North Carolina Newspapers

in urn ,,mf niNiirri" i I 1(1 H iif frtTif siUr (ffsr I TV 4 11 it 11 11 !l II y II 1 LI y i t t.OQ a Year, In Advance. ' . "FOR COD, FOR COUNTRY AND FOR TRUTH." Simla Copy 5 Cj VOL. XVII. PLYMOUTH, N, C. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1906. NO27 j rt ''t If KL IN THE WOOLLEY BUILDING. Si Bv. ROE L. HFNnpiri W as almost or quite noon before we had looked up the last of our au thorities and had finished taking notes. "How still it is!" said Jennie, going to a window. The roof outside hid the street below, so she could only see the chimney-tops across the way. "Why, you can't even hear the car-bells! It doesn't, seem a bit as if we were in the midst of a city." "We aren't," said Frank, smiling and holding up one finger. "Listen!" From Beemis' Hill, clear and tink ling, came a bobolink chorus. The wind was in the right quarter to bring the distant bird music to our ears as distinctly as if the feathered songsters had been only a few rods away. We heard them in delighted silence till Lizzie cried, "There goes the noon bell!" Ding! dong! A pause. Ding! dong! ding! came from the tower of the city hall only a block or two away. "We leaned forward, with lips apart. Again the alarm was repeated. "Twenty-three," said Frank. "Why, that's the corner of Monroe and Wayne streets this corner!" "I smell smoke," Lizzie added, in ominously quiet tones. a'Tve had whiffs of it before, but I thought it came from a chimney." The city-hall bell was still clamor ing, and now a half-dozen other bells and whistles had taken up the sum mons. "We ran to the windows, but could see nothing, although now the rumble of wheels and clangor of gongs name to us in startling cotj trast to the former silence. Then, creeping up the rear wall of the struc ture, a broad canopy of smoke came into view. Probably awindow had just been shattered somewhere below. "It's in this building," said Amy. Frank instantly ran down to the lower floor of the" library. Thin pen cilings of smoke outlined , the door frame, but the air was comparatively clear. When the door, le.ading to the next story was opened, however, we were almost blinded and suffocated by the volume of smoke that poured in. "Stay here, girls!" Frank shouted. "Open a window, so as to keep the air clear, but shut all doors, and don't let in any draft from below!" He caught me by the wrist. "Come on, Jack," he said, and dragging me through, slammed the door behind us. We fell flat on our faces, where the air was not quite so foul, and crawled to the elevator shaft. A dull roar came up to us, and we could see red flames midway of the long descent. The elevator car was below, oppo site the second story, as nearly as we could judge. To remain where -ve were, even for a few moments, was both painful and perilous, to go farther down im possible; but Frank explained that th3 draft, formed by the open well, or shaft, must be cut off. If we could get the car above the fire, it might save our lives. The heavv counterweight was near the top, but, unfortunately, just be low our reach. The cord which op erated it had ben burned off lower down. A cogged "rider" held the weight firmly in place by means of a steel "dog." Gasping and half-dazed, we ran to a window, threw it up, and filled our lungs with pure air. After being thus refreshed for a moment, Frank went back into the room, and in a closet found a long, slender iron bar. Reaching down with this, he pried desperately at the weight, calling to ine for. help. We both threw our selves upon this lever, and suddenly were hurled backward to the floor, while the weight, thus released, shot downward, dragging the car up the shaft . wough the flames, till it jammed, where the track was broken, between the fifth and sixth floors. Again we gasped for breath a mo ment at the open window, and then, after closing it, hurried up into the lower reading-room, where we found the girls clinging to one another, be lieving we had deserted them or had been suffocated. "We've closed the flue with the car," was Frank's brief and, to them, unintelligible explanation of our ab sence. "That should hold the fire back, a half-hour, and maybe we can escape in that time." He pulled off his shoes, and with out a moment's delay, crept out upon the roof. Lizzie mistook his purpose. "It's of no use," she said. "The flames are all about the iron ladder at the back, and Jennie and Amy couldn't climb down it, anyhow." For the first time I then noticed that her shoes wera off. The brave girl had crept to the edge of the roof to exam ine the fire-escape. Frank nodded. "I had guessed as much," he said. He stepped cautiously, till oppo site a front chimney back of the cop ing, and then slid down to it. CJose at oua side was Zzzi a tall arJ strosg Although it was many years before the era of "sky-scrapers," our little -city had the Woolley Building, "the tallest ai the country," as some ;.roud residents declared. "As ugly as sin, and a fire-trap," was the comment of certain' visitors, which unkind state ment we -attributed to ignoble jeal- - OUST. On each side of Monroe street stretched a dozen blocks of brick structures, three or four stories in height. In the midst of them, with its back to Moss Creek, the Woolley Building towered upward nine sto ries in front, or eleven behind, i! one counted tho two basements. So all good Palmyrans deemed thvmselves modest in rpeaklng of its "nine full stories," although the same envious visitors had been heard to describe it as consisting of "six stories and a cocked hat." The six formed the original struc ture. I hen the City Library Associa tion found itself in possession of a collection of hooks, a moderate build- inc fund, and a lawsuit over a site. After the suit had dragged along for two years Mr. Woolley, owner of the tall "biock," and at the same time president of the Library Association suggested a baupy compromise. He would use thefund to put on t'..ree additional stories and install an ele 4 , vator, and wculd give the library its lo.'ty "site" rent frre for all time. This was promptly agreed to, and in due time accomplished; but the re sult, from an architectural point of - view, was. not all that might have " been desired. 'i he seventh story had a steeply sloping, slate-tiled front, much like a mustard roof, with a "hip" above, which ,was also slated. Above this, to afford plenty of light, the two other floors were built in circular form, and capped with a very flat, -dome-like. roof. It. would have cost less had the addition been built like :t he lower floors, tut in the eyes of Mr. Woolley and the committee the result would have been less orna mental. Tho library proved very useful to the townspeople, and was often con sulted, e::cept when the old-fashioned counterweight elevator was out of order hich occurred frequently. ' That the air and light, upon a level with the top of Beemis's Hill, a mile away, were of the best, all patriotic Palmyrans agreed. On My 30, 18 , Amy Murray, Jennie Paull, Lizzie Minturn, Frank Lodge and I, all students about to graduate from the academy, decided not to attend the Decoration-day ex ercises in Valleyview Cemetery, but instead to prepare the groundwork of our essays and orations for the -coming comncement. Ey going 'to the library on a holiday, we knew we could have it to ourselves. In- deed, even the librarian was away; "but Lizzie had borrowed the keys from him the night before. Immediately after breakfast we all "hurried down the street to the Wool ley Building. A drum corps was "tootling" and rumbling over on "Washington street, where the Grand Army veterans, members of the Wo man's belief Corps, and distinguished citizens, bearing flags and flowers, were forming in line for the march to the cemetery. A throng was assem bled about Military Hall, but other wise the streets were half-deserted, and many of the stores were closed. We found only "Uncle Ben" Mose- ley, the colored janitor, in the build ing, sitting grumpily on the floor of the elevator, which was raised a foot -tir moro above the level of the lobby "tiles. "YoV cahn't go up," he said, short ly.. "Everything locked." "But I have the keys, Uncle Ben," -said Lizzie, cheerily. "You're not going to make us walk up all those .stairs, now are you?" "Track's done busted," the old rnian explained, yielding a little. "Not the whole way, is it, uncle?" .Amy asked. "Can't you give ,u. a "4ift?" "Mebbe she'll go all right up io de 'Tit' flo" he admitted, "but de track's done busted above dar. An' dat "lazy 'Lige Murphy's comin' to fix it rsoon's de p'rade -stahts. Dat's why I .got to wait heah!" Having thus revealed the cause of "his 111 humor to be the loss of a sight of tho parade, Uncle Ben more grac iously admitted us to the car and started it on its wabbly upward jour--ney. He stopped at the fifth floor, ;and went very gingerly for the last few feet a caution which seemed necessary, as the track on one side of the shaft swayed ominously. "You-all '11 have to walk down," he said, at parting, "unless yo' wait till dat lazy 'Lige Murphy fixes things -up." Our ride was only two floors short of what, it could have been at its best, for the shatt ended on the sii.-enth floor. We soon were in Lhe reading-room under the roof, v.it".i the windows open and a gentle breeze blowing through the apartment, it flagstaff, with the huge flag then at half-mast, in honor of the nation's dead. He had unfastened the hal yards from the cleat by the window, and now swiftly lowering the flag, he let it flutter down into the street, thereby calling attention to our peril ous position. I watched him draw the rope, hand over hand, till the loosened end fell from the upper pulley. Then he turned and beckoned imperatively for me to come to him. I bad al ready removed my shoes mechanical ly, but the dread of great heights always had been inherent in my na ture. It did not seem possible that T could go down to that dizzy verge, where my friend was working so coolly. I hesitated, and he beckoned f.gain. "You must go," Lizzie whispered. "I know how you feel, but you can do it. Frank has some plan, and you must hurry." Already the floor was getting un comfortably warm, and the slates outside were actually hot. We could hear a steady rumble, interspersed with occasional crackling noises, seemingly directly beneath our feet. Turning over on my face. I slid down the slope till -stopped by the chimney. Standing half-sheltered behiifd it, I was then able to srasp Frank's coat, while he leaned far over and lowered the rope. I now saw that the new water-tower had just been brought, as close to the building as the heat, would permit, and hastily elevated. But its top came only to the fifth story, leaving two floors between. When tho rope was let down, a man on the tower caught it with a pike-pole and drew it to him. Frank now lowered the other end of the rope, and in accordance with his instructions, the two ends were tied together by the tower man. The rope now formed an endless loop, running over the stout pulley on the lower part of the staff, which was placed there to facilitate the handlings of the halyards from within the build ing. "It's plenty long enough." said Frank, briefly. I then noticed for the first time that, he hald a curtain pole, with brass knobs at each end, in his hand.. Evidently before going out upon the roof he had snatched this from the closet in the reading room. r "Draw up the slack," he said. As soon as we had a few coils of the rope from below laid on the roof, he drew a "half-hitch" about each end of the curtain pole. "That will hold fast," I heard him say with a certain emphasis born of the satisfaction I could not under stand at the moment. "Now get astride and see how easily you can ride down. This pole will make a life-boat upon which all of us can ride to safety. Tell the men to send back plenty of cord, so I can fasten the girls to this pole. I want at least six pieces, so I can fasten them firmly both ends of the pole be fore h-;y start, for it isn't safe to assume that they can hang on at all. They may be uncon-'Ious before they leave the roof. And tell them to hang on to the rope and see that it doesn't run too fast. Now go, old man!" "I can't," I said. A few glances from that great height already had caused an attack of nausea, and I felt sure I was going to faint. "I simply can't, Frank! You go!" "Remember what I told you." was the only reply. "And tell them to hurry, please." With that he delib erately thrust me over the edge, and I was too weak to resist. Astride both pole and rope, with a firm grasp above, and my yeyes closed to avoid a sight of the dizzy distance below, I slid steadily down to the tower, while the firemen controlled my descent. In a few seconds I was clinging limply to one of the lad ders. "Send up six length of rope at once, so Frank can tie the girls on," I said. Luckily, the men understood without further explanation, which I was helpless to give at the tin- - Now I could see how terribly tho Are which had started from the re pair man's overturned brazing fur nace had eaten out the third and fourth stories, till practically all the woodwork was gone. It seemed a3 if the enormous weight above must simply crush the skeleton frame be low, and I expected the catastrophe to occur at any moment. I had reached the ground when I saw Jennie,, bound fast to both end3 of the pole, and unconscious, c:me sliding down the endless cable Frank had devised. Amy followed, then Lizzie, the latter courageously cling ing to the rope, with only a loop about her feet; and finally, to my In finite relief, came Frank. As he reached the tower, the rope was cut and the men ran down, while the ladder-like sections were quickly telescoped. In another instant the four horses bounded ahead, and the firemen and police forced the people out of the way into the adjacent streets. They vere none too soon! The tall building bowed backward with a rear, the greater part of the ruins falling into Moss Creek, but two stories buckling" forward so r.-; al most to fill Monroe street. The Are was thrown against the Maynard Ilo'tse on the opposite sida of the highway, and that building, with two adjacent blocks, was burned before nightfall. But not a life was lost. Fire Chief Malone warmly said that credit for this was due solely to Frank Lodge, whose clear-headedness in first shut ting off the elevator shaft alone af forded sufficient time for the subse quent rescue. No one below had known of our predicament until Frank dropped the flag, for Uncle Ben Moseley had been so frightened by the fire that he had forgotten our presence in the building. Strange as it may seem, bolh Frank and I kept the notes for our orations, which had been thrust into our pockets; but the girls, having fewer pockets, lost theirs. Youth'3 Companion. The time is not far distant when electricity will be used entirely as the power factor by the sugar plant ers. The largest frog is now stated to be the new Rana goliath from the Cameroons, with a head and body measuring not less than ten inches. Hitherto the largest known has been a species living in the Solomon Isl ands. ' , " In Turkey there is a great con sumption of the milk of the buffalo, the common cow, the goat and the ewe, but it is hardly ever used in a natural str.te. According to a paper read at the London Academy of Med icine, the milk is kept at a moderate heat until its bulk is considerably re duced. After slow cooling the milk is treated with a ferment taken from tfye previous day's supply. In a few hours a kurd forms which is called Yaghourt. The preparation is pre ferred to milk, and It has a pleasant, clean, acid taste, and is,' 'of course, nutritious. - What causes the rays of.pencijs of light that seem to "be thrown1 out by every star when seen by the naked eye? A German scientist has been wrestlingtwith the problem. He finds that all stars show precisely the same rays, but that in the case of the brighter stars the rays are plainer and somewhat longer. It is further remarked that the rays seen by the left and right eyes differ, and that if the head be turned the rays arc ro tated in a corresponding manner. It is thus concluded that the source of the rays is not in the stars, but in the eye itself, the middle of the re tina being not perfectly homogene ous in its sensitiveness. From an experience of two years and a review of medical literature. Dr. Metzenbaum classes radium with the Finsen light, X-rays and surgery in the treatment of lupus, and with surgery and the X-rays in the treat ment of the rodent ulcer and small surface cancers. In these cases, heal ing rapid, and apparently perma nent, while the beneficial effects of radium are obtained from tubes of low activity, costing but a few dol ln s. Deep-seated malignant growth seem beyond the influence of radium rays, and the expected benefit in blindness has not been realized, while radium cannot take the place of X-rays for skiagraphs on account of the length of exposure necessary and the irritation that would result. Radium has some effect in making ulcer scars smooth, pliable and healthy in appearance. r SOUTHERN FARM fiOTE S. , TOPICS OF INTEREST TO THE PLANTER, STOCKMAN AND TRUCK GROWER The Simplex pile, which has been in use for some time past in England and elsewhere, has lately been im proved. Its principal feature is a cylinder of strong metal tubing, which, in some cases, is as much as two feet in diameter, pointed at the lower end, but having the pointed end so constructed that, after the tube has been driven home and filled with concrete, it opens on hinges so that the tube can be drawn upward. leaving the shaft of concrete in the ground. As the concrete is filled in from above and pounded down, the tube is gradually withdrawn up ward, a couple of feet at a time. Just above the pointed end the diameter of the tube, for a short dis tance, is a little enlarged. The con sequence is that for the greater part of its length the tube does not press tightly against the pnund, and cans the operation of v.i: i: irawiivi; ic is more easily prr-mmxl. Afi, the tube 'Is drawn uy ftrou:!-.! r.it ually settles tightly round the con crete shaft. Plowing, Good and Bad. A correspondent of the Country Gentleman opens his communication with an axiom, for it is certainly true that good plowing is at the founda tion oi good farming. All that is said about plowing when the soil is too wet or too dry applies, of course, only to heavy soil containing a large percentage of clay. Most of the sandy lands of this State can be plowed ,as soon as the rain stops, without any injury. Florida farmers have yet to learn that oue-horse plowing does not pay. Good plowing, it has been said, is at the foundation of all good farm ing; and-there is much of truth in the statement. A fleld that is poorly plowed is not likely to produce a heavy crop, and always requires extra labor in its subsequent prepara tion and cultivation. Land that is plowed too wet or too dry is certain to be baked or cloddy, and often re mains in this condition the season through. Shallow, careless plowing has been the bane of this section; and many a gullied hillside testifies to the work of the man who plowed four inches deep because he was in a hurry to get through. Down in the cotton country', where, in many 'local ities at. least, the rule is a darky, a mule and a little one-horse plow that turns up from two to four inches of soil, the damage is equally apparent, and even more general. Good plowing and deep plowing are, however, not necessarily synony mous. Some land needs to be turned no more than four inches, although it is fair to say that there is,.very lit tle of that kind in this section. Land to-be well plowed must "ie broken to a uniform depth and be free from the "skips" and "wallows" left by so many plowmen. When the soil is too wet to shed, or so dry that it breaks up, in chunks, a good job is impossible. The ideal condition is when the soil as it falls from the plow crumbles down into a soft, smooth bed. , .This ideal condition is nt ajways obtainable even where the land; is smooth and uniform, and where, as is often the case with us, one fleld may have in it a half dozen types and conditions of soil and as many differences .in topography, the prob lem is one of great difficulty. Where one has to plow up hill and down, through alluvial deposits and clay banks, he must be a better plowman than any with, whom I am acquaint ed if he keeps his furrows of uniform depth and width. He cannot set his plow for every variation of soil or slope, but must strike an average as best he can. This means that he may plow eight inches deep in one place and four in another. Usually, too, the least depth will be reached where the greatest is needed. Now this is a very unpleasant 6tate of af fairs, but it seems also to be inevit able. It is one of the disadvantages which the man who farms in the hill country has to contend with. If any one can tell us any practical way of surmounting this difficulty I can promise him the gratitude of at least one reader, and believe he will have that of thousands of others. There are some things a farmer is said never to appreciate until he has had acd lost, them running water, a good fruit supply, abundant shade trees and a convenient wood lot. I think it is safe to add that the man who has level land of uniform qual ity cannot fully appreciate his good fortune unless he has at one time farmed on hilly land. Florida Agriculturist. After being twenty years in the ser vice of a family: at Saffron Walden, England, as housekeeper, a woman died, and it was found that no one knew her guruame. The Country Hoys and Girls. It is a remarkable fact that a large part of the brain and brawn has al ways come from the rural districts of all countries. We might go down the business street of any town in North Carolina to-day and take an inventory, so to speak, of the men who are doing the business, and we would find a large part of them were reared in the country. We do not write to make odious comparisons between the country children and the town children, but we wish" to call the attention of parents in the country to the new order of things coming to pass. We wish to ask fathers and moth ers if it is reasonable to suppose that their boys and girls in the country who only have an opportunity to cul tivate and develop their minds from three and one-half to four months in the year will be able to stand up and compete with and enter into life's struggles with the boys and girls in the towns who have nine months to improve the mind and be trained for life's work; to say nothing of the magazines, good literature and lec tures to which they have access. It is not reasonable to suppose that children who have practically the same natural ability and, more than . twice the- opportu the others do, will be equal whei; contest comes. "' Parents of the rural districts, children are as dear to you as' parents. Do you want them t helpless or inferior in capacit their fellows in the years to cd I am sure no true parent does, mnrlr the nrfdiction: unless the ents of the rural "districts b themselves and secure more of advantages for their children in way'of education the time will ly come when those-who "have" it! must' serve. ' " ' ' This is not a pleasant thought it is as true as the Gospel itself. We do not want to see paren the rural districts satisfied with t or four months' school; "they if not be content with 'this if they pect to keep pace with the towns villages. Catawba County News v tie he water supply, 'they" return iraleht'in the nitrogen' tlieyjEre Cultivating the Plum Orchard There is even more necessity regular .And ' clean cultivation i the plum than with the peach,- i much as it. requires a more pid f y I supply of water. , Moisture only be retained by cultivation, is low but thorough, after every pacting rain, thereby pulverizing crust and forming & soil mulcl shut off capillarity and ' so re the water already chambered in subsoil from the winter rains, insure such a reservoir of inois! the orchard should be. plowed! both directions' ' with either cttltj tor or disk harrow as' early in ter as posifble. Even duHng ' ter it Vill'pa'y one'e or twi,c.e'to brj therc'omp'icfv crust that'wrms" a or similar "instrliniejty'ihouguJ is quite generally neglected jiy mercial growers. ib t'hejrfoiT,' rlw CjroDs oj gtrass4anji..weeds,.sjj never . be allowed to gjfeloD inj orchard, as they nolphly,. rg0 trees of. water. -if J)tottf without a corresponding return. L cultivatedcYop's,'"nke ' cottohT wl of course"' distintfty' in jflfitius to and lodgiflg. CdwpaB'ft fti&k f cupyirig the middle'betweethflj a're rather: m'ore of a It?eWhasi detriment,' for althougnfne on tne equivalent' fer to tHe' soil ever, is ruinous cease before crop and trees have become dormanjUjin J fall. ' This 'wijl perm.the.j.wofi. ripen up w;ell, 'which cpnjjt j ruption . of . the root . system. tyjy$A cultivator w.buld, prevent. -r-P.o N. Starnes. .,... Visiting, Neigh borsV Farnx , Every farmer- sfrounl gef'out bc sionally - and-. Visit : his eighb6 farms. Every others business4' if5 makes it a' point to'" know the""ff; who are engaged in his line of W6; and he profits by the acquaintan The farmer who stays at home the time is inclined to get the Id that the sun rises and sets or' particular benefit of. his individv patch of earth, which means -that is in a fair way to go to seed. course when a man visits anotfcj man's farm, he will not brag, criticif or gossip. If he goes in a friend! give-and-take spirit, he will genera ly find his neighbors quite ready explain how he grows moro corn the acre than does the. man on t next quarter, or to show why ' 1 poultry or his dairy bring him a pre it, whereas they are only a drain the resources of too, many, of .his ft low-farmers. It is not safe to jun at the conclusion'tHat because a-'ms grows more corn io ine acre. man, ji grow his soil is." any b.etjer ' th- yours. In nine cases, out. of ten 11 raises more because he uses- beitl seed, or became Ije has learned ef ter metres i cultivation. ari Life. ,,.... , . Small, grain. VJ Cultivation .sho!1 the maturity.' oft not be resumed yflttUS Severe Root Pruning Favored.; Alhoueh..the horticulturist of tl Georgia, experiment statio.n decline tn maVo anv nnsitivA fitatpmnent corf cerning the advisability .voi severr. root pruning- when planting- youcf trees, he says that he is fully satif fied that peach trees from which til rootse have been largely cut off wi, live and flourish in Georgia even i stiff clay and undc conditions. The adverse veatfef same stRtemci' nay also be niado of appla nn cherry trees. In some cxporiman- made -ho found that tha root-prunft1 tVees made fewer,- deeper," larger ail more robust roois. J l.u roof penetrated seventeen and one-hal inches for the roots ot unprunc troes.