The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1911-11-09
WASHINGTON CITY LETTER.
Interesting News Items Reported From
The Nations Capital.

Interesting News Items Reported From
/ The Nations Capital.
| Washington, D. c., Nov. 6.-The
first report of deer stealer getting
"buck ague'' and mistaking three
fellow Euntsmen, banged away, re-
sulting in the death of two of the
men and the serious wounding of
the third, comes from Mays Land
ing, N. J. Usually such deplorable
mistakes occur in the piney woods of
Wisconsin and Minnesota and it has
been computed that during the deer
hunting season more lives are de-
stroved through ca alessness in
handling guns in the two states men
toned than deer are slain.
However. the killing Of two hunt
ers and the wounding OF third in
Jersey seems utterly inexcusable oc-
curing according to report, in a
practically open road. Soon after
daybreak, the report states, the
three sportsmen separated from
their party, and were walking down
a by-road to take stands, when sud-
denly another hunter walked out in
the road, and, thinking the trio to
be deer, blazed away. Result, three
men fell their full length in the road,
buckshot entering the backs of two,
while the third received severe
wounds in the legs.
There is a dog abroad in the vicin-
ity Of Newport, R. l., which has
been making wholesale slaughter in
the henneries Of the residents of
that summer city of the American
fashionables. A few mornings ago
the caretaker Of William Watts
Sherman's hennery found the ground
about strewn with eighty-seven
feathered bodies. This is the big
gest nocturnal slaughter Of hens bv
dog ever reported. These hens
were intended for the table of Mr..
and Mrs. Sherman in New York for
salads, croquetts and other chicken
delicacies in their entertainments
which will precede the wedding Of
Lord Camoys and Miss Sherman.
Secretary J. F. Ellison, of the
National Rivers and Harbors Con-
gress, who was in Washington last
week making the preliminary ar
rangements for the eighth annual
convention of the Congress, which
meets in the New Willard Decem-
ber 9th, 7th and Sth, regards the
forthcoming sessions as the most
important in the history of the
movement for improved waterways.
mot in twenty years has there been
so many new faces in the lower
House of the National Legislature
as are in this the sixty-second Con-
gress," said Captain Ellison. ''These
legislators will be called upon to
pass a waterway bugget and it is
therefore highly necessary that they
have an intelligent grasp of this very
important subject. My understand
ing is that the edict has gone forth
from the leaders of the majority to
cut everything to the bone, which,
if it is followed literally, might seri-
ously jeopardize the passage Of a
rivers and harbors bill. 1t there
fore behooves the friends Of water
ways throughout the country to at
tend the coming convention Of the
National Rivers and Harbors Con-
gress and to show our lawmakers
that the old piece-meal policy of
making appropriations for the i'm
provement of our rivers and harbors
and canals is a thing of the past.
That in its stead has come better
and wiser policy Of making annual
appropriations which is in the inter-
est of economy and efficiency. In
my judgment the coming convention
will be the largest and most enthusi-
astic we have ever held"
t'The old order changeth giving
place to new and aptly enough
these lines were uttered from
barge. The flavor that has long
clung to them. who go down to the
sea in ships, that do business in
great waters" has almost vanished
away, as witness that greatest ar
mada of our country has ever seen
parading before the commander-in-
chief of the navy day or so ago in
the waters of the Hudson and New
York Bay.
The odor Of tar and oakum is van
ouished by the smell of oil fuel and
coal gass; shrouds of f-rigging have
r;x,on nlace to steam derrickS and