Yazoo Democrat
[Yazoo City, MS]
September 4, 1858 - August 25, 1860
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 1,
c. 1
The Banner.—It becomes our pleasant duty to return our thanks to our
fair friend, the talented editress of the American Banner, for her courteous
compliments. Her generous
hospitality has afforded us many pleasant hours since our arrival at this city,
and we sincerely wish eternal brilliance to her lucky stars.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 1,
c. 2
Dogs.—Mr. B. F. West offers four capital negro dogs for sale. From reports of numerous runaways in this county, we imagine
these sagacious animals are in demand at present.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 1, c. 3
Sewing Machines.
Wheeler & Wilson's Sewing Machine, as now improved, is the most
simple, durable and beautiful Machine made.
They do better and more work, are easier understood, and managed, than
any other Machine before the public. These
Machines have now got to perfection, and are running all others out of market,
as they are the only ones capable of doing every kind of work, from the making
of a carpet to the hemming of a linen cambric ruffle.
Call and see them at the rooms.
C. Swain, Agent.
Yazoo City, September 4, 1858.
N. B. A large lot of thread,
needles, silk, &c., constantly on hand.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 1,
c. 3
Fruit and Jelly Jars.—Those in want of Jars to preserve Fruits and
Jellies in all their original flavor, will find a large and well assorted
supply, for sale cheap, at the Drug Store of
P. B. Cook & Co.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 1, c. 5
For Sale.
Four of the best negro dogs in the State, on a credit until the first of
January next. These dogs are all
young and in good training. For
disinterested information with regard to these dogs, the purchaser can refer to
any planter or overseer on Silver Creek, and Col. Durfey; Messrs. Miller, Stone,
Wm. Clark and others, on Wolf Lake.
These dogs are offered very low, and can be seen on the plantation of
Messrs. John N. & L. A. Campbell, Silver Creek, Yazoo County.
L. F. West.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 1, c. 5
Music.
Music!
Henry Lord's
American and
European
Music Emporium,
Canton, Mississippi,
Contains between
25 and 30,000 Works,
The Largest Stock
of Sheet Music
In The South!
Anything relating to Music matters, Instruments of all kinds, Instruction
Books, &c., &c., can be found at this establishment. (Call for a complete Catalogue!)
A classified list of the newest and prettiest songs for the Piano,
selected expressly for such true friends of the art, who possess a little
more than ordinary taste for music, finding the value of a vocal piece of music,
not in the versions of the words, but in the beautify of the music
itself.
Agathe; or, When the Swallows Homeward Fly, Franz Abt,
25 cts.
Angels, (the) Fr. Gumbert,
25
Ave Maria, Kuecken,
25
Brightest eyes, (the) Stigelli,
25
Come, echo, catch my song, Weber,
25
Chime of bells, Hoetzel,
25
Dear little smiling maiden mine,
25
Deep in my heart, Lelia,
25
Do not mingle one human feeling, Norma,
25
Eulogie of tears, Schubert,
25
Favorite spot, F. Mendelsohn Bartholdy,
30
Fly my skiff, Kuecken,
35
Friendly is thine air, Rosalie, Kuecken,
25
From the Alps the horn resounding,
25
Farewell bright visions, Verdi,
25
Gently rest, Keucken,
35
Good night my only child,
40
Half broken heart, (the) Lelia,
25
Hear me Norma, Norma,
25
How fair art thou, Abt,
50
In the eye there lies the heart, Abt,
25
Italy, my native land, Alessandra Stradella,
25
Herdsman's mountain home, Abt,
25
Land of my young and holiest feelings, Keller,
25
Landlady's little daughter, Loewe,
25
Last Greeting, Schubert,
25
Last rose of summer, Martha,
25
Love and sorrow, Weber,
25
Loving I think of thee, Krebs,
25
Lost one, (the) Lucia di Lammermoor,
25
May breeze, F. Kriepl,
25
Maiden mine, Kuecken,
25
Many years ago, Watson,
25
Mary, Abt,
25
Morning Star, (the) a beautiful song, Rev. Hagen,
30
My heart is on the Rhine, Speyer,
25
My prayer shall rise to Heaven, Donizetti,
25
Moorish Serenade, Kuecken,
25
O wert thou but mine own love, Keucken,
25
O fair is the Neckar and lovely the Rhine, Abt.
40
O ne'er can I forget thee, Abt.
40
O'er the calm and sparkling waters, Verdi,
25
O sing again that mournful song, Schubert,
25
Passing bell, Schubert,
25
Robert toi qu j'aime,}
Roberto my beloved} Robert le Diable,
25
Stay with me, F. Abt,
40
Song of Spring, F. M. Bartholdy,
25
Star of home, Canthal,
25
Serenade,
}
La Nuit sombre de son ombre,} Schubert
25
The Sun now sets in golden slumber, F. Abt
40
Slumber Song, (All is still in sweetest rest,) Kuecken,
25
Saint a la France, La Fille du Regiment,
25
Search thro' the wide world, do.,
25
She is mine, Curschmann,
25
Tear, (the) (Die Thracne,) Gumbert,
30
Thou art a lov'ly flower, H. A. Wollenhaupt,
30
Through the night air stealing, F. Schubert,
25
Thine is my heart,
do.
25
Though from him I love afar, C. M. von Weber,
25
Up, brothers, up, Auber,
25
Wild Rosebud, (the) (Fleiden Roslein,) Schubert,
25
When the tears are sadly stealing, Donizetti,
25
With silent care and grief suppress'd, Donizetti,
25
The World is full of beauty when the heart is full of love,
Smith.
35
When I am near thee, Marie, Abt,
25
We met by chance, Kuecken,
25
The Wanderer, Schubert,
25
&c., &c.,
&c.
(To be Continued.)
All Music Published in the United States received as soon as issued.
Persons desirous of procuring any of the Music in this Catalogue, can
have it sent per mail, securely wrapped, and free of postage, by remitting the
amount attached to each piece.
Persons at a distance can always rely upon obtaining any article they may
order as low as they can buy the same at any establishment in the United States.
Particular attention paid to the Tuning and Repairing of all kinds of
Musical Instruments.
The Trade, Teachers, and Seminaries promptly supplied upon the most
liberal terms.
Music Sent by Mail.—The Postage on Sheet Music is but one or two cents
for each piece, and, therefore, persons at a distance can obtain it by Mail much
cheaper than by Express. Dealers,
Teachers and Amateurs will do well to bear this in mind.
In many instances, they will find it a great convenience, as well as a
saving of expense to get their supplies in this way. Music Books can also be sent through the mail, at an expense
of postage of one cent for each ounce weight.
All orders, whether large or small, strictly and promptly attended to.
To prevent mistakes, write name, address, State, county, &c., in a
plain hand.
Address
Henry Lord's
Music Store,
Canton,
Mississippi.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 2,
c. 1
A Negro Girl Going South to Choose a Master.—We have to record a
singular occurrence, but one that can be easily understood by those who
comprehend the negro character. A
free negro girl named Caroline, leaves New York to day, under the protection of
Messrs. W. J. Phillips, and J. Rust, for the purpose of selecting her own master
and residing in Texas. She prefers
this course rather than remain in New York in a condition of so called
freedom.—N. Y. Day Book.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 2, c. 2
For the Ladies.
We are in receipt of a fresh supply and general assortment of Harrison's
splendid and genuine Perfumery, consisting in part as follows:
4
Doz.
Musk Cologne,
2
do
Cream of Beauty,
2
do
Carnation Rouge,
2
do
Lemon do
6
do
Eau Lustrale,
4
do
Toilet Powder,
4
do
Bay Water,
4
do
Hair Restorative,
2
do
do
Depillatory,
4
do
Floral Pomatum,
4
do
Crystal do
For sale cheap by
P. B. Cook & Co.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 2,
c. 2
Golden Dew Drops.—A small supply of this new and delightful perfume
just received.
P. B. Cook & Co.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 2, c. 3
Watches and
Jewelry,
H. C. Tyler,
Yazoo City, Miss.,
Has now on hand a complete assortment of Watches, Jewelry,
& Musical Instruments.
Just received a large assortment of Accordions, Flutinas, Guitars, Fine
Violins, Violin Bows, Banjoes, Tamborines, Flutes, Fifes, Flageolets, and
Claironets.
Also—Silver-plaited [sic] Castors, Fine Pocket Cutler, and Gold Pens;
all of which I will sell low for Cash.
Watches and Jewelry repaired and warranted.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 2, c. 3
W. R. Croxton,
House and
Ornamental Painter
Paper Hanger, etc.
All orders attended to promptly, and in the latest style,
and satisfaction guaranteed.
Paint Shop—Opposite Link & Harrison's, Main Street, Yazoo City.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 4, 1858, p. 2, c. 3
Wigs, Toupets [sic], and Bandeaux.
M. Cluseau, Wig Maker is well prepared and will manufacture to order, any
article either useful or ornamental in this line of business.
Gentlemen who use the Wig are invited to call; Ladies using the Bandeaux,
Toupet or Braid can have the same manufactured or repaired, by calling or
sending their orders.
Hair bracelets, Finger Rings and Watch Guards made in the latest style,
and at the shortest notice.
Shaving and Hair Dressing Saloon
M. Cluseau, respectfully informs the public, that he has opened on Main
street, Yazoo City, a neat and convenient shaving and hair dressing saloon,
where he will be pleased to wait upon all who may favor him with a call.
A colored apprentice wanted.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 11, 1858, p. 2, c. 2
Correspondence of the Democrat.
Canton, September 8, 1858.
Mr. Editor: The only event
which has excited any general interest since my last communication, was the
advent among us of the Yazoo Democrat. And
could the editor of that paper have witnessed the warm reception with which it
met, upon its arrival here, on Sunday last, his heart would have been stirred
with gratitude at this manifestation of the deep interest his old friends take
in the success of its editor.
Instead of the little news of interest which Canton affords at this time,
perhaps it would be more agreeable to many of your readers were I to weave into
the rough fabric of this letter, by way of variety and decoration, the notes
which a friend has furnished me, of the last Fancy Ball at Cooper's Well.
The company was much smaller than upon any previous occasion of this
kind, owing to an unfounded fever panic, which sent many
home and prevented others from coming.
But it is to the smallness of the company that this evening owes its
peculiar enjoyment; for all were well acquainted, and the formality of the ball
room was discarded for the more free and graceful courtesy of the parlor.
And while there was not a mask in the room, and but few costumes, the
spacious saloon was filled, without being crowded, by as gay and brilliant a
company as ever graced it. The
dresses of the ladies displayed a degree of taste that entitles them to the
designation of proficients in the art. Of
those in costume I will speak of but two. The
accomplished and interesting Miss D., of Hinds, who, in a dress of deep blue,
with scarcely a gather or fold, trimmed around the skirt with a pliable band of
silver, and fringed about the neck with the same, was well qualified, by a fine
figure, a proud yet graceful bearing, accompanied by great suavity of manner, to
represent the Goddess of Liberty.
"Mark her majestic fabric; she's a temple
Sacred by birth, and built by hands divine;
Her soul the deity that lodges therein;
Nor is the pile unworthy of the god."
The other was little Miss S., of Madison, who, though but a
child in years, yet possesses an ease and grace of manner so far beyond her
years and experience, that those who do not know to the contrary would think her
days are passed in the parlor instead of the school room.
With an amiable address, polite manners, and great beauty, both of
feature and expression, she bids fair to become one of the brightest of the
bright stars that so thickly stud our social firmament.
The color of her dress was not easily discerned beneath the ample folds
of a blue veil, thickly spangled with glittery stars, and confined to her head
by a crown of the same, which fell in graceful waves around her to the floor,
giving her the appearance of being wrapped in a veil torn from the most richly
decorated apartment of the Dome of Night. Thus
did Aurora rise above the horizon of expectation, the brightest morn that ever
dawned upon a ball room. I should
like to notice some of the ladies not in costume, but that would be, perhaps, an
unwarrantable liberty.
Zealas.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 11, 1858, p. 2,
c. 3
Texas Items.—The San Antonio Herald says that no part of the world can
beat the mountain region of Texas in the production of wheat. That paper mentions several crops in San Saba county, and
says that while some of them have grown above forty bushels to the acre, they
have generally averaged between thirty and forty.
The McLennan Southerner says that a buck deer had been lately killed in
that county, which had thirty spikes on each of its horns. It was very large, and had fat on its breast an inch and a
half thick.
The Bexar Herald announces the arrival there of some of the Bell county
gold hunters. They brought with
them about thirty or forty pounds of silver ore, which had a very pure look.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 11, 1858, p. 2,
c. 3
A lady representing herself as Elizabeth Hall, wife of W. M. Hall, late
of Chickasaw, Franklin county, Alabama, called at our office a few days ago, and
requested us to say that her husband had run away with a Miss Margaret Henry,
and left her in a destitute condition, with five small children—two of them
his first wife's children. The
description given of the parties is as follows:
Hall is about five and a half feet high, thirty-five years of age, fair
complexion, sandy hair and heavy sandy beard, wore blue striped cotton pants,
drab tweed frock coat, and low-crown broad-brim hat.
Miss Henry is twenty years of age, dark hair, blue eyes, tolerable fair
complexion, and very good-looking. Whether
she wears hoops or not does not transpire.
The thanks of Elizabeth Hall are offered for any information concerning
said couple, sent to her address, Chickasaw, Alabama.—Rienzi (Miss) Clipper.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 18, 1858, p. 1,
c. 3
Sut Lovengood on Strong-Minded Women.—George, did you ever hev a strong
minded oman git arter you—a rale he oman?
No? Well, ef ever one does,
jist you fight her like she wore whiskers, or run like h---l; ef you don't, ef
she don't turn you inter a kidney worm'd hog what can't raise his bristles, in
less nor a month, you are more or less ove a man than I takes you to be.
Ove all the varmints I ever seed, I'se feardest ove them.
They haint human; theyse an ekal mistry ove stud hoss, blacksnake, goose,
peacock, britches, and d----d raskil. They
wants to be a man; and es they cant, they fixes up thar ease by bein devils.
Take keer ove them; you'd better cum in contac with a comit or a coal
porter than won ove em eny time. they'll undermine your constitution sure.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 18, 1858, p. 1,
c. 4
Hysterical.—To see a wasp-waisted young lady in ringlets, and an
abundance of flounces, gracefully sail to the head of the table, and with a
voice as angelic as a tenor flute, call the waiter for a plate of cold pork and
beans, is the most trying thing romance can encounter.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 18, 1858, p. 1,
c. 4
More Indian Depredations at Fort Arbuckle—The Fort Smith (Ark.) Times,
of the 4th inst., has a report that the Camanches [sic] are again
commencing hostilities in the neighborhood of Fort Arbuckle.
The report appears to be confirmed by the following extract from a letter
dated Fort Arbuckle, July 26, received at Fort Smith and published in the Herald
of the 10th inst.:
I am sorry to inform you that a party of Camanches [sic] made another
descent on the neighborhood of this post last night or early this morning, and
drove off the greater part of the horses belonging to Lenny and Smith Paul, also
part of the horses of Robinson Chemutes; also attacked Mr. Robinson as he was
coming to the post to report to the commanding officer, firing upon him with
arrows and guns, killing the horse Robinson was riding.
He states that there were about sixteen or eighteen of them, all well
mounted and armed. When they first
saw him, they asked him if he was an American, but on his replying that he was a
Chickasaw, they immediately made an attack upon him, but he made his escape and
came into this post.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 18, 1858, p. 1,
c. 6
Egyptian Mummy Rags in a Yankee Paper Mill.—A correspondent of the New
York Journal of Commerce, writing of the paper mills of Gardiner, Me., says:
Yesterday I visited, in company with Mayor Woods, of Gardiner, the two
principal paper factories, and I was astonished, in looking at the millions of
pounds of rags piled up in warehouses, or spread over acres of ground, to find
that a portion of these had recently arrived from Alexandria in Egypt.
They were the most disagreeably odiferous old clothes that I have ever
had the bad fortune to smell. This,
doubtless, was owing to the fact that a part of them had been collected from all
the corners of the Pasha's dominions—from the living and the dead.
How many cast off garments of Hawadjis—how many tons of big,
loose-ragged Turkish breeches, and how many head-pieces in the shape of old
doffed turbans, the deponent sayeth not. But
the most singular and the cleanest division of the white filthy mass came, not
from the limbs of the present generation of travelers—pilgrims, peasants,
soldiers and sailors of Egypt—but were the plundered wrappings of men, bulls,
crocodiles, and cats, torn from the respectable defunct members of the same.
What a scene to call up the grim past!
And what a desecration, too, to take the garments of the Pharoahs,
Rameses, and sacred bulls, holy crocodiles, and pious cats, and mingling them
with the vulgar unmentionables of the shave-pated herd of modern Egyptians, to
ship them to the other side of the world—to a land where Ptolemy's map had no
room for—there to grind them up to the music of the cog wheels and the falls
of the Corbosse Contee[ ]
How little did the religious old Egyptians think that they were piling
away stores for the future cash accounts of Turkomans, and that the linen folds
which so carefully bandaged their holy dead should one day make highly
calendered paper. Mummy clothing as
well as old rags of Italy, (how do they manage to produce so many rags there?)
are ground up and come forth mingled in fond embrace, and in the purest white.
It has been ascertained that some of the Egyptian rags contain about
forty per cent. of dust and dirt. The
dust doubtless consists of many fine particles of Pharoah's embalmed subjects,
but now a few of the random rags seem to have been spread upon the sands at the
periodical overflow of the Nile, and received a deposit of the fine earth that
has washed down from the mountains of Abyssinia.
This adds to the weight, but Yankees will not be sold twice in this
manner.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 18, 1858, p. 3,
c. 3
Waltzing.—A correspondent of the N. O. Sunday True Delta, thus
describes the waltzing at Lookout Mountain:
["] The gentleman encircles the lady's waist with his right arm, and
takes her right hand in his left. Her
left arm rests upon his right arm, and her cheek upon his shoulder.
This you will say is delightful—with a pretty girl; but this is not
all. The music strikes up, the
dance begins, and the gentleman, by extending his left arm, brings the lady's
face in contact with his own, her curls, if she has any, winding around his
neck. This would be called kissing,
if it were not dancing.["]
In this connection, we would state the melancholy fact that our health is
becoming exceedingly feeble, and if our subscribers will do us the favor
of paying up, we entertain no doubt that a visit to Lookout Mountain, Tenn.,
will insure our speedy recovery. A
little of that sort of dancing is what we need.
The editor of the Yazoo Democrat would afford a much better paper if he
could enjoy a little wholesome recreation after this fashion for a few
months. We make no sort of
objection to this method of Terpsichorean fun.
With the fellow who went on eating his cheese after having been shown,
through a microscope, the reptiles therein, we say, "if they
can stand it, I kin."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 2, 1858, p. 2, c.
2
The North Georgia Times records a camp meeting conflagration at Mount
Vernon camp ground, four miles west of Dalton, by which ten tents were consumed.
Fortunately, not one of the righteous was "baptized with fire,"
though they all had an abundance of light on that occasion.
We presume they took a burning interest in that revival which must
have been brilliantly successful.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 23, 1858, p. 1, c.
4
A Texas Book—History of the Mier Expedition.—Dr. Wm. M. Shepherd and
Judge F. M. Gibson are going to write a history of the Mier Expedition, and
connect with it in publication many legends of early transactions in Texas which have never been given to the public.
The Doctor kept a journal while he was prisoner in Mexico, and thus had
in his possession all the data necessary for the prosecution of that portion of
the work. The manuscript was
unfortunately burnt in California. The facts are, however, indelibly impressed upon his memory,
and he will have no great trouble to place them in a readable shape.
Judge Gibson is a fine writer, and bore a conspicuous and honorable part
in all the trying scenes of his captivity—he is eminently qualified to perform
his part in getting up the contemplated book.
When this work makes its appearance, the public will have before them an
authentic and full history of the Mier expedition, and graphic accounts of many
thrilling incidents which transpired during the early settlement of this
country. It will be looked for with
anxiety, and read with interest by the people of Texas, especially the old
pioneers who participated in our struggles for liberty and independence.
No doubt the gentlemen above mentioned would be obliged to any one for
data relative to the subjects they intend treating.
They have a vivid recollection of all the principal events, but some of
the particulars may have escaped them and can be supplied by their former
comrades.—Austin State Gazette.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 23, 1858, p. 2, c. 2
An Abolitionist in Aberdeen.
The Sunny South of the 14th inst., records the discovery of
"a live abolitionist" in Aberdeen, Miss.
The chap's name is H. V. Russell. Having
pretty plain ocular evidence that Aberdeen was a bad place for his health, and
having some fears of being presented with a new coat that would be difficult to take
off, he incontinently left those diggins to week more congenial
climes.
A document was found in his possession wherein he grows quite pathetic
over the afflictions of his sable brethren, and "groans in secret" for
their woes. The Sunny South very
correctly and wittily suggests that, "if such men come into our midst and
groan inwardly over the tortures of the slave, we should relieve them of their suppressed
sobs, and make them groan outright."
Such incendiaries as Russell are not as scarce as hen's teeth among us
notwithstanding our unsuspicious feeling of security, and when they are picked
up should be summarily dealt with—a tar bucket and a barrel of feathers should
be the reward of their philanthropic labors.
The people of Canton, Miss., know how to dispense hospitalities to
abolitionists, and it were well if other towns would take from them a lesson in
the art. Russell is described as
being "about five feet five or six inches high, with light hair, only one
eye, rather dark complexion, and about 125 or 130 pounds in weight."
In his travels, let every man greet him with a kick Northwards.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 23, 1858, p. 3, c.
1
Thanksgiving Day.—His Excellency, Gov. McWillie has issued his
Proclamation appointing Thursday, the 25th November, as the day for
general thanksgiving. It is a
beautiful custom, this of setting aside one day when the whole people of a great
State engage themselves simultaneously in acknowledging their dependence on
Jehovah, and in returning thanks to Him for the blessings of peace and plenty.
The Proclamation will be found in another column.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 23, 1858, p. 4, c.
1
The rage for scarlet petticoats is, on the whole, perhaps, a kind of
scarlet fever.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 30, 1858, p. 2, c.
3
The Vicksburg True Southron of a late date has a very pretty letter from
Miss "Jennie Thorne." She
decidedly opposes, by strong and satisfactory reasons, the project of having a
display of female equestrianism at the State Fair soon to be held in Jackson.
She says "such a public exhibition is not in consonance with that
modesty which is the crowning glory of woman."
This we think, and are of opinion, also, that the lady who writes so
chaste and beautiful a letter ought to know all about the proprieties.
We agree with her, that equestrianism for the amusement of the populace
should be left to circus girls and "the strong-minded women of the
North." Miss Jennie says,
"Let it be the pride of the women of the South that their province is the
heart—that home is their empire—and there let them employ their talents and
accomplishments in the true fulfillment of woman's destiny as a companion and a
helpmate for man." The fair
correspondent admires chivalry in men as much as she does the tender virtues in
woman, and recommends our youth to engage in the tournament also proposed to
occur at the Capitol. Her ideas of
a proper young man are good, too. "Show
me a young man who is an affectionate son to his mother, a kind and attentive
brother to his sisters, and who is fond of the society of ladies, and I will
know that he is one who is refined and elevated in his feelings, pure in his
morals, and above joining in the sports of gaming, drinking, &c., by which
so many young men are ruined." Don't
know so well about this, though, we have seen several prodigies of this kind who
had all these virtues and as many more, but were still addicted to these
misdemeanors, and with all their correct feeling, had a refined, elevated, and
well-cultivated taste for Old Rye Whiskey.
May such a chap as this, though, never take hold upon the fancy of Miss
"Jennie Thorne" and persuade her to emigrate from the state of
"maiden meditation" to that of matrimony, but may she get her beau
ideal, and that soon.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 30, 1858, p. 2, c.
6
The Mississippi Fair.—The Jackson Mississippian, of the 26, has the
following relative to the State festival:
It will not be forgotten that this great State Festival commences on
Monday, the 9th. Extensive
preparations are in progress, and it doubtless will attract a large number of
people. The amphitheater of a circular building 758 feet in extent,
all covered in—with a gallery 8 feet wide, extending entirely around—one
half of this circle will be fitted up with seats—the other will be left open
for the exhibition of such articles as may be presented.
Regulations for the Tournament.—Entrance fee, one dollar. The
contestants to appear in fancy costume, at their discretion.
The exercises to consist of throwing the javelin through a ring, say four
or five inches in diameter, suspended on the left of the rider, about nine or
ten feet from the ground, and ten feet from the horseman, towards the center of
the circle. The javelin to be made
of wood throughout, of such weight as the contestants may each select, not being
less than six feet in length, and one inch or one inch and one fourth in
diameter, with a point like a lance.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 30, 1858, p. 2, c.
6
Winston Banks Shot.—This gentleman who once upon a time, last year, we
believe, edited a paper in Quitman county, Texas, and was run out of that county
for publishing abolition sentiments, returned there on the 25th ult.,
and was shot. Mr. Banks was once a
lawyer in Yazoo county, and divided his time between practicing law and editing
a socialistic newspaper. He
possessed more than ordinary ability as a writer.—V. Sun.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], November 6, 1858, p. 4, c.
1
If a girl thinks more of her heels than head, depend upon it she will
never amount to much. Brains which
settle in the shoes never get above them. Young
gentlemen, please take a note of this.
Some one gives this cogent advice to bachelors:
"Be sure to annex a woman who will lift you up, instead of pushing
you down—in mercantile phrase, get hold of a piece of calico that will
wash."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], November 13, 1858, p. 2, c. 6
The Tournament.
One of the most interesting features of our fair, was the tournament,
which came off on Saturday morning. The
following knights, mounted on noble steeds, with their plumes waving in the
breeze, entered the lists:
R. H. Peel, Knight of the Raven Plume.
R. McGowan, Jr., Knight of the Palmetto State.
David Campbell, Knight of the Lone Star.
Prentiss Ingraham, Knight of the Golden Crescent.
W. G. Martin, Knight of the Snow White Plume.
Adolphus Crittenden, Knight of the Red and White Roses.
Charles Brackin, Knight of Glendower,
Robt. Daniel, Knight of the Grey Eagle of Summerville,
Ed Crump, Knight of the Green Wood,
-------- Cartwell "
"
Old Dominion.
John A. Sole "
" Red
Cross.
John Chew,
" " Silver Cross.
Twelve more noble and gallant looking young men never entered the lists
to contend for the prize of Love and Beauty.
Before the tilting commenced, they all faced the Judges' stand, where our
talented young friend, W. A. Goodman, Esq., delivered to them an interesting and
appropriate address on the origin of Knight Errantry, as well as the rules by
which they were to be governed in the coming contest.
According to the rules of the tournament, the Knights were to ride
alternately around the circle five times, and the one bearing off the most
rings, was to be declared the victor. After
the rounds had been made, it was found that Robt. Peel and Charles Breckin had
born off an equal number of rings, and consequently had made a drawn contest of
it. Two more rounds were then
made.—Mr. Peel was declared the successful Knight.
Mr. Peel having born [sic] of [sic] the prize, had the right of selecting
the Queen. The Herald announced
Miss Ann Dickens, as the choice Queen of Love and Beauty. Miss Bettie Govan was chosen by Mr. Brackin as the first Maid
of Honor, and Mr. David Campbell, being the third successful Knight, selected
Miss Rosie McCalley as the second Maid of Honor.
The duty of crowning the beautiful Queen, devolved on our young friend
Walter A. Goodman, Esq., whose speech on the occasion was well-timed, chaste and
beautiful. The maids of honor were
also invested with such regalia as was emblematic of the position they occupied.
The entire proceedings were highly interesting and we are happy to know
that nothing occurred to mar, in the least, the enjoyment of those
present.—Lake Providence Herald.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], November 20, 1858, p. 1,
c. 5
A letter from New York in the Charleston Courier, says:
"A plan is on foot for the establishment of a library and reading
room for working women. A very
large and enthusiastic meeting to inaugurate the movement has been held, and
several thousand dollars already contributed.
There are eighty thousand working girls in this city, who, as a general
thing, have no place of resort, where they can receive instruction, or derive
the pleasure to be had from good books."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], November 6, 1858, p. 1, c.
6
Some Dance.—The Augusta Dispatch tells a story about a dance between a
chap named Snelling and a Rackensack gal called Big Sis.
They danced seventeen hours and sixty-seven minutes, when Big Sis caved
and took a seat in the chimney corner, fanning herself with the bread tray.
Snelling was still dancing at the date of the last Dispatch.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], November 27, 1858, p. 1, c. 6
A Fight Mostly.
We had a little pleasurable excitement yesterday in witnessing about two
thirds of a good old fashioned Georgia fight, an incident which agreeably
obtruded upon the stagnant monotony of these dull times.—The combatants were
both Germans, as we gathered from their remarks, and evidently had been friends
up to the rupture in question of their amicable relations.
Whisky had brought them to that normal state of pugnacity which is the
birthright of the natives of that chivalrous commonwealth, and seemingly
oblivious to the fact that they were in New Orleans and not in a Georgia town in
"Court week," they passed through the first third of the fight, which
consisted of an immensity of braggadocio, which would have made a very Gascon
vote himself a fool in the business. "I'm
a boss, I am," said Georgia No. 1, "and, gentlemen, I can eat up for
fodder that ar huckleberry raised, dirt-eating, blue-bellied blower.
I can, whoop!" To which
No. 2 responded: "Gentlemen,
I'm a painter, (panther) I am, and I can t'ar up into shoe-strings that ar ager-skinned
janders struck, limber-kneed child! Let
him come on now! I feel owdacious,
I can tell you!" "O I'm
ready child," said No. 1, with gay ferocity, "jest write to your
friends if you are gwine to lock horns with this hoss!"
"Come on," rejoined No. 2, "here's the painter'll claw
your yaller hide into more streaks 'an a coon skin, d—n you gopher-headed, hog
eyed count'nince!" "Is it
a fa'r fout then?" "Yes,
fa'r fout, gouge an' bite, rough an' tumble, old Georgia fashion.—Wade in
chicken!" Energetically acting
upon this intimation, the "chicken" "waded in" with the fury
of an embodied white squall, and was waded into with equal good will. This was the second third of the fight, and the third
third---that of seeing an eye or two pulled out and a nose bit off, we did not
witness as it did not occur, a rumor of approaching police and the companions of
the belligerents causing a stoppage of the absorbingly interesting proceedings.
The little affair occurred up near the levee end of St. Andrew street,
and was exhilarating while it lasted.—N. O. True Delta.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], November 27, 1858, p. 2,
c. 5
Persona.—Winston Banks, formerly of Mississippi, but more recently of
Texas, who was reported by the papers to have been shot and killed in that State
some weeks ago, was in town yesterday accompanied by his wife.
Mr. Banks got into hot water last year in Texas, for allowing a
correspondent to advocate anti-slavery doctrine in his paper, the "Free
Press": and we believe he was subsequently ordered to leave the county in
which his paper was published, under the severest penalties. Mr. Banks' excuse
for permitting the doctrine alluded to to be advocated in his paper was, that as
his was a free press, and he a favorer of the freedom of speech and the freedom
of the pen to any extent possible, he could not do otherwise than insert his
correspondent's communication without belying the name of his paper—even
though the subject discussed was one upon which the South was peculiarly
sensitive. He holds that if the
institution of slavery cannot stand the test of enlightened discussion, it ought
to go by the board.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 4, 1858, p. 1, c.
6
Punishment for Seduction.—A correspondent writing to the New York Day
Book from Hempstead, Austin county, Texas, says:
A few days ago an old Texan's daughter was seduced in Richmond, a town on
the Brazos, about 50 miles from this place.
I forbear giving the names of the parents, as the father of the young
lady is favorably known in the early history of Texas.
The young man who is said to have seduced her, is a married man and is
Clerk of the District Court. After
it was discovered, the citizens rode the seducer out of town on a rail.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 18, 1858, p. 3,
c. 1
Menagerie.—Van Amburgh & Co.'s great exhibition of animals will be
in Yazoo city on the 24th and 25th of this month.
The name of Van Amburgh is familiar to the country as the greatest in his
profession. His power over the
ferocious beasts of the jungle has excited the wonder of the world, and has
attracted thousands to its exhibitions in all the cities of America and Europe.
Our exchanges speak in high terms of this menagerie, and as the morality
of the exhibition has never been impeached, it will doubtless be patronized even
by the fair of our county, who, like the ladies everywhere, we suppose,
although timid, are very fond of the terrible.
Every kind of animal may be there seen, from the most blood-thirsty to
the gentlest.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 18, 1858, p. 3, c. 2-3
The Only Moral and
Instructive Exhibition in America!
Van Amburgh &
Co.'s
Two Menageries
Combined!
The Great
Broadway
Menagerie,
From New York City, and the Mammoth Menagerie so well known in the West.
H. Frost, Manager.
The Proprietors of the above Menageries, with a desire to give still greater satisfaction, and to place their Exhibition, for the present Season, above all competition, have arranged to combine their Two Superb Menageries into One colossal and Magnificent Display; the whole to be given collectively, under one Pavilion, at the Price of Admission heretofore charged for each.
Van Amburgh &
Co.'s Menagerie,
The Largest
and only Legitimate Menagerie now in America, comprises a vast and varied collection of
Beasts, Birds, and Reptiles,
from the Four Quarters of the Globe; among which may be found
Hannibal,
the Mammoth Elephant of the World, weighing nearly 15,000 lbs. The only pair of
African Ostriches
in America—nine feet high;
Bears;
The Only Black
Alpaca Sheep
in the United States;
Lioness;
The Only Sacred
Cow;
and, in fine, the only Moral and Instructive exhibition of the day—the only Menagerie since 1852.
List of Animals, &c., &c.
Elephant; Lions and Lionesses—Asiatic and African.
South American Silver Lions, or Pumas.
Royal Bengal Tiger. Java
Tiger. Spotted Hyænas. Black Lama. or Alpaca Sheep.
Burmese Cow. Ox Nunda, or
Zebu. Leopards.
Brazilian Tigers. South
American Tiger. N. A. Panther.
White Coons. Ocelots, or Tiger Cats.
Spanish Macaws. Peccava.
African Ostriches. Zebra. Kangaroo.
Black Wolf. Prairie Wolf.
Young Royal Tiger, 8 months old. Musk
or Civet Cat. Ichneumon.
Rocky Mountain Badgers. Caffre
Lioness. Parrots—Guinea
Pigs—Pheasants, Cranes—Storks, &c., &c., beside a Colony of Apes,
Monkeys—Baboons, &c.
The Procession will enter town at or near 10 o'clock, led by H. Ledwig's
Cornet Band. Professor Howell,
pupil of Van Amburgh, will enter the cages with Lions, Tigers, Leopards, &c.
For minute description, see large pictorials.
Will exhibit at Yazoo City, Friday and Saturday, December 24th
and 25th.
Admission, 50 cents. Children
under nine and Servants, 25 cents. Doors
open at 2 and 6½ o'clock, precisely.
Also, at Lexington, Dec. 22d, and Benton, Dec. 23d.
W.
H. Miller, Agent Great Broadway Menagerie.
D.
H. Buckley, "
Mammoth Western
"
O.
J. Ferguson, Contractor for the Combined Exhibitions.
December 18, 1858.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 25, 1858, p. 3,
c. 1
The Fair for the benefit of the Catholic Church was a splendid
entertainment, and did credit to the fair ladies who gave it.
The music was superb, and the supper—the roast turkey and "chicken
fixin's"—Ah! they "excel the quirks of blazoning pens."
Suffice it to say they were discussed with a spirit and enthusiasm which
showed the zeal of Yazoo in the cause of benevolence.
The doll-babies, pin-cushions and baby-dresses, the result of the labor
of fair hands, were exquisite, and showed that this age is not degenerate in
needle-work and material for good wives.
We have heard with much pleasure that the proceeds of the entertainment
are amply sufficient to accomplish the desired end, though we must confess to no
small wonder that the Catholic Church should stand in need of a bell,
when we saw belles in numbers at the Fair.
They were kind, however, and didn't "wring the last
cent" out of our pockets, which might have been so easily done.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 18, 1858, p. 3, c. 1
Christmas.
The season of merriment to childhood, new resolutions to youth, and grave
reflections to age, is at hand. Toys,
egg-noggs, Bacchanalian shouts and the songs of piety, will doubtless as usual
furnish an incongruous budget of thought for the philosopher, and a variety of
indulgence for the discipline of gaiety and the lover of change.
After all, it is doubtful whether the young or the old are the wisest in
their mode of spending the Christmas holidays—whether it is best to grieve
over time lost or to look forward upon the prospect of new pleasures.
Leaving this grave question to be mooted at dinner-table discussions, we
beg leave to devote our exclusive attention to Tom & Jerry and Roast Turkey,
and we wish all young men, and women too, may carry out their resolves upon
reformation and needle-work for the coming year, and we extend to the readers of
the Democrat our merriest Christmas greeting.—Here's health to the gay, a bow
to the grave, and a cordial amen to the pious.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 18, 1858, p. 3,
c. 2
1 Doz. Boxes Conversation Cards,
1 " "
Parlor and Fire Side Game,
3 "
Drawing Books, received and for sale by
P. B. Cook & Co.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 1, 1859, p. 3, c.
1
Christmas is over, but quite a merry one was had.
Egg-nogg flowed in rivers. The
holidays were spiced by a good Menagerie with a very large elephant who could
neither be coaxed nor driven over a bridge, much to the wonder of the boys, who
thought the huge animal a great fool to prefer the lagoon and mud to good plank
and a dry footing. A Ball given by
the young men initiated the Christmas fun, and a fine Ball it was.
To cut a long story short, there were "fair women and brave
men," wit, grace, flowing robes, love looks and pouting, at the
Ball. All this and headaches before
breakfast we had during Christmas.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 8, 1859, p. 1, c.
5
Slavery in Alabama.—Joab, a slave belonging to Senator Fitzpatrick,
brought his cotton crop to Wetumpka on last Saturday, and sold it to Bryan &
Cater for one hundred and sixty dollars in clean cash.
This case makes a very pretty contrast to the one reported in the New
York papers, where thousands of women and children gathered together to seek
bread where there was no bread. This
is Joab's spending money; there is no need of his laying up for old age or
decrepitude. The hand of a kind
master stands between him and want, and no visions of famished wife and starving
children haunt his future.
[Wetumpka Spectator, Dec. 7.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 8, 1859, p. 2, c. 2
Correspondence of the Democrat.
Holmes Co., Miss., Jan. 4, 1858.
Dear Democrat: I have been
silent for a long time, like Wilkins Micawber, "hoping that something, in
fact, will turn up." In this I
am disappointed; however, I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.
The New Year is fully upon us. Did
you or any of your readers ever recollect how vividly the 1st of
January impresses the mind with the trifling memories of the Old Year?
How the figures loom away into the distance of an empty pocket, when an
account a full yard in length is presented, accompanied with an irresistible
smile and the encouraging observation, that unless close collections are made, a
notice of protest will be committed to Uncle Sam's never-failing mail?
Such is the melody of the 1st of January.
It is the epic poem of life.
Black hawk and its immediate vicinity have been in a state of high
excitement. It appears that a young
gentleman some twenty-two years of age died a short time since, and shortly
after the interment it was discovered that his grave had been disturbed.
Steps were immediately taken to apprehend the vampire who had violated
the sacred resting lace of the dead. A
runaway negro was taken; about his person was found a hand of the deceased,
which had been severed from the arm. It
seems that there is a superstition which commands the entire belief of the
negro, that if they carry about them, when runaway, the hand of a white man,
they will never be taken—that it invests them with a peculiar charm which
renders it impossible to "trail" them with dogs.
This is not the first instance, even in this county, of a negro
desecrating the grave to procure the hand of the white.
It is to be hoped that this human hyena was hanged to the first most
accessible limb of a tree. Such
offences should be dealt with summarily, and not be trusted to the delay
incident to a regular prosecution.
On the 8th inst., two negroes are to be hanged.
Dick, who has been in prison for three years, has made a full confession.
Joe, who was convicted for assault with intent to kill, will likewise
suffer the penalty of the law. It
is rather strange that Saturday should in this instance be converted into the
day for the "hangman's lash to hand the wretch in order." . . .
X.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 8, 1859, p. 3, c.
1
M. Donetti's Show.—This is
one of the curiosities of the age, and exhibits probably the full extent to
which the instinct of brutes can be educated.
We saw the performances of these dogs, monkeys and goats on one occasion
before a crowded house, and the demonstrations of the audience were of wonder
and delight. To see half a dozen
monkeys dressed like human beings, sitting around the festal board, in
appearance chatting, jesting and laughing, while two others of their own species
hand their food on waiters, as regular built servants do, is no ordinary sight,
and ought to draw no ordinary number of spectators. The goat is beautiful and accomplished in a degree that goat
ne'er was before, while the dogs are unequalled in intelligence and beauty.
Go and see.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 8, 1859, p. 3, c. 3
The Great Monkey
Circus
and
Burlesque Dramatic
Troupe.
Messrs. Spalding
& Rogers,
having made a permanent arrangement with Sig. Donetti's Great Comic Company of
Acting Monkeys, Dogs & Goats,
As they appeared at the Italian Opera House in New York for over
100 Consecutive Nights
Before the largest and most brilliant audiences, in laughable Pantomimes, Comic Interludes, tight and slack rope performances, grand military spectacles, &c., with magnificent costumes and appointments,
Will exhibit at
Yazoo city, Monday and
Tuesday, January
17th and 18th,
In the elegant saloon on board the steamer Banjo, all under
the management of Col. J. H. Wood.
Also Donetti's World Renowned Dioramic Dissolving Views.
Doors open at 2 and 6½ P. M.
At the night performance an entire change of programme.
Admission, 50 cents, Children under 12 years of age and Servants, 25
cents.
Immediately after each performance of the Monkey Circus, Wood's New York
Minstrels will give a grand melange of Negro Minstrelsy, introducing the popular
national melodies, operatic parodies, duetts, refrains, choruses, instrumental
music.
Favorite ballads, Northern and Southern eccentricities, burlesques,
dances, jigs, break downs, and all the various humors and indescribable conceits
incident to this kind of amusement.
At the night performance an entire change of programme.
A new, enlarged, and improved Calliope, or Steam Organ, constructed at a
great cost, expressly for Messrs. Spalding & Rogers, with the capacity of
100 Brass Bands, and the softness and harmony of a Pianoforte, will announce the
approach of the steamer Banjo, and under the skilful manipulation of Signor
Gardella, in certain states of the atmosphere, will be distinctly audible for
ten miles.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 8, 1859, p. 4, c.
1
A wedding ring is considered a necessary antecedent to a marriage.
An ear ring is found to be a natural consequent.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 22, 1859, p. 2, c.
5
Wants to be a Slave.—The Memphis Appeal of the 8th, says:
A Novel case was tried this morning in the Common Law and Chancery Court
of the city of Memphis, on the chancery side of the court.
Hannah, a free woman of color, who had been manumitted by Mr. David
Jamison of Shelby county, in this State, returned from Ohio, where she was
freed, and desired her former master (Mr. Jamison) to take her back into his
household as a slave. He was
disposed to gratify her wishes, but desired her to consult an attorney.
She did so, and John G. Finnie filed in her name a petition to the
chancery court, setting forth the facts of her manumission in the State of
Ohio—that she had returned to Memphis, where she preferred to live as a slave
with her old master, than to be free in any of the free States.
She expressed her wish in open court, and was closely examined by Judge
Caruthers, as to her motives for returning to bondage.
She spoke clearly and sensibly, saying that she preferred being a slave,
and remain in Tennessee, rather than be free in Ohio; that she wanted a kind
master to take care of her and provide for her wants.
The Court thereupon ordered a decree, in accordance with the prayer of
the petitioner and the law of Tennessee.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 22, 1859, p. 4, c.
1
Punch says: To find out whom
a child loves, make it a present, and notice to whom it is eager to show that
present, exultingly. To find out
whom a woman hates, do exactly the same thing.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 29, 1859, p. 4, c.
1
Use of Opium.—Two of the new York papers state that the use of opium is
increasing to an alarming extent in the United States.
The imports and sales of druggists both prove the fact.
The imports now annually reach 300,000 pounds annually, not one tenth of
which is required for medicinal preparations.
It is asserted that the average consumption to the population now equals,
if it does not exceed, that used in China and the Indian Archipelago.
The sales of the druggists in New York and Brooklyn are found to increase
from year to year at a ratio of about 30 per cent.
Few consumers of the drug obtain their supplies from one apothecary.
Desiring to conceal their habit from observation, they procure them from
several shops.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 5, 1859, p. 3, c. 3
The Latest Perfume!
Kiss-Me-If-You-Dare!—Extracted from the well known plant,
Touch me not.
For sale only by
P. B. Cook & Co.
Hauel's New Spring Perfume!
Kiss-Me-Quickly!—Extracted from the well known flower of
Forget-me-not. A small supply
received and for sale by
P. B. Cook & Co.
Musk Cologne!
2 Doz. Bottles of this delightful preparation for the
toilet, received and for sale by
P. B. Cook & Co.
Veritable Eau de Cologne,
Imported from Germany.—A few dozen bottles for sale by
P. B. Cook & Co.
Frangipanni Scented Soap, Hauel's American Honey Soap,
Transparent Ball Soap, Transparent Cake Soap, Ladies' Toilet Soap, and a large
assortment more, too various to mention, received and for sale by
P. B. Cook & Co.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 12, 1859, p. 3, c. 3
Valentines! Valentines!
We would call particular attention to our extensive assortment of
Valentines, prepared for the approaching Festival—the Natal Day of St.
Valentine—now open and for sale only by
P. B. Cook & Co.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 12, 1859, p. 3,
c. 3
Union or Shakers' Seeds—A large assortment on hand and for sale by
P. B. Cook & Co.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 25, 1859, p. 3,
c. 1
Tableaux and Concert.—The ladies acquitted themselves with their usual
grace in the first, and "discoursed harmonies divine" in the concert,
before large auditories on both occasions.
The gentlemen performers very probably did themselves credit; we couldn't
see or hear them 'mid "the blaze of beauty" and the softer strains of
more celestial music.—The supper was just such as one as Yazoo ladies and only
Yazoo ladies can arrange; so fine that it was its own appetizer and the love of
good things "grew with what it fed on."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 12, 1859, p. 2, c. 4
Mardi Gras.—A stranger, on a visit to this city, says the New Orleans
Delta, requests us to explain the origin of Mardi Gras, and the reason of the
peculiar festivities which attend its annual return.
Mardi Gras means literally in French fat Tuesday, the name given
to the last day (Tuesday) before Ash Wednesday, the first of the forty days fast
called Lent, so called because it was the longest of the fasts—lent, in
old Saxon, meaning long. Mardi
Gras, then, being the last day before Lent in which feasting and festive sports
were in order—that is, the last day of Carnival (carne vale, Latin,) or
farewell to meat, was naturally made the most of in Roman Catholic churches for
a general abandonment to merry making and buffoonery. It has always been celebrated with the greatest eclat in Rome
and Venice, and many authorities assert that the festival was derived in Italy
from the Saturnalia of pagan Rome, modified by the early Christians.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 12, 1859, p. 4, c. 1
N. P. Willis on Persimmon.—One of the first of my Virginia experiences
was the very new sensation of eating a persimmon.
By its frequent mention in negro songs this fruit has become classic, and
I was interested in tasting it as the traveler in Italy with his first pluck of
a ripe fig. It resembles a small
apple as seen hanging upon the leafless twig; though the tree grows taller and
with more spready branches than the apple tree.
There were plenty of them in the open fields, as we drove past the corn
plantations in the open country, and our friend and conductor kindly jumped over
the rail fence and brought me a handful. What
this fruit can especially be intended for by nature I am a little embarrassed to
understand—possibly to close the gate after enough has entered—for, of all
the contractile agents, this seems to be the most puckery and unrelaxing.
The mouth and lips are so obstinately brought together by eating a
persimmon that it would be difficult to follow it, even with "a
drink;" though I am not sure that all its effects are so preventive, as the
traveler, for the next mile or two after the taste of it, looks very much as if
getting ready for a kiss—a kiss, however, of which till the lips relax, the
secret is very sure to be kept!
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 19, 1859, p. 3, c. 2
The Florida Indians.—The editor of the Bainbridge (Ga.) Argus, who was
at Apalachicola when the steamer Magnolia touched at that place with Col. Rector
and his emigrating Seminoles on board, says the Indians accompanying Col. Rector
comprise the entire remnant of Billy Bowlegs' tribe in Florida; but that Sam
Jones' tribe, numbering about fifty, only fifteen of whom might be termed
warriors, could not be induced to emigrate in consequence of the
misrepresentations of unprincipled white settlers who desired them to remain.
The Tampa Peninsular of the 19th ult., after rejoicing upon
the departure of the Indians on board the Magnolia, at the moment of going to
press, says:
We stop the press to announce the arrival of John Jackson, Esq., who
brings the unpleasant intelligence that he was ordered by the Indians to leave
their country, where he was engaged in surveying.
On the morning of the 9th, a negro man, in charge of Mr.
Jackson's team, was met by Indians, and by words and unmistakable signs, ordered
to leave in two days. On the 10th,
Mr. Jackson, in company with the rest of his party discovered seven or eight
warriors—on approaching near them, they hid behind trees, and to all
appearances made arrangements for a fight.
Mr. J. deemed it prudent to comply with their request, and on the 11th,
abandoned his work and started for this place.
At the old stations on Fish-Eating Creek, he saw many women and children.
This is about the substance of Mr. Jackson's statement, which may be
relied on as authentic. The Indians
he supposes to be those who visited Col. Rector but would not agree to emigrate.
From their conduct, we may infer that they are not so peaceably disposed
as our friend H. A. C. would have us believe.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 26, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Modern girls are true labor-saving machines, they save all the labor by
doing nothing.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 26, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Scott's Theatre.—During the past week our city has been enlivened by
the nightly performance of this popular company.
The manager, Mr. D. L. Scott, the talented comedian, has appeared in all
imaginable side-splitting characters, in each of which he has elicited nearly
equal applause, and displayed like capacity for refined comedy and more
boisterous, though little less difficult, farce. In his favorite character of Simon, in the farce of Mr. and
Mrs. Lullaby, he is inimitable. Mrs.
Hattie Scott, during her stay here, has, as everywhere else, been the recipient
of unbounded compliments. With
superior talents as an actress, she combines the music of the nightingale.
Her singing is perfectly unaffected, distinctly articulated, and yet as
soft and melodious as the notes of an Æolean harp.
With a powerful and well controlled voice, she is also gifted with the
capacity to appreciate and express the sentiment of what she sings.
This soul and feeling make her irresistible in "Gentle Annie,"
"Willie we have missed you," and all melancholy airs.
Still she shows a keen sense of the comic and humorous.
She would not lack applause on any boards.
The large crowds which have been each night attracted to the performance
prove more fully than words the merit of the company.
The public will be pleased to know that Mr. Scott has settled in Jackson,
and will confine his travels to this State.
His company is therefore a home institution and will doubtless meet with
the success it deserves. This
evening being the last of Mr. Scott's stay in this place, of course every body
will attend.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 2, 1859, p. 2, c. 4
God Send to Florida Seminoles.—A correspondent of the Tallahassee
Floridian, writing from Miami, says:
There has lately been a wreck near Jupiter, of a ship fitted out as a
slaver in New Orleans for the coast of Africa, at which the Indians were the
principal wreckers, and they have received a benefit such as they never before
have had. They now have an
abundance of ammunition, provisions, liquors, &c.
They appear to be peaceably disposed, bring in plenty of game, are
cheerful and apparently friendly, but say they will never emigrate.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 2, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Scott's Theatre.—This company has been playing every night during this
week with continued success and undiminished applause.
The Songs and Thespian talent of Mrs. Hattie Scott are yet the object of
unqualified approbation by even the critics of Yazoo City.
Neither has his frequent appearance taken off the relish with which Mr.
D. L. Scott's acting is uniformly received.
Mr. Wesley is a young actor of much promise.
Friday night is set apart as an occasion which will introduce a few of
our talented young townsmen to the notice of the stage loving world.
As their appearance comes too late for this issue, we are forced to
suspend our verdict on their merit till our next.
We sincerely wish Mr. Scott and his company much success in their travels
through our State. They deserve it,
and leave many friends and well wishers in Yazoo City.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 2, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Artesian Springs.—This agreeable and popular watering place is now the
property of Col. W. R. Luckett, the former enterprising merchant of Canton who
commanded so large a share of public patronage and confidence. All who know the gentleman will need no assurance that he
will make it a "four horse concern" during the coming season. He
is not wont to do things by halves, and pleasure-seekers as well as invalids
will not return disappointed from a visit there this summer.
Expense will not be spared to afford amusement and comfort.
Gen. McMackin, the world-renowned host, is expected to supervise
operations. Those who relish luxury
and ease, combined with fun and frolic, and those who seek God's first blessing,
health, will derive infinite satisfaction from the "good things,"
music, dancing, and Bethesdan waters of Artesian Springs.
Look elsewhere for the advertisement, in which particulars are fully
stated.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 2, 1859, p. 3, c. 2
The Artesian Springs.
This fashionable place of resort for pleasure and health, has been
purchased by the undersigned and thoroughly repaired and refurnished, and will
be opened for the accommodation of the public on the 15th day of May.
Being determined to keep the Artesian Springs Hotel open two seasons,
whether he makes money or not, the undersigned will spare neither pains nor
expense to make the place what it should be, and altogether worthy of the
patronage of the public.
A Four-Horse Coach will run daily, connecting with the Express Train to
Pickens' Station on the Mississippi Central Railroad, 6½ miles from the
Springs, and a hack will be in readiness at the depot at all times to convey
passengers going up on the 10 o'clock train.
A fine Band of Music will be employed during the season.
It is expected that Gen. T. C. McMackin will have the charge of the
house. If he should be prevented
from taking charge, some other competent person will be employed.
W. R. Luckett.
April 2, 1859.
P.S. All persons visiting
the Springs and desiring letters to reach them, will have them directed to the
care of the Proprietor, Pickens Station, Holmes County, Miss.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 9, 1859, p. 1, c. 6
Hoop-De Dooden-Do.—A new disease has made its appearance since the
introduction of hoops. It exhibits
itself only in cold weather, and then is only discoverable in cities where the
buildings are warmed with furnaces. Two
ladies were standing over a register the other day, talking and laughing, when
one endeavoring to sit, was suddenly attacked and screamed violently. The other soon also tried to sit, and was attacked in the
same manner. The explanation is
that by standing so long over the register, their metallic hoops became heated
to such a degree that when they attempted to be seated, it was like sitting on a
hot gridiron. Of course they
were not a great length of time in getting up again, and naturally enough
uttered screams—all of which would be very mysterious to a looker on,
unacquainted with the mysteries of hoops.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 9, 1859, p. 2, c. 5
Bailey & Co.'s
Gigantic Circus
and Menagerie,
Combined with the
Exhibition of the
Sands, Nathans
& Co.'s
Performing
Elephants,
Antony and
Cleopatra.
This unique and mammoth establishment combines a greater number of
attractions than were ever before offered to the public. The
Performing Elephants, Antony and Cleopatra, are the same which, for months,
created the greatest furore in London and Paris, while more recently their
performances were the theme of universal admiration for months at the Broadway
Theatre, New York. Their wonderful
docility, and the perfection of their training, make them the most interesting
specimens of the animal creation that the world has ever seen.
All their faculties have been developed to the greatest extent, and they
stand forth, sui generis, the most remarkable of their kind.
They stand upon their heads, play upon Musical Instruments, ascend
Inclined Planes, and go through all the operations of the most accomplished
acrobats.
In addition, Bailey & Co.'s Circus and Menagerie comprises a splendid
collection of Wild Animals. The
Clowns, Messrs. Smith & Ward, are the very embodiment of fun and jocularity.
Their jokes are numerous, fresh, spicy and piquant, full of hits at the
times and follies of the day, yet entirely free from anything which the most
delicately constituted mind could take the slightest exception to.
Bailey & Co.'s Exhibition therefore comprises Elegant Horsemanship, a
Splendid Menagerie, Slack Rope Performance, New Singing, Comic and Classic
Dancing, Wonderful Posturing, Grand Spectacular Effects, Character
Equestrianism, and a more novel and interesting programme than was ever before
afforded to the public. Each
entertainment will conclude with a Comic Afterpiece, introducing all the comic
talent in the company.
The American Brass Band, composed of picked Musicians, accompanies the
exhibition and will precede the Grand Cavalcade on its entrance into each town,
drawn by Elephants in Harness, attached to the magnificent Chariot of Apollo.
The Pavilion is large and commodious, fitted up with due regard to the
comfort and convenience of the visitors, and the Proprietors pledge themselves,
that nothing shall be found wanting to make this the most elegant, beautiful and
satisfactory exhibition that ever visited this place.
The Grand Entree into the town will take place on Saturday, 16th
inst., at 10 o'clock.
Doors open at 2 and 7. Performances
commence at 2½ and 7½.
Admission 50 cents. Children
and Servants Half Price.
Will exhibit at Yazoo City, Saturday, April 16th.
T. F. Taylor, Agent.
April 9, 1859.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 9, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
A Strange Animal.—There is a little weasel-faced, tallow-skinned man,
(pardon us, mankind,) with more hair on his face than brains in his head,
perambulating our town, and prides himself on hailing from the free-soil
State of New York. He has been seen
in private conversation with a negro shoe-maker, and it has been observed that
he likes the association of negroes better than white people; and the strong
presumption is that he is an abolitionist.
We would suggest to him that he is closely watched, and if the proof is
conclusive upon him, he will have a practical illustration of how negroes are
sometimes treated "down South," and he will have a sympathy for them
that perhaps he has never yet experienced.
Verbum sat.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 9, 1859, p. 4, c. 1
The editress of the Ashland Kentuckian, who by the by, is represented to
be a handsome young widow, in response to a suggestion that she did not wear
hoops, says: "Hoops, indeed!
why, we don't wear any thing else!!"
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 16, 1859, p. 1, c. 6
The ladies of Cincinnati are introducing a new and beautiful ornament for
the parlor mantle or centre table. They take large pine burs, sprinkle grass
seeds of any kind in them and place them in pots of water.
When the burs are soaked a few days they close up to the form of solid
cones; then the little spears of green grass begin to emerge from amongst the
laminæ, forming an ornament of rare and singular beauty.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 16, 1859, p. 2, c. 4
Bellevue
Nurseries,
Canton, Miss.,
H. A. Swasey &
Co., Proprietors,
(Successors to C.
B. Swasey & Co.)
We have a large and well grown stock of the following articles, which we
shall be prepared to send out from our extensive grounds adjoining the city of
Canton, Miss., by the 15th of November next, at the prices named
below.
Apples—1 to 3 years old, from 20 to 50 cents each; $15 to $40 per 100;
$100 to $800 per 1,000.
Pears—on Pear—1 to 2 years old, 60 cents each.
On Quince—1 and 2 years old, 40 to 60 cents each; $35 to $50 per 100;
$300 to $400 per 1,000.
Peaches—1 and 2 years old, 20 to 30 cents each; $15 to $25 per 100;
$100 to $200 per 1,000.
In addition to the above, we have a full stock of Nectarines, Apricots,
Plums, Cherries, Figs, Almonds, Grapes, English Walnuts, Spanish Chestnuts,
Raspberries, Strawberries, Roses, Dahlias, Deciduous and Evergreen Trees,
Shrubs, Plants, &c., and, in fact everything usually kept in a first
class Nursery Establishment—all of which we shall be pleased to furnish to
our friends and the public, at prices equally low with those named above.
Early orders respectfully solicited, and Catalogues furnished on
application. Address
H. A. Swasey & Co., Canton, Miss.
April 16, 1859.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 16, 1859, p. 2, c. 3
Death of Billy Bowlegs.—The Fort Smith Times, of the 31st
ult., has the following:
We learn from Mr. George M. Aird, who arrived yesterday from the Seminole
country, that Billy Bowlegs died suddenly at the house of John Jumper, on
Friday, the 11th inst. There
were great lamentations and loud wailing among his people, the Seminoles.
The late emigrants had not arrived in the country at the time of Bowlegs'
death. Mr. Aird met Col. Rutherford
with them about forty miles this side of the Seminole country.
They will, therefore, be deprived of the privilege of meeting their old
leader and chief. Thus has passed away one who has been a terror to the
settlers of Florida and one of the greatest chiefs and Indian warriors of the
present day.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 16, 1859, p. 2, c. 5
New Cotton
Spinner.
To Cotton
Planters, Commission Merchants,
Editors of Papers,
and the Friends of the
South—Patented
Invention for Spinning
the Cotton Crops
on the Plantations, di-
rectly from the
Seed, fully demonstrated,
by which the
Planter's net income is
doubled or more
than doubled!
The above invention has been put into complete and successful operation
on the plantation of one of the most distinguished gentlemen of Mississippi, and
he invites Planters and all interested to go and see it.
The machinery works beautifully. Little
negroes learned to attend it in a few days, and the yarns have not only
commanded the premium at the Mississippi State Fair, but one of the judges
states (who is a spinner of twenty years' experience) that they are about double
as strong as any that were in competition with them; and now all question, doubt
or conjecture as to its practicability is satisfactorily and positively
answered, by its actual and daily working demonstration.
Working on one plantation proves that it will work on all.
The machinery was exhibited at the Crystal Palace in New York, and the
Judges of the American Institute awarded it a full and well deserved report, in
which they stated that, "as the cotton passed directly on from the seed
continuously from my Hermaphrodite to the other machine, by which I excluded
from use the ginning and baling machinery of the plantation, and several
machines in the factories to open and disentangle it, and which are very violent
in their operations; I must make my yarn of a longer and less broken staple, and
therefore it must be a stronger and better yarn."
But the Unparalleled Feature of the Invention is—that it Doubles the
Net Income on the Planter adopting it, and I, in effect, sell him a plantation,
negroes, stock, etc., fully as valuable to him in its production as that on
which he makes his cotton and other attendant crops; and this prodigious result
is achieved by him without strain or difficulty.
My invention consists in the discovery that the same capital that now
produces a crop of cotton, the same steam or water power that now gins and bales
it, the same expenses very nearly that accrue to raise the crop, and the labor
of a few little negroes and women, ineffective as field hands, could attend the
machinery, which would put the crop into yarns, instead of ginning and baling it
as cotton, whereby the planter's income would be doubled, a better yarn be spun,
at least nine tenths of the risk of fire on the plantation removed, with half
the bagging and rope, and lessened charges, (save those of commissions, which
will be doubled to the commission merchant as they will be on a double amount,)
and which is made practically effective by machinery which unites the separate
processes of the gin and packing house of the plantation and that of the
spinning factory into one, with a great saving in machinery, motive power, labor
and capital.
We can make any number or size of yarn desired, and this invention, from
its nature, is complete and cannot be improved upon.
The cost of the machinery to the planter will not be as much as half the
enhanced value of the second crop would more than buy the necessary operatives
out and out, if the planter chooses. The
accumulation of money by this will very soon pay planters out of debt who are
now involved, and rapidly afford them means, and those not in debt to carry out
their most sanguine wishes.
The yarns are selling here at 10½ to 22½ c., and there is not only a
demand here for many more than we now make, but we are now fully informed that
there is a market for them in Great Britain and in Europe far beyond our
capacity to spin them, and at prices fully and over netting what we are getting
here. The quotation for such yarns
as we are now making on the 1st February at Manchester—extra hard
water-twist—was 11d. per pound, and in Germany 24c., which would net here 20
to 21c., and the accounts are that spinners have contracts 90 days ahead.
In putting our crops into yarns we have, perhaps, ten thousand customers
for them to one for cotton, and hence our ability to get a fairer range of
prices than we now do for cotton. The
people, from end of the world to the other, are a mass of buyers of yarns, while
the whole cotton crop is bought for only a few thousand spinners.
To make the powerful inducement to the planter to spin his crop up more
clear and striking, I would distinctly call his attention to the number and
great value of the hands that in all the year are employed in raising the crop
to the value of the lands upon which it and the attendant crops are made—the
value of the mules, stock, implements, machinery, etc., necessary to help raise
it—the heavy annual expenses paid out to raise, gin and pack the crop, let me
contrast all this value and expenses and its net yield with the more than
doubled net yield by my invention, effected by a few half hands and machinery
that costs nothing compared to the value of the lands and the investment which
raises the cotton, and upon which the outlay, in addition to his present
expenses, is for machinery which will last thirty years, and the wages of a
spinner and oils.
The moment this is seen and understood by the planters, that these few
half hands and this machinery and trifling outlay will net them as much or more
than their large investment, with the heavy expenses on it to raise the crop
does, they will not pause in their decision to avail themselves of my invention
as soon as possible.
That this immensely increased income is not to be transient, and that the
price will not decline by our spinning the entire crop of the country into
yarns, let me impress these facts on your minds.
The cotton spinner is at a heavy outlay to buy his location and to pay
for his factory buildings and those of the operatives, to arrange and buy his
motive power and his fuel for it; to buy his machines, to pay his daily expenses
for the hire of his clerks, managers, overseers and operatives; to buy his daily
supply of cotton, pay his insurance, freight and other expenses, and which,
altogether, demands a large share of capital.
The actual cost to the spinner, besides the cost of cotton to spin, is
from 8 to 10c. a pound; then, besides, the cost of cotton and the cost to spin,
he must get several cents more for each pound to pay him his profit on his
capital and for the trouble he is at. Now,
as the planter has within himself all these items very nearly, and must have
them, he evidently is not at this outlay and expense, and so what it costs the
spinner for a pound of cotton and to spin a pound of yarn, and some, if not all
of his profit, the planter may be positive he will get for his yarns.
The spinner cannot sell below his cost, and as the planter must make a
better yarn, as his yarns appear in market, the present spinners will withdraw
from so unequal a contest. This
must be apparent to all.
Terms and Conditions.
I will have the machinery made in the best manner, and as low as I can,
which the planter can have on time for city acceptances.
I give him plans and directions for the preparation of his house in which
it is to be placed; employ for him a proper person, who, with a couple of
plantation hands, will put it up; employ for him and keep him supplied with a
managing spinner; and for five crops the planter is to give me one-fourth of the
excess the yarns yield over what it would as cotton—that is to say, the
planter retains all his cotton would have yielded him, and three-fourths of what
my invention does, and the remaining fourth is to be paid me, or put to my
credit by his merchant as the yarns are sold.
In a word, I sell what is equivalent to a plantation, negroes, stock,
etc., and receive one-fourth of what it produces from the party buying. After the expiration of the five years to the extent he has
purchased it, it becomes permanently his.
Contracts with planters making two hundred bales of cotton or upward will
for the present be entered into, and further information as to cost of
machinery, and number and sort of operatives to spin a specified quantity, will
be furnished on application to me here, or at Mobile.
Agents Wanted—Editors of newspapers throughout the cotton region, from
North Carolina to Texas inclusive, are invited to aid in the selection and to
recommend to me energetic agents, to place this unparalleled invention before
the cotton planters, and make contracts for me, whom, upon thus being presented
to me, I will appoint and furnish with specific instructions.
Geo. G. Henry.
New Orleans, April 16, 1862.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 16, 1859, p. 4, c. 1
Tattooing on Shipboard.—A correspondent of the New York Times, writes
from the United States naval depot at Porto Praya, on the 26th of
January:
Among the unconsidered trifles that float about the forecastle of a
man-of-war, one cannot help observing the tattooed arms, limbs and bodies of the
sailors. I saw a man stretched upon
the deck, with his breast all bare, and a big fellow with no compunction, but
with a great energy, scarifying the flesh with five needles tied together, with
the points dipped in India ink, and each wound in the skin absorbing enough of
the fluid to retain a mark for life. The
figure was composed of the Goddess of Liberty, the stars and stripes, a ship,
&c. Some have a taste for the
melancholy, and mark the arms with a memento mori—a tombstone and
weeping willow; others for the villainous, and adopt the gallows, with a culprit
pendant. Some have double hearts
and love arrows, and some inclose [sic] a wreath of roses the initials of a
deserted yet hoped-for sweetheart. Then
there is the patriotic taste, with the escutcheon of the Union, and a
ship-of-war ready for a fight. It
is estimated that at least four thousand persons in the United States Navy,
annually, are tattooed, with figures costing from seventy five cents to fifteen
dollars, and showing an annual expenditure in the aggregate of twenty thousand
dollars. A single artist has been
known to pocket over a thousand dollars in a cruise of a frigate in these
senseless India ink prickings.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 23, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Elopement Extraordinary.—Quite an excitement has been created among the
denizens of the Bayou Bœuf section of country, by the sudden elopement of the
son of a wealthy and highly respectable planter, with his mother's maid servant,
a slave, so near white as to have been taken at times for a daughter of the
house. The parties are supposed to
have gone to Texas with the intention, as learnt from an intercepted note of the
young man, of consummating matrimony.—Central (La.) Organ.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 30, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Prof. Fowler's Lectures.
Prof. O. S. Fowler, whose fame is world wide in the spheres of author,
lecturer, and last but not least, in that of delineator of character from the
organic conditions, particularly cerebral developments (alias
phrenological organs), or citizens will be glad to learn commences a course of
lectures on Phrenology and physiology—including several collateral topics,
such as Health, Self-Improvement, Signs of Character, Matrimony, &c. (for
enumeration of which we would direct special attention to the
announcement in another column)—to-night (Saturday), at Odd Fellows' Hall, to
which there is no charge of admission. These
lectures will no doubt bring out large audiences from the most intelligent
portion of the community, the more so as Prof. Fowler has an established
reputation, his name in connection with the science whose claims he advocates
having been prominently before the public nearly thirty years, while during this
period he has been lecturing in all portions of the country, and but one opinion
is every where expressed of the value and importance of his addresses.
They are eminently practical in their bearing, enforcing lessons of
every-day life, revealing the hidden philosophy of the same, and pointing out
fundamental errors often committed in the treatment of the mind and body, with
such directions for the future, as, if properly observed, must enure [sic] to
the physical and mental well being of all.
The Professor also abounds in apt and racy anecdote, which, together with
a species of wit and humor that often obtains, renders his lectures the source
of a good deal of amusement as well as instruction, while the examinations of
the heads of prominent citizens selected by the audience, at the close of each
lecture, must prove a point of much interest.
We must not forget to add, that during his stay Prof. Fowler will be
prepared to give Phrenological Examinations daily at the Parlor of the Mansion
House. Go to the lectures!
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 7, 1859, p. 3, c. 2
Phrenology.
During a few days of the present week, our town has been favored by the
presence of Prof. O. S. Fowler, who is everywhere accounted the very first
in his profession in the United States. He
views Phrenology strictly in the light of a science, and probably has done as
much or more for its advancement than any other living man.
His lectures are all marked from beginning to end by sound sense and
philosophic reflection, and, though an endless talker, the Professor never
departs from clear reasoning, and never fails to convey a great deal of
philanthropic, beneficial instruction. He
pours forth oceans of advice and yet the most envious of his rivals could
pronounce it none other than the very best.
He has told our fathers and mothers how to raise their children and his
illustrations of the numberless errors everywhere prevalent in this important
art have struck home to parents in this town, as they must in all other places.
He has told our young men how to succeed in love, by telling them to whom
they ought to make love, and he has told our fair maidens how to ensnare, by
describing the men who are worthy of their efforts.
We hope time may develope [sic] the improvement of both, if they have
digested the wise counsels of the learned gentleman. We ourself shall try the Professor's plan, all others having
failed. Let our fair readers soften
their hearts, for he manipulated our individual cranium, and told us we wanted
to marry, ought to marry, and would make a capital husband, the first of which
we knew, and the two last of which we religiously believe.
In sober seriousness, we have never heard a man talk sounder philosophy,
or substantiate his propensities more clearly than Prof. O. S. Fowler.
He proves Phrenology beyond the incredulity of skepticism itself; but,
whether man can attain such perfection in the science as to enable him, by
merely feeling the various organs, to describe character, is a question yet to
be solved. Whether the human mind
can ever ascertain precisely the degrees in which one organ is influenced by
another, and say what would be individual action under a certain state of facts,
by observing the combinations, is yet a question.
The leading features of character may be correctly exposed upon
Phrenological examination, but it is doubtful if the minutiæ will ever be
discovered. However, we meant not to discourse upon the science ourself,
but merely to state that Mr. Fowler made a first rate impression upon this
community, and left a first-rate name behind him. His mission is a high one and he has in him all the elements
of success in doing good to his fellows.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 7, 1859, p. 4, c. 1
Camels.—We learn from the Mobile papers that the steamship Fashion,
which arrived at that port on the 7th ult., from Texas, brought
twenty-one camels, which are to be shipped to a gentleman in the interior, who
purchased them for experimental purposes.—Delta.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 14, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
License Your Dogs!
Dog-owners will do well to license and collar their dogs within ten days
from the date hereof. At the
expiration of that time, I shall proceed to kill all of the canine tribe I find
not licensed, according to law.
A. B. Johnson, City Marshal.
May 14, 1859.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 14, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Fashionable
Dancing
Mr. P. Clissey,
Of New Orleans, respectfully informs the ladies and gentlemen of this place, that he will open his
Dancing School,
On Monday, 16th
inst., at Concert Hall,
where he will teach all the fashionable Dances.
Class for Children, three times a week, at 3 P. M.
Private Lessons for Ladies and Gentlemen, three times a week, from 9 A.
M. to 2 P. M.
Class for Gentlemen, three times a week at 7½ o'clock.
Mr. P. C. will also attend Academies and private houses.
Yazoo City, May 14, 1859.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 21, 1859, p. 2, c. 2
An advertisement appears in the News, published at Enterprise, Miss.,
addressed to ship owners and masters of our mercantile marine, offering $300
each for 1000 native Africans, between the ages of fourteen and twenty, sound
and healthy, to be delivered within twelve months, at some point between
Pensacola, Florida, and Galveston, Texas. The
advertisement is signed by eighteen responsible citizens, whose character is
vouched for by the editor of the News.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 21, 1859, p. 2, c. 2
Texas News.—The San Antonio Texan, of the 5th, has the
following Indian news:
We have seen a letter from S. P. Ross, Superintendent of the Brazos
Agency, dated April 20, stating that seventy warriors had just left there for
Major Van Dorn's camp, to act as guides. The
letter also states that Choctaw Tom, son, and three other friendly Indians
arrived there on the day before, from the Choctaw country, and from him he had
received a letter from Agent Blain, stating to the effect that all the Kickapoos
had run off and gone North of the Canadian river; also, that half the Keechies
had left in the same direction. The
agent further states that he has no doubt but the intention of these Indians is
to join the Comanches in committing further depredations upon Texas.
So our frontier citizens may look out for squally times during the
present year. Major Van Dorn was to
leave for the Comanche country on the 30th April.
Lieut. Harrison arrived at the Brazos Agency from Radaminsky, to procure
guides, on the same day the letter of Captain Ross was written.
Captain Ross informed him that seventy Indians had left for Van Dorn's
camp the day before, for that very purpose.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 21, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Pass Him Around.—Gentlemen of the Press would do well to beware of one
D. L. Scott, the manager of a strolling company of theatrical performers.
His exhibitions are sufficiently entertaining, but Scott shows a moral
obliquity rather dangerous to the interests of creditors.
He left his city in debt to us in something more than twenty dollars,
promising to forward the amount from Lexington, a few days thereafter, which
promise it seems has escaped his memory. Nor
were we the only sufferers by his forgetfulness.
Several others of our citizens lost more than we by trusting to the
honesty of the worthy player. It is
the more to be complained of because circumstances go to prove that the man had
money. Otherwise, we should have
let him pass unnoticed, it being our rule never to publish a man we believe to
be really distressed and unable to pay. But
Mr. Scott has obviously perpetrated a swindle upon unsuspecting humanity, and we
therefore warn our brethren of the press to demand pay in advance for any labor
performed for this degenerate discipline of Roscious.
We believe Scott to be somewhere in the Northern party of the State.
Our brethren of the press will do well to give this an insertion.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 28, 1859, p. 1, c. 5
A Sad Mistake.—A man living near Nashville, who had been absent in
California some three years, on coming home recently, found a babe only three
months old lying in the cradle. With
a cruelty utterly diabolical, he at once cut off the infant's ears to avenge his
"wounded honor." The
screams of the little sufferer called in the family, when the infuriated man
learned that the child belonged to a neighbor, who was visiting his wife. He had to flee to escape a lynching.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 28, 1859, p. 1, c. 6
An Item for Wife-Whippers.—Judge Johnson, of Louisville, Ky., last
week, in deciding a case before him, said:
A man has no right to whip his wife, but should be severely punished if
he were guilty of such an outrage. But
the women, on the contrary, had a right to whip their husbands whenever they
pleased. It was a prerogative
belonging to them peculiarly and inalienable.
He was surprised it was not exercised to a greater extent.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 4, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
A Chess Club.—We are informed of the organization of a Chess
Association in Yazoo City, under the name of "The Yazoo Chess Club." This game has of late years created a great sensation
throughout the whole world, and has assumed the appearance of a national game.
It is a game universally acknowledged as conducive to the improvement of
the mind. It expands the faculties
as much as the solution of a mathematical problem, and we are gratified that the
spirit which has for some time manifested itself throughout the country, has
seized upon the people of our city.
The members elected Hon. Geo. B. Wilkinson, President, and Hob. Powell,
Esq., Secretary; D. W. Lamkin, Treasurer; Dr. Laurence, Vice-President.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 18, 1859, p. 1, c. 6
The Style.—Eugenie has decreed that the dresses which now hang upon the
shoulders by straps, and mar their shape, shall be dropped to the
armpits—leaving the upper portion of the bust completely bare after the style
of Catherine de Medici. She also
adjudges long dresses a bore, and wills it that they shall be shortened to about
half way below the knee, with an adoption of the flesh-colored stockings worn by
Madame de Castiglione. Already, in
some of the soirees dansante in New York, some of the most shameless and
fashionable women have adopted the habit, and all its nakedness.
"Extremes meet."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 18, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
The Steamer Banjo.—The steamer Banjo, with a popular theatrical
company, M. Leo Taylor, the renowned Ventriloquist and Magician, and numerous
other attractions, will be at Yazoo City on the 27th inst.
See advertisement in another place.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 18, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Bailey Troupe.—This deservedly popular company will visit Yazoo City
next week, giving their first performance on Monday night.
The exhibitions of this Troupe have been witnessed here before, and have
acquired a reputation which makes comment by us unnecessary.
Suffice it to say, the popular manager has enlarged his company and added
to his varieties, so that now he is prepared to furnish entertainments inferior
to no other association of the kind which has ever travelled through this State.
We have no doubt but that their efforts to amuse the public will be well
rewarded by our people.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 18, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Slavers.—Despatches to the Secretary of the Navy, says a Washington
despatch, renders it certain that slavers bound to several Southern States are
now on the coast of Africa. Their
cargoes are expected to arrive this fall in Mississippi and Texas.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 18, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Steamer Banjo,
At Yazoo City
Three Days!
Monday, June 27th,
Tuesday, June 286th,
Wednesday,
June 29th.
M. Leo Taylor,
The Great Oriental
Magician
And Ventriloquist,
Will appear on board the Steamer Banjo, as above, introducing a great variety of his wonderful experiments such has have been witnessed with wonder, delight and astonishment, by many thousands in the various cities of the Union. In connection with M. Leo Taylor, a
A Complete Dramatic Company
will appear, introducing a variety of Farces, Musical
Burlettas, &c., with the appropriate scenery, costumes, &c.
Admission to the combined entertainments, 50 cents.
Children and servants, 25 cents.
Doors open at 2 and 7 o'clock. Curtain
rises half hour later.
June 14, 1859.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 18, 1859, p. 4, c. 1
Seasonable Hints.—At this season many persons contemplate traveling; to
do so with the largest amount of comfort and advantage, physical, social and
mental, the following suggestions are made:
Take one-fourth more money than your actual estimated expenses.
Acquaint yourself with the geography of the route and region of travel.
Have a good supply of small change, and have no bill or piece higher than
ten dollars, that you may not take counterfeit change.
So arrange as to have but a single article of luggage to look after.
Dress substantially. Better
be too hot for two or three hours at noon, than to be too cool for the remainder
of the twenty-four.
Arrange, under all circumstances, to be at the place of starting fifteen
or twenty minutes before the time, thus allowing for unavoidable or
unanticipated detention on the way.
Do not commence a day's travel before breakfast, even if that has to be
eaten at daylight. Dinner or
supper, or both, can be more healthfully dispensed with than a good, warm
breakfast.
Put your purse and watch in your vest pocket, and all under your pillow,
and you will not be likely to leave either.
The most secure fastening of your chamber door, is a common bolt on the
inside; if there is none, lock the door, turn the key so that it can be drawn
partly out, and put the wash basin under it; thus, any attempt to use a jimmy or
put in another key, will push it out, and cause a racket among the crockery,
which will be pretty certain to rouse the sleeper and route the robber.
A sixpenny sandwich eaten leisurely in the cars is better for you than a
dollar dinner bolted at a "station."
Take with you a month's supply of patience, and always think thirteen
times before you reply once to any supposed rudeness or insult, or inattention.
Do not suppose yourself specially and designedly neglected, if waiters at
hotels do not bring what you call for in double quick time: nothing so marks the well-bred man as a quiet waiting on such
occasions; passion proves the puppy. Do
not allow yourself to converse in a tone loud enough to be heard by a person two
or three seats from you; it is the mark of a boor if in a man, and of want of
refinement and lady-like delicacy in a woman. A gentleman is not noisy; ladies are serene.
Comply cheerfully and gracefully with the customs of the conveyances in
which you travel, and of the places where you stop.
Respect yourself by exhibiting the manners of a gentleman and a lady, if
you wish to be treated as such, and then you will receive the respect of others.
Travel is a great leveler; take the position which others assign you from
your conduct rather than from your pretensions.
[Hall's Journal of Health.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 25, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Cooper's Well.
A fancy dress ball will come off on the night of the 6th of
July. Ladies are respectfully
invited. Managers for the occasion
will be in attendance. Tickets, $3.
Inman Williams, Proprietor.
June 25, 1859.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], July 9, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
The 4th.—The anniversary of our national independence passed
quietly here, unattended by floating banners, booming cannon, or groaning
tables. There was a barbecue, however, at New Hope, about two and a
half miles from town, which, we are told, was quite a successful and interesting
affair. Our townsman, Mr. E. L.
Bower, delivered an address on the occasion, which was received with the
applause always accorded to his graceful and eloquent efforts. The dinner was superb and the whole occasion peaceful and
joyous. No liquor, ergo no
fights.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], July 9, 1859, p. 3, c. 1
Grand Masked and
Fancy Dress
Ball at Artesian
Springs.
A Grand Masked and Fancy Dress Ball will be given at the above popular
Watering place, under the management of Prof. Vegas, of New Orleans, on
Thursday, July 21st, 1859, at which the ladies of Mississippi and
adjoining States are respectfully invited to attend.
The Ball will be succeeded by a splendid Supper.
Mad. Groux, of New Orleans, will be at the Springs with her fine
assortment of Fancy Dresses and Masks, prepared to furnish visitors with any
costume they may desire.
Price of admission for each gentleman, $5 00.
Ladies have free admission.
Wm. R. Luckett, Proprietor.
July 9, 1859.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 27, 1859, p. 1, c. 5
Fashion.
The Charleston Mercury has a very clever correspondent (feminine) in New
York, who furnishes a monthly fashion letter.
The last one shows a great many novelties, and extensive preparations for
a costly fall trade. Flora
McFlimsey, whose name now is the synonim [sic] of all sorts of extravagance, may
be sure that she will have plenty to wear, if her paternal relative is willing
to pay. The old gentleman must be
terribly "put out" about her expenses, and they are growing, as see
"Things in New York." Why,
there is now for this year a "balance of trade" of twenty millions
against us. Think of that! Who is going to settle that little bill?
We are unable to find space for the details of the Mercury's
correspondent. Two important
paragraphs are as follows:
["] A new style of promenade costume has made its appearance on
Broadway, which deserves and is receiving the severest censure—that of the
corsage so extremely decolette, as to excite remark and attention from
both sexes. It is of no
consequence, the quality of the neck shown to the public gaze—thin or plumb
[sic], dark or fair, so long as the scarf mantilla pinned fast to each shoulder
discloses the bared neck to the loungers on the pave; sometimes a thin fichu of
misty illusion forms a very transparent vail [sic], yet, in nearly all the cases
the neck and shoulders appear in nature's own dress.
And yet, one would suppose those young and girlish hearts would retain a
little of the pristine freshness and modesty of early womanhood. What would our prudish ancestors of the revolution say, could
they take one peep at the young lady promenaders of Broadway?
The fancy for wearing the hair cut close and curled sees to be on the
increase. This absurd fashion
doubtless originated with some antiquated leader of bon ton, whose own
thin, grey or wiry tresses no longer could hide the ravages of old Time;
consequently rejuvenating herself with a childish coiffure; presto!
old and young place themselves in the hands of the barber and become
shorn of woman's greatest ornament. I
predict this style of short duration, and none of my sisters who can boast of
fine, redundant and glossy locks will ever consent to the sacrifice.["]
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 27, 1859, p. 1, c.
6
A Couple of Fast Girls.—A couple of little girls, one about fourteen
and the other twelve years old, on last Monday, left their paternal roofs, in
this city, letting their romantic dispositions lead them off with Eldred's Great
Circus Humbug. Where they are
going, and what they are going to do, is "a tale to unfold."
But we presume they were fascinated with the flashy attire of the actors,
and could not resist their inclination to become actors themselves.
Whether any attempt has been made by their parents to stop the young
heroines in their mad career or not, we are unprepared to say.—Jackson Eagle.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 27, 1859, p. 1, c.
5
American Zouaves.—We were much surprised last evening, says the N. O.
Sunday Delta of the 21st., to witness for the first time the drilling
of a full company of young Creole Zouaves, in our city, by a Lieutenant who
served in one of those famous French corps throughout the Crimean war.
This volunteer force is styled the first Chasseurs a Pied, de la
Louisiane. The men went through a
severe exercise from seven o'clock until near ten, not only in military drill,
but in gymnastic performances. We
will take an early occasion of giving some particulars about this company.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 27, 1859, p. 2, c.
4
What Will the Abolitionists Say to This?—The Bayou Sara Ledges [sic] of
the 6th has the following:
The Carney negroes sent from east Feliciana, shipped from Port Hudson to
Cincinnati a few months since, returned a few days ago on the steamer Jesse K.
Bell. They state that they would
rather be slaves in Louisiana than free in Ohio.
What will the abolitionists say to this?
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 27, 1859, p. 3, c.
2
A Southern Palatial Residence.—Col. J. A. S. Acklin, of Mississippi, is
about erecting a private residence, at his plantation, opposite Red River
Landing, which is designed to cost $150,000--$125,000 more for furniture and
furnishing. The following is the
plan of this immense edifice: The
style of the edifice is castellated gothic, with a frontage on the river of 164
feet, on the two side wings of 104 feet, and a centre compartment of 220 feet
deep, surmounted by a lofty and beautifully proportioned tower.
The building will contain 50 rooms, exclusive of closets, bathing rooms,
wardrobes, &c., spacious and amply provided with the modern improvements in
comfort and elegance. All the walls
of the building are to be double, with the passage inside.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 3, 1859, p. 1,
c. 5
The Victoria (Texas) Advocate publishes the following extract from a
letter received by a gentleman in that place, from a friend in Gonzales, dated
Aug. 17th:
["] It becomes my painful and melancholy duty to apprise you of one
of the most horrible and cold blooded assassinations that ever occurred in any
country. Last night, at 8 o'clock,
as Wm. Baltzell was coming out from supper at the Keyser House, he was met in
the hall by Neill McCoy, a professional gambler and outlaw, who asked William if
his name was Baltzell. William said
it was. McCoy said, "You are a
damned murderer," and struck him on the head with a slungshot, which
knocked him senseless. Just at that
time, David Baltzell stepped in at the front door, and fired a pistol at McCoy,
but missed him. McCoy turned and
fired at David, the ball taking effect in the left temple, and passing round the
forehead lodged in the right. David
expired in about thirty minutes, and McCoy made his escape. It was a plan laid by a clan, and they imported this
desperado for that purpose. The
citizens are highly enraged, and the mob spirit was high last night, if it could
have had material to work upon. William
Baltzell is not dangerously wounded, but had not the slung shot flew off the
string, it would certainly have killed him.
No effort has been made to overtake McCoy, as he was well provided with
everything necessary, before the difficulty occurred.["]
The Austin State Gazette learns that Indians have been lately seen within
fourteen miles of that city.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 3, 1859, p. 4,
c. 1
We should count time by heart throbs.
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not
in figures on a dial.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], September 17, 1859, p. 2,
c. 5
The Advocate, published at Liberty, Amite county, in this State is
published by two young ladies, who do the work of the office.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 1, 1859, p. 1, c.
6
The Mountain Meadows Children.—The Commissioner of Indian Affairs is in
receipt of intelligence that the children saved from the Mountain Meadows
massacre, have arrived safe at Leavenworth.
They will be at once taken on to Arkansas, whence the parents of the
little unfortunates first set out for the Pacific.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 8, 1859, p. 1, c.
3
A Famous Spelling Match.—A gentleman in North Chester, Vermont, two or
three weeks since offered as a prize a copy of Webster's "Unabridged
Dictionary" to the one of the scholars in all of the public schools in that
town who should "spell the others down."
Seven schools were accordingly represented, and about a dozen teachers
and a large crowd were present, when the trial took place, on the 25th
ult. Only one trial was to be had
on a word, and the unfortunate who missed must take his or her seat.
Eighty scholars contended for the honor and the prize, and after the five
hours' trial five pupils remained standing, and the enthusiastic audience soon
raised the needful to purchase each a copy of the great "Unabridged."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 8, 1859, p. 1, c.
3
Flora McFlimsey.—A New York editor having charged the ladies of that
city with being overdressed, Flora McFlimsey writes him an epistle, in which she
declares that she is herself underdressed, instead of being overdressed; she
says that in her ball-dress—which is supposed to be the costliest a woman can
wear—she does not wear clothes enough to keep her warm—to say nothing of
what propriety and decency require; that there is not a beggar who goes into the
street with less clothes on than she wears in a ball room, and that her arms,
bust, shoulders and neck are all just as bare as they were when she first came
into the world. In fact, it seems
that Flora has "Nothing to Wear," and that she wears "next to
nothing."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 8, 1859, p. 1, c.
6
The question has been asked: Why
is it considered impolite for gentlemen to go into the presence of ladies in
their shirt sleeves, while it is considered every way correct for ladies
themselves to appear before gentlemen without any sleeves at all?
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 8, 1859, p. 2, c.
1
Another Methodist preacher, the Rev. Solomon McKinney, has been ordered
out of Texas, for the offence of speaking against slavery.
A public meeting of the citizens of Dallas, adopted a series of
resolutions denouncing the Methodist Church North in general, and Mr. McKinney
in particular, and warning the preacher to depart.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 15, 1859, p. 1, c. 3
What a Southern Man Would Have Done.
They are still discussing the Sickles case in Texas.
The American Flag of that State, in its issue of August 25th,
says of a reconciliation to his wife:
"Mr. Sickles did not act as a Southern man would have done, though
he may have intended to do so. He
might kill the adulterer, but he should never have exposed "the mother of
his child." If he felt that
Key ought to die, not a word nor a look which would throw discredit on her
should have escaped him. At all
events, if rage or anguish should have wrung out a few such words or looks at
the moment, which is likely enough and well enough, all else should have been
left to explain itself. If he so
preserved his secret that none discovered it, he might hang even, or die in
prison, but this would be far preferable to the blackening of his wife's name
and throwing a suspicion of bastardy upon his child.
But it is likely that a very strong suspicion would arise from the
circumstances to show that a great wrong has been done the prisoner by the
deceased, and these, well used by counsel on the trial, coupled with the respect
which the jury felt for a man who respects himself, would eloquently plead for
him and acquit him.
After a conviction, too, a private appeal could have been made to
executive clemency, showing what had really been his provocation, and no doubt
it would be successful. The men of
the southern States, and the women, too, are far more lenient in their judgment
of the erring than the Northern. Seduction
is frequently punished with death, and rape by burning the guilty man, while the
poor victimized woman is tenderly hid away, scrupulously defended from reproach
and protected from insult. To speak
of her lightly or contemptuously would bring down the arm of father, and
brother, and husband, and of the friend of each, as heavily as upon the first
wrongdoer. Indeed, we have known of
several instances where men of unquestionable courage, honor, sensibility and
freedom from any restraint other than a refined self-respect, have, for the sake
of their children's honor, passed by the man who had given the greatest of
offences, permitted him to live; and, when it was a wife who had sinned,
permitted a separation, known only to themselves, to mark the fault, while the
world was instructed to believe prejudicial rumors to be false, and the
suggestion of them perilous.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 15, 1859, p. 1, c. 6
Cook's New Flying Machine.
Mr. D. M. Cook, of Mansfield, Ohio, is about to revolutionize travel, and
no mistake, provided his air ship works as well practically as it does in the
brain of the inventor. The press
having briefly and somewhat incorrectly noticed Mr. Mansfield's "Queen of
the Air," as Mr. C. has fancifully as well as appropriately christened his
ship, he has favored the Mansfield Herald with a description. He has applied for a patent for this wonderful motor, and
says:
"I am now engaged in the construction of a house to carry on and
complete my great design—the air ship—and hope, by the spring of 1860, to
have my favorite model car, "Queen of the air," perfected.
By this I expect to navigate the air at will with an inconceivable
velocity. The car will be twelve
feet long, and four and one half feet in equatorial diameter; of true, pointed
ellipse; and will be elevated, propelled and directed solely by the force of the
electric engine, without hydrogen, gas, steam, fans or rudders.
I confidently expect to finish my experiments during the coming winter;
and next summer, if successful, will make a voyage t San Francisco, breakfasting
here, dining there, and returning the same day for supper, making the entire
trip in about twelve hours.
Such is the kind of moter [sic] agency which has occupied my attention.
As to its impossibility, I will leave the world to judge for itself when
this statement shall have been practically demonstrated.
Respectfully,
D. M. Cook.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 15, 1859, p. 3, c.
1
Free Market.—We call attention to an Ordinance lately passed by the
Board of Common Council of Yazoo City, published elsewhere in this issue,
abolishing the rent on stalls in the Market House.
From and after the 15th (to-day) inst., the stalls will be
free for the use of the public, and meats of all kinds, allowed to be sold on
the streets by any person, in quantities to suit purchasers, free from all tax
whatever.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 22, 1859, p. 4, c.
1
A Yankee Girl in Texas.—A correspondent of the New York Spirit of the
Times writes to that paper, that in his travels bout San Antonio, Texas, he
found a real Bowling saloon, conducted on the New York principle, and the
proprietor was none other than a Yankee girl, all the way from New London, Conn.
She leases the place, and offers herself t roll with any amateur in the
country. She finds plenty who are
willing to try their hand with her, and she pockets the change, never as yet
having been beaten. She states that in six months she cleared two thousand
dollars, which, considering the times, isn't bad.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], October 29, 1859, p. 1, c.
3
The Gipsies are becoming a serious annoyance in St. Lawrence county, N.
Y. A party of them appeared in the
vicinity of Ogdensburg recently, bearing marks of great poverty, but on
searching their property, several thousand dollars in money were found.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], November 19, 1859, p. 2, c. 2
"Tempora Mutantur, et Nos Mutamur in Illis"
There was a time when one of our greatest sources of amusement was a game
of Marbles. Now, however, we have
lost all taste for that formerly to us, most interesting pastime.
And so of a great many other things.
Our taste for them has left us, we know not when nor how.
We presume it is so with other persons.
What man has not spent hours together, when a boy, at that most classic
game, "Mumble-the-Peg?" Or,
who has never had blood blisters raised on the dorsi of his manual digits for
lack of skill in the game of "Knucks?"—or his ribs nearly broken by
a loaded ball in "Bull Pen" or "Roley Hole?"
If there be any such men, they had not the honor of our acquaintance when
boys. In those days we have been
more troubled by losing a dozen marbles at "Sweep-Stakes" than we
could be, since a man, by losing our last dollar at "Seven-up" or
"Draw." We have a
distinct recollection of being the happy possessor, at one time, of a large
"white alley." It had
been our "taw" for a long time, and was the admiration of the whole
school. A strange boy, whom we have
since been led to believe was a "sharper," got us into a game of
"Sweep-Stakes" one day, and among many and all our other valuables,
consisting mainly of a dozen marbles, a pair of wooden pocket combs, a large
brass button and a "barlow" knife, we lost our favorite, the
"alley." Never will we
forget our chagrin at the close of that game.
We have met with many losses and disappointments since then, and
forgotten them long ago, but the memory of that day's losing will cease only
with us.
Alas! for the game of
Marbles. We believe it has nearly
gone out of date, and "allies" are not prized as they used to be.
Neither is "Roley Hole" played any more, and "Bull
Pen" is remembered among things that were.
In their place we have humming tops, kites, et cetera.
We suppose there were humming tops and kites when we were a boy, but we
never saw them, and so they might as well never have existed, so far as we were
concerned. Indeed, we know there
were kites, for we remember having seen the picture of one.
The reader may remember that picture.
An old man with a Quaker hat was flying a kite in a thunder storm; the
string of the kite passed through the handle of a key drawn in miserable
proportion to the rest of the picture. Zigzag
lines in the upper part where the kite was, represented the lightning.
There might have been humming tops, too, in those days, but we never even
saw the picture of one. True we had
a kind of top, but it was no humming top. Ours
was made by putting a straw an inch or two long through the middle hole of a
bone button. The little machine,
when twirled by the middle finger and thumb, would spin most admirably.
When we could not indulge in such luxuries as bone buttons, we bored a
hole through the center of an acorn hull, and put a straw through that, which
made a top that answered our purpose. We
feel bound to record an especial dislike both to humming tops and kites.
If there is anything we dislike more than a cross child, it is the windy
weather that generally visits us with March.
Now, there is something in the noise of a humming top that always reminds
us of the howling of the March winds around the angles of the house, albeit we
be snugly ensconced inside. This is
why we don't like humming tops, and we hope the man that invented them has got
his reward. Our antipathy to kites
was never fully matured until a mule on which we were gracefully turning a
corner pitched us about twenty-five feet ahead, when he wheeled and fled in the
opposite direction. As we completed
our somerset, we saw a most interesting boy with a large kite on his head, made
in imitation of the American Flag. If
our text is true as regards the pastime of boys, it is no less so concerning
"children of a larger growth."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], November 19, 1859, p. 3,
c. 1
Curious enterprise of a Pretty Widow.—The Selma (Alabama) Reporter
says:
Mrs. Watson, who is pretty extensively engaged in the importation of
camels is in the city with some seven of the odd looking animals. She will exhibit them at the State Fair, which is to begin at
Montgomery on Monday next, and we hope she may receive a premium for each, as
well as one for herself. Mrs.
Watson is said to be the widow of a deceased officer of the U. S. Army.—She is
a very intelligent as well as handsome lady, and we wish her all sorts of good
luck in her enterprise.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], November 19, 1859, p. 4,
c. 1
A Set of Teeth.—I have had all my teeth pulled out, for to tell the
truth, I think they have been a curse to me always rather than a blessing.
Now, in their place I have had false ones put in, and I must tell you my
experience with my new masticators. I
felt, when the "set" was first put in, as though I had a couple of
wheel barrows full of paving stones laying around loose in my mouth, and it
seemed as if they were going to be spilled out at every motion.—The first day
I waited till every one had done their dinner, not daring to make an exhibition
of my teeth and run the risk of their dropping on the table.
Well, I chewed a little and stopped, chewed again and stopped, and
finally went to my room and laid the darned things on the back part of an upper
shelf, thinking they were no go. The
next day I tried them again, but with little better success, and after this I
would carry them in my pocket, occasionally trying the things on, and every time
experiencing some new emotion. One
day they would feel as much like a great horse shoe, with nails in, as anything
else, and again I could be certain that I had a great circular wheel stowed
under my lips. Some of my
experience was very comical. They
served me so many times, and I was rather getting tired of my bargain; but by
perseverance I have become used to their ways, and now they cannot get away from
me, as I know just how to manage them, and how to bite on them, and bless from
the bottom of my heart the inventor of false teeth.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], November 26, 1859, p. 2, c. 1
Military Company in Yazoo.
We are glad to see that in many cities, towns and villages in the
Southern States, military companies are being organized and well drilled. In view of the Harper's Ferry affair, and the conspiracy
which it has developed, this is precisely what should be done. We do not know, nor is it in the power of human sagacity to
foresee how far this conspiracy extends. One
thing we do know, and it is apparent to all, that a plot, in which some of the
men who occupy the highest positions in the country are engaged, has been set on
foot to raise a servile insurrection throughout the Southern States, and had it
not been for the precipitancy of "old Brown," there is no telling how
far it may have gone, how much blood may have been shed, or how many innocent
women and children might have been murdered.
We do not believe such an effort, with the aid of all the abolition
traitors at the North, could ever be attended with success, but wisdom
dictates that the best way to avoid danger is to be fully prepared to meet it
promptly, and nothing contributes more to the safety and welfare of a people
than to have well organized and well drilled volunteer companies. They encourage
and foster a marshall [sic] spirit, and always form a neuclus [sic] around which
the citizen soldiery can promptly and efficiently rally in case of an emergency.
One company, well drilled and accustomed to handling arms, is worth more
than a regiment ten times its number, thrown together without order or
discipline, in active service. But
it is useless to discuss this point; every one feels that what we have said is
true. We commenced this article
only to call the attention of our citizens to this matter.
If we are resting in fancied security over a smouldering fire, that may
in some unexpected hour blaze out and consume us, it is all important that we
should be prepared to suppress the first outbreak of its flames.
If our apprehensions are not well founded—if the information elicited
on Brown's trial is untrue, no harm will be done by organizing a volunteer corps
in our town. Many other towns in our State of not more importance are
moving in this matter, and we should not be behind them in patriotism and
military ardor.
What say our citizens to calling a meeting to take this matter into
consideration?
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], November 26, 1859, p. 2, c. 4-5
Proposed Negro Insurrection in Shelby County, Tenn.
The following letter, with some others, was dropped by Wm. Homer, from
his overcoat pocket, on the cars between New York and Philadelphia, on the 23d
of October, and picket [sic] up by a passenger and forwarded to Gov. Wise.
The letter was sealed, directed and addressed as below.
On the 10th inst., Dr. Wm. Russell Palmer, who is implicated
in the following letter, was arrested at Memphis on suspicion of being a
co-conspirator with John Brown. On
the examination of Palmer, Thatcher's letter to old Brown was read, and the
prosecution then introduced J. C. Lanier, Esq., Clerk and Mater of the Chancery
Court at Memphis, who testified that the statement made in the said letter in
reference to the family of Dr. Palmer, the lawsuits, etc., were correct. Judge W. T. Brown was also called up by the State and
corroborated the above.
The testimony having closed, the counsel on both sides argued the case at
length, when, after a brief summing up by the court, the accused was held to
bail in the sum of $2,500 for his appearance before the Circuit Court.
After a short confinement, Palmer gave the required bond, and was
released.
Thatcher's Letter.
Memphis, Tenn., Oct. 3, 1859.
To Capt. J. Brown, General Commander in Chief of the
Provisional Government U. S. A.
Dear Captain—I have just completed my tour through the Southern States,
and am now on my way to Kentucky. In
my last letter I mentioned to you that I should give the States of Tennessee and
Arkansas a thorough scouring. I did
so, and am satisfied that of all the States of the South, Tennessee and Arkansas
are the best fitted to make the first strike in. These two States have but few whites in favor of slavery,
while they contain immense numbers of slaves already ripe and ready at the first
intimation to strike a decided blow for their freedom; while the large mass of
the whites are against slavery, and will be ready to assist them at a moment's
warning. Several of them stated to
me that they had gone so far as to prepare arms for their slaves, and instruct
them in their use, and how to act when the worst comes to the worst.
While at Brownsville, Tenn., I addressed a letter to the school-teacher,
Mr. H------, and he came to Brownsville to see me.
He says there is no avocation in which a man can do so much good for our
cause as that of school-teaching, because all the country around have so much
confidence in a school-teacher who conducts himself right.
He says that the large majority of colored people in his part of the
State are ready to take up arms at a moment's warning, and a large number of
whites are ready to join them. He
says we must send out more well qualified men to the South as school-teachers,
and work them in everywhere.—He gave me a letter to your friend Mr. Palmer,
who is an extensive farmer near Shelby Depot on the Brownsville Railroad.
I did not get out at that depot, for on inquiring of a passenger on the
cars, I learned that Mr. Palmer did not then live on his plantation, on account
of a difficulty between himself and wife and an injunction on his property, and
a writ pending a divorce, and that he would be hard to find—so I concluded to
go on.
When I arrived at Memphis, I accidentally met Mr. Palmer at the hotel
where I stopped, I handed him Mr. H.'s letter.—After reading it he cordially
shook my hand, and invited me to take a walk with him.
We went up to a place on the bank of the river called the old Navy Yard,
and took a seat on some bags, in a secluded place, where he said we could talk
freely.—He said he had sincerely sympathized with you, Captain, in all your
troubles, as he had been a martyr of slaveholders himself.
He said he had been working silently, but steadily, for our cause for two
years, and that he had married a widow who had a number of slaves for the
purpose of establishing himself in the good opinion and confidence of
slaveholders about him. That he had
intended at the first good opportunity, to transfer all the slaves he had got in
his possession by marrying to our friends, by way of Cincinnati; and that he had
a great many more belonging to his neighbors, that were ready to go with them,
but a difficulty had occurred between himself and wife, and that she had, with
the secret advice of several slaveholders and scoundrels about his plantation,
suddenly ejected him from the lace, and without a moment's warning.—That he
was still sueing [sic] her for his rights by marriage, and that the Supreme
Court had given a decree in his favor, and that he would soon be in possession
of his slaves again, and that when he had again full control of them, and
between four and five hundred more, and make a start in the night time for
Memphis. That he had friends in
Cincinnati, who had promised to have one of the largest and swiftest steamers on
the river sent to tie up and wait for them at the mouth of Hatchie River, under
the pretence of undergoing repairs. That
he had all his arrangements complete, and whenever he said the word, could take
from 500 to 1,000 a trip, and land them safely at Cairo, in the swamps of
Illinois, where they would at once be free.
I found Mr. P. a very bold schemer, and a man of good address and winning
manners, and the very man for our purposes; and as it is known he is a
slaveholder himself, no one would for a moment suspect him of being concerned
with our cause. I showed him our
Constitution for the Provisional Government, with which he was much pleased; and
I advised him not to make the stampede of slaves he expected to make, but to
keep them at work, secretly preparing each other, and as many others as they
could get to join them, for our October strike.
He said he would do so, and that he would guarantee 1,000 armed slaves,
who would be ready together at a moment's call, and that as soon as operations
were commenced with them, that other slaves would flock to them by thousands,
wherever they went, through all parts of the State.
He is very sever on a doctor in this neighborhood, who has been appointed
by the Court as his receiver of his property; and I am afraid his anger toward
this man will cause him to be guilty of some rash act, which will expose his
plan of operations. I told him he
had'nt [sic] ought to give too loose reins to his passion, but curb it until the
proper time. He says this doctor
was the adviser of his wife, and had had himself appointed receiver so as to
frustrate all his plans, but that he would disappoint him yet; and that once he
had him in his power, he would not spare him one drop of blood in existence.
He said that this doctor had dishonored his marriage bed, but that he did
not care for, as he cared nothing for his wife, as she was a Southern fool; that
the position her property gave him, and the power to effect his end, was all he
asked for; but that this doctor had interfered with him in other ways, for which
he would yet have his heart's blood. I
warned him not to be so blood-thirsty, and in all he did not to spill blood,
unless in self defense, or in fighting for freedom.
He said that though born in North Carolina, he had from a child hated
slavery, and that in spending a number of years at the North he had learned to
appreciate the philanthropic motives of our friends, and that he had pledged
himself to work faithfully to that end ever since.
He said he had great influence over most of the slaves in his part of
Tennessee, and that he often met them on the roads and by places and had long
talks with them, and that he always found them ripe for the cause.
Mr. P. then returned to the hotel with me, and in the evening introduced
me to several merchants and others in Memphis, who are with us heart and hand.
From my interview with Mr. Palmer, I judge him to be a shrewd man, and
through his position and influence well calculated to become one of our
principle leaders in the South. He
seems to thoroughly understand the railroad business.
I would scarcely expect to find a Southern city, situated as Memphis is,
in the midst of a cotton-growing country, so large a number of whites ready to
aid us, and strike when necessary for our cause.
Mr. Palmer says you must write to him every week and keep him posted as
to our plans, and he will act in concert with us, in everything you may direct.
I think he is a brave and Conscientious man, and you need not fear him.
He has no doubt been severely abused where he lives, and his wrongs have
made him desperate. I have been through a large portion of Arkansas, and have
found we have but few friends among the whites in that State, as most of them
are blood-thirsty slaveholders; but the slaves are all willing and ready, and so
far outnumber the whites that a bold stroke of one day will overthrow the whole
State. I leave Memphis to-morrow,
by way of Clarksville, for Mammoth Cave, where I wish to be for a number of days
before anything comes off there. William
Horner has just arrived from New Orleans on his way to Harper's Ferry.
Nothing could have happened better for me.
I guess I must be in a streak of good luck.
I feared to write particulars to you by mail for the dangers of
interception. But as William is
here I write to you in full and trust it to his care.
He swears to me that he will deliver it to you in person, or die trying.
He is a good boy, and may be depended upon.
Now, I say, be cautious, and let us have a strike soon.
It cannot come too quick, for I believe from what I have seen that the
whole South is ready for it. I have
to be very careful here, as the people are very suspicious of Northern men.
I sometimes register one name and then another.
Sometimes I pass for a traveling preacher, and at others as a New Orleans
merchant, looking at the crops and talking of speculations in cotton, etc.
Southern people are easily gulled. If
there will be any failure at the Harper's Ferry strike, let me know in time.
You shall hear from me soon.
Yours faithfully,
Lawrence Thatcher.
P. S.—Mr. Palmer says you must address your letters to him as follows:
Dr. W. Russell Palmer, Green Bottom, Shelby county, Tenn.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 3, 1859, p. 2, c. 2
Hoggish.
Five minutes ago we had about as much idea of writing this nonsense as we
had of starting immediately on a voyage to the moon.
Still, we were going tow rite something, but we didn't know what.
On going into our back yard just now, we discovered something less than a
dozen porkers industriously engaged in rooting up the premises. This is not the first time, either, that our premises has
been the seat of their depredations, notwithstanding in the number alluded to we
saw some on whose bacon, by smashing brickbats, we had several times nearly
dislocated our shoulder joint. Indeed,
the annoyance is of old standing, and "cussing" has failed to afford
us relief, for, to tell the truth, we can't do the case justice.
To this circumstance our readers are indebted for this production,
because we are bound to blow off steam or "bust."
We do not remember what Natural Historians say in relation to the animal
under consideration, but to make the matter as clear as possible, we shall
divide the genus Hog into two grand species.
The following represents our classification:
1st. Porcus
Quadrupeda.
2d. Porcus Bipeda.
The distinguishing feature of the two species is that one has four legs
and the other but two. Hence the
appropriateness of the names by which we distinguish the two.
This division has been popularly recognized from time almost immemorial,
and its utility is at once evident. We
have deemed this division necessary, because our remarks are intended to apply
exclusively to the four-legged hog; and we assure the reader that we do not seek
to cast any reflections upon the unfortunate animal that has but two.
The common Hog (Porcus Quadrupeda) is in some respects a wonderful
animal, and in every respects a con-founded rascal.
(We don't think this opinion has ever been advanced before, and therefore
claim it as original.) He is
wonderful in respect to his muzzle—vulgarly called snout—which
comprises most of his stock in trade. It
is undoubtedly a marvelous piece of mechanism, and as one evincing Design, is
hardly surpassed by the Human Hand.
His rascality is palpable in all his acts, and he seems entirely
incapable of cultivating an honest motive.
Moreover, he is the contrariest animal that ever breathed,
notwithstanding this quality has been claimed for one with longer ears.
Turn him into a corn field to fatten, and he'll break out.
Try to stop him out of a corn field, and he'll break in in spite of the
devil. He always goes contrary to
your wishes. If you wanted to keep
him in your yard, you couldn't; if you wanted him to stay out, he wouldn't to
save your life. Wherever he sets
his mind on an object nothing can turn him from it.
He'll work for days together at a paling, and notwithstanding you may dog
him, brickbat him, and the like, he returns to his work with renewed energy.
Perhaps when you are not expecting it, the first thing you know he's
inside. Sometimes he goes over a
fence, sometimes he goes through it, and sometimes under it. One way or another, however, if he takes a notion he's bound
to go, and you just might as well let him in.
The only way to get rid of him, under such circumstances, is either to
kill him, or shut him up inside; in the latter case he'll soon break out.
The hogs of Yazoo City, more especially, are perfect adepts in all kinds
of meanness. Out of pure devilment
they take up the bricks in the pavement faster than the Council can have them
laid down. And it is so pleasant
for a fellow to loosen his toe-nails against these bricks of a dark night, as
they are lying loose upon the side-walk. They
make noises, too, compared to which a band of Chinese gongs would be harmonious.
Once upon a time the city had a hog law, and all in town were taken up.
But by some kind of Free Masonry or other the news spread to the country,
and hogs came pouring in from miles around.
The more were taken up the more came, and so the thing was dropped.
The past season has been a hard one for them, and many have died.
We don't think they are ever killed here for ordinary purposes, and very
few are killed by accident. In
fact, they are so near being "bomb proof" that they don't mind much
being run over by a wagon with ten bales of cotton on it, and as for being
brickbatted, we really believe they like it.
They seem to be kept almost exclusively for ornament by our citizens, and
from lack of proper attention they have gradually decreased in number, until we
don't think there are more than three thousand head left in town.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 3, 1859, p. 2, c.
5
An Abolitionist Southernised.—A school teacher from the land of wooden
nutmegs was tarred and feathered and rose on a rail the other day at Helena, and
then set adrift on the turpid [sic] waters of the Mississippi on a log, for
ventilating his news [sic?] too freely concerning the peculiar institution.
Served him right.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 3, 1859, p. 2, c.
4
Negro Stampede.—The Chicago Journal says that on Thursday, the 17th
inst., the Under-ground Railroad arrived there with thirty passengers, five from
the vicinity of Richmond, Va., twelve from Kentucky and thirteen from Missouri.
They are now all safe in Canada. The
thirteen from Missouri were sold to go down the river the very day they started. A stalwart six-footer and a Sharpe's rifle were the only
guides.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 10, 1859, p. 3,
c. 1
Personal.—We would modestly call the attention of our friend Tom
Metzler to the fact that the shelter in front of his offices on Bayou street,
one of which is occupied by the writer, is not large enough to accommodate half
the cows of our neighbors. During
the few days of bad weather just past, many of these poor creatures had to
remain in the rain and sleet, the aforesaid shelter being entirely insufficient
to accommodate more than twenty or thirty, at most.
As the owners of these beasts cannot be expected to take care of them, we
hope that either friend Metzler will build some more offices and attach
shelters, or that the Town Council will supersede the necessity of his doing so
by doing it themselves. The fact
is, people's cows ought to be attended to.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 10, 1859, p. 3, c. 2
Grand
Moral Exhibition.
Mabbies & Herr
Driesbuche's
Two Great
Menageries United!
Forming one of the largest collection of living animals in the United States; and exhibited under one pavilion for one price of admission.
Among them are the following: Ten magnificent Lions, Royal Bengal Tiger, Brazilian Black Tiger, Leopards, Panthers, Cougar, Ocelots, Tiger Cats, Striped and spotted Hyenas, Grizzly and Black Bears, Camels and Dromedaries, Llamas, Burmese Cow and Alpacas, Gray and Black Wolves, White Coon, Badgers, Porcupines, and a wilderness of Birds and Monkeys.
Professor Colson's Cornet Band
will be heralded through the principal streets on the
morning of the day of exhibition, drawn by a team of Colossal Elephants.
During the performances, Herr Driesbache, the world renowned Lion Tamer,
will enter the
Dens of Lions, Tigers, Etc.
and display his wonderful power in subduing in and bringing into subjection these terrible monsters of the forest.
Monsieur Craven
will introduce those highly trained Elephants, Romeo and
Juliet, whose performances have been received with unbounded demonstrations of
applause wherever they have been exhibited. Truly they must be seen to be
appreciated.
Mr. W. H. Stout will introduce his
Educated Mules and Trick Ponies;
also the wonderful Man Monkey. All of which will go through with a variety of chaste and
pleasing performances.
Will exhibit at Deasonville, Wednesday, December 14th—At
Yazoo City, Thursday, 15th, and at Benton, Friday the 16th.
Afternoon and Night.
Admission, 50 cents. Children
and Servants half price.
Gentlemanly ushers in attendance, and perfect order preserved.
Dan Rhodes, Agent.
Dec. 9, 1859.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 17, 1859, p. 1,
c. 5
About two thousand poor children and adults were fed and made happy in
and about the Five Points, New York, on Thanksgiving day, by the christian
charities located in that region of the city.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], December 24, 1859, p. 2, c. 2
Christmas.
This time-honored holiday is again at hand, and many stockings, we opine,
will be hung to-night with light hearts and tiny hands for presents rich, which
the old man with the reindeer and sledge [sic] has for time out of mind had
credit for bringing. Christmas, the
most widely observed, perhaps, of all holidays, is to the children of
Christendom an event fraught with peculiar interest and happiness.
In the minds of them it is connected with visions of sugar candy, mince
pies, and other sweetmeats too tedious to mention; and in large cities, perhaps,
with hopes of a visit to the "Christmas Tree"—an institution which
we admire.
Nor are the "children of a larger growth" indifferent to the
advent of Christmas day, as the avidity with which they swallow glasses of
egg-nogg abundantly bears witness to. Indeed, in the minds of Americans the idea
of Christmas and egg-nogg are utterly inseparable, albeit that of egg-nogg and
Christmas are not.
Our greatest poet has not failed to notice this beautiful trait in our
nationality, as may be seen from the following verse:
"He that on Christmas day hath no egg-nogg in himself,
Nor is not moved by a bowl of this sweet beverage,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirits are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted."
Christmas day to us brings many pleasant recollections.
We happen to distinctly remember our condition just twenty years ago.
We had no idea then that the world is as big as it is, nor of a great
many other things since "dreamed of in our philosophy," but we knew
this, that Christmas was close at hand, and that we had seven coonskins, for
which we felt certain of realizing the value of 87½ cts in good merchantable
raisins and sugar candy. The skins
constituted our share of a winter's hunt with another white boy and three
niggers from a neighboring plantation, which had cost us perhaps night walks to
the extent of a couple of hundred miles, and the niggers the felling of enough
trees to have cleared a respectable patch of ground.
Christmas morning came, and we went with our furs to the establishment of
one Brinkley, distant about three miles from where we grew.
This Brinkley was a noted personage in those days in that neck of woods.
His fame extended in radii of twenty miles from the roadside where he
kept a "GROCERY," with a stock in trade of at least three hundred
dollars. There was a
"run" on Brinkley's establishment that morning, and coon skins poured
in by the dozen. The result of this
was a fall in the price of furs, and a loss to us of seventeen cents, for our
skins only brought us a dime apiece. But
we felt that in so large a trade we could afford a small loss, so we returned
home with our treasure of raisins and candy with a light and merry heart.
How different it is with us now! How
we sigh for the enjoyment of that happiness which we purchased twenty years ago
with seven coon skins! Half the
enjoyment of Christmas now is in the recollection of how we used to be.
Then we looked not beyond the glorious Christmas day; now we look plump
through what was impenetrable to us then, and see beyond long days and years of
toil and labor and trouble and vexation; but happiness, alas! it comes not again
to us as it used to do with Christmas day.
Diedrick Knickerbocker, in his History of New York, hath recorded that
the Yankees, as an auxiliary in Christianizing the Indians, sold them guns which
were sure to "bust" on the first discharge; and it was magnanimously
arranged that the breech pin should enter the sconce of the Indian about between
the eyes. We make this note that we
may be understood when we express a hope that fire crackers (about which we
intended to say something) will be invented on a similar principle.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 7, 1860, p. 3, c.
1
D. E. D. S.—Dog-Eat-Dog Society.—This ancient institution is in a
more flourishing condition than has ever been known heretofore.
It is destined to overrun the whole world, for its scope is world-wide.
It includes among its members men of all politics, nations, creeds and
religions, and men of no religions at all.
Its workings are to be seen as well in the mansions of the rich as the
hovels of the poor—in Trinity Church, New York, as in the "Mount
Zion" or "Mount Pisgah," of Texas or Arkansas.
It pervades all ranks, trades, avocations and professions.
Like the Know Nothings, you can't find one who will acknowledge
membership, and they even speak hard of their brothers Dog-Eat-Dog—just as the
Know Nothings did. Moreover,
notwithstanding the institution has been so long firmly established, they are
continually changing their signs and pass-words, while the works and objects
remain the same. One thing about
them, however, they never change; that is that redoubtable cloven foot—it will
stick out in spite of the Devil, whom many suppose holds the office of Master
Craft in the Order.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 14, 1860, p. 2, c.
2
Rumored Mexican Filibuster Expedition.—New York, Jan. 7.—The Tribune
of this morning, says there is a well authenticated rumor in circulation, in
this city, to the effect that a detachment of a mysterious military
organization, known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, left this port a few
days since, for Mexico. Their
design is unknown, but their movements are reported to be very mysterious.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 14, 1860, p. 2, c.
2
Thomas Garrett, of Wilmington, Del., a venerable Quaker negro thief,
stated at the John Brown meeting in Philadelphia, that he had been instrumental
in aiding 2,245 slaves to escape by the "underground railroad," beside
about 200 more whom he had assisted before he began to keep an account.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 14, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Joseph Orlans,
House and
Ornamental Painter,
Paper Hanger and
Whitener,
Yazoo City, Miss.
Will give prompt attention to House and Ornamental
Painting, Paper Hanging, &c.
Signs Painted in the latest style of the art.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 21, 1860, p. 3, c.
1
The Banjo.—Messrs. Cardello & Long's celebrated company of Negro
Minstrels have been delighting our people this week with a series of concerts,
comicalities and farces, in their fine floating theatre called the Banjo.
The performances were well patronized, and gave the fullest satisfaction
to all.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 21, 1860, p. 4, c.
1
At His Old Tricks.—Willis, reading that a young lady of Edgefield,
having a large circle-ation (of crinoline) went to a fancy ball as "The
Evening News," her dress being entirely made of newspapers, says, "we
should like to subscribe to her."
[N. O. Picayune.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 28, 1860, p. 3, c.
2
A writer in the Richmond Whig, addressing the home-spun wearing ladies of
Virginia, says:--"Allow me here to say that I conscientiously believe the
salvation of Virginia and Virginia institutions depends now mainly, if not
wholly, upon the women of Virginia. Show
to the North that you will clothe yourselves at home, and that, if need be, you
will sooner resort to the primeval garments of fig leaves, than purchase a
farthing's worth from a northern house, or from the merchants of Richmond who
does so purchase."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 28, 1860, p. 3, c.
1
Some months since an article appeared in this paper severely censuring
Mr. D. L. Scott, (who, it will be remembered, gave a series of Theatrical
Entertainments in this city last March,) for leaving the city without paying his
indebtedness to us. In justice to
the gentleman we will now state that our claims against him have been fully
satisfied, and that if a letter explaining the reason of his failing to pay us,
and which he says he sent to us, had been received, the article would not have
appeared.
Mr. Scott will be in our city in a few days with a first rate company.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], January 28, 1860, p. 3, c.
1
The Old Folks.—The concert company known by this name visited our city
last week and gave two entertainments. They
were received and patronized with the courtesy and liberality proverbial of our
people, and if their receipts did not pay their expenses (and we learn that they
did not) the reason is attributable (not to their performance, which we think
was moderately good) to two causes; the first of which was that the company was
so large, that the net profits may have fallen short n the long division among
the members (a circumstance not improbable) or in the second place to the system
of reserving seats, at an increased price, and the description of tickets, which
the "Old Folks" thought proper to adopt, on the occasion.
We say nothing as to the policy of reserving seats, as a difference of
opinion prevails on that subject, it may or may not have operated against the
company's receipts, but of this we feel assured, that the prosperity of the
"Old Folks," was considerably diminished by the obnoxious sort of
tickets which they distributed to purchasers.
These tickets were printed on red cards of the usual size, and in this
form, to wit:
THE
MASSACHUSETTS
OLD FOLKS COMPANY.
ADMIT ONE.
Now, the objectionable feature of this ticket is patent to every one.
The "Old Folks" could not for the lives of them have affixed a
more odious, detestable, damnable adjective to their plural noun than
"Massachusetts." If they had headed their ticket The John Brown Old Folks
Company, the insult, the indignity would not have been greater, the sting would
not have been keener to the loyal southern heart of our people.
That a company of itinerant musicians should come amongst us and put out
their flaming posters bearing the imprint of a Cincinnati job press, was as much
as we could bear; indeed we were willing to bear this much for the sake of an
extinct fraternal feeling for this western reserve of abolitionism; but the
tickets sold as by the "old folks," for six bits each headed in large
capitals "Massachusetts," a name in which every species of villainy to
nations and the rights of man finds its synonym was the grain of sand that broke
the camel's back. Forbearance with
northern impudence and aggression has long ceased to be a virtue with southern
people. A committee of citizens
were appointed to wait on the "old folks," and demand that the hateful
word should be expunged, and that a written apology should be made, both of
which were promptly done by the manager, Mr. Hall, in a full and satisfactory
manner, and several members of the company, thereupon declared themselves stout
and vehement democrats. "Peace
hath her victories no less renowned than war," and "quiet reins in
Warsaw." Let no one be so
unjust as to charge us with an assault on the "Old Folks."
We accorded to them the reverence and protection with which a generous
nobleness alights to honor age. We
passed them by and struck full at the crest of Massachusetts.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 4, 1860, p. 3, c.
1
Sons of Malta.—We are glad to learn that there has at length been
established in Yazoo City a Lodge of this ancient Order.
It is but a few years since the introduction of the Order into the United
States, and yet no other secret society, perhaps, can boast of as many
distinguished men as members. While
the legal, medical, and other scientific professions are largely embraced in its
brotherhood, it argues well for its claims upon the attention of philanthropists
that many of the most distinguished of the clerical profession are its most
zealous laborers. In organizing a
Lodge in this city the fraternity has been peculiarly fortunate in securing,
even at considerable expense, the services of Dr. Wm. A. Gliddon, brother of the
lamented Dr. George R. Gliddon, author of "Types of Mankind."
Dr. Gliddon became a member of the Order in the city of Alexandria, in
Egypt, in which country he spent twenty years.
There are few persons, if indeed there are any, who possess the work in
so pure a form as does Dr. Gliddon. We
feel justifiable in remarking thus, albeit we are as yet but a novitiate in the
arcani of the Maltese Sons.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 11, 1860, p. 1,
c. 5
Arms Ordered South.—A Washington dispatch to the New York Herald, says
the President has ordered from the National Armory at Springfield, Mass., one
hundred and fifteen thousand muskets for Southern use, to be stationed at
Charleston, Augusta, and Baton Rouge, and nine thousand rifles from the
Watertown and Watervliet Arsenals for Southern use.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 11, 1860, p. 3,
c. 1
St. Valentine's Day will be next Tuesday.
We would remind the young folks that is the day upon which, it is said,
that birds mate and if we are not mistaken, it was on this day that the
"stars" first sang together. We
would also remind our lady friends that this is Leap Year, and if any of them
want to mate us, we promise them we will not "climb a tree from
them." After this
announcement, we expect to receive at least a dozen Valentines, by way of
opening negotiations. Any number of
the most elegant kind can be found at the store of our friends, Compton &
Thomas.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 18, 1860, p. 1,
c. 6
Neil McCoy, charged with the murder of David J. Baltzell, has been fully
committed for trial at Gonzales, Texas.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 25, 1860, p. 2,
c. 5
Spirit of Alabama Women.—The ladies of Demopolis, Ala., are circulating
the following resolutions, which have already been numerously signed:
Whereas, the Northern section of the Union is placing itself in
antagonism to the institutions, rights and equality of the South in this
Confederacy, and its politicians, teachers and divines have lighted the fire of
fanaticism, which, if unresisted, will lay waste our land and desolate our
firesides.
And whereas, it is becoming in us to withhold our aid and support from
our avowed enemies, we will, as our sacred duty, to encourage the development of
the industrial resources of our State and the South; therefore be it
Resolved, That we but emulate the patriotism of our mothers of the
Revolution, when we declare that we are ready to practice any self-denial to
assist our fathers, our husbands, our brothers and our sons, in maintaining
their rights to liberty and independence.
Resolved, That for this purpose, and to contribute our humble mite to the
advancement of Southern commerce, Southern manufactures and Southern industry,
we hereby pledge ourselves to purchase no article of Northern manufacture; no
books from Northern publishing houses, and no goods bought in Northern markets,
from and after the 1st day of Marcy, 1860, even should we have to
resort to the primitive "homespun," or the fabrics of our own
handiwork.
Resolved, That we will not hereafter support a Northern preacher, employ
a Northern teacher, or travel in a Northern clime in pursuit of health or
pleasure.
Resolved further, That the foregoing resolution shall be binding upon us
until the questions now effecting our political existence and our lives be
determined fairly and justly to our section; or until the South shall take her
stand among the nations of the world, and the people of the North as she holds
the rest of mankind, "enemies in war, in peace, friends."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 25, 1860, p. 2,
c. 5
A White Woman Running Away With a Negro Man.—The Chattanooga, Tenn.,
Reflector says a white woman by the name of Mary Wilson, of Adairsville, Ga.,
came up to that place on the Georgia train, on the 6th, with a big
buck negro belonging to a gentleman of the former place, whom she had stolen,
with the intention, it is believed, of running him off to a free State.
Mary was dressed in men's clothes. They
were arrested and lodged in jail.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 25, 1860, p. 3,
c. 1
It will be seen in our advertising column that H. Halder has established
an Ale and Lager Beer Salon for the accommodations of his customers.—As it has
become very unfashionable in our town to take strong drink, we have no
doubt our friend Halder will be liberally patronised.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 25, 1860, p. 3,
c. 1
The execution of the negro woman Eliza, for burning the Gin-house of Mrs.
McCann, will take place at the Jail in this city on Friday the 2d day of March.
The gallows will be erected, as on former occasions, giving planters an
opportunity to let their slaves witness the execution of the law for such
offences as house and gin burning, &c.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 10, 1860, p. 2, c. 5
Military Equipments for the South.—The N. Y. Journal of Commerce,
referring to the movement in the South to increase and improve the Volunteer
Companies, since the John Brown raid, remarks:
The best proof of the depth and earnestness of Southern feeling on this
subject may be found in the immense orders which are received from the South by
our military manufacturers for all kinds of equipments.
One firm in this city has been obliged to put on 300 extra hands lately,
to meet the demand of knapsacks, belts, cartridge boxes, priming wires, and
other military appliances. Gun and
pistol-dealers in this city and elsewhere in the North, also derive large
benefits from the Southern martial excitement.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 10, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Cotton Seed for Sale.—Dr. B. R. Holmes is offering to the public a
species of Cotton Seed that we are bound to think, judging from the sample of
cotton produced from them, is of a very superior kind.
The cotton is of a rich golden appearance, the staple is very long, fine
and silky. It is said that as much
cotton can be produced to the acre of this kind as any other, and that it
commands three or four cents per pound more.
A sample of the staple can be seen in our office. We commend these seed
to the attention of planters.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 10, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Our neighbor grows eloquent and witty over a grape vine chair, and talks
also of "grape vine committees." She
thinks that grape vines are better adapted for the manufacture of chairs and
wicker work than for hanging Yankees with.
She also hopes that because she happened to be born in the "good old
Dutch city of Albany," she may not be made a victim of the "Grape Vine
Committee." We have always had
our opinion of Yankees, for our own part, and that is, that as long as they
behave themselves they are as good as white people, and consequently, we are
decidedly opposed to hanging innocent Yankees on grape vines.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 10, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Hanged.—The negro woman Eliza, who has been for some time under
sentence of death for the burning of the gin house of Mrs. McCann, was hung on
Friday the 2d inst. She made no
profession of religion, notwithstanding she had the benefit of frequent
ministerial visits. She was
unwilling to die, and begged for life with her last breath.
As is customary in Christian countries, a large crowd was present to
witness the horrid spectacle of strangling a human being, bound hand and foot.
To our astonishment, white women were there, who looked with apparent
unconcern upon the scene. After death, the body was given over for dissection.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 10, 1860, p. 4, c. 1
Arkansas Free Negroes.—The Arkansas free negroes who have left the
State under compulsation [sic] of the law, find it difficult to select a place
of refuge.
They say in an appeal for help that Indiana shuts her doors upon them.
Illinois denies prairie homes to them.
Oregon will not receive them, and Minnesota is debating whether or not
she shall admit them. They complain of being forced into a cold climate suddenly
from a warm one, and present a sad picture of the distress that they suffer.
If their injudicious friends in the free States had let them alone, it is
quite likely that they would have been still enjoying their freedom unmolested
in the South.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 17, 1860, p. 2, c. 4
Negro's Crop.—Our attention was directed to a load of five bags of
cotton in Broad street this morning, and we were informed that it was the crop
of the "house gang" (for the information of our friends up towards the
North pole, we will tell them that the house gang signifies the cook and negro
children about the house too young for regular work) belonging to Mrs. O'Conner,
of Mount Vintage, Edgefield district, S. C.
The cotton was of extra quality, and brought 12½ cents, producing nearly
$250 for the cook-woman and her little "drab shets," a very
comfortable sum to spend in luxuries, and more money than thousands of poor men
and women in New England see in one sum in the whole course of their lives.
Augusta Dispatch.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 17, 1860, p. 2, c. 3
Sons of Malta.—The Providence correspondent of the Boston Journal
says:--"The Sons of Malta have at last exploded.
Both lodges in this city have 'gone under,' and the institution is
breaking up all over the country."
So far as relates to the South, the above is not a fact.
The Order is rapidly increasing all over the Southern country, and
numbers among its members, the most intelligent, wealthy and influential
citizens of the land. Nothing can
check the advance of an order, in the South, which has for its main object the
extension of "the area of freedom."
[Columbus, (Ga.) Times.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 17, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Military Company.—The Yazoo Rifles have organized and elected their
officers, and will undoubtedly form a company of which the State may be proud.
That prince of clever fellows, Mose Phillips, was unanimously honored
with the Captaincy. As a gentleman, he is eminently worthy of it.
Let the members bear in mind that there will be a meeting to-day.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 17, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Panorama of the Arctic Expedition of Dr. Kane.—This thrillingly
interesting work has been on exhibition in our city for some days.
We are glad that it is liberally patronized, and would advise all who
have not already seen it, to embrace the opportunity of doing so.
The descriptive lecture of Mr. Paul, conveys an amount of information in
an hour which it would take several days reading to acquire.
We presume that most reading men in this country have read the
interesting narrative of Dr. Kane's Expedition, written by himself.
Such will undoubtedly visit the work in question.
Such as have not done so, can, by this means, gain the most important
facts connected with an undertaking which has elicited the sympathy of the whole
civilized world. In addition to the
Panorama, may be seen Dr. Kane's Esquimaux sledge dog, Myouk.
Also, his rifle and the celebrated Peacock Flag.
The latter has floated in latitude 79 South, as well as 81 North, neither
of which latitudes was ever visited by any other flag.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 17, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Reduction of License.—Our City Fathers have reduced the license for
retailing liquors from $1000 to $250. Heretofore,
for some time, there has been but one drinking house in the city.
Already several licenses have been taken out, and trade is brisking up.
We saw on yesterday a troop of these worthies in charge of Marshal
Johnson, on their way to the lock up. They
had just been indulging in the harmless amusement of knocking one another down.
Those pastimes, from their frequent occurrence at a newly opened
coffee-house in the lower end of town, have already attained for its locality
the appellation of "the battle-ground."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 17, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Fire Company.—Would it not be a good plan for our citizens to organize
a fire company again? Or would it
be better to wait until a square or so of the town gets burned down?
The city has two fine engines, which are, or in case of a fire just now,
would be of about as much use to her as the fifth wheel would be to a wagon.
They have certainly not been handled in the last year, and, as they
stand, are utterly unfit for use. We
submit the question, whether or not, if a block were to burn down to-night,
there wouldn't be a fire company organized in less than a week?
If answered in the affirmative, then wouldn't it be best to organize and
prevent, if possible, an occurrence liable to happen any night.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 24, 1860, p. 1, c. 5
Kitchen Memoranda.—Potatoes to be washed—meat to be put to
soak—lamps to fill—knives to scour—furniture to be dusted—silver to be
polished—front entry to be washed—beds to be made—apples to be
pared—flour to sift—shirts to be ironed—dishes to be washed—beets to be
cleaned—carpets to be swept—fires to be tended—dinner to get—pig to be
fed—pudding to be made—a run to the store—front door to tend—children to
be waited on—baby's frock to be washed—stockings to be darned—button to be
sewed on the shirts—skirts to be done up—tea to get—griddle
cakes—doughnuts, custards, ginger bread, preserves—dishes to clear
away—company—meetings—bed time. What
merchant, politician or president has a longer list of daily avocations than the
good housewife; and yet how little are they considered.
The hard and constant fatigue of the mother should elicit a deep
sympathy, and a more strenuous effort to lighten her burdens.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 24, 1860, p. 1, c. 5
The Underground Railroad.—The Port Gibson Reveille says: "It is rumored about town that the underground railroad
has been completed to this place, and that close connections are made from here
to Canada. Some colored
individuals, it is said, were about to take passage for the Queen's dominions
when the whole affair leaked out."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 24, 1860, p. 2, c. 2
A Woman Voter.—Much amusement was created at the polls of the third
ward yesterday, by an attempt to carry "woman's rights" into active
exercise. The wife of a voter, who
was confined to bed by illness, appeared and demanded to cast her husband's
vote. Upon a refusal, she became
quite irate, and in reply to the jeers of some of the crowd, seized a brick bat
and for a while cleared the front of the polls.
She was at length quieted and conducted away.
[Alexandria (Va.) Gazette.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 24, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Our neighbor of the Banner hints that we have become a member of the Sons
of Malta for the purpose of getting the patronage of the Order.
We protest that we were prompted by higher and more noble motives.
It is rather against the rule of the fraternity to solicit any one to
join us, but, if our neighbor will become a member, we promise her we will do
all the work and she may receive all the profits of the printing—in other
words, every thing that is spent to printers.
We are in favor of "Women's Rights," and, notwithstanding Mrs.
Curtis says that when it comes to the Sons of Malta, "Woman's Rights are a dead
failure," we are a strong advocate of our neighbor's becoming a member,
and if she will permit us to present her name, we have not the least doubt that
she will be elected by acclamation.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 24, 1860, p. 3, c. 2
Spalding &
Roger's
New Orleans
Circus,
From Their
New Orleans
Amphitheatre,
Comprising the elite of their three Circuses, (the Proprietors this year discontinuing all their traveling Companies except this one, in order to concentrate upon it all their energies and facilities,) will be exhibited at 1 and 7 P. M. under a canvas pavilion, to be erected at
Yazoo City, Monday
and Tues-
day, April 2d and
3d.
under the personal superintendence of the managing
Proprietor, Mr. C. J. Rogers.
The Celebrated English Court Jester, Mr. Tom Watson, will sail down the
River,
In a Wash Tub, Drawn by Four Geese
in full view of the public on the Bank, about 11 o'clock A.
M., at every place of exhibition.
Admission 75 cts. Children
and Servants, 37 cts.
Spalding &
Rogers'
Campbell
Minstrels.
Embracing the choice of the Negro Performers extant, will give a
Select Etheopian [sic] Entertainment,
under the Circus tent, immediately after each Circus
performance.
March 24, 1860.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 24, 1860, p. 4, c. 1
A young lady of extraordinary beauty and superior attainments, the
daughter of wealthy and respectable parents, of Sampson county, North Carolina,
attempted to elope with a negro slave, the property of a cousin.
With a horse and buggy stolen from a neighbor, they reached the railroad
depot, where they were suspected, and on being questioned, the lady confessed
the whole affair, declaring that her intention was to marry the negro when they
got to the North.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 7, 1860, p. 2, c. 3
The Knights of the Golden Circle are en rapport with the Juarez
Government. In going, therefore,
into Mexico even in a military body of ten thousand men, fully equipped for war,
they will go under the invitation of the Government which we have recognized,
and thus the administration can not interfere with them.
It is the design of the K. G. C. to occupy and annex Mexico a la
Texas.—Vicksburg Sun.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 7, 1860, p. 2, c. 1
The procession of the Sons of Malta, on last Monday night was a beautiful
and very imposing scene. There were
about three hundred persons, half of whom had torches, in procession, conducted
by three officers on horseback, who were entirely unknown to us.
It was suspected by many, (and we have no doubt of its truth,) that
General Garibaldi, who has long been a member of the order, was the Grand
commander on the occasion, and conducted the procession.
It was supposed that Victor Emmanuel, who is also an honored member of
this order, was second in command; while it was said that Gen. Wm. Walker
brought up the rear. The procession
was formed on Mound street at half past 11 o'clock p.m., and moved through
nearly all the principal streets of the town, headed by a splendid band of
music, and although the parade continued until a late hour, we believe nearly
all the citizens of the town witnessed it till it was disbanded.
The procession was quiet and orderly.
The boys, who were as thick as autumn leaves on both sides of the
procession, became much enthused, and kept up a constant yelling, which we think
added nothing to the interest of the occasion.
At a little past 1 o'clock the procession returned to the Lodge room,
where they were dismissed, "unity and harmony" prevailing.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 7, 1860, p. 3, c. 2
M'lle Christian
Milly,
The Two-Headed
Girl,
Will be exhibited
at Yazoo City, Monday
and Tuesday, April
17th and 18th.
The most wonderful, strange and interesting Phenomena the world ever produced. A very intelligent, pretty, healthy and active girl possessing
Two Fine Heads,
Four Arms, Two
Hearts, and Four Legs.
Simmetrically [sic] proportioned and equally useful.
See posters, pamphlets and programmes.
Admission 50 cents. Children
and Servants 25 cents.
Doors open at 9 A.M. and 7 P.M.
Christine Milly,
Will be exhibited at Benton on Wednesday, 18th, inst.
Dr. T. F. Chambers, Agent.
April 7, 1860.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 7, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
The Artesian Springs.—We learn from the Canton Citizen that this
fashionable summer resort will soon be opened for the reception of visitors.
The proprietor, Col. Wm. R. Luckett, gained great reputation last summer
as a host, and we have no doubt he will fully sustain, and, if possible, add to
that reputation. The Central Rail Road runs within a few miles of the Springs,
and conveyances can always be procured. Owing
to the known health of this locality and its accessibility, it will be the
gayest and best attended watering place in the south this summer.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 7, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
The "Goose Question."—This great question was settled in our
city on Monday last by Tom Watson, the excellent clown of Spalding & Rogers'
circus. It has been extensively
placarded here that on that day he would sail down the Yazoo River, in front of
the town, in a wash tub drawn by four geese.
And he did. We had
the curiosity, with about two hundred others—gentlemen, ladies, boys, girls,
children, dogs and niggers—to go and see the "sight."
A great many were skeptical as to whether such a feat would be one or
not, and we confess that if it had been the first day of April instead of
the second, we would not have gone. We
had an idea, and we hold Dan Rice responsible for the error, that a goose
couldn't be taught anything. Or
rather, to use Dan's own expression, they could be taught easily enough, but
they forgot everything by the next day; so it amounted to the same thing.
Watson's geese are a refutation of this notion.
We say it without fear of successful contradiction, that Tom Watson's
geese are the most highly accomplished members of the goose family that we have
ever seen, and we are twenty-five years old.
These accomplishments are manifest in the perfect obedience with which
they yielded to the wishes and commands of the man in the tub, who sometimes
personates "the man in the moon."
The speed at which the tub moved along through the water behind the
aquatic team, was simply astonishing, and the manner in which they made the
water "bile" out at their wheelhouses was no less so.
Tom Watson is a regular brick, (and has good teeth,) and notwithstanding
several of our citizens are ill from sore sides, caused by his jests, if he ever
comes this way again, we are bound to see him.
As for the circus in which Tom is so great a feature, it is all it is
advertised to be, and more too. Moreover,
the managers, Mr. Rogers and Col. Rutherford, are the cleverest kind of
gentlemen.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 14, 1860, p. 2, c. 2
Too Much Study.—The School Committee have forbidden the assignment of
lessons for study out of school in the Boston schools. The city physician had
become convinced of the alarming evils resulting from such studies.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 14, 1860, p. 3, c. 2
Theatre.
At Sons of Malta
Hall.
The Celebrated
Macfarland
Dramatic Troupe,
Fourteen in
Number,
Will give a series of their inimitable Entertainments at
the above named Hall, commencing Saturday, April 14th.
See bills of the day.
April 14, 1860.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 14, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
We have received and welcome to our exchange list, "The True
Southron," edited and published weekly by Messrs. M. A. Royall and Wm.
Edwards, Houston, Texas. It is a
bold and fearless advocate of Southern rights and Southern honor. The typographical department is executed with neatness, and
the editorial gives earnest of important services to be rendered in the coming
Presidential canvass. Success to
"The True Southron."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 21, 1860, p. 2, c. 1
Panorama.—This is the name of an affliction which, in an epidemic form,
has, within the last few years, overrun the United States, and, for ought we
know, Europe. We have it from
reliable authority, too, that the frontier Indians, Cherokees and Choctaws, have
likewise been visited by it to a slight extent, but from the latest
intelligence, the Comanches had so far escaped its influences, or more
appropriately, perhaps, its ravages. The
class of afflictions bearing this name, naturally divides itself into two grand
orders: Panorama Naturæ and Panorama Historica. Each of these are again divided into genuses, and these into
species, and examples of all are not unfrequently met with, but the most
intolerable form of the pestilence which has swept time and again over the
country, is a genus of the order Panorama Historica, and may be
designated by the by [sic] scientific term Panorama Biblia Sacræ, or
more appropriately, we think, by the shorter veronym Panorama Intolerabilis.
Various species of this particular genus have, from time to time, made
their appearance, and after traversing extensive regions of country, have
disappeared to return no more. This
is the only redeeming trait in the history of each particular species of this
genus: that places are only doomed to endure one visit from each of
them, for it has been a result of general observation that the same locality
never receives a second visit. Childhood
and youth are the ages most liable to be attacked, but every one is expected to
undergo an attack of each species of the peculiar genus under consideration.
The affliction generally originates in some of the Eastern or Northern
cities of Yankee Land, but seems to increase in virulence by introduction into a
Southern clime. Like the more
tolerable affliction of chill and fever, it seems incapable of sustaining an
existence in larger cities, but smaller ones, and towns and villages are
peculiarly obnoxious to its prevalence. Our
own city has suffered considerably within the last year, and we are afraid is
destined shortly to undergo another visitation, as we learn from a Vicksburg
paper that a Panorama is shortly to be exhibited there for "six days
only"—mind, only. There
are, no doubt, designs upon Yazoo City for an attack of several day's duration.
This, in our opinion, might be prevented even now by the institution of a
strict quarantine for the purpose of preventing the introduction of any more
Panorama into the city. If we are
actuated by any selfish motives in making these remarks, it is because we dread
the complaint which we should certainly be bound to have should this Panorama break
in here. And sooner than
undergo this, even for the space of six days only, we would much prefer
the splitting of as many hundred rails.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 28, 1860, p. 1, c. 6
Banner Presentation.—A Relic of Buena Vista.—The Mississippian of
yesterday says:
On the return of the Mississippi Rifles from their trial of skill on
Tuesday evening, that time-honored relic of the battle of Buena Vista, the
banner, formerly the property of the Hinds County Fencibles, and subsequently
adopted as the flag of the Mississippi Regiment in Mexico, was presented to this
company by Capt. McManus through Capt. Estelle, in an eloquent and appropriate
address. Ah, none but the dower can
appreciate the emotions which must have swelled the heart of Capt. McManus on
parting with this flag which had waved over the field where so many of his
gallant comrades fell.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], April 28, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Mrs. J. A. Adams, the widow of Simeon R. Adams, will continue the
publication of the Paulding Clarion, in her own name.
Her brother-in-law, Major C. P. Bowman, has charge of the business
department, and its editorial management will continue in the hands of J. G.
Markham, Esq., who was Mr. Adams' principal assistant for several years.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 5, 1860, p. 2, c. 2
Safe.—A letter from Arizona to the St. Louis Republican announces the
safety of Mrs. John Page, the woman who was stolen by the Apaches and taken into
captivity. Thinking themselves
pursued, the Indians lanced their captive in several places, and left her for
dead; but partially reviving, Mrs. P. maintained herself in the wilderness for
fifteen days, by digging roots until she reached a place of safety.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 5, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Queries.—What is a man to do if he gets behind?
Ans.—He can "root hog or die."
What's a woman to do if she's a little behind?
Ans.—Nothing easier, let her go to Rieman's and get a hoop skirt.
"Devil."
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 5, 1860, p. 4, c. 1
Sad Affair in Virginia.—A letter to the Richmond Dispatch from
Harrisonburg, Va., states that a Mr. Sites was married in that county, a few
nights ago, to a Miss Devier, and that a party of young men attempted to
serenade the new couple with tin pans, bells, &c.
James Devier, a brother of the bride, went out and remonstrated, when the
serenaders took to their heels. He,
however, pursued them, when one of the [sic] named Smallwood, shot him dead.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], May 19, 1860, p. 3, c. 2
Opening Ball,
There will be given at the Artesian Springs, Madison county, Miss., a grand
Fancy Dress Ball,
On Tuesday, June 5th,
1860.
To which the ladies of this and adjoining States are very
respectfully invited to attend. At
which all the new and fashionable dances will be introduced.
Wm. R. Luckett,
May 19, 1860.
Proprietor.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 2, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Fashionable Dancing Academy.
Mr. J. F. Vegas respectfully announces to the inhabitants of Yazoo City
and vicinity, that he will open a Dancing Academy at Wilson's Saloon, on Monday,
June 4th, where he proposes to teach all the fashionable Dances of
the day, including the Lancers Caledonian, and the graceful and newly introduced
Ladies' Quadrille.
Mr. V. will also teach classes at private residences and in the country.
For terms, apply to Mr. Vegas, at the Mansion House.
June 2, 1860.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 2, 1860, p. 4, c. 1
A mulatto man having an effeminate face has been in the habit lately of
promenading the streets of Philadelphia, dressed as a woman.
In this guise he entices a young man by a display of fascinations and
then robs him. This he has done
with comparative safety, as the victims of the sell keep quiet.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 9, 1860, p. 1, c. 6
The "Poor Slave."—John Sanderson, Esq., of Norfolk county,
Va., has paid his negroes this season $550, for corn raised for their own
benefit, on his farm. He paid one
of the men alone $156. They are
allowed time to work for themselves, and are liberally and cheerfully rewarded
for the product of their extra labor.
George A. Wilson, Esq., of the same section, for corn produced under
circumstances similar to the above, has recently settled with his men for the
year, paying them $600.
We take pleasure in stating further, that W. W. Warden, Esq., has
recently paid his hands $300 for corn raised on his land; he, like the others,
having allowed them time to work for themselves, and there are many other
similar cases.
The negroes alluded to, like millions in the Southern States, are not
only plentifully provided for in every way, but they are saving money to use as
they may find best in coming years—and withal they seem as happy as lords.
They work well and cheerfully in the day, and at night and during the
holidays they sing, dance and smoke, eat sweet potatoes, drink hard cider, sit
around the big kitchen fires, "laugh and grow fat," regardless of the
"tom-foolery" and nonsense about the "poor oppressed
slaves."—Norfolk Herald.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 16, 1860, p. 1, c. 4
A Plea for Old Maids.—A woman at the age of thirty-three and a third
years, who has never been married, is considered passee; is called an
"old maid," and the term is most unjustly used and in derision. The very fact of being an old maid is prima facie
evidence of the possession of purity, prudence and self denial, and these are
essential to the character of a perfect wife; without them no woman is worth
having.
Being an "old maid" implies decision of character; neither
sham, nor shows, nor courtly manners, nor splendid persons have won them over;
nor fair promises nor shallow tears; they looked beyond the manner and the
dress, and finding no cheering indication of depth of mind and sterling
principles, they gave up the specious present for the chance of a more solid
future, and determined in hope and patience and resignation to "bide their
time."
[Hall's Journal of Health for June.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 16, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Artesian Springs.—A correspondent of the Vicksburg Whig, who is
sojourning at the Artesian Springs, speaks thus favorably of that renowned
watering place. We endorse all he
says:
Since the last season, the entire establishment has been overhauled, and
almost renovated, and the polite proprietor has evidently made it a study, not
only to provide for the comfort, but also to gratify every want and wish of his
visitors.
In regard to the comforts of the place, he has provided himself with a
numerous retinue of polite and well trained servants, sufficient to wait upon
hundreds of guests; the rooms are well furnished and clean, the beds have a neat
and comfortable appearance, and the fare at the table is such that it cannot
fail to be satisfactory to the most fastidious guest. For the recreation of visitors, nothing has been left
unprovided, which could be desired. There
is a billiard saloon, shooting gallery, and two ten-pin alleys, one for the
ladies, the other for the gentlemen. A
splendid band of musicians from New Orleans, discourse delicious music several
hours during the day, and are to be found in an elegant ball-room inviting to
the dance, every night, Sundays of course excepted.
The opening ball comes off next Tuesday night, which is expected to be a
brilliant affair, and a large company is expected. But my sheet admonishes me.
If you should not deem this hasty scrawl an affliction, you may ere long
hear from me.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], June 23, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Fourth of July Barbecue.—We are requested to state that there will be a
free Barbecue given at the Mouth of Tehula, on Yazoo River, on the Fourth of
July, to which the public generally, and the ladies particularly, are invited.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], July 7, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Fourth of July.
This memorable day was celebrated by our citizens in a most enthusiastic
and pleasant way on last Wednesday.
The hospitable gentlemen who reside at and near the mouth of Tehula Lake,
had determined to prepare a sumptuous barbecue, to which every body was invited,
and all expected to come.
The Vicksburg and Yazoo City packet—Hope—was chartered for the
occasion, to carry those who desired to go from Yazoo City and surrounding
country, and at a very early hour in the morning, our wharf presented a lively
appearance, as those who were out for a day's patriotic sport, began to take
their places upon the docks of the boat. At
about half-past five, the beautiful little packet, with about two hundred
passengers, turned from her moorings, amidst the shouts of those on board and on
land, and was soon under headway for her destination.
A fine band of music was along, and the accommodating members of it made
the hours to pass gleesomely away, as they discoursed eloquently and
artistically our national melodies.
At about eleven o'clock, after having made large accessions to our
members at the numerous landings at which ladies and gentlemen were waiting
transportation, we arrived at the spot and found not only a large crowd already
assembled, but every preparation made which was at all necessary to pass the day
pleasantly.
A large area had been cleared off and covered over with saw dust, under a
beautiful and cool arbor, where those who are fond of chasing pleasure amid the
mazes of the giddy dance, could do so to their feet's content.
And there seemed to be many that way inclined, as their indulgence in the
quadrille was kept up until a late hour in the evening.
At about half after 1 P. M., dinner was announced, and never was a more
sumptuous repast placed before relishing appetites.
Everything that was good, or could be made good by being well barbecued,
was there in inviting profusion. Nor
did the thoughtful and accommodating gentlemen who superintended the
arrangements of the day, forget to provide for the more delicate palates of the
ladies, for cake, ice cream, raisins, and all the little nick nacks that serve
to round off and give flavor to a good dinner, were as abundantly provided as
were the more substantial edibles.
Previous to the announcement of dinner, eloquent addresses were made by
Major J. M. Armistead and M. A. Jenkins, Esq., which were well received by an
attentive and appreciating audience.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], July 28, 1860, p. 1, c. 2
"O. K."—These famous cabalistic letters have been revived.
They are now used in Tennessee to indicate preference for the National
Democratic candidates for President and Vice-President, who hail from Oregon and
Kentucky.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], July 28, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
Yazoo Rifle Company.—We are glad to be able to state that this fine
Company is rapidly effecting a thorough organization.
The splendid uniforms of the members will soon be completed, and in a
short time a full supply of the "Mississippi Bayonet Rifles" will be
received. The editor of the
Mississippian has examined, recently, a sample of the "Bayonet Rifle"
ordered by our noble State for the use of the volunteer Militia.
The length of the new arm is about the same as that of the old
Mississippi Rifle; the bore considerably larger, and consequently the barrel not
so thick:
["]The sword bayonet, which is protected by a scabbard, is so
constructed that by application of the thumb to a spring it can be separated
from the gun, and having a handle and guard like a cutlass, can be used as a
sword or cutlass when in close contact. The
sights are variable at will, for any distance within the range of the
rifle.["]
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 4, 1860, p. 1, c. 3
The Crocket (Texas) Argus says:
that "during the last term of the District Court of Grimes County,
eighteen free negroes went into voluntary servitude to different persons in the
vicinity of Anderson. Two families
to Wm. Berryman, two men to Angus Passmore, and one man to Robert McIntyre, two
families to James W. Barnes, and one woman to John R. Kenard.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 4, 1860, p. 1, c. 4
Life and Bathing at Camp May.—Life at Cape May is thus hit off by
somebody who has seen the elephant:
Rush down through the crowd—go in lemons!—sw'p—how refreshing the
first ice-cold swash of foam—toe-deep—ankle-deep—knee-deep!—I've got
Flinders by the hand—jolly little hand—whoop—the surf is up to her nice
little black leather belt now—steady!—turn my back to the great sea—here
comes an elephant breaker, a regular Great Eastern rolling in—an all devouring
smooth rolling monster—ah! but
Flinders gives a lovely scream—just before it breaks, lift her up; hold her
high—am lost myself in a watery abyss—but wave lifts us—take us in, and
Flinders declares, with emphatic delight, she actually seemed to fly in
shore—it was so delicious! Yes—don't
doubt it—not much flying for gentleman bather, though.
Wants a strong arm and long practice to bathe girl well this way—girl
must know how, too—know how to catch breaker just before breaking—turn feet
in shore—half float—let up!
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 4, 1860, p. 1, c. 4
The Bayonet Rifle.—We have had the pleasure of examining a sample of
the rifles with bayonets, ordered by our State for the volunteer militia.
The gun differs from the rifle now in use in the following respects:
Length is about the same,--bore considerably larger, consequently barrel
not so thick,--mounted with iron, and stock not as neatly finished.
The sword bayonet which is protected by a scabbard, is so constructed
that by application of the thumb to a spring it can be separated from the gun,
and having a handle and guard like a cutlass, can be used as a sword or cutlass
when in close contact. The sights
are variable at will, for any distance within the range of the rifle.
These are all the variations, of any note, from the Mississippi Rifle.
They may all be improvements in the art of warfare, yet we are at a loss
to discover the advantages to be derived from an increase in the size of the
ball.—Mississippian.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 4, 1860, p. 2, c. 3
The Abolition Plot in Texas.
We extract the following from a letter to the Houston Telegraph, from
Dallas, giving further particulars of the extensive Abolition plot discovered
there a few days ago, some account of which we have already given:
The outhouses, granaries, oats and grain of Mr. Crill Miller were
destroyed a few days after the destruction of Dallas.
This led to the arrest of some white men whose innocence, however, was
proved beyond a doubt. Several
negroes belonging to Mr. Miller were taken up and examined, and developments of
the most startling character elicited. A
plot to destroy the country was revealed, and every circumstance, even to the
minutiæ, detailed. Nearly, or
quite, a hundred negroes have been arrested, and upon a close examination,
separate and apart from each other, they deposed to the existence of a plot or
conspiracy to lay waste the country by fire and assassination—to impoverish
the land by the destruction of the provisions, arms and ammunition, and then,
when in a state of helplessness, a general revolt of the negroes was to begin on
the first Monday in August, the day of election for State officers.
This conspiracy is aided and abetted by Abolition emissaries from the
North, and by those in our midst.
The details of the plot and its modus operandi are these:
Each county in Northern Texas has a supervisor in the person of a white
man, whose name is not given; each county is laid off into districts under the
sub agents of this villain, who control the action of the negroes in the
districts, by whom the firing was to be done.
Many of our most prominent citizens were singled out for assassination
whenever they made their escape from their burning homes.
Negroes never before suspected, are implicated, and the insurrectionary
movement is widespread to an extent truly alarming.
In some places the plan was conceived in every form shocking to the mind,
and frightful in its results. Poisoning
was to be added, the old females to be slaughtered along with the men, and the
young and handsome women to be parceled out amongst these infamous scoundrels. They had even gone so far as to designate their choice, and
certain ladies had already been selected as the victims of these misguided
monsters.
Fortunately, the country has been saved from the accomplishment of these
horrors; but then, a fearful duty remains for us.
The negroes have been incited to these infernal proceedings by
Abolitionists, and the emissaries of certain preachers who were expelled from
this county last year. Their agents
have been busy amongst us, and many of them have been in our midst. Some of them have been identified, and have fled from the
country; others still remain, to receive a fearful accountability from an
outraged and infuriated people. Nearly
a hundred negroes have testified that a large reinforcement of Abolitionists are
expected on the 1st of August, and these to be aided by recruits from
the Indians, while the Rangers are several hundred miles to the north of us.
It was desired to destroy Dallas, in order that the arms and ammunition
of the artillery company might share the same fate.
Our jail is filled with the villains, many of whom will be hung, and that
very soon. A man was found hung at
our neighboring city of Fort Worth, two days ago, believed to be one of these
scoundrels who are engaged in this work. We
learn that he had stored away a number of rifles, and the day after he was hung,
a load of six-shooters passed on to him, but were intercepted. He was betrayed by one of the gang, and hence his plans were
thwarted. Many others will share
his fate.
I have never witnessed such times. We
are most profoundly excited. We go
armed day and night, and know not what we shall be called upon to do.
The Galveston News of the 28th furnishes further particulars,
as follows:
We learn from a gentleman, a resident of Ellis county, who left
Waxahatchie on Monday last, and arrived this morning, some further details of
the results of the discovery of the diabolical abolition plot, that was to sweep
over Northern Texas with the incendiary's torch and murderer's weapon.
In Dallas and Ellis counties, committees, composed of the coolest,
steadiest and most respectable citizens, were appointed, and were at work all
last week investigating the whole affair. No
one but those immediately interested knows who compose the committees, nor where
or when they meet, or what they are doing.
Their chief object is to ascertain what whites are at the bottom of the
plot. No one else interferes in the
investigation.
In Ellis, the County Court has organized patrols on an extensive and well
managed system.
The negroes' confessions—made apart and at great distances—concur in
the leading points; and all ever [sic] white men originated the plot and
directed their movements.
They promised the negroes their liberty and their masters' goods, etc.,
and to lead them to Kansas; the negroes were told also that the next President
would be a Northern man, who would free them all.
The negroes concerned in Ellis county were principally of mature age and
those allowed by their owners a good deal of liberty.
The young ones were not allowed to participate in the plot, and many were
not trusted with the secret at all. Their
idea was to burn all the stores where arms and ammunition were kept; and on
election day—the 6th August, when the citizens were away from their
farms and houses—the negroes were to rise, seize on all arms, and, headed by
their white leaders, to attack the houses here and there, murder defenseless
women, burn and destroy, and finally, it is presumed, march off in a body
towards Kansas.
Waxahatchie was to have been set fire to on the 8th—the same
day Dallas and so many other places were fired; but an accidental fire in the
town, that day, aroused the citizens, and the negro appointed to the deed became
alarmed, and left. He was to have
returned and repeated the attempt last Sunday, had not the plot been discovered.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 4, 1860, p. 3, c. 2
There will be a Grand Ball and Balloon Ascension at the Artesian Springs,
on Thursday, the 16th inst. A
large company is expected, and much pleasure may be anticipated by those who
attend.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 4, 1860, p. 3, c. 1
There will be a Barbecue on Piney, nine miles from this place, to-day.
Extensive arrangements have been made to have a grand affair.
A political discussion will be had on the occasion, in which all parties
will be represented, except the Black Republican.
Everybody, and "the rest of mankind," are invited to attend.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 11, 1860, p. 1, c. 4
A Minister's
Opinion on Wearing
Mourning Apparel.
The propriety of adopting sombre apparel when a near and dear relative or
friend dies, is a theme upon which much has been said and written.
The advocates of the custom have always been the great majority, and
consequently any thing which may be said n opposition to such a course, is
interesting, if only for the novelty of the argument advanced.
Recently the Rev. Dr. Butler of Trinity Church, Washington, addressed his
congregation on the subject, urging that, if our religion is joyful, this
objectionable uniform of woe ought to be discarded.
The Rev. gentleman's remarks are so interesting that we append their
substance. He said:
'Our life is sorrowful enough in our own sorrows as they pass, without
bringing them and holding them up in the world, and erecting conspicuous
monuments over them to the lives of others to perpetuate them after they are
dead and buried. It is a Christian
duty to trouble others as little as we can with our griefs.
We may be sure the world has enough for its own discipline.
And it is from this view I object to a custom which to my mind is never
good, but which in the excess to which it is carried, seems to me to be an
absolute wrong to society, throwing over it an element of gloom, which no
persons, and Christians least of all have a right to cast into this already two
shadowed light. I fear that I shall
offend the sacred sentiment and feeling of many who cherish it as a Christian
ceremony, when I announce my most decided objection to the practice of putting
on mourning for the dead. You will permit me with all respect to the sentiments of
others, to utter my very long and matured convictions upon it.
Its evils seem to me to be manifold.
It looks like a uniform of organized rebellion against the providence of
God. It sheds gloom over the
streets, through the churches and in the world of the absence of comfort and
consolation. It helps to perpetuate
sorrow, when the Christian duty is to cultivate peace and joy.
Children or Christian friends, die and they go to heaven and we very
properly lay them amid fragrant flowers with white lilies upon their breast.
All around them is the light of Christian hope and consolation, and then
we come in a dark closed shedding night over the scene.
This is not a Christian but a heathen custom.
The early Christians forbid cries of agonies, the rending of garments,
and the black emblems of despair which the heathen practiced and adopted and
deposited their dead with sorrowing gratitude; for they sorrowed not without
hope. Indeed evidence is not
wanting to prove that they adopted first the opposite custom to that of
mourning; that they wore white and bright colors, emblematical of their
Christian joy, when the dead was buried out of their sight.
I have sometimes though whether the habit, which will be in the memory of
some of you, of wearing white scarfs at funerals, was not derived from their
primitive custom. It is not, I
think a Christian sentiment which prompts this gloomy habiliment, it converts
women, and, saddest of all, little children into walking emblems of despair.
Black! Why it is the symbol
of sin, of woe, of wrath and of despair, not of the comfort and the gladdened
sorrow of the Christian. It is,
moreover, too often a mere fashion. And
then to see it elaborately interwoven, coquetish in its adjustments, going to
places of amusement, covering the gay and giddy, as it has a sort of fantastic
masquerade appearance, and seems incongruous to the gloom. I respect the sentiment which leads those who are bereaved to
put away gay colors and wear those which are gloomier. But let not the fancied respect for the dead, or fear that
one may not seem to mourn enough, lead us into the most mistaken conviction that
sorrow is a duty. When it is a
duty, let grace convert it into a peaceful joy.
Let it not lead us into the egotism of obtruding our sorrow into the
world, and a wrong against Christianity by making it wear a livery of despair,
and a wrong to the world by being objects of gloominess, when our present peace
should be a perpetual testimony to the high joys and the sufficient consolation
to a Christian faith. Alack!
What is it? It is that into
which the light cannot come. It is the absence of light.
Why should it drape the children of light and of hope?
Why should it be used in the cases of those, the memory of whose
departure and peaceful rest is a sacred joy?
I may run counter to your feelings and prejudices upon this subject.
You may say it corresponds to your own feelings to wear this material,
but is it that feeling which corresponds to the credit of god, and to the
mercies of redeeming love? If the
custom is in harmony with just conception, then have our green, sweet
cemeteries, so full of joyful reflection, whose emblems are all in conflict with
it, altered. Our graves should be
placed in rugged places, and have no trees but the cypress and the nightshade;
no monuments but those of black marble. If
our religion is joyful, it does seem to me that this objectionable uniform of
woe would be soon discarded.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 11, 1860, p. 1, c.
6
The Zouaves in Memphis.—Negotiations are now pending and preparations
being made for the arrival of the United States Zouave cades, of Chicago, in
this city, next May. Should the
Zouaves make their appearance, they will be met with a hearty welcome and
receive every attention that the hospitalities of our citizen soldiery can
afford. The drill challenge which
they have made to the military companies of the United States, is thus accepted
by the Columbus (Ga.) guards:
The Columbus Guards will meet the United States Zouave cadets of Chicago,
at Memphis, in the State of Tennessee, in the month of May next, the day to be
hereafter named. Scientific
tacticians to be chosen as umpires.
In addition to the infantry and light infantry tactics of Scott and
Hardee, if Capt. Ellsworth has any other system for foot troops in use by his
company, which is of any utility, and will furnish me with a copy, the Columbus
guards will meet the United States Zouave cadets of Chicago, in them. On the other hand, I will present Capt. Ellsworth with a copy
of the rules written for the Columbus guards by myself, modifying and applying
the rules for maneuvering a battalion by the rear rank, as prescribed by Scott
and Hardee, to the movements of a detached company.
The Columbus guards discard, without reserve, all fancy movements, as
unworthy the attention of any military company; but in doing so, they are not to
be understood as declining to drill with the United States cadets of Chicago, in
any tactics for foot troops, thereby demonstrating the relative qualities of the
two companies, not as parade soldiers but as efficient military organizations.
Paul J. Semmes, Cap't.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 11, 1860, p. 2, c.
5
The Incendiary Outrages in Texas.—The Houston True Southern, of the 28th
ult., has the following paragraph on this subject:
Just as we are going to press, news has arrived here from a reliable
source that 22 negroes have been arrested and are to be hung in Waxahatchie
to-day.
Our fellow-citizen, Mr. H. L. Cotton, informs us that a letter was
received by Thursday's mail, by his niece in this place, from Mrs. Bennett, of
Austin, giving an account of a fearful attempt made about the 22d inst., to
reduce our capitol to a heap of ashes. The
daring experiment was made to set fire to some twenty-five of the principal
edifices of the city; fortunately, however, the flames were discovered and
extinguished before any serious damage had been sustained.
On the night previous, the Austin correspondent to whom we are indebted
for the intelligence we are recording, had been keeping vigils over the sick bed
of a friend, when she observed a sheet of flame bursting from a neighboring
house, which, in consequence of timely warning, the citizens were enable to
arrest and save the building from impending ruin.
At present, says Mrs. Bennett, the whole population of the metropolis are
under arms, and laboring under the most intense excitement.
A police force, consisting of from sixty to ninety men, maintaining the
strictest system of vigilance, by night and by day.
In all the counties visited lately by fires, committees to investigate
the subject have been appointed, and the most efficient citizen patrols have
been established. In Grimes county
a meeting of citizens resolved:
That there is among the negroes in the county a disposition to revolt and
be insubordinate; that this feeling is produced by the influence of certain
white persons in the county; that it is time steps be taken to rid the community
of these men; that preaching to the negroes in the county be stopped, at least
for one year; that Northerners coming into the county under pretence of being
ministers, teachers, drummers, &c., are to be regarded with suspicion and
received with caution; that a vigilance committee be appointed, patrols
organized, and other measures for safety be taken.
A couple of suspicious strangers from Kansas are recollected as having
been seen in Dallas two days before the fire, and a day or two afterward. They are thought to have had some agency in the work of
destruction.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 25, 1860, p. 3, c.
2
On Dit.—The other day a fine haired, delicate visaged individual,
driving a gay horse, passed through town en route for some, or anywhere,
we believe. A few miles out, a
gentleman discovered that the dashing youth was a woman in male attire.
She said she was in search of a fellow who had fooled her, and declared
she was going to flail him. She
might have passed very well for a man, and in the end found the fellow who
jilted her, had she a little more modesty.
[Okolona News.
YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 25, 1860, p. 3, c.
1
Grand Circle.—Rev. J. M. Pugh requests us to announce that the Grand
Circle of Social Circles will hold its annual session at Magnolia, Miss.,
commencing on Tuesday, the 18th of September next.
Other papers noticing this will confer a favor which will be duly
appreciated by the officers of the Grand Circle. It is refreshing to know that in this State, where politics
seem to swallow up all other questions, there is a large party of our best men
and women actively and systematically engaged in rescuing the inebriate from the
drunkard's grave. May Heaven bless
their noble efforts!
[Jackson News.