurrection 'the opening of the Savior's tomb and His return to bless and comfort His peo ple. This day corresponds closely with the Jewish passover, and so they observe it. Now I want the young people to know that Lent is another word that means spring. It is preceded by that foolish festival called mardi gras or fat beef and continues forty days in remembrance of the Savior's long fast. and it ends with Easter, and the com munion and other rejoicings. As the 'Old-time almanacs would say, "about this time look for Easter hats and flowers and finery." Christmas is an other festival day that is common to all Christian nations. There are many other days dedicated to the saints, but in course of time it was found that there were not enough days in the year to go round, and so 'the Pope stopped the sainting of so , .nany and had one day set apart as .All Saints day. The next day after ' that is All Souls day, on which mass is said by the Roman Catholics for the souls of the dead who are in purg atory. It seems that about 900 years ago a pilgrim from the holy land found a hermit in Sicily who told him of an opening between the cliffs of the mountains near by that commun icated with hades where Pluto lived and that he could see the sulphurous smoke rising and hear the groans of the lost souls who were being tor mented in hell and he had known some of them to escape through the prayers of the priests, and this made the devils very mad and he could hear them cursing the priests with awful imprecations. The pilgrim told all this to the abbots and monks, and they had a day set apart to pray these lost souls out ot hell or hades or pur gatory or whatever it is. Besides these international days there are national days in every coun try. Here we have the Fourth of July and Washington's birthday and Decoration Day and some others. Germany celebrates the birth of Cal vin and Luther and the kaiser. Scot land that of Sir William Wallace and Bruce and John Knox. In old Eng iland they celebrate the queen's birth .day, Magna Charter day and Water .loo day and May day. May day is the .happiest of all'and has been long re membered in verse and song and in dancing around the May pole. Tenny- :son wrote a sad, sweet poem called the "May Queen." Mexico cele brates all the Roman Catholic days and has one other that the rabble call Judas Iscariot's day. It is the next day after Easter. On the beautiful trees in the plaza or nark they sus rend pasteboard images of Judas Iscariot images as large as life, with little holes bored in them from head to foot and in every hole is fastened a cannon cracker. At a given signal the fuse in every cracker is lighted and all of them explode nearly at the same time and such a terrific popping was never heard outside of a battle field, and poor old Judas is torn and rent into a thousand pieces. This is just a sign of what they would do to him if they had him there alive, but I reckon it is more for frolic than anything, for they shout and laugh and dance the hornpipe and make all the racket they can. Ben Franklin said that man was a bundle of habits. He might have added "and superstitions," for most all people have some belief in super natural things. Two hundred years ago almost everybody believe in witches, Shakespeare wrote about them in "Macbeth" and Burns in "Tarn O'Shanter." The Puritans drowned many irnocent women from mere suspicion of being witches. The . conceited, self-righteous rascals never accused a man ot being a wizard. It is the woman who have suffered in all ages. When I was a boy the young people were more afraid of ghosts than they are now. Ghosts are very scarce in these , dayg. I havent seen one in a long time. In my early youth I was the mill boy and I remember that one evening in the early twilight as I was astride my horse and grist and going slowly home I neared the country graveyard of . Fairview church and saw, or thought I saw, a ghost ahead of me in the big road. It had arms and legs, but had no head. It was white and going slowly from me. I started on again and got a little closer. Still the form was headless. Broad shoulders and arms akimbo. Nearer and nearer I drew to it, but it made no sign. My horse pricked up his ears as if alarmed. The road forked not far ahead, and I had re solved that if the ghost took one road I would take the other, when sudden ly an old man stopped to cough and took the sack from his shoulders and laid it upon the ground. I knew him instantly old Uncle Tom Wilson, the hunchback going home from the mill with his grist across his shoul ders and his head bent forward so that I could not see it in the dusky twilight. Now, if both of us had reached the forks of the road and had separated 1 should always have be lieved I saw a ghost. The old mill road and church and graveyard made lasting impressions upon, and so did the mill and the pond and the spring-board and big wheel and the soothing sounds of the water falling over the dam. We had various adventures with the country schoolboys on the way, for they did ent like the town boys and they don't yet. I remember that it ' was on April fool day that I saw in the road just beyond the schoolhouse a package done up in brown paper, and as I had met a man in a buggy a little while before, I supposed he had dropped it. I stopped my horse and got down. Picking up the package I untied the string and took off the wrapper and found another wrapper and another string and then another and another and at last two big black bugs, whose odor was familiar. That kind of bugs that advance backward, and you can't tell whether you meet 'em or overtake 'em. Just then a score of boys jumped from the bushes and yelled and screamed "April Fool I" I was so mad 1 could hardly mount my horse again, but I never spoke a word. I took it out in think ing and hating. West Point hazing wasent any worse than that April fool was to me. But boys will be boys. Bill Arp. Difficulty flTIakliia a Will That Can not be Broken. "Among the legal fraternity there is considerable admiration for a piece of verse entitled 'The Jolly Testator Who Makes His Own Will,' " says the San Francisco Argonaut, "To them the humor of the lines is perfectly apparent, but they seemingly forget that a will drawn by a skilled practitioner is often equally defective. It is proverbial that a will made by a lawyer, seeking to devise bis own property, will not stand in the courts, provided the property is worth dragging into litigation. Nor is the wil' of a rich man, drawn by the most skilled attorneys, any more valuable. Six years ago James G. Fair died, leaving a will that had been drawn with the utmost care to meet his wishes. The estate is still in litigation, and it is still an open question whether the will is to be held good or not. The most important part of the deed is what has become famous as the 'trust clause,' passing the property into the hands of trustees until the death cf the three children. In the meantime, three were to share the in come, amounting now to f4o,(HJU a month, e qually between them. Charles L. Fair has only a life inteiest in this income, the two daughters and their heirs being made residuary legatees. Upon the death of Charles his wife and children are to receive nothing under the trust clause. The validity of this clause ia now under consideration by the Supreme Court, and, until it is decided, none of the children will accept any of the income, because such acceptance would be equivalent to an acknowledgment of the validity of the trust. The accumulated income now amounts to more than $2,000,000, one third of which belongs to Charles. Should the trust clause be declared val'.d by the Supreme Court, he will receive only one-third of the income during his lifetime. There is an opportunity for him to realize more than this amount immediately, however. It is reported that certain insurance companies are prepared to pay mm between $4,000,000 and $5,000,000 in cash for his interest in the estate." Reflection of a Bachelor. New York Press. If she thought no one would hear the average woman would talk to a cock roach. When aman gets caught in anything his first instinct is to lie out of it; a woman's is to have hysterics. The first sign that the honeymoon is over is when a woman begins to think she likes to comb her husband s head. A woman feels terribly . unhappy when she really wants to use a hand- ke chief and has ODly got her best lace one with her. You very seldom see a woman that haa the strength of, mind not to get mad at a man when she has had to sneeze right when he was telling her some thing romantic. SAM JONES LETTER. Since writing my last week's letter to The Journal I have swung around the circle considerably. The liveliest sec tion I have visted is Arkansas. I lec tured in Hot Springs last Thursday evening, and in spite of the immense ou'.flow of the gambling fraternity, I had a packed house. I was told that 500 gamblers left Hot Springs the day I lectured there. They are leaving the state like rats leaving a sinking ship, Those that have not fled the state are roosting very high. Tne anti-gambling law passed by the legislature of Arkan sas last week and signed by the gov ernor, fixes the penalty at $500 and gives half the fiae to the person in forming on the gambler. And I tell you as soon as it was known that the Governor had signed the bill there was consternation among the diamond Btud ded fraternity. Gamblers in all the states have ceased to fear the perjured official whose duty it is to enforce the law; they could pay the black mail levied upon them and go ahead, but the new Arkansas Uw no longer leaves the matter with indifferent, inefficient or bribed officials, but it pays to any party one-half the fine, which is $250, of the $500 fine, for the testimony that will convict. Talk about "prohibition not prohibiting." The law prohibiting gambling in Arkansas prohibits, not only prohibits but it ships, the profes sionals out of the Btate. How I wish the whiskey-soaked, whiskey domina ted Georgia legislature would pass a similar law on the Bale of whiBky in the dry counties of Georgia. Fine every keeper of a blind tiger $500 and give half the fine to the wit ness who bought the liquor my, mv, blind tigers would be as scare in Georgia as gamblers are in Arkansas. I hope the good people of Georgia will organize and begin work now and put men in our next legislature who will gives the dry counties the relief they seek. Georgia can have a model legis lature if the good paople will take half the pains and do half the work in pri maries that the whiskey devils have been putting in on their Bide for the past 20 years. I note in the Georgia pa pers sent me from home that already there is talk of the church people or ganmng for a temperance move in Georgia, and already some little editors have begun to howl about mixing church and state. It makes me tired to read such rot. England mixes church and state, and England s way Of mix ing them was the only way we de murred to. and declared against. That was to levy a tax on the people to pay big salaries to the pastors and churches I am opposed to the state levying taxes to support the ministry, but when it comes to saying that because the church people have grown tired of the "rascally rule and red-nosed rum miea," and declare that they will only vote for decent, sober men for office, to say that ia mixing church and state is but the wail of the gang who knows that when the church people begin to vote like they pray and work for the election of pure, clean officials, then it's good by to the gang that has run Geor gia for the last SO years and soaked it in whisky to the disgust of every member of the church who is not a whiBky-soaked hypocrite. I don't want church and state mixed until we can clean out the gang called the state, but if we had good God-fearing men in all official positions executive, judicial, legislative and ministerial, then I don't think the church would be hurt by mixing a little with the state. Hoorah for Arkansas and Jeff Da vis, her Governor, whom we all laugh ed at for a while but it now looks like he is going to make the best gov ernor Arkansas ever had. .From Arkansas L came into Texas. I've traveled from Texarkana to Hous ton, and from Houston via Waco to Abilene. I see the cotton yards of Texas are not so full as they were a few weeks ago, but there is still much cotton in the state. I am glad to say that -Texas does not seem to be pitching an immense crop of cotton this year. Her wheat crop is largely a failure. Some wheat lands will be put in cotton, but the drop in price of cotton will prevent as large acreage as she planted last year. Texas corn is up and she has millions of acres in corn. I note much cotton up also. Texas is" wild on oil. I think they will be boring for oil all over the state in a few months. What Texas does do she does with a vengeance. What an empire this state will be in a few years. Land this far west 20 miles from railroads selling for twenty dollars an acre. It seems to me that I have looked on more good land in the past week than I ever saw before in any two weeks of my travels. If I was a young man in Georgia or any of the old states, I would come to Texas as soon as I could marshal my assets. The Texas cities are not growing a pace with the towns and rural districts. Business is not done out here on small scale or contracted lines. A little mer chant in some of the towns who does not seem to have a car load of goods in his house will sell $25,000 worth of goods in a year and a Georgia boy whom I met to-day told me his firm sold $300,000 worth annually. Money is the cheapest thing m Texas that is the people care less for it. If you have anything to Bed you can get their money. This is a great cattle country out here, and all cattle sections are pros perous now. Big cattlemen in Texas are numbered up into the thousands, and they are big-hearted fellows too. The people out here flock to hear me and shake bands cordially and smack their mouths and say go on, don't stop. 1 generally lecture two hours to them. The average Texan is a big hearted, whole souled fellow. Tbey are the most hospitable people on earth, and charitable to those in need. They do not attend church and support the churches like tbey do their lodges and fraternal organizations. The average Texan wants a good time here no mat ter what becomes of him hereafter. The devil will get a majority of them, t am sorry to say. Ihere has been marked improvement in the railroads ot Texas ia the past few years. These Great Trunk lines now have splendid roadbeds and fine trains, and. the freight traffic these roads move would astonish the nation. .It is now 7 o'clock in the evening, central time (Atlanta time), and the sun is shining in my window. That gives you some idea how far west I am as I write this letter. I take in Colo rado, Tex., tomorrow night and El Paso next night, and back to Midland, Tex., Saturday night. Then east into Mississippi and Albania. We begin meetings in Anniston April 14th, 3 o'clock p. m. Yours, Sam P. Jones. P. S. I see our noble old governor has been mad again, but glad to note he did not cuss this time. S. P.J. Nolle Prosequi Entered Charlette Observer. The casea against the Democrati registrars, who were indicted in the United States District Court at Green sboro, were nol proossed yesterday District Attorney Holton and Judge Boyd spoke becomingly on the occasion and are to be commended for the language used and the course taken The cases were nol proased with leave to reinstate them, but this is the form as we understand it, in nearly al criminal cases, and the particular language signifies nothing the cases are, to all intents and purposes, as effectually and finally disposed of as they had never been brought. Thus a number of election officers are qnit of a lot of trouble and expense, to say no more. Some of them may have been guilty of technical violation of the law and, if the cases had come to trial, all of them might have been convicted aud sent to the penitentiary, for verdicts o: juries are proverbially uncertain They will feel much more comfortable in the knowledge that they do not have to come to trial, and on every accoun there is reason for personal and general congratulation on the termination f this proceeding. The conservative people of the State are to be particularly congratulated upon the fact that the unworthy Democratic effort, made at the last moment, to goad these Repub lican court officials into extreme measures, lailed. Ihey resisted the provocation to partisan action, and mereoy a gooa many or our people are saved the liability of terms at Sing Sing or Alban7. The KaiiNa.H PliiloNophcr. Not one man in fifty reaches the age of bO without becoming a "problem" to hia relatives. A man never knows until about six months after the wedding iuet how many of his wife's relatives he did marry. Isot every one of us is rich enough to have a procession wedding, but the very poorest of us will have a procession funeral. After an unsually agreeable caller has gone her hostess recalls that she borrowed all her new books and took them with her. Lota of us are better off than Carnegie: he may not live to realize his cherished amtntion to die poor: we know that we will. Every one knows there is no use expecting to find an old head on young shoulders, and yet eery one is looking for such a phenomenon. When a crurch member wishes to create a great deal of excitement, ebe can do it by going to the theater on her prayer meeting night. When a widower walks into a pub lic place with a woman, there is a buzz that can be actually heard. And if the woman is a widow the buzz becomes a roar. The man who brings in -coal and water for his wife and sweeps off the front porch is quoted more than Shake speare in his neighborhood, no mat ter if it is a literary one. It is as much as a man's life is worth to marry a second time, if he has daughters; but sons, particularly mar ried sons, usually realize that if there ia any punishment coming to the old man because of the folly of a second mar riage, the socond wife will provide it. Editor Coranada, of the Discussione, a Havana fire-eating journal, came out on Good Friday with a cartoon re presenting Cuba as one crucified bt -tween two thieves, which it labeled President McKinley and Gin. Wood. Under the cartoon was written, "Will destiny reserve for us a glorious resurrec tion?" Gen. Wood had the editor ar rested and the office closed at once. Mr. Ben N. Duke, of Durham, will build ft stable that will cost $20,000. LETTEB IN SEA NINE YEA US. IVIiss Griffith of Newark Threw It Overboard In a Bottle. New York Sim. A message which had been floating in the Atlantic Ocean in a bottle for nearly nine years has found its way back to Miss Ada I. Griffith, of 402 Mount Prospect Avenue, Newark. Nearly a decade ago Miss Griffith, who is a daughter of T. W. Griffith, waa re turning to this country from England. To vary the monotony of the voyage she determined to try the experiment of casting a messaage a drift in the ocean. She used an English telegraph blank and penned a note to the late W. W. Byington, a former Newark man, who had been one of the party in Ireland. On the back of the note the young woman wrote: "Miss Ada I. Griffith, Mount Pros pect avenue, Newark, N. J., will pay $2 for the return of this telegram." When the vessel waa in the middle of the Atlantic the bottle was dropped overboad. After Miss Griffith returned home days, weeks, months and years passed without Mies Griffith hearing from the message, and the incident had long since passed from her mind when on last Thursday Bhe received a letter bearing a foreign postmark. Inclosed in the inner envelope was the identical message of nine years ago. With the message was letter dated "Kriatian sund. N., Norway, March 22, 1901." It read: Dear Madam: My reason for ad dressing you is the interesting 'find' of the enclosed telegram which apparently you desire returned to you. It was picked up at sea in a bottle by a poor Norsk fisherman off the coast of Smoe len, an island near the town of Kris tiansund, N. He brought it to a news paper office here and I, as the only English lady in the town, have transla ted it and also offered to return it and claim, on his behalf, the $2 promised in writing to the finder. The man being very poor will be glad and thankful to receive the kind reward. If you care to send it through me I will Bee that it comes into his hands and obtain a signed acknowledgement from him. "It would be very inten sting - at the same time to hear in what year (un fortunately illegible) this telegram was consigned to the sea and where dropped, as many who have read of the little incident in the town paper would like to know bow long the bottle was in the water and where it came from. Yours truly, Ada E. Bodtker." To say that Mis3 Griffith was de lighted when she read the letter would be superfluous. She proposes to reply to her correspondent in Kristiansund at once, but instead of sending the poor Norsk fisherman $2 she will for ward a pound note, as, to -use her. ex pression, "the reward has been floating around long enough to have earned in terest." Those who know Bay a pound note will be a pretty good haul for a Norsk fisherman. Sailors Turn Cannibals. A London newepaper tells under Singapore date a ghastly story of eanni bali8m. It says it was brought to Singa pore by two survivors of the Nova Scotian bark Angola, which leftCravite, P. ., on Oct. 17th. The vessel was wrecked on a reef on Oct. 23, as has already been reported. The storv is that seventeen of the crew built two raits, one or which, carrying five persons, disappeared the first night. The other carrying twelve persons in cluding Capt. Crocker, drifted for twenty-five dave. The men were without food or water aud their agony was terrible. Thev at9 sea-weed and chewed their boots. On Oct. 25 two of them went mad and plunged into the sea. The next day a Frenchman killed the mate with an axe and dnnk his blood. He tried to eat the brains, but his com rades threw the corpse overboard to pre vent it. On Oct. 27 the Frenchman tried to kill the captain with the axe, but an other man wrested the weapon from him and killed him. When night fell the others ate parts of the Frenchman's body. Oq Oct. 28 Capt. Crooker died and his body was eaten. The cannibalism was repeated until the two men who tell the story, Johannsen, a Swede, and Maiticornu, a Spaniard, were the only survivors. Finally the raft drifted ashore on Soubi Island. The natiyes there were friendly and put the two men on board a junk bound for Singapore. Suicide by the Guillotine. San Jose, Cal., April 8. "Death resulted from a cut in the neck, made by a guillotine, and operated with suicidal intent." Such was the verdict rendered here to-day by a coroner's jury thai had been impanelled f inquire into the facts surounding the death of John Connelly, whose body was discov ered hia morning. Connelly had rigged up a guillotine and cut off his own head. He swung a rope in such a position that when he cut a a cord the axe would fall across his neck, which was stretched on a block of wood conveniently located. The plan worked effectively, and death Ws probably instantaneous. TL.3 coro ner's jury fixed the date of the suicide about March 27, aa the body was much decomposed, and it was about that time that Connelly was Iapt been alive: He was 57 years old and unmarried. The Dissent Tnut Yet Dreamed oC New York, April 5. Reports that huge railroad combinations are ia - pro cess of formation were widely circulated here to-day. Detailed statements con cerning the plan already published looking to the combination of all the great railway Bystems of the United States under the control of one com pany were given, but as a general thing prominent railroad officials and bankers decline to discuss the matter. Accord ing to all accounts the enterprise in volved the greatest combination .- of capital known, in the history of finance. It was said the company would be formed under the laws of New Jersey for the purpose of conducting a general freight and transportation business throughout the United States, that, the company would hold a controlling in terest in all the great railway systems and that the management of the road would be vested in the controlling com pany. According to the proposition each road would preserve its identity and corporate existence, but the new company would control the affairs of all. By this policy it was claimed large sums of money could be saved as a result of economy in management and the stoppage of rate cutting. The names of men like J. P. Morgan, Wm. K. Vanderbilt, James J. Hill, Edward H. Harriman, George J. Gould, John D. Rockefeller, Jacob H. Schiff. and James Stillman were freely used. One report stated that the first step in the proposed plan would be the securing of control of the stocks of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Erie, the Great Northern, and Northern Pacific, and that provision would be made for the acquisition of other properties in the immediate future. Butler's Latest move. Raleigh, N. C, April 5. Democratic leaders have for several days heard that the cases in the federal court against state elect'on officers have been 8 topped. It ia learned tonight that ex Senator Butler has gone to Greensboro to stop the nol prosse of these cases. The question now is whether he, District Attorney Holton, Marshal Milikin and other office holders, or whether friends of Judges Furches and Douglas, ex-Governor Jarvis, Frank Osborne, B. F. Long and other demo crats will have more influence. Ex Chairman James H. Pou was aeked about this matter. He said he had heard such rumors and felt completely indifferent as to the result of the battle between the forces above described; that if tt s cases were tried there would in all nrnh&hilitv he an Rrniiittjil and r j -j , in case of conviction there wouII certainly be anew trial and quashing of the indictment in the circuit court of appeals. Ex-Senator Ransom declared that no federal statute applied to these cases. Pou Bays he has carefully examined the federal Btatutes and cannot find a peg on which these prosecutions can hang; that it ia only a question whether they J will stop them now or have them stop ped later. THE CASE IS SOL FROSSED. Greensboro, 9. Just before the ad journment of Federal Court, thia after noon, the cases against the Democratic registrars, which were Bet for trial at the present term, were nol pressed. Trinity Commencement. Durham Herald. The approaching commencement of Trinity college which will be held the first week in June, promises to be one of the greatest eventd in the history of the college. The commencement speakers have been decided upon and these alone will attract .many pople. The annual baccalaureate address will be delivered by President John C. Kilgo on Sunday evening, June 2, at 8 o'clock. On Tuesday morning June 4, at 11 o'clock, the annual sermon of the graduating claes will be preached by Bishop Charles B. Galloway, of Missis sippi. The literary address will be delivered Tuesday evening, June 4, at 8 b'clock by Mr. Hamilton Wright Mabie, of New York city. The alumni address will be delivered Tuesday afternoon at 4 o'clock by President Dred Peacock, of the Greens boro Female College. Gov. Aycock Criticised. Biblical Recorder. The new Judge, Mr. Winston is a well known politician. In hie appoint ment the Governor waa evidently indif ferent to the elements supposed to be essential to that quality designated as judicial. Mr. Winston waa a member of the General Assembly increasing the number of judgeships. Ordinarily thia should debar one from being appointed. Governor suffers a distinct loss of pres tige by this appointment. Safe Crackers Held. Wadesboro, N. C.t April 5. The two men who were recently appre hended and are charged with cracking the safe of M. H. Lowry & Co., of Mor ven, were given a preliminaay hearing at the latter place today. They were re quired to enter into a justified bond in the Bum of $5,000 each for their ap pearance at the September term of the Superior court. In default of bond they were recommitted to the county jail. The defendants gave their names aa J. H. Traver and George Ellsworth.

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