""' ",. . .-;, v: i v t
THE
Eiiterpri
VOL II.
RALEIGH, N. C.v THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1905.
NO . 25
Raleigh
BILKIN5 IN NEW YORK.
How to Swindle City and Country
People -New York People Are Pain
fully Honest Major Bilkins Hakes
Victims of a Few Sharps.
New York, Oct. 3.
Correspondence of the Enterprise.
I've alwayS hearn that hit iz a glide
plan ter sell gold bricks an' -other
green goods in the country, fer the
folks air not supposed ter be rite
up with awl the latest tricks ov
trade.
When hit cums ter sellin' county
rites, lightnin' rods, $40 clocks, $65
cookin' stoves, linimints that will
cure awl diseeses, patent churns an'
things ov that sort the country dees?
tricks air gude enuff. But if you air
goin' ter go into the sale ov eleck
trick hair brushes, elecktrick belts,
hair restorers, stocks an' bonds,
make rite fer the biggest city on the
map. City peeple air made up ov
country peeple who didn't hev enuff
sense ter stay in the country an' do
well. Most ov the sensible peeple air
still in the country.
I reckon you hev seed in the pa
pers erbout a feller gittin' up a check
an' redeemin' $350,000 worth ov se
curities here a few days ergo. Sich
a thing couldn't hev bin done in
Durham or llillsboro, N. C. Yet, a
boy walked into one of the biggest
banks here, planked down a check fer
$300,000 to pay a loan, which was
real, -gets the securities an' walked
out. Hit iz mity temptatin' to me
here, fer I could bunco them out ov
half the money in New York, if I
wuz mean enuff.
The trubble here iz that they air
awl honest, an' they look fer every
body else ter be the same. These
New Yorkers air painfully honest.
If you go into a caff ay an' order din
ner an' don't feel much hungry an'
leave part ov hit untouched they will
try ter give you part ov your money
back. One feller lacked a nickel ov
givin' me enuff change an' he fol
lowed me clear ter my hotel ter make
hit rite. I could fill a big book with
stories erbout the unterrified honesty
ov New York peeple. For further
infermashun read the evidence in
the insurance investigashun.
But while they air so meny honest,
gullyable peeple in New York, they
iz a lot ov them who will cheat you
if they kin. The biggest bunco
game they ever played wuz when they
cot Judge Alton B. Parker ter re
siern a judgeship that paid about
$12,000 a year ter run fer Presedenfc.
Tamanv wuz at the bottom ov hit
Then my frend Jodeseevus Daniels
an' Henry Bowregard Varner went
up to Esoapyus an' tole Alton that
he wuz the real artickle an' that he
could carry the United States an'
half ov Mexico. He only carried
two townships in the United States
an' didn't git a vote in Mexico.
I hev bin tryin' ter find Ex-Judge
Parker ever sinse I got here, but no
budy seems ter remember whar he
iz. 1 want to give him sum ground
floor infermashun erbout how ter git
Hit is so blamed easy ter bunco
these New Yorkers that I - am get-
tih' tired ov hit. The nrst day got
T mot o Mr Jnlrnson. I sized
1 1 V -L XXJIV V M. --- ' ,
him up az a confidence man at first
site. He hez tried ter bunco me in
xtronftr different wavs. but lam still
a foTa AnWnr ahead ov the game. I
tole him I hed a copper mine down
on my plantashun near Willow
Springs an' that I wuz goin' ter sell
hit fer a hundred thousand plunks.
On the strength ov that he hez taken
me ter awl the nice theaters an'
other things, too. He insists that I
sell hit, but I hev changed my mind
an' want ter git up a company ter
open the mine. -He sed he could git
hit up an' it went so far that I got
awl the stock taken an borrowed
$500 f rum one ov the stockholders ter
pay fer a charter. As I hev no mine,
I got sorry fer him an give the mon
ey back.
I set down in Central Park an
went ter sleep, or pertended ter be.
A feller tried ter pick my pockets an'
I ketched him an' made him give me
$10.
A young chap dropped a big, fat
pocket book on the pavement behind
me the other day an' run after me an'
tole me that I hed lost my pocket
book. I tole him hit wuzent mine.
He opened hit an' hit had a wad ov
money az hig az your arm. Sez he,
"we will advertize the pocket book
on shares. Hit haint got less than a
thousand in hit and the owner will
be glad ter give a hundred dollars
reward. If he never hears ov hit we
will keep hit and divide the money."
Then he 'lowed he'd hev ter leave the
city that afternoon, bein' a travel in'
man' and that if I'd give him twen
ty dollars fer his share I mite keep
the whole thing an' git $80, the bal
ance ov the reward, or if the owner
didn't turn up, I'd be a thousand to
the gude.
Sez I, "young man, your proper
sishun seems ter be gude. But let
me see if the owners name aint on
the pocket book." lie handed me the
pocket bood ter examine. I sez:
"Now, young feller, I want you ter
go down ter the Pinker ton office an
explain why you air tryin' ter de
fraud gude peeple."
He thought I wuz a Pinkerton de
tective then an' run like a deer. I
walked on an' examined the pocket
book. Hit had a dollar bill wrapped
eround a lot ov brown paper, just
az I thought. But I froze on ter
the dollar.
I may sell a few vacant lots in
the suburbs or sum orange groves in
Florida list before I get out ov New
York. But hit iz a shame ter take
the money.
Truly,
ZEKE BILKINS.
Hickory Grove News.
Hickory Grove, N. ) C, Oct. 3.
Correspondence of the Enterprise
Mr. Miles Herndon was called
home last Saturday from Newport
News, Va., to see his mother, who
has been sick for several weeks.
Mr. Henry Strickland, who has
been verv sick at Durham, is much
better and is now visiting his father
near this place.
Miss B. L. Pace, of Hickory
Grove, is spending her time with
relatives and friends at Wakefield.
Mrs. F. P. Horton, of this place,
is death on snakes, but will give all
thpi room to a lizard.
Farrners are well up picking cot
ton. The crop is small, and the un
usually fine weather has enabled them
to gather it as fast as it opened.
There will not be more than two-
thirds of a crop made. Much hay
has been saved during the fine
weather and there is more yet to get
J. D. U.
THE DISPENSARY EVIL.
Rev. J. C. flassee Warms Up the
Q. M. I. .
Rev. J. C. Massee, pastor of the
Baptist Tabernacle in this city, ad
dressed the W. O. T. U., in session
here Tuesday night. After paying
his respects to saloons, cigarettes
and other things, he took up the dis
pensary. He said:
"The dispensary is the sublest foe
of them all, for it dares to declare
itself under Christian and moral con
trol! Now the whiskey business is
the devil's business and is under his
control and all the sophistry in the
world cannot change that fact. The
whiskey business is a great bad bus
iness. And whoever is identified with
that business is identified with a
great bad institution and in the ser
vice of a bad master. The saloon is
a devil in rags and filth. The dispen
sary is dressed up with some of the
filth gone, but a devil just the same.
We should give the devil his due. So
we will say the best that can be
said of the dispensary. It does avoid
social drinking upon the dispensary
premises. And the other counts in
its favor are: No lewd pictures on
its walls; no sales at. night; not sold
to minors; one drinking place un
der law better than many, and the
fact that it is a source of public rev
enue. "But the dispensary must plead
guilty to some evils as well. It
simply transfers the social drinking
as to place from the place where
sold to the open drinking counters
that may be erected next door, to
pool rooms, public assembly places,
such as depots and stores, offices of
business houses, dry goods boxes on
the streets and to the brothels of the
city. There are said to be a hun
dred drinking places in this city.
"It sells for revenue. There is
simply a change of beneficiaries.
What think you 2 V We condemn the
bar-keeper for taking the revenue
of blood. We wrest his business
from him by law and become the tak
ers of blood money ourselves. He
uses the money to improve his prop
erty; we use it to improve ours, our
streets and roads; he uses it to edu
cate his children ; we use it to edu
cate ours; he uses it to pay his taxes;
we use it to pay our taxes. We de
nounce him as an immoral wretch
and a destroyer of life. We congrat
ulate ourselves as the conservators
of public morals. Shame upon us
that we have not made better moral
discriminations than these
"I believe most earnestly that the
Christian conscience and the whis
key business cannot long endure to
gether. The dispensing of whiskey
by public franchise inevitably gives
to the part of the public consenting
a whiskey conscience. For this rea
son the dispensary is far more damn
ing to the moral tone of a commun
ity than the open saloon itself since
it appeals to the Christian " con
science to endorse and sustain it.
"But I would not be understood
as saying that the dispensary is not
an advance step. First, there were the
reports of state superintendents, the
re-advance upon the saloon. It is an
advance because it is an effort to
solve the problem and to leave the
solution in the hands of the moral
element of the State. It will be an
advance, however, only so far as it
is a step towards the end, and never
when it becomes an end in itself.
The only ultimate ground for the
Christian to occupy as to the liquor
business is total prohibition.
"We cannot as Christians compro
mise with the devil nor with the bus
iness. Let us then lift with renewed
purpose this white shield of yours
once again on high in all its purity
as the ideal and aim of all our lives,
of all our homes, of all our cities,
of our whole land, aye for Christ and
our brothers in all the world."
In and About McCullers.
A representative of the Enterprise
spent a day at McCullers this week.
That is a busy community just
now. The three merchants there,
Messrs. R. II, Utley, A. S. Morgan
and Felix Banks, are just getting hi
their fall stocks of goods and are
ready for the trade.
The new Bantist Church there was
recently completed, and only the
painting of the building remains to
be done.
Messrs. P. B. Farmer and N. Mc
Laughlin, both experienced lumber
men, own a large lumber plant there
and are dome: a fine business. Ihey
manufacture the lumber from the
tree, dry, dress and prepare it ready
for the building.
In the vicinity of McCullers will
be found many good citizens and
successful farmers. On the farms of
Messrs. E. T. Banks, J. If. Franks,
D. H. Stokes, T. J. Franks, A. F.
Powell, S. R. Lee, T. M. Franks, J.
L. Sorrell, D. II. Smith, T. J. Steph
ens, A, R. Tillman and 1). A. Overby
will be found good crops of cotton,
corn, etc., notwithstanding the bad
crop year. Parts of their crops will
yield almost or quite a bale of cot
ton per acre, and the balance from
eight to twelve hundred pounds of
seed cotton, which is remarkable for
this season. They are intelligent and
hard working and that counts more
than ever in a bad crop season.
The Christian denomination is
building a handsome new church at
Catawba Springs, about a mile west
from McCullers. The community al
so has an excellent High School
there, Mr. Claude Council being
principal.. The school will last ten
months in the year, and will soon tell
on that already progressive neighbor
hood. Mr. R. Y. Smith is the leading to
bacco farmer near McCullers. He
is very, successful in growing the
golden weed, and stands high in that
section. Mr. Smith formerly lived
in Granville County.
Sidney Moring Released.
Judge Purnell made an order
Monday that Sidney Moring, who has
been serving a sentence in jail for
implication in the operation of the
"neighborhood distillery" near Cary,
be allowed to take the oath of an
insolvent in lieu of thirty days fur
ther imprisonment and costs in the
case. Moring was one of several
men of the locality who were found
guilty of participation in the oper
ation of the distillery. All the oth
ers have served their term. Moring
appeared to be the most guilty of
the lot. He pledges himself not to
violate the revenue laws any more.
The application for the 'release of
Moring was made by Judge Winston.