The Ashburn Advance
Friday, August 20, 1897
If there is an old-fashioned water mill near Cordele, Ridenhour ought
to go there and have his wits ground.
R. L. Moye of Cuthbert and W. E. Morris have leased the Liberal-Enterprise
and are making a good display of their wisdom. Moye is our man for
the next president of the Georgia Weekly Press Association.
Editor Smith of the Ashburn Advance is full of fun and witty sayings.
We have learned to search his columns every week, and he never disappoints
us. --- Arabi School Journal
If Kid Ridenhour and Mr. Cunningham really did purchase the Herald plant,
isn't it a case of experience (!) vs. capital, with usual result to follow?
We extend our sympathies to Mr. Cunningham.
The Arizona Kicker man should bring forth more of his effusions.
"Kid, the Terrible," otherwise known as Editor Ridenhour has about exhausted
the Kicker's already published vituperative slang, and has no other source
to draw upon. The Kicker should have passion for the Kid and help
him out in his dilemma. The poor little thing has yet to frighten
anybody, and if the Kicker don't help him out soon, no telling what might
happen. He might possibly go to the extreme of quitting the newspaper
business, and that would be a fearful calamity, as a number of newspapers
are having a deal of fun with him just now. He's a better show than
"a box of monkeys."
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From Deep Creek
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Mr. Brock has a very sick child, and Luke's young and very successful
physician is attending it, and hopes for it's early recovery are looked
for by the many friends and the family.
Joe Haman and Homer Williams, two of our best and brightest young men,
took in your town on Saturday last; these are indeed tip-top gentlemen,
and anybody's fair daughter would do well to capture either of them.
Bro. Smith, come out; I think you are in need of a sweet little wife,
and I will give you one of these maidens sweet and fair with golden hair.
I spent a few hours recently with Thomas Shingler and family.
These are truly sociable and cultivated people, whom God will always bless,
as these christians never forget to entertain strangers.
Mr. Walker closed his schools this week, and will leave in a few days
for Cordele. He will begin a school near that place on the first
Monday in September. --- Alpha
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Notice to School Boys and Girls
I hope you will be ready to begin school on the first Monday in September.
We will be down eight or ten days before our fall term opens and help you
talk up this session. Most of you already know I depend on your help
about as much as your parents.
I trust I will find you all bright and fresh, and ready and anxious
to work after this long summer's rest we all have enjoyed. Mrs. Passmore
and myself have been whispering low (because we were afraid her mamma might
not like it) that we would be glad when the morning came when we would
meet you all again to resume our work.
I anticipate a most pleasant time this fall, because we are pretty well
begun in some of our work, and then we will also take some studies that
are entirely new.
I want each of you to regard this as a personal letter. Indeed
it is, because as I write I am thinking about every one of you. If I had
the time, I would like so much to say something to each one of you and
call you by name. We often speak together about you. What you
reckon we say? When we move back I'll let you guess this, and I can
tell you if you guess right.
Begin now to talk for this session and let us have the liveliest and
the best term we ever yet had. Very Kindly, L. D. PASSMORE
Garden Valley, Ga., Aug. 17, '97.
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ISABELLA SCRAPS
-- o --
Col. Hawkins of Cordele was in the city a short while Friday.
Miss Jessie Hall returned home Sunday last, to the regret of many friends
here.
Miss Ina Williams, after a pleasant visit in Atl., returned home last
week.
Clerk Warren is with home folks for a few days, enjoying a brief respite
from his official duties.
Miss Effie and Master Johnny Ross were among our visitors Sunday last.
Rev. S. E. Blitch preached an interesting sermon to a large congregation
last Sunday at the Baptist church.
Miss Flora Law, a charming young lady of Tropic Ga., has been spending
a while with her brother Walter in Isabella.
Rev. Mr. Sanders will begin a series of meetings at the M. E. church
Saturday, the 21st. Be ready and waiting to do your part when he
comes.
Judge Warren, Sheriff Story, and Misses Josie Jernigan and Kate McDowell
attended the meeting at Hickory Springs Sunday last.
The sound of Lundy's gin (nie) will soon reverberate o'er the meadows
green. Messrs. Cochran and Lunday will pay Albany market price for
all cotton devoured by the aforesaid gin (nie).
Rev. S. E. Blitch administered the ordinance of baptism to five converts
Sunday at 9 a.m. at the beautiful pool.
Deariso brothers of Atl. were in attendance at the M. court Sunday.
Come again and bring many more.
Transgressor's Rest is now open to the public. Sheriff Story is
making an ideal host. Board furnished free to those showing official
credentials.
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The Epworth League -- R. S. Woodard Resigns.
The social and literary meeting of the Epworth League last Friday night
at L. O. Futch's is said to have been the best the league has ever enjoyed.
The Willing Hands' banner with the program attached, written in a beautiful
hand and interlined with red wavy dashes, sent out by the secretary was
a new thing to the people, and it created criticism favorable and adverse.
R. S. Woodard has been secretary for the League about four months, and
has sustained his reputation for being vigilant in all he undertakes.
He has spent time and money in the discharge of that duty without hope
of reward except spiritual. His preparation of the banner and program
last week was something unique and worthy of the praise and approval of
all the members and friends of the League. - The Willing Hands' banner,
with fringed program on handsome staff, was unfurled and displayed by a
colored boy with a bell to ring and cash to rattle for his work.
Into all the stores, shops and offices, and to the residences he went with
the message that there would be a social and literary meeting of the League
that night at L. O. Futch's, and that all the leaguers were requested to
attend.
The hour was set for eight o'clock, and the members arrived in time
to open the meeting at nine (excuse late hours). Three dozen persons
were present -- about three times the number generally present at the Wednesday
night prayer meeting. The meeting was opened with prayer and scripture
reading by President F. E. Hudson. All the pieces were nicely rendered,
and we would like to speak of each separately, but space forbids.
However, the two most deserving of the special mention are George Betts
reading Labor and Patience and Miss Aurena Evans reading Mack Swat's Swear-off.
R. S. WOODARD RESIGNS
R. S. Woodard has rendered his resignation. Why he did so is not
explained. It may because he failed to get co-operation of the members
in his attempt to put new life and vigor into the society. There
is no living man more liberal and willing to lend a helping hand to every
good cause than R. S. Woodard. With time and patience in lamplight
he prepared the handsomest invitation banner that ever went before the
people for a local cause in Ashburn. Even this noble work was spurned
by parties prominent in the League, and that may have prompted the resignation.
No man in town will do the work of R. S. Woodard. His resignation
is by no means beneficial to the League, and there will be no more "Willing
Hands" from the members, or the society will not flourish.
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Col. Powells little boy is quite sick.
Rev. J. C. Flanders returned last Friday.
Prof. Grubbs, of Sycamore, was in town Tuesday.
R. P. Fains is attending the Indian Springs meeting.
W. A. Murray went to Macon on business Monday.
Col. Powell went to Dakota yesterday on legal business.
C. Dasher of Sycamore was in Ashburn trading Tuesday.
Johnny Rogers, son of G. K. Rogers, is quite ill with appendicitis.
W. M. Bruce formerly of Pelham, is clerking for G. B. Gorday.
James Tifton, of Sylvester, was registered at the Clyde on Monday.
Telephone subscribers will please add to their list J. W. Walker, No.
33.
J. E. Edmondson went south Saturday with a drove of horses for sale.
Rev. J. C. Flanders reports a good meeting from Johnson county last
week.
John Fountain of Sycamore is the proud father of a fine boy born yesterday.
Lester Stuart returned from Ellaville Monday, accompanied by his mother.
Cotton baskets are on the market now. W. A. Murray received a
100 Monday.
Sheriff Story was in Ashburn Monday crossing palms with his many warm
friends.
J. S. Betts and wife, and J. W. Evans attended the Indian Springs meeting
this week.
Major White has returned from Americus, and reports having a royal good
time.
Rev. Mr. Burger is now holding a protracted meeting at the Baptist church
in Dakota.
Walter Whidby is assisting Mr. Daniels in Jeffrey & Roobin's store,
in the absentee of Mr. Jeffrey.
J. W. Chapman was taken quite ill this week, and is confined to his
bed at the Dew Drop Inn.
Mrs. C. H. Snow left for Hard Pine Sunday to join her husband, who has
secured a position in the mill there.
Rev. J. Lawrence went to Indian Springs this week to attend the Holiness
meeting now in progress there.
Cols. Powell and Davis and Marshall Hall attended county court Wednesday.
They report a large crowd there.
Mr. and Mrs. Pryor and children went to Americus on a two weeks' visit
to relatives and friends.
W. H. Mashburn, formerly of this place, but now of Valdosta, was in
town this week and registered at the Clyde.
Mrs. A. D. Betts left last Saturday for Jonesboro, Ga., where she will
visit relatives and friends for a couple of weeks.
Tax Collector Hall was in town Monday. He has not received his
books yet, but thinks he will get them next week.
Charley Green, aged about 18, who lived near Sibley, was found dead
in bed one morning last week. He had been ill for some time.
Henry Rhodes, col., the wife beater and pistol thief, pleaded guilty
before the county court, and was given two years on the chain gang.
R. J. Mahoney put up a gin and boiler last week for Bowman and Wright
in the Dan Davis neighborhood. The gin is now ready for business.
Tax Collector Hall has started up his new gin at Oakfield. He
makes discouraging reports of the condition of the crop in that neighborhood.
Mrs. J. W. Powell, who has been very low for the past two months is,
we are glad to note, convalescing, and is able to sit up some each day.
J. J. Lee & Co., merchants of Irwinville, have dissolved partnership,
Mr. Lee retiring. W. R. Johnson will conduct the business hereafter.
Miss Flora Monk, a charming young lady from Abbeville, was the guest
of Miss Willie McLendon several days the past week, and returned home Wednesday.
Dr. Gardner, wife and baby, left for Macon county Tuesday, where they
will sojourn for a time. It is hoped the temporary change will prove
beneficial to their health.
On Monday W. A. Murray received from AEtna Insurance Co. $750 being
in payment in full for his policy in that company, for loss on his store
burned May 16th.
Miss Mattie Clark arrived here from Milledgeville Tuesday. She
will spend a few days with her sister Mrs. J. P. Belvin, and take a position
with Mrs. T. J. Shingler.
Some of the machinery at McLendon's gin broke down one day last week,
and as a result the gin was idle several days. The break has been
repaired, and ginning resumed.
L. C. Killibrew went to Lake City Monday where he will remain for some
time, having secured a position as saw filer for the East Coast Lumber
Co. His family will remain here.
J. G. Padrick and Miss Willie Lee Fullwood were married at Tifton Wednesday.
Mr. Padrick is well and favorably known in Ashburn, and his many
friends here, with the Advance, showered host of congratulations and best
wishes upon the groom and his bonnie bride.
A negro boy named George Washington fell from a pile of shingles at
the mill Saturday, and received serious bruises. Dr. Turner was summoned,
but found no bones nor shingles broken.
E. E. Hobbs and wife of Valdosta arrived in the city yesterday, and
are registered at the Dew Drop Inn. Mr. Hobbs has secured a position
at the still at woodsman, and will remain in Ashburn.
J. S. Betts, J. W. Evans and J. P. Belvin each lost a fine calf this
week, and it was thought for a time that a contagious disease had broken
out among the young stock, but no fatalities have been reported.
Mr. and Mrs. Hargroves and two children, of Leesburg, arrived here on
Saturday on a visit to his son Will. They returned home on Monday
night, in order to enjoy a moonlight drive.
L. D. Simmons has sold his half interest in the Bedgood & Simmons
sawmill at Arabi to Greer Bros. of Dakota. The mill, which has been
shut down for some weeks, will now make full time, to the joy of many idle
laborers.
Work on Jeffrey and Roobins new storehouse had to be temporarily suspended
Monday, owing inability to procure lumber. The framework is up and
the building will be pushed to completion as soon as the material can be
obtained.
Jack Sumner gave Dr. Thrasher a watermelon early in the season, and
the doctor traded it off for a kiss. Sumner has been missing watermelons
ever since, and suspicion points to the aforesaid M. D. Now is the
time to subscribe.
We clip the following from the High Springs (Fla.) Sentinel: Maj. Geo.
Butler late of the High Springs Sentinel staff, is now holding a position
with the Ashburn (Ga.) Advance. The Major will make a valuable coadjutor
to the editor of the Advance.
"Butter John" is a popular nickname given to a well-known clerk in town.
He made a vigorous kick about butter at his boarding house, and he now
has butter to burn, furnished by the boarders, who even carry it in their
pockets to have it handy for him at the table or on the streets.
Now if only he would make a kick on eggs with voluntary contributions alone
he could start a butter and egg store, an institution badly needed in Ashburn.
Col. Park, the lawyer who recently located in Poulan, was appointed
by the county court to defend Graham, one of the Ashburn gamblers, Wednesday.
He lost his case, but nevertheless proved himself to be an able attorney.
The weeds on the street between the residences of Messrs. Futch, Law
and Rogers are an abominable nuisance, and the council should have them
removed. Ladies cannot walk on that street after a rain without getting
their skirts ringing wet.
Some peddlers lost one the horses Monday, and they are now camped on
the street near the Baptist church. LATER.-- The peddlers will probably
move now, for J. P. Newton has traded them his fine mare with dilapidated
eyesight for forty chickens with good eyes.
Fall term Ashburn high school begins September 6, 1897. First
grade, $1.25 per month; second grade $1.50; third grade $1.75. These
prices are exclusive of any public funds. Incidentals 5 cent
per month. Tuition payable monthly. Music department Miss Ella Bacon;
Primary department, Mrs. L. D. Passmore; Principal L. D. Passmore.
J. W. Walker has put in a telephone at his place of business, and his
number is 33. Tuesday a customer called him up and ordered a quart
of ice cream. Mr. Walker then called central and got connections,
and with the aid of a funnel scraped the ice cream into the transmitter,
expecting it to slide over on the wire to his customer, but it didn't slide
worth a cent. He is thinking of attaching pneumatic tubes to his
phone.
Two star mail routes will probably be established from Ashburn during
the next few months. The new post office near Live Oak, over in Irwin,
will be known as Exchange, and a route will be established from Ashburn
to Luke via Exchange, a distance of 12 miles. That settlement is
in need of a postoffice, and we will be glad when they get it. On
the road from Ashburn to Warwick, a distance of 20 miles, two offices have
been established, one at Ad Ryals named Marsh, and one at Fate Griffin's
on Jake Young place named Griggs. Then it will be in order to establish
a mail route from Ashburn to Warwick to supply these two offices.
On last Sunday a daughter of Dock Simmons, col., ran away from home,
and coming to town with Leonard Troutman, got married at Daniel's restaurant.
A wedding dinner was ordered, and while the dusky bride was triumphantly
ensconced on the hurricane deck of the empty cracker box enjoying luscious
watermelon her parents put in an appearance with blood in their eyes, and
it is said that the old woman was armed with a shotgun and the old man
with an axe. The wedding dinner was broken up, and the bride broke
and ran. Up to 9 o'clock the flight the bride had taken had not been
found. The old man declared "wasn't gwine ter feed no gal all summer
on pot licker and greens an' den run off and git married to a niggah at
cotton pickin' time." The old man's wrath was appeased, however,
by the aforesaid "niggah" agreeing to help him pick cotton, and Leonard
is enjoying his honeymoon under the parental roof.
The parents of little Nina Mahoney sent to this office for publication
this week a nice tribute to the death of their dear little one who died
two weeks ago, but we cannot publish the tribute because it is compiled
of extracts from poems of different rhythm, thereby losing the intended
effect of the effort. Poetry is nice in an obituary, but it should
be original and to the point, composed for the special purpose, and dedicated
to the person named. However we have the deepest sympathy for the
bereaved parents in the sad loss of their dear little one, who so shortly
shone it's little light in their home and faded so early in the dewy morning
of life. The little carriage has been rolled aside, the small slippers
stored away, and the tiny feet gone to another shore to pace in golden
slippers and ride in a carriage more elegant than the one left behind.
Let the parents be prepared to meet their God and their child.
Editor J. Lawrence of the Holiness Advocate gives notice that he will
change his church relationship and has called a meeting of the stockholders
to decide whether he or someone else shall be the editor of the Advocate.
It has been known "in the family" for some time that Bro. Lawrence was
going to the Wesleyan church. The Wesleyan church is claiming our
extremists, he being the fourth who has gone from the Methodist church
in Ashburn. The Wesleyan church was organized 50 years ago with a
membership of 20,000. To-day she has 16,000 -- a loss of only 4,000
in a half a century. Bro. Lawrence has been a pillar in the Methodist
church, but since he has gone off in the Wesleyan faith it is better for
him to join the Wesleyan church. Harmony has not prevailed in the
Methodist church of Ashburn this year, but when the children of Israel
are properly divided the gospel ship may be expected to sail more smoothly.
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Blackcappers in Ashburn
There never was a time when man could not be deceived, and he is so
much an animal that he will run if you get him badly scared. Two
young men from the country who recently spent a night in the suburbs with
relatives can testify to the fact that even a trained mind will succumb
to deceptions, wits will depart, activity of limbs will appear, and the
one thought of saving the body will wrap the mind and exclude the facts
and common sense.
It happened during the time a negro woman was kept here in the lock-
up a day and two nights, that the two young men in question came to pay
a visit to their uncles, Col. Z. and W. T. Bass. It is customary
at the country home of the Bass family and their neighbors to play pranks
on each other and "get a move on them" if they could.
Logan Horne and Thomas Royal are bright young men, but the first law
of nature -- the preservation of self -- is an instinct with them, and
water would as much run up hill as they would deliberately go into danger.
Col. Z. and Ed, and Wesley Bass conspired to frighten the young men
with a practical war story, and talked low to each other in their hearing
the negroes being so mad about the woman being in jail, and how the colored
race would rise up with guns that night and slay whites folks until none
were left, and the woman out of jail. The boys pictured in their
mind a battlefield with Ashburn strewn with dead and wounded, with not
enough left to keep their graves clean.
After the boys had retired, Ed Bass appeared at the window with blackened
face, wearing a uniform plug hat with tassel, and carrying a stick in his
hand for a gun. He addressed himself to the boys and demanded their
surrender as he pressed the stick to his shoulder and pointed it at them.
Calling on a higher power for mercy they tumbled over each other to the
floor and went out into the hall to inform Uncle Wes that an army of negroes
had come to kill them, and that one nine feet high stood at the window
with big gun ready to shoot them as fast as they poked their heads out,
Mr. Bass understood the joke and told the boys to dress and go to Zack's
for his gun and he would kill the last mother's son of them. Their
object was to get the boys strung out down the Sycamore road and close
in behind them, but, like the boy on the burning deck, they refused to
go. Mr. Bass told them to go with him and he would get the axe and
slay the one that tried to come in. They went far enough to peep
underneath the house and see the blocks of wood that lay scattered around.
A fearful groan was heard from one of the boys, and they went back into
the house like rats to their holes. Again inside they whispered with
deep breath that they saw nine strapping black negro men on all fours,
with guns ready to shoot. Ed Bass still at the window, demanded the
persons of Ed Bass and the two boys. Wesley informed him that Ed
had left there at three o'clock that evening. The boys spoke up and
said the boys had gone too. Ed then rapped at the door and demanded
admission. The boys stuck spurs in the floor and planted their backs
against the door and commenced pleading for mercy. One informed the
"gentlemen" outside that none of them had anything to do with putting the
woman in jail, and they thought they ought to go away and let innocent
people alone. Then the rap would come from the other door and there
was a rush pell mell inside to keep the door from being broken down and
to save their own lives. They too, as the Poulan Herald would say,
lifted up their voices and wept.
It was an awful hour; yea an awful age for the boys and when the denouncement
came they meandered off with the solemnity of a blind black mule returning
from the funeral of a Porto Rico nigger, and 'neath the branches of a swaying
pine took an oath that the Bass home should never again be invaded by them
-- after dark.
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