North Carolina Newspapers

( > ***•**"** *9* * ******** * *\ THj^OAZgTTE. A 0-f Cwrty P#-r far <^*7 p*Tr»« W. F. MAKSBALL, Editor ud Frajrtotor. DEVOTED TO THE PIOTECTION OP HOME ADD X2£2-£BE!^1——_ GASTONIA, N. C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 83. POINTS AND PARAGRAPHS ON TOPICS OP THE TIMES. Undn tbla bud will b« oriatad Iron tlaa U Ms* noltnnhr nttcraaoM M tbrw«« ol carraat lautNI. Tbay wUl ka tabu (ml pabUc iMwh, boaka. aafaatiiaa. acwapapara. ia lad arharaaar wa mar *«d tfcam. Bava tian IbM arlcctloaa will aocwd witk oar views tad tba viawa ol oar read. arm. aoatatl mea tfcc oppoaila will ba troa bat by raaaon ol tba a»b)aor aattw. tba «l»le. Iba aothoranip. or tha aiawa aaprataad. aack will kaaa an alamaat ol timet* lataaeat to maka h a eoaaoteasaa attaranee. Nwdid Reform la J«ry Selecting. Proaraaaiva Farniar. Equalise tlie number of challenges. Give the State the right of appeal. These reforms ought to be discussed in the press and on tha platform throughout North Carolina, and the next general Assembly should put them on our statue books. It is the painful truth that our present system encourages crime, weakens respect for law, fosters lynching, and menaces the peace and safety of our citicena. Let us still give the prisoner bis twelve chances to oue before the jury, bat if the public is not to lose the power of self protection, it must be on an eqnal footing with the criminal in se lecting the juiy and in righting the wrongs brought about by un just ruling or corrupt practices. "SktMn IIm" in Journalism Successful. Charity aud CkiMroa. More than a year ago one of the great newspapers of London, the Dsily News, adopted in a modified form, what is known in this country as the "Sheldon idea” of journalism. The principal fea ture of the policy adopted by that staid old journal was the exclu sion of all reports of betting sports and all liquor advertisements from its columns. The first effect of the policy was heavy loss, more than $100,000 worth of sdverlisements being withdrawn the first year. Now, it is stated, the paper is prosperous aud its cir culation is growing rapidly. The objectionable matter is exclud ed on priociple, and not with a view to greater gun.the proprietor believing that betting ou sports and the liquor traffic are an im moral alliance which is the source of great immorality. The suc cess of this experiment proves, once more, the troth of the old axiom, that in the long ran princicle will win. Tba Prevalence at Mnaldpal Cerrupltea. aickwoad Hwt-I.wihr. It is not risking much to assert that if any one would take the trouble to collect the statistics bearing on the subject, it would be found that corruption, inefficiency, oeglect aud rottenness in great er or less degree constitute the rule in municipal governments throughout the United States. One rarely picks up a newspaper that he does not find support of that assertion. Every day nearly appears some new candidate for notoriety in this line. The con tamination seems to be constantly spreading. The stupendous boodUng unearthed in St. Louis, the gigantic system of graft Car ter Harrison referred to as obtaining in the Chicago city hall, the wholesale " knock downs" that from time to time have been re vealed in New York, the unblushing blackmailing and stealing that have characterized Philadelphia, but represent in more glaring form and on the larger scale the opportunity offers, what is going on in communities, big aud little, all over the land. A WEEK OF SP CIALS! \ • At the Big Store, Thomson Co. This week we put on some onmatehable bargains. We have scooped In Some good things and our customers get the benefit. 5000 yards Avon Bleach ing. We closed a lot of Sheeting from the Avon Mill and bad it • bleached. The count is 96 by 100. Bquals Lonsdale Cambric. There are two lots, it SS. 8c & 10c Never again will we be able to offer inch bar (pains. . 5000 yds. short lengths heavy Shirtings. IX to 3 yd. pieces at at . yard--pjC 5000 yds. Rescue Sheet ing, Loray Mill Sheet ing go this week . at, yd-DC And to make this week Interesting we have In every department, put out some spe cials. A A A 4 4 A A itever before In the history of this busi ness have we had such easy sailing. Our * business has grown every day since we started over two years ago. Low prices, energy, truth, and capacity are the princi ples which have brought this store to Its Rresent magnitude, and will promote Its iture growth. A A A A A Thomson Co. The People’s Store:: :: Phone 46 % THE PHOHE OH THE FAHK. Hall a Million laalallal la Iki Last Fhra Years. KnrYoiklu. The spread of what is known as independent telephony, which followed the running out of the fundamental telephone patents in this country, has had many striking developments, but none more remarkable than those which have given every farmer in the land the chance to tig up a telephone and thus put himself in direct touch with the outer world. The ubiquitous trolly, running out into the rural regions from the nearest urban centres, has done much to change the conditions of rnral and agricultu ral life; but over and above all the telephone is proving the in strumentality of what is,as a mat ter of fact, s new civilisation. Only those who have travelled of late through the rural parts of the great Middle States and of those in the Northwest can have' the remotest idea of the manner in which, finding the telephone available and cheap, the farmer haa seised upon it with avidity, and connected himself up with some co-operative system in his own neighborhood or again, with bolder effort, bas pushed out and joined his own line with the network of some adjoining village. The co-operative princi ple has in this way received a new and striking exemplification while the economic outcomes, eveo at this early stage, are so wide reaching that it is hard to determine just where the effects of this change will stop. It is estimated that during the last five yean telephones have been put into nearly half a mil lion rural homes. The farmer finds that with the telephoues be cu Keep in ioucn witn toe market, selling bit produce or live (took when quotations are the most favorable. By sparing himself and his help useless trip* back and forth for the purpose of delivering his products, or of ascertaining the status of the market, he now saves'a vast amount of time in the course of tbe year. When be is assured by information over tbe telephone that he can sell to advantage he loads ‘ up his wagon and not till then. As illustrating the advantage of keeping in touch with the market, an incident in last year’s transactions in broom corn in Illinois is related. A prospective rise in the market was preceded by great activity on the part of the brokers. Buyers from thejxitsidc began to clean up tbe broom corn at >60 a ton, when a telephone manager cafled up tbe farmers on his system and told them the market was rapidly rising. Tbe fesult was that before the season ended they got $240 a ton for their crop. One fanner reports that in addition to getting nearly double the usnal work out of his teams,through their beiog saved futile trips to market, lie has been enabled to do away with the hire of two men, as he could spend more time on hia farm and save the diminished output of tbe band at work in his absence. Aooincr iinncr uvea an dm buildings by being able to sum mon help quickly from a nearby town and also from bia neighbors when a fire broke oat. Still another, by getting a physician promptly, .saved the life of bia only son, when the delay of half an hoar would have been fatal. It is now a common practice for the country doctor to give directions by telepb ..ne . for caring for the patient both diagnosing and prescribing; In Illinois the speeches of a recent political convention rieie listened to by the farmers on a rural system as they sat in their homes from fifteen to thirty-sfac miles away. Being in speaking distance of bis neighbor, not only does the farmer feel • new sense of personal security, bnt he knows that his belongings are safer from molestation than they ever were before. The tele phone haa been instrumental in causing the arrest of many horse thieves sod outlaws and in some districts the farmers have almost broken up chicken stealing and petty larceny by telephoning the police and commission mer chants of their losses, and thus enabling prompt arrests to be made. That some women have la Eious ideas of tbeir own as to purpose of the telephone is evident from the stories that crop up from time to time of the ex periences of the inspectors. One of these officers relates that one of bia Hneman went into a bouse to inspect the telephone on a Kil line In Adams county, III. tod In a rocking chair, con tcntedly occupied with her knitting, wsj the wife of the subscriber to the system. At first sight the lineman thought she was wearing s' novel kind of headdress, but a second glance discovered the fact that she hod tied the telephone re ceiver to her ear and was listen ing to every conversation that passed over the wire. Another woman wanted to go on an errand sotne distance down the village street, so she took the receiver off the book, and left it on tbs table near the cradle, telling the central opera tor that if her baby began to cry she was to call her up at the grocer's. An innovation in the use of the telephone which promises to be the vogue is already very pop ular. The local grocer or batcher, realising that time is money, pays for the monthly rent of the telephone of any of his customers who spend $25 at bis store during the month, or makes a corresponding discount for a smaller expendi ture. He finds that in the in creased amount of business com ing through the greater ease of transmitting orders, and the re duction in his staff of order men, he can well afford to throw in the telephone service, which furthermore becomes a splendid advertisement for his store. In the early days of the rural telephone the farmers were con tent to utilise their fence wires for intercommunication, and in many districts, particularly in the Western States, this method so reduced the cost of installa tion as to enable many commu nities to have a tolerably effect rive service, which otherwise would have had to go without any. Bat the farmers are be coming more fastidious. They now want good service and they are getting it. a ue lyiiemi employed range from a single line, with from three or four to a doze a instru ments connected, to compre hensive systems covering entire counties and having hundred of patrons. For instance, in Geauga county, Ohio, near Cleveland, where there is a population of abont 14,000, there are over 1,000 patrons, tbe num ber in each township ranging from fifty to nearly four hundred. Great attention is paid to toll service, and the best construc tion and apparatus are insisted on as being in tbe long run the most economical. An example of the village and rural exchange in Few Augusts, Ind., with seveaty-five subscrib ers. fifty of whom are farmers, tbe most distant being abont seventy miles. . When a single neighborhood line with a few instruments attached is desired a switchboard is not necessary. The subscriber* signal each other direct by giving different combinations of rings. So easy hat tbe organization of rural telephone systems be come that It is safe to predict that within a ❖cry few years the majority of tbe 4,000,000 farmers said to be yet unprovided with telephone service will have fol lowed the example of their more enterprising brethren and brought themselves within touch of civilization. If any commu nity wishes to install ft system, no matter how limited, it has only to communicate with a reputable Installation firm to re ceive tbe fullest and tbe clearest instructions as to how to go about it. A favorite .method of organiz ing is for the farmers to form partnership o r co-operative (mutual) companies for-the fur nishing of service only to the locality in which tbe subscribers live. Sometimes the service is furnished by nearby telephone exchanges running lines into the rural districts. ' la some places service cannot be given by city companies. In such case, the farmers can form themselves into a company, snbncribera for the stock on pro rata or other basis, and install the system, running a direct line from their switchboard to tbat of the nearest town or city exchange. This- it called the community system, toe heart of which is the small switchboard, from which radiate in different directions the lines to which the various subscribers' telephones are attached. Tbe forty-third euouel State Pair opened Tuesday at Raleigh with the largest attendance la its history. Cuy L. Bash of Washington has been appointed bank exam iner for North and South Caro lina to succeed Ifr. Walter R. Henry of Charlotte who recently resigned at the request of the Comptroller of the Currency. TOO WANT STVME3. TIm Cerriculom #f Schaais aa CtmM that HMuwy i» atrncdan Is *et OtvM hi tha Steplw ui Mm* UnM StBdlM. nkiMniu. Business men who advertise for youth* to fill positions re quiring « knowledge of "the three Rs” complain that the boy* wbo apply for employment oftea •pell badly, know little aiith- j metic and display general igno rance in matters of everyday concern to themselves and their employers. They can recall isolated facts in a number of ologics. They can also parse^ and they may have a smattering of algebra and Euclid. As re spects baseball records and names of champion football th«r have wcU-ftored minds and _ retentive nflnnories. But to do a comparatively simple sum involving the exer cise of a little common sense, the manipulation of a few vulgar fractions or decimals and tbs application of familiar rales— this is beyond them. Boys of from 14 to 16, in an age of abundant and costly free schools, ate wanting in the very elements of a practical education. Nor is this confined to poor boys, the •out or parent* straggling with adversity, bat presidents of colleges and technological schools affirm that rich men’s soo» bow .days come to their in stitutions wretchedly equipped a* respects the three It’s. The skill required to write decently m plain English sentence and spell tbe words correctly seem to be •care*! and scarcer every year. Our engineering exchanges arc continually harping on toe pro priety of an engineer’s being to write s report in intelli fftole English and in words so spelled as to avoid bringing his technical knowledge into con tempt. Tbe "education,”, in fact, encounters its greatest obstacle ia tbe shortcoming of the lower schools. The cuose of this de ertnse of efficiency iu tbe schools that give the average boy all the education he ever gets is to be found, it it believed, in the multiplicity of subjects taught at tbe dictation of faddists, in terested publishers and ignorant school authorities.' The latter are perpetually adding to tbe curriculum new sciences ot ac complishments, thns laying new burden* on the bucks of the harassed teacher. In almost every grade the boy also suffers, being tore ad to cram a far great er variety o£ subjects .than is studied by tbe boy of the same age w^ro i* oeing educated in an expensive private school. Both teacher and pupil have more than they can do. The firmer is nneble to give his individual attention to each of bis many pupil*, and die latter lack the mental capacity to absorb the multifarious sciences, arts and crafts presented to their unde veloped faculties. The system is st fault. The boys gat no thorough grounding in essenti als, bat are hurried on from grade to grade, digesting such scrap* of knowledge as they can. The remedy is to sweep away the tuck of ologies which pre vent a thorough training and recur with constant emphasis to the three Rs. Reading, writing and arithmetic, taught with old fashioned attention to spelling, woold satisfy the educational re quirements of the great majority of boy* vastly better than the present chaotic curricula. A way mu st be provided for bright boya who wwk more, hot the needs of the average boy who "goes into business” should be »• of our school authorities. Aa thing, go, "edu cation" ter the latter is a mock ery. It la a mockery because it Ignores the well-tried maxim,. Not many things, but much.” * THEOLD KEliABLE Prtccn >1.00, n.lft, $1,80, M JA8. F. YEAGER * Oastonla, +L Ci—— I _. ' 1 :M. a-*1- — ■ »■ '• » " 1 1 ■ ■■■■ CAPITAL AND SURPLUS, RMIU*!' _:_•< state Bank Incorporated Mar 1*, 1*03 STATE AND COUNTS DEPOSITORY — — igj t— ■ —:— ■ - ' ~ ~ ; officers ♦ ♦♦ JNO. r.lOVB,PmMM R. C. Q. LOVB, Via* Pr«*. 4A*. A. PASS. CmMif DIRECTORS ♦ ♦♦ *• c. «. iovi ■ JM». r. L«?y . I tori I