Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-04-01
NORTH CAROLINA.
NEWS NOTES GATHERED AT RALEIGH
FROM VARIOUS POINTS.
Death Of q Lady Prominent in Litsra-
Pardoned-swollen Streams.
The Fish Commissions Work.
rsr.,,., ,.leersm 10 the Dispatch.

RALEIGH, N. c., March 3l.-Mrs.
Mary Bayard Clarke died at her home.
at Newberne, early this morning, OF
paralysis. Her age was fifty.eight.
She was Q relative OF the Pollock, Deve-
reux, and Bayard families. Her father
was the late Thomas Pollock Devereux,
of this city. She was the best-known
female writer in the State, and very
prominent in the South. She collected
fugitive poems by North Carolina wo-
men and published them. Just before
the war she was engaged in literary
work here, at Richmond, and at Chi
csgo. Her writings were characterized
by grace and her poems were melodi-
Gus. Her husband, Colonel William j..
Clarke, an efficient officer in the Next
can war and the late war, died two
months ago.
Governor Scales to-day pardoned
John McLarty, negro who at the last
term of Union County Court was con-
victed of larceny and sent to the peni-
Tertiary. lie is dying of consumption,
and the Governors pardon restores him
to his family for but few weeks at
most.
During March sixty-eight drummers'
licenses were issued from the State
Treasury.
Sales Of North Carolina G per cent.
construction bonds were made here to-
day at l22!-the highest price ever
obtained, it is stated.
There was q heavy thunderstorm
here early this morning, followed by
rainfall which was tropical. More rain
fell to-day than during the entire month
Of February. The streams are greatly
swollen.
A party of capitalists from Pennsyl-
vania, under the guidance of General
w. G. Lewis, engineer to the State
Board Of Agriculture, are exploring the
swamps belonging to the State in the
Cape.Fear section with view to
making large purchases. Last year
10000 acres Of such land was sold in
one body.
The report to the Department Of
Agriculture is to the effect that this
year there have been thirty.nine snow
falls at the town OF Boone, Watauga
county, which is the most elevated
town east Of the Mississippi river.
Though green peas are in bloom in
the eastern counties, the roads in the
southwest part Of the State are even
yet half blocked with snow.
A year ago the State Board of Agri-
culture abolished the Fish Commission.
There were charges of heavy expenses
and small results. 1t is evident that
the Commission did good work in re-
stocking the streams with shad, rock,
and trout.
A report to the Board Of Agriculture
for the lower Cape Fear river says that
the catch of shad SO far this season is
double that of last year, when more
shad were caught than any previous
season. The season begins with Febru-
airy and continues three months. So
far, from careful estimates made, sixty
thousand shad have been caught at the
fisheries below Wilmington. This is
an average Of one thousand per day
from the beginning of the season to the
present time, and with a month more
to run seines it may be safely estimated
that the seasons catch will reach hum
bred thousand.
This simple statement Of facts shows
that the much.decried labors Of the
Fish Commission have been productive
Of astonishing Notwithstanding only,
however, to those who had little or no
faith in the theory Of artificially propa-
eating food fishes. 1t is yet proba-
Bile that the Commission may be re-
established upon a different basis.