Upper township of Richland county was visited Friday evening by a heavy rain and thunder storm, in the course of which L. E. Ligner’s barn was set afire by lightning and burned, with a mule and a quantity of feedstuffs.

Wholesale grocers of Columbia are in receipt of letters from C. C. Hook, president of the Greater Charlotte club, inviting them to attend the annual convention of the Southern Wholesale Grocers’ association in Charlotte, July 16, 17 and 18 and to participate in entertainments which are being arranged for the delegates.

Tomorrow will be public salesday for July. Several tracts of land are advertised for sale at auction at the Richland county courthouse.

C. B. Haddon, formerly engaged in farm demonstration work throughout South Carolina, but now employed by the Greenville Chamber of Commerce as agricultural commissioner, is trying to promote the growing of alfalfa in Greenville county. He has received orders for alfalfa seed sufficient to plant 10 or 12 acres.

An extraordinarily capacious double-truck street car, of the pay-as-you-enter type, 53 feet long, is in course of construction at the shops of the Columbia Railway, Gas and Electric company, and will probably be finished by the middle of October. Two handsome pay-as-you-enter cars built in these shops have been in use for some time.

Residents of Shandon have made application to the Columbia Railway, Gas and Electric company to extend its gas mains into that suburban section lately annexed to Columbia. It is said that the extension is desired principally because of the convenience of gas as a fuel, its utility for lighting purposes being a secondary consideration in this case, since practically all dwellings in Shandon are already lighted by electricity.

John A. DesPortes participated in an all-day gun shoot at the traps of the Fairfield Gun club in Spartanburg Friday.

Office of public roads of the federal department of agriculture offers opportunities to young men to acquire practical experience in highway engineering by occupying the position of civil engineering student, which draws a salary of $720 a year together with traveling expenses and subsistence, while on the road. A part of the time will be devoted to laboratory and office work, and the remainder to practical road building in different parts of the United States. The civil service examination for this position is to be held on August 6 in all of the larger cities in the country and young men who are qualified are urged by the civil service commission to take this examination, as at the examination held on April 9 an insufficient number of eligibles were obtained for the vacancies which are now open. Applicants must be at least 20 years old and citizens of the United States, with an educational training equivalent to that required for graduation in civil engineering from a recognized school or college. The examination will be in pure and applied mathematics and mechanics, surveying construction and materials of construction.

A. C. Summers, chief chemist of the State department of agriculture, wil deliver an address at the annual meeting of the South Carolina Cotton See Crusher association at Lake Toxaway on July 8. Commissioner Watson speaks to the association on July 9.

Commissioner Watson will go to Washington July 10 to confer with Secretary Houston of the agricultural department and Secretary Garrison of the war department relative to the establishment of a national department of public works. the conference will be held as a result of a resolution of the last National Drainage congress.

No marriage licenses were issued in Richland County yesterday.

Announcement has been made in Columbia that the annual meeting of the South Carolina Agricultural society will be held at the coast experiment station at Jedberg in Charleston county, on July 8. A special train will be operated from Charleston.

“The school was one of the most successful that had ever been held. It will mean much good to the teachers of the State,” said W. B. Dove, chief clerk in the office of the secretary of State, who has returned from Rock Hill, after spending several days at the summer school for teachers at Winthrop college.

J. C. Clark, captain of county chain-gang No. 1, notified the office of Andrew Patterson, Jr., county supervisor, yesterday that he had completed the work on the Percival road. This is the first time in ears that the Percival road has had a really good working. In addition to the work completed, iron-concrete culverts will be installed at an early date.

Work on the Shandon road will be begun this week, according to announcement made yesterday at the office of Andrew Patterson, Jr., supervisor. Men from the various county gangs will be brought to the scene and one of the captains will be put in charge of the work. Who this captain will be could not be announced definitely yesterday.

B. R. Tillman, senior United States senator from South Carolina, announces a vacancy in the United States Military academy at West Point, which will be filled from the State at large. Any bona fide resident of South Carolina, possessing the required qualification, is eligible to appointment. This examination will cover the usual subjects, and any graduate of a first class high school, or any student of a standard college, should have no difficulty in answering the questions. Applicants should be familiar with arithmetic, algebra, geometry, United States history, general history, political and physical geography. spelling, punctuation, grammer, literature and composition and rhetoric. The examination will be held at Davis college. University of South Carolina, beginning at 9 a.m., Friday August 8. Young men entering the competition must submit a physician’s certificate of good health and sound bodily condition. The examination will be in charge of J. E. Swearingen, E. D. Easterling and H. C. Davis. Inquiries should be addressed to the State superintendent of education at Columbia.

The clouds which restrained the sun until afternoon kept the temperature down to 94 yesterday. The morning was a relief from the intense heat of the preceding days, but the afternoon was trying. The clouds disappeared and it was hot and heavy. There is no change in the weather predicted by the local forecaster.

The regular monthly meeting of the Columbia real estate exchange is to be signalized Tuesday evening, July 8, by the serving of a barbecue at Ridgewood. The meeting is called for 6:30 o’clock. After the routine business has been dispensed with, several new members are to be initiated.

That there is a widespread demand in Richland county for the two vacant scholarships at Winthrop college is evidenced by the fact that 15 girls took the competitive examination Friday morning. They and the schools from which they came were as follows: Mille Bowen, Marguerite Brandenburg, Gaynell Craps, Sarah McMillan and Inez Nolan, Columbia; Nell Carter, Shandon; Josephine McCord and Annie Newton, Epworth; Laura Hopkins, Teresa Smith and Maxcy McCracken, Hopkins; Ruth Hawley, Blythewood; Annie Belle Kennedy, Blaney; Martha Ann Yates, Lykesland, and Sallie Young, Congaree.