Morning journal and courier., 1885-02-11

down It was found that his thigh was broken and think he finally died from his injuries Another darkey and MT. Darrell himself were both seriously scalded and otherwise injured"
 "Wss the wreck hopelessa" "Oh, yes The Best Friend had to be entirely rebuilt by MT. Petsch and then she was appropriately christened the 'Phoenix.' I drove her the Phoenix and MT. Darrell took the West Point But before the explosion Darrell drove the Best Friend and John Eason had the West Point. I remember curious il- lustration to how one serious accident was sverted. The West Point was about to run into Charleston close behind the Best Friend was seated at the time astride of the water barrel, boylike The West Points engineer was over across a shallow pond, attending to some duties which woul1 belong in these days in the department of the yardmen Suddenly the throttle-valve of the West Point got pushed wide open in some ine1pli- cable way, and the saucy lit e thing started off after the Best Friend at a speed which we all thought perfectly frightful in those days. But Darrell was cool man, and he promptly let the Best Friend out, and just as the West Point'was ready to overtake her, leaped across to the platform of the pur- suing engine, and shut off the steam. So no serious damage was done"
 ''Here we are, " he added, pausing at the passenger depot 'I suppose of course you'd rather get off at such famous winter resort, than to go on with me to my home mile further up the track"
 I promptly assured h1m that I always re- sent it to be taken for one of the profession al tourist gang, and that not even so noted sand hill sanitarium as Aiken has charms for me equal to those of a family hearthstone. So we went on together to the charming cot tage of my veteran engineer host. I spent some time in examining the mechanical curi osities which MT Raworth has collected for he is one of inventive geniuses who repair his own clocks and devise contrivances for lessen ing work in all branches. MT. Raworth is also one of the class of men who call themselves total abstainers, and is singularly free from all the habits to which railroad life is like ly to conduce He says all his children are we'll provided for, and he's ready to call his ife-work finished at any time.
 As an illustration of how active his life is 1 will say that right in the midst of the love ly lunch which was served for us before the old fashioned log-fre, telegram came call ing him back to Graniteville. We hastily swallowed our tea and started, MT. Raworth kindly offering to put me off at crossing which would only necessitate walk of half mile to Graniteville proper.
 Before dismissing the subject of southern railroads, it has occurred to me to indulge in a few generalities, which are the result of these six weeks observation.
 I have not found the dilapidation for which I looked. All through the Californias, Georgia and Virginia, in which States my movements have been thus far concentrated, have not struck a railway coach that was not clean, airy, well-ighted at night, and comfortably if not sumptuously furnished This has surprised me. The locomotives have been uniformly of the old-fashioned sort, with great haring smoke-stacks. The metals have been little light on some roads, and the ballast sometimes insufficient, but I have been able to write of lott f1af fraiv ing this one, the date line simply telling the station where the letter was begun. Off the main trunk lines the facilities are often mis- erably inadequate, but one train each way daily being run. Some little mechanical contrivances have noticed, though they are not distinctively southern, to my knowledge. If sample car could be built embracing all the modern improvements which have been devised North, South, East or West, what marvel it would be! On the Greensboroush and Raleigh line I saw a specially com mendable feature. At the front of each car was an adjustable card, an nouncing the destination and route of the car. great many of the lines have adjus- table printed bulletins announcing when the next train leaves, where 1t goes, and where it stops. The depots themselves from Rich mond to Savannah and from Charleston to Atlanta are almost always shabby, and in no instance imposing. The Union depots of
 
 they are very decent. The locomotives are wood burners, and the long delays out in the forest primeyal which are occasioned in re- newing the wood supply exasperate the Northerner beyond measure.
 The language of the railway publications intended to allure unsuspecting tourists is in many instances very comical The mar row irregular streets of Charleston, with their shabby, paintless houses, are metamor- phGsed into the bouevards of an American Paris; while Columbia and Augusta, with their avenues that are wider than those of Paris and not less shaded than those of Savannah and New Haven, are com paratively ignored. The singular fact that Charleston is one of the few itself to my mind k overlooked. Shanghai, Canton, Calcutta, Rangoon, Moulmein, Lon don, Liverpool, Saigon, New Orleans, Savan- nah, and ready all the great cities in the world are situated from ten to one hundred and fifty miles up their respective rivers; and nearly all the other cities back be- hind bays, like San Francisco, New York, etc. Is not Charleston the only exception of importance in this country? The most notable exception which occurs to me in any country is Bombay. Yet I do not know that this railroad litera- ture is any more nauseating than the gush and rot with which a well-known man. whose
 
 public during the past winter. Indeed, in one material point the advantage is on the guide-book side; for the guide-books are not permeated and reeking with the personal ego tism of their authors.
 I found the great cotton factory at Gran iteville working it's full quota of hands, de- spite the fact that at present prices every yard of cotton fabric represents loss to the manufacturers. A tour of the mills proved, as it always does, intensely interesting. The six hundred hands, martyrs to noise from 5:45 a. m. to 6:30 p. m., with the ex- ception of three-quarters of an hour at noon, were all white, as is almost invariably the case. Yet one of the proprietors told me that he would be willing to stake his reputa- tion and everything else upon the results of factory supplied entirely with negro help, which would be twenty per cent. cheaper than white help, while allowing the help to live just well as the whites would at their whites were barefooted, as is usually the case, although it was cold day even for that elevation. But the men and women, the boys and girls, the little tots that earned thirty and forty cents day, impressed me brighter than the ordinary run of "white trash" They did not look or act like the curiosities that sometimes stray into railway coaches here, and don't know enough to shut off the faucet to the ice-water tank after they have just drawn drink for themselves It is also a source of interest to study the precautions against fire in these factories. In most of them the ceiling and walls perfect network of pipes in tain of the rooms, which arranged that slight elevation of the temperature will melt waxen seals and deluge the con- tents of the rooms, while other pipes are punctured with thousands of holes so that when wheel is turned torrents of water will be rained down by means of a tre- mendous pressure Then there are thou sand and one minor appliances
 I conversed with MT. Rowland on wide range of topics, and found him profoundly cosmopolitan thinker. In the course of our interview I asked him, ''How is it that I find so little intemperance in these southern States? find the English everywhere in large numbers, and it has been my experi- ence that John Bull carries a spirituous at mosphere with him whenever he invades mild climate Indeed. trace here many of the other English manners and customs which have found in the Orient where our gouty neighbor has settled himself" ''Just so, Twas the response, ''you would have found these States overrun with intemperance few years ago, but wave of reform rolled across this part of the South and local option has abolished the liquor traffic in great many counties in South Carolina as well as No (