Carolina Watchman

              " terms ol the watchman riution per year.tvvo dollars payable in : but'if not paid in advance two dollars 5 i fiftv els will be charged ■"■■■' ';:, h subsequeni insertion court orders charged glrct higher than these rates a liberal deduc .',,'•,* those who advertise by the year to the editors must be posi paid the carolina watchman from tiik register fort defiance jan'y 3 1350 mr gale : in my cotnmunicalion written at lhe warm springs on lhe sib nf nov last i advanced some reasons why a rail road should be consiructed connecting our central rail road with the tennessee and virginia rail road by a line running '.:, m salisbury through or n.ar to statesville taylorsville lenoir and through ibe john's river gap ofthe blue ridge and valley of watauga river to the tennessee rail road at or near jonesboro tenuessee i shall now conclude with some further views bruner & james ) > " keep a check upon all your editors *$• proprietors ) rcleks ( new series jo this axd llbertv is safe < gen'l harrison ( volume vi—number]38 salisbury n c thursday january 31 _ romance of the ocean the following facts relating to a young a i rican girl i think cann.it but interest your ers especially as they are too well auihen i ,, io admit of a doubt of their baring taken , in the manner lo be mentioned ' the america whale ship washington , . hich arrived here on the 13th install reports be whule ship christopher mitchell arpaita un krlae following circumstances he m had lhedaipa.ta,for.hepurposeofputunga8h«,re ' .„„, for home and again left for the cruising * j i ,,„ be second or third night out ? i the watch was called one ol lhe crew was rg-over d to be a young girl instead ol a fair , which created no little excitement and caused tlie captain to put back | j io paita to land his female sailor to seek nore congenial way of earning it liveli : j han using a tar bucket and a marling her story before lhe american con i ' ... •* j,j was as follows : oj,a g a native of r«,chester new york was educed like thousands of others from her home i . _ n.iau who promised to make her his law vjf but who abandoned her in a short time l absconded lo parts unknown returning parental roof she was met with bitter corn and driven from her home too proud _<\. assistance from strangers and so far sj fl i-irtue as t think of subsisting by the n|i means by which might now seem left lo ; e put on male attire and for two monihs earned her living by driving a horse on ihe ca j »_■ fired of this she determined lo ro to 4ea firs engaged as a cabin boy at 4 per i month—hui was l*>l*l by lhe shipping master lhat t>he could make more by a whaling voyage and onsequenlly proceeded to nantucket to look forasbip it was wilh some difficulty that she j obtained a birth her youth and delicate appear ance being much against iter one ofthe ship owners ... a place where she applied an old quaker ) al last become so much pleased with ! is be expressed the good face of the boy lhal he persuaded ihe captain ofthe w to lake her on board she performed her duty faith fully for seven months previous to her discovery never shrinking from going aloft even in ihe i worst weather of ihe darkest night she also pulled her oar twice in pursuit of whales but ! ihe boat iu which she belonged had never been j fast to one of he monsters or pei haps her courage might have failed her sho was a general favorite on board never i mixing with the crew any more lhan was ab solutely necessary her quiel inoffensive be ! bavior had also very much prepossessed the i captain and his officers in her favor when summoned into the captain's presence imme diately after the discovery she made a full and voluntary confession whereupon she was laken into the cabin a slate-room set apart for her use and every attention shown her that could be extended lo a female on board ship when landed al paita the excitement and fatigue bad somewhat overpowered her but in one or iwo days she was quite well and much elated with lhe prospect of soon reaching home in lhe vessel about to sail only once previous lo her final discovery did she run any risk of being ex posed but on the occasion alluded lo by sud denly working in a more bungling manner she escaped detection the cause of attention be ing drawn towards her on the above occa sion was the quickness wilh which she plied her needle—being more than a match for the othei sailors in thai respect the fact of her being on hoard and doing her duty well cannot bedoubted her name is miss ann johnston and her age nineteen years polynesian aug 26 cholera in the fast indies.—according lo he last accounts the cholera has proved fear fully fatal in siam a correspondent of the ; sirails times writes : 1 regret to say that the cholera that awful tisitation of god has in its onward march reached bangkok and made most fearful rava : ces among its thoughtless multitudes on sun day ibe 17th of june a few cases occurred within the city walls aud near lhe palace ; by j the tuesday following it had so increased that i eighty bodies were taken lo a single " wat for burning on tuesday friday and saturday it raged so lhat its horror's are beyond descrip uon you could not walk out even lor a short distance without witnessing lhe dead bodies lying in all directions and seeing persons at tacked while walking from one place to anolb er who perhaps oftentimes never reached their homes so great was the number of deaths that hey found it impracticable to burn them all and ma ny were buried and multitudes more thrown into the river just as they had died you may form some conception ofthe numbers by know ing that in many wats four hundred or near ly hat were buried in a day they were brought and laid in piles and fuel applied when hey were consumed like heaps of hogs no pa lade—no funeral—no oilier object but lo has ten them away to the wat where they often were left to be burned by those who would at tend to it or left lo putrify on the ground per haps in the three days last mentioned not less an from two thousand to three thousand died daily and at the end of twelve days it was known that mote than twenty thousand bad fal len victims to its fearful ravages since lhal time tl has very much abated but has by no means ceased the mortality is said to have been not so treat among the inhabitants il is thought that wiiliin a radius of twenty or thirty miles nol less than eighty thousand have been swept off by this falal scourge within the last two or three weeks the singapore authorities have directed all vessels from siam lo be examined and those with a foul bill of health lo be placed a quarantine • fc*7 a few days ago foote of mississippi commenced a speech in the senate by saying hat he rose to speak wilh great reluctance his reluctance to speak were half as great as be reluctance the senate feels to hear him he w'ould be as mute as a mouse throughout the re aituler of his senatorial career whenever 1"e chairman sees lhe little mississippian mak lng himself erect and says " mr foote every her foot in the senate lhal has any regard r the comfort of lhe man it supports proceeds basitly toward the door and makas its exit louisville journal the citizens of florida nre holding meetings favora 0 ihe establishment of common schools in thai state | for the watchman alcohol is a poison before adducing fads and arguments in support ol this position we will define what a poison is webster defines it to be " any substance which when taken in ' to the stomach mixed with the blood or applied to the skin or flesh proves fatal or deleterious venom anything infec tious malignant or noxious to health that which taints or destroys moral puri ty or health one eminent physician says that " poi son is any substance which when taken into the system has the effect of disorder ing some of the actions that make up the sum of life another says " what is a poison ? it i.s that substance in whatever form it may be which when applied to a living sur ; face,disconcerts and disturbs life's healthy movements now how shall we deter j mine whether any substance comes under these definitions ? if we take and handle it perhaps we should not be able to tell { the appearance might not reveal its true | character many things that are fair to view are destructive so the forbidden fruit looked desirable ; but as it proved in that case so it is often that what tempts the eye most is most to be avoided its j use is destruction ; its touch is death when pure alcohol may be clcaraschrys tal when mixed with other substances it may give a tempting color in the cup : but shall we therefore conclude that it is j harmless is lhat a sufficient reason to infer that it may with safety and pro : fit be taken into the stomach 1 alas ! would that now for the first time we were to prove the noxious quality of this poi soner of mankind : would that we had not known too much of the evil effects of alcohol so that there might be a doubt as to whether it deserves to be branded as a disturber of life's healthy move ments it is the glory of the present age to pursue the path of wisdom and science by observation and experiment and what has alcohol proved itself to be but a most destructive poison 1 not by an isolated case occurring now and then but by ten thousand observations and experiments j it cannot be said as it is sometimes in i natural philosophy that the known in stances of its operation are too few to in fer from them a general principle ; and to lay it down as an undoubted truth too many persons have turned maniacs too many have cut short their days while they knew not drinking death under the dominion of alcohol ; and have inflicted on themselves and others too many other evils,to leave any room for such a charge as j that nor can it be said that reported facts are not facts ; that the observers were not men competent to note and record their observation or that they were not men of such a character for honesty and in tegrity as to be relied on for who are they that thus stand forth as the champi ons of the best interests of society ? that would oppose the progress of this moral and physical evil ? that would say to the swelling tide of misery and death " thus far but no farther are they not tlie best men that the country can pro duce ? they are divines fudges states men physicians they know what they speak and whereof they allirm are not they worthy of credit who have had opti cal demonstration whose business it is to judge of the nature and effects of poi sons who are handling and adminis tering them to their patients every day ? are they not worthy of crediton this sub ject who would be on any other and who are they on the other side why the very men who are blinded by their appetites who are pleading not in be half of the honest convictions of their con sciences and better judgment who are ' not seeking the truth but to escape its force who love darknessratherthan light with whom sense and supposed self in terest are superior to reason and con science animal sensations have more weight with them than heaven-born truth and do we need any other evidence than this that alcohol is a poison tainting and destroying moral purity ?" that when men are most injured by it they are least able to see and least willing to acknow ledge the evil ? and where shall we begin to show the truth of our proposition ? we will begin at the fountain of life itself alcohol is mingled there in the golden bowl and the purple stream as it courses the arte ries and veins carries along with it a deadly element it is unfitted to fulfil its office alcohol is not merely an intruder in the way but is deleterious what should nourish and refresh the exhausted energies of the system is rendered inca ble of this end it is also poisonous to the stomach and an old writer says " the stomach bears an adequate analogy to the root of a tree and may properly enough be called the root of a man ; for as the root of a tree is the beginning of it receives or draws the juice of the earth to prepare or convert it into food for the trunk and all the branches and being well digested trans mits it to all the parts : in like manner when the tree is observed not to bethriv 1 ing or the branches to be decaying and changing color withering ordying where do they look for the cause but at the root of the tree ? even so it is with the nour ishing of the parts of the body and the diseases they are subject to in relation to the stomach what then i.s the effect of alcohol upon j it ? its functions are deranged and its organic structure is affected the gas tric secretions by which food is digested are vitiated the coats of the stomach are indurated thickened and ulcerated j the mucus membrane is at length des troyed food is vomited and appetite fails the stomach is unfitted for nutri tion and sometimes the mucus membrane >. is so thickened as to fill almost the entire j cavity ; and no nourishment can pass through it to support the system indi j gestion and complete emaciation follow and this is succeeded by death there is first an unnatural irritation of the surface of the stomach ; the follicles from which the gastric juice is secreted become con gested these are small mucus glands so small that over a million are found in a cubic inch when excited by proper food they send out a fluid that digests it but when excited by alcohol they are filled with black blood and greatly en larged ; and hence the membrane in which thf*y are situated is so much increased in thickness they are now incapable of furnishing the digestive fluid in proper quantity or quality ; and then at length the functions if not the very substance of the mucus membrane is destroyed dr lewall remarks that he has " never dis sected the stomach of the drunkard in which the organ did not manifest some remarkable deviation from its healthy con dition these effects are such as might be sup posed beforehand to follow the inner coat of the stomach is exceedingly sensi tive ; and we may judge of the effects of j ardent spirits on it by what we find to be the case when it is held in the mouth for a short time it excites the nervous agen cy in an unnatural manner ; increases the ; tone and contracts the blood vessels but this is of short continuance the vi i tal energy so excited is soon exhausted :; a reaction follow then inflammation we know how it is with the eye if we con tinue to apply ardent spirits to that deli cate organ for any length of time and j keep the eye-ball wet with it we shall ' lose our sight but the stomach is scarce j lv less sensible than the eye this then j shows that alcohol is poisonous to the stomach at the centre of the human sys ; tern and why do we say that the effects above detailed show the presence of poi son 1 because they are precisely the same as follow from the action of other poisons i on that organ arsenic or any other ac rid poison when swallowed is attended j with the same consequences as is proved ; by dissection of the body when death had taken place in the course of a few days j and if two substances or classes of sub stances produce the same effects in the same circumstances and you call one of them a poison what can you call the oth \ er but a poison too but the evil only begins it does not stop in this vital organ which is connected with all the rest of the body just as the water wheel of a fac tory is with all the machinery in it and when its movements are disordered all the machinery must be affected and we next enquire as to the liver dr pa ris an eminent european writer says that spirits induce with other diseases an obstructed and hardened liver an o'.her physician says •• it produces a chronic inflammation of the stomach and liver the immediate consequences of which are mania a potu indigestion he patic dysenteries and dropsies another says " the stomach liver and brain are those organs that more immediately ex hibit the deleteriousness of its unnatural effects ; " when used internally savs another in every form and proportion it has long been known to exert a strong and speedy influence on this organ the liver and this in two ways 1 by sympathy with the coats of the stomach 2 by means of the alcohol mingled with the blood acting on the liver directly in a way sim ilar to that in which it acts on the stomach the action ofthe liver is increased both ways it alters the secretions of that or gan in color and consistency it greatly enlarges and changes the organic struc ture ofthe liver but sometimes dimin ishes it one case is given in the books in which on dissection after death the liv er was found not larger than usual " but astonishingly hard ; " so as lo make con siderable resistance to the knife in the j healthy condition of the liver the blood vessels are many and large—bat in ibis case they had so much disappeared that the blood had not circulated through the liver for a long time vve are told that the m morbid appear ance seen after death occasioned by al cohol exactly agree with those which re sult from poisoning that we have ir refragable proof that " alcohol is a poi son of the very same nature as prussic acid producing the same effects killing by the same means ; that " on every or gan they touch spirits operate as a poi son but they touch on every organ : for unchanged and undigested they are taken up from the stomach by the absorb ents.and go every where t hat the blood goes dr gordon says •' most of the bodies of moderate drinkers which when in edin burgh i opened were found diseased in tbe liver another says " alcohol de stroys the gastric hepatic system produc ing a variety of liver diseases nor can we suppose the heart to es cape the delerious effects of this poison ous agent in one case of a man who fell suddenly dead after taking a glass of raw whiskey on dissection the heart was free from blood hard and firmly contract ed as if affected by spasm and dr sea well remarks that •* no doubt the use of ardent spirits promotes the ossification of the valves of the heart as well as the de velopment of other organic affections a hard and stony heart then is not alto gether a figure of speech ; no wonder that drunkarks are hard hearted and cruel when the literal heart if not turned to stone is yet so hard as to make resistance to the scalpel the lungs too are subject to great dis orders by the use of alcohol respiration is difficult especially in certain circum stances ; attended with copious expecto ration which at length ends in consump tion this is accounted for by medical writers in two ways 1 by the immediate action of the spi rits on the membrane that lines the air cells of the lungs 2 by the sympathy of action between the lungs and other organs that are dis eased particularly the liver and stomach this is proved by the fact that in many cases the cough and difficult respiration were relieved as soon as the patient ceas ed to irritate the stomach with ardent spirits the lungs of drunkards are often found after death adhering to the walls of the chest and affected with tubercles but let us go to the " upper story and see what we find there ; for the brain must be affected by what injures other parts of this " house we live in ;" we all know what is commonly said when any one not accustomed to liquor has taken a dram " it flies to his head as soon as it acts on the stomach the effect on the brain is apparent it causes an influx of blood to tbat organ ; a concentration of vi tal power there an unnatural excite ment at an expense to other parts of the system ; and an inflammation of tbe brain is the consequence by this means many are afflicted with permanent madness many become idiots ; and epilepsy palsy and delirium tremens follow in the train of prince alcohol sometimes the whole substance ofthe brain is complete ly saturated with ardent spirits a fluid has been found in the ventricles of the brain as strong as one third gin and two thirds water alcohol hardens the brain in the skulll or out of it it is frequently put into spirits to harden it preparatory to dissection if these poisonous effects are undenia bly produced on the stomach liver lungs heart and brain by the use of ardent spi rits who can say that alcohol is not a poison ? the american temperance so ciety in their eighth annual report say " not a blood vessel however minute not a thread of the smallest nerve in the whole animal machinery escapes its in fluence it has taken the lives of thou sands " it has been the water of death to myriads of the human race says one " in all its forms says another it is to be regarded as the most virulent poison its use as an article of diet isthedirectcause of an appaling amount of disease and death.1 all the best writers on chemis try : all the eminent medical writers as sign it a place with the most destructive poisons and when it is diffused through out a man how slight an attack of dis ease becomes incurable : because the vi tality of the system has been destroyed that on which the physician must depend for success is wanting and there is no way to restore it the blood is unfit to stimulate the heart and this mortal frame must go to ruin while its immortal inhab itant flies not released by old age nor by the providence of god ; not by a messen ger from the eternal one saying " come up hither but by the man's own suicidal act he has taken in an unclean spirit to rob him ot health reputation property and life the degree in which a man is poisoned is in the combined ratio of the quantity the strength and the time some poison themselves to death in a shorter while others do the work in a longer time if it is slow it is generally sure in for mer times in italy there was often admin istered a slow poison called aqua tofl'a na : it was the dread of almost every dis tinguished family in that country it was a solution of arsenious acid in aqua cym balariee it produced a gradual sinking of the powers of life without :••;■/ violent symptoms an indefinable feeling of ill ness failure of strength feverishness want of sleep an aversion to food drink ' and other enjoyments of life dropsy gen erally closing the scene with black mil liary eruptions and convulsions or colli quative perspiration and purging now this was invented on purpose to take lite by gradually undermining and sapping the fortress of health but do not the drinkers of ardent spirits and " those who tarry long at the wine carry on their : murderous designs with just as much cer j tainty as those italian proficients in the j art of slow poisoning ? their very breath is tainted : any one who has been much in the vicinity of such persons knows tliat their breath smells as if it came from pu trid animal matter or had passed over it and the fetid breath is one of the most marked signs of the existence of this poi son in the system we know it will be said hat it is a slow poison indeed becanse mr a and mr b have used it all their lives and are now old men but this proves nothing to the contrary of our position it proves only that they had strong constitutions that have resisted the effects of the poison so ions but they might have lived longer and have enjoyed bettor health without it and how many during the time lhat thev have continued to hold out have gone to ; the grave in the morning of life or in the ' vigor of their days . and perhaps kept [ in countenance by their example and ■ hoping that they could stand it too . but they could not every physician knows i that sometimes the stomach will digest ! poisons and there have been men that : could digest almost any substances that i they could get into the stomach even lo i jack-knives and flints ; but it is not safe i forevery one lo try the experiment where i one could successfully perform such feats * : a million probably would kill themselves a man in constantinople is said to have practised swallowing corrosive sublimate for thirty years increasing the quantity nntil he took a drachm daily with impu : nity and suppose the country or the world could produce many such cases would it prove that corrosive sublimate was not a poison but could be used with safety ? one medical writer says he has known a person who accustomed himself to take arsenic till he could take ten grains daily with impunity but is arsenic not a poi son then ? will you make it an article of diet and give it to your children for food ? a lady was known to swallow 12 ounces of laudanum in 24 hours and enjoyed ap parent good health ; but can every one do the same ? it is unsafe to reason from such extreme cases : they are contrary to the general current of facts where one has escaped injury from the use of alco hol ten thousand have died one emi nent physician says " we have irrefrag able proof that spirit is a poison of the very same nature as prussic acid produc ing the same effects by the same means paralyzing the muscles of respiration and so preventing the necessary change of black into vermillion blood mr brodie proved b experiment on animals that alcohol and prussic acid were similar in '. their effects five hundred eminent me dical men testified to a similar statement before a committee of the british parlia ment forty-five of the same profession in ohio say " it is equally poisonous with arsenic operating sometimes more slowly but with equal certainty medicus gen shields on the wilmot proviso the vicksburg miss whig announces upon the authority of gen quitman go vernor elect of mississippi that general , shields is not a free sailer or in favor of the wilmot proviso in a letter to gen quitman the illinois senator says to charge him with proviso views " is a vile slander of his enemies what say the members in the illinois legislature to this we hope general shields has not been playing the brown game over again and to a successful is sue but if there be any truth in the a bove he certainly has put a northern face to his constituents and a southern one to his southern friends.—n 1 express mrs miller.—thr case settled.—the lite of this lady which eicited s much attention and awakened so much symathy and been surrounded with so many suspicions is at length lo be disrobed of its mystery and the facts are to be brought to light we have sal isfactory reasons f<*r saying that the foaming waiers of the niagara never rolled over lhe form of the missing mrs miller happy would it have been for her if accident had plunged her beneath that giant flood—then her memory would have been fragrant and grateful in the hearts of her friends bul the more dreadful gulf inlo which she has fallen will hroud her name with infamy and her friends wiih grief mrs miller has eloped with mr baker of win chester and the fact has been known here for some five weeks but withheld from motives of delicacy to the friend it is no longer neces sary t keep back the information as the proof is gathering loo thick lo be longer doubled baltimore arl'us a late english paper says " it is a re markahle and scientific fact that all the latter improvements in coiton weaving machinery have come from the united states in connection with that subject " fayetteville in the communication refer red to was a mi-print and should have been tayforstibe n ('. my design was to pre sent this road from salisbury to lhe west as an extension of our central road ; as the main tern of a genera system worthy ofthe noblest efforts of a great sate—lea*ing all lhe ueces sary branches lo be constructed by inditidual or private enterprise this extension in con nection wiih other roads already chartered would serve direclly all the greal interests in the state and to s ime extent every portion of her citizens it won also open much tbo nearest connection wiih kentucky and tbe north-western states and as near also with knoxville and the far west for charleston norfolk and the pons of our stale as any practicable route connecting with our central rail road at salisbotry should this connec tion be made with the central rail road at major rufus reid's near davidson college the system would ho st more perfect the travelling intercourse bit ween our slale and ihe west and north-west would be uniied upon o*ir own roads—to which mav be added the immense travel between our federal city and lhe soulh-west especially so long as yir ginia refuses a connection through lhe valley with winchester in regard lo freight ihis route would pos sess equal or superior advantages to anv in tbo southern state especially if extended lo lex ington kentucky where it would form a gem eral connection with the north-west and a con tinuous and tolerably direct line passing through every variety ol climate and production in the i nited stales a highly commercial inter change of commodities would ihus be created and new life and energy infused on the very day lhat lhe contracls shall be let passing too through a large section of country posses sing superior advantages in climate and water power for some manufacturing purposes — a bounding in stone coal plaster and salt also in inexhaustible supplies of iron ore pronounced by men of science equal lo any yet discovered and superior to any other on tho american continent all these elements of wealth would serve to swell the tide of commercial and gen eral prosperity by referring to a good map it will be seen hat ihis plan will carry out in eltecl the cher ished plan of our own distinguished and lament ed dr joseph caldwell ; also lhe original de sign of the charleston and cincinnati rail road with greater advantages to our slate ; also the design ofthe general government in 1~31 in ordering lhe survey of a road from portsmouth on the ohio river lo the south western extremity ot linville mountain in n carolina for the construction nf which the house of representatives in 1-*_g instructed a committee lo enquire into the expediency of making an appropriation the failure of these projects was manifestly attributable lo difficulties which do not exist in the plan proposed,and which have unfortunate ly discouraged further efforts the line from portsmouth to linville surveyed by lieul col s il long topogropbical engineer in l5""-g was perhaps lhe most impracticable thai could have been selected for uniting the interests of lhe southern and north-western stales passing as it did through he roughest portion of ken tucky and north carolina and almost direclly across lhe mountain ranges of virginia and tennessee the passes through which col long describes as " not presenting any tolera ble coincidence iri/h the line t lh contemplated road.'1 his description of almost lhe wbolo route is unfavorable excepting his a.lu-ions lo the fertile valleys iu lhe mountains of north carolina and tennessee and a flittering no tice of clinch and holstein rivers—which he says " are to be regarded as channel of in calculable importance whether viewed in con nection with our present project or in refer ence to their future high destination which en sures lo one of iheir vallies at least the dis tinction of becoming hereafter a portion of tho great thoroughfare connecting t y he most di rect easy sale and practicable route between the cities of new york and new orleans although lhe difficulties and expense of render in these streams navigable or even ho|m*les vet no doubts are entertained that the facilities afforded by their valleys tor tbe construction of rail roads are such a lo ensure in ail hu man probability the eveulful accomplishment of the latter precisely through these •* fertile valleys of north carolina and tennessee the road now proposed is designed lo tun ; and the passes through the mountains do present a remarkaklt coincidence wilh the direction *>! ihi rouie passing smoothly between the south and brushy mountain ranges at some point in the valley of the catawba and ibr'.-igb the slone and iron mountain rang - along watauga river to its junction with the tennessee and virginia rail r ■■■■'. i ihere is no very seiioti obstable in lhe w i blue ridge al tbe j hn's r cei gap • an i lb re ia much reas n - < an l>e more easily passed than anj ■;• ol the bine ridge in il.e si.i'e bv the junction alluded to lhe connection with kn xvj e will be com pleted leaving the \ irginia and tennessee raii road at some point above knoxville and following the survey ofthe charlotte and cin cinnati rail road or possibly a nearer route lhe connection with lexington may be alsv completed it does appear clear lo my mind that this plan would be one of the greatest importance to the welfare ofthe stales i north carolina tennessee and kentucky—one t i:.il conse quence to the rail road interests of each and a strong bond •