The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-10-28
THE EDITORS LEISURE HOURS
Points and Paragraphs Of Things
Present, Past and Future.

Points and Paragraphs Of Things
Present, Past and Future.
| The Aberdeen Telegram tells O
great improvement in Moore county
The sand bills of that county that .
few. years ago we're regarded as worth
less are becoming valuable. Grapes
peaches, plums, and berries are beine
cultivated there with great profit, and
the lands that formerly were barely
worth taxes now bring a good price
There have been more miles of rail.
road built in that county this year
than in any other county in the State
The Monroe Journal tersely para
agraphs on patriotism. The politi-
clans, says our contemporary, may be
patriots, but it is an exception to the
rule. The real patriots, it says, 'Are
not those who talk most of patriotism
but they are the men who go about
their daily work in the fear OF God,
and from day to day and year to year,
do their duty as they see it"
This is sound truth, and The COM
doNwEALTH believes that there is no
more genuine patriots in this land than
the temperance advocates for they are
certainly engaged in cause that tends
to lit up the people.
At the Grand Camp of Virginia Con-
federate Veterans in Richmond last
week, the history committee presented
the following resolutions:
Resolved, That only such histories
as fairly present the principles and
facts upon which is grounded our
American Republic be used, with due
acknowledgment of the actors in the
foundation of the same, and its preser-
vation from, every section. In this
spirit we would recommend as Virgin
ia histories those of Mrs. Mary Tucker
McGill and General d. H. Maury, and
as histories of the United States those
of Mrs. Susan PendIeton Lee, Rev. J.
William Jones, Shlnn, Hansel series
and Holmes"
There Is much idle labor In the land
aud there is argument that labor-say-
ing machinery is partially responsible.
The Plymouth Beacon tells what
gentleman said recently in that town
as he observed changes and idleness.
He said:
II was in Plymouth just forty years
ago, and have not been here since.
Then there were at least 500 men at
work in the big swamps near the town,
making shingles, but now I find that
there are but very few handmade
shingles to be found. In place of the
hundreds of men who thus found en-
ploymeut we find the steam mills
where, with the improved machinery,
one man can make more shingles in
day than could the 500 men by hand,
and what is true in this branch of busi-
ness is also true in every other kind OF
business. In the mills, In the factories,
and even on the farm, we findE-tAat
improved machinery is fast forcing
men out, and hence the cause OF so
much idle labor"
Senator Ben Tillman of South Caro-
lima is failing in health, and there is
great concern in that State about his
condition. Whatever else may be said
about T1llman, he had enacted the best
LIQUOR law that the country has tried,
unless it be real Neal Dow-prohibition.
A prominent Democrat of South Car
olina is reported as saying: "Wlth
Tillman out of South Carolina politics
the Reform party is dead. Without
TilIman's leadership it will soon dlsln-
tegrate, and the old Hampton regime
will again dominate State politics. The
conservative faction has been praying
..- E.. H. oJ;voov thot now