m I ft
$1.00 a Year, in Advance. foil GOI, FOR COUNTRY, AND Oil TRUTrt." Singla Copy, 5 Ccnta.
VOL. XII. " PLYMOUTH, N. C. FltlDAY, FEBRUARY II, 1902. NO. 49.
EVERY DAY IS
Eome sides may be gloomy.
Some moments be sad, .,
But everywhere, always,
fconie souls must ba giad;
For true is the saying
'Proclaimed by the seer
"Each day is the best day"
Of somebody's year!"
Each day finds a hero.
Each day helps a saint,
Each day brings to eome one
A joy without taint;
Though it may not be my turn
Or yours that is near
"Each cay is the best day
Oi someboay a year .
IT was long after John Puce Jones
was commissary general at Vin
eeunes; long after Pierre Gamelin
, was commander there, but still all
" of sixty or seventy years ago that
"Tom MeKinney rctle the Southern
Illinois and Indiana trails, and, hav
ing evil intent in his mind, came to
where Life ami Death meet and turned
not back. It might have gone different
with "Tom" MeKinney if he had chos
en not to kill his enemy, but the blood
. wrath was on him and he was strong
X In his own courage, and what mattered
a life when the law was young and a
summer's wind would obliterate a
trail. 0 "Tom"' MeKinney left a stark
form and cold face looking up to the
Uies and rode away. So, too, we all
riding to tho Darkness by right or
"Wrong.
The - men of the' early days on the
Wabash, Bon Pas, White, Little Wa
bash and other South streams were
big of bone and muscle, hard In their
passions,, drunk with the license of be
ing masters of a virgin soil, an un-tcv-ched
forest, an ungoverned land.
"The Pottawattamies fled before them.
Their place was taken by settlers,
and some, of these were-strong and
brave, and many were weak and
cowed. "Tom" MeKinney :;ode among
them and worked his will, just as "An
dy" Graham did and '-Gentleman
Dave" Walker. "Andy" rode his gray
mare, Twilight, and, drunk as the mas
ter might be, she never swerved from
under him when carrying him over the
hills to his home. There a pale-faeed
woman led the master to his bed
,jnd stalled the beautiful mare, and
jughed, for she too was going her way
and no hand reached out to turn her
back. Wild, almost heroic desperadoes
-were these men of the beginning days,
and none more bold than "Tom" Me-
Kicney. His people were scattered all
over the Wabash country. Some toiled,
eome were shiftless, but noue as dar
ing or law-defying as he. He knew
tho mi of the bottom lands, the ways
of the twisting streams, the hidden
hollow, the densest timber growths,
and there were me:i here and Women
there to keep his hiding secret. Yet
when he killed his enemy the law
found him and he was brought Into
old Viucennes, where he laughed nt
the courts and the people, and he was
tried and sentenced to be hanged in
the public, square by the neck until
ie was dead.
"Tom" MeKinney did not believe
that he was to die until almost the
last moment. The word went out to
all the settlements that hang he must,
. and the settlers made great prepara-tions-
to attend. His name had been
A terror to them, and how they would
fcc with hiai where they might laugh
ot his terror and be secure from his
wrath. Down to Shawueetown, over
to Albion, south to Mount Carmel, east
to the Muscakituk, traveled the mes
sage: ' -
1 ''There's to be a hanging at Vin
rennes. 'Tom' McKinney's goln' to
be strung up."
Forty miles west of Vincennes.. old
man MeKinney, father of "Tom," re
teived the news that his boy had final
ly been convicted of murder and must
, suffer the extreme penalty of the law.
fThe cfd man was plowing in the fields
,witli his oxen when he learned of this.
He held the beasts in the furrow for
an instant while he listened, and then
without a comment said;
v "Get un, Buck."
THE BEST DAY.
The calendar sparkles,
With clays that have brought
Some prize that was longed for,
Some good that was sought;
High deeds happen daily,
Wide truths grow more clear
"Each day is the best day
Of somebody's year I
No sun ever rises
But brings joy behind;
No sorrow in fetters
The whole earth can bind;
How selfish our fretting,
How narrow our fear
17,-1
Each day is the best daj
day
Of somebody's vear
Priscilla Leonard, in Pittsburg Methodist Recorder.
He had no particular reason to feel
for "Tom." The boy had been wild
from his first days. Highway robbery,
pillage, murder, had all been charged
to his account before, and the father
had wondered often, dumbly, what the
end would be. Now It was in sight.
"And," said the talebearer, " 'ToniV
in the jail now, but when they put
the rope cn him he'll be out in the open,
and they're going to have a jollifica
tion in Vincennes. They tells me when
mmmimmm
COLD FACE LOOKING UP TO THE SKIES.
I was there that the doctors are nil
after 'Tom's' body and that when
they're sure he's dead they're going
to take it and cut it up, so as to see
what made him so powerful strong."
"They be?" asked old man MeKin
ney. "Yes. The Sheriff has said they
might have 'Tom,' and he won't get
any coffin nor a grave."
"I'll be blamed," said the old man.
and still held the oxen to the furrow.
The next day he was back in the field
and the next, and each day was one
nearer to "Tom's" end.
An ox could not travel fast in those
days. The roads were only partially
broken trails and if the rains were on
almost impassable. The yellow clay
of that land makes a fine bottom in the
dry season, but when it is wet it is
deadly to "progress. Old man MeKin
ney sat by his cabin door and calcu
lated the forty miles to Vincennes and
Ihe number of days it would take
his oxen to make the journey. He
wrinkled his brow many times, but at
last he was satisfied. The next morn
ing he yoked his beasts to a rude
wagon, .climbed in, laid his rifle across
his knees and took the Vincennes trail.
He figured he should reach there iu
three days, and If this proved true he
would arrive on the day of "Tom's"
death and s'svml hours before his ex
ecution. That was all he wished to
do.
Over in Vincennes no one expected
any member of the MeKinney family
tojje present. The people were poor,
far removed, and "Tom" had chosen
his own way. The scaffold rose In
the square, unprotected by barricade,
The night before the hanging the ox
teams from the settlement began to
come in. The wagons were ranged
about the scaffold, and there the cat
tle fed, while the men lingered In the
taverns, drinking and smoking and
listening to many a tale of what Mc
Kinney had been when he was free,
Women came with their husbands and
little children, and tho on? topic of
conversation was the coming death.
"I'll bet," said cue, " 'Tom's' wishing
now he had his mare, a gun and an
open road."
"Gosh, no," said another. "lie's
playing pitch and wishing his jig was
done. He ain't no coward, 'Tom'
ain't."
The morning came and the stirring
of the town. The cattle were, fed in
the shadow of the scaffold, while the
Sheriff joked with his prisoner and
tola mm lie would make "tmugs as
easy" as possible. By 10 o'clock the
crowd was thronging the square and
jostling up to the edge of the scaffold.
fixing many a curious eye' on the
dangling rope.
On the west bank of the Wabash
appeared a dusty, foot-sore ox team
that slowly made its way across by
feiry and then lumbered up the street
to the scaffold. A grim-faced old man
sat on the wagon seat, and a rifle lay
across his knees. Some in the crowd
knew him. They called out:
"It's 'Tom's' father."
The people made way for the old
man and oxen to draw near to the
scaffold, but MeKinney did net stop
there. He kept on until he was di
rectly under the structure, and there
he sat looking toward the jail. Then
the doors opened and "Tom" came out,
tall, rugged, handsome, fearless. His
throat was bare, his arms bound, lie
held his head high among his guard.,
and laughed at the people's faces. The
eyes of father and sou met.
"How, pa," eaid. "Tom."
"How, "lorn,"' said tUe old man-
Standing under the noose, having
one moment of life left, "Tom" Me
Kinney began to sing:
"When shall I see Jesus,
And reign with Him above?"
The old man's voice, dry with dust,
broke in:
"Mighty soon, 'Tom,' if ever."
A second of silence and the drop
fell, McKinney's body shooting down
almost in front of his father's face.
The old uian sat there fingering his
rifle and locking at the doctors crowd
iag about. They, too, noticed his ner
vous shifting of his weapon. Whei
tu?y pronounced "Tom" dead, thej
drew back. - The Sheriff cut the bodj
down and it fell in the dust. Old mac
MeKinney was off the wagon instant
ly, and had lifted his dead son higli
in the air and stretched him out in
the wagon. Then holding his riflt
again and looking toward the doctor
that had counted on having the body,
he said:
"This Is my meat. Get up, Buck."
And across the Wabash passed fathei
and son to be seen no more. H. I
Cleveland, in the Chicago Record-Herald.
A Fatal Meal.
"Saw a curious .hing in California
last winter," said the man who trav
els about. "I had stopped for a mo
ment to chat with a man who was
plowing, when he called my attention
to a large centipede that he had jusl
plowed up.
" 'Come along with me a few feet,1
said he, 'and let's see what those crows
will do when they find it.'
"There were several large carrion
crows that had been following the
farmer and picking up the iusectc
tliat were turned up, and they were
now a few feet away, waiting for the
plow to start again.
"We went on a few feet and the
crows followed. One big, black fellow
soon saw the centipede and swallowed
him at one gulp. Then, in the ex
pressive slang of the day, there was
something doing in the neighborhood
of that crow. With a caw of despair
he mounted into the air for perhaps
100 feet, then fell heels over head un
til he was a few feet from the ground.
Then he managed to catch himself and
flew upward again and away for the
hills, cawing wildly. He had not gone
more than 300 feet, when he lost all
control of himself, and fell like a shot
to the ground. We went over to where
he had fallen, and found him on his
back with his feet in the air, stone
dead.
"In a way I know how that crow
felt when he awoke to the situation.
I hadn't forgotten my first spoonful
of tobasco sauce that a joking friend
once talked me into swallowing." De
troit Free Press.
(Juer Flsli!tis.
An English writer telis this story:
"While walking along the banks of
the Wiske, accompanied by two fox
terriers, I observed some large pike
basking in a shallow pool. At the
same moment a young cart horse that
had got the wrong side of the stream
attracted my uoiice. It occurred to me
if the beast would only jump on top
of the fish I might secure thciu while
stunned by the shock. Accordingly,
helped by the dogs, I drove the horse 10
the bank, cracked the dog whip which
I carried, and the animal jumped,
eager to return to its own field. When
the mud cleared off the stream two
large pike floated to the surface
stunned. They were out of reach, but
I called the dogs' attention to them,
and one of them plunged in and re
trieved a four-pound pike.getting well
bitten in the process as the fish re
vived. The other pike recovered and
swam away before the dog could reach
It." Chicago News.
Clcphant Catcher Needed.
An elephant catcher rather thru a
cow catcher seems to be needed -in
India. On the railroad between Ben
gal and Assam, according to the Bail
road Gazette, as the superintendent
of the line was making an inspection
trip, while passing through the great
Nanibar forest, the train came to a stop
with a jolt that threw the travelers
out of their berths. The train had
run into a herd of wild elephants which
were trotting down the track, the last
of which had Loth hind legs broken
and was thrown into the ditch, while
the fngiueer counted seven others
which got awaj'. This is not the first
time that wild elephants have got
on the track, and ordinary fences and
cattle guards are no protection. Sci
entific American.
Three Established Facts.
There are three business facts which
may be regarded as established that
there is no worthy .article at a reason
able price which cannot be sold by the
right kind of advertising; that the
newspaper which has a large circula
tion is the best medium of publicity,
and that an advertisement which is
specific and which quotes prices is the
most effective.
THE SEMIN:SC:NT MAN.
What would we do for things to rea3
a'joi'.t our public men?
How could we learn their boyhood trait
and how they acted then?
How could we know their whims and
facs and other little things
About them, were it not for what ft cer
tain person brings?
All hail the chap who nils that gap in wise
Dame Nature's plan,
The one who's always in our view the
Pieminiscent Man. .
ne tells u of o-jr Presidents, and whaC
they did rd said,
Or what th?y didn't do or say, as we have
often read;
He cit?s remark? of heroes bold, long ere
they burs!: to fftne,
Which plainly show they were designed t
bear an honored name;
He knows the pages of the past no other
person can
Dig ur as lviy facts as docs the Remin
iscent Man.
Sometines h is the man who's styled the
Old Inhabitant,
And he can tell when Co'onel Bluff went
out and laid a ha'rt;
And then, aain. h is the man who bat-
t'"d side by side
With Mijor BIoo', and now he tella about
ic with p-uch pride;
Or else he had a jury seat when Lawyer
Chu?c was young '
All this the Reminiscent Man has ever
on his tongue.
Perchance he used to fish along with Mr.
Oince'srek,
And whon that man's a candidate he tella
it by the week;
He ho'rU t'r." wise reporter up and fills him
full of talcs
The rws may Ptop, but, after all, the It.
M. never fai"s,
Somebody ought to write a book about
the talky clan
The brnch of peon'e who make up the
Eeir inisrent Mai.
Josh Wink, in Baltimore American. I
Granddad "What makes you look
so unhappy, Willie?" Willie " 'Causa
nobody never calls me good uuless I'm
doing something I don't want to do.'
Motherhood.
The self-made man is easier known
Than any other snob.
Because he is so quick to own
He's well pleased w-ith the ;'ob. x
Philadelphia Becord. ,
"Mr. Gallant, you are something of
a student of human nature," began
Miss Bewchtts, coyly. "Ah, but now,
he interrupted, flashing his bold, blade
eyes upon her, "I am a divinity stu
dent." Philadelphia Press. .
The youthful politician is ' rj'-o
A man of promise great, V,
His pi'om ifr.es are numerous now; ;
And still accumu'ate.
Washington Star.
"I heard a good definition of 'weath
er' to-day," he suggested casually.
"Wlu'.t was it?" she asked unsuspi
ciously. "Weather," he replied, "Is
the most feminine thing in nature.'
And yet she didn't laugh. Chicago'
Tost.
Aunt Hannah "Oh, I don't think
Amanda would do such a mean thins
as that. I have always heard people
say Amanda was generous to a fault.'
Uncle George "When the fault hap
pens to be hers, she is; not otherwise,
not otherwise." Boston Transcript.
Papa "See that spider, my boy.
spinning his web. Is it not wonder
ful? Do you reflect that, try as he
maj', no man could spin that web?"
Johnny "What of it? See me spin
this top! Do you reflect, try as he
may, uo spider could spin this top?"
Tit-Bits.
"I suppose," said the physician,
smiling and trying to appear witty,
while feeling the pulse of a lady pa
tient, "I suppose you consider me an
old humbug?" "Why, doctor," replied
the lady, "I had no idea you could as
certain a woman's thoughts by merely
feeling her pulse." Chicago Tribune.
"I suppose, of course," remarked the
society reporter at the Struekoil-J imp
son wedding, "the bride's diamonds
and the lace on her waist were hand
ed down from her great great-grand-mother."
"Well, hardly," exclaimed
old Struckoil, indignantly. "I'd have
you know everything on her as she
stands was bought brand new for the
occasiou." Brooklyn Eagle.
Quite a Difference.
A British Columbia lawyer was pass
ing along the street, carrying under
his arm a law book in circuit binding,
when be was accosted by a self-righteous
individual: "Ha! Mr. Blank,
and "where are you going to preach
to-day?" "I don't preach; I practice,
replied the lawyer. Argonaut.