Choctaw Plaindealer from Ackerman, Mississippi • 3

STATE NEWS NOTES Weekly Budget of News Items Gathered by Our Special Correspondent at Jackson COL. JONES PASSES WAS EX-LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR AND PROMINENT CITIZEN. Was Born in Alabama, Removed to Mississippi in Early Life. Col. J.

H. Jones, formerly Neutenant governor of Mississippi, died here at his home Sunday. Col. Jones was born in Alabama, and his early boyhood was spent in Mobile, where his father was judge of the city court. He prepared for college in Macon county, and graduated from the University of Mississippi in the class of 1858.

That year he married Miss Helen M. Davis of Wilkinson county, and they moved to Texas, where he Sook up the practice of law, remaining there until the outbreak of the Civil War. Then he returned to Wilkinson county and enlisted as a private in 1861, During the winter of that year he became lieutenant of his company. In April, 1862, he returned to Wilkinson county and raised Company of the Thirty -eighth infantry regiment, known as the Wilkinson Guards, becoming captain. The regiment served in the Western army, and was captured at Vicksburg in 1863.

After the war he settled in Woodville resumed the practice of law and served two terms in the Mississippi legbalature and then was elected state in 1890. He was a delegate at large the constitutional convention of 1890, Which eliminated the negro from politics. In 1895 he was elected lieutenant govarnor, serving the full term, after which he retired to his home and family. NOEL MAKES DENIAL. Veteran Leonard Refused to Shake Governor's Hand.

Jackson. -Concerning the report that Gov. Noel was instrumental in the discharge of an old Confederate soldier lamed Leonard from the Confederate Home at Beauvoir because the latter had declined to shake hands with him on the occasion of the former's resent visit at Beauvoir, the governor ave out his first official statement anent the incident, Gov. Noel said that on his visit at Beauvoir, all of the soldiers, with the ingle exception of one, named Leonard, treeted him cordially. Leonard, whom he met and addressed along with a numher of other inmates of the home, refused to shake his hand, remarking When he approached the governor: "You have no business here, so you had betVer get out," or something to that eflect.

The governor took no heed of the Incident, concluding that Leonard was lot himself. He was later informed that Leonard had been an inmate of the old soldiers' Annex at Vicksburg, but recently had been dismissed from the institution for Assaulting a fellow inmate with a brick. seems that Gov. Noel, who is presilent of the board of trustees of the Vicksburg institution, had not heard of the dismissal of Leonard until after the Beauvoir incident and had nothing to do with it. "I suspect that Leonard connected me In some way with his dismissal," said the governor.

"After he refused to shake hands with me at Beauvoir, I wrote to the officer in charge of the annex at Vicksburg and from him I was Informed of Leonard's conduct and the reason for his dismissal. I had nothing to do with it." MISSSISIPPI'S GREAT SHOW. State Has Received Splendid Publicity at Event in Chicago. idea as to the pubMcity that has been given the state of Mississippi represented with a very beautiful exhibit at the big Chicago Land Show now in full blast may be had from the following interesting facts: More than 700,000 pieces of literature have been handed from the booth. More Than 200,000 persons interested in the have registered their names in larder that they might have more literaSure mailed into their homes.

More than 500 families will move to Mississippi within the next six months on the strength of what they have earned and seen at the Mississippl exbit. More than 300,000 pecans bearing adtertisement of the state have been dven away by Mississippi workers. More than 300,000 persons have thns seen the Mississippi exhibit. Fully many more will see it before the land show closes. STATE'S COTTON CROP.

Another Payment Has Been Made Into the Treasury. Another payment has been made into the state treasury by the penitentiary consisting of $11,552.03, being the prodeeds of sales of cotton, cotton seed, Sides and refund-but it was paid by turning in paid warrants of the penidentiary and all the good it does the treasury is the fact that the figures are 00 the books. Christma HONOR NEW GOVERNOR JACKSON MAKING PREPARATIONS FOR INAUGURAL. Will Be Biggest Thing of the Kind Ever Pulled Off in Mississippi, and No Politics in It. -Steps are now being taken, and plans being formulated 1 by the Jackson Board of Trade to make the inauguration of Gov.

Brewer a great event. Inasmuch as Mr. Brewer was unanimously elected governor of Mississippi, and by no faction of the population, the idea of politics entering into the event cannot for a moment be entertained and everyone approached with the idea has received it with approval and promised to put shoulder to wheel in making it a grand success. The Board of Trade will have the affair in hand, and those merchants and citizens who are not affiliated with that organization have expressed themselves favorably on the idea, so the plan looks bright. It is proposed to bring the National Guard of the state to Jackson to take part in the parade; and the civic societies will also turn out to do him honor.

There will be a banquet tendered to the governor that night, and also a reception to the governor and the legislature. There will be an inaugural ball which will far eclipse any past events, and a smoker for the members of the legislature who do not care to dance. Indications now are that the day will be one of the most memorable in the history of the state, in the line of welcoming the new governor and legisla ture to the capital. FINDS IMPORTANT PAPERS. Director Rowland Preparing "Life and Letters of Jefferson Davis." -In the December number of Harper's Magazine, Dr.

Dunbar Rowland, director of the Mississippi department of archives and history, has an interesting article on "The Private and Official Papers of Jefferson Davis," which is of considerabile value from a historical standpoint, and contains much matter that is new. There will be later articles along the same lines. Dr. Rowland is working on a history of "The Life and Letters of Jefferson Davis," and came 'across hitherto unpublished material. Some of the letters he has just perused and copied on his recent trip to Washington, where they were resurrected from the secret files of the war department.

They were intercepted during the closing days of the Confederacy, and bear pertinent witness to the condition of the tottering government at that time, and the plans of its chief. The letters have remained unseen by any but official eyes for nearly fortyseven years, and Dr, Rowland was the first historian who has had access to them, MAY USE OLD CAPITOL AGAIN. New State House Badly Crowded am More Room Needed. -As time goes on it becomes more and more apparent that the past legislatures of the state have proven wise in refusing to put the old state house property upon the market, but have retained it. The conclusion is inevitable now that the legislature which assembles in January will be compelled to make some provision for the overflow of business from the new capitol, which in eight years has shown that it is too small to accommodate all the branches of the state government as they should be accommodated.

Just what sum it would take to render the old state house habitable and safo is a problem. If it can be accomplished for a reasonable amount, a number of legislators-elect have expressed them selves as favoring its rehabitation. ASK $98,000 FOR SOLDIERS' HOME. Beauvoir Board Outlines Needs fox the Coming Year. a meeting of the general board of the Soldiers' Home, Beauvoir, including members of the board of directors and of its executive committee, which was held at the Home, the biennial report of the directors, asking for appropriations amounting to $98,000, was made.

It was decided to ask the legislature for appropriations as follows: For support fund for 1912, $42,500. For support fund for 1913, $45,000. For two six-room dormitories, to cost $2,000 each, $4,000. For furniture and equipments for dormitories, $500. For uniforms and other clothing for inmates of the Home, $4,000.

BACOT ASKS PARDON. Noted Pike County Convict Is Seeking His Liberty. -A murder case of much ce is recalled by the petition for lebrtiy pardon presented at the governor's office in behalf of Charles Bacot, formerly a prominent merchant at Osyka, in Pike county, who is now serving a three-year for manslaughter. Bacot is one of term few white men ever sent the exceedingly penitentiary in this state for the to the killing of a negro. ILL the children in 1925 have Christmas trees? This question is being asked by thousands of people throughout the United States.

Indications point to the supposition that within the next 15 rears the supply of the evergreen trees with which we deck our living rooms annually at the feast of St. Nicholas will be so small that folk in the ordinary walks of life will not be able to afford a tree. Year after year the forests have een denuded. New England, a genertion ago, was thought to have an almost inexhaustible supply. Today her hills are bare.

Nearly all her immense forests of spruce and fir have been sacrificed to the sentiment of Yuletide. The middle states have been ransacked for their treasures. The farmer, although he receives but two cents apiece for the trees, is afraid to look the future in the face and wait until the tree is full grown. Neither does he show any discretion in cutting, but every year he rushes to the woods and cuts everything that he can lay his hands on in order that some one may have a night's pleasure by defacing work with cheap tinsel and candles. what would have been the forest of the discarded forever, beyond the power of restore and the work of nature for years place.

The bulk of the trees now come from More than 300,000 are used annually in phia alone. New York, Chicago, Baltimore a hundred towns between them use that number every year. In the wild hills of the Canadian trees are still plentiful. But it is only tion of a few years' time, with the mand for them, when their price will attempt is made, apparently, to rejuvenate ests. In a few scattered places throughout try, it is true, one or two men have eries in Christmas trees.

Intelligent cutting within three generations may useful patches from which to glean But elsewhere, in spite of the talk of tion which hear so much about trees are stripped ruthlessly from the valleys and no attempt is made by' the marketer to replace them. This has resulted in the present dearth much-desired spruce trees. Vermont charges an additional stumpage of five trees which are shipped out of the Let us consider the Christmas tree Philadelphia. Each year more than freight cars, loaded with the trees, piled in double tiers, reach the city. The of the flat car averages 300 trees.

Therefore, approximately 300,000 trees In Philadelphia annually. Sentimentality this is an enormous waste of material, is recalled that the trees serve no pose, and the majority of them furnish bonfires on vacant lots two weeks after Iday. It is an expensive proposition considered light. First comes the cost of sending regions where the trees grow. They are They are able to size up the marketable a patch of woods after a day's tramp them.

Then comes the cost of cutting, age, hauling and shipping to destination. that, it is mainly a matter for the retail who buy trees either as they stand in ests, or at the freight yards in the cities they are consigned. The small dealer must make his tacks on an extra price which the consumer pay. Then comes the expense of greenwood with tinsel and glistening This costs a little fortune in itself. is usual to pay the ashman to cart the after the holidays are over.

It has been estimated that from first to the time that the seedling is planted in the soft, friable soll, to the moment it returns to its primal element, dust, as a handful of embers on the city lot, a Christmas tree represents a money valuation of $25. This is a total expenditure of 500,000 annually. Of course, this figure is purely imaginary. The trees do not actually cause that amount of money to change hands in a simple buying and selling transaction. But there is actually that much loss to the regions which supply trees.

If all the trees in an average loaded flat car were to be stood upon their butts, in the natural way in which they would grow, they would cover a ten-acre lot. Multiply this by 1,000 and the amount of timber stripped annually from the hills will become apparent at once. Just at this time of the year the Christmas tree industry is in its most flourishing condition. All of the trees for this year's market have been cut. Many of them are in transit, but some of them are even now standing in the freight yards of the railroads, waiting for the retail dealers to purchase them.

Dealers are gradually awakening to the fact that it is better to ship their trees early, sell them all at low price, and save the trouble and expense of remaining a long time in the city bartering their wares. The dealers in Christmas trees are types. They are all queer characters. You cannot pick out one that has not some peculiarity. As in all trades, there are tricks to the business of buying and selling Christmas trees.

You would think that the disposal of a car load of railroad ties, with a layer of trees piled on top, to an unwary customer, would bar the deal- OF- THE DESTRUCTION DETACING NATURE FOR A NIGHTS PLEASURE nature's After that, future is man to to re- Canada. Philadeland three times provinces the a quesincreased desoar. No the for- the counstarted nursplanting and rake them hardy trees. conservanowadays, the hills and greedy of the already cents, upon state. situation in 1,000 fat which are capacity are used apart, when it economic purfuel for the hol- in any men into experts.

value of through stumpAfter dealers, the forto which profit. He must decorating the ornaments. Finally, It tree away, last, from ers from coming again to the spot where they had practiced such deception. Yet it never does. Year after year they practice the most dishonest tricks upon their patrons.

One man last year got a high price for 20 of the finest trees ever seen in Philadelphia. He told the buyer that the rest Ef the car on which the 20 were loaded was just like them, but when they were unloaded and placed for sale, they proved to be small and scrubby, many of them being ers such as these are Ity of them are honest. WHAT MAN WILL DO FOR TWO CENTS To the dealers, whom the railroads designate as the consignees, come the little fellows, the traders. These also represent almost every phase of human character. Many save up a few hundred dollars and visit the freight yards with their teams, buying the trees in less than carload lots.

In this way they can see just what they are getting. Most of them are shrewd fellows, and drive a hard bargain. Your upcountryman is ofttimes as shrewd, however, as the "piker" dealer, and many amusing hours may be spent frequenting the freight yards in the railroads where the trees are stacked or exhibited for sale. Each year there are many new additions to the company of dealers. The lure of the adventure, the chance to realize money upon an investment that is practically certain to bring a 50 per cent.

return, attracts many to the business. Trees can be purchased in half carload lots, or even in hundred lots for about 60 cents apiece. It they can be sold for a dollar, or perhaps more, the chance to make money quickly is irresistible to many investors. Not always does the investor succeed. His fingers are sometimes pretty badly burned.

The market may be glutted, he may have a rival on the next corner, or perhaps his trees are not sufficiently attractive to cause the public to patronize him. Perhaps he has held off, waiting for better prices, till the last moment, and finds himself with half a hundred spruce on his hands, which he must dispose of as best he may. Usually, however, the business is lucrative. The wise dealer buys trees in hundred lots, peddles them out quickly, and comes back for more. He does not wait for high prices, but sells his trees utterly unfit for use.

Dealrare, it is true; the major- Christmas in Old Come- And Ceremony doff'd his pride. The heir, with roses in his shoes, That night might village partner choose; The lord, underogating, share The vulgar game of "post and All hall'd, with uncontroll'd delight And general voice, the happy night, That to the cottage as the crown Brought tidings of salvation down. The fire, with we logs supplied, Went roaring up the chimney wide; The huge hall table's oaken face, Scrubb'd till it shone, the day to grace, Bore then upon its massive board No mark to part the squire and lord, Then was brought in the lusty brawn By old blue-coated serving man; Then the grim boar's head grown'd on high, Crested with bays and rosemary. Well can the ranger tell How, when and where the monster fell, What dogs before his death he tore And all the baiting of the boar, The wassall round, in good brown bowls Garnish'd with ribbons, blitherly trowls. As you pass some windy corner one on these blustery nights before Christmas Eve and see the long rows of evergreens laid against the wall, or ignobly lying prone upon the ground, bethink you of the place in which they first saw the light.

The kindly hills, snow-covered engirdling valleys fragrant with spicy odor; picture them bare, littered with the waste of cuttirgs, and the unsightly stumps of trees. Picture the brooding of those trees as they grew. It took them 20 years to reach an age and size where they might prove marketable. No more will the wind moan and sough through their branches. The hills are bare.

The snow will melt in the spring, and the soil will not absorb it. Water will run into the streams and the streams become floods, and the floods breed calamities. The trees, noble fellows all of them, will have their tops hacked off to accommodate them 1 to the stuffiness of our little box-like homes. As the heat of our rooms dries up their sap, their lives will go out, slowly, day by day. They will end on the bonfire.

Yes, buy a tree. Buy one and take it home to your children. When it is bravely decked out in all its gala finery, gather your family about its spreading branches, which are exhaling their last breaths for you, and tell them the story of the life and death of the tree. THE SPIRIT OF THE DAY. Have you take but a thoughts heart of cradles of let us ask real spirit of There the huge sirloin reek'd; hard by Plum porridge stood and Christmas ple; Nor fall'd old Scotland to produce At such high tide her savory goose.

Then came the merry ya maskers in, And carols roar'd with blithesome din; If unmelodious was the song, It was a hearty, note and strong. Who lists their mumming see Traces of ancient mystery. White shirts supplied the masquerade And smutted cheeks the visors made: But, what maskers, richly dight, Can boast of bosoms half so light! England was merry England, when Christmas brought his sports again. 'Twas Christmas broach'd the mightlest ale; 'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale; A Christmas gambol oft could cheer The poor man's heart through half the year. -Sir Walter Scott.

time for a little sermon? It will few minutes, and today, if ever, our things. To you, whose hands rock the should be turned a toward iuward to humanity and indirectly rule the world, a question: Are you forgetting the the day? Gift giving on this anni versary of the Nativity is in danger of losing its loving purpose. It has degenerated in many cases to a mercenary exchange--a gift for a gift. The spirit is frequently absent. This should not be.

Women rep resent the greater number of giftgivers. Let us then revert to the underlying love and reverence that prompted the Wise Men to lay their offerings at the feet of the Holy Baby. Let us give a little of our hearts with each present, and if we cannot give a tangible expression of our love, let us give a heart's wish instead. In your hands lies great power for good or for evil. A woman influences thought and action.

It is your duty, then, to discountenarce the heartless offer and to smile your approval of the spirit of the day. Then, Indeed, Christmas will mean all that he would approve. The guiding star of love and good will that shone so clearly in the blue night long ago should never be lost in our minds, and the love to which it pointed should epitomize our ef forts to nonor this great day. Heap But let on more wind is chill. it whistle a8 it will, We'll keep our Christmas merry still.

Each has deem'd the newborn year The fittest time for festal cheer; And well our Christian sires of old Loved when the year Its course had roll'd And brought blithe Christmas back again, With all his hospitable train. Domestic and religious rite Gave honor to the holy night; On Christmas eve bells were rung; On Christmas eve the mass was sung: That only night in all the year Saw the stoled priest the chalic rear. The damsel donn'd her kirtle sheen, The hall was dress'd with holly green; Forth to the wood did merry men go To gather in the mistletoe. Then open'd wide the baron's hall To vassal, tenant, serf and all; Power laid his rod of rule aside A SURPRISE BOX. Something which would delight any little invalid is a "surprise box." This may be planned to last a week or any length of time one wishes and should contain a package for each day, with the date on which it is to be opened written plainly on each one.

Dolls, toys, books and many other things dear to the child. ish heart may be put in these packages and the little one will surely rejoice to have his "Merry Christmas" last so many daze..