Lamar County AlArchives News.....Lamar News - Feb 11, 1886 February 11, 1886
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Lamar News February 11, 1886

Microfilm Ref Call #373
Microfilm Order #M1992.4466
from
The Alabama Department of Archives and History

THE LAMAR NEWS 

E. J. MCNATT, Editor and Proprietor        VERNON, ALABAMA, FEBRUARY 11, 
1886          VOL. III. NO. 15

BELOW THE SEA – [May Kendall, in Magazine of Art.]
Deep in the bay the old church lies,
Beyond the storm-wind’s power,
The waves that whelmed it every play
In ripples round the tower.
And if you look down through the tide – 
Many and many a time – 
You may catch the glimmer of the stones,
Or hear the sweet bells chime!
For they that dwell deep in the sea,
Below the wind and rain,
The Mermen and the Mermaidens,
Have built it up again!
They have made fast the ruined walls
With their immortal hands,
And strewn the aisle with red sea-flowers,
And with the wet sea sands.
And when a drifting boat comes back
Rock shattered to the shore,
With never captain at the helm,
Nor sailor at the oar,
Then down below the stormy foam
The sweet old bells ring free,
They call upon the mariners
That come no more from sea.

“A SECRET OF THE SEA”
	The following story was told me a short time ago by a friend, who had 
it only at second hand from an eye-witness of the whole affair.  My friend 
began thus:
	“The strange thing I am going to tell you is true.  I know it because 
I have it from a friend, or rather a relation of one of the officers on board 
the ship.
	Some years ago, before the existence of the Suez Canal, a large East 
Indiaman was making her way easily, with light Summer winds, along through the 
Indian Ocean to Calcutta.  The Cape had been passed several days before, and 
now, with charming weather, officers and passengers, to say nothing of the 
crew, were looking forward to the end of what had been a pleasant, though 
quite uneventful, voyage.
	They had had nothing more serious than a ‘half-gale of wind’ had met 
only three or four ships, homeward bound, and in spite of a score or more 
agreeable passengers, in spite of the last sensation novels, of musical 
entertainments, of flirtations by moonlight on deck, and even in spite of 
unlimited gossip, the days had grown very monotonous, and the weeks 
unaccountably long; even light-hearted middies had begun to chafe and fret 
over the long confinement on shipboard, and the young ladies to sigh for an 
excitement.
	I take it for granted that you know that the service of the East India 
Company’s ships was like the Naval in its organization.  There were captain, 
lieutenants, midshipmen and petty officers, the ships were mounted with heavy 
guns, and were well armed, and manned with men trained for fighting.  The 
voyage was long, and in time of war the Indiamen were regarded as very 
desirable booty.  The ships were large, strongly built, and very commodious, 
and often luxuriously fitted up.
	“The day had been hot, and the light wind had died almost entirely 
away.  The great ship rose and fell on the waves, and her sails hung loosely 
from the tall masts that slowly swayed back and forth with monotonous, 
cracking sound one knows so well who has been much at sea.  It was sundown and 
the short twilight of the tropics was fast deepening into night.  Everybody 
had come upon deck to enjoy such whiffs of air as might be stirring, the 
passengers and officers on the quarterdeck, while the crew were hanging over 
the side or lazily lounging on the near coils of rope about the deck.
	Suddenly a faint, very faint sound  - so faint one knew not what it 
was, whence it came – or scarcely it there had been a sound at all.  People 
asked each other about it; some had heard it and others had not; and after 
some discussion it was decided there really was nothing at all.  And just as 
they reached that conclusion the sound came again, and a little clearer, more 
positive than before, so that everyone heard something.  “It was the moan of 
the breeze through the rigging!” “No, it was the bell for’ard!”  It was fifty 
most ordinary sounds in the world, and quite a matter of course that it should 
have been hear; and then – again it came as if it dropped from the air, and 
were the sob of some sad-hearted spirit floating by.  And then the thing was 
talked over and over, and everybody had a theory, and nobody was satisfied 
with any of them.
	Meantime it grew darker, and the great stars of the Southern World 
started out, making the night luminous with their wonderful glory.  A silence 
fell upon the busy tongues, and all eyes were gazing upwards, when suddenly 
through the hush broke the tone of a bell. Full, clear, musical it rang out, 
then died slowly, seeming to go further and further away, until the last faint 
sound came from a long distance off; then again silence, and people looked 
strangely at each other, and almost as if they were fearful of breaking that 
stillness by speaking the words that hung on every lip.  At last Captain 
Stanley hailed the masthead.
	“No sir, nothing in sight.  It’s a little misty up to windward.”
	“Kep a sharp lookout – d’ye hear?”
	“Ay, ay, sir!”
	“A slight puff of wind blew past the ship – just enough to bear the 
distinct tone of the mysterious bell, and also to tell from which direction it 
came.  It was deeper, clearer, fuller than before.  They mystery deepened, but 
Captain Stanley said, quietly:  “That mist undoubtedly holds the solution of 
the affair.  It is some ship’s bell, as we shall see as soon as it lifts a 
little.”  But hour after hour went on, and still the midst hung low on the 
water, and still the mournful sound of that bell was borne to the ears that 
listened all through the night on board the Dare.  Few left the deck, and all 
night long that sad, weird tolling kept them company – now seemingly closer to 
them, and again so faint and far away.  It was uncanny, and to the sensitive 
ones sounded like the strokes of doom.
	“Just before the early dawn, while it was yet only a clear starlight, 
the mist lifted, and at once came the cry from the masthead:  something to 
windward.”
	“What is she like?”
	“Well, it’s a queer sort of a craft altogether.”
	“Mr. Crabbs, will you go up and see what you make of her?” said 
Captain Stanley; and Mr. Crabbs, a light-footed young middle, sprang up the 
rigging, and in a few moments returned, saying:
	“She, or it, is a very queer-looking thing, sir.  It is pretty dark 
yet, but as well as I can see it looks like a big flatboat with a sort of 
house on it – it floats low in the water.  And that bell sir – keeps on 
tolling sir.” said little Crabbs, hesitatingly.
	“Yes, Yes –we can all hear the bell plainly enough, Mr. Crabbs!”  and 
turning to the first lieutenant, Captain Stanley went on:  “Mr. Fraser, see a 
boat lowered away at once.  Send Mr. Crabbs in command of her, to board this 
stranger and find out what this means.”
	“A few minutes later one of the ship’s boats, manned with a crew of 
six men, and little Crabbs in the stern, was pulling towards the flatboat, 
which had become visible, from the ship’s deck.  There was no steady wind, but 
a slight puff or two had been made the most of to draw a little closer to the 
strange thing, and the Dare now lay almost or quite becalmed about two miles 
distant from it.  The house or cabin – the top of it at least – could be seen, 
and a sort of crossbeam arrangement on which hung the bell whose solemn voice 
was heard as the boat rose and fell with the waves; but no living soul was 
visible.  Every glass was directed upon the little boat as it came up 
alongside.  Mr. Crabbs was seen to climb up the side and instantly disappear, 
while in the same moment the boat pushed off and made for the ship, pulling in 
a disordered, hesitating manner, stopping for a few minutes’ discussion 
seemingly, then their way with a long, regular stroke.
	Arrived at the ship’s side, they came on board in a dazed sort of a 
way with white scared faces; and upon Captain Stanley’s stern demand for an 
explanation, they managed to tell their story.
	They saw no human being, they heard sound of human voices on that 
haunted thing; but as Mr. Crabbs stepped upon the top of the high bulwark, a 
large black figure reached up and seized him with its long arms and dragged 
him down; and there was a sound of rattling of chains and shrieks and yells of 
fiendish laughter; and the thing was loaded with devils, and the Foul Fiend 
himself had got poor Mr. Crabbs, and they got away as fast as they could.
	And sad and terrible enough it all was, and that horrible bell went on 
tolling an awful knell for poor, bright-hearted little Crabbs.  There were 
sobs and tears, and pale cheeks, and mourning for the lad; and after a little 
the captain said, with a hard voice, and a set, stern look on his pleasant 
face:
	“Mr. Fraser, send that boat back with a fresh crew; or rather take 
command yourself, sir – take the best men and plenty of arms.”
	And in a few moments the little boat went back, carrying men who had 
rather fight a man-of-war twice their size than face a foe that was unknown, 
and doubtless belonged to the unseen world; but they went, and resolutely, for 
everybody loved little Crabbs.
	How earnestly and anxiously they were watched from the decks of the 
Dare one can well imagine.  Mr. Fraser and the boatswaith, well armed and 
revolver in hand, climbed cautiously up the sides of the flatboat, and were 
seen to raise their heads slowly above the bulwark.  And this is what they 
saw: a magnificent Bengal tiger of the finest breed just finishing his 
revolting meal!  They fired together, and the great creature fell over and 
died without a struggle.
	Then the boat’s crew were ordered to come up, and they carefully 
climbed on board, and with a pistol in each hand, began an exploration of the 
cabin; there was no door to it, and as they entered the wide doorway, there 
right before them they saw two skeletons – of a man and a woman, chained, one 
against each side of the room.  Between them, in the midst was a broken chain, 
one end still riveted to the floor – the other hung to the neck of the slain 
tiger!
	Fronting the doorway, on the wall was written in Arabic:  “Such is my 
vengeance upon those who rouse my jealousy.”  The ghastly tale was told.
	Silent from horror, they gathered together all that was left of the 
gay middie, and covering them with a boat-cloak, the Dare’s men rowed back and 
told their story.
	Lieutenant Fraser told it all to the person who told it to me, and 
strange and horrible as it is – well, you know, nothing is too strange, or too 
horrible to be true; and my story is true.

THE JOLLY JAPANESE
	“All life is a joke to the Japanese.” said Lieut. Wyckoff of the 
hydrographic bureau, who lived in Japan for five years.  “During all that time 
I never saw anyone angry.  I hardly believe they could lose their tempers if 
they should try.  They can kill or be killed with the most perfect savoir 
faire.  The trades-people will cheat you out of your eyes if you let them, and 
a good many would rather lie than tell the truth.  But there is really nom 
malice in it all.  If you find them out they will simply laugh in your face, 
as if to say they thought they were clever in trying to take you in, but that 
you were still more clever in catching them.  I was personally acquainted with 
the Cabinet, who really constitute the ruling power.  They carried on the 
Government as if it were a big piece of fun.  The Mikkado is the only one who 
is expected to look at life gravely, and he makes up in his existence for the 
levity of all his subjects.  He is so completely secluded that he may be said 
to live in a tomb.  Altogether, Japan is a delightful place to live in, and 
American and English naval officers who go there always hate to leave.  Aside 
from the charms of country and climate, I put its people for hospitality, 
warmth, and cheerfulness against any nation on earth – [Omaha Herald]

SHE PAID EXTRA
	A widow, whose age might have been forty, went into business on Grand 
River Avenue a few weeks ago and the first move was to get a sign painted.  
The services of a sign painter were secured, and when he finished his work he 
put on his “imprint” by placing his initial ‘W. A. H.” down on the left hand 
corner of the sign.  When the widow came to criticise the work she queried:
	“What does ‘W. A. H.’ stand for?”
	“Why, ‘Wanted, A Husband,” replied the painter.
	“Oh, yes, - I see” she mused.  “It was very thoughtful in you, and 
here is a dollar extra.” – [Detroit Free Press”

THE STUDENT’S RECOMMENDATION
	Professor to medical student:  “We will suppose another case.  By the 
blunder of a prescription clerk a man has taken twenty grains of cyanide of 
potassium.  What would you recommend?”
	“I would recommend that the obsequies be conducted in strict 
accordance with his bank account and standing in society, sir.” – [Chicago 
Ledger]

STORY OF TWO CORPORALS
AN EX-CONFEDERATE’S REMINISCENE OF THE WAR
Why the Hatred of One Man for Another Turned to Affection
	Being, as I am, a man of no education – never have been given a fair 
show in my younger days – the reader is asked to excuse my plain language and 
bad grammar.
	You must know that I belonged to the Fifteenth Alabama Infantry, and 
that we went to the front pretty early in the war.  We thus had our pick of 
good men.  In my company the third corporal was a powerful big chap named Sam 
Chapin, who had been overseer on a plantation near Huntsville.  He was not 
only big and powerful but his habits had made a selfish, overbearing and cruel 
man of him.  He hadn’t been in the company a week before half the men were 
down on him for his meanness.
	Big Sam also had his dislikes, but there was one man he hated in 
particular.  I shouldn’t have said man, for he was only a boy 17 years old – 
slim, pale-faced and as timid in look as a girl.  Sam too a hatred of this boy 
on sight, and he let no occasion pass to nag him and render his hard lot still 
harder.  Jimmie, as the boy was called, had no complaint to make.  He was of a 
forgiving disposition, and no matter what he felt or thought we never heard 
him condemning anybody by word of mouth.  Some of us would have killed Big Sam 
had we been I Jimmie’s place, but such a thing as striking back seemed never 
to have occurred to the boy.  Well, one day when a part of our regiment was 
cut off from the brigade by a flank movement of the Union troops, and our 
situation was desperate, our captain steps out and says:
	“Boys, I want to send word to Colonel ---.  Where’s the man who’ll 
take it?”
	He was looking right at Big Sam all the time, but that individual 
turned two shades whiter, and hid himself in the rear ranks, muttering that 
nobody but a fool would try to push past 3,000 Yankee muskets with the 
message.  The first thing we knew Jimmie had mounted a horse from which some 
officer had been shot and was riding away.  How he ever ran that gauntlet with 
his life was more than I could tell, but he did though, and down came enough 
of our forces to help us out of the box.
	This was new cause for Big Sam to hate Jimmie.  The boy had not only 
exhibited greater courage in the face of danger, and right before us all, but 
he was promoted to second corporal.  This was a promotion right over the head 
of Big Sam, and he felt it to the ends of his fingers. He couldn’t nag the boy 
any more, and I have no doubt he swore a solemn oath to kill him at the first 
opportunity. Indeed, he hinted as much, and became so ugly and abusive to all 
that some of us wanted to kill him.
	Well, in about six weeks we had another tussle with the Yanks.  We got 
into it hot and heavy, and as we were driving them for the moment I found 
myself alongside of Big Sam.  We were disputing for a rise of ground, and far 
in advance of us, carrying the flag which the color-bearer had dropped as a 
bullet had hit him, was Corporal Jimmie.  I was feeling proud to see him 
there, when, as heaven is my judge, I saw Big Sam raise his musket, take 
deliberate aim at the boy, and next moment Corporal Jimmie went down.
	It was a hurly-burly time, with grape and lead cutting all around us, 
and I let the incident pass for a time, determined, though, that Big Sam 
should pay the forfeit after the battle.
	We kept on and on, but as we rose the hill we were checked.  In five 
minutes more we were being driven, and that was how it came about that 
Corporal Jimmie, with his left arm broken by Big Sam'’ bullet, found himself 
lying beside the ex-overseer, who had a Yankee bullet in his leg.  There were 
plenty of others wounded, and some dead ones, too, but our two men lay almost 
side by side.  Big Sam was groaning, cursing, and whining like the coward he 
was, when a canteen was held within reaching and a voice said:
	“Take it, comrade – a drink will ease your pain.”
	“W-what!  Is it you?” exclaimed the overseer as he rose up on his 
elbow and gazed at Jimmie.
	“Yes, both of us are down, but you are hit the worst.  Can I help you?”
	“You help me?”
	“Of course.”
	It paralyzed Big Sam to meet with such words from the man he had tried 
to kill.  After a time he groaned out:
	“Say, Jimmie, you orter shoot me thought the head.”
	“What for?”
	“Cause I’m the man that fired that bullet into you.”
	“Well, I don’t want revenge.  I’m now able to crawl away, but I won’t 
leave you.”
	The Yanks were massing artillery to play on the rise of ground and 
what does Corporal Jimmie do but get up in the face of all the sharp-shooters 
and wounded and faint as he was, half drag, half carry Big Sam into a 
sheltered ravine.  More’n that, he binds up his wound, and makes him pretty 
comfortable, and there we found ‘em along towards night, when a grand charge 
finally gave us the ground.
	You remember, I had seen Big Sam draw a bead on the boy, but when I 
went to make a stir over it Corporal Jimmie said:  “Please don’t’!  He has 
been punished enough.  I think he will be a changed man.”
	And so he was.  They took to each other like twin ducks, and were the 
fasted, firmest friends you ever saw.  Big Sam dropped all mean ways, and 
within a year was orderly sergeant of the company while Corporal Jimmie was a 
lieutenant. 

GREAT SALT LAKE
	Great Salt Lake is in fact not a branch of the Sea at all, but a mere 
shrunken remnant of a very large fresh water lake system, like that of the 
still existing St. Lawrence chain.  Once upon a time American geologists say a 
huge sheet of water, for which they have even invented a definite name, Lake 
Bonneville, occupied a far larger valley among the outliers of the Rocky 
Mountains, measuring 300 miles in one direction by 180 miles in the other.  
Beside this primitive Superior lay a great second sheet – an early Huron – 
(Lake Lahontan the geologists call it) almost as big and of equally fresh 
water.  By an by – the precise dates are necessarily indefinite – some change 
in the rainfall, unregistered by any contemporary, made the waters of the big 
lakes shrink and evaporate.  Lake Lahontan shrank away like Alice in 
Wonderland, till there was absolutely nothing left of it.  Lake Bonneville 
shrank till it attained the diminished size of the existing Great Salt Lake.  
Terrace after terrace, running in long parallel lines on the sides of the 
Wahsach Mountains around, a mark the various levels at which it rested for a 
while on its gradual downward course.  It is still falling indeed, and the 
plain around is being gradually uncovered, forming the white, self-encrusted 
shore with which all visitors to the Mormon city are so familiar.  But why 
should the water have become briny?  Why should the evaporation of an old 
Superior produce at last a Great Salt Lake?  Well, there is a small quantity 
of salt in solution even in the freshest of lakes and ponds, brought down to 
them by the streams or rivers, and, as the water of the hypothetical Lake 
Bonneville slowly evaporated, the slat and other mineral constituents remained 
behind.  Thus the solution grew constantly more and more concentrated till at 
the present day it is extremely saline.  Prof. Deikie (to whose work the 
present paper is much indebted) found that he floated on the water in spite of 
himself.  And the under sides of the steps at the bathing places are encrusted 
with short stalactites of salt, produced form the drip of the bathers as they 
leave the water.  The mineral constituents, however, differ considerably in 
their proportions from those found in true salt lakes of marine origin, and 
the point at which salt is thrown down is still far from having been reached.  
Great Salt Lake must simmer in the sun for many centuries yet before the point 
arrives at which (as cooks say) it begins to settle. – [Cornhill]

Pomenade is a new Southern drink for which rare virtues are claimed in the way 
of tastefulness and refreshing quality.  It consists of the juice of half a 
sour pomegranate, diluted with water and sweetened.

YEARING FOR THE END – [Philadelphia Record]
Breathe soft and low, O whispering wind,
Above the tangled grasses deep,
Where those who loved me long ago
Forgot the world and fell asleep.
No towering shaft, or sculpted urn.
Or mausoleum’s empty pride,
Tells to the curious passer-by
Their virtues or the time they died.

I count the old, familiar names,
O’er grown with moss and lichen gray,
Where tangled brier and creeping vine
Across the crumbling tablets stray.
The summer sky is softly blue;
The birds still sing the sweet, old stain;
But something from the summer time
Is gone, that will not come again.

So many voices have been hushed,
So many songs have ceased for days,
So many hands I used to touch
Are folded over hearts of clay.
The noisy world recedes from me;
I cease to hear its praise or blame
The mossy marbles echo back
No hollow sound of empty fame.

I only know that calm and still
They sleep beyond life’s woe and wail,
Beyond the shadow of the vale
I only feel that, tired and worn,
I halt upon the highway bare,
And gaze with yearning eyes beyond
On fields that shine supremely fail.

HUMOROUS
A man isn’t necessarily related to a hen because he lays bricks.

An astonishing sign at a tobacconist’s in Paris:  No Smoking.”

The school ma’am who married a tanner had evidently a glimmering of the 
fitness of things.

Notwithstanding the depression in business circles, the business of the thief 
seems to be picking up.

Scarlet stationery has been introduced, but will not be popular.  Who wants a 
letter red before it is written?

“What is the worst thing about riches?” asked the Sunday school 
superintendent.  And the new boy said, “Not having any.”

“The way to sleep,” says a scientist, “is to think of nothing.”  But this is a 
mistake.  The way to sleep is to think it is time to get up.

A contest between two dentists as to which of the two could take out most 
teeth in a given time resulted, as was expected, in a draw.

After all, it is the condition of trade that regulates the fashions.  Nearly 
all kinds of garments are worn longer in dull times than in prosperous times.

A young man who was jilted by his girl, and subsequently married her, says she 
treated him like a bottle of patient medicine. He was “shaken” before taken.

It is said by an agricultural paper that “coal-ashes are very distasteful to 
cut worms.”  Then the coal-ashes should be saved for worms that are not cut.  
Every farmer should be kind to the worms.

Naturalists say that the feet of the common working honey bee “exhibit the 
combination of a basket, a brush and a pair of pinchers.”  This may be true, 
but we never knew before that a basket, a brush and a pair of pinchers were so 
warm to the touch.

Lady, in registry office – I am afraid that little girl won’t do for a nurse; 
she is too small.  I should hesitate to trust her with the baby.  Clerk – Her 
size, madam, we look upon as her greatest recommendation.  You should remember 
that when she drops a baby it doesn’t have very far to fall.

SAM JONES, THE REVIVALIST
	Sam Jones was born in Alabama about the year 1847.  In his youth his 
parents moved to Georgia, where he was brought up.  He comes of a family of 
Methodist preachers, but in his youth was wild and dissipated.  He studied 
law, and had just entered upon the practice of his profession when his father 
died.  The old gentleman, who was a most sincere, God-fearing man, on his 
deathbed urged his son to repentance, and the young man dates his conversion 
from that hour.  Having forsaken his dissipated habits and his wild 
companions, he also decided to give up the profession of the law and enter the 
ministry.  He was first licensed to preach by the Atlanta Conference in 1872, 
and since that time he has preached with great success and conducted revivals 
in nearly every city in the South and Southwest.  Shortly after entering upon 
his career as an evangelist Mr. Jones married Miss Laura McElwain of Eminence 
Ky. – [Chicago Inter-Ocean]

PAGE 2

THE LAMAR NEWS
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 11, 1886

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line.

“It is said that Bismarck resembles Ben Butler.”  Down with Bismarck!

A bill has been passed by the Virginia Legislature allowing local option for 
that state.

The damage to the fruit and farm interests of Florida, by the recent cold 
snap, will amount to $2,000,000.

A number of petitions have been sent to the Massachusetts Legislature praying 
the prohibition of the use of tobacco.

Mr. Cleveland is making himself very strong with the people, but he is not 
liked by the extreme politicians of either party.

President Cleveland has informed Mr. C. H. Jones, of the Jacksonville Times 
Union, that as soon as he has leisure he will make an extended trip through 
the South.

When an artery is cut the red blood spurts out at each pulsation.  Press the 
thumb firmly over the artery, near the wound, and on the side near the heart.  
Press hard enough to stop the bleeding, and wait until a physician comes.  The 
wounded person is often able to do this himself if he ahs the requisite 
knowledge. – Ex.

Murst Halstead, editor of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, one of the 
leading Republican organs and most bitter malingers of the south in the United 
States, was arrested the other day for publishing an unlawful advertisement.  
We suppose his excuse will be that he was so busy watching for accounts of 
deeds of lawlessness in the Southern States that he did not have time to keep 
his own affairs straight.

The Montgomery Dispatch is right.  If a man or a newspaper favors any one 
candidate for governor that is no reason or excuse for slandering or abusing 
the other candidates, and such action should be deprecated and if possible put 
down by all fair-minded persons.  There is entirely too much of this kind of 
electioneering in this state, and the worst of it is there seem to be no 
diminution of the evil.  The recent story of Mr. Dawson’s unsoldierly conduct 
during the war has been proved to be an unfounded slander as we were satisfied 
it was at first.  It is too bad that a man cannot be an honest candidate for 
an office without subjecting himself to these slanderous tales, generally 
originated by the most irresponsible element of the country. – [Fort Payne 
Journal]

Mr. W. C. Watts, secretary and treasurer of the Memphis & Birmingham railroad 
is in the city visiting his family.  In conversation with an Age reporter 
yesterday touching the road he said:  “I look for the road to be extended to 
Birmingham within two years and possibly in eighteen months.  The trouble 
heretofore has been the original charter was issued for the extension of the 
line from Memphis to Selma and Brunswick, which was granted before Birmingham 
was of much size.  When the management of the road wanted to change the line 
to Birmingham from the original way, the people along the proposed line 
opposed the action bitterly.  A delay was made until the original charter was 
amended so that it could pass the Mississippi legislature, which it did last 
week and went through safely to the governor’s hands.” – [Age]

It seems from the following editorial taken from the Montgomery Dispatch that 
the Soldier’s Monument Committee is having more to do than merely “to ask to 
receive” contributions sufficient to build the monument:
	“Nothing can justify the slow rate of progress the monument cause is 
making, and it is no credit to the people of Alabama that the requisite fifty 
thousand dollars has not already been raised. If every man in Alabama would 
contribute his mite it would necessitate no such drain upon the pockets of 
liberal contributors as have been made since the movement began last fall.  
Surely the committee has performed its measure of duty buy its unceasing 
labors and systematic efforts in the monument’s behalf. It only remains with 
the people to respond half as liberally as the committee’s work has become 
persistent.  Let it not be said of the brave men of Alabama that the memory of 
their matchless dead shall suffer from the bestowal of an unmerited oblivion.”

He who pretends to be everybody’s particular friend is nobody’s.

WHAT CONGRESS IS DOING
	Several important topics of legislation are now before Congress.  The 
Presidential Succession Bill, the Silver Resolution, the Admission of Southern 
Dakota as a state, the Mormon Question and the question of confirmations by 
the Senate.  The tariff has fallen far into the background and is not likely 
to be distributed during the session, though it is a long one.  A large number 
of bills for the relief of private persons have been favorably acted upon.  
But few general laws will be enacted during the session it is evident from 
what has been done already.  The Silver Resolutions are likely to consume a 
month’s time and result in nothing being done but many masterly speeches made 
on this intricate question, and it would seem if these speeches were carefully 
read by the masses that they could form decided convictions of their own in 
regard to silver as a money. When the appropriation bills come up we may 
expect a long controversy.  the appropriation for rivers and harbors will be 
much less than will satisfy many members of congress who have large interests 
of this nature to represent.  The End’s Ship Railway will be considered in 
this connection, and considering the magnitude of enterprise and the wonderful 
benefits that it would confer on American shipping, it will in all probability 
be a subject of long and able discussion.

THE EAD’S SHIP RAILWAY
	Doubtless many of our readers are familiar with the intelligence 
public about this most wonderful of modern projects.  Many curious and quaint 
ideas are advanced about it, but all who have seen the models of this great 
work as arranged by the greatest of civil engineers admit that it is perfectly 
feasible and a rational undertaking.  The idea of picking up an ocean vessel 
in the Atlantic and putting it down in the Pacific strikes one at first as 
being among the impossibilities.  But competent engineers say that it can be 
done and that the three tracks, the hoisting appliances and the turning tables 
proposed are sufficient to perform this gigantic work.  The capital is ready 
and all that is asked is for the Congress of the United States to guarantee 
the interest on fifty millions of dollars for fifteen years’ the government of 
Mexico having already guaranteed the interest on twenty-five millions of 
dollars; seventy-five millions being needed to complete the work.  The 
DeLesseps Canal across the Isthmus of Panama being eight hundred miles further 
away, and being built by foreign capital, has but few charms for the United 
States government.   It is likely to get up entangling alliances and disturb 
the peace of our government.  The DeLesseps Canal will cost five hundred 
million dollars, and when completed will be of doubtful capacity and 
endurance. Many curious statements are made by scientists about this project, 
and one of the most quaint is that the Atlantic is five feet higher than the 
Pacific, and that this connection would lessen the depth of water at the 
Atlantic sea ports five feet, and possibly destroy the equilibrium of the 
earth.  And again, that a change of ocean currents means nothing but a change 
in the temperature of the climate, and that our torrid zone would become 
temperate and possibly frigid.  
	But leaving aside all such speculations, there is going to be made a 
crossing for vessels somewhere between North and South America, and would it 
not be wise for Congress to take the matter in hand and keep foreign control 
off of the continent?

Examiner Lapsley has made his report to Governor O’Neal in the case of J. M. 
WEEMS, the defaulting Superintendent of Education for Lauderdale county.
	This report shows that Mr. Weems was first appointed Superintendent in 
1871, and that he continued to fill that office until his defalcation in 
October, 1885; that his defalcations and misappropriations of the school funds 
have been going on almost from the year of his first appointment; that in 1874 
he used $1,009.75 of the school money to pay off an individual debt; that (we 
quote the language of the report) it was “well known that Weems had long been 
largely in debt to the school fund entrusted to him, and that he habitually 
used some of the current year'’ income to pay his liability for past year’s 
teachers salaries”  and that not only Mr. Weems, but the present and a former 
tax collector of Lauderdale county have repeatedly violated the law in paying 
out the school funds for other than school purposes – thought the collectors 
doubtless did so in perfect good faith.
	But the most astonishing revelation in this report is the fact that 
Mr. Weems was allowed by both State Superintendent Armstrong and Palmer in the 
years 1883-4 and 1884-5 top collect and disburse the public school funds 
without being required to give bond.  He was discharging the duties of his 
office during those years and at the time of his defalcation with out being a 
qualified officer under the laws of the state.  This neglect on the part of 
Superintendent Palmer and Armstrong has induced Examiner Lapsley to ask 
Attorney General McClellan whether or not the conduct of those officials was 
illegal.
	We don’t know what the answer of the Attorney General will be, but it 
seems to us that inasmuch as the law requires the state superintendent to 
obtain a bond from all county superintendents before they enter upon the 
discharge of their duties, the failure to obtain a bond from Mr. Weems was a 
clear violation of the law.  If not a violation of the law, it was decidedly 
reprehensible conduct on the part of these officials.
	If the affairs of this state are going to be conducted after this 
fashion, it might pay the state in the long run to create a regular board of 
examiners, and require it to visit to annually every count in the state, also 
the state capitol, look after the security of the bonds of all state officials 
and examine into the conduct of such officers.  As we understand it, Examiner 
Lapsley’s duties are not quite so comprehensive – [Birmingham Age]

GOOD COUNTY ROADS – [Jacksonville Republican]
	We believe that there should be a road tax in Alabama.  The present 
policy of allowing overseers to work the roads when and as they please is one 
of the worst drawbacks we could haven, and we need not expect to have good 
roads so long as this is the ease.  Very many times the overseers are disposed 
to do their duty, but they cannot control hands.  The law is not rigid enough 
on defaulters of this kind.  In the countries of Europe and in many Northern 
States the roads are proof against all kinds of weather.  They are hard, 
durable and easily kept in repair.  No wagons ever mire or stall on their 
roads, and we could get highways equally as good in Alabama if a proper policy 
were pursued.  We need better county roads, and we need not expect to attract 
immigrants until we improve in this respect.  In the county, as it is now, 
people cannot get to market with their produce, the children can not go to 
school and adults can not get to church.
	We long to see the day when there will be a radical change in this 
respect.

Representative Rankins of Wisconsin, one of the most prominent Republican 
members of the House, died in Washington on the 25th ult.  His remains were 
taken to his home in Wisconsin, escorted by a committee of Senators and 
Representatives.

NEW MUSIC BOOKS – “GOOD TIDINGS COMBINES” By A. J. Showalter.  This is the 
latest and best of all the Sunday School books for popular use.  It contains 
36 pages, and on ever page there is a gem of sacred song.  Bound in 
substantial boards.  Price 25 cents per copy; $2.50 per dozen.  THE NATIONAL 
SINGER. By A. J. Showalter & J. H. Teaney.  This book is the result of much 
careful work by the most experience musicians who write for character notes.  
It is the bet of all the singing school books, as it contains enough new music 
of every grade and variety to interest and instruct any school or convention, 
and also all of the more popular standard hymn tunes of the church.  This is a 
feature that is wanting in every other popular character notebook.  The 
National Singer supplies this and every other want to make an ideal signing 
schoolbook.  Price 75 cents; $7.50 per dozen.  THE MUSIC TEACHER.  A new 
monthly musical Journal edited by A. J. Showalter.  Every student of music, 
chorister and teacher should read good musical journals.  The Music Teacher 
aims to instruct as well as entertain.  Price 50 cents per year.  Specimen 
copies free.  Agents wanted.  We can furnish any other music or music book no 
matter where published.  It would also be in your interest to write us when 
you want to buy a piano or organ, or any thing else in the music line. – A. J. 
Showalter & Co., Dalton, Ga.


Masonic.  Vernon Lodge., NO. 289 A. F. and A. M. Regular Communications at 
Lodge Hall 1st Saturday, 7 p.m. each month. 
 J. D. MCCLUSKEY, W.M. 
 		 M. W. MORTON, Sec.
Vernon Lodge., No. 45, I. O. O. F. meets at Lodge Hall the 2d and 4th 
Saturdays at 7 ½ p.m. each month.
W. G. MIDDLETON, N. G.
M. W. MORTON, sect’y

Largest, cheapest, best stock of dress goods, dress trimmings, ladies & misses 
jerseys clothing, furnishing goods, knit underwear, boots, shoes, & hats, tin 
ware, etc., etc., at rock bottom figures at A. COBB & SONS’S.

ATTORNEYS
NESMITH & SANFORD      THOS. B. NESMITH, Vernon, Ala.  J. B. SANFORD, Fayette 
C. H., Ala.  Attorneys-at-Law.  Will practice as partners in the counties of 
Lamar and Fayette, and separately in adjoining counties, and will give prompt 
attention to all legal business intrused to them or either of them.

SMITH & YOUNG, Attorneys-At-Law Vernon, Alabama– W. R. SMITH, Fayette, C. H., 
Ala.   W. A. YOUNG, Vernon, Ala.  We have this day, entered into a partnership 
for the purpose of doing a general law practice in the county of Lamar, and to 
any business, intrusted to us we will both give our earnest personal 
attention.   – Oct. 13, 1884.

PHYSICIANS – DENTISTS
M. W. MORTON.  W. L. MORTON.  DR. W. L. MORTON & BRO., Physicians & Surgeons.  
Vernon, Lamar Co, Ala.  Tender their professional services to the citizens of 
Lamar and adjacent country.  Thankful for patronage heretofore extended, we 
hope to merit a respectable share in the future.  Drug Store.

Dr. G. C. BURNS, Vernon, Ala.  Thankful for patronage heretofore extended me, 
I hope to receive a liberal share in the future.

PHOTOGRAPHS – A. R. HENWOOD, Photographer, Aberdeen, Miss.  Price list:
Cards de visite, per doz………$2.00
Cards Cabinet, per doz……….$4.00
Cards Panel, per doz………….$5.00
Cards Boudoir, per doz………$5.00
Cards, 8 x 10, per doz……….. $8.00
Satisfaction given or money returned.

RESTAURANT.  Aberdeen, Mississippi.  Those visiting Aberdeen would do well to 
call on MRS. L. M. KUPPER, who keeps Restaurant, Family Groceries, Bakery, and 
Confectionery, Toys, Tobacco, and Cigars.  Also Coffee and sugar.  Special 
attention paid to ladies.

Barber Shop – For a clean shave or shampoo, call on G. W. BENSON, in rear of 
Dr. BURN’S office, Vernon, Ala.

CADY’S LIVERY FEED AND SALE STABLE  Columbus, Mississippi.  stock fed and 
cared for at moderate charges.

New goods, new prices.  W. L. JOBE’S, the jeweler.  Columbus, Mississippi.  I 
have just returned from the North with a large and well selected stock of 
watches, clocks, jewelry, and silver plated ware which I will sell as low as 
the quality of the goods permit.  When in Columbus don’t fail to call and 
examine my goods and prices.  Cash orders will receive prompt attention.   – 
W. L. JOBE.

WIMBERELY HOUSE Vernon, Alabama.  Board and Lodging can be had at the above 
House on living terms L. M. WIMBERLEY, Proprietor.

New Cash Store, Vernon – Alabama.  We have just opened a large, fresh, and 
well selected stock of General Merchandise, consisting of dry goods, notions, 
family groceries, &c.  We have on hand also, a large and well selected stock 
of School Books.  The bottom knocked out in prices.  We only ask a trial.  
Chickens, eggs, butter, and all kinds of country produce wanted, and on hand. –
 GEO. W. RUSH & Co.

The Great Bazaar!  Aberdeen, Mississippi.  S W Corner, Commerce and Meridian 
Streets.  Crockery, china, glassware, tin ware, fancy goods, stationery, 
jewelry, notions, candies, toys and Holiday goods of all kinds at wholesale or 
retail.  Special attention given to the wholesale department.  Trial orders 
solicited and prices guaranteed.  Terms:  Thirty days, net, 2 percent off for 
cash.  No charge for package.  THOS. A. SALE & CO.

New Store!  M. H. HODGE, Kennedy, Alabama.  Has a large and well selected 
stock of general merchandise consisting in part of dry goods, groceries, 
notions, hardware, Queensware, boots, and shoes, Highest Market Price paid for 
cotton.

ERVIN & BILLUPS, Columbus, Miss.  Wholesale and retail dealers in pure drugs, 
paints, oils, paten Medicines, tobacco & cigars.  Pure goods! Low prices!  
Call and examine our large stock.

Go to ECHARD’S PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY, Columbus, Mississippi, when you want a fine 
photograph or ferrotype of any size or style.  No extra charge made for 
persons standing.  Family group and old pictures enlarged to any size.  All 
the work is done in his gallery and not sent North to be done.  Has a handsome 
and cheap line of Picture Frames on hand.  Call at his Gallery and see his 
work when in Columbus.

STAR STABLE – Aberdeen, Mississippi.  A. A. POSEY & BRO., having consolidated 
their two Livery Stables, are now offering many additional advantages at this 
well-known and conveniently located Livery Stable.  Owing to their 
consolidation, they have on hand a number of good second-hand buggies which 
they are selling cheap.

MORGAN, ROBERTSON & CO., Columbus, Mississippi.  General dealers in staple dry 
goods, boots, & shoes, groceries, bagging, ties, etc. etc. Always a full stock 
of goods on hand at Bottom prices.  Don’t fail to call on them when you go to 
Columbus.

JOHNSON’S ANODYNE liniment. The most wonderful family remedy ever known.  For 
internal and external use.  Parson’s pills make new, rich blood.  Make hens 
lay….(to small to read)

PAGE 3

THE LAMAR NEWS
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 11, 1886    
         
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
One copy one year		$1.00
One copy, six months		     .60
All subscriptions payable in advance

LOCAL DIRECTORY 

CHANCERY COURT
THOMAS COBBS			Chancellor
JAS. M. MORTON			Register

CIRCUIT COURT
S. H. SPROTT				Circuit Judge
THOS. W. COLEMAN			Solicitor

COUNTY OFFICERS
ALEX. COBB				Probate Judge
JAMES MIDDLETON			Circuit Clerk
S. F. PENNINGTON			Sheriff
L. M. WIMBERLEY			Treasurer
W. Y. ALLEN				Tax Assessor
D. J. LACY				Tax Collector
B. F. REED				Co. Supt. of Education
Commissioners – W. M. MOLLOY, SAMUEL LOGGAINS, R. W. YOUNG, ALVERT WILSON

CITY OFFICERS
L. M. WIMBERLEY			Mayor and Treasurer
G. W. BENSON				Marshall
Board of Aldermen – T. R. NESMITH, W. L. MORTON, JAS. MIDDLETON, W. A. BROWN, 
R. W. COBB

RELIGIOUS
FREEWILL BAPTIST – Pastor –T. W. SPRINGFIELD. Services, first Sabbath in each 
month, 7 p.m.
MISSIONARY BAPTIST – Pastor J. E. COX.  Services second Sabbath in each month 
at 11 am.
METHODIST – Pastor – G. L. HEWITT.  Services fourth Sabbath in each month.  11 
a.m.

SABBATH SCHOOLS
UNION – Meets every Sabbath at 3 o’clock p.m.  JAMES MIDDLETON, Supt.
METHODIST – Meets every Sabbath at 3 o’clock p.m.  G. W. RUSH, Supt.

MAIL DIRECTORY

VERNON AND COLUMBUS - Arrives every evening and leaves ever morning except 
Sunday, by way of Caledonia.
VERNON AND BROCKTON – Arrives and departs every Saturday by way of Jewell.
VERNON AND MONTCALM – Arrives and departs every Friday.
VERNON AND PIKEVILLE – Arrives and (sic) Pikeville every Tuesday and Friday by 
way of Moscow and Beaverton.
VERNON AND KENNEDY – Arrives and departs every Wednesday and Saturday.
VERNON AND ANRO – Leaves Vernon every Tuesday and Friday and returns every 
Wednesday and Saturday.

LOCAL BREVITIES
E. W. BROCK is off to Columbus.

Oat sowing is all the talk on the streets now.

The spring time will soon be here, gentle Annie.

We will soon hear the first whippoorwill song.

There is not a vacant store or business house in town.

The attendance at the High School increases every week.

CAPT. JAS. M. WILSON, or Fernbank spent yesterday in town.

Vernon does quite a lively trade in horses and mules every day.

There are now seven prisoners in the county jail – all colored.

We are having very pleasant and spring-like weather this week.

Look up and read the Notice of Administrator’s Sale in this issue.

Family Groceries of all kinds cheap at Mace & Rector’s.

Mr. JOHN MORTON keeps up the “anvil chorus” at his new shop in town.

Rev. Mr. COX will preach at the Methodist Church on next Sunday at 11 a. m. 

Rev. T. W. SPRINGFIELD preached an interesting sermon in town on last Sunday.

New flues are being put up in the court house for the comfort of the next 
court.

Dr. M. W. and JAMES M. MORTON, Esq. spent several days in Fayette C. H. last 
week.

Mr. PROPST and family, of Arizona, are visiting the family of County 
Commissioner WILSON.

We are pleased to learn that Mrs. G. L. HEWITT who has been quite sick for 
some time, is convalescing.

8 pounds good coffee for one dollar at Mace & Rector’s.

Mrs. Dr. SRPRINGFIELD, of Detroit, who has been very sick for some time, is 
now, we are glad to learn, convalescing.

Fernbank was made a voting place by the last commissioner’s Court, and now 
Wilson’s Beat has two voting places.

Our old friend, W. F. HAMILTON, of Detroit, who has been living for some time 
near Aberdeen, has returned to Detroit.

If you wish to forget the hard times subscribe for your county paper, and you 
will not think of hard times while reading it.

Dr. W. H. KENNEDY was in town yesterday, being called in consultation in 
regard the sickness of Hon. THOS. B.  NESMITH.

The Governor has remitted the fine assessed against Mr. SAMP LOLLAR at the 
last circuit Court for violating the prohibition law.

If you want a good pair of Eyeglasses or spectacles, call on Mace & Rector.  
They keep a large assortment.

See the notices inserted by the Circuit Clerk in regard to the postponement of 
Circuit Court from the 1st to the 2nd of March.

Parties who open new stores in town ought to advertise and let the people know 
what they are doing and where they may be found.

Fancy Groceries, such as cheese, crackers, oysters, and sardines for sale 
cheap at Mace & Rector’s.

We are sorry to learn that a little son of Dr. T. J. SPRINGFIELD’S of Detroit 
was so unfortunate as to get his leg broke one day last week.

Mr. MURRAY COBB, of Columbus, is visiting the family of his father, Hon. A. 
COBB.  He has just recovered from a severe attack of pneumonia.

Mr. BUD POE, conductor of the G. & P. Railroad, is visiting his father-in-law 
Hon. ALEX. A. COBB, and is disabled from traveling by a severe burn on his 
foot.

Commissioner’s Court was in session on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  All 
the members of the Board were present.  We will publish a synopsis of their 
proceedings next week.

If you want the people to vote for you and to know that you are a candidate 
you had best send your announcement accompanied with five dollars to the News.

We wish to call the reader’s attention to the announcement of Mr. J. N. MCNEIL 
as a candidate for the office of Circuit Clerk, Mr. McNEIL is a young man of 
high integrity and good business qualifications, besides being one of the 
immortal family of Mes.

We regret to have to state that Hon. THOS. B. NESMITH is dangerously ill of 
pneumonia.  We, in common with a large number of the Colonel’s friends, wish 
him a safe and speedy recovery.

DIED – On the 8th inst. of sever burns caused by her dress catching on fire, a 
little daughter of Mr. and Mrs. ISHAM HANKINS. The News hereby extends 
sincerest sympathies to the bereaved family.

We were pleased to receive a call on last Monday from Hon. J. E. PENNINGTON.  
Mr. PENNINGTON is a candidate for the office of Probate Judge, and so announce 
himself in this issue of the News.  If thou art a candidate, go and do 
likewise.

The News office is now one door west of A. A. SUMMER’S store on Aberdeen 
street, where we will be pleased to have our friends call on us.

We wish it distinctly understood that in no case does the mere publication of 
a communication commit this paper to an endorsement thereof.

We call special attention to the announcement of J. E. PENNINGTON as a 
candidate for the office of Judge of Probate.  The long and satisfactory 
services rendered by Capt. PENNINGTON as tax assessor, renders any 
introduction of him to the people of Lamar County useless.

When you come to court be prepared to subscribe for the News.  County officers 
are to be elected this year, and you will need it to keep yourself advised as 
to who the candidates are, what they are doing and when they will be around.  
The News will endeavor to keep up with them, and to give its readers the news 
concerning them each week.  Besides county officers, this is the year for 
electing state officers and a representative to Congress.  So you need to keep 
your eyes open and your understanding clear as to who candidates are, what 
kind of men they are, what their views and what office they want.  The News 
will give all the important state and county news, and in order for you to 
keep fully abreast of the times it is absolutely necessary for you to take 
your county paper. Now is the time to subscribe.

JAMES T. ALLEN.  Vernon Ala having recently attended the Alabama Normal Music 
School is prepared to teach classes in Lamar and adjoining counties. Write him 
for terms and have a class this winter.

If you like the News induce your friends to take it.

The less a man has the easier he can guard it; and in this respect the 
majority of us are truly blessed.

Show your copy of the News to your friends, speak what words you can in its 
favor and ask them to subscribe for it.

MARRIED:  At the residence of the bride’s mother, Mrs. M. A. HANKINS, by the 
Rev. W. C. WOODS, Mr. W. W. FORD and Miss MALINDA J. HANKINS.

Jurors, parties and witnesses need not be in attendance upon the Circuit Court 
until 9 o’clock Tuesday, the 2nd day of March 1886, as court will not convene 
until that day.  JAMES MIDDLETON, Clerk Circuit Court, Lamar Co. Ala.

The state auditor’s report for1885 shows that $7,925 was paid into the state 
treasury administrator’s tax.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

FOR CIRCUIT CLERK
We are authorized to announce S. M. SPRUILL as a candidate for the office of 
Circuit Clerk of Lamar County.  Subject to the Democratic Party.  Election in 
August, 1886.

We are authorized to announce J. N. MCNEIL as a candidate for the office of 
Circuit Clerk of Lamar County.  Election August next.

FOR PROBATE JUDGE
We are authorized to announce J. E. PENNINGTON as a candidate for the office 
of Judge of Probate of Lamar County.  Election next August.

CORRESPONDENCE 

FROM WILSON’S BEAT.
Ed. News:
	As Warwick, Voter and Pe De have recently been rolling, or pushing, 
the political ball in our county, and failing to tack at least one very 
important name to the list for County Superintendent of Education, will you 
allow us the honor and pleasure of suggesting the name of Prof. B. H. 
WILKERSON, of Fern Bank, who is unquestionably one of the most talented and 
cultured gentlemen in our county.  Prof. WILKERSON has done a great work for 
himself and the cause of education within the past twelve years and we think 
now is the time for the people of Lamar County to unite in bringing his name 
to the front and show their appreciation of his unflinching integrity, 
tireless energy and endless perseverance by electing him to the office of 
County Superintendent of Education in August next.  We think he would have the 
almost unanimous support of this best to start with.
	There has been but one man who resided south of Yellow Creek elected 
to fill a county office for nearly 14 years, and it reminds us of a 
conversation which took place recently between a certain teacher and a very 
conscientious and talented youth of 13 or 14.  In order to encourage Johnny, 
the teacher said, “Johnny, in the United States we have no nobility; every 
citizen is equal in civil and political  rights.  The son of the poorest man 
in the country, if he has a good education and ability, may become President, 
and now, Johnny, this should encourage you to study very hard that you may be 
qualified to fill with honor any of these high positions to which you may be 
called.”  “But” said Johnny, “I live in Lamar county south of Yellow Creek, 
and am now nearly 14 years of age, and I have never known but one man south of 
Yellow Creek to be elected to a county office much less to the office of 
President.”  And Johnny continued by saying, “For fear there is someone in 
school who does not recollect who it was that was elected south of the Creek, 
I will tell them who it was: It was ISAAC H. SANDERS, one of the cleverest 
kind of men, but if his dwelling house had not been so close to the south bank 
of the creek, and he had not spent the most of his time in his mill house 
right over the creek, I am satisfied that one of the cleverest doctors in our 
county would have had the honor of representing our county in the legislature 
instead of “Uncle” ISAAC.  There may not be no nobility in the United States, 
but it seems that there is or has been something in Lamar County that is not 
exactly fair, or more than one of the many good men south of Yellow Creek who 
have offered for office in the past 13 or 14 years would have been elected.”  
So Johnny would have his way about it, as he had never known anything else.
	The people south of Yellow Creek do not want all of the offices, but 
they do think they are entitled to more than one in 14 years.
	 - Many Voters – Jan. 25, 1886

FROM MUD CREEK
Ed. News:
	In answer to your corespondent of Blow Horn, we will say that the talk 
in Wilson’s Beat is BOB WALDROP for Circuit Clerk, Dr. J. T. SEAY for 
Representative, B. MEADOWS for Co. Supt., and B. I. FALKENER or J. E. 
PENNINGTON for Judge of Probate.  However, there is some talk of J. M. WILSON 
for Judge of Probate.  He is well known to the people of Lamar, and we know of 
no better man.
- Voter, Feb. 8, 1886

OVER THE STATE
There are forty-six prisoners in the Dallas County Jail.

Birmingham has the only sheet-iron works in the south.

JAMES HUNTER, a prominent lumber shipper of Mobile, was drowned on the 1st.

JESSE HOLCOMBE, aged 64, near Columbiana, committed suicide last week by 
hanging himself.

Ex-Chancellor NEIL S. GRAHAM died at his home in Tuskegee on the 1st.  He was 
sixty-eight years of age.

The Georgia Pacific Railroad hauls seven hundred tons of coal per day from the 
mines in Walker County.

The Birmingham Chain works are now in operation.  It is the only establishment 
of the kind in the south.

The output of coal at the several mines in Walker County is estimated to be 
between eight hundred and one thousand tons per day.

The Fayette Journal boasts that there is no prisoners in the Fayette County 
jail, and attributes it to the fact that Fayette is a prohibition county.

Mrs. CHAPIN, one of the vice-presidents of the National Woman’s Christian 
Temperance union, is now lecturing to large audiences in this state.

BARON ERIANGER and COL. SLIDELL, of England, and of the EROIANGER Railroad 
syndicate stopped at the Alexina House on Friday last.  It is not often Eutaw 
is honored with a live baron. – [Eutaw Whig and Observer]

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Ex-Governor N. S. BROWN, of Tenn. died on the 30th ult.

The N. Y. Grant monument fund has reached $114,140,180.

There has been more snow this winter in London than for 14 years.

The recent sale of pews at Mr. BEECHER’S church amounted to $36,000.

The daughter of Mr. GLADSTONE, the English Premier, was married on the 2nd 
inst.

 A fire in Grand Haven, Mich., on the 1st, destroyed property to the value of 
$250,000.

Negroes from North and South Carolina are moving to Arkansas in large numbers.

A snow slide at Thayne’s Canon near Park City, Utah, on the 25th ult, buried 
four men and their teams.

The secretary of the treasury has issued another call for $10,000,000 of bonds 
for redemption.  The call will mature March 1st.

The German census, just taken, shows that the empire contains 40 towns of over 
50,000 inhabitants, 21 of which have over 100,000.

Hogs are affected with measles in Wisconsin, and it is estimated that 10,000 
have died within a few days in the vicinity of Heloit alone.

The Maryland legislature elected Hon. A. P. GORMAN to the United State Senate 
last week.  Mississippi returns Messrs. GEORGE and WAITHALL as her senators.

A bridge over the Des Moines Rover at Plitsborg, Iowa, under course of repair, 
fell in and killed three workmen and injured two others on the 1st.

NOTICE FOR PUBLICATION
Land Office at Huntsville, Ala., Nov. 13, 1885
Notice is hereby given that the following named settler has filed notice of 
his intention to make final proof in support of his claim, and that said proof 
will be made before the Probate Judge of Lamar County at Vernon, Ala., on the 
12tjh day of February, 1886, viz:  No. 9862  ALFRED N. FRANKLIN, for the N ½ 
of N W ¼ Sec 19 T 12 and R 15 West.  He names the following witnessed to prove 
his continuous residence upon and cultivation of said land, viz:  J. W. PAUL, 
JOHN R. EVANS, JOHN H. RAY and S. M. LEE, all of Detroit, Lamar County, 
Alabama.
- WM. C. WELLS, Register

SOMETHING YOU NEED!
The Cheapest and Best Weekly for an Alabama Reader
	In addition to his county paper and religious weekly, every citizen 
not able to afford a daily, needs a State weekly containing in full the latest 
news of his own commonwealth and of the world.  Nothing is so instructive and 
improving to the family as good papers.
	The Montgomery Weekly Advertiser is now one of the largest and best 
weeklies in the South.  It has twelve pages every issue of the latest news of 
the country.  The Daily Advertiser receives the complete Associated Press 
dispatches, which no other Alabama daily does, and it has also a special news 
service of paid correspondents all over Alabama.  The weekly contains the 
cream of all this costly news.  The Alabama department contains everything 
fresh and full that can be of interest to an Alabama reader, and no paper in 
the South approaches it in value in this respect.  Its market reports are 
especially looked after, and are fresh and reliable.  Its type is large and 
clear, and easily read.  In every way it is a model family weekly.
	But not only is it superior in quantity and quality, but its price is 
as low as the lowest.  It has been reduced to One Dollar per year, to put it 
in reach of every Alabama family.
	Congress is now is session, and fights between the Republican Senate 
and the Democratic President are coming.  The State campaign is also opening 
and the legislature will be in session next winter.  It will be a great news 
year, and provision should be made to keep posted.  The Advertiser is the 
Capital City paper, and has the finest facilities to supply the news.
	No prizes are offered, and no commissions can be given with this low 
price.  The money’s worth is given in the paper itself.  But any one who will 
send ten names with ten dollars will be given the paper free one year.  
	Now is the time to begin.  Sample copies sent free on request.
	Address 
		SCREWS, CORY & GLASS, Montgomery, Ala.

The CHICAGO COTTAGE ORGAN has attained a standard of excellence which admits 
of no superior.  Our aim is to excel.  Every organ warranted for five year.  
(picture of ornate organ)  These excellent organs are celebrated for volume, 
quality of tone, quick responses, variety of combination, artistic design, 
beauty in finish, perfect construction, making them the most attractive, 
ornamental and desirable organs for homes, schools, churches, lodges, 
societies, etc.  Established reputation, unequaled facilities, skilled 
workmen, best material, combined, make this THE POPULAR ORGAN.  Instruction 
Books and piano stools.  Catalogues and price lists, on application, free. The 
CHICAGO COTTAGE ORGAN CO. Corner Randolph and Ann Streets, Chicago, Ill.

Down With High Prices.  CHICAGO SCALE CO.  151 S. Jefferson St., Chicago.  
(Picture of small scale) - The “Little Detective” ¼ oz. to 25 lbs., $3.  
Should be in every house and office.
(Picture of scale) - 240-lbs Family or Farm Scale, $3.  Special prices to 
agents and dealers.  300 different sizes and varieties, including Counter, 
Platform, Hay, Coal, Grain, Stock and Mill Scales.  2-ton wagon scale, 6x12, 
$40.  4-ton, 8x14, $60.  Beam box and brass beam included.
(Picture of scale) – Farmer’s Portable Forgo, $10.  Forge and kit of tools 
$25.  All tools needed for repairs.  Anvils, vises, hammers, tongs, drills, 
bellows and all kinds of Blacksmith’s Tools.  And hundred of useful articles 
retailed less than wholesale prices.  Forges for all kinds of shops.  Foot-
power lathes and tools for doing papers in small shops.
(Picture of corn sheller) – Improved Iron Corn-Sheller.  Weight, 130 lbs. 
Price $6.50.  Shells a bushel a minute; fanning mills, feed mills, farmer’s 
feed cooker, &c.  Save money and send for circular.
(Picture of Sewing Machine)  A $65 Sewing Machine for $18.  Drop-leaf table, 
five drawers, cover box and all attachments.  Buy the latest, newest and 
best.  All machines warranted to give satisfaction.  Thousands sold to go to 
all parts of the Country.  Send for full price list.

THE FERNBANK HIGH SCHOOL now under the Principalship of JNO. R. GUIN, will 
open Nov. 2, 1885, and continue ten scholastic months.  Able assistants will 
be employed when needed.  Said school offers great advantages.  Tuition as 
follows:  
Primary:  Embracing Orthography, Reading, Writing, Primary Geography, Primary 
Arithmetic, per month………….$1.25
Intermediate:  Embracing Practical Arithmetic, English Grammar, Intermediate 
Geography, Higher Reading, English, Composition, and U. S. History, per 
month………..$2.00
High School:  Embracing Botany, Physiology, Elementary Algebra, Physical 
Geography, Rhetoric, Natural Philosophy, Elocution, and Latin, per 
month……..$3.00
	A reasonable incidental fee will be charged.  Board can be had at $7 
per month.  Tuition accounts are due at the end of every two months.  For 
further particulars, address.
- JNO. R. GUIN, Principal, Fernbank, Ala. – October 28, 1885.

NOTICE OF SETTLEMENT
The State of Alabama – Probate Court
Lamar County – 27th day of January 1886
Estate of CHARLES C. LOYD, this day came THOMAS B. NESMITH, administrator of 
said estate, and filed his statement, accounts and vouchers for final 
settlement of his administration.  It is ordered that the 19th day of February 
A. D. 1886 be appointed a day on which to make such settlement at which time 
all persons interested can appear and contest the said settlement, if they 
think proper.
- ALEXANDER COBB,
- Judge of Probate of said county

NOTICE FOR PUBLICATION
LAND OFFICE AT HUNTSVILLE, ALA.
JANUARY 23D, 1886
Notice is hereby given that the following named settler has filed notice of 
his intention to make final proof in support of his claim, and that said proof 
will be made before the probate Judge of Lamar County, Ala. at Vernon, on 
March 13th 1886, viz:  No. 11476 AARON C. WILEMON, for the N ½ of NW ¼ Sec 28, 
T12 R15 W.
	He names the following witnesses to prove his continuous residence 
upon, and cultivation of said land, viz:
	J. R. RAY, WILLIAM WHITE, C. W. JOHNSON, and JOHN W. JOHNSON, all of 
Detroit, Lamar County, Ala.
- W. C. WELLS, Register

TAX ASSESSOR’S NOTICE
The State of Alabama, Lamar County
I will attend at the Precincts in the various beats of said county, for the 
purpose of assessing the State and County Taxes for the fiscal year 1886 as 
follows:
FIRST ROUND
Lawrence’s	Monday	February	22	1886
Sizemore’s	Tuesday	February	23	1886
Brown’s	Wednesday	February	24	1886
Good’s		Thursday	February	25	1886
Moscow	Friday		February	26	1886
Trull’s		Monday	March		  8	1886
Vail’s		Tuesday	March		  9	1886
Millport	Wednesday	March 		10	1886
Stein’s		Thursday	march		11	1886
Strickland	Friday		March		12	1886
Wilson’s	Saturday	March		13	1886
Town		Tuesday	march		16	1886
Bett’s		Wednesday	March		17	1886
Military Springs Thursday	March		18	1886
Pine Springs			April 13 and 19
Millville			April 14 and 17

SECOND ROUND
Lawrence’s 	Monday	March 		22
Sizemore’s	Tuesday			23
Brown’s	Wednesday			24
Goode		Thursday			25
Moscow	Friday				26
Cansler		Saturday			27
Military Springs Tuesday			30
Bett’s		Wednesday			31
Trull’s 		Monday	April		  5
Vail’s		Tuesday			  6
Millport	Wednesday			  7
Stein’s		Thursday			  8
Strickland’s	Friday				 9
Wilson’s	Saturday			10
Henson Springs			April 15 and 16
Will also be at Town during Court, March 1st to 8th.
W. Y. ALLEN, Tax Assessor

NOTICE FOR PUBLICATION     (NOTICE NO. 4643)
Land Office at Montgomery, Ala. December 21st, 1885
Notice is hereby given that the following named settler has filed notice of 
his intention to make final proof in support of his claim, and that said proof 
will be made before Judge of the Probate Court at Vernon, Ala. on February 
12th, 1885 (sic), viz:  JEFFERSON G. SANDERS homestead, 10087 for the N W ¼ N 
W ¼ Section 8 T 15 R 15 West.  He names the following witnesses to prove his 
continuous residence upon, and cultivation of said land, viz:  J. E. 
PENNINGTON, HIRAM HOLLIS, JAMES W. TAYLOR, WILLIAM AUSTIN, all of Vernon, Ala.
- THOS. SCOTT, Register

ADMINISTRATOR’S SALE
By virtue of an order of the Probate Court of Lamar County, Alabama, issued on 
the 1st day of February, 1886, I will offer for sale at Vernon in said county 
on the 6th day of March, 1886, all the right, title or interest that Dr. W. R. 
KIRK at his death had in and to the following track of land, to wit:  N W ¼ of 
N W ¼ Sec 15, and N ½ of N E ¼ Sec 10, and N ½ of N W ¼ and S E ¼ of N W ¼, 
and N W ¼ of N. E. ¼ Sec 22, T 15 R 16; and also such title as vested in said 
W. R. KIRK by Sheriff’s deed to S W  ½ of N W ¼ and W ¼ of S W ¼ and S E ¼ of 
S W ¼ sec 17, N E ¼ and E ½ of S E ¼ of S E ¼ and S e ¼ of S W ¼ Sec 18, N ½ 
of N ½ and  S E ¼ of N E ¼ and E ½ of N E ¼ of S E ¼ sec 19, and N ½ of N W ¼ 
and N W ¼ of S W ½ Sec 20 T 15 R 15, also an undivided half interest in Lot 
No. 32 in town of Vernon, being in section 16 T 15 R 15.
	I fully believe the title to all of said lands are good, but I shall 
only sell such right as vested in said W. R. KIRK of the time of his death, 
said sale will be made on credit of twelve months from day of sale.
	This the 9th day of February, 1886.
	W. A. BROWN, Administrator Debo nes non

Tutt’s Pills – 25 years in use.  The Greatest Medical Triumph of the age!  
Symptoms of a torpid liver.  Loss of appetite, bowels costive, pain in the 
head, with a dull sensation in the back part, pain under the shoulder-blade, 
fullness after eating, with a disinclination to exertion of body or mind. 
Irritability of temper, law spirits, with a feeling of having neglected some 
duty.  Weariness, dizziness, fluttering at the heart, dots before the eyes, 
headache over the right eye, restlessness, with fitful dreams, highly colored 
urine and constipation.  Tutt’s pills are especially ….(too small to read)

Tutt’s Hair Dye.  Gray hair or whiskers changed to a glossy black by a single 
application of this dye.  It imparts a natural color, acts instantaneously.  
Sold by druggists, or sent by express on receipt of $1.  Office, 44 Murray 
St., New York

Wetherill’s Atlas Ready Mixed Paint.  Guaranteed.  Before you paint you should 
examine Wetherill’s portfolio of artistic designs.  Old-fashioned houses, 
Queen Anne Cottages, suburban residences, etc. colored to match shades of 
Atlas Ready Mixed Paint and showing the best and most effective combination of 
colors in house paintings.  If your dealer has not ….(can’t read)

Avery Sewing Machine…(can’t read)

Collins Ague Cure.  Price 50 cents a bottle.  The great household remedy for 
chills and fever.  Never fails to give satisfaction, wherever used.  An 
indispensable household remedy.  This widely known and justly celebrated 
medicine has gained for itself more friends in the south and elsewhere than 
any known medicine.  Collins Ague Cure removes all bilious disorders and 
impurities of the blood, cures indigestion, bilious colic, constipation, etc., 
and as its name implies, is an absolutely sure cure for chills and fever, dumb 
ague, swamp fever, and all malarial affections, and has no equal as a liver 
regulator.  Sold everywhere by all druggists and general dealers.  Collins 
present century almanac, contains hundred of letters from responsible persons, 
testifying to the wonderful cures made by Collins ague cure.  Call on your 
dealer for one, or it will be mailed free upon application.  Collins Bros. 
Drug Co., 420 to 425 N. Second St., St. Louis.

The light running New Home sewing machine simple, strong, swift (picture of 
sewing machine) The only sewing machine that gives perfect satisfaction, has 
no equal, perfect in every particular.  New Home Sewing Machine Co. Orange 
Mass. 30 Union Sq. N. Y., Chicago, Ill.  St. Louis, Mo.,  Atlanta, Ga. 

PAGE 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY

In commending the proposition to change the date of the National Thanksgiving 
to October 12,l the day on which Columbus first sighted the outlying islets of 
the New World, the Toronto Globe asks why Canada should not join with the 
people of the United States.

The great cathedral of St. Peter at Moscow, built to commemorate the release 
of that city from the French invasion, is now almost completed, and it is said 
that its vast cupolas rival in coloring with the gold and scarlet of the sun.  
They are five in number, and no less than nine hundred pounds of gold were 
used in overlaying them.  The doors of the temple cost $310,000, and upon the 
marble floors were expended $1,500,000.  Ten thousand worshippers can be 
comfortable, if their souls will let them, within this $12,500,000 temple.

Cocoanut cellulose is a new substance, and if it possesses the quality claimed 
for it, England may go back to her wooden walls with safety and beat up her 
self-destructive rams for old iron.  The patentees claim that a ship cannot be 
sunk by shot or shell if only she had taken the precaution of coming into the 
fight with this peculiar tissue as a great coat.  When a shot, no matter what 
its dimensions, strikes the side of a frigate the carpenter and his mates need 
not jump to cram in the old-time plugs, for the cellulose immediately closes, 
and a drop of water will not enter.

The science of criminal man will receive especial attention at the 
Anthropological Congress which is shortly to be held at Rome, and a curious 
feature of the meeting will be an exhibition illustrating this subject.  Here 
the student will find a collection of 700 classified skulls of criminals, with 
the photographs of 3,000 convicts and the brains of more than 150.  Wax masks 
of a large number of criminal celebrities will also be shown.  To these will 
be added many specimens of the literary and mechanical work of criminals; a 
record of physical and moral observations on 500 criminals and on 300 ordinary 
men; graphic maps of crime in Europe with reference to climate, food, 
institutions, suicide, etc; and tables of the stature of criminals in relation 
to the length of the arms, and of crime in towns compared with that in the 
country.

The investigation of thunderstorms is becoming more and more a specialty with 
scientific men.  France has made an important study of them for a number of 
years.  Bavaria and Belgium have more recently taken them up, and in our own 
country, as well as elsewhere, considerable has been undertaken in this 
direction.  In a recent report by Lancaster, on the famous storm of 1879 in 
Belgium, the conclusions previously announced there are confirmed, namely, 
that thunderstorms occur only in the southeast quadrant of the barometric 
depressions, or great cyclonic storms that frequently sweep across temperate 
latitudes.  But there still remains to be found the actual mechanism of 
thunderstorms, concerning which of many opinions have been put forth.  It is 
thought that the matter will probably remain in doubt until settled by the 
same kind of investigation that demonstrated the inward spiral charts for a 
stormy afternoon, with hourly or even half-hourly intervals, and stations only 
a mile or two apart, would probably settle the question beyond dispute.

The English cooperative societies have transacted a business during the past 
twenty years amounting to $1,400,000,000.  The profits were $106,000,000.  
There are 1264 societies, with about 700,000 members, representing heads of 
families, making in all 2,750,000 people.  The sales for the year 1882 were 
$130,000,000; profits, $10,000,000; capital, $43,000,000.  The increase of 
capital in ten years was 100 percent.  The cooperative manual which furnishes 
these figures goes into a vast amount of detail to show the operations of 
these societies.  The movement took its present shape in 1864, when the 
membership was 17,500.  In four years the membership was 75,000; in seven 
years, 115,000. The movement took wholesale proportions very early.  In 1883 
the dry-goods branch of the business involved a capital of $1,000,000.  
Furniture was dealt in, butter agencies were opened in Ireland and houses were 
opened in Hanburg and Copenhagen for the transaction of business.  The 
societies have now their own fleet.  They have agencies in New York, where in 
one year over $100,000,000 was handled.  They have depots at Liverpool, 
Manchester and elsewhere, and they insure their own property. 
	They make crackers, boots and shoes, and soaps.  They do much of their 
own milling, and are every year expanding their operations in a manner which 
shows that there is ability in the working classes when it is properly 
selected to manage their own affairs.

	The Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Marseilles estimates the 
total number of Jews in the world at 6,377,602; that is 5,407,602 in Europe, 
245,000 in Asia, 413,000 in Africa, 300,000 in America, and 12,000 in 
Oceanica.  The European Jews are distributed as follows:  1,643,708 in Austria-
Hungary, 561,612 in Germany, 60,000 in Great Britain, 3,000 in Belgium, 3,946 
in Denmark, 1,900 in Spain, 70,000 in France, 2,656 in Greece, 7,373 in 
Switzerland, 8,692 in Holland, 36,289 in Italy, 600 in Luxembourg, 200 in 
Portugal, 260,000 in Romania, 2,552,145 in Russia, 3,492 in Servia, 3,000 in 
Sweden and Norway, and 116,000 in European Turkey.  There are about 150,000 in 
the Asiatic provinces of Turkey, 15,000 in Persia, 47,000 in Asiatic Russia, 
in India and China 19,000, and 14,000 in Turkestan and Afghanistan.  In Africa 
there are about 35,000 in Algeria, 100,000 in Morocco, 55,000 in Tunis, 6,000 
in Tripoli, 200,000 in Abyssinia, 8,000 in Egypt, 8,000 scattered over the 
desert, and about 1,000 at the Cape of Good Hope.

THE DUBIOUS MAN
	My son, if you can be positive I am glad of it.  I like to see a man 
positive that he knows what he knows.  I am glad to hear you talk as though 
you knew all about it.  I do admire a positive character. Alas, therein do I 
lack.  I am not skeptical, but I am not a positive man.  I am not really 
positive about scarcely anything.  I have been taught from childhood that 2 
and 2 make four, and I believe it, but if you rush at me and cross question me 
and corner me about it, I will have to own up that all I know about it is what 
the teacher told me.  I don’t think my teacher would lie about a little thing 
like that.  If it were a question of millions now, there might be some 
temptation to slip a thousand or two on a poor ignorant fellow who didn’t know 
anything about it.  I am not positive when America was discovered nor who 
discovered it.  There are claimants all the way from the lost tribes of Israel 
and Eric the Red down to Oscar Wilde.  How am I to know?  I am not even 
positive when I will pay my debts.  And this grievous lack of positiveness (is 
there such a word?) makes me dread controversy.  I had rather give in to a 
positive man a week than dispute with him ten minutes, because he is positive 
about everything and I am positive in nothing.  Why, even after he has 
silenced me I am not positive that he is right.  I am not even positive that 
he is positive.  He says he is but I don’t know.  So I wait – I am very 
patient, and often it happens, I may say it always happen, that a few days, a 
few weeks, a few months, or a year even –a year is not long, shows that he was 
altogether wrong and that I was unquestionably right on every point.  And then 
how triumphantly I hunt him up, and call up the whole question again, and flay 
over him, and ride over him rough shod and say to him, “There!  What did I 
tell you?  Didn’t I say so?  Wasn’t I right?  Didn’t I warn you?  Didn’t I 
know?  Are you convinced now, you pig-headed old colossus of ignorance and 
presumption?  The next time I tell you a thing is so you’ll know that it is 
so, whether it is or not.”  That’s triumph for you, my boy.  Bu ah, me, I so 
often grieve over my lack of positive conviction.  Do you cultivate a positive 
character, my son?  And when you know it about all come down and stay a few 
days with me.  I’ll try to lead you into a few ambiguous pits which I have 
gradually dug here and there about my apocryphal grounds in an indeterminate 
sort of way for my absolute friends to fall into. – [Burdette in Brooklyn 
Eagle]

A FAIR MINDED CAT
	I once had a cat who always sat up to the dinner table with me, and 
had his napkin round his neck, and his plate and some fish.  He used his paw, 
of course, but he was very particular, and behaved with extraordinary 
decorum.  When he had finished his fish I sometimes gave him a piece of mine.
	“One day he was not to be found when the dinner bell rang, so we began 
without him.  Just as the plates were put round for the entrée, puss came 
rushing up stairs and sprang into his chair, with two mice in his mouth.  
Before he could be stopped he dropped a mouse on his own plate, and then one 
on mien.  He divided his dinner with me, as I had divided mine with him.” – 
[New Moon]

AFTER A BIG ALLIGATOR
NOVEL MANNER OF DESTROYING THE SAURIAN
Trolling for the Reptile With An Infernal Machine for Bait
	The story of the pursuit and destruction of a huge alligator is told 
as follows in a Florida letter to the New YORK Sun:  We found him after a 
three days hunt.  Just above the mouth of a creek flowing into the St. John’s 
River was a small bay or lagoon, and as we rowed softly into this, we caught 
sight of him.
	He was the biggest, ugliest-looking alligator ever seen in the state 
of Florida.  He was two-thirds out of water on the sandy shore, and on that 
part of his body thus exposed we could see the marks of a dozen bullets.  It 
was evident, from his size and wrinkles, that he was an old denizen – a boss 
among alligators. How many darkies, pigs and calves he had picked up during 
his career could only be guessed at but he was sized up as having taken in his 
full share of this world’s goods.
	We were after his highness.  Among our party was a machinist, who had 
invented an infernal machine.  It was a clock-work arrangement to explode 
gunpowder, and we had been hunting for some autocrat, monopoly or tyrant to 
try it on.  We looked upon the alligator as the personification of all three 
individualities and corporations, and we wanted to strike a telling blow for 
freedom.
	As soon as we discovered his hiding place, we dropped back to the 
river, and the machinist prepared his surprise.  The clock was set to run for 
half an hour, and the entire machine, properly charged, was encased in a large 
neckpiece of beef brought from the hotel kitchen.  The beef was wound with 
wire, and then we were ready.
	The idea was that the alligator made his home in the lagoon, and that 
he was not likely to leave it under ordinary circumstances.  A negro was 
landed and sent through the bushes to scare the old monopolist out of his 
sleep and off the shore.  This was a feat easily accomplished, although the 
reptile seemed mad and insulted as he took to the water.
	We then rowed into the lagoon, a stout fishline was tied to the beef, 
and we began trolling for alligators.  Using the oars very softly, we rowed 
back and forth across the lagoon, with the beef drawn along on the bottom.  
From the time the clock was set to the moment we entered the lagoon was full 
fifteen minutes.  Somebody besides the alligator might get blown up.  We had 
exactly eight minutes left when the machinist called out:
	“He’s got it!  He’s got it!  Pull for the shore!”
	Somebody or something had grabbed the baited line with such eagerness 
that the mad had to let go.  He had taken the precaution to attach a float, 
and as we stood on the shore we saw this float make a circuit of the lagoon.  
His royal nibbs had got it, and if that infernal machine was of any good he 
would soon be made to feel real unhappy.
	We got back on a rise of ground about thirty feet from the water and 
waited.   The four or five minutes seemed twenty, and we were beginning to 
despair, when the alligator suddenly breached like a whale, and at the same 
moment the explosion took place.  There was a horrible mess.  Meat and pieces 
of hid spattered the sand and bushes, and about half the tail was blown thirty 
feet into a tree to lodge there.  The smell for the next ten minutes would 
have discounted all the skunks in Ohio, and we had to push back a quarter of a 
mile and wait for a cold wave to carry it off.
	The infernal machine was a success.  It had exploded to the very 
minute.  It had begun from way back in that alligator’s system and given him a 
surprise party which tickled him to death.

OVERTAXED WITH EXERCISE.
First Dude – I cawnt go with you to the opera tonight, Chawley.  I’m deuced 
tired.
	Second Dude – Been working.  Algernon?
	“Naw.  Taking exercise.  We need it, don’t yer know.  I weally can’t 
stir out tonight, ole boy!”
	“What yer been doin’?”
	“Blowing soap bubbles.  I’m dreadful tired, ‘pon honor I am.  Couldn’t 
possibly overtax myself again tonight, Chawley.” – [Call]

The English language consists of about 38,000 words; of these about 23,000 or 
nearly five-eights, are of Anglo-Saxon origin.  The majority of the rest, in 
what proportion we cannot say, are Larin and Greek:  Latin, however, has the 
larger share.

A GREAT PAINTER’S METHODS
	M. Meissonier does not object to visitors, and ifs fond of showing 
them personally through his studio, says a Paris letter to the Chicago 
Tribune.  He explained to me that he almost always paints from a 
model.  “Here,” said he, taking up a small wax image, “is the model of a horse 
prancing.  It would have been impossible to draw direct from nature.  So I had 
a horse brought around here and made to prance while I modeled him in wax.  It 
was a terrible job.  I had the horse brought here every morning for four weeks 
before the image was perfect.  But it is finished now, and I can draw from it 
at my leisure.  You wee, too, I had a miniature set of harness made and fitted 
on the image, so as to have ever strap and buckle just right.  Here is another 
figure of a horse, rolling upon the ground as if struck by a shot.  It is for 
a battle scene.  I had them throw a horse down and make him roll and struggle 
while I modeled him, and they had to do it more than a score of times.  You 
see this image of a horseman with his cloak flying in the wind?  Well, I made 
that and soaked the cloak with a mixture that would gradually stiffen.  When I 
set it in the wind and it blew out naturally and became fixed in just the 
position I wanted.

Dr. Carlos Finlay, of Havana, has been experimenting on the inoculability of 
yellow fever.  The disease was found to be transmissible only from the third 
to the sixth day.  Out of eleven inoculations, six were successful, one 
doubtful and four negative.  The inoculations were brought about by the use of 
mosquitoes, which were first caused to sting patients suffering from the 
fever, and afterwards allowed to sting persons whom it was intended to 
inoculate.  Whatever may be the result of Dr. Finaly’s inoculatory experiments 
as against yellow fever, the case with which a disease may be transmitted by 
the mere sting of a small insect is an important addition to the history of 
how symotic diseases are spread.

IN THE HOSPITALS
	Baltimore and Philadelphia hospital physicians are prescribing the new 
proprietary medicine, Red Star Cough Cure.  It contains neither morphia, 
opium, nor any other injurious ingredients.  The price is only twenty-five 
cents.

As lately as 1833 a child of nine was sentenced in England to be hanged for 
poking a stick through a patched-up pane of glass and stealing two penny-worth 
of paint; but he was not executed.

Every one is perfectly satisfied who uses Buckingham’s Dye for the Whiskers.  
The bowels may be regulated and the stomach strengthened with Ayer’s Pills.

MORE ADVERTISEMENTS  - WILL COME BACK AND TRANSCRIBE AT A LATER TIME.


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