Madison County AlArchives News.....Items from The Huntsville Weekly Democrat January 24, 1883 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Kenneth Stacy klstacyfamily@aol.com January 28, 2007, 4:18 pm Microfilm At Huntsville Library January 24, 1883 PERSONAL MENTION Mrs. Matt W. Steele left, last Friday night, to visit relatives in Memphis and Mississippi. Miss Emily Bradley has returned home, after a delightful trip to Atlanta. Mr. and Mrs. Faust, after a short sojourn in Huntsville, left for New York last Sunday. The Birmingham Age announced the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. S. S. Lanier at the Nixon House in that city, last week, after a bridal trip to Louisville and Cincinnati. Mrs. Todd, Miss Mattie Lou Brown, and Major Wagner, got back, last Saturday, from Nashville, whither they went to hear Nilsson. Miss Mattie Barnard leaves, to-morrow, for Cincinnati, to enjoy the Music Fest. Miss Gulie Stiles left for her Georgia home, last Sunday, having made many friends here by her intelligence and attractive manners. Misses Mary Pulley and Katie Speake go, to-day, to Nashville, to visit friends there. Mr. John F. Newman has returned from Birmingham. He thinks he will remove thither and go into business. Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Clay went to Montgomery on Monday last, where Mr. Clay resumes his duties, to-day, as Secretary of the Senate. Senator Shelby and Representative Cochran have gone to Montgomery. Mr. John T. Patterson, after an attack of pneumonia, confining him for several weeks, appeared on the streets on Monday last, to the joy of many friends. We learn that Mr. Wm. High, of this vicinity, who went to Texas to prospect, in anticipation of settling there, writes back that he is not satisfied, and expects to return in a few months. We are pleased to hear that Mr. Perry L. Harrison, who has been very ill, is much better. DIED: SUICIDE.—On Friday last, Alonzo Lee, a white citizen of Morgan Co., Ala., drowned himself in the Tennessee river about a mile above Whitesburg. We are told, by citizens of Whitesburg, that, seven or eight days before his suicide, a rabid dog bit Lee and, also, a dog. The bitten dog exhibited symptoms of hydrophobia and was killed. This fact excited Lee’s fears of hydrophobia, and, on Thursday, he complained of sickness and took to his bed. Early Friday morning, against the protests of several friends who were nursing him, he got out of bed and, throwing a quilt around him, went to the door and, as soon as he got out of doors, ran swiftly to the river, 100 yards off, jumped in, swam out some distance, then back to shore, and, again dived into the river, did not rise again, and was drowned. ‘Tis said that he had symptoms of hydrophobia, a statement that seems inconsistent with the fact that he showed no dread of water, but sought and found a watery grave. SUICIDE AT MEMPHIS.—Wash Flack formerly a conductor on the Memphis & Charleston R. R., recently on the Memphis & Little Rock R. R., committed suicide by taking 36 drinks of whiskey a few days ago, as the papers report. Capt. WALTER A. GOODMAN, died at his residence, in Memphis on Saturday, Jan’y 20, after a brief illness.—He was a most estimable Christian gentleman, of genial disposition, and fine business qualifications, and, was, last year, elected presiding judge of the County Court of Shelby county. He was exemplary as husband, father, friend, citizen, and as a gallant confederate soldier. Many are the expressions, here, of regret at his death and profound sympathy for his wife and children. LOCAL ITEMS The weather has been very bad—freezing cold or rainy—for several weeks past, rendering business very dull. For two or three days, ending Saturday night, we had rain, sometimes heavy and accompanied with thunder and lightning, unusual at this season. On Sunday, the sky cleared somewhat. Monday morning, there was a slight fall of snow and very cold weather. To-day, the weather has moderated, and the air is delightfully bracing. Cotton which has been kept out of town by bad weather, has come in quite rapidly since Sunday last.—Prices are about the same as last week—7@8 3/4 cents. Opera house -------------- The Southern Serenaders propose to give “the grand musical and minstrel even of the season,” at the Huntsville Opera House, on Thursday night, Feb. 1st. The entertainment will consist (as we learn from the bills) of “musical sketches, Irish and Negro burlesques, witty sayings, clog and fancy dancing, banjo solos, guitar duos, and latest popular songs.” Some of the troupe have exhibited as artists on theatrical boards before, and a few others, who have local reputations, will make their debut on this occasion. The Troupe will be supported by an orchestra of six pieces. Give “the boys” a full house. Musical Lent Contribution A Musical wll be held at the residence of Jno. J. McDavid, City, on Randolph St., on Tuesday night, Jan. 30, 1883, for the benefit of the classes—“Soldiers of the Cross” and “Buds of Promise.” A rich treat is in store for lovers of Music. Entertainment will commence at 8 o’clock. 1t. The Advocate Redivivus ------------------------------ The Advocate went down, like a didapper, week before last, as a political journal, and arose, last week, as a non-political newspaper, under the proprietorship of our excellent young friend, Robert L. O’Neal—excellent as a man and a printer. The change is a happy one, and we wish Mr. O’Neal long life and prosperity. Last Monday night, Mr. Arthur Harris, of this city, dropped a pistol from his hand and it exploded shooting him in the left leg above the ankle, breaking the small bone. Drs. Baldridge and A. B. Shelby were called in, and dressed wound, which, we are glad to hear, is not dangerous. ALABAMA ITEMS The SUNDAY STAR-JOURNAL is a new literary enterprise, just started by Miss Fannie May Witt at Birmingham, Ala., for $1.00 a year. The fact it [sic] that is an Alabama enterprise, in addition to its literary merit, entitles it to liberal support from Alabamians. The Eighth District ----------------------- The following is the official vote in the Eighth district, at the special election held on the 2nd inst: Wheeler McClellan Colbert 949 628 Franklin 465 206 Jackson 1,504 662 Lauderdale 1,886 507 Lawrence 1,270 767 Limestone 1,181 1,014 Madison 2,225 1,597 Morgan 1,162 615 -------- -------- Total 9,842 5,996 -------- Wheeler’s maj. 3,816 Opelika Insurrection ------------------------- Some time last year, an election for Mayor and Aldermen was held in the town of Opelika, a Mayor, Dunbar, and his ticket for Aldermen, representing the roughs of the town, were declared elected. The better citizens resisted the installation of the new Mayor and Board of Aldermen, but the court sustained the latter. The Legislature was asked by the better citizens—the property- holders of the most respectable class—to relieve them by repealing the town charter, and appointing five Commissioners to take charge of the affairs of the town. The Legislature did as requested and authorized the Governor to appoint the Commissioners. He did so, and they assumed their functions, but were resisted by the Dunbar crowd. Whereupon, several of the Commissioners resigned. Such was the turbulence of the Dunbar crowd that the Governor was called on for aid to sustain the Commission. The Governor was in Mobile at the time (Christmas week), and returned to Montgomery, and, then, went to Opelika, and, apparently re-established law and order. On Monday last, Gov. O’Neal received intelligence from the President of the Commission that the Dunbar, with a posse of men, armed with double-barreld [sic] shot guns, was resisting the Commission, and asking military aid. The Governor telegraphed to the Sheriff to preserve the peace with all the power at his command. The Sheriff replied: “I find if impossible to keep the peace without bloodshed. Send troops at once.” The President of the Commission telegraphed the Governor: “Dunbar defies the Commission and the power that created it. He says he will obey no power acting under the Commission. Great disorder to-night.” The disturbance began by Dunbar and his followers resisting the arrest of a violator of a city ordinance.—The City Marshal and his posse, and the Sheriff, failed to enforce the ordinance because (as they stated) they had not sufficient force. The number of rioters was about 20, with shot guns and pistols, in their business houses, and there was shooting in the streets, making it dangerous to any one to be out. Gov. O’Neal ordered the Montgomery Greys to proceed, at once, to Opelika, and thirty-three of them, under Capt. Graham, with the Colonel of the regiment, Thomas G. Jones, went to Opelika Monday night.—They arrested Dunbar and his followers without serious trouble. Affidavits were made against them yesterday, and they are held to answer before a special term of the Circuit Court to be held immediately, by the Judge, at the request of the Governor. We trust that this will end the Opelika trouble. U.S. NEWS THE CRITERON, a Monthly Literary, Industrial Journal, by Miss India McIntosh, Knoxville, Tenn., at $1.25 per year. This is a new Southern emprise of exceptional merit, and deserves support from Southern people especially. It is a folio of eight pages illustrated with handsome cuts. The U. S. Supreme Court has decided that the so-called Ku-Klux law of Congress un-constitutional on the ground, substantially, that Congress usurped powers belonging exclusively, to the States, in enacting such a law. It is sad to contemplate that fact that many Southern men have been imprisoned and heavily fined, under the Radical, unconstitutional law, and have no remedy for the terrible wrong inflicted upon them. The divorce statistics of Maine show that there have been about twenty-four hundred divorces decreed in that State during the past five years. The ratio is probably one divorce to ten marriages in Maine.—This is a very sad condition of affairs. Of the 730 murders committed in the United States during 1882, 212, or less that one-third were committed in the Southern States, and of the 101 executions 53, or more than one half, took place in the South. Of the 57 lynching 25, less than one-half, took place in the Southern States. It is well to note this statement of facts, in view of the charges made against our section. Thanks to the generosity of the great American philanthropist, Mr. Corcoran, of Washington, the ashes of John Howard Payne, the author of “Home Sweet Home” have been removed from Tunis, in North Africa, and are now on their way to the capital of his native country where they will be interred in a lovely lot in Oak Hill Cemetery that has been purchased and prepared for their reception, by Mr. Corcoran. Church Business -------------------- VICKSBURG, Miss., January 9.— The consent of twenty-eight standing committees has been received for consecration of Rev. Hugh Miller Thompson, of New Orleans, lately elected assistant bishop of the diocese of Mississippi, this being a majority of forty-eight, which the diocese of the Episcopal Church of the United States in its cannon requires. Evidence of this consent has been forwarded to-day to Bishop Smith, presiding bishop of the Church, who will communicate the same to all bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States, in order to get their consent. Where the $80,000,000 Goes ---------------------------------- Atlanta Constitution The farmers of Georgia dug out of Georgia soil last year the following leading products with the following value: Cotton, 941,866 bales, worth for the lint $40,000,000, and for 500,000 tons of seed $4,000,000. Oats, 11,643,940 bushels at 57 cents a bushel $6,632,000. Wheat, 35,000,000 bushels at $1.25, worth $4,375,000. Corn, 56,963,940 bushels at 66 cents worth $24,396,000. This gives a grand total of $97,403,000, and dos not include the rye, rice, hay, potatoes, sugar cane, peas, eggs, butter, chickens, sheep, cattle, hogs, fruit, vegetables, and the hundred other articles that go to make up a miscellaneous crop and that would certainly swell the total up to $100,000,000 for the products of our farms for the year. Where has this money gone?—What has become of the $80,000,000 that our farms have given us as the total value of four leading crops? The answer comes back to us from every side. The desk on which we write was brought from the north, and so was the pencil with which we write. Part of the eight millions was sent out of the State to by the carpet on our office floor, the curtains on our windows, the ink-stand in front of us, the knife the paper- cutter, the chair we sit in, the shoes, coat, breeches, buttons, vest, collar, cravat, underclothes and hat we wear; the sofa in the corner, the wardrobe, washstand, bowl and pitcher and slop bowl, the stove, the spittoons, the match box and matches, the mantle-piece, the locks on the doors, the files for our newspapers, the mucilage pot and the mucilage, the water bucket and dipper, the scissors, and even the waste basket. The only home-made thing in the room is a knock kneed white deal table that is a disgrace to its section, and the writer of the lines, who to say the least of it, is not knock-kneed. This is where the money goes out of the State to by about everything that we wear or use—all that clothes our wife and children, or decorates our homes. Such a drain, constant and strong, for small things as well as large, will consume many a million of the dollars that the patent and strong-armed farmers have dug out of the ground. What we need to supplement the splendid work of our farmers, is manufactures. We need factories that will supply the articles we are now sending money out of the State to by. We are moving rapidly in that direction. New factories are being built and new articles made at home. Even now we note that the watch at which we have glanced to catch the time, and the humble but useful broom that a rat has just tumbled down behind our office door, and the sashes that the keen west wind is rattling in our windows, formerly all imported, were all made right here in Atlanta. But until a great many more factories are built within our borders we will be wanting to know where the money goes as the totals of year after year are footed up. The Largest Hog in the World ------------------------------------ Clarksville, Tenn., Democrat D. C. W. Guthrie, of Greenfield, Ky., has, perhaps, the largest hog in the world. This hog is of the big bone Berkshire variety, 3 feet 7 inches high, nine feet from nose to the tip of the tail, measures 7 feet around the body just behind the shoulders and 11 ½ inches around the leg just above the hoof. He is only moderately fat, but very thrifty, and taking on flesh rapidly— weight, 1,300 pounds, and Dr. Guthrie thinks he will take on 300 pounds more flesh; he has a sow of the same age that weights 900 pounds. The Denver Tribune prints the following eloquent letter from some noble red man: “Pale Faces—The Red Man sends you this word from his mountain liar. The winter is cold. The snow is deep. The jay-bird has flown from the forest. The game has gone to the far-distant valleys. The fish no longer lives in the frozen streams. The red man has naught to eat. The squaw is dying with hunger and thirst. The papoose wails like the wind in the trees. The Red Man must live. Pale face, you have plenty. The Great Spirit has been good to you. He has given you venison and fire-water. The Red Man stands at your wigwam and asks for help. He will come at the second moon and walk the streets of your city. Will you give him bear meat and fire-water? Pale faces, beware of the Red man! One hand is stretched out. In the other there is a tomahawk. “STICK IN-THE-MUD, “CORN-ON-HIS-TOE, “SQUATTING CALF.” Free Delivery of the Mail ------------------------------- The memorial to Congress in favor of the extension of the system of free delivery of the mail, prepared by Mr. Hendley L. Goodwin of Connecticut, is interesting reading. The memorialist shows that under the present law restricting free delivery to Post Offices supplying a population of not less than 20,000, only ten million of the fifty million inhabitants of the United States enjoy the benefits of the system. The remaining forty million people must go or send to the Post Offices for their letters and papers. If a number of persons in a city should club together and employ a private carrier to deliver letters at their houses, Mr. Goodwin avers that the Post Office authorities foreseeing, a probable diminution, of box rents, would oppose the plan. And he adds that the “partnership now existing between the Government and the Postmaster in the use of letter boxes” has made the Postmasters an army of opponents to every scheme for extending the delivery system. He points out that in France, Prussia, and Switzerland, free delivery at every house has been an established fact for years, and that at present the same system is practically in operation in Great Brittan. Mr. Goodwin sees no objection to the extension of free delivery in the proposed reduction of letter postage, but thinks the two should go together. He would have the Postmaster General clothed with discretionary power, to gradually extend the system. This is an important subject and worthy of careful consideration.—New York Sun. A Chicago paper is much pleased that on Monday, just twenty years from the proclamation of emancipation, a Washington horse car was filled with negro laborers who sat on the seats, while three Justices of the United States Supreme Court stood up and hung by the straps. The Missing Link --------------------- There is now being exhibited at the Royal Aquarium in London a strange hairy little creature named Krao. Krao is described as a very bright looking intelligent girl of about seven years of age. She was caught according to the account given of her, in the forest near Laos, and brought to England by Mr. Carl Bock, a Norwegian, who since the expedition described by him in “The Head Hunters of Borneo,” has been exploring Siam and the wilder States to the Northeast. Hearing in various quarters of the existence of a race of hairy, tailed men, similar in appearance to a family kept at the Court of Mandalay, he offered a reward for the capture of a specimen. A man was caught, and with him the child now exhibited, and a woman of similar appearance then allowed herself to be taken. When the little one attempted to wander the parents called her back with a plaintive cry, “Krao,” and the call has been adopted as her name. The eyes of the child are large, dark and lustrous; the nose is flattened, the nostrils scarcely showing; the cheeks are flat and pouchlike, the lower lip rather thicker than is usual with Europeans; but the chief peculiarity is the strong and abundant hair. On the head it is black, thick and straight, and grows over the forehead down to the heavy eyebrows, and is continued in whisker- like locks down the cheeks. The rest of the face is covered with a fine, dark, downy hair, and the shoulders and arms have a covering of hairs from an inch to an inch and a half long. There is, it is said a slight lengthening of the lower vertebrae, suggestive of a caudal protuberance, and there are points in the muscular conformation and otherwise which will provoke discussion. Krao has already picked up a few words of English. She is said to be of a frank, affectionate disposition, and shows truly feminine delight in her clothes, jewelry and ribbons. The showman exhibits her as “the missing link.” The burning of the circus in Russia was a terrible catastrophe. The fire broke out towards the close of the performance, and was caused by the careless handling of firearms on the stage. The circus was s wooden structure. A cable message from St. Petersburg to the New York Herald says: “The audience, numbering eight hundred persons, rushed to the door, but it opened inward, and as the crowed pressed forward it was rendered useless. A rush was then made to the two side doors, both of which were nailed up, thus compelling the people to take to the windows, from which many sprang into the street with their clothing a sheet of flame. The Fire Brigade arrived within half an hour, but it was impossible to extinguish the flames as the water in the tanks was frozen.— The fire lasted two hours. Eye-witnesses state that when the doors were finally opened a mass of burning persons were visible within. The horses and properties of the circus were all destroyed.” It is estimated that 90 men, 120 women and 60 children lost their lives. LEGAL NOTICES Executor’s Notice ---------- Estate of James Landman, Dec’d ------------- LETTERS TESTAMENTARY UPON the estate of said decedent having been granted to the undersigned on the 8th day of January, A.D., 1883, by the Hon. Wm. Richardson, Judge of the Probate Court of Madison County notice is hereby given that all persons having claims against said estate are hereby required to present the same within the time required by law, or the same will be barred. Persons, indebted to said estate, will please settle promptly with me. W. F. BALDRIDGE, Jan.24-3w. Executor Public Sale Notes, Judgements and Account Belonging to Late Firm of Hereford & Timberlake. I will, as surviving partner of the firm of Hereford & Timberlake, sell before the Court House door in Huntsville, at public outcry, to the highest bidder for cash, on Thursday, the 15th day of February, 1883, The notes, accounts and judgments belonging to said firm. The sale will begin with the names of persons beginning with the letter “A,” and will be sold in lots. A list of the claims with dates and amounts can be seen at Oscar Fulgham’s office, over Dr. Baldridge’s office. Sale from day to day, until all are sold. D. A. TIMBERLAKE, Surviving partner. Jno. J. McDavid, Atty. j24-tds CLASSIFIEDS The Southern Serenaders Will give one of their pleasing Entertainments at the Opera House, Thursday, Feb’y 1, 1883 ----------------------------------------------- Consisting of Comic and Sentimental Singing, Dancing and Burlesques, Musical Sketches, Witty Sayings and Original Jokes. Price of Admission 50 and 25. Doors open at 7. Curtain rises at 8. 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