the carolina watchman wl viii third series salisbury n c april 19 1877 jo 27 inspired word of the apostle that none who are like him shau inherit the king dom of god there is another very tragical aspect of this terrible vice it is perhaps the most difficult to conquor of all vices xo other siu stretches its roots down so deep into or intertwines its tendrils so insiduously and widely with every part of our moral nature from the raleigh observer the telephone a north caro lina invention like most of the wonderful inventions of modern times the telepone is of north carolina origin but the inventor of it like many other inventors — especially north carolina inventors is not known iu connection with it it seems to be the fate of genius that its possessor shall nev er enjoy the fruits of his labors the fol lowing letter written to one of the editors of the observer does but tell the usual story dr davis the writer formerly a resident of fayetteville now lives iu salisbury and is well known iu both places the gentlemen to whom he refers as cognizant of his invention are also well known and of the very highest respecta bility the following is the letter salisbury april 3 mr p m hale dear sir believing you to be the champion ofthe right 1 ap peal to you to take a little trouble to do justice to a citizen of fayetteville with whom you are not entirely unacquainted and more especially as he who asks this favor at your hands is now and has been for nearly a year past an invalid and con fined to the house with pulmonary disease believing that you will willingly comply with my request i refer you to an article in youj paper of april 3d 1877 respect ing the telephone as it is named by mes srs gray bell and others i claim to have invented this phonetic telegraph as i named it more than ten years ago at that time i made drawings illustrating fully my invention — but did not proceed to obtain a patent until i should have perfected the machine 1 refer you to mr jefferson robinson of fayetteville to whom i described the apparatus and also to dr llaigh of the same place from the latter gentleman i borrowed about that time some works on anatomy in order to study and fully acquaint myself with the structure of the human ear so its to fully understand it in reference to the working of the pho netic telegraph as i then called it i also made pen and ink drawings of the in strument which 1 sent to the editor ofthe scientific american with a request that they be preserved as i wished by means of them to claim priority of invention if my right were disputed there are many others all gentlemen of reliability to whom i can refer my apparatus was even more perfect than that of messrs gray and bell inasmuch as it could write or register the sounds in a distinct lan guage a thing they have not yet accom plished my invention covers the chang ing of air-vibrations into electrical and the restoring of them again into air vibra tions or waves as is done by these inven tors i have overcome some of the diffi culties which they encountered my ap paratus is more perfect than that which they exhibit my state of health alone has prevented my proceeding to establish my claim to which i can bring many wit nesses 1 iini somewhat surprised that those of my friends with whom i held communication many years ago on this subject should not speak out and do me that justice which should be shown an in valid ; but i suppose that so few of our citizens are in the habit of appearing in print that that is a reason for their si lence xow if there is any honor connected with this discovery or invention it was not a discovery with me this honor should be assigned to tbat state of which the in ventor is a citizen is it not so '? at any rate i leave the matterinyonr hands sat isfied iis i said in the first part of this communication that it will be a pleasure to you to do justice to one of your old fel low citizens and whose health forbids his milking any especial exertions in his own behalf i am i think sufficiently well known to you to insure your attention to and interest in this matter and 1 leave it for the present in your hands my ad dress is dr james davis salisbury x c hon w l steele's letter ox the political situation to me it is clear that duty to the coun try and to truth and honor demands that the enemies of modern republicanism shall stand linn and united in their efforts to re-establish good government and con stitutional liberty any schism in their ranks will only add to the mischiefs which they have often denounced and to the re moval of which they stand solemnly pledged such being my views 1 do not hesitate to say that as the representative ofthe sixth district i shall stand by the organization and shall be ready to uphold its action in the election by the house whether the nominees are my choice or not and in all things else looking to the harmony ofthe party and the consequent interest ofthe country in the event that any man elected by the democratic party shall contrary to my expectations prove false to his pledges and the faith which was reposed in him by his constituents i shall be willing to hurl anathemasal him whose treason like a deadly blight came over the councils of his party and blast ed them in their hour of might the ci mn try has witnessed long enough the use ofthe military to maintain politi cal ascendency in the southern states such base and unconstitutional acta made the chief infamy ofthe late administration notwithstanding the deceptive cry of let us have peace with my consent the army can thus be used no longer sooner than see it further employed in such unhallow ed uses i would see the land defenceless so far as the regular army is concerned feeling sure that when any real danger to the government or the people should pre sent itself i volunteer army could easily be raised which would stand as a wall of fire around its interests and its liberties ' from the new york observer does liquor selling pay ? in 18g5 i took charge of the presbyte rian church in this place then a village | of some four or five hundred inhabitants there were three saloons in full blast dealing out without stint their villainous compounds warranted to kill at eighty rods saloon no 1 was a regular irish she been the man and his wife were both liberal patrons of their own bar ere long the wife fell a victim to her own poison the husband held out a year or tw o lon ger and then followed her leaving two little boys to the teuder mercies of people like themselves one of these at ouce took possession of the premises and con tinued the business money known to have been in possession of the deceased was never accounted for the boys were sent to an orphan asylum the successor in the business soon erected a substantial building and kept a more showy establish ment after a few years he followed his predecessor and by the same means de lirium tremens saloon no 2 was kept by a young man who rapidly accumulated money of three brothers directly or indirectly con nected with him one yielded to the power of whiskey another left the business the third still lingers delirium tremens af ter a while sent the principal to his final account leaving little of his ill-gotten gains for his wife and children saloon no 2 did a large business and for a time seemed prosperous but in a few years delirium tremens closed the career ofthe husband the wife kept up the businesss took another husband and erected the best brick building in the place within two years the second hus band followed tlie first and a tornado wrecked the line building it was repaired and the widow though often seen on the street drunk still held out last ofall the woman died also her death-bed presented one of the most appalling scenes conceivable the torments ofthe world of woe seemed to have kindled upon her before life was extinct her shrieks of agony were terific snakes and devils snakes and devils ! oh take them off i know they are not there but oh there they are snakes and devils she liter ally tore the desh from her limbs in her agony of terror so she went to her fear ful account thus within about seven years eight persons after helping to destroy hundreds upon hundreds fell victims to their own deadly compounds and of their ill-got ten gains little remained all this in one small town last spring a severe gale again wrecked the brick building above named and there was not money enough belonging to the esttite to repair it any one passing on the railroad will notice a large building tin main part partially unroofed the gable and windows dashed in and the wing to tally wrecked there it has stood and there it is likely to stand a curse rests npon it does liquor selling pay ? is not the ques tion answered by these facts ? in these as in multitudes of other cases it paid in poverty delirium tremens and death further we cannot follow them they sowed to the wind and reaped the whirl wind yet tens of thousands are prepar ing for a similar harvest selected for the watchman there is something in the vice of intem perance which is exceptionally mean xot only like all other vices is it debas ing and evil in itself but having the property of nourishing in company with every other vice its companionship sinks each one of them down to a still lower level of shame and degradation a liar is bad enough in all conscience but a liar who is a drunken sot is still more detest able a thief is very despicable but a drunken thief is incalculably more so and so it is all through the catalogue : every vice is made more hateful and repulsive by being linked with intemperance moreover there is no other vice which so effectually extinguishes the ordinary moral virtues a liar may be courteous cleanly humane capable of faithful friend ship and ardent affection and too honest or too proud to steal but a drunken man never can be either of these in his drunk en moments he is rude unclean brutal prone to insult or injure friend or wife or child and he will descend to the lowest depths of baseness and dishonesty so again a thief may have till those virtues which are possible with a liar and may iu addition despise lying but the drunken man having no capacity for any virtue and attracting to himself every vice finds it easier to lie than to speak the truth proverbially no one places any reliance on his word or even upon his sworn testi mony this is especially the case with opium eaters it is even worse with religion than with the merely moral virtues a man has no conscience when he is drunk his spiritu ality is extinguished absolutely he cannot either fear or love pray worship or adore he is unable to see his sin and therefore cannot be truly penitent for it or repent of it the example the sacrifice and the resurrection of his saviour can make no impression on hisbeastilized soul nor will the holy spirit enter that unclean dwell ing it is impossible for the love of god to find room in his heart and we have the we've been together many a long year but to-morrow morn ally — ' there was no need for bim to finish what he was saying to-morrow we must go into the union workhouse nothing else lay before us we had fought our fight ; and this was the end of it ! i could not believe tbat it was aught save a dream only i was cold and hungry and so was transome ; so cold and so hungry it could not be a dream my lass !' he said tenderly very ten denly and my mind called back the sound of his voice as we came home picking flowers along the canal-side we inun remember as t were god's own son as deed upo th cross if thee had to see me hang it ud be far far waur nor deein i th union ; but it would na be waur nor what he bore for us no no ally ; god almighty's dcalin wi us is softer nor wi christ and ally his poor moth er stood by to see him dee upo th cross oh ! if it was only me i cried i could bear it !' ah ! but thce'lt have to bear it for me he said smiling on me it's just the same wi me if it were na for thee ally aw could go cheerfu and glad to th union ; for aw ve noun so long to live but never to hear thee say good neet as i fa asleep nor good day when th morn breaks that's th hurt lass that's th hurt in the dark cold night i took the few things we had left and pawned them spending part of the money in coal and food ; and thinking that with the rest we might come out ofthe workhouse again in the spring and i could get a little school together once again i bought a small store of tobacco for transome for i knew how sorely he would-misshis pipe when we were parted the long long night wore away too soou and then i went to the reliev ing-officcr and got an order to go into the house there was a glimmer of pale sunshine in the sky as transome and me crept along the streets towards the union work house feeling as if everybody we met knew where we were going he could not drag himself along save tit a very slow pace ; and here and there wherever there was i doorstep to an empty house we were forced to sit down and rest tran some did not speak many words as we went along for he was very weary with the journey ; but every now and then his poor lingers clasped my arm more tightly is if he meant to say cheer up ally ; it must comerigbtin the end but at length we reached the end the long blank wall i and the great black doors : and though we stood outside full five minutes looking into each other's face no help came i was forced to ring the loud clanging bell and we crossed over the black doorsill into tlie workhouse vi good-bye we stood inside the great black doors which swung to behind us shutting us in is though they would never open again save may-be when we were borne out through them in a pauper coffin tran some leaned more heavily on my arm a man in the workhouse suit was silting in a little room just within the doors and as we stood stilling about us he called out sharply na then ! whatten yo standin there for v he shouted ; canna yo conic on and tell me whatten yo want here v me and my husband has brought an order to go into the house i said inside birds eh !' he said laughing a little caught an caged ! go on then t th measter's office first dur t th rect across the yard i guided poor transome across a large square yard with nought to be seen stive high walls on every side with windows in them that had no curtains like eyes without eyelids looking down on us but there was not a face to be seen at any of them ; and a mournful stillness tilled the place it was transome that knocked at the master's door a quiet feeble knock that could never have been heard if there had been much noise we were called to go in but we did not stay there many minutes and the master sent a man with us to show us our separate wards once more we had to cross the great yard transome clinging to my arm till we came to a door in the avail where we must say good-bye to one another we never had said good-bye all those long years those forty years since he had taken me from my father's home in an other county how could i let him go out of my sight ? it was not like him setting off for his day's work sure of com ing in again in the evening how could him and me spend our time apart ? could na yo leave us for two or three minutes said transome to the man feebly iioo's been th best wife as ever a man had these forty years ; and aw dun no how to bid her good-bye gie us a minute longer to be together that aw will answered the man but it canna be more nor a two or three min utes bless yo ! ye'll see one another at prayers morn and neet if yo chosen to go ; and yo'll ha half an hour o sunday besides half a day out once a month it's noan so bad is th house so as yo getten rect side o th measter he went off for a little while leaving transome and me against the door into the women's wards ; with all those dark staring windows looking down on us i laid my head against the door-post and for the watchman fuapitiox — in february 1781 when lhe army of cornwallis were foiled in their attempt to cross the yadkin at trading v.iril in going higher up the country to f|t)gg the streams they went over grant's i reek by the present road or some say half a mile lower down at gheen s bridge lvci second creek some men and boys of whom john marlin wns one the lather of die present john marlin were set to guard i ford a short distance below called the row ford when the light horse appeared they tired once and ran to william wil liamson's who lived where cnthey rice now lives who with williiini wilson who lived about two miles above second creek wi re sent to cut down the bridge thev had this done just as the british hove in sight williamson escaped but wilson was riding a slow horse the calvary over took and cut him up badly so that his bowels fell out they left hi in for dead but a tor.v to make sure of the matter shot i buitl't info ms neck he crawled out however into the bushes till they had all passed and then crawled a mile anil a quarter to the place where the late thom m wood lived carrying his bowels in his hands it seems they were not cut open iiiovcreil and lived to be tin old man — migrated to rutherford co tenn near murficesboro a man by the name of todd met sud denly in turning a corner tiirleton iii the head of his calvary tiirleton hailed him but lie replied by shooting a bullet through the top of his h;it and having a swift horse escaped the army crossed fourth creek at cor rcll's mill went by lohu hive's to rench i ford and so to the main yadkin at ktuitsville thev crossed the catawba feb i and the 9th they camped at the moravian settlement bethauia the writer of the above says i bave ■ . tillered the above traditions w ithin a few lavs by publishing it you may draw out more e f r for the watchman the scotch irish ix new england in a sermon preached by lev charles hammond at the re-dedication of a church at union conn july j isgg he says many of the early inhabitants ofthis town 1734 belonged to the scotch irish emigration of thai period these people were really scotch and had no trace of irish blood nor did they bave auy sympa thy with their religion thev hated popery as had as l neir ancestors did who emigrated from scotland to the north of ireland in the lime of cromwell in mat ters of religious doctrine thev harmonized with the puritans but in church polity i!n \ were presbyterians ofa ib cidi'd ty pe aud for tbis reason doubtless they were not uot cordially welcomed in new eng land in tlu-ir search for homes thev went liiictly to the new towns and border set llcnieuts evidently for the purpose of ii voiding conflicts with those whose social institutions were already established large numbers went to the southern coun ties of xew hampshire palmer in mass achusetts were setihfl by them and sev eral families caiue here some of which were anion the very first sel tiers when - ever they went in sufficient numbers they planted presbyterian churches many of which remain till this day the presby terian church at palmer became congrega tional in 1810 llu seoieli iri.sh people were intelligent ami honest industrious and thriving hike the puritans they had suffered from religions persecutions and hence thev laved civil and religious liberty they had little sympathy with the church and male system which they found in xew england but they were ready to tolerate differences of opinion while the were true to their own convictions the scotch irish were said to be gifted with two ijual ities grit and grace which means i blip pose that they were fond of having their way hut were careful to pursue the right way especially in respect to their religion and their politics i find however no trace of social difficulties here arising iinin differences of race or religion the people cordially unite in settling a minis ter and in building a meeting-house and lm\v were ill in the habit of attending public worship when however the church was organized here four years after me town was incorporated and three yeare before the meeting-house was built l und few names among its members ex t those of puritan origin for the watchman during die of paris men of science therein vain tried | l to discover how to obtain heat wiih ""! a combustible substance i .-• fo obtain food from mineral matter lw0ut the co-operation of life j '• l reproduce essential food of man ' °'"- of what had never before been used for food i hence james 5 7 we read of the pre j lniit.s of the earth it costs groat la | wopman and beast to bring food out of m,,i>ith and after all this labor it is ii f'tt f cod we must b^e the light heat and other j <>! the sun without these our crops '.' i row without rain our food will ', ; 2 ll0 m estimate the value in gold i silver these elements in the proiliie | ■ oi the fruits of the oil jt is stated ■'. ■,""!'; impt-r that au inch depth of rain . is worth a million of dollars ui"iuh then is the value of all the x*d snnshine that we all enjoy over lu .'. iu '" producing so great a vari use arrit'1 lrom the earth for our oakey hall new york april fi who has seen oakey nail london telegraphs as follows it ty not be improper for me to say tlmi *• flight wu paused by the ever-reenr g spectre of hia alleged complicity in ri»g frauds the perpetual revival of j charges made life intolerable to him j j*eame to think death better than to tbu8 constantly haunted he said to i'1 at he wished to be considered dead - is friends and to be forgotten he is '>. greatly depressed and seems to have , *° «»* for the future i faithful in little by hesby strettox author of lost glp c v — the last step how the days sped i do not know ; but tbey seemed to pass by lil*o the rushing ofa river just before you come to a deep dreadful waterfall down which you most plunge into a flood that will drown you every morning and every evening carried us on to the terrible day when we must quit our old bouse for ever i kept my school open till the very last for tbis was no t ime to lose a single penny i could win there was no other bouse near that place i where we could move to ; for the lowest j rent was five shillings a week and i could j never undertake to pay that so my school would lie lost as well as our home and i must try to begin again in a strange neighborhood on tbe other side of the town where the rents were lower what was to become of transome and me baffled me whenever i looked forward he did not lie in bed any more but sat beside nic in the cliiitiney-nook whilst 1 taught i the children now and then stretching out j his hand — his poor hand — crooked and | drawn together with rheumatism just to j touch me i knew after a while what he ! was thinking of then though he never put it into words well we bad to sell some of our goods ; the old loom for one that used to make such a busy sound in our cot age early and late i'lii rest we carried with us to the oilier side of the town into a small house . in i close pent-up street where the wind never blew across one's face with a sweet j fresh breath i did my utmost to gather i together a few scholars ; and sometimes i had ii few and sometimes none tran some took to setting always at my side and if 1 was away for half an hour do : ing i i'vw errands he'd welcome me back is though 1 had been away from him all day he began too to talk mine at times quite eagerly iis if he was afraid be might someday want to tell me something and would not bave the chance i never knew liim talk so much as that long dreary summer when we were treading slowly down those steps poor folks know of st p after step downwards and down wards never stopping till the list step crumbles away under one's feet ami all is losl ! we troile on the last step and it crnni bled away underneath our old feet when tli lirst sharp touch of winter came we bad kept up till then pawuiug and selling our few goods to buy bread for our mouths but when the biting cold came and our blankets were iu the pawnshop and i bad not a morsel of dauuel to wrap about transome's poor pained limbs and no lire io give i little warmth to our worn out frames then i knew that all was lost i was sorely bewildered and beset had the lord been deceiving us ill these years had he brought us to old age and to the very gates of death to forsake us at hist ,' transome had been faithful if a poor ignorant man can ever be faithful to his gal if eilher of us had been unfaithful it was me ; and surely tlie lord would not visit ojy sins and short eommings upon him ! ally !' said transome one day bring th book and read me again how th bless ed lord came to's to end upo th cross so i opened my old bible so worn that ii was worth nothing at the pawnshop and i read aloud to him shivering and shaking with cold as i read there was not a spark of lire in tbe grate or a crust of bread in the cupboard i had not a penny in the world and did not know whereto turn to lind one we had not any friends transome being such a silent man and me a foreigner in that country ; and all my kinsfolk were dead and gone it was forty years since i had married away out of my county i was thinking all these thoughts tak ing no heed of the blessed words my tongue repeated : lor i had read those chapters so often to transome i did not need to think of them how lar even i had read i did not know till all at once i heard transome saying to himself — • scourged and mocked and crucified ( lull's own son ! that were ten times waur nor deein i th workhouse tbat word stung me to the core of my heart though in my secret thoughts i had known it must come to that hut to hear transome say so i threw down the bible and cried aloud with very bitter cry it seems as if i could hear myself even now ; and as if i could see transome's thin pale face as he looks at me ally t he said thee'rt a gradely scholar is na there a verse somewhere faithful unto death,"5 ay ." i sobbed be thou faithful un to death and i will give theo a crown o life that's it!1 he cried learn it me ally as yo learn the lit tie chillier i could not say to him nay though my heart was like to break he caught hold fast firm hold of my hand as i said it to him over and over again ; him repeating it after me like the least of my scholars in our old house it seemed bard to him ; or maybe he wanted the lesson to be long for it was growing dark in the afternoon before he stopped saying it we'll stay one other neet be said ' broke out into heavy heavy sobs na ally cried transome na my lass ! hush thee ! hush thee ! god al mighty's here as well as out yonder i th world he knows where we are ; and sure he loves us both same as he's loved us all along we mun put our trust in him and go through it ; thee and me mun part eh ! but aw wonder if god a'migbty looks down on ony hearts sorer nor ours at this moment o time ?' only promise i said through my sob bing promise me faithfully you'll be careful of yourself and keep up so as we can get out again in the spring when the warm weather is come oh transome if i could only keep nigh you and take care of yon i shouldn't mind there's one as 11 take care on us both he answered his voice trembling one as says i'll never leave thefr nor forsake thee o'ny think o that my lass he's here v th workhouse itsen ; and nought 11 part him away from thee nor me good-bye ally aw hear th man coiiiiu back to us he stretched out both his hands to me aud i put mine into them and we kissed each other solemnly as if we were both about to die and enter into another world i saw his face quiver all over and then there came across it a patient and quiet look which never left it again never i knocked at the door before me and pass ed in ; just catching a last sight of him turning away w ith nobody to lean upon then the door v as thrust to between us and i could see him no more i did not heed much what was said to ine and i did not look about my new dwelling-place only 1 followed a woman who passed through many rooms where the windows were high np in the walls so that nobody could reach the sills and where there were groups of women till dressed alike chattering most of them ; and there was a strange close smell oh how diff erent from the sweet air in our old home at hist when i came to myself as it were i found i was sitting on a chair at the head of a little narrow bed in a long room with two long rows of beds down the sides of it and a narrow path up the middle all the beds were alike and the bare white-washed walls closed us in with nothing to be seen through the high win dows save a little bit of grey november sky there were old women all around me ; some of them many years older than me even a few of them bed-ridden but they seemed too dull to take any notice of nic as if everything that was like life had died out of them save the bare life itself well ! there's no need to tell you much about the workhouse most poor folks know more of it than they care to know either through their own troubles or the troubles of their friends i don't say a word against it ; only i could not be with transome there think what it was to have been his wife forty years witb scarcely a branglc between us and never a sulking quarrel and iill at once to be shut up in different parts of the same building with only a few walls anil yards to part ns yet not be able to see him or even send a loving message to him i wet my pillow with my tears that night ; ay ! more than when my willie died as i wondered and wondered how he was laring and if lie was warmly wrapped up and how his pains were but i could do nothing for him no more than if i was lying iu my shroud and coffin at hist my loneliness and my trouble drove me to remem ber him that is everywhere and was with transome as he was with me lord i said in my heart for it was uot altogether a prayer such as i had generally said to him lord if they'd only make his bed comfortable and wrap him up well in the blankets do put it into their hearts lord for he's tried to serve thee faithful all his life long after that i felt a little easier in my mind ; i fell asleep and dreaming of the days when willie was alive only some times the child was willie and sometimes pippin i suppose it was because i had close to my pillow the little box that held the curl of willie's hair and pippin's piece of money it was the only thing i had brought in with mc except a few bits of linen transome had woven for me years and years ago which i had bleached as as white as snow in the frosts on the brew of the hill to be continued an old lady at birmingham thinks she has had a special providence and it ia surely a remarkable coincidence she was poor needy and dependent on chare ity for her support on sunday at church she felt strongly impelled to put six cents all she possessed into the missionary she hesitated as she need ed it herself but finally dropped it in and a few minutes after while return ing home she picked up six cents in the road on the subject of freezing out grass hoppers a mr yates writes to the st paul press from medailia — two years ago messrs flanders wadsworth and others hatched out hoppers here in their offices by the stoves and when they were about one-forth of an inch long put them out on the sidewalk and subjected them to fifteen and eighteen degrees below zero when taken in next day they were as good as new and a trifle hungrier with me the liberty of tbe citizen ia above nil things else and i will do nothing which i think tends to infringe upon it or weaken its strength unless the arrav can and will be used in a legitimate wav agaiust the public enemies aud to protect and not harrass the peace of society and can be assured of such a use iwill not vote one dollar to its support in this i am confident i shall faithfully reflect tho voice ot the people who have trusted me tor i propose to be their servant and not their master the house of representatives must defend the rights of the people of tbis country against all assaults by whomso ever made whether the assaults be open and manly or secret and detestable it must not be moved from its proprietv by either money offices threats or smiles why i the wilmington star which labors zcntfriisty to advance the prosperity of xorth carolina asks why then should any xorth carolinian leave his home to seek his fortune else where ! why should he go out among strangers to find that which lies at his own door because the legislatures of this state for lo ! these many years seem to have studied how wot to promote her interests and keep her sons and daughters at home we want what we have never had a liberal progressive state policy of de velopment which looks beyond to-day and into the future a policy that looks to opening up and utilizing the vast resources that nature has lavished upon us this we have never had and until we do our people will continue to seek their fortune in regions less favored by nature but more favored by fostering legislation that's just what's the matter greens boro patriot true only in pa.it we believe nine out often of those who leave the state do so because they expect to find a richer soil in the west and where the labor of the farmer is bet ter rewarded many go from a desire to join friends who bave preced ed them some others because they aro of i restless discontented mind and can't be easy anywhere especially when hard work presses them we have known some to go away to spite a wife's relations and others for tbe purpose of breaking up social relations not agreeable to them we have never known one to leave for political reasons from washixgton special to the richmond dispatch washington april g secretary key made a flutter among the eighty bidders for the new postal card contract which involves a million and a half of dollars by rejecting all bids and ordering a re-advertisement for proposals the post-office department had decided to have a style of cards that could only be manufactured by one firm in the whole country because no other firm pos sessed the peculiar machinery necessary these new cards as proposed were to bo made of pulp of two colors so combined that the card should be homogeneous throughout yet show a green surface upon one side and i bull upon the other and this result must be reached without coloring the cards after manufacture when the day came for the hides to bo opened some of the bidders explained to the secretary the advantage amounting almost to in exclusion of competition that was given to a firm in new england and mr key rejected all bids without even opening any except those that arriv ed by mail how a pig became a horse a lady who litis several grown sons and daughters told me that when her first born boy was a very young baby a gentle man gave him half a dollar she told her husband that she would with that pro vide the little fellow a horse to ride by the time he was twenty-one years of age with the half dollar she bought a pig she fed the pig with such scraps ect from the kitchen as would otherwise have been thrown away for she had determin ed tbat her husband should not incur any expense in the plan wliich she had adopt ed to get the horse in about twelve months when the pig had become large enough to be fattened for pork she bought eight bushels of corn promising the neigh bor of w iioin she bought it that she would pay him when she had killed and sold the hog so in ii few months the animal had reachad such a size that he brought about fourteen dollars with part of this fourteen dollars she bought ii calf using the balance of the money to pay her husband all expenses of keeping the calf except the grass which it ate in the fields in the course of two or three years the calf had grown so well that it brought thirty-five dollars this amount after paying all expenses not heretofore paid was quite sufficient for the purchase ofa colt almost ready to be put under the saddle and by the time her little boy was six years old his horse was ready for bim but he was not quite large enough to take a ride some of our young readers can act on this hint for themselves a ten-year-old farmer-boy may if he will turn a pig or something else pel imps a lamb imu a horse before he is seventeen — iuu tit's companion