The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1888-01-18

~ 10 Certain s-tnsrrsesseas''- mull-Ruined
y psInh- ssnsv's Groves
Correspondence afthe Palafka Nerx.
BARLOW, January H.
Since reading your leader yesterday.
do not know how to go about it, It's
all very well to tell us to ''write on both
sides of the sheet" and thus feel assured
we .'got there purely on its merits Ii
you could only foretell whether tits
merits would get an article in print, or
in-the waste basket. it would be more
comfortable. As to the headlInes-weil,
have often wondered where they came
from and how they got there. but pre-
sumed that you always kept them ON
hand. What is your typesetter for, III
not To correct the mistakes of writers:
Not long since PALATKA News COM
positor stuck period right in the mid
die of one of my most pathetic SEN
fences, and instead of filling my read
ers with tears of sympathy, it set them
in roars of laughter. No doubt the Pc
Rod was in the copy, but he might have
left it out. Thank goodness, l am per-
son of taste and refinement. and al
WAYS use pen, ink and pure white cap i'm
writing for the papers, and instead OF
erasing a blunder with a rubber, draw
one clear, distinct line through the OBJ
iectionable word or words, thus leaving
a neat, clean looking page whatever the
sense may be, and that, no doubt, has
helped me to prominent place In your
valuable columns. All these things i
am willing to do, but the line must be
drawn somewhere, and l draw it at
leaving off my name. That l will not
do-my name goes to my letters 1
have suffered enough on that score, and
if any trouble comes of it shall expect
the fighting editor of THE PALATKA
NEWS to stand by me, or rather for me,
right along, as one of your ''diffidents.
THE FUNERAL OF DR.. NULL,
on. Sunday last was most impressive
one. DIR. s. r. Null was pretty gener-
ally known throughout the State. He
formerly lived at Orlando, and when
your correspondent was on the way to
Barlow four years ago, he kept the
Charleston House there. He was fine,
robust looking man, and when sober
was a genial, kind hearted one, whose
purse was ever open to the call of pow
erty, sickness or distress, but under the
influence of liquor he became fiend.
Null will die with his boots on"
''Somebody'll kill Null the first thing he
knows" ETC., was the way the peo-
pie used to talk about him. During the
holidays he and a man named Clark,
both under the influence of liquor, and
good friends, got into quarrel, and
Clark, in self defense it is believed, cut
Null, who was carried home in a stupOr
which was generally supposed to be
more the effect of liquor than of the
wound, and everybody was loud in JUS
tifying Clark, whose weapon was an or
binary penknife. Such remarks as,
PITY it didn't kill him." and Its to be
hoped the next man1l finish him." were
the kind of comments made. Last Fri
day evening he was reported dying, but
few people believed it. Saturday noon
he was reported dead, and then people
began to say, ''Well, worse men than
old Doc. Null have did, but / reckon
he's not gone yet" Saturday afternoon
he really died, and then the very people
who had been ioudest in condemning
him We're first to change their tone, and
their former remarks were changed to
'.WelI, poor Doctor Null is really dead.
He wasn't such a bad man after all.
How death softens us all, Whisky was
the cause of his death. He had not been
drinking for several weeks, and said
earnestly that he was not gong to drink
any more. but a friend O. sent him "A
Christmas present Of intoxicant and he
could not resist the temptation. No
man of brains can long remain moder-
ate drinker, and the more brains he has
the quicker he succumbs. All men de-
spise drunkard, none more than an
other drunkard. All men seeing the de-
grading, brutaIizing effects of dissipa-
ton in Others, but rarely will acknOwl-
edge that they personally could ever be-
come the disgusting objects their fellows
do.
A SORROwFUL PICTURE.
One of the most brilliant lndianians,
acknowledged one of the most gifted
men in the State, staggered Fto his
own home, into the hall to the door of
his wifes sitting room where 1 sat, and
there he stopped to steady himself, the
picture of degraded manhood. He had
left us in the morning, an ideal man,
handsome, healthy, refined; trimming
with high aspirations, happy in bright
prospects, and perfectly sober, having
quit the use of all intoxicants two years
before. married one of the brightest,
noblest and most elegant young ladies
in the most exclusive circles of Hoosier-
dom. A young relative of his wife and
/ were visiting them. He was gallant
and courtly toward all women, but he
was a model in his manners to his wife,
at home and abroad. There he stood
in the doorway steadying himself, his
battered hat in his hand, his linen and
swell suit of clothes, that had been like
himself, irreproachable in the morning,
were repulsively stained with the eff
fects of AN overloaded stomach, mud
and everything else apparently, his
face was bloated and purplish, his eyes
almost closed. and, altogether he pre-
scented not only wreck of manhood,
but Ioathsome brutal object. Steady
iDcy bip,seIf for a moment he crnSsad 70