The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1896-05-21
BILL ARP HAS A VISITOR,
PROF. TUCKER OF THE UNITED
STATES LABOR DEPARTMENT.

STATES LABOR DEPARTMENT..
Sample Of Fancy and Other Work,
Gathered to Compare by His De-
partmcnt With the Primitive and
New Methods, Cost, Etc.
For The Constitution.
This Is great government. We
don't know very much about it until
screens as 1t were-and see what Is
going on. The doings of Congress as
we read them in the papers are very
noisy and exciting, but is mostly rou-
tine work and tells us nothing Of what
is going on in the various departments
scientific and Industrial. We used to
get the patent Office reports that had
world of curious information and
explanatory pictures, but they seem to
have stopped coming. And there were
books on agriculture and horticulture
and pestiferOus insects and books that
told about cattle and sheep and al the
diseases to which they were subject.
All these used to be distributed among
the people like the garden seed are
distributed, and pretty much for the
same vote-catching purpose, but they
cost big lot Of money, and now are
given only to the scientific. The mon
of science mako but little noise in the
world. They care but little for fame
or fortune, but they are ever at work
studying nature and solving mysteries
and lcssening the burdens Of life. 1t
does seem to be a disposition of pro-
violence that great men care but littlo
for money. What they discover or in
vent Soor becomes common property
| am not speaking Of the small man
who takes out a patent on fish hooks or
hairpins, but Of great men. like Jcnner
and Pasteur, Agassiz, Fulton, Watts,
Newton or Morse.
But [ was Illuminating about visit |
had tOday-a visit from Professor
Tucker, the United States agent FOR
the labor department. He came to
was conducted in Georgia fifty years
ago. So told him how my father, in
1897, got some morus multicaulis cut
tings from Washington and in two
years had several acres of young trees,
and then built q house, forty feet
square and two stories high, and filled
1t with hurdle frames and got some
silkWorm eggs, and when they Matched
the worms soon filed the house and
eat up all the mulberry leaves and
wanted more. We got enough from a
neighbor to finish up with, and we boys
were glad enough when tho nasty
things began to wrap up in their mum
my-likc shrouds.
But my curiosity was excited. What
does the United States Want to know
all this for? So nc, explained by saying
that his departmcnt is comparing the
hn INIT
thods with the moGern-and the cost
Of each, and which was the best and
gave more happiness, and other ccono.
mic qdestiOns. He had leather grin
full Of samples OF the handiwork of the
| women Of western North Carolina and
northeast Georgia. Every little square
or scrap was pinned to a printed sheet
that gave the name Of the weaver and
her age and residence. There were
samples of woolen and cotton and linen
and silk, samples of linscy and jeans
and counterpanes and quilts and wa
gon sheets and curtains and table
cloths, and some of them were goms OF
beautiful fabrics, and in those mountain
counties the humble people are still
spinning and weaving in the old-fash-
loned way and are happy. In many
families their handiwOrk is piled up on
the shelves and clothes preuses, await
ing gthesmarriage OF sons and daughters,
to whom they were to be given 10
bridal presents. Professor Tucker
had some specimens OF silk sewing
thread and llaX-thread that were mado
at home. He found good people up
there who seldom bought anything and
were able to give stranger q good
bed and plenty to cat and a sincere
hospitality. He told me of an old man
in Rabun who said he never fell out
with the United States until the rove
nue. officers began to sneak around his
little still, wherc he had been making
peach brandy for fifty years, and had
the respect of his Maker and his neigh
bOrs and ho told them that tho United
States wascnt big enough to stop him,
for the right to make it was handed
down from his father and grandfathcr
Lie said they threatened him every
time they came about, but he kept two
pitchfo forks N the housc--one under
the front door and the other at the
head of his bed, and they didcnt dare
to arrest him. But after worrying
with them for three years things kept
getting hotter ana hotter and his
neighbors advised him to quit stilling
and ho did, for he was getting old and
wanted to live in peace, but is was a
bad government that would let " rich
man still and not let Il poor man.
These big distilleries, said he, swindle
the government out of more tax money
than all our moOnshinc stills put TO-
gcther. All they have to do is to bribc
the storckeeper. | know OF one in
North Carolina that sold $500 gallons
in one year and mover paid dollar of
tax on it. He told Profcsso. Tucker
that the revenue men broke up forty
stills in that region last year, but to
his knowledge there were u hundred
that were still running on small
scale. "The boys sortcr like the dan
ger OF it," said he, land the infOrmer
catches it when found out. He gen
orally leaves this part OF the country
as soon as he pockets his bribc. The
mountain people are not rs honest and
honorable as they used TO be, and it
all comes Of this bribo- taking business.
The United States ought TO be ashamed
Of it," The professor said It is impos-
sihle to convince those mountaiuccrs
who arc scvcnty.five miles from mar
ket that it is wrong to convert their
corn into whiskcy when one bushcl
will make three gallons and they can
haul a hundred dollars worth with a
| nf OF p,,t ~ 4