CT YEtLIb j86 TEAs, STABLISHED 1865 NEWBERRY, S. C., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1903. TWICE A WEEK, S1.50 A YEAR STATE'S TAXABLE PROPERTY. Decrease Of Assessments Of County Real Estate, While Assessments Of City Property Are Increased. --- t Comptroller General Jones has prepared some interesting figures t showing the assessed value of prop- I erty for 1903 as compared with I 1902. There is an increase of over I eight and a half millions, but the value of country real estate shows a decrease of $535,520. Comptrol ler General Jones says the only ex planation of this is that some coun ty auditors must have erroneously included country property in cities and towns. Following are the fig ures : Real estate not in cities and Mtowns, 1903..................... $ 68,485,962 Real estate not in cities and and towns, 1902............... 69,021,442 Decrease........................ $ 535,520 Real estate in cities and towns 1903...... ...............$ 38,855,328 f Real estate in cities and towns, 1902. .......... ........ 18,000,108 Increase ................. ......$ 855,220 Railroad property, 1903...... $ 29,489,312 Railroad property, 1902...... 27,705,453 Increase......... ...............$ 1,783,859 Personal property ........ ..... $67,575,277 Personal property............... 61,049,273 Increase ...................... $ 6,526,C4 Total property, 1903........ ..$204,405,879 Total property, 1902........... 195,776,316 Net increase........... .......$ 8,629,563 The increase in personal property of $6,526,00.1 covers the increase of Textile industries..............$ 1,249,191 Fertilizer factories........... 51,830 Cotton seed oil mills........... 67,485 Telephone and telegraph companies........ ....... ... 138,597 Southern Express Com pany.------..................... 144,488 Pullman Palace Car Com pany-....-. .................. 29,503 Building and loan associa tions estimate ......... ... 300,000 Total ........- .................. $1,984,094 GENERAL NEWS NOTES. - - f Items of More or Less Interest Condensed t Outside the State. The cotton market in New York reached I3Y cents on Tuesday, the highest in a number of years. A literary recluse of Louisville has bequeathed to the University t of Virginia his library worth $ioo, 000. Three people were killed and six injured by a boiler explosion in a e power house in St. Louis on Mon- c day night. The building was om pletely wrecked. A man in the county prison at c Philadelphia who had just been a onvicted of using the mails to die 'ad hanged himself with a towel.( ehad a long criminal record be d him. Sive officers and instructors of Columbus college laboratories, Chicago, have beeni arreste(l rged with operating, in the fash-c ble shopping district, a dlistil contrary to government regu. J1. Blryan was received ini au -by Czar Nicholas, of Russia, ~ i on Monday. The audience ti or [ 5 minutes. The czar cx- hi most emphatically huis friend ug for the 'United States. r, in spent a good [nany' hours y stoi while in Russia. a n Monday, of the Meteor, a St ,ouis and San Francisco fast mail rain, eight persons were killed and P 12 injured. Of the injured it was bought five would die. The train vas one of the finest and fastest in lie service. It ran into a switch Sc eft open by a freight train, th- th )rakenan having failed in his duty C< o flag it. The Chicago labor unions h ve th rone so far as to attempt to inter- he ere with funerals. The chief of ru >olice on Monday plainly told the " epresentatives of the liverymen's 1 Inion, who went on strike four days fo )efore, that picketing of houses 1n rom which funerals were to start, th vlhether peaceful or violent, was t >eyond toleration in a civilized coMR. a niunity. th is The famtous "'Two Nines" fire al- w, rin, summoning more fire apparat- p, is than any other alarm provided C, or by New York's fire department, bc vas sounded on Monday night for bE . terrific fire, which destroyed tw%o G arge factories and in which t wo T nen were killed, one a battalion C ire chief and the ot"jer a recently .ppointed fireman. The fire was ca ni the Italian quarter of twe city hi lnd the work of re-cue was difficult. E quarter of a million dollars' dan- th ge was done. .The grand jury in Rising Suni, ta ndiana, has found true bills against ames Gillespie for causing the in leath of his twin sister, and a sister fo )f the murdered wnoman and -another vonian and her husband, all family't lonnections, were likewise indicted s or the same crime. All entered a w )leaY of not guilty and were released lo )>I bond. SOUTH CAROLINA NEWS. of inl tems of More or Less Interest Condensed In the State. The repoit of the Hampton Mon- is iment commission is about ready %' or the legislature. Only $5,000 of ca he necessary $io,ooo has been sub- pr cribed. Albert Thompson, who shot and th eriously injured Albert Dearman re n a gambling room in Spartanburg, di tas been released from custody. d Nhe wounded man is on a fair road bc o recovery and neither he nor his re amily willi prosecute the case again- tlI t Thomson. Col Thos. Taylor, one of the old st and most prominent native male itizens of Columbia, died on Tues- Cli ay afternoon. He had been a uaember of the legislature ; president f the State Agricultural society, nd master of the State Grange. Hie Cl vas insp)ector of phosphates under lits lov. Hampton. - - - -at Utah's One Leg~al Execution. co . ~ at In seven years, it is said, there cal as been one instance of legal exe- n utioin in Utah, and that took place Su ist nAoonth, when a convicted miur erer was allowed to decide for himii-. So elf whether lhe should be hanged is r shot, iIe inaturally p)referred yo looting, and was speedily (is- tel atched. A strange featuire of his Ch ial was that testinmon y aginst im was admliitted which was sup osedl to be directed by revelattin wr om the heavens. Sonme parts of b rtah have evidlenthy not shaken off Th' [1 their old traditions nad super itions. Ib CEUL RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS. )f Sloan, of South Carolina, Gives Notice of the Examinations for the Scholarships. Prof. Benjamin Sloan, of the muth Carolina College, has issued e following in reference to the Icil Rhodes scholarships: "'The first selection of scholars in e United States nder the Rlhodes's quest will be made between Yeb ary and May, 1904. The elected It commence residence in October, 04. In this State applications r examination must be made to ! in January. Papers covering e range of study exacted 1;y the aistees will be sent me in January, d applicants will be notified of e (late of the examination, which to be held by the conittee, aicli I have already amounced: -of. C. W. Bain, South Carolina >llege: Prof. E. B. Setzler, New rry College; Prof. A. G. Rem rt, Wofford College; Prof. 13. E. -er, Furman University, and Prof Llomas Della Torre, College of arleston. "It might be well for each appli nt to provide himself with an storical statement of his career as student in his college, covering ese points particularly: i. His litera-y ad scholastic at ilments 2. 1-is fon(1'ess for and succcs inanly outdoor spoil, suich ao ot ball, etc. 3. -is qualities of m wliod, tith, couirage, devotion to diut, m11pathy for anld protection 4,f th1< eak, kindliines, miselfislmnss. f-. wship. 4. His exhibition during school tys of moral force of character and instinct to lead and to take an terest in his schoolmates. You will see that Mr. Rhodes did >t desire merely a bookworm, who of no use in the world, but lie inted a real man; so let the appli uts provide themselves with the oper certificates. "It may be of interest to state at each college shall select its own presentative ; and it is simply my ty to forward the recommen tions of the several colleges to the ard of trustees, in whose hands mains the power of appointing to e scholarships." ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. tries A. Dana's Answer to A Child's Letter. The New York Sun reprinted on mristmas Day thme following from files of years ago: We take pleasure in answering oncee, and thus prominently, thme mmumunication below, expressing the same time our great gratifi ion that its faithful author is mnhered among the friends of the ni: D)ear Editor: I atn 8 years old. ine. of my little friends say there to Santa Claus. Paipa sas " If a see it in the Sun it's so."' Please I me the truth ; is there a Santa mus? Virginia ()'Hfanlon. 15 WV. 95tih street. i1rginia, your little friends are ing. They have b)een affected the scepticism of a scep)tical age. ey do not believe except they .They think that nothing canm wiich is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Vir ginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours mani is a meIre in sect, an ant, in l1s intellect, as comn pared with the boundless world 1 about him, as measured hy the in telligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love aid generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. The e would be no child-like faith I then, no poetry, no romance to muake tol erable this existence. We should have no e1joyment except in sense anid sight. The eternal light with which clilhlod fills the wodd W:onid be extinlguished. Not I'elieve in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire Ilen to watch all the chimnieys on Cli istmas FEve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not. see Santa Claus coming down, what wouli that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real thi(Igs in the world are thos.: that neitlhenr children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairie" dning on'11 the lawn? Of course not: it t1at's no proof fat the ft re V not there Nobody can conceive or Imagine all the wonders that ale nsnad ilseLIble in the VoIld. Vou ma.v tcar part the baby rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest lian, nor even the united strengthi of all the strongest ien that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, faney, poetry, love, ro mance, can puish aside tlir.i curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah. Virginia, in all this world there is nothing real and a)iding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! Ile lives, andi he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginlia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will come to make glad the heart of childhood. A FLAGMAN IEHEADED. Anl Old White Man at The Gervais Street Station of the Seaboard Air Line in Columbia. Columbia, December 21-.-J. D. Batchmoin, ani 01(1 white lmau, a flagman at the Gervais street cross ing of the Seaboard Air line Rail road, was decapitated by being runm over by shifting cars tonight. Aln eniginie was backing with two cars ando Bat chmiion was st andling withI his back to it at the- street car t racks. For sonie reason lhe walked upi the middle of the railroad track towards the opphosite side of the street. 1I1: evidiently did not know that cars were backing on the track. A negr~o flagman was oni the rear of the last car and,l seeinig that Batch mon did not leave 'he track, yelled at him i when within a few feet of him, but it was too late, lie was about 65 years 01(d and camne from Lexington County. He was flagging as a sub stitute for thIe regular flagman. THE NEWS OF NO. T. Majority of the Negroes Under Two or Three Contracts - Personal-Sale of Liquor the Past Year. Chappells, December 23.-Mr. Dwight Smith broke a rib recently by falling oil a fence. The majority of the negroes up here are mider two or three con tracts. A fat time is predicted for the trial justice, Mr Jno. W. Ropp, next spring. Mrs. Rhoda Watts, of Slighs, is visiting relatives in this community Messrs. Wise and Frazier, of No. 9 Township, passed through here last week selling leather and buying hides. Mlessrs. Jim and Will I'pting, of nC.1r Macedon'ia, Lexingtonl county, have been here iuting land for sale. Christmas is ne.arly here and will find :I oiher ef eope in hl cir cumIstalnces, while others have Iaditle money. With some it wvill be full of happiness and pleasure, while others u ill look back over the past \vith sorrow and sadness. Vith s0me people it is spent in gaiety, drinking7 and frolicking, without thinking that another mile stone has been passed and that life is S,I()It anld real 11(d carn-st. This Corresl)o(Iclnt wishes every reader of The Ierald and News a Ilerry Christmas, 11( (spetialily the hard% worked editor and1 his col laborers inl the oflice froi the proof reader to the devil. I wonder how many of the read ers of The I lerald am News noticed the total sale of whiskey for the past year of the two dispeosaries- -- something over $62,000. Add to this about $20,ooo and you will have abot the amiouit of' whiskey drunk in Newberry coity, as a number of people won't patronize the dispensary and order their whiskey. We are drinking over $8o,ooo worth of whiskey with about 5,000 family population. This amount would have bought 5,ooo families nearly four barrels of flour for the past year. G. B. ). Turned Over to the Magistrate. The case against Clarence Wil liams, Robert Long and Will Cole man, the little negroes charged with stealing money and goods from Punrcell & Scott's store, has been turned over to the imagistrate by thme city authorities. The three negroes have confessed. They say that the three concealed Itemselves in the store and when it had been locked up they took $5 out of the money dirawer and( someW spoons1 anid tobacco. The case was worked up by Poli, aan Carter. It will he remetmbered that the sinallest negro, Robert Long, 'vas seen trying to sell thme tobacco and spoons onm the street. Hie implicated Williaim-: andl Williams imlnllica ted Coleman and the three confessed. The Mayor's Court. Only t wo cases we:re dhi.sed15 of by the Mayor yesterdlay morn in1g. D)aii Brown. J r., colored, was seni teniced to pay a fine of $2 or to ser ye 4 day3s for en rsi Prg and1( P'ink Smith and Will Floyd, colored, were fin ed $3 and 25 cenits, respecctively, for fighting each other.