Wwdrukf Cmmlty News.
VOL. II.
McCRORY, ARKANSAS, THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1902.
NO. 16.
NEWS OF THE WORLD,
The coronation of King Edward
will take place in August.
The Texas democratic state con
vention indorsed the national plat
form of 1900.
An increase in the price of hops
will either reduce the size of the
beer glass or cut the profits of the
brewer.
A bolt of lightning struck the
flag-pole on Tammany Hall build
ing, New York City, but did only
slight damage.
Gen. Chaffee has been relieved of
command in the Philippines and or
dered to the command of the depart
ment of the East.
The leading circuses of the United
States have entered into an arrange
ment whereby they will route them
selves so as not to come into compe
tition with each other. Those in
terested are the proprietors of Fore
paugh & Sells Bros.’ circus, Barnum
& Bailey's circus, and Buffalo Bill’s
wild west show.
The department of agriculture is
making a chemical analytical in
vestigation of imported foodstuffs
from Germany, with a view of de
termining their purity. The out
come of this investigation may re
sult in retaliative legislation on ac
count of Germany’s discriminating
against American meats.
The municipal health board has
decided to remove 40,000 natives
from the slums of Manila to subur
ban camps, in an effort to check the
spread of cholera. The object is to
clean and disinfect the disease cen
ters. The camps will be sanitarily
conducted. The municipality rents
the grounds, builds the camps and
feeds the indigent persons.
The strike of Chicago freight
handlers and teamsters lost the mer
chants and railroads affected on an
average of $1,000,000 per day. The
amount in increase of wages de
manded by the strikers averaged less
than one-half cent per hour, or
about $500 per day. The teamsters,
who struck and gained their de
mands previous to the freight han
dlers' strike, disregarded their agree
ment and went out through sympa
thy.
The British transport service,
which for so many months conduct
ed an active trade at Port Chal
mette, is to reopen its camp there
for the shipment of horses, mules
and cattle to South Africa. It. is
found that the American animals
are the hardest for the veldt work
and the British government will
need a great number under its agree
ment of restocking tin farms of the
Burghers who suffered in the re
cent war.
It is believed J. Pierpont Morgan
is planning a financial scheme more
far-reaching than anything he has
yet achieved. Rumor has it that he
is considering ihe unification of the
Turkish debt. The sultan knows
that he who unifies this debt will
have Turkey in the hollow of his
hands, hence he thinks the safe
hands are those of the Americans,
whose country can have no designs
upon tlie Ottoman empire. The fH
toman debt is 1,100,000,000 francs.
•Sir Liang (’hen Tung, formerly
secretary to Minister Chang Yen
Huang, who was beheaded in 1‘JOO
after being exiled to Turkestan, has
been appointed minister to the
I’nited States in succession to Wu
Ting Fang. New ministers to Rus
sia, France and Italy have also been
named. The selections for these
posts show that the dowager empress
continues to regard the diplomatic
service as unimportant. None of
the appointees have ever before held
an important office. The newly ap
pointed successor of Minister Wu
was educated in this country.
Willie Cannon, a negro 15 years
of age, confessed to the chief of po
lice of Birmingham. Ala., to the
murder of four infants whom he
was employed to nurse at different
times, two white and two colored.
The Chicago strike of freight
handlers and teamsters lias been
settled. The merchants of the city
lost at least $10,000,000 by the
strike, while the men gained an iu
| crease in salary of $00,1^1 per
month.
Josh Anderson, a white farmer,
in jail at Owensboro, Ky., on the
charge of murdering his wife, was
taken from prison by a masked mob
of about forty men and hanged to
the beam over the city scales, on one
of the most prominent streets of the
town.
Details of an important move by
Russia which have evidently been
suppressed hitherto by the censor
have transpired in London. This
move is no less than a proposal by
the imperial government for an in
ternational conference to deal with
trusts.
The acting commissioner of inter
nal revenue has issued instructions
suspending temporarily the collec
tion of taxes on undivided profits of
national banks under the war reve
nue act. The banks fought the con
tention of the government that un
divided profits were part of the sur
plus of banks, and the Leather
Manufacturers’ National bank of
New York brought suit against
Collector Treat to prevent the col
lection of the tax. The circuit court
decided in favor of the government,
and an appeal is pending in the su
preme court.
During a storm lightning struck
a row of oil tanks at Jennings, La.,
setting them on fire. The flames
eat away a portion of the tanks, al
lowing the oil to escape, which
flowed over the surface, forming a
lake of fire. The blaze soon reached
the pipe to well No. 2, in the Acadia
field, and the flames shot high into
the air. The sight of the burning well
at night is indescribable. The own
ers offered a reward of $10,000 to
any one who would extinguish the
fire and control the gusher. No. 2
is the only well affected, the others
being covered with dirt and mud.
The report of Chief Examiner A.
It. Serven, of the civil service com
mission, for the year 1901, has been
made public. The following ex
tract gives an idea of the extent of
this branch of the work done by the
commission:
“In this period 18,(599 competi
tors were examined. Of these 21,
028 were for the departmental
branch of the service, of whom 15,
779 passed and 5,249 failed; 3,433
were for the custom houses, of
whom 2,85(5 passed and 577 failed;
449 were for the internal revenue
service, of which 252 passed and
187 failed; 1,708 were for the force
of the public printer, of whom 1,554
passed and 155 failed; and 20,901
were for appointment in the differ
ent classified postoffices, of whom
12,749 passed and 8,152 , failed.
There were 252 persons, already in
the classified service, who were ex
amined for transfer, of whom 173
passed and 79 failed. There were
321 persons examined for promo
lion, of whom 158 passed and 163
failed, making a total of 48,093
persons examined for the classified
service, of whom 33,521 passed and
14,572 failed. During this period
166 persons were examined for the
| District of Columbia service, of
whom 49 passed an 117 failed, and
439 were examined for service under
the Philippine commission, of whom
1(59 passed and 270 failed. This is
an increase of more than 4 per cent
over the total number examined in
tin' previous year, which was 46,
602.” .Mr. Serven urges an increase
of the facilities of the commission,
and says: ‘‘During the past five or
six years the number of appoint
ments through examinations has in
creased from about 1,000 to more
than 10,000 per annum, and the
number of classified positions from
a little over 30,000 to about 100,000,
and yet no additional employees have
been provided by congress to assist
in the demands of the chief exam
iner’s office, occasioned by this
■ normous increase in the classified
service.”
NEWS OF ARKANSAS.
Dr. Hooper’s Last Report.
Dr. P. 0. Hooper, upon his retire
ment from the superintendency of
the Arkansas State Lunatic Asylum,
submitted the following report to
July 1, the date his resignation be
came effective:
To th<j Honorable Board of Trus
tees, State Charitable Institu
tions :
Gentlemen, I respectfully sub
mit herewith report of the Arkansas
State Lunatic Asylum from Decem
ber 1, 1900, to July 1, 1902, the
date of my resignation, including
table of movement of population,
which will enable my successor to
more easily complete the report for
the end of the fiscal year, December
1, 1903.
The following tabic will show
what has been done in the last nine
teen months. The number of recov
eries is quite creditable, considering
the large number of old, harmless,
incurable, helpless people that have
been admitted, who should have
been cared for at home by relatives
or friends, or by the counties if
friends were unable to do so. Many
of these poor people were represent
ed as violent and dangerous to the
community in which they lived,
when at the very time they were so
physically feeble that they could
not hurt a fly.
The asylum is always full and the
demand for admission is most press
ing, and applications for admissions
are coming in daily, begging and
pleading to take just one more; and
no relief can be granted for want of
room.
It is unfortunate that the pur
poses of hospitals of this kind arc
so improperly understood by a large
proportion of intelligent people. It
is too commonly looked upon as a
huge poor or alms house or place of
detention for those who are in their
dotage and sometimes troublesome,
rather than a place of cure and al
leviation of one of the greatest of
misfortunes that can afflict man
263 518
81 212
kind.
WHITE.
Male Fem. To.
Number of patients on
hand Dec. 1, 1900-255
Admitted from Dec. 1,
1900, to July 1, 1902. .131
Whole number treated,
from Dec. 1. 1900 to
July 1, 1902.386
The discharged were:
Recovered . 34
Improved . 42
Unimproved . 5
Eloped . 1
Not insane. 2
By death .30
344 730
31
21
5
20
65
63
10
1
2
50
Total number discharged.144 77 221
Number remaining July
1, 1902 .272 267 536
COLORED.
Male Fern. To.
Number of patients on
hand Dec. 1, 1900.... 40 64 104
Admitted from Dec. 1,
1900, to July 1, 1902.. 7 16 23
Whole number treated,
from Dec. 1. 1900. to
July 1, 1902. 47 80 127
The discharged were:
Recovered . 1 2 3
Improved . 2 2 4
Unimproved .
Eloped . 1 • ■ • 1
By death . 6 8 14
Total number discharged. 10 12 22
Number remaining July
1, 1902 . 37 68 105
The per centages of recoveries to
admissions from December 1, 1900,
to July 1, 1903, was 28.93 per cent.
The mortality from December 1,
1900, to July 1, 1902, was 7.40 per
cent.
In closing I desire to express to
you, gentlemen, the president and
members of the board of trustees
and executive committee, my thanks
for your confidence and support and
for the many acts of kindness ex
tended to me personally during my
incumbency. Respectfully sub
mitted. * P- 0. Hooper,
Superintendent.
Peculiar Death.
Please Smalley, a negro woman,
met death in a peculiar manner near
Little Rock. She was leading a
mule, and in some manner the rope
became looped around her neck.
The animal became frightened and
ran away, dragging the woman for
over a mile.
Five Convicts Escape.
Five negro convicts escaped from
the state camp at England. It
seems that the five negroes were at
work plowing in a field several miles
from the stockade, each one hand
ling the lines over one of the state’s
mules. One of the negroes stopped
plowing to bring the lone guard in
charge of the squad a drink of water,
and the others so managed it that
they readied the place where the
guard was about the same time. As
the guard raised the dipped to his
mouth the negro who was canning
the water bucket suddenly seized
him around the waist and pinioned
his arms to his side. The other
negroes came quickly to the assist
ance of their fellow-convict, and it
was the work of but a few seconds
to take the guard’s revolver and
Winchester. One of the negroes
kept the guard covered while the
others unhitched the five mules
from the plows and mounted them.
Then the convict who was guarding
the guard mounted his mule and
quickly joined the others. The
names of the escapes and their terms
arc as follows: Will Dillehay, sent
up March lb, 1897, from Lee coun
ty for twenty-one years for murder;
he escaped shortly after his incarce
ration and was only recaptured last
February, in Mississippi, and re
turned to the penitentiary walls; he
has a stiff arm. Adam Greer, sent
up from Crittenden county Decem
ber 10, 1899, for eight years; he
escaped last year at West Memphis,
but was recaptured shortly after
ward. Toot Easter, Union county,
three years; received in April, 1902.
Monk Jones, Union county, three
years; received in April, 1902. Na
than Pickett, Saline county, one
year; received March 9, 1902.
Horrible Suicide.
Airs. Ella Webb, living at Barton,
about twelve miles from Helena, re
sorted to a horrible mode of suicide
in the presence of a 13-year-old
daughter and 2-weeks-old baby. She
threw herself face downward on a
large blazing fire, which she delib
erately prepared in an open fire
place. Before assistance could come
to the 13-year-old daughter, who
endeavored to pull her mother from
the fire, the flames had burned out
the eyes of the desperate woman and
had extended into her lungs. She
died before medical aid could reach
her. Despondency over her impov
erished condition evidently drove
the woman to self-destruction.
The Monitor Arkansas.
The new monitor Arkansas re
cently had her trial trip over the
official course off the Delaware coast.
The Arkansas was launched at New
port News, Ya., November 10, 1000,
and was christened by Miss Bobbie
Jones, daughter of Hon. Dan \Y.
Jones, who was at that time governor
of the state. The Arkansas cost
$1,500,000, is 252 feet long, 50 feet
in breadth, has a displacement of
3,235 tons, a coal capacity of 400
tons and a mean draft of 12 feet.
The thickness of her side armor is
11 inches, the weight of her machin
ery 240 tons ; she carries a crew of
125 men, has a speed of 11 1-2
knots and an engine stroke of 24
inches. The contract for the Ar
kansas was awarded October 2, 1898,
and her ket-1 was laid November 18,
1899.
Prof. Hartzog Chosen.
At a meeting of the board of trus
tees of the State University, Prof.
H. S. Hartzog, of South Carolina,
was elected president of the above
institution. Mr. Hartzog is presi
dent of the Clcmson College, at
Clemson, S. O., and is only 35 years
of age. He is accredited with hav
ing made a splendid record in his
present position and he is very
highly recommended. He is a Bap
tist minister. His election com
pletes the faculty for the University
of Arkansas. President Hartzog
will assume the duties of president
at the opening of the next term in
September. He succeeds Dr. John
L. Buchanan, resigned.
Col. Murphy Gives an Opinion
Attorney General Murphy has
given the following construction of
the county uniformity text-book
act:
Professor J. J. Doyne, Superinten
dent of Public Instruction, Little
Pock, Ark.:
Dear Sir—I have the honor to
acknowledge the receipt of your
communication asking my opinion
as to whether section 2 of the act
of the general assembly of this state
entitled “An act to provide for
county uniformity in Text-Books,”
approved March 31, 1899, is in
operation in counties wherein there
was no vote on the subject of coun
ty uniformity at the various annual
district school meetings, .to the ex
tent of preventing, for one year
thereafter in such districts, any
change of the school books in use
therein. Section 1 of the act en
larges the old law by empowering
the electors, assembled in annual
school meeting to the number of not
less than five, to vote, in addition
to other matters determinable by
them in that way, on the question
of county uniformity in text-books;
and while it is true that section 2
says that the ballot of the electors
shall, in addition to the name of the
person to be voted for as directors
and the words “for tax” and
“against tax,” have printed on it
“for county uniformity” or “against
county uniformity,” this does not
mean that the elector^ shall vote
upon the question of county uni
formity. If they obliterate or erase
from the ballot neither the words
“for uniformity” nor “against uni
formity,” it is manifestly that there
is no vote upon the question. The
same is true if the words “for uni
formity” and “against uniformity”
are left off the ballots. Hence it
6eems to be within the option of the
elector to vote or not to vote upon
this question, to exercise or not ex
ercise the power conferred by the
“uniformity” act; but, even if this
is not within their option, how can
it appear, or who has the power to
declare, that the vote in a given
county was against uniformity when
there was no vote at all on the sub
ject? It is manifest that no one
has such power.
I am therefore of the opinion
that the “uniformity” act has no
operative force in counties where
there was no vote at the last annual
school election on the subject of
“county uniformity,” and that in
such counties the provisions of the
old law govern.
Geo. W. Murphy,
Attorney General.
Settled With the State.
The city treasurer of Fayette
ville recently paid into the state
treasury the sum of $10,131.32, and
delivered twenty-five new bonds to
meet the indebtedness of the city
entered into in 1872, to secure the
location of the state university in
that city. Washington county gave
$100,000 as a bonus, and recently
paid the full amount on the ma
turity of the bonds. The city’s
bonds recently matured, the bonus
having been $20,000 in thirty-year
bonds. The total amount due the
state was $32,400, and being unable
to pay all of it, the arrangement
stated above was made, the city
having a credit of $4,800 on the in
terest fund. The new bonds are for
twenty years at 5 per cent, the old
bonds having been for thirty years
at 8 per cent.
State Offers Reward.
The state offers a reward of $250
for the arrest and conviction of J.
Forshc, or Fourshay, who, on July
4, at De Queen, Sevier county, shot
and killed A. P. Taylor, a well
known resident of that place. Tay
lor and his son were walking down
the street and the sidewalk being
narrow, brushed against Forslie in
passing. In a few minutes they re
turned, words were passed, and, it
is said, Forshe whipped out a re
volver and fired on the elder man,
who was killed almost instantly.
The son knocked Forshe down with
a chair after his father had fallen,
but Forshc made good his escape.
Hangman’s Day.
Gov. Davis has also set the date
of July 25 for the execution of the
following convicted murderers,
which makes six hangings scheduled
for the above date: Jim Kitts, of
Desha county, sentenced by the cir
cuit court to hang February 28,
1902. The case was appealed to the
supreme court, as were all the oth
ers, and the decree of the lower court
recently confirmed. In the mean
time the date originally set for the
execution lapsed and the fixing of a
second date devolved upon the gov
ernor. Kitts will be hanged at Ar
kansas City. Dee No]in and Tom
Sims, of Hempstead county, to be
hanged at Washington. Both were
originally sentenced to hang June
12 of this year. The other three
men who will die July 25 are Dave
McWhirter, of Crawford county,
to be hanged at Van Buren; Sy
Tanner, of St. Francis county, to be
hanged at Forrest City, and Lathe
Hembree, of Howard county, to be
hanged at Center Point.
Davis to Meet Myers.
An understanding has been reach
ed between Governor Davis and the
democratic state executive commit
tee, and arrangements effected
whereby the governor will take the
stump with li. H. Myers, regular
republican nominee for governor, at
Stuttgart, July 23. Attorney Gen
eral Geo. W. Murphy consented, and
all is peace and harmony in demo
cratic circles. Gen. Murphy will
not be present at the Davis-Myers
meetings except in places where the
governor is unable to attend.
The Cow Came Back.
Pending the indictment by the
grand jury of Gus Wells and Sal
Patillo, of Pulaski county, held on
a charge of cow stealing, the animal
they were supposed to have stolen
returned to the home of her owner.
At their preliminary trial the evi
dence in the case was purely circum
stantial, but it seemed conclusive.
A boy testified that he had seen the
men take the cow, and the hide,
which it was claimed had been sold,
was introduced in court and posi
tively identified as that of the miss
ing animal.
To Gather Cotton Statistics.
The national government is ap
pointing men in Arkansas to look
after the cotton statistics by visiting
regularly each gin and secure from
them an authentic statement of tho
number of bales ginned. The gov
ernment experts will take these re
ports and publish weekly or month
ly bulletins, by which they hope to
keep down false reports that influ
ence the price in favor of specula
tors.
BRIEF MENTION.
A 1 (5-pound boy was born to Mr.
and Mrs. John Ilobinett near Ben
ton.
Prof. G. B. Cook, of Hot Springs,
has been elected director for Arkan
sas of the National Educational As
sociation.
Work has begun on the grading
of side tracks at I loxie, which is to
be made a division of the Iron
Mountain.
Harvey Sexton, who killed a
whitecapper near Mammoth Spring
about two weeks ago, was released
at his preliminary trial. •
C. E. DeLong, of Hot Springs,
defeated Dr. B. H. Gallinger, of
Pine Bin IT, for the state champion
ship in the shooting tournament at
Pine Bluff.
Will Hendrix and City Marshal
Gibson had a difficulty at a dance at
Blythesvillc, Mississippi county,
when Hendrix cut and probably
fatally wounded Gibson.
A. P. Taylor, who was once a
member of the Alabama legislature,
was shot and killed at De Queen by
Dan Foursay, a section hand on the
De Queen & Eastern railroad.
The Iron Mountain has just is
sued a new up-to-date map of this
state, showing all completed lines
and several under construction.