National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-05-27
IN LITTLE ROCK.
FROM ARKANSAW's CAPITAL.
The Summer Sslstice and the Roses - Concealed
Deadly Weapons Public School and the
Scholars-Military Companies-Fair
AmazeRs-Chaste Reflections.
Special correspondence of TIE REPuRI1cAN.


aphorisms, is credited with the following: when
you have nothing to say, say it." In pursuance of
the sound advice therein contained shall proceed
to discourse for brief season. The summer SOL
stce has burstupon here with startling sudden
ness, and the long and dreary recurrence OF rain
and cloud have changed to rustling green and
myriads offragrant roses, red and white and yellow
which one meets on every hand scattered all about
In the most fragrant and reckless confusion. The
term summer solstiee," in the paragraph above,
is rather neat, by the way. 1 shall put it down,
and use it next time write TO my girl. She won't
understand it bit for she's Dutch as sauer-kraut;
but then the words viii look splendid in the mid
die of the page with half dozen exclamation
points tackled on TO 'em, and give the letter a
spirited sort of boom. As to that expression the
heated term" if were an editor I'd fay any one
alive and roast him before slow fire who should
dare to use it. l have written the foregoing to
soften somewhat to your editorial and tender
heart the sorrowful news which it is my painful
duty to impart. Prepare to shed
| THE PLAINTIvE SOB
and to bewaii my melancholy fate. Whisper it
gently between the pauses of your awful pencil
and seek the condolences of tender hearted breth-
rem. Lo, am in the Jug" In the prison cell
sit, or words to that effect; and from behind the
melancholy aud conservative prison bars shpeel
desc vorts nit Grief and sadness! The fact is that
/
nine persuasion, before whose awful frown trem-
| bic and abase myself, armed me previous to my
departure with a six-shooter which she trained
aft in my hippocket like species of stern chaser,
while in one boot she secluded O Derringer and in
| the other an Arkansas toothpick" seventeen
| inches long and with an edge like an amputating
knife or an Arkansas hog of the rszor-back" va
| riety. was leaning most innocently over the bar
| of restaurant, looking for the
REMNANTS OF A FRIEND
who had fallen behind it in state of sad inebria
ton. when a bystander whispered softly, Look
there Nike; hes heeled!' Not being able to gather
together all the scattered fragments of my friend
who had thus fallen by the waysde, sauntered
slowly up the street, when an Absysinian police
man incOntinently arrested me upon the charge of
| carrying concealed weapons. circumstances and
| Establishments were alike of no avail. so was
taken before a local DogberTy, and failing TO pro-
| duce the proper equivalent of shekels, l was
| straightway remanded to the Bastile whence
write these most veracious chronicles, pending the
response of legal friend to whom have addressed
myself in this hour of my bitter need. If quick
relief should fail to come shall not be responsible
for the consequences, for my left side whisker is
already turning white. like those of that most damp
! and unpleasant person, the
PRISONER OF CHILLoN.
! Thelaw against the carrying ofeoncealed weapons
is indeed by no means dead letter. 1t is rigidIy
enforced here; and only couple of days ago saw
| a gaunt sab-Sided red-headed OF thunder
| going along Markham street carrying seven
| shooter at m's-length in front of him. imme
diately sought the peaceful seclusion afforded by
the cross-tree of the nearest telegraph pole, but,
| failing in the ascent, was fam TO put the whole
Capital Hotel" between my sacred person and
| that awful weapon. This is an advertisement to
the world that the great and growing State of Ar
kansas has east far behind her the pistol and the
bowie knife, The rifle and the shotgun, and that
within her peaceful borders the mercha Mt and the
husbandman may ply their peaceful avocatiOns
beneath the aegis of her protecting arm. Nor are
there wanting many other evidences alike of prog
ress and of culture. Some days ago the subscriber
was ''toted" round in d" kerridgc," upon the in
vitation of the board of visitors of the
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF LITTLE ROCK.
| leave TO the dry and tedious figures of the sta
tistician the numbers of the schools and teachers
of the scholars and their books with the startling
array of studies which are daily inculeated. But
although the buildings SGT apart fCrSchOlastc pur
| poses are somewhat MODE: when compared with
the magnificent structures erected in Washington
for that worthy purpose, still the large number of
the pupils the excellence of the teachers, and the
progress of the children is something of which the
inhabitants of Rose City may well be proud. Mr..
may well congratulate himself upon the results of
his able management. The proportion Of attend
ancc in the schools is unusually large, while the
| progress of the pupils is unusually great AS
proof that the threshold of the school house the
! distinctions of birth and blood have ceased TO
rankle, may state that in the high school, most
ably conducted by Mr.. Wreitzel are seated on the
! front benches the
CoNELY LITTLE DAUGHTERS
of an Ex-Governor and United States Senator, and
of Chief-JustIce and member of Congress- both of
| Arkansas. Nor is the excellent teaching of Mr.
! Wretzel without its moral. Having formerly been
president of the public schools OF Little Rock, he
went North in other business, but returned and
without a murmur took 4" lower ROOM" and now
manages perhaps, the most ably conducted school
| in town. The colored population have large and
important share in the benefits of these schools,
and Mr.. N. W. Gibbs, formerly one of the ablest
police judges the town has ever seen, is now
| member of the board and register of the United
| States land Office there. Some progress here for
Arkansas! But these magnificent schools are a
| glorious remnant of former Republican re, while
| there prosperity and usefulness pledges for
| future return to the great party whose name is
! synonym for national progress and prosperity.
Alas that it should be my painful duty to recall
incident of my residence which points to sinful
and unScemly pride of birth and place. There are
| two military companies in Little Rock, who keep
! their
SHINING BAYONETs
pure and unspotted from the world" know
not, who write these veracious lines whether
these sons Of Mars live i'll those bonds of fraternal
| harmony dear to the martial heart. One COM
pany sports blue uniform, while the other dOns the
gray although their honorI will say it they cary
the glorious Stars and Stripes upon pa-ades and
gala days But wherever the military button shines
the eye of beauty sparkles with an answering and
rcfIgent light. The ul- fair sex" have for long
ages past been known to love the miling:ary,
and bad cess 10 'em!" So, presently, 1t entered
into the minds of maidens fair who loved these
sons of Mars TO emulate their peaceful, blOOdiess
| victories ON dress parades and holidays. They
! arrayed themselves in uniforms of gray, with
| sweeping broolns for guns and with a dust pan
! upon one co.ttail while a peaceful dust-brush
chung gently 10 the other, both being supported by
/ the snow-Yhite cross-belts But how shall |
| hope to tell in strains Homcric, how this
! AMAZoNIAN BAND
of Little Rocks noblest and loyeliest daughters
drilled in the courtroom at an entertainment of
an Episcopalan character? How could they drill
otherwise but well, if, as / informed, n soger-
officer from the Little Rock arsenal driil-Inas
ter for the n0nce? And have not with mine OWL
dazzIcd optics, seen two sets of fours parade the
/ sidewalks of Main street in open daylight, with
/ brooms az the regulation Garry arms" Sweet
peace be yodrs fair angels, and may the smiles of
Little Rocks proud sons Of Mars still shine upon
the leveled barrels of your bro0msI But the
b-ooms that ye handled, the ice cream which we
consumed, the saltwater which iizzlcd beneath
! your ruby lips, and the photographs Of you which
alorn the stOre-windOws Of your town, 10. are
they not written in the chronicles of the house of
Domino? I had thought TO conclude these
! CHAsTE REFLECTIONS
/ in the calm scclasion of my prison cell, but as
closed the last most plaintive paragraph the jaler