The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-08-22


And gives lift to the clover.
But my humble friend CODE says we've
had bout enuf and he wants it to stop
right now. We've had 'bunrance,'
saws Cobe, "and I'm afeerd there won't
be any nubbins to feed the steers on this
winter and no seed taters to plant next
spring"
Another one-horse farmer says he is
afeerd he will make more cotton than
he can get picked out.
Was there ever such a bountiful crop
year? Wheat, corn, cotton, potatoes and
fruit! Mr.. Roberts, who farms on Pump
kin Vine creek, says he feels sure of l.,
900 bushels of corn from one field of ten
acres that he can select one or two
acres that will yield 100 bushels each
and there areseyeral square rods that
will make a bushel to the rod. That
would make 160 bushels per acre, if ev-
cry rod was as good. Mr.. Roberts is no
brag. He is a conservative truthful
man and a good farmer. Mr.. Aker-
man made twenty-five bushels of wheat
to the acre right in the suburbs of the
town and he has more beautiful fruit
than was ever grown here before. Our
market is running over with good things
apples, peaches pears, grapes and mel
ons. Country wagons drive to the resi-
dences every day loaded with delicious
fruit and you can buy at your own price,
for the supply is greater than the de-
mand. We luXuriate on soft peaches and
cream. which is the next best thing to
stra wberrieS and cream, and we buy
fine large cantaloupes at a nickel apiece.
Old folks lose their relish for meat. but
they never get tired of fruit. / was rum
mating about the kindness of Providence
in arranging the succession to suit our
health and appetite. Strawberries, rasp-
berries, dewberries. huckleberries, black
berries, June apples. cherries and then
peaches and grapes, with melons thrown
in. and before long the town will be
flooded with apples. Oh. the jelly and
jam and preserves that my folks have
put up, and the sugar that | have had to
pay for. Thank goodness, / bought it
before the Mckinley trust cornered the
market A clever Republican neighbor
told me that the Almighty was smiling
on the land because good men were now
in power and he quoted scripture which
said when the righteous are in power
the people rejoice.
Yes said 1. "thedevil can quote
scripture to suit his purpose. David un-
derstood the situation when he said: I
have seen the wicked in great power,
spreading himself like green bay tree,
yet he passed away, and 10 he was not"
/ don't think the Lord is paying much
attention to Congress or the admins
tration, but he does seem to have pity
on the people, and is showering bless
ings upon hem.
There was a campmeeting story that
old Allen Turned told when | was a
boy that | have not forgotten. He was
preaching about the perils of riches and
said there was good old darby who
had a kind but un-Christian and skep-
teal master, and he tried in his humble
way to convert him, but his master only
laughed at him and one day said to
him: Now, Uncle Jack, if the Lord is
so wise and good and loves us all so
much as you say, what makes him let
Jim Austin get so rich and keep on
buying more land and negroes and mules
when you know that Jim Austin is the
meanest man in the county? He swim
dies his neighbors and Expresses the
poor. He drinks and CANDLES and
curses, but everything he touches makes
him richer and richer How do you ex-
plain thatg'
Master, masteri' said Uncle Jack,
'dat is all jes' so and it's becaus' de
Lord don't keer nothin' about Jim Aus
tin. his name amt on de book. No,
sir, de Lord amt payin' no 'tention to
him at all and de devil is runnin' him.
No, master tell you how it is. When
de Lord take a likin' to man and got
his name on de book. He don't let him
git fat and slick like Jim Austin. Whom
de Lord loveth He chastiseth, and OATS
de reason your ginhouse git burned up
and your buggy mare die, and maybe
dats why Miss Juliann take sick away
off at school and come HON in de coffin.
She was a blessed child, she was, and
seems to me dat sometimes away in de
night / hear her calm you. Master, old
Jack don't like to trouble you about desc
things and he wouldent if your name
wasent on de book"
Uncle Allen used to finish up the story
with the masters conversion and Jim
Austin being killed.
Better times are coming, sure enough
but politics has nothing to do with it
Politics didn't give us great crop OF
wheat and a short crop in Europe. My
friend Kirkpatrick, of Atlanta, says these
reyulsions in trade and prosperity go by
cycles of seven years and that our cycle
of distress and disaster has about ex
PRED. He almost proves it by reference tC
the past and tells how the failure of Jay
Cooke precipitated the panic of 10, ant
our trouble lasted seven years, and thu
failure of Barring Brothers brought OF
the next panic, and that lasted sever
years.
But wheat and cotton are filling thu
farmers pockets with money and by tn
time this cotton crop is marketed new
era of prosperity will be fairly on us
Within the last three months the nlinini
business has revived in our country an'
labor is in demand; nobody, either whit
or black, is going about begging worl
in this region. l haven't seen tramp i
six months. The gardens are teeming witt
vegetables and the flowers are NOR
beautiful and more abundant than eve
before, but Mckinley didn't do it, nor tn
tariff, nor his party. If they won't und
it is all we ask Just let things alone
They are determined to humiliate tn
south, but as long as the Lord smiles o.
us we will be content BILL ARP.
THE PERSONAL FACTOR J.
PREACHING.
rrEo DIV g JCanuqrd in tho Al