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^ar m Cotton Pickers' Strike. New Orleans, September 6.?The Times-Democrat'a Galveston special gives information concerning the organization a aaIava/) nnttnn nlptDro' tin inn n/liinh ML 14 VV/1V1 VU IfMlVM hag agreed not to pick cotton after September 2 for lees than one dol Jar per nunarea pounds and ooara. This organization has been perfected through UieOolored Alliance and Dumbers more than half a million, with thousands being added every day throughout the Southern States. Col. R. A. Humphrey, general superintendent of the Colored Alliance, admitted the existence of this organization, sayiug that it had been induced by the orgauizatiou some time ago of planters and merchants in certain sections, notably Memphis and Charleston, to reduce prices for picking to a very low standard, and that the colored pickers had combin ea 10 proieci meuitieivea jruui iuio mviittioa, and he thought they would be able to do so. It is learned that a secret circular has been mailed at Houston to every Sub-Alliance throughout the cotton belt, fixing the date when the strike of the cotton pickers will be simultaneously inaugurated and how it shall be conduct ed. New Orleans, September 6.?The Picayune's Houston, Texas, special says: The headquarters 01 ine uoiorea .National Alliance of the United States is in this city. Col. R. A. Humphrey, general superintendent of the Colored Farmers' Alliance and Cotton Pickers' League, has been actively at work in organizing colored men for a general strike all over the South. To-day your correspondent ob tained a copy of the secret circular which Humphrey is having distributed by the thousands all through the cotton States. The following is the main feature of it: Whereas, the planters and speculators above mentioned are firm in their demand that yon pick at starvation wages as onered bj them, tod leave your families to suffer fearful consequences, placing to your account the present low price of your cotton, and, whereas, above six hundred thousand pickers already have bound themselves together in sacred covenant to pick no cotton for anyone except their own before about November 1 at less than one dollar per one hundred pound?, with board; and whereas your success depends upon your united action, now? Therefore, I, R. M. Humphrey, by vir tu& of authority in me vested, do issue this my solemn proclamation, being the 12th day of September, 1891, it beiDg Saturday, as the day upon which all our people shall cease from and absolutely stop picking cotton, except their own, ana shall pick no more before about No* vember 1, unless their just demands for wages shall be sooner acceded to by planters and others interested. Train Bobbers Use Dyoamite? Sx. XiOUis, September 2.?A special dispatch from Del Rio, Texas, to the Post Dispatch says: "Telegraphic advices from Samuel, Texas, a small station on the Southern Pacific Railroad, located in a thinly settled section, gives an account of a daring train robbery commit* ted by six masked men at that place shortly after midnight last night. All the money and valuables in the safe in the express car were seized by the robbers, as well as several sacks of mail and register* ed packages trom tne man. rue amount of money obtained cannot be learned, but will doubtless reach into ten3 of thousands. The train was just pulling out from the station when six masked men simultane* ously mounted the engine, mail and express ears, two men for each of these positions. Over forty shots were fired, literally perforating the baggage and express cars without injuring anyone, when an unexpected mode of proceedure was adopted, that of explodiog a dynamite cartridge against a small window in the express car. The effect was t<* tear out the window and damage the express car. The exDrees messenger was stunned, but he recovered in a few minutes only to be overpowered by the robbers and made to f;ive up his safe key. The train was deayed several hours. The robbers took their time in doing the job, showing the utmost coolness ana exhibiting great nerve. Horses were in readiness for them and on the completion of the work the bandits rode rapidly away and are now in Mexico, beyond the reach of the authorities. The sheriff of * this city was telegraphed to secffre a posse and give pursuit, a reward of $250 per capita being offered for the capture of the robbers. He left at 10 o'clock this morning. St. Louis, September 4.?A special from 3an Antonio, Texas, says that the bandits who robbed the Southern Pacific express traiu at Samuels on Tuesday night secured mere booty than first reports of the robbery stated. In each Wells Fargo express car there are two safes, one ior local business and the other for. through business. The latter is locked at Houston and opened here; relocked here and not reopened until it reaches San Francisco. The messenger does not know what the combination is, and the contents are generally very valuable. It waB this safe that the robbers blew open. The loss is therefore much heavier than at first reported. Instead of $2,000 it will reach $15,000 and may go even higher, The manager of the Texas division admits that the amount secured is over ten thousand dollars. ? Ic is said to be a fact that but foi the litigious tendency of the negroes not more than one-third of the lawyers io some parts of the South could make s living. ? The New York Sun says: "The use of the razor as a lethal weapon is curiously enough confined to negroes. No white man can use it in an affray without cutting his fingers off. In explanation of its nse, Inspector Byrnes once said to me that it undoubtedly arose from the vocation of the negroes as barbers, Bnt this does not explain how such a weapon can be used in a melee without injury to.the user. I have never seen a white man who would dare to make a slash with it, for he knows that if the blade fails to strike its object it must close on the fingers that hold it. The almost complete severing of Policeman Sherman's head by a razor in the hands of a negro recalls Poe's story of a gorilla that was armed with the same weapon. - ' p ' /"'/' \* * * v I i PntiflrA rvP ?^r\y*cr\ia 21 UVlJlilL VI LUl OtlC, Kingston, Ont., Sept. 3.?A few weeks ago tbe Free Methodists began a series of revival meetings in Sydenham and made many converts. Women seemd particularly anxious to be gathered into the fold. As tbe number of converts increased tbe excitement grew, and tbe meetings, which were held in the town ball, grew so noisy that complaint was made to tbe authorities, and tbe revivalists were notified on Tuesday that they would have to bold their meetings elsewhere. Nothing daunted tbey left tbe place, after putting out scouts to advise their friends where the meeting wsb to be held, and adjourned to a large vacant lot in tbe edge of tbe town. Here the; were addressed by J. F. Frasier, a revivalists, toho sailed into tbe prevailing mode of female dress and said women are born beautiful and die misshapen because of tbe wearing of corsets. Frasier is an earnest and powerful speaker und bis words created great excitement among the women present. "Throw oa tneaccureea invention r ne cried, "throw it off and go to God as you left him! Burn them rather than burn yourselves in everlasting fire!" This suggestion struck a responsive chord, and he had hardly ceased speaking when an enthusiast piled up material for a bonfire and applied a match. It was a weird scene, the dusky evening, the crowd of religious enthusiasts, quivering with excitement, surrounding a fire which shot up long tongnes of flame. "Throw off the garment I" shouted the revivalist. "Burn them I" hysterically cried a feminine voice in the crowd, and pushing and panting a young woman of 25 forced her way to the centre near the bonfire. She was tugging at her diess. There was a sudden gleam of white shoulders in the glare of the firelight and she flung her corset into the flames, saying she would die as God had made her ana not as she bad made herself. Her example was contagious, and in less than a half an hour not a woman in the crowd wore a corset, and nothing remained in the blaze but a mass of grotesquely twisted corset steels, amid which the flames playfully flickered. The excitement was so great and the nervous strain so tense that several women grew faint, but they have burned their corsets and were happy. The Free Methodists consider the revival a great success and talk of carrying the war into the States. Cotton and Rice In Carolina. Columbia, S. 0., September 5.?According to the report of the State weather bureau for the week ending to-day the cotton crop has been seriously injured by the excessive and continued rains almost daily in August, and for the past week. The condition has not been improved by the low temperature and* little sunshine. The early cotton has shedded its fruit, bolls rotted, and seed in the open bolls sprouted, thereby greatly injuring the staple. Scald and rust was icported in many sections. In stiff clay lands . the cotton crop has not been so materially injured. The young cotton has grown rapidly, shedding most of its fruit. The injury to the crop is variously estimated at Irom 20 to 30 per cent, some farmers putting it much higher. Four and eight one-hundredths inches of rain fell here yesterday, the heaviest for years; and the indications are that the rain has been general throughout the State, in which event the injury to the cotton crop will be more than stated above. Uorn crops are one, me ram navmg done them little or do injury. Reports from the rice districts assert that the rice crop harf been seriously damaged by the rains. In some localities cutting bas begun, and considerable cut rice has lain two weeks or more in the fields waiting for sun enough to dry it before bousing, rotting and sprouting meanwhile. The consensus of opinion estimates the losses on the rice crop resulting from the recent raiDs at from 15 to 20 per cent. i The Boy Was Loaded. Greensburg, Pa , Aug. 29.?Thurfl* day afternoon a boy named Bay Floyd, aged twelve years, living at Balina, met with a peculiar accident. He had a number of boxes of toy pistol caps in bis pocket, and Btarted home. His mother was waiting to punish him for some act of disobedience, which she at once proceeded to do. While chastising him she struck him across the pocket where the capB were. An explosion followed, and when the smoke cleared away the boy stood there without a stitch of clothing on him, and with his hips and sides burned in a horrible manner. ? One of the latest developments of Western civilization is a club of young women in Moberly, Mo., who have organized a 10 cent bank, into which thev put a dime every time they are kissed, i the dime very appropiately being contributed by the kisser. 1 ? Fraice would have saved $575,000,000 between 1882 and 1888, says the Louisville Courier-Journal, if she had had 1,200,000 fewer men in her army during > that period, but as we have spent in the ' same period on our army?including peni sionB?$552,400,000, we cannot consider France so very wasteful. We are, in fact, as the Baltimore Sun says, spending for military purposes as much as some of the moBt powerful nations of Europe. ; They have reason to spend, owing to the > political situation. We spend to keep a i party in power. ? A curious plant grows in Arabia i called the laughing plant. Itisofmoder ate size, with bright yellow flowers, and i soft velvety pods, each of which contains ' two or three seeds resembling black beans. The natives frequently dry the > seeds and reduce them to powder. It is i said that a dose of this powder produces , a similar effect to that of laughing gas. i It causes the most sober person to dance, > shout and laugh in an extremely boistet rous manner, and to run about doing the t moat ridiculous things for an interval of ) half an hour or more. As the effects of ; the powder wear off exhaustion sets in ) and the person falls into a deep sleep, i When be awakes several hours later he i has not the slightest recollection of anyt thing he did while uuder the influence of the drug, It Was Green Coffee. Albany, Ga, August 29?Monday morning while Mr. S. J.Cook, clerk in *i l e t rr a 1 :? r,,. tut? aturf ui J. x. oieuiu, wbb upcuiij& i\ji business, be noticed several grains of green coffee on the sidewalk, evidently spilled by some belated purchaser. He paid little or no attention to this, but when tbe sidewalk was being swept off it was noticed that tbe coffee bad imparted a bright green color to the pavement. This was something unusual for coffee, and at once suspicion was aroused. The porter who was exercising the broom called Mr. Cook's attention to the fact, and gathering a few of the grains he put them in water. They were not long in tbe water before the liquid had taken on the bright green color, and tbid proved conclusively that the coffee bad been painted with something to make it merchantable. As soon as the coloring was washed from the grains they aU ahia/4 n A r? ?1p it nn t f ?n/xf 1 ito a r\rvQO ranPfl and they had evidently been colored to make the coffee sell. An analysis of the coloring proved it to be Paris green, a dangerous poison. It is not reasonable to suppose that any merchant would resort to any such adulterating process, but the coffee was so adulterated by the original handlers. It shows, though, to what extent persons will go to make their goods bring a higher price and when such groceries are adulterated in any such manner the most careful scrutiny should be exercised by the consumer. Deadly drugs and poisons are liable at any time to kill whole families, and no one is safe against them. Those who bay green coffee in the future will doubtless give it a thor ough washing to ascertain if it has any coloring matter on it, and if it has it should not be used. Three Instances. I had intended to head this article "In* stinct," but it struck me that two of the stories at least which I have to tell can hardly be called instinct and as IJdon't know what else to name them I call them simply "Three Instances." They are on the same principle as that nl/l atnirrr nf (titt ainrrnr mhn had 1!roH nn w.v. gw.; vwv a canal boat before she became famous, and one nigbt as she stood before the andience somebady shouted out "Low bridge!" and the woman ducked her head. The first instance i8 about two young fellows, who, baftrfooted in the wilds of America, were turning hay in a meadow. The two were talking together as they turned the hay. Suddenly one of the boys heard a sound like the rattling of very dry peas in a pod. He never looked down to where the noise came from, but with a suddenness that was puzzling to his companion he gave one yell and jumped at least half a rod. His comrade, looking in amazement from the boy to the place he jumped from, saw coiled near a spot where a bare foot bad been a large rattlesnake. Two or three blows from the pole with which he was turning the hay killed the rattler. Now, the young man who jumped had never seen a rattlesnake before, never had heard a rattlesnake rattle, was not thinking of snakes at all, did not even see the snake before he jumped, yet if he lived to be one hundred years old he will never again take such a leap as that one was. The second instance is about a snake - I li. A? T At il J mac wbbd i mere. i was up me uiuer uay seeing a man who bad spent most of bis life in India. I noticed that one of tbe panes of his window was broken. "How did that happen f" I asked. "You see," was the answer, "it was this way: Yesterday I went out for a long tramp, and I wore a bole in tbe toe of my stocking, which I didn't notice at the time and didn't notice this morning when I put it on. I was absent mindedly putting on my shoes when suddenly my toe touched something cold, and before I could remember that I was in England and not io India I kicked that shoe through the window. I never put my shoes on in India without Bhaking them out to see that nothing was in tbem in the shape of snakes. This morning I forgot that I was in England, and remembered that I hadn't shaken my shoe." The third instance was something of the same sort. I was coming from the Temple station to the Strand when I saw ghead of me a well known war correspondent. It was a nasty, slushy day and I hurried to catch up with him. On one of the streets leading from tbe Strand to the embankment a good deal of building is going on. At tbe moment I speak of a cart filled with gravel backed up to where the building operations were proceeding and the man opened the back of the cart. The gravel with a rush and roar fell out on the road. Instantly my friend, the war correspondent, flung himself face down in the mud. He got up rather sheepishly, looked around him and brushed tbe mad off his trousers as well as he could. When I came up to him I said: "What in the name of wonder made you do a thing like that? You didn't trip, did you ?" "No," he Baid, "I didn't trip. I threw myself down," and he laughed rather uncomfortably. "It was like this, you see. You heard that gravel shoot out of the cart? Well, that is exactly the Bound of a shell overhead. Coming up from the station I was thinking of the Russo-Turkish war, and I was really at Plevna and not in London at that moment, and when I beard that rush of the shell I was down on my knees before I thought of it That's what we always did when we heard a shell coming during the war. If you aro down on your face in the sand you are not so apt to be hit by the fragments."?St, Jamea Budyet. 1 II is Millions Vanished. New York, August 30.?Constautine Aehargan, once a millionaire, now a tendollar a-week clerfr, called on Interpreter Arberty, ex-consul to Jerusalem, at the barge office to-day. Constantine inherited $1,000,000 upon the death of his father, a wealthy manufacturer of Athens, whose only son he wa3, and he procflflHed at on re. tn takei all the eniovmen t he could oui of it. He built a large amphitheatre in the suburbs of Athena, and besides introducing all the sensual revelries of Eastern Continental countries, he revived the games known to his ancestors. His money went in streams, and one morning, after a week's debauch, when he was about 25 years of age, he came to his senses a penniless bankrupt. Shortly afterwards his mother died ariti left him another million dollars. It took him seven years to squander the first; it took him eight years to squander the BAi>nnri TTo nnrnhoaod a matlv nf.pam yacht, furnished it gorgeously, employed a retinue of servants and proceeded to Constantinople, where he emulated his career in Athens. He fought a duel with a young Russian nobleman, and then, tiriog of Constantinople, went to Rome. His money finally gave out and be came to this country, landed at San Francisco and "beat" hi? way to New York, where, after roughing it for a while, he secured a position as a clerk. He came to see Interpreter Arberty today with regard to a third fortune which an uncle of his in Alexandria has left him. Mr. Arberty will assist him to return to his native land, and if the fortune shall materialize, Constantino says he intends to settle down to a serious life, _ t_ _ I ? 3 _ 1 I ?_ ior ne nas learnea a lesson Dy nis experience in this country which he will not forget.?Philadelphia Record. A Born Lawyer. A lawyer advertised For a clerk. The next morning his office was crowded with applicants?all bright, and many suitable. He bade them wait until all should arrive, and then ranged them in a row and said he would tell them a story, note their comments, and judge from that whom he would choose. "A certain farmer," began the lawyer, "was troubled with a red squirrel that got in through a hole in his barn and Btole his seed corn. He resolved to kill the squirrel at the first opportunity. Seeing him go in at the hole one noon, he took his shot gun and fired away; the first shot set the barn on tire." "Did the barn burn ?" said one of the boys. The lawyer, without answer, continued : "And seeing the barn on fire the farmer seized a pail of water and ran to put it out." "Did he put it out?" said another. "As he passed inside the door shut to and the barn was soon in flames. When the hired girl rushed out with more water?" "Did they all burn up ?" said another boy. The lawyer went on without answer: "Than the old ladv came out and all was noise and confusion, and everybody was trjing to put out the Are." "Did any one burn up ?" said another. The lawyer said: "There, that will do; you have all shown great interest in the story." But observing one brighteyed fellow in deep silence, he said: ?vr 1:11.1 "11UW, Uiy lliuu uiau, Vtunii uavo jruu iu Bay ?" The little fellow blushed, grew uneasy, and stammered out: "I want to know what became of that squirrel; that's what I want to know." "You'll do," said the lawyer; "you are my man ; you have not been switched off by a confusion, and k barn ljurniog, and the hired girls and water pails. You have kept your eye on the squirrel."? Fact in Court. Why People Faint. Fainting, remarked a leading physioian, only results when the heart fails to send the brain a sufficient supply of blood. Fainting is either partial or complete, and in either case there may be a warning of what is coming, and in cases it has been known for some persons oven to have assumed favorable postures before losing consciousness. The familiar symptoms aro the turning pale of the face, the eyes close, consciousness is lost, and the person falls. Then the hoart fails to send blood to tho brain; it also fails to send it to the .surface of the body, and hence tho skin is pallid, cold, and often clammy. Both tho breathing and tho pulse may bo imperceptible, and tho person may soenx to bo really dead. Fainting sometimes is a serious affair, and sometimes nsed in death. In most cases, however, there is an inherited norvous susceptibility. In any case of faintness every obstaclo to tho freest action of tho hoart and lungs should bo removed by tho loosoning of tho clothing. But tho first thing is to got tho patient into a recumbent posturo and flat on tho back. If tbo person is in a crowded assembly ho should at ouco bo takon into fresh air, but uudOr 110 circumstances should anything bo placed under tho head. Tho moro common form of fainting docs not, as has been erroneously stated, noccssarily tend to shorten life. ? Tobacco merchants are said to handle a larger amount of ready money than any other class of business men. I Pcccavi?A Sketcli. "Doea this magnificent, wea'nuy cuy of New York contain a human being more miserable than myself?" I groan, continuing my weary tramp, tramp up and down the crowded streets to avoid being run in by the police. All day long without a' mouthful to eat and not one cent? "What is that*!" Hastening to the middle of the street aa fast aa my empty stomach and weakened condition will allow, at the risk of my life, I snatch up a large pocketbook. U Itt a Vi ? r re if infA in rr f^ilanMafA^ JLXULJJC141J OUUTlUg lUiUkU UiJ UUO^/IUOICU pantaloons pocket I retreat with my prize. Turning the corner of a less frequented street I pnli out the book ana proceed to examine it. A neatly folded paper first attracts my eye, and mfechan ically I hide it in my battered old hat between the lining. A few dollars in money, but nothing to indicate to whom the pocketbook belongs. This fact I notice in an absent-minded sort of way strangely at variance with the flutter of expectation that causes my heart to beat with unwonted vigor. Visions of food and a comfortable place to rest my weary body flit across ray mind. Suddenly I am startled by a band laid on my shoulder. I glance around apprehensively. Fear takes possession of my soul, nervousness causes my teeth to chatter as if chilled?my heart almost stops beatiDg. A stalwart policeman has taken my arm. "Young man, come with me." I go. Locked up in the Toombs, charged with stealing a lost pocketbook. Protestations of innocence are of no avail. The minion of the law testifies that he saw me in the act. I am convicted, and sentenced to the penitentiary, but in the meanwhile manage to hide that nanar. which I have not vet had time or ?i - - - opportunity to examine, in a safe place in my old clothes. I know 1 will be searched when my civilian dres3 is exchanged for the prison garb, bat if tte paper remains undiscovered during ay term of imprisonment it will again come into my possession when released from custody, and the ragged raiment once more restored to me. * * * * * * Discharged! The prison has been opened. I am'a free man again. Back in the great metropolis, hour after hour and day after day I walk the streets endeavoring to gain an honest livelihood. Failure stalks by.my side, desperation's iron enters my soul". Why should I attempt an honest life ? is the question constantly recurring to me. Unjustly convicted in the firtt instance, why not revenge myself on society in the only way in my power?be a professional blackleg? Seriously I think of this course. Despondent and hopeless, with life at its lowest ebb, physically and morally, one morning after a sleepless night spent in the area way of a magnificent palace of some rich man on Fifth avenue, I suddenly became conscious of some one * standing on theBteps above me "The wages of sin is death," mourn fully said the man. "When will this feeling of impending evil pass away and my life become serene and happy'once more." "Here is one as miserable a3 myself," I thought. Arising from my brick hard bed, I accost the gentleman and tell him my story, reserving the tale of the pock. etbook. I am given employment. The transition from abject poverty to comparative ease is a novelty I have not yet enjoyed in a long time. My employer in time makes a confidant of me, and explains the reason of his unhappy ejacu' lation on the morning of our acquaintance. Some time ago he had lost a valuable paper. Suddenly the remembrance of that paper secreted in my clothes over a year ago flashed through my brain like an electric shock. Seeking my room, I take it from its hiding place and read. Startled at its contents, their full significance at last takes possession of my mind. I realize that a road to fortune opens before me if I choose to walk it. The manuscript is a confession of my benefactor of swindliug practices perpetrated in a business failure some years before. It gives full particulars of his failure, the amount of money fraudulently retained from creditors, the different banks.in which it was deposited and the many aliases assumed. The temptation fo use my strangely acquired knowledge for my own advantage is great. All feeling of gratitude is swept away by the whisper of tvarice, and I succumb to evil. Apprising the generous man who h3s been my friend of the fearful power I ' hold, I compel, him to surrender the_-^"^ greater part of his fortune. Fear of exposure is so great that ho dare not invoke the protection of the law. His pleadings for mercy, such as he once showed me, are in vain. The leaven of evil imbibed in my year's imprisonment has taken complete possession of me, and ri?es higher as each demand for money issue cessful. The end has comc. I am a rich and respected business man, honored and es teemed by all who know me. My benefactor and friend lies in a pauper's % grave, and there is no existing evidence to indicate the beginning of my immense fortune. But am I happy ? Ah, that is a question!?11. M. D, in Atlanta) Constitution.