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<§> « r. Established July 1, 1859. " A Map of Busy Life ; Its Fluctuations and Its Vast Concerns. Subscriotion, $ 1 .OO a Year, in Advance. VOL. XXXV. BENTON, LOUISIANA, THURSDAY. JULY 2, 1896. NO. 19. BUILT A HOUSE. AN OHIO WOMAN PLANS AND BUILDS HER OWN HOME. Her Husband a Cripple— Krosn Foun dation to Itoof the Building Shows the Brave Wo man's Handiwork. WIFE of forty nine who has proved herself a helpmate indeed is Airs. Elizabeth A. Foster, of Portsmouth, Ohio. Air. Foster has but one hand. They are hard working people. Hav ing no children, by saving their earn ings they accumulated enough to buy a lot on Walnut Hills, a suburb of Portsmouth. They soon found their accumulations would buy the lumber, but were not sufficient to build a house. Air. Foster's father was a enr /À YY « s x'-V W I I 'll 119 lUWiien,. . . HOUSE BUILT BY MBS. ELIZABETH A. FOSTER WITH HER OWN HANDS. penter, and ho had learned the art of drawing plans for buildings, but be ing minus one hand and crippled iu tho other he could not do any work. Mrs. Foster's father was also a carpen ter, and iu her younger days sho had spent maDy hours watching him in the erection of buildings. She was above the average, in intel ligence, and had gained such a thor ough knowledge of the general mech anism of the trade that she concluded she could build a lionse that would afford them a comfortable home in which to spend the declining years of life. They together formulated the plans and ordered the material. Airs. Foster then staked off the ground and went to woik laying the brick founda tion. While this was new work for her, her general knowledge of how things ought to beservedher well, and sho lieweu to the lines closely. When the chips had all fallen she found that she had a foundation that would have been a credit to any mechanic. Then with the little assistance her husband could give her, such as holding tim bers and lines, sho erected the frame work, nailed on the weather boarding, and was soon interesting tho passers by in her work of nailing on the shingle roof. Airs. Foster is very modest, and felt somewhat embarrassed to have people who happened to pass that way stop and stand for several minutes watch ing her drive the nails, saw and plane, a a M / I J/a 7 A MRS. FOSTER, THE WOMAN CARPENTER. yet she says it is consoling to her to know that when done she had a house and owed no mechanic for building it, "and then, you know," she says, "that when persons are working for themselves thev will do much better work, and I think I have a better house than any man would have built for me." Airs. Foster was born in Perry County in 1817. She moved to Ports mouth in 1886, and was married to Frank Foster shortly afterward. A Curious Lake. A curious lake has been found ijx the island of Kiidine, in the North Sea. It is separated from the ocean by a narrow strip of land, in which sponges, codfish and other marine an imals flourish. The surface of the water, however, is perfectly fresh, and supon- daphnias and other fresh water creatures. The soil of Cuba has no rival, espec mliy for tobacco and sugar. COTTON BOLL WEEVIL. A Peat Which Recently-Appeared In the United States. The Agricultural Department of tho United States Government considers the cotton boll weevil, a picture of which is here shown, to bo one of tho most dangerous pests that has ever made its appearance in tho United States. It. has so far confined its oper ations to Northern Alexico and a lim ited area in Texas. It ha; in some lo calities shown a tendency to spread rapidly, while in others it is said to have been at work for years in very small areas, and shown little signs of extending operations. Department experts have been at work investigat ing his hugship for some months past in the neighborhood of Brownsville on ths Rio Grande. So far no cure has been discovered, and many acres of cotton have been aban id in conse quence. An extraordinary thing about this creature is that it will live iu a cotton boll and nowhere else, and once secret ed inside of these shells it is safe from enemies and snug and comfortable in bed of softest down. The appearance S) OH Wn 'if I mi COTTON ROLL WEEVIL, HIGHLY MAGNIFIED of this insect is dreaded later in tho year. __ Finest Church Organ, What is saitl to be the finest church organ in the country has just been set up in the South Congregational Church, of New Britain, Conn. It cost S 10,000, and includes every possible modern improvement. Its bank of keys is movable, and electrically con nected with the organ, so that tho in strument can bo played from any part of the church.___ Two Thousand EarthqnaRe Shocks, The recent eruptions of Hawaiian volcanoes recall tho fact that during ! the last eruption of Alauna Loa, in 1808, there were over 2000 earthquake shocks in twelve days. The steam from the crater rose to a height of about 20,000 feet.—New York Post. Oil and On. 7/ * S f fà 'fm Bicyclist— " VV ell, old Proficient on j chap, how are you gettia ! Commencing Bicyclist--"Thank you, ! not badly ; but I find I can get off bet 1 ter."—Punch. A QUESTION OF SEWAGE. The Disposal of Liquid Wastes for Isolated Bouses. In constructing a country house, a most important and vexing problem confronts tho builder. The disposal of sewage in the country has caused m m ■X mWm$M m j r 1 - .» «U s* *» . » l ' PERSPECTIVE VIEW. more trouble than all of the other features of house building and man agement put together ; even tho neai neighborhood of a running stream into which the sewage may be dis charged does not atlord relief. Those who dwell lower down on the stream are likely to make complaint of the contaminations, and they may ask re lief from the law. At the present time the main reliance is upon cess pools, but they are always filthy con trivances, and servo as a constant menace to health. At a recent meeting in New York, Colonel George E. Waring and Alexander Fetter, both eminent sanitary engineers, delivered brief addresses on "Country House Sew age," and the former gentleman bus written an article describing and fully illustrating a system for the dis posal of liquid wastes for isolated houses in a recent issue of "Shoppell's Alodern Houses" published in New York. Both of these gentlemen are thoroughly opposed to the cesspool system, and advocate the daily deliv ery of sowage onto the surface of tho ground. At the first glanco this seems most repugnant to the uninitiated who conçoive of sewage as the contents of tho cesspool after it has putrified. But fresh sewage that is delivered upon the surface is absolutely inodorus and inoffensive. According to the Alassachusetts standard it consists of 998 parts of water, one part ol mineral matter and only one part in a thou sand of organic matter.- It furnishes no inenance to health when delivered on the surface, but merely enriches tho ground and makes it mure produc tive. It is not intended that it should be a constant flow over the same sec tion of ground, for in that case the soil would soon become saturated and offensive. Two sections of land are mado available, and the tlow is daily diverted from one to the other, thus giving the soil a chance to recuperate. There are certaiu modifications of the system that make it more widely applicable. It may be that iu a coun try estate there is no available section of land that can be used for sewage drainage without becoming too con spicuous. In that case the drainage may be through porous agricultural tile drains laid a few inches below the Kitchen Din Hall lOX 18 Library Parlor I i x is' Veranda 6 Wida ■re; FIRST FLOOR. surface of tho ground. In case it be impossible or unadvisable for any reason to discharge the sewage as soon as it is produced, a retaining tank may be constructed. But in any case it should bo discharged within twenty four hours before there is any chance of purification. We illustrate this article with a de sign of a house, attractive in appear ance and suitable for erection in a territory where tho sewers have not been laid, and where a system of "surface disposal" could bo adopted to better advantage than the use of a cesspool. General Dimensions: Width, in cluding dining-room bay and tower projection, 41 ft. 4 ins. ; depth, includ ing veranda, 35 ft. 2 ins. Heights of Stories : Cellar, 6 ft. 6 ins. ; first story, 9 ft. ; second Btory, 8 ft. 6 ins. ; attic, 8 ft. Exterior Materials: Foundation, stone ; first and second story walls, gables and roofs, shingles. Interior Finish : Three coat plaster, hard white finish. Plaster centres in hall and principal rooms of first story. Soft wood flooring and trim through out. Ash staircase. Panel backs under windows in hall and principal rooms, first story. Kitchen and bath room, wainscoted. Chair-rail in dining room. All interior wood-work grain filled, stained to suit owner and finished with hard oil varnish Colors : Shingling on walls, gables ' and roofs, dipped in and brush-coated with moss-groen stain. Trim, includ ing cornices, veranda posts, rail, out side casings for doors and windows, conductors, etc,, dark green. Sashes, blinds and outsido doors, dark red. Veranda fioor and ceiling, oiled. Accommodations: The principal rooms and their sizes, closets, etc., are shown by the floor plans. Cellar under the whole house, with inside and outside entrance and concrete floor. Laundry with two set-tubs in cellar. One servant's room finished in attic, the remainder of attic floored for storage. Bath-room, with com plete plumbing, in second story. Sta tionary wash-bowl in tower bedroom. Brick-set range. Fireplaces in hall, dining-room and library. Wide dou ble folding doors connect hall and parlor and hall and library. Cost : §3500, not including mantels, range and heater. The estimate is based on New York prices for ma terials and labor. In many sections of the country the cost should be less. Feasible Alodifications : General di mensions, materials and colors may be changed. « Cellar may be reduced in size or wholly omitted. Laundry tubs could be transferred from cellar to kitcheu. Two additional rooms may be finished in the attic, or the attic may bo left entirely unfinished. Fire placo may bo planned in parlor. Bed R Bed Hall Bed R Bed R. liïx uf Bed a la'&xii SECOND FLOOR. Veranda may be increased in size. Dining-room bay could be carried up two stories, thus enlarging the bed room over the dining-roouu (Copyright 1890.) •2000 Stolen Letters. The English Postofiice is universally recognized as an institution of won derful efficiency, but from a reported incident it would appear that a few thousand or more letters and things go astray. George Twen, a postman, was charged with stealing letters and par cels. The prisoner was arrested on Wednesday, and when a search was mado by the police of the stables in the George Inn yard where he keeps his pony, 2000 letters and parcels were found, addressed to all parts of the United Kingdom. The parcels con tained, among other things, butter, funeral wreaths and clothing. The stoppage of letters is supposed to have been going on for some time, as some of them are dated 1891, and mice had built in the papers. The prisoner was remanded.—New Ylork Journal. Trout Gain Four rounds in a Year. About a year ago two boys were fishing with hook and lino in Lake •Johnson, Bronson, Fla., and caught two trout only a few inches long, and placed them in a small pond. A few days ago they went to the pond where the trout had been placed and canght them. They weighed more than four pounds each. The pond was nearly dry, and, as theso were the only fish there, they must have boen the same ones. Trout and bream are being caught in large quantities in the lake. —Jacksonville (Fia.) Citizen. A Boy Slave's Heavy Burden. This illustration is from a photo graph sent by the Rev. W. K. Fir minger, of the Universities' Mission, mu THE BOY SLAVE OF ZANZIBAR. Zanzibar, to the London Graphic. It represents a sight not at all uncom mon in the streets of the native quar ters of Zanzibar, East Africa. Slaves who have ran away and are recaptured are usually punished in the manner depicted. The little boy in the illus tration was about seven years old, and had carried the log, weighing over thirty-two pounds, and the heavy chain for over a year. Air. Firminger was j afterward able to procure the boy's j freedom. BILL AUFS LETTE! BE DILATES UPON THE RARITY OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY. The "Song of the Shirt" and "The Bailiff's Sale" Draw Love and Praise. If Gordon Noel Hurtel never writes anything more, "The Bailiff's Sale,"is sufficient to draw love and praise from all good people. It has kindled a kind ly feeliiy? toward him, and what is better, it has warmed our pity arid en listed our sympathy for tho suffering poor. How easy it is for hearts to get hard and charity to grow cold. The sale of the poor tenants' household goods to pay the landlord's rent is a much more common thing tliau is sup posed. Tho picture is not overdrawn. If it is not sold by the constable it is by the auctioneer. I never pass an auction sale of old furniture but what I linger and look aud ponder. There is an unwritten chapter of want and misery in every old bureau and sofa and chair. There are hearts aching somewhere. There is sadness under some roof. If the sale paid the debt there would be some comfort, but the costs of court, the drayage and com missions, takes about all—for, as Mr. Hurtel says : "Such worthless old rubbish will go for a song." "Alas! for tho rarity of Christian charity," when the bereaved mother has to spend her last quarter to buy iu her dead baby's chair. If that did not really happen, something akin to it is happening every day in our crowded c'ties. What we see when we visit them is only the sunshine and glitter that wealth lias brought to the favored few. We walk or ride on Peachtree and wonder aud admire, but who seeks the dark alleys where the poor congre gate? Judge Bleckley wrote a beauti ini poem, called "A Tale of TwoCities —the City of Life and the City of Death"—Atlanta and its cemetery; aud his contrast between their inhabitants is wonderfully graphic and true. But there is a more pathetic contrast be tween the very rich and the very poor in every crowded metropolis. Some times we condone onr neglect of poverty and suffering by saying they are not worth befriending—they are ungrateful—they brought their misery upon themselves—or, if you feed them and set them up for today they will want more tomorrow. Some folks say that private charity is against public policy, but my experience and observation is that the best way to quiet our consciences is to help them— give help in somo way. There are a few professional beggars, but not enough to impoverish anybody in this southern country. But those who are really poor and do actually suffer for good shelter, good food and comforta ble clothing are many and are increas ing in numbers every day. Aly wife cut ont those touching verses about the bailiff's sale and says they remind her of Tom Hood's "Song of the Shirt." "Oli, for ono short hour To fei l as I used to feel. Before I knew the woes of want, Or the work that costs a meal-" That "Song of the Shirt" awakened all Lomlon to tho sufferings of poor women, and it has come down to us along the corridors of timo and quick ened our sympathies and enlarged our charities. Ob, that onr rich people would sometimes read it and drop a tear of sympathy and then go out into tho by-ways and do something for hu inanity's sake. Rockefeller is a great philanthropist in his way, but George Peabody will outrank him in tho an nais of history and the judgment of heaven. Why does not some multi millionaire follow his example and pro vide cheap homes for the poor of our cities? I have heard it said that it was Tom Hood's poem that first inspired him to build cheap lodgings for the poor of London. His plans for so do ing were not carried out for several years, bnt he could not erase from his memory tho lines: 'That, shattered roof - this naked floor, A table—a broken chair, _ And a wall bo blank my shadow I thank For sometime.; falling there." He spent three millions on those lodging houses and they are still a comfort to the thousands who occupy them. Human nature is not so mean and selfish as it is thoughtless and for getful. Our best emotions need re minders. Every now and then a pa thetic picture must be drawn,a tender poem must be written. We mustsee the poor woman with the faded shawl— "As she wipes with its fringes a tear from her Alany a man has pity in his breast aud charity in his heart, but it slum bers because it does not seethe misery of the unfortunate. Poverty shrinks from the public gaze. It hides itself aud suffers and waits, and hence we see large sums of money gathered in the churches to be sent to those afar off when there is more need of it at home. Starving people do not go to church nor will they go half clad iu r.nseemlf garments. The best religion ia.jgnisheB from hunger and cold. True it charity must hunt for distress and re lieve it. This reminds me of the convicts and their pitiless condition. Most of them deserve their fate, but among the 3, 090 there are some who have expiated their offenses aud ought to be set froe. The courts make mistakes sometimes, and no doubt there arc many convicts paying penalties they do not owe. There is not a more helpless creature upon earth than a friendless convict, and we rejoice that Governor Atkinson and tho committe are making a search ing examination, The governor told mo of a negro boy who had served nine years and had eleven more to serve. He went in a boy of fifteen, charged with areoD, aud now it appears most clearly that he was not guilty, and it could have been so proved, but the witness, a substantial citizen, lived out of the state and his evidence could not be had. The boy was con victed on circumstantial evidence. The governor has affidavits that place the innocence of this negro beyond all doubt, and of course he has set him at liberty. He has shortened the terms of a great many and his consideration for those who have behaved well re ceives unusual commendation. Reform is said to be one of the ob jects of punishment, and if the crim inal has really repented aud reformed, he should be given another chance. Aly wife was commenting on that little chair that was the poor mother's token of her dead child and that re minded her of a little workstaud that the yankees took from her and carried off. It was a beauty and was made specially for her twenty-fourth birth day and she has lamented its loss all these years. Forty more years have passed, and now she has another birth day, and all that I had to give her was a morning kiss on her brow and a white rose in her raven hair and to wish her long life and happiness and that her last days might be her best duys. God grant that no affliction or calamity may befall her! Her absent boys wrote her loving letters, and as she read them she said: "I knew they would not forget their poor old mother." "Poor ! !" said I. "Yon are not poor. You are fat and yon are rich in your posterity,and you are not old—not near as old as I am. Why not say their rich and lively aud well preserved mother?" But numerous grand-children and more coming does make au ancient matron feel old, especially if she had to play ruuagee from the fowl invaders and carry half a dozen little helpless children with her during a long and cruel war. Those four yours ought to count ten iu the calendar of a mother's age.— Bill Arp iu Atlanta Constitu tion. at to iu Civilizing the Savage. Do the people of the country knoav of the work that is being done for the In dians at the Carlisle, Penn., Industrial School? But it is a grand work which will tell in future years. This sehool has just liad its commencement exer cises, and they toll the story of what is being accomplished. Certainly, the one fact alone that there are here upward of 800 boys and girls of an alien and savage race, striving as best they may to learn the secret of the white man's civilization, is enough to stir the most sluggish imagination. Let us note a feature or two. There is the outing system, and its success has been phe nomenal. Immediately after the com mencement a number of the boys and girls of the school are put on farms throughout Pennsylvania for the spring and summer. There is a steady demand for them as farm helpers, and, as a Vu le, those who thus employ them are quite ready to repeat the experi ment. The advantages to the Indian boys and girls of being tiras surround ed with the influences of a Christian home are great. They learn how white l>eoplc live, and at the same time are able to earn a little money for thern selves—about $18,000 in the aggregate each season. Instances like these could easily be multiplied. There are girl graduates of the school earning from $12 to $25 as stenographers, and one is in the publication office of a Chl ago daily newspaper. The success of the pupils iu mastering English is re markable, when all tilings are consid ered. Perhaps it is too much to hope for a solution of the Indian problem even in these days, when there are so many earnest men ready to solve e* problem by writing a book aboqj which everybody admires and nobody reads. But it is certain that schools like Carlisle come nearer to solving it than any other known agency. Its method is to take the Indian label off the mdian problem stop looking ait it by itself, and make it a part of the larger problem of civilization which the whole nation is set to solve. And by this way alone will it be possible to bring the Indian up to the plane of his highest possibility. All grandly done, Captain Pratt! May every success at tend this splendid institution for the up lifting of people of the Indian race. Black gowns of fancy wool, crepon, and brocaded satin are very much worn; and the waists are made dressy with some color to brighten theca. Pale green and dark violet are very stylish, used in contrast with brown, as well as black; and a very little tur quoise blue gives a very fashionable touch to a dark-green gown.