Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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HOTT & CO., Proprietors. ANDERSON C. H., S. C, THURSDAY MORNING, APRIL 0, 1874. THE SOUTH CAROLINA TAX-PAYERS IX THE WHITE HOUSE. ? The correspondent of the Charleston News and Courier furnishes the following statement of the reception of the South Carolina Tax? payers' Committee in Washington: I The delegation is a fall one, consisting of the following members present: From Tax? payers' Convention?Messrs. W. D. Porter, Henry Gourdin, L. Manning, M. L. Bon ham, J. B. Kershaw, J. H. Screven, M. C. But? ler, C. W. Dudley, W. E. Holcombe, T. W. Woodward, B. H. Rutledge, C. H. Simonton. Wm. Elliot, J. A. Hoyt, J. G. Thompson and T. Y. Simons. .Charleston Chamber of Com? merce?President S. Y. Tupper and Messrs. R. Latbers, JFames Simons, Wm. Aiken, L. D. DeSaussure and E. H. Frost. On Thursday, most of the delegates betook themselves to the Capitol, and for several hours occupied one of the gorgeously frescoed recep? tion rooms adjacent to the Senate Chamber. Here they were met by Senators Gordon and Robertson, who manifested great interest in the objects of their mission, and who introduced successively to the delegation such of their brother Senators as could spare half an hour from the business of the Senate. In this way the delegates met and had a pleasant talk with quite a number of leading Northern Senators, including Carpenter, of Wisconsin, Thurman, of Ohjo, Pratt, of Indiana, and Logan, of Illi? nois, j At 8 P. M., the entire delegation called by appointment on Secretary Fish, at his resi? dence. The Secretary, who had been unwell, and had risen from bed to receive them, greet? ed them with marked courtesy. After some time spent in pleasant social converse, the del? egates arose to take their leave, when the Sec? retary expressed formally his warm interest in their grievances, and his hope that some con? stitutional means of affording them relief might be devised. Punctually at 11 o'clock, this morning, the delegation proceeded to the White House, where they were ushered into the President's room. After each of their number had shaken hands with Gen. Grant, they ranged around the long table, at the head of which the Presi? dent stood, resting his hand upon a chair. Hon. W. D. Porter then, in that calm but dignified and impressive manner for which he is so emi? nent among the public men of South Carolina, addressed the President as follows: Mb. President : We are delegates from the Tax-Payers' Convention of South Carolina, and are charged with a mission to the authori? ties at Washington, to lay before them a great Eublic grievance under which our people are iboringand to invoke the sympathy and aid of the Federal Government to afford us the relief which we have not been able to procure for ourselves. .We know the power, moral and political, of this Government, and believe that it can, if it will, redress our grievances. It is difficult, in the few minutes that we feel at liberty to trespass upon your time, to make an adequate presentation of the pitiable condition in which South Carolina is placed. To give you any conception of it, it is necessary to state her condition at the close of the war. No one knows better than yourself, Mr. President, the exhaustive processes of the war upon our State. Her people, with a sincere belief that the en? terprise in which they embarked involved their domestic peace and safety, and with an uncal culating devotion to their cause, staked their ail upon the issue, and lost their all. The single act of emancipation struck out of existence $125,000,000 of their property value. Their moneys, their bills, their securities, State and Federal, perished on their hands. They had lands, without labor or money to hire labor; they had houses or cabins, but without provisions to satisfy the hungry cravings of men, women and children. If ever there was a people upon whom the hand of taxation should have been laid lightly and gently, it was the people of South Carolina at the end of the war. If ever there was a people whose condition was a protest and remonstrance against the heartless and grinding exactions of the tax gatherer, it was that stricken peo? ple. The reconstruction measures placed South Carolina in a anomalous position. It doubled her citizenship and her suffrage. We are not here to ask any change or modification in this respect. We know that this matter has been placed upon the .basis of the fundamental law by constitutional amendments; and that, Whether wise or unwise, we can expect no al? teration of it. But there are some incidents and reealte growing out of the reconstruction policy, which are curious as well as vital in their operation, and to the practical effects of which we invite your attention, with a view to some relief. This doubling of our citizenship and suffrage has divided the State into two classes or stratas, the one property-holding and tax-paying, and the ether non-tax-paying and non-property holding. And in the non-property-holding aod non-tax-paying class resides the absolute political power of the State, including the great sovereign power of taxation; and ?Iiis class is banded together as a fixed political majority, which refuses any substantial repre? sentation, to the tax-paying minority. The practical result is then this, that the people who levy the tases do not pay the taxes; those who pay the taxes have no voice in fixing the amount of them; and the taxes so raised are expended, not by those who pay them, but by those who feel really no part of the burden of them. We doubt_whether such a condition of things has ever before existed in any govern? ment which called itself a free representative government. With our knowledge of the en? tire American feeling on the subject of taxa? tion and its exercise, we think it may be, truly said that no free State of the North would submit to such a condition of things either theoretically or practically?for the practical results are precisely such as might have been anticipated. Those who do not pay the taxes care not how heavily they lay them on ; and the more heavily they lay them on, the more money they have to expend. ? In point of fact there' is no check, no limitation, no responsi? bility such as exists where the representatives feel that they owe arraccountability to a tax paying constituency. ^ n Allow us, Mr. President, togroup a few fact* which will serve to give, some ideas of the con? dition in which .we are placed. Our taxable values before the war were near $500,000,000 ; they are now reduced to $160,000,000 or ?160, 000,000. Upon that $500,000,000 before the war was raised, for the ordinary current expen? ses of government, the sum of about $400,000; but upon the reduced values of $150,000,000, there is now raised the annual sum of over $2,000,000. Considering the loss and deprecia? tion of property, the reduced ability of the people to pay, and the false and exaggerated assessments made, the proportion between the tax now raised and that raised before the war would be as as fifteen or twenty to one. When the impoverished condition of the mass of the people is taken into consideration, with whajt a fearful weight of oppression do these burdens fall upon them ! It is no won? der, then, that in one year 268,000 acres of land were forfeited to the State for non-p.iy. raent of taxes, and that in the single County of Beaufort, some 800 out of the 2,500 farms sold by the United States to the colored people, have also been forfeited for the same cause. So, too, the funded debt of the State ha9 been increased from about ?6,000,000 to an admitted figure of $16,000,000, with an undefined margin of floating debt and unacknowledged bonds. To state the case in a few words, it may be said that our present rulers have already utter? ly destroyed the credit of the State by the ex? cessive issue of bonds, partly legitimate and partly fraudulent, and are now engaged in de? vouring the substance of the people by the grinding exactions of taxation. Mr. President, this is no false clamor or pic? ture of the imagination. It is real, hard, stub? born fact, and is acknowledged or can be proved. Strangers from the North express their amaze? ment at what they see, and wonder at the for? bearance that has so long endured. No man who has come to see for himself, with an open, dispassionate mind, has come to any other con? clusion than that there should and must be a radical reform. Our own people are almost in despair, for they feel that they are upon the very verge of a general ruin. If we could lay before you the many, many in-tances of distress Chat have come before our eyes, it would appeal most powerfully to your sympathies. And the worst feature of cruelty in the thing is, that it falls most heavily upon the most helpless? upon women and children, upon widows and orphans. Year by year and day by day is the number increased of those who have kept up in vain the struggle for the bread of indepen? dence and for the roof that covers their heads. Is it strange that we should ask for them and for ourselves some relief from the tyranny that is so oppressing us ? And can it be that the Government will deny us its sympathy and its aid in giving us the.substance as well as the form of republican government? Mr. President, we come in no factious or partisan spirit. We come in the interest of peace, of good order, and of honest govern? ment. It matters little to us whether the ad? ministration be Republican or Democratic, so that it insure us an economical, honest govern? ment, such as our condition imperatively re? quires. We ask it as American citizens ; for we know that the moral as well as the political influence of the National Government is com? manding. The people of South Carolina did once aim at an independent existence and make a terrible struggle tor it. But that dream and that struggle are over?they are of the past. Our people have no other national government than this of the Union, no other country than these United States, and no other flag than that bright flag of stars that floats over this broad land. And they are true men and faith? ful ; and if we know the people, they would defend this soil which is theirs, from foreign aggression, with the same unflinching valor which, in the remote past, and in the recent past, they have displayed on so many well I fought fields of battle. The President, who heard Mr. Porter with fixed attention, replied with characteristic brevity, and with something more than his usual vigor. He said : Gentlemen: After listening to your re? marks, I do not see that there is any thing that can be done, either by the Executive or by the Legislative branch of the National Govern? ment, to better the condition of things which you have described. The State of South Car? olina has a complete sovereign existence, and must make its own laws. If its citizens are suffering from those laws, it is a matter very much to be deplored. Where the fault lies, may be a question worth looking into. Wheth? er a part of the cause is not due to yourselves ?whether it is not owing to the extreme views which you have held?whether j*our action has not consolidated the non-tax-paying portion of the community against you, are questions which I leave to your own consideration. Al? low me to say, however, that I always feel great sympathy with any people who are badly gov? erned and over-taxed, as is the case in Loui? siana, and seems also to be the condition of South Carolina. I will say to you candidly that, while I have watched the proceedings of your Tax-Payers' Convention with no little interest, a portion of my sympathy has been abstracted by the perusal of a speech delivered during its deliberations, and which contained a viler and more villainous slander than I have ever experienced before, even among my bitter? est enemies iu the North. It was far worse in its personality and falsehood than anything I have ever seen in the New York Sun. The President here seemed to have concluded his reply, and Gov. Bon ham inquired what was the speech to which he had referred. The President said that he did not know whose speech it was, or whether it had been correctly reported, but he had read it receutly as a part of the proceedings of the conven? tion. Col. T. Y. Simons remarked that he felt it to be due to the gentleman who made the speech that it should be stated here that he disavowed having made use of the offensive language to which the President referred, and which had been attributed to him by a local Republican paper. Gen. M. C. Butler corroborated this disavow? al. He had not himself heard the speech, but he had read it, as fully reported in the Edge field County paper, and it contained no such offensive allusion as had been charged. Gen. Kershaw explained that whatever might have been said in the speech, the speech itself did not reflect the sentiments or meet with the sympathy of the convention. Ex? pression was given to this fact by the action of the body in promptly recommitting the report which had been introduced by the speech. The President said that that might be so; but he had seen nothing in the proceedings of the convention expressing any disapproval of what had been said in the speech. Mr. James G. Thompson hero took occasion to say that he was one of the few Republicans who had taken part in the convention ; that he | had heard the speech to which reference had I been made with pain ; but he must pay that he and the other Republicans in the body regard? ed the spirit in which the speech was received by the convention, and the action taken in re? committing the report by which it was accom? panied, as plain and pointed rebuke to the sentiments which it contained. Some general talk followed in regard to the j obnoxious speech, the President manifesting j great irritation whenever, he alluded to it. In answering one of the delegates h? said, with great emphasis : "I have never seen a speech J equal to it in malignity, vileness, falsity and J slander. When I think of it I can scarcely | retain myself." Mr. Porter suggested that it was hardly just to hold a whole community, pleading for relief from intolerable oppression, for the utterance of a single individual, but his remanstrance seemed to be hardly noticed by the President. Col. Richard Lathers, on behalf of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, here pro? ceeded to read an address to the President, recounting the grievances of the people of South Carolina, and tracing the origin of those grievances to the corrupt management, for political ends, of the Freedman'3 Bureau. He was at times interrupted by the President, who warmly expressed his disbelief of some of the charges quoted by Col. Lathers, and said that he attributed much of this trouble in South Carolina to the unwillingness of the white people to come forward and form the State Government at the time of reconstruction. This, he said, forced Congress to call upon the colored element. As the delegation were about retiring, Presi? dent Grant expressed his good wishes for the future prosperity of the State, and his hope that when, they came to lay their memorial before Congress, some proper and practicable plan for the redress of their grievances might be found. This ended the interview. It has produced various impressions on the delegates. The feeling among them is mainly one of disap? pointment, although they are by no means discouraged. The Downfall of the Confederacy. Gen. Stonewall Jackson, who was the most brilliant genius developed on either side during the war, set at defiance all rules. He struck whenever and wherever he saw a chance to strike. When his little army of two or three thousand men were camped around Winchester, in 1861, before his genius had blazed out, a Brigadier General who had fought under Scott in Mexico, and who was a genuine lover 'of tactics, went to Richmond and reported that Jackson had his army so stationed that the enemy at any moment could destroy it; that he knew nothing about commanding a brigade, and that he ought to be removed at once. Jackson won an imperishable fame, and, had he lived, would have won independence for the Confederacy, while the tactician remained in 1864 what he was in 1861, a Brigadier General. It is significant, too, that the first generals of history, from Hannibal down to Jackson, were men who made tactics for themselves, and did not conform to the tactics of others. Success depends more on the adventure and masterly rapidity of genius, untrammelled by routine or circumspection, that it does upon the dull and wearisome operations of the tactician. Daring and dash kindle the minds of soldiers to en? thusiasm, while routine exhausts them without results. M. Thiers, in his admirable history, shows how, "the unimpeached skill and won? derful elaboration" of the leaders of the allied armies came to naught before the blazing in? spiration of Napoleon. He shows how worth? less routine is when opposed by originality and daring. How far Gen. Johnston's situation and the situation of the Confederacy made it necessary for him to adopt the policy he indicates, we will not undertake to determine. There may be a good deal?there is certainly something? in his conviction that either the North or the South "could have raised armies stronger, both t in numbers and in spirit, for defensive than for offensive war." It is certainly true of the North. It is not true, to the same extent, how? ever, of the South, whose population more nearly resembles that of France, and whose spirit is of the martial and aggressive type. This can be said oi'Gen. Johnston's situation. He was sent to the Mississppi department at a time when affairs were involved in the most serious, if not hopeless, perplexity. He was sent to minister unto the patieut al*:er the quack doctor had shattered his system with the most deadly nostrums. Much may be said in his defense and much may be said ou the other side. There is no doubt that Mr. Davis was obstinate, imperious and self-willed. There is no doubt that he was almost criminal? ly so ; aud there is no doubt that Gen. Johnston suffered terribly in consequence of these unfor? tunate characteristics, which were certainly developed in the president to a rank maturity. But the downfall of the Confedeacy was hardly due alone either to Mr. Davis' bigotry or in competency. Success is virtue; defeat all crimes in one. Prophecy is easy after the fact. Gen.^ ohnston says the Confederacy fell because of the mismanagement of the finances of the South by the Administration. He says it was not due to the overwhelming resources of the North. The fact is, it was due to both ; but it was not due aloue to those two causes. A thoughtful biographer of Ignatius Loyola declared that "the discerning of spirits is the foundation of power." Mr. Davis lacked that discernment, and what aggravated the mis? fortune he did not know that he lacked it. He had shielded Gen. Lee when the public consid? ered his West Virginia campaign as a failure, if not a disaster. He had clung to Jackson when most persons regarded him as a lump of commouplace dullness, with no inspiration and no skill. His opinion of these two men had withstood the ignorant clamor of a vast ma? jority of their countrymen. He heard with pride the fond peans which subsequently arose from every part of the South, confirming the correctness of his judgment. He began to think himself infallible. He clung to favorites who were far less worthy ; who had shown in competency on every field; who were only heroes of defeat, and toward whcm the people of the South pointed angrily, and said: "You are sacrificing thousands of brave men for these incapables." Soldiers are superstitious. They had lost confidence in the capacity of 6uch offi? cers, and when they marched to battle they felt a8ombre and painful conviction that they were marching to defeat and death. To these three causes is due the downfall of the Confederacy. ?Courier-Journal. The Serfent of Affetite.?It is an old Eastern fable that a certain king once suffered ! the Evil One to kiss him on either shoulder. j Immediately there sprang therefrom two ser? pents, who furious with hunger, attacked the man, and strove to eat into his brain. The now terrified king strove to tear them and cast them from him, when he found, to his horror, that they had become a part of himself. Just 60 it is with every one who becomes a slave to Im appetite. _ He may yield in what seems a very little thing at first; even when he finds himself attacked by the serpent that I lurks in the grass, he may fancy he can cast j him off. But alas! he finds the thirst for strong drink has become a part of himself. It would be almost as easy to cut off his right hand. The poor poet Burns said if a barrel of rum was placed in one corner of the room, and a loaded cannon in another, pointing toward him, ready to be fired if he approached the barrel, he'had no choice but to go to the rum. The person who first tempts you to take a ?lass may appear very fricudly. It was not a art from Satan aimed at the fated king. He only gave him a kiss. But the serpent that sprang from it was just as deadly for all that. 0, be careful of letting this serpent of appe? tite get possession of you, for it will be a mir? acle of grace, indeed, if you are ever able again to shake him off. Guard against every sin, dear children, how? ever small; let it not gain a hold upon you. Pray to be kept from temptation in every form, and think not that in your own strength you can battle against it.? Youth's Temperance Banner. ? Nothing more precious than time, yet nothing lees valued. President Grant and South Carolina. The details of the extraordinary behavior of President Grant when he was visited on Satur? day last by a respectable delegation of the citizens of South Carolina are simply humilia? ting, not only to the deluded persona who voted for him in 1872 but to the whole country of which he is to-day the representative heaa. This delegation was commended to his particu? lar consideration and courtesy by the leading member of his own Cabinet. Ignorant as he notoriously is of most of the matters which it behooves a President of the United States to know, he has visited the South and he must have been perfectly familiar with the fact that the persons whom he was receiving were men of character, standing and good repute in the community to which they belong. Had he not believed them to be so, indeed, he would have been trifling unwarrantably with the dignity of his office in receiving them at all. Indiffer? ent as he notoriously is to most of those mat? ters about which it behooves a President of the United States to concern himself, he is certain? ly aware that the actual condition of the com? monwealth of South Carolina is a disgrace and a danger to our whole republican system of government. By no one has that condition been more forcibly set forth than by a zealous member of the President's own political party, Mr. Pike, of Maine, formerly United States [ Envoy to the Hague, whose book on the "Pros? trate State" has been published for now some i months and extensively commented on in the press of all parts of the country. That the President reads the newspapers carefully is evident enough from the simple fact that in replying to this very delegation he dwelt with infinite emphasis on the unpleasant way in which he himself is habitually treated, as he said, in the columns of a New York morning journal. The language of the petition pre? sented to him by this delegation was no strong? er than?it was not so strong as?the language of Mr. Pike's book in its exposition of the in? tolerable wrongs and outrages against which i the delegation was petitioned to protest. Pres : ident Grant then had every reason for listening with respectful interest to the representations I which the delegation came to make to him. It j is impossible to imagine anything more proper to banish from the mind of an ordinarily in? telligent and ordinarily upright man in the high position of President Grant every thought connected with himself and his personal feel? ings than the appearance before him of such a body of his fellow-citizens on such an errand. Yet so far was this effect from being pro? duced upon President Grant that the only [ topic in regard to which he expressed the slightest concern was an alleged personal at? tack made upon himself during the recent session of the convention by which this dele? gation was appointed. The attack was de- I scribed by himself as scurrilous and false.) The person who made it was not a member of the committee before him. That it must have been repudiated and disowned utterly by the convention which appointed the Com? mittee was evident from the simple fact of the presence of the Committee in the Executive Mansion. Not to see this was to offer every individual member of the Committee a gross personal insult, an insult as much more scan? dalous than the attack of which President Grant complained as the position of a President of the United States receiving the represen? tatives of an American State iu the American capital is higher and more responsible than the position of an obscure member of a local convention discussing local questions in a heated debate. The history of the Executive office in this country has not been wholly untarnished hith? erto by words and acts unbecoming its impor? tance and its dignity. But nothing like this has smirched its record before. The personal history of President Grant has not been clean of incidents which a friendly biographer, or a biographer merely considerate of the honor and renown of the great republic to whose highest trusts, both civil and military, President Grant has been called, will desire to dwell upon as briefly and as lightly as may be. The ablest foreign writer who has as yet essayed the task of describing hie career, Colonel Chesley, of the British army, has found himself constrained to allude to portions of that career as "painful," and Americans must admit the courtesy which has thus dismissed them. But when we con? sider circumstances of this new offence against the proprieties of life, an offence committed not by an obscure military subaltern in a remote corner of a great country, but by the public dig? nitary of the nation in its very capital, we are constrained to feel that the only palliation of it which the most partial and tolerant of his fel? low-citizens can suggest must be sought, where the excuse of that earlier discredit was found, in influences which it is a fresh and poignant national disgrace to be obliged to believe still potent enough to deprive the Chief Magistrate of the United States of that self-respect which is the only sure foundation of respect for others and for the country which he represents.--Neio York World. A Good Deed Rewarded.?We find the following in a Jacksonville, Florida, paper of a recent date: "More than twenty years ago Major Waldo A. Blossom, who is now in Jacksonville, was a resident of Washington. While there, chance cast in his way a young man, named Larimer, in who he became deeply interested. Larimer had been led astray by the influence of wicked associations, and was utterly dissolute and dissipated?to all appearances, a moral and i physical wreck. It is more than probable that Major Blossom discovered redeeming qualities in the young man, notwithstanding the depth to which dis? sipation had brought him, for the Good Sa? maritan rescued him from the gutter, gave him a pleasant home, and assisted him by counsel and the aid of fine social influences to make himself a new man. After his reformation was effected, the young man returned to his parents, I who resided in Colorado, and for a number of years his generous benefactor heard nothing of him. f In December of last year Mr. Blossom's attention was called to an advertisement in a ! Boston paper, over the signature of "Larimer," inquiring the address of W. A. Blossom. He responded to the inquiry, and soon received a letter from the parents of bis former protege, iu Castello County, Colorado, informing him that their son, iu dying, had willed his proper? ty to him, in gratitude for the kind deeds of years agone. The letter, which feelingly alluded to this act, gave the sequel of the reformed man's life. He applied himself vigorously to business after his return to Colorado, became an honorable aud useful member of society, and in a few years amassed a large fortune, all of which, valued at $1,000,- j I 000. will fall into the possession of Major Blossom next June. No act of genuine charity is ever lost. Somewhere in the conservatory of good deeds the plant will put forth its blossoms and shed its perfume, perhaps in the balm and brilliancy of the eternal morning, perhaps in the subdued light and miirky atmosphere of the mortal life. A Sensitive Government. The account we print this morning of the interview between the President and the rep? resentatives of the South Carolina tax-payers may afford some further information, to any who are in want of it, of the strictly private and personal character our Government has assumed. This body of gentlemen, represent? ing the intelligence and decency of the State, all of them people who have honestly accepted the results of the war, and who are striving with a patience and energy worthy of all praise to save something of their State's exis? tence from the thievish Dands which are rapid? ly destroying it, sought an interview with the President on Friday last to lay before him the ^?deplorable state of affairs among them, and to ask if any aid could be given by the General Government. They were treated by him with gross rudeness and discourtesy, for a reason so trivial that it is almost incredible. During the recent session of the Tax-payers' Convention in South Carolina an obscure and rattle-brained delegate got the floor and made a speech per? sonally disrespectful to the President. There is no pretense that he embodied the views of the Convention, or that his harangue met with their approval. But this speech, dexterously thrust into the President's hands by one of the Ring politicians just before the delegation called upon him, was enough to make him forget his own duty and dignity and insult an important body of citizens who were uo more responsible for it than the President himself. We do not mean that they were asking for anything practicable. On the coutrary, wc can see nothing but evil in any interference of the Government, so long as it remains in the present hands, with the administration of the States. If Gen. Grant had not made the inci? dent the occasion for an indecorous outburst of arrogance and passion, we should be inclined to congratulate him upon having made a long step forward in the theory and practice of constitutional law, since the time when he lent the whole power of the Federal Government to the knaves who were throttling and robbing the State of Louisiana. But the animus which prevaded his refusal to aid the honest people of South Carolina was such as to render it im? possible for any one to believe that his action ate and selfish caprice which induced him to do precisely the contrary thing, when Casey and Kellogg wanted their hold tightened upon the throat of Louisiana. In fact, iu this per? formance we see once more what ha3 been so long evident, that President Grant has never associated any idea of duty or responsibility with his acceptance of the Executive office. He was elected the first time to pay for his services in the war, and the second time, he thinks, to answer the criticisms of those who th >ught him unfit for the place. He regards all criticisms as disloyalty, and looks upon a sharp attack, like that of the harum-scarum South Carolinian, as a thing so monstrous as to taint and disqualify for the time being, the State in which it occurred. We cannot say there is anything new in this. Two years ago, Mr. Sumner made a great historical speech, in which the President's character was drawn with a fidelity rare in cotemporaneous writings. He was there held up as a habitual transgres? sor of the commandment most binding upon Presidents?"Thou shalt not quarrel." It is too hard a lesson for the present incumbent to learn. He has not magnanimity enough to overlook controversies; he has not public spirit enough to avoid them in the interest of the country; and he has not taste enough to know when to quarrel with decorum.?N. Y.! Tribune. The Skeptic and the Bird's Nest. A short time since a gentleman, conversing of his visit to South America, of an interview with a young man whom he had formerly known in New York, and who, like many others, having more money than good counsel left him by his parents, soon became Helf-sufficient, and went on from one vice to another until he be? came an open infidel. He had remained thus when he left New York for South America, but when the gentleman met him, the avowed in? fidel had become an humble believer in Jesus Christ, and the tongue that was wont to blas? pheme was lifting the voice of supplication for the blessing of God upon his guilty soul. Greatly surprised at seeing the young man clothed and "in his right mind," thegentleman inquired what had wrought the change. Said he, "You know I spent much of my time fishing and hunting, and a few weeks since, on a beautiful Sabbath morning, I went in search of game. Being very weary of roaming through the wood, I sat on a log to rest. While thus seated, my attention was attracted to a neigh | boring tree, by the cries of a bird which was fluttering over her nest, uttering shrieks of anguish, as if a viper were destroying her young. "On looking about, I soon found the object of her dread, in that apt emblem of all evil, a venomous snake, dragging its slow length along toward the tree, his eyes intent on the bird and her nest. Presently 1 saw the male bird com? ing with a little twig covered with leaves in his mouth. Instantly the father-bird laid the twig over his mate and her young, and then perched himself on one of the topmost branches of the tree, awaiting the approach of the enemy. "liy this time the snake had reached the spot. Coiling himself around the trunk, he ascended the tree at length. Gliding along until he came near the nest, he lifted his head as if to take his victims by surprise. He looked at the nest, then suddenly drew back his head as if he had been shot, and hurriedly made his way down the tree. "I had the curiosity to see what had turned him from his malicious purpose; and on ascen diug the tree, I found the iwig to have been from a poisonous bush which that snake was never known to approach. "Instantly the thought rushed across my mind, "Who taught the oird its only weapon of defense in this hour of peril?" ancl quick as thought came the answer, "None but God Almightv, whose very existence I have denied, but iu whose pardoning mercy, through Jesus Christ, I am now permitted to hope." God sends men to the ant to learn industry, to the ravens and the lilies for lessons of trust; and here, in the protection of a defenseless bird's nest from a cruel foe, shines out the same kind Providence which watches the falling sparrow and numbers the hairs of our heads. No wonder that the infidel was convinced of his error; for surely, none but the fool can say in his heart, "There is uo God."?Christian Treasury. Bug Poison*.?A strong alum water is a j sure death to bugs of any description. Take two pounds of alum and dissolve in three quarts of boiling water, allowing it to remain j over the fire until thoroughly dissolved. Ap? ply while hot with a brush, or what is better, use syringe to force the liquid in the cracks of the walls and bedsteads. Scatter, also, the powdered alum freely in all these places, and you will soon be rid of these insect nuisances which fill one with disgust. ' proceeded from anything but the More About Bald jftonntain. A gentleman of scientific attainments, of Oxford, N. C, suggests tue idea that the noise and vibrations of Bald Mountain may have been produced by subterranean currents of electricity instead of volcanic fires. Professor DuPre, of Spartanbnrg, promises to give the result of his study of the phenome? na on the spot in the Orphan's Friend. He ventures no opinion as yet, but suggests that they may possibly be owing to the fact that the crust of the earth has become so thin, that a stream of water has found its way to the burn? ing mass, and the escape of stearn_ thus gene? rated in the caverns may produce the noises heard on the surface; or may be the result of accumulated gases acting in the same way. General Clingraan, who has thoroughly ex? plored that whole section, during a long resi? dence in the neighborhood at Asheville, and whose scientific attainments, careful observa? tion and enthusiastic love of nature entitle his conclusion to great respect, holds the opinion that these disturbances are volcanic in origin. They are not new to him. He gives interesting reminiscences of some which have occurred within his knowledge to a Washington corres? pondent of the New York Herald, and which appeared in that journal of Monday last. To the correspondent's request for his opin? ions of the perturbations, General Clingman replied, "That the volcanic disturbances in those mountains of Weitem North Carolina, which are now making such a great sensation, are no new things?that they can be tracea back to the remotest traditions of the Cherokee Indians, and thence, by scientific research, to the volcanic upheavals from which these mountains were formed. In the Northeastern corner of Hay wood County, uear Fine's Creek, forty miles Northwest of Stone Mouutain, there is a mouutaiu which has been subjected to periodical shakings, after intervals of two or three years, ever since the war of 1812, and for how long a period before I cannot tell. The immediate locality of these disturbances is about a mile in width. The shocks under I this mouutaiu have uot been, within my recol? lection, of a longer duration than a few min? utes ; and yet, with each recurrence, after an interval of rest of two or three years, the shocks have been sufficiently powerful to break up the mountain, as one may say, into new fissures, hillocks, upheavals and cavities, so far as to change its general appearance." "And you have noticea these phenomena, from time to time, through a period of many years ?" "Oh, yes ! I think if you will look over the files of the old National Intelligencer of about twenty-five years ago, you will find a pretty full description which I gave of these volcanic disturbances at that time. I remember that about twenty-live years ago, in the edge of Macon County, Southwest from Haywood, there was a shock which opened a seam in r.he ground for nearly a mile in length ; and that in Madison County, in a line between Haywood and Stone Mountain, smoke issued from a fissure opened iu the rocks. This was some two miles from the French Broad River, and in the neighborhood of the Warm Springs. Madison County. I have known the solia granite cliffs of Haywood Mountain to be frac? tured by volcanic action for nearly a mile in length, and iu ono instance, I have seen a detached granite rock of perhaps 2,000 tons in weight, lying above one of these earthquake fissures was broken into three fragments. But one of the most remarkable freaks of these little earthquakes was that which split a large tref, bringing one-half of it to the ground, and leaving the other half standing. I have no doubt that the newspaper men detailed to look into these mysteries will gather many interest? ing reminiscences from the old settlers of those Western mountain Counties of the old North State, touching the periodical recurrence of these remarkable little earthquakes. I have often wondered that the attention of men of science had never been drawn to these inter? esting volcanic disturbances in our North Carolina mountains." j "But do you think they mean nothing more on this return than the usual periodical spasms, gradually dying out with the continued cooling and thickening of the earth's crust?" The General thought this a matter of doubt? ful speculation. After warnings in premoni? tory tremblings of the ground, there may be a disastrous earthquake, or a volcanic eruption, as these things occur in Mexico and Central America ; or these spasms as heretofore, from time to time, may pass off as a nine days' won? der. But those mountains, the culminating mass of the Alleghany system, were uplifted by forces which are still throbbing under their foundations and shaking them to their sum? mits. There are thirty peaks on these moun? tains of Western North Carolina from the Smoky Range to the Blue Ridge, which are higher than Mount Washington ; and from the primitive rocks thrown up in these old ranges, and from the great variety of minerals brought out from the bowels of the earth into the sides and chasms of these mountains, we know that the subterranean forces from which those mountains were formed operated here more powerfully than at any other point on the At \ lantic side of our continent; and we may con [ elude, from these frequent disturbances, that these tremendous forces are not yet under those mountains reduced below the capacity for a disastrous convulsion. The Way to Encourage Immigration. ?Major Melchers, the State Commissioner of Immigration, in a circular letter to the Com? missioners in the interior, says: "I have been assured by competent authority, that with $10,000 and f>0,000 acres of land do? nated, some 10,000 families may be brought to the State by next winter. Without induce? ments to offer to immigrants none will come, as the West and other Southern States arc in the field to get all the immigrants that come. Tennessee, for instance, has offered 100,000 acres of land gratis, to be divided in alternate sections to immigrant families ; and Virginia has ap? propriated $15,000 for the same purpose. Iam happy to say, that in some Counties of the State, the people have offered lands at very low prices, and given some gratis; but the movement should be general, and every County should do all in its power to induce immigrants to settle in our State." Since issuing this letter, says the Charleston News and Courier, Major Melchers has received information that Col. J. B. Moore, of States burg, has donated 3,000 acres of land, to be given to immigrants, in alternate sections of fifty acres. This gentleman comprehends the situ? ation. White immigrants will not remain in South Carolina as hired laborers. Their natu? ral and proper desire is to have farms of their own. They will come and stay if land be given them ; especially as more money will be made here than in the exclusively grain-growing States. Otherwise, they will continue to go West. ? ''Have the jury agreed?" asked a judge of a court attache, whom he had met on the stairs with a bucket in his hand. "Yes." re? plied Patrick, "they have agreed to scud out for half a gallon."