erpfi
VOL. I.
RALEIGH, N. C, THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1905.
NO. 41
WASHINGTON NEWS.
The President Cuts Down the Income
of Numerous Notary Publics As
sistant Secretary Loom is Receives
an Honor from the French Presi
dent Count Cassini Stands Well
, . Here.'. '
Correspondence of the Enterprise.
Washington, D. C, Jan. 24.
The President has just taken cog
nizance of one of the very worst
cases of graft in Washington. The
order of the President is as follows:
"It is hereby ordered that hereaf
ter no officer, clerk or employe in the
Executive service of the Govern
ment, who is also a Notary Public,
shall charge or receive any compen
sation whatever for performing any
notorial act for an officer, clerk or
employe of the Government, in his
official capacity, or in any matter in
which the Government is interested,
or for any person when in the case
of such person the act is performed
during the hours of such Notary's
service for the Government. Dis
obedience of this order shall be
ground for immediate dismissal from
the service."
This order of the President af
fects a very large number of clerks
in the Government service who have
been making a clear living off their
notorial seals, while at the same
time working for the Government.
There is a Notary Public in almost
every division of the Government
Departments. It is a matter of rec
ord that men drawing a salary of
$1,200 a year have made considerably
more than that off their notorial
'seal 3, and yet charge from 25 to 50
cents for each acknowledgement of
a signature to a Government con
tracts ,and some of these notaries
have used their seals as often as
twenty times a day. The total foots
up nicely. The President, as soon
as advised of what.; had been
going on for many years, set about
having a change made. He thinks
that when a clerk is drawing a salary
from the United States Government,
that Government is entitled to the
use of the notorial-seal for nothing,
hence the order. There is weeping
and wailing over the order, but it is
a "go," so they will have to accept it.
Announcement has been made by
Embassador Jesserand that Presi
dent Loubet, of France, had confer
red upon Mr. Francis B. Loomis. the
Assistant Secretary of State of the
United States, the decoration of
Grand Officer of the Legion of
Honor, which is the highest (but one)
of the decorations within the power
of the President of the French Re
public to bestow. One of the rea
sons which lead to the conferring
of the decoration upon Mr. Loomis
was the interest aroused in France
by his speech in behalf of interna
tional arbitration, delivered Septem
ber last before the Interparliamen
tary Union. Mr. Loomis will be
obliged to get permission of Con
gress to accept the badge.
However the American people may
feel toward the Russians and the
part they have been playing over
beyond the blue seas, there is but
one feeling toward Count Cassini.
He is a gentleman and a statesman
of the very best type. High-minded,
pure in life, and a stranger to the
intrigue which the foreign diplomat
has often deemed necessary to carry
out his mission in treating with the
United States, he is liked by every
body. He is most democratic in his
ways, and takes a good healthy hu
man interest in everything going.
His sovereign has recognized him
most handsomely for the part he has
taken in this war business and the
calm, judicial and dispassionate man
ner in which he has preserved diplo
matic relations with the United
States. He has decorated the Count
with the very highest medal of honor
of the Empire, and it is safe to say
that no man in the Empire will wear
it more honorably.
Pretty, pale Countess Cassini,
usually so rosy and bright, feels the
woes of her country keenly. She has
given expression to her heart-ache
by wearing black a great deal this
winter, when she has seen fit to go
out, but she has not been at all gay.
She has been ill and, anyhow, has ac
cepted very few invitations. In the
.evening she wears white with no
touch of color, except it be black,
and in the day-time she goes all in
black. At the New Year's reception
she wore black chiffon velvet, mag
nificent sables, and a big black velvet
picture hat. She was a picture her
self. .
BLOODSHED IN RUSSIA.
Discontented Workmen Appeal to
Czar and Get Bullets for Answer
Many Killed and Wounded Dis
order Growing Throughout Empire.
For a long time, perhaps since
it has been a nation, the working
people of Russia have been unhappy,
imposed upon and despised by the
autocracy of that country.
Recently they have been goaded
almost to desperation by various
events the war with Japan, the
numerous reverses, the scandals, the
impetency ' of their government j hich
taxes, etc. This state of affairs ex
ists all over the country.
Last Sunday a vast crowd marched
to the vicinity of the palace of the
Czar in St. Petersburg. They were
led by a priest. Farther Gapon,
in whom they place the utmost con
fidence. The government had antici
pated the comin!- and fifty thou
sand soldiers had been placed around
the palace. Some of the soldiers re
fused to fire, and gave up their arms.
But when the crowd refused t dis
perse, clamoring to get a hearing by
the Czar, a volley was fired, killing
and wounding 1,500, including some
women and children.
The unarmed workmen retreated,
but the disorder continued through
out the day and night, and the situa
tion is but sligthly changed. Many
thousands of workmen marched in
from outlyin"" districts, some of them
armed.
In Moscow and other large cities
the spark has been kindled and has
spread to the rural districts. It is
revolution. But it is a question
whether the populace can rally suf
ficiently and arm themselves. If they
can, the Empire will soon run1 with
blood. '
In the meantime the world stands
aghast at the sight of a ruler of a
great and so-called Christian and
civilized, country who will answer a
petition for better treatrhent;"""for
justice, with a rain of bullets,
LETTER FROM BILK1NS.
Science vs. Scripture Mrs. Bilkins
Believes in the Hoon and Weather
Signs. - Interview With a Weather
Prophet Seems to Explode Some
Theories.
Correspondence of the Enterprise.
Me an' Betsv wuz sittin' talkin' the
other nite an' she 'lowed: "My rum
atiz iz powerful bad to-nite. That
iz a sine ov rain."
"I don't reckon your rumatiz hez
much ter do with rain fallin'," set! I.
"People- hev rumatiz when they ain't
no rain in site."
She 'lowed : "The moon changes
termorrow an' we air likely ter hev
fallin' weather then enyway, an' my
rumatiz iz a gude weather sine,
too.'
"But the College fellers an' scien
tists say the moon don't hev enything
ter -do with the weather nor enything
else. They contend that the moon
iz nothin' but a big, round chunk ov
ice with holes in it an' that a man
f rum this country would freeze ter
deth before he'd git in forty miles ov
the moon."
"That don't change me," sed Betsy.
"I've got Scripture for whut I be
loeve erbout the moon. The Scrip
tures say that the moon governs the
tides ' an' '.-seasons; an' I know thet
hit won't do ter plant pertaters an'
things in the Wrong time ov the
nrgon, if you wanter make a good
crap."-;
"I'm go in' ter ax Dr. Von Herr
jinui erbout the moon when I go ter
Raleigh Saturday an' find out whut
he thinks erbout it."
"Tut, tut," sed Betsy. "He don't
know much more erbout hit than 1
do. I'll bet he never wuz in a hun
dred miles ov the moon."
'Yes he does," sed I. "Them
weather men an' scientists kin look
at tlie moon with a telephone an'
see jist whut hit iz made ov an' see
when hit iz goin' ter be in eclipse six
mouths frum now. Sum ov them say
that the moon lister be full ov moun
tains an' volcaners, but they hev awl
burnt out an' now it iz fifty times
colder than ice an' would freeze the
ears often a brass monkey. They
awlso say that the sun iz beginiu' ter
hev 'eold -chills' an' hit will be az cold
az the moon h now in erbout five
millyun years."
"flit iz awl tonimyrot." sed IUtsy.
"They don't know onyinore erbout
the. n - things than a mule colt."
I went ter Raleigh Saturday an' I
climbed up in the Fisher buildin' ter
the guvernmeiit weather bur; ter set?
Dr. Von Herrnian an' ter ax him
'erbout the disputed hits. I found
a pre eher lookin' feller with red
hair. "My name iz Bilkins." sed I.
"Clad ter meet ..you. Mr. Bilkins ;"
"my name iz Von Ilerrman," sed he.
"Whut kin I do fer you?" "Air you
the weather prevaricator ?" sed I.
"I am Direckter ov the weather buro
an' offisial weather prognosticater,"
sed he.
"Dock tor." sez I, "my wife iz sorter
snperstishus erbout the moon an'
things like that, an' I wanler ax you
whut they iz in it."
''Your wife hez bin readin' the al
manacks, haint she?" sed he.
. "Yes," sed I.
"I thought so. Well, you can tell
vour wife that the weather iz cold or
hot, wet or dry, regardless ov the
moon. Hit may be warm here terday
an' below zero in Wisconsin, or hit
may be rainin' in Missouri every day
an' we be hevin' a drouth here at the
same time. An' you kin awlso tell
her that the moon hez nothin' ter do
with crops."
"Hold up thar," sez I; "you air
fix in' a plan ter git me put outin
ov house an' home. If I go home an'
tell Betsy that she will apply fer a
divorce rite erway. An' you mean ter
tell me that if you plant pertaters in
the wrong time ov the moon they,
will hev a full crop ov pertaters an'
not awl go ter vines, and that if you
plant corn in the wrong time it will
not awl be stalk an' no ears, or that
cord wood split. in the dark ov the
moon will dry out a z well az if rut
in the light ov the moon?"
"That iz exactly whut I mean," sed
the Docktor. "The moon is a back
number. Hit does not affeck crops
or the weather. That is awl non
sense.". "Then you air not superstishus?'
sed I. "If a rabbit would cross the
rode in front or you, hit would not
make you think you wuz goin' ter
hev -bad luck?"
"No," sed he.
"You think the earth iz shaped like
an apple an' turns eround on hits
own axeltree every day?"
"Yes," sed the Dockter, "no mis
take erbout that. The sun iz
stashinary an' the world turns eround
once in twenty-four hours."
"Then Joshua wuz wastin' time
when he cummanded the sun ter
stand still?"
"Certainly." sed the Docktor, 'W
the sun iz many times larger than
this world."
"So I've beam," sed I, "but I'll be
doggone if I can see why the fireplace
wuz made so many times bigger than
the house."
"Oh ! there iz a whole lot more
wurlds ter be lighted an' heated by
the sun: millyuns ov 'em."
"Kin you prove hit?" sed I.
"Don't need eny proof," sed the
Docktor. "That wuz settled long er
'o." . - V.V
"I reckon it wuz settled. But they
iz sum powerful thin sircumstantial
eviderdence floatin' eround. I'd hate
ter buy eny ov them other wurlds on
hearsay like we've got f rum the
scientists."
"Science iz wonderful," sed the
Docktor. "Nothin' iz impossible ter
scientists. Why. they hev perfeckted
a pi a n t er e n a bl e t ra . i n s t er pa ss each
other on the same track without
stoppin'."
"I low iz that .".' sed I. "But deal
hit out gently."
"Why. they build a track on top
ov each train an' when they meet one.
train runs over the top ov the other,
so i hey pass each Other on the same
track an' don't lose a minit,'
When I cum too the Docktor wuz
up on top ov the buildin' moasurin'
how fast the wind wuz blowin' in a
syclone in Dakoter. so I yelled gude
bye ter him an' left. If I ever feel
strong enuff I'm goin' ter call on
him ergin.
Yours truly,
ZEKE BILKINS. 1
A Baltimore couple wants a di
vorce because they can't agree how
the chicken should be cooked. Many
a couple would like to " get iiito a
stew over a chicken.Wilmiiigtdn
(N. C.) Star. v- .... .-