The Starkville news., May 29, 1903, Image 2

About The Starkville news. (Starkville, Miss.) 1902-1960

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The. Starkville News
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
OTARKVILLE. : : : MISSISSIPPI.
I The Crisis I
I of Her Life I
tßy FRANK H. SWEET. \\
(Copyright, IMS, by Dally Story Pub. Cos )
THE girl gave a pitiful sob as the
train curved away from the sta
tion, showing through the car window
the ragged slope of Hog Hack, with
the few isolated cabins in their little
clearings among the pines. High up
toward the ridge, and above all the
other cabins, a tiny wreath of blue
smoke curled over the trees and lost
itself in the clouds. That was from
Herk’s chimney, and he was cooking his
dinner. Then the girl’s shoulders
straigthened suddenly, and her gaze
left the window.
The woman in the next chair had
drawn her skirt a little closer when
the figure slipped past and dropped
ihto the seat; but as the girl turned,
and she saw the sweet, wistful face
in the depths of the big sunbonnet, her
lingers relaxed and the folds of the
skirt fell back into its former graceful
curves. At that moment the conduc
tor entered.
He caihe straight to the girl, for she
was the only passenger who had taken
the train from the mountain station.
As he stopped beside herchair she held
out a handful of small coins. Then
the woman noticed that the eyes in the
sunbonnet were large and beautiful,
end that the long lashes were wet with
the tears that were being resolutely
held back.
“Where to?” asked the conductor;
then, without waiting for a reply, as
liis eyes swept down the coarsely clad
figure, “haven’t you made a mistake,
my girl? This is a parlor car.”
“I reckon hit’s all right,” answered
the girl listlessly, “the man outside
said for me to get in quick. Here's
yo’ money.”
“Where do you wish to go?”
“Anywhar the train stops; hit don’t
matter ’bout no pertic’ler place, so
long as thar’s houses an’ people an’ a
chance to git work. Yon all needn’
bother ’bout no extra stoppin’ on my
’count.”
“Well,” doubtfully, “this money will
take you as far as Hidgeboro, 30 miles.
That is considerable of a place. Hut
suppose we go into the next car. You
have evidently made a mistake. And
anyway, the chair you are in has al
ready been taken. You see, this ear
costs extra.”
“M3- brother is cdJo3 ing his cigar and
will not be back for an hour or so,”
spoke up the woman, suddenly; let the
girl have the chair, conductor. 1 am
glad to have her occupy it.”
The conductor looked from her to
the girl undecidedly, then slipped the
coins into his pocket and walked away.
The girl turned to her neighbor.
“How’s li>e mean extra?” she in
quired. “I never ast no price, an’ 1
give him m3- money.”
“Perhaps he thought 3'ou might not
want to give an3 r more than was neces
sar3',” the woman suggested. “Passen
gers have to pa3' extra for using the
chairs in this car.”
“O —oh!” The girl half rose. “Don’t
ye reckon he took hit out o’ my 90
cents?” A
“Xo, I don’t think he did. Hut it
doesn’t matter. The chair is mine.”
Hut the girl was standing now. “I
LOVE’S .BLINDNESS.
It hath been said that Love Is blind.
The saying’s but half true,
Like many others that we find
In glancing letters through.
To faults, to sorrows, to the base.
His eyes indeed are shut;
There is no meanness In Love’s face,
No wickedness, but—
When things of beauty can be seen.
When sweets from heaven fall.
None dares deny, I ween,
That Cupid sees them all.
And with his eyes, as with his wings.
He seeks the realms above,
He seeks the better, truer things,
And that is why he’s Lcve,
\ —John Kendrick Bangs, in Woman’s
. Home Companion.
don’t want nobody to give—” she
began, when the woman reached out
and touched her on the arm.
“Sit down, my dear,” she smiled
pleasantly; “you are my guest, you
know. If I should go up *to your
home on the mountain wouldn't you
let me have a chair to sit on?”
“Of co’se; but —”
“That is all I am doing now. The
chair is temporarily mine, and it is
unoccupied. I am glad to have you
make use of it.”
The girl remained standing for a
few seconds, then sank down doubt
fully upon the chair, and soon after
turned to the window. A rugged,
pine-w-ooded slope was sweeping by
and on it were small clearings and
cabins, and blue smoke losing itself
in the clouds; but it was not her
slope and cabins and smoke, and
her gaze came back mistily
into the car. The woman was gaz
ing out at the slope, also, for it was
wild and good to look upon. Then
in the reflection on the window glass
she saw the girl’s hand go to the
bosom of her dress and draw out a
small tintype such as w-ere made by
cheap, wandering photographers.
The woman at first saw without ob
serving; then realizing wtiat she was
doing she suddenly turned her chair
so as to shut out the reflection, but
not before she saw the tintype raised
to the girl’s lips. It w-as
only when she heard a low sob, in
stantly cheeked, that she swung
her chair back again, sharply.
“My dear,” she said, and there was
an odd little catch in her voice, “have
you quarreled?”
The girl started, her e3 r es opening
wide. “Y-3'es,” she hesitated, “but
bow’d 3-e know?”
“Oh, women have a way of divin
ing such things, perhaps. Is he
nice?”
The sunbonnet was pushed back
suddenh-. the e3'es were shining.
“Nice?” Herk nice?” The ghT
drew a long, ecstatic breath which
ended in a sob. “lie’s the best man
on the whole mount’n, the strongest
an’ best lookin’ an’ best workinV
“And 3011 quarreled?” There was a
low, retrospective note of sadness in
the woman's voice, which she did not
appear to realize herself. “Quar
reled,” she repeated; “was Herk to
blame —altogether?”
“N-uo, not all,” confessed the girl,
frank 13-. “I —1 started it. Hut
Herk’s a strong man, an’ ought to
give in.”
“Men are sometimes stubborn,
even when their hearts are breaking.
It is the woman who should give in,
especially if she is a little in the
wrong. Love means so much more
to her, and —and it is so easy for
one's life to be ruined. You must go
back and make it up with Herk,
dear.”
“I can’t,” shortly.
“Would 3011 like to go through all
3'our life without seeing or hearing
from him, just living for yourself?”
“Hut 1 wouldn’t,” with sudden
alarm in her voice. “Herk’s plumb
sure to come an’ look for me arter
a while.” She half rose as the train
began to slacken speed, her face
flushing. ’Tlit’s Hraut’s Bridge,”
she explained; “seven miles from
our place, an’ where I aimed m3' 90
cents sellin’ calamus roots. Herk
bought my ring here, too. Ob, yes,
he’s plumb sure to come for me.”
“Perhaps,” the strained lips were
forcing themselves to say; “but don’t
wreck 3'our life on such a chance, my
dear. That’s right,” as the girl rose
with sudden resolution in her face;
“go back and explain to him. If he
is a good man —as 1 think he is—he
will understand and meet 3-011 half
wa3 r . And 3*oll must allow me to ad
vance you the fare back —3-011 can
repa3- me some time, 3011 know-. I
am glad for 3 r ou, dear. I once knew,
of u quarrel like this, and there was
no making up. The man went across
the sea and never came back. He
never will come —” She stopped ab-
her lips parted, her eyes
wide. Her brother w-as approaching
from the other end of the car, and
behind him, crowding hy him, was a
tall, eager man, whose face was
gl oiving. whose arms were out
stretched toward her. As in a dream
she felt the girl grasp her hand and
kiss it, and heard a broken, joyful,
“rJood-b3 r . No’m, I can’t take 3-0’
money. Hit’s only seven miles, anVI
can w'-alk hit easy. (Jood-by. Hit’s
the fust time I was ever in a train,
an’ I won’t never forgit ye.” Then
the girl w-as gone and then —the man
was beside her.
A Very Moan Trick.
Dulhead—Why did yon fellows de
cide to omit wine from your next an
nual banquet?
Sharpe —So as to make sure of the
attendance of the finest after-din
ner speakers in the country. We
have invited them, and they won’t
dare stay away.
“Why won't they?”
“Their wives will think that it’s be
cause there is no liquor.”— N. Y.
Weekly.
Belgium and HoHapd use Greenwich
time. In Germany, Austria, Denmark,
Italy, Scandinavia and Switzerland one
hour before Greenwich time rule*.
THE RECIPROCITY GAME.
Tried, Failed and D4acarded by Re
publican*-—Scheme to Dope
the People.
The exhaustive work on reciprocity
by Profs. Laughlin and Willis, just
published, reminds a forgetful world
of the premature death of this “child
of protection.” It was born with the
McKinley bill in 1890, and in it cen
tered, apparently, the fondest hopes of
the republicans at the time of the pas
sage of the Dingley bill in 1897. It now
fills an early grave and is unmourned
and forgotten, even by the republicans
who begot it in political infamy and
who made its life one of shame and
duplicity.
Reciprocity was a Blaine sop to keep
quiet certain people who were asking
for lower duties and certain manufac
turers who w ished to enlarge their for
eign markets. Senator Hale said in
1892 that this Blaine annex floated the
McKinley bill and “kept the whole
structure from going down.” Thus,
reciprocity, before it was a year old.
had buncoed the farmers and mechan
ics and prevented them from burying
protection too deep for resurrection.
Again in 1896 and 1897 the republic
ans “whooped* it up” for “protection
and reciprocity, twin sisters of repub
lican policy,” as their platform de
clared. Reciprocity was put into the
Dingley bill in two sections and in two
forms. Great results were promised.
Under section 3 treaties were made
BENEATH THE FEET OF THE CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY ARE THE
GALLEY SLAVES OF LABOR. —Denver Post.
with five European countries, by which
we admit crude tartar, brandies, still
wines and paintings from these coun
tries at lower rates Of duty. I nder
section 4 treaties were negotiated and
signed with a dozen countries. As
these treaties would have appreciably
lowered duties on some important
articlesi in a way to lower prices to
American consumers, and thus would
have taken some of the protection
swag from the trusts, they were pi
geonholed in the senate until the time
limit for ratifying them had passed,
and are now in the malodorous condi
tion of unhatched eggs which have
been incubated for one month. Efforts
will be made to hatch the newly laid
Cuban-reciprocity egg. but, experts
who have inspected it say that it is
already rotten.
But we should not rashly conclude
that because reciprocity has been an
ignominious failure in its ostensible
objects it has not well served
some of the purposes of its promoters.
As we have seen, it distracted the at
tention of the irate voters and thus
“saved the face*' of protection. But
this is not all; nor is it the worst. As
was shown in the senate debate, last
winter, and was admitted in 3809 by
Hon. John A. Kasson, who now wears-
Blaine’s reciprocity mantle, the rates
of duty in the Dingley bill are much
higher 'than they would- have been
had the reciprocity sections been
omitted. v x
Nearly every nation that is playing,
or pretending to play, the reciprocity
game has “maximum" tariff rates for
countries which stay out of the game
and “minimum" rates for those which
participate. This country put on the
“maximum" rates and made duties
unnecessarily high, even from the
standpoint of protectionists, so that
there would be ample protection left,
even after they had traded and
swapped rates with the numerous
countries. As the republicans in the
senate never went into the game—and
perhaps never intended to play it
the trusts have, since 1897, enjoyed a
double portion of protection and are
prosperous, almost beyond belief. In
fact, they are the beneficiaries of most
of the prosperity about which we
hear so much. The 80,000,000 consum
ers of this country who pay, in ad
vanced prices of trust products, the
unnecessarily high tariff taxes of the
Dingley bill, have no. reason to be
thankful that Blaine smashed his old
bes>v€r hat and ushered in what has
been, to them, a twin fake to protec
tion*
It is- shown in this new book, “Reci
procity,” that reciprocity is, in prac
tice, either a tariff threat or a- sub
sidy paid by the consumer to aid the
producer. It is shown that reciproci
ty of the kind that would result
in lower prices is, politically, next to
impossible, because of the greed' and
selfishness of the protected interests
who refuse to let pro of even a small
part of their protection. For these
reasons reciprocity has been a delusion
and a misnomer to those who- expected
through it to secure either tariff re
vision or enlarged markets. In the
last paragraph of their book the pro
fessors say:
“For 20 years past the pendulum of
public opinion has swung back and
forth from reciprocity to tariff re
form. Disappointed in the one it has
turned to the other. It has never suc
ceeded in getting a definite trial of
reciprocity until the passage of the
Dingley Under that instrument
the futility of reciprocity efforts has
been apparently shown with great con
clusiveness. It is time for a revulsion
of public opinion and that revulsion
seems now to be well under way. -The
tariff reform sentiment has always
been present in the minds of certain
portions of the American people.
. The reciprocity hope has been
dangled before the eyes of the people
even in those times when the protec
tive spirit has seemedi to be most in
vincible. This was the case under the
McKinley act; it has been the history
of the Dingley act as well."
Let us hope that there will be no
resurrection for this reciprocity hum
bug and that we will soon bury by its
side its twin curse, “protection.”’
BYRON VV. HOLT.
OPINIONS AND POINTERS.
The coal trust may be able to
show that it is a purely eleemosynary
institution, organized under the acts
relating to public charities. —Detroit
Free Press.
big fish w ill suffer by the stirring up of
the mud in the post office department;
some of the small fry "ill be caught
in the net and exhibited to the public
to show the skill of the administra
tion.
The failure of a shipbuilding con
cern is said to be due to the neglect cf
congress to pass Mr. Hanna’s subsidy
bill. No doubt Unde Sam could keep
a good many people from failing if he
would throw the doors of the treasury
open to them. —Rochester Herald.
Senator Hanna is trying to snug
gle up close to organized labor, and is
giving them lots of taffy these days,
but then Brother Hanna is up for re
election for United States senator, and
is a prospective candidate for presi
dent. and the- laboring men have lots
of votes.
- Secretary Root is getting worse
and worse. He says that the tariff
should be revised only by a congress
that is not playing politics. This would
be putting off revision until the ar
rival of the millennium, and that is a
little farther than anyone else has
gone. 11 —Peoria Journal.
he is “in politics” as a leader of a par
ty that is dependent on union labor
for votes and on the employers of
union labor for funds. Under the cir
cumstances Uncle Marcus makes a
better tight-rope dancer than could
reasonably be expected of one of his
weight and figger. —Louisville Courier-
Journal.
Mr. Roosevelt cannot justly com
plain that he has been, a target for
democratic mud slinging. His polit
ical opponents of the opposition have,
as a w hole, treated him with courtesy
and consideration that contrast cu
riously with the treatment accorded
by republicans to the last democratic
occupant of the white bouse, — Port
land Argus.
CAUGHT ON TO THE JOKE.
The Chinese Secretary of Leratlo
Was .Not Much Perplexed by
American Witticlwm.
"Have you ever been naturalized?"
"Yes; but it didn’t take."
“Now, that is what we Americans call a
iote,” explained the Washingtonian to the
brand new secretary of the Chmee legation,
who has indicated his desire to become con
versant with the custom® of this country.
In spite of the alleged humor, however, h
failed to laugh, and his informant consid
ered a full explanation proper, relates tha
Washington limes.
“You ®ee,” he continued, "the word natu
ralized has been confused with vaccinate.”
The meaning of the tw r o words was thea
defined, together with the phrase didn't
take.”
“When we say the vaccination didn't
take, we mean that the virus didn’t have tha
desired effect.”
With this the Chinaman expressed his ad
miration for American wit, and a broad
smile overspread his face.
The conversation was continued in a gen
eral way until the w;ise resident of Wash
ington suddenly fancied it would be humor
ous to relieve himself of a joke at the ex
pense of the Celestial. With a patronizing
air he put a query to the attache in jaw
breaking words, and then laughed at his
own brilliancy.
The secretary stared blandly at him for &
moment, utterly bewildered bv the question.
His face was expressionless, but he gave a
faint smile when the American explained ho
bad been joking.
“A joke—yes; but it didn't take, here
plied, with a naive amile.
Birth of a Great American Railroad.
May 17. 1903, marked the Fiftieth Anni
versary of the incorporation of the New
Y"ork Central Railroad; a fact interesting
in the history of the State of New’ \ ork,
for the consolidation of the ten separata
email roads into one line, that formed a
continuous route frojn Albany on the east
to Buffalo on the w’est, was the beginning
that made possible 'the enormous in
dustrial and commercial development in
the country contiguous to it.
Articles of agreement were filed May
17, 1853, the first Board of Directors was
elected July 6th, and the whole line de
livered to the new company August Ist,
1853; insuring better service, more com
plete connections between all points, and
a more general stimulus to development
than was possible under separate and
rival corporations. Tins also opened the
way for the consolidation of the New
York Central Company with the Hudson
River Railroad in 1869, which event
presaged that era of wonderful progress
in the undeveloped west, for it created a
direct line from the ocean to the inland
s-as, known as the great lakes, and
brought distant territories into close con
nection with the seaboard.
It is a picturesque fact that this line
traverses the one break in the whole Ap
palachian chain between the Gulf of Mex
ico and the St, Lawrence River, and it
w’ould seem as if Nature meant this to
be a roadway for travel. Certainly the
Indian found it so, for the Mohawk trail,
the pathway of the confederated Iroquoia
tribes, is almost identical with the New
York Central Railroad of to-day. This
trail was also the pathway of war during
the French and Indian and the Revolu
tionary Wars, and later, in its offering of
easy travel, it lured the pioneers of the-
West to the Mohawk Valley, which is so
rich to-day with the product of agricul
tural industry, on to the broad and fallow
fields of the Genesee, to build up and
develop the traffic of the west upon the
great lakes.
It is a far cry indeed from that primi
tive little line of the New York Central
of fifty years ago to the great Railroad
of to-day with its Twentieth Century lim
ited, speeding like the wind, carrying its
passengers on luxurious palace cars, over
smooth roadbeds, with a scarcely percepti
ble jar, and fifty years of progress could
not find a better illustration than is re
lated in an interesting letter of remi
niscences written by Mr. Joshua Wilber,,
of Lockport. New York, describing rail
road travel in New York in 1839.
The w’riter says: “We took the cars
on State Street in Albany; these cars
were drawm to the city line by horses,
for locomotives were not then allowed in
the city. The cars w'ere of the ancient
pattern, entered by doors on the side,
with seats across the car, the passengers
facing other, as in the old-fashioned
stage coaches.
“ The speed was tremendous—about
twelve miles an hour. Arrived on the
ridge opposite Schenectady. our cars
were let down an incline plane, secured
to a large rope cable, the end being
attached to flat cars weighted with stone,
which were drawn up on a parallel track
as we went down. At Schenectadv we
changed cars and traveled west to Utica,
reaching there in the afternoon. That
was then the end of railroad travel,
“A canal packet was boarded which,
landed us in Syracuse next morning.
There another packet was taken for
Rochester, which we reached early the
following day. A third packet brought
us from Rochester to Lockport in six
teen hours.
“The time consumed in coming from
New York City to Lockport was nearly
four days, being on the move all the
time, except the. night spent at Albany.
“Not long after the roads built from
Albany westward, and from Buffalo east
ward met, and a continuous line was
formed, but with many changes of car
and other inconveniences.
“Then the Hudson River road waa
opened, and Buffalo and New York
became neighbors."
How He Fixed It.
"Can’t you learn to say ‘No?’ ’’ she de
manded.
“Certainly,” he replied, and thereafter ho
arranged with his boon companions to ask
him if he would refuse a drink, instead of
asking if he would have one. Thus he was.
enabled to say “No,” without suffering any
deprivation. —Chicago Post.
Shake Into Your Shoes
Allen’s Foot-Ease. It cures painful, swollen,
smarting, sweating feet. Makes new shoes
easy. Sold by all Druggists and Shoe Stores.
Don’t accept any substitute. Sample FREE-
Address A. S. Olmsted, Le Roy, N. Y.
Magistrate—“ Was the prisoner armed?’*
Fogarty — “That he was. Why he was a a
arsenal, with his guns and knives. Yes, and
he was shooting glances and looking dag
gers,”—Y'onkers Statesman.
stop* the Contra
and works off the cold. Laxative Bromo
Quinine Tablets. Price 25 cents
While other men are taking summer out*
ings baseball players are trying to get a few
innings.—Chicago Daily News.
Good nature la stronger than torn**
hawks.—Emerson.