The Anderson intelligencer. (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, May 27, 1875, Image 1
HOYT & CO., Proprietors.
ANDERSON O. H., S. C, THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 27, 1875.
VOLUME X.?NO. 45.
Correspondence of the Louisville Courier
Journal.
Chableston, S. C., May 10, 1875.
Charleston is the opposite, the antithesis of
Savannah. It is a bright, sunny, cheerful
looking place, and resembles more a Northern
than a Southern city. It is compactly built,
and has not that superabundant width of street
of so many of the Southern towns. The sur
5rise.connected with it to me is, that it really
oes resemble what I had pictured in my mind,
and it is the first case in my experience. Al
tnost every traveler has felt that quite aston?
ishment on reaching a strange town arising
from, an appearance of things totally at vari?
ance with his preconceived ideas. The hotel
which he has heard about is invariably on the
Wrong side of the street, and is of a singularly
tUffereut style of architecture, while the town
Itself, geographically and topographically, is a
stupenduous mistake. In fact, he feels as if he
had been defrauded, and consequently labors
ander a sense of profound injury. The people
themselves, to use an inelegant but forcible
simile, don't by any means "come up to the
scratch." The town did not surprise me, but
its customs did. Never had I pictured to my?
self a jet-black policeman, mounted upon a bay
horse, in a gray, uniform, with side-arms repre?
sented 6y a club?a species of civic dragoon.
Yet this anomaly constantly repeats itself in
the streets of Charleston. Yon commence
with-one, and gradually resign yourself to a
squadron of these enormities, and so your mind
becomes reconciled to them by having it grad?
ually and gently broken to you, after, the man?
ner of the poet who informs yon that John
Brown had one little Indian boy, and insidi?
ously works you up to a despairing resignation
to ten of these unnatural children. Did I for
one moment expect to be waited upon at the
post office by a distributing clerk the color of
a dead, leaf? Uncle Sam is worse off than
John Brown.- Here was his first little negro
boy, bat I find that our beloved uncle has the
Joan Brown allowance indefinitely multiplied.
I went to the post ofiice on Sunday, and for
the first time in my life took in the idea that
"such things could be" as negro post masters
?and "?ich", A young gentleman often years
of. age asked for a. letter for Mr. Steele. You
will not be surprised that our African brother
had never heard of such a word. He institu?
ted at once, that nnisance of the hour, a spel?
ling problem; "How do yon spell it?" he
asked: ^Spoll it yourself," was the retort. As
that was not one of his professional duties, the
sunburnt chieftain of the Nile dropped the
subject as too insignificant for further consider?
ation. He waited upon me with gracious con?
descension, and dealt.me out four letters with
a celerity that indicated long practice in the
national game of poker." I think he could
deal himself four aces without an effort.
In wandering about this city it would have
been strange if I had not visited the battery,
which is as much of a celebrity here as its
namesake in New York. This little grassy
plat, bordered by its stone esplanade, is a fa?
vorite resort. A beautiful view of the harbor,
with Fort Sumter in the distance, a towering,
purple symmetrical cloud on the horizon, a
ship thus transfigured i)y air and distance, the
gentle sea breeze that brought such exhilara?
ting draughts of life-giving nectar, the bright,
bine sky necked with white clouds, and the sea
which rolled its murmuring tribute to the
shore, all combined to impart a dreary sensuous
enjoyment?a mouthful of lotus leaves. It is
in sueh moments that we drift, utterly forgetful
of the laboring oar. A revenue cutter lies a
short distance from the shore. It is so long
since eight bells that the presence of the flock
of sea gulls, whirling and darting down to the
water,_is accounted for. It is the scraps of the
noon-day meal that have brought these plun?
derers together. Like the human gulls who
swarm about the treasury, they get but the
leavings of the feast Three or four small boats,
oarless and sailless, incline towards the tide ;
the lazy, black fishermen, stretched at full
length, seem to be soundly sleeping; the lines
hang over the side, and even the fish must un?
derstand that their enemies don't mean busi?
ness lo-day. Four extremely tarry and very
mach patched marines are pulling with a long
stroke, a boat seaward, towards a barque an?
chored two miles away, and their sovereign of
the seas is almost as tarry and patched as his
subjects. This segment of a circle, called the
battery, or rather the sweeping carved line, the
esplanade,, runs at a point close beside the
street, and on this street are a few fine resi?
dences, some of them a little clamorous for
paint. In strolling about this city a dismantled
building occasionally strikes the eye, and in a
short walk I noticed the rnins of three churches.
One in particular of which a piece of the tower
alone stood erect, together with a 3mall piece of
terribly battered wall, rising above a heap of
piled up and stones, and overgrown with moss,
presented the appearance of a ruin quite up to
the old ?ng)isn standard. I turned round to
three or four tattered Africans?too wealthy to
work, I suppose and propounded, like Macbeth,
the question: "Which of you have done this?"
"This is a sorry sight." No response from the
children of Afric's burning shore. I asked my?
self the cause: Had the Danes ravaged the
coast, or had the oldest of the Scandinavians
been here with Hengist and Horsa, and Thor,
hammer and all ? Or, to come down to possi?
bilities, was it the work of Farragut or Porter ?
Had they thrown shot ^as big as Saratoga trunks
at this devoted building, and would up by
pitching the flag-ship at it? Nothing of the
sort. It was fire of a different kind; it was
small conflagration, working under the theory
of selection, which had picked out this build?
ing and rejected that; but showing a special
appetite for churches, eating four of them at a
mouthful. I think I have beard this element,
when in vigorous activity, called a fire fiend.
This was probably the boss fiend, from the en?
ergy displayed in attacking his natural enemy,
the church.
Charleston (and I don't state 'this with the
solemnity of a statistician) is an important
Cotton mart, and under favorable circumstan?
ces might become the great cotton exporting
city of America. Unfortunately there is a
deadly plague raging here which is fatal to her
prosperity?that is the negro plague. Negro
legislation to this city has been more fatal than
poisonous epidemic or consuming fire. Prop?
erty has absolutely touched bottom ; it can fall
no farther. The Courier and New*y the only
paper published in Charleston, is printed in a
stone building, originally a bank, a valuable
piece of property once, but purchased by the
proprietors of the newspaper for a mere song.
The Opera-house, a magnificent stone struc?
ture, 60 by 225 feet, standing on one of the
most valuable corners in the city, which cost
over $200,000, is offered for sale for one-fifth
of that sum. Of course, only a portion of this
building is occupied as a theater, but the en?
tire house, lot and all are in the market at the
price I have named. The plunderers of South
Carolina have, after ten years of persistent rob?
bery, been routed, but it is the old story of the
rat and the cheese; when the rat retired the
whole interior of the cheese had been devoured,
although the exterior looked like the real thing.
The people here, however, are hopeful, and be?
lieve that better times are coming. Charles
ton, like Savannah, is to some extent a winter
Saratoga. The city is full of strangers from
late in the fall until the first of May, and it is
their money, a continuous though somewhat
meager stream, that nourishes the town. Cot'
ton for the staple meal, and strangers for the
dessert. There are two remedies for the evils
here. One is to wrest from the negro a right
which should never have been granted?the
right of suffrage. The other, an emigration
from the North to a sufficient extent of over?
coming the numerical superiority of a race
whose stupendous ignorance has been the cause
of so much disaster. The latter remedy would j
create the former, but what intelligent Strang- j
er would risk an investment here? It would
be like opening a jewelry store next door to
the cavern of the forty thieves. With a gov?
erning white race, capital and energy, Char?
leston could be made one of the greatest of the
seaboard cities. She could build a railroad
west to the Mississippi, striking at Gaines'
Landing, complete the unfinished road from
the latter point to the Ouachita, and from there
to Fulton to the Red river above the raft, and
from there up the Red river, which from its
source runs due east to Fulton. From this
point a connection with the Southern Pacific
would tell the story. This railroad would cross
the very heart of the cotton belt, and make
Charleston the cotton port of America. With
the completion of the Southern Pacific, it would
be the snortest route from San Francisco to
the sea. But not in our day will this be ac?
complished. King. Cuffee may, for all we
know, yet reign in South Carolina. What a
I contrast between the present and the days of
j Calhoun. Once that idol of South Carolina
addressed a graduating class of the college, at
Columbia, (I think) "Young gentlemen/' lie
said, "remember that the eyes of the entire
world are fixed upon you." They believed it,
solemnly, firmly. They believed that when
pater familias in London prepared to say grace
at the morning meal, he said "my children?
look to South Carolina?for what we are about
to receive," &c.?that the sailor in the Pacific
when driving his harpoon into a whale looked
longing to South Carolina, and that the poor
invalid returning from sunny Italy only to die
mid-way on the voyage, with his last gasp beg?
ged to be lifted up so that he might look once
more in the direction oiSouth Carolina. The
arrogance and vanity of the people of the
State was so euormous that to the stranger it
was a bewildering puzzle. The memory of
their folly is all that is left them now.
This city is one of the gateways to Jackson?
ville, Florida, a place which had suddenly
loomed up as the great winter resort of sick, and
the listless, lazy people to whom the blasts of
the wintry North are bores of gigantic magni?
tude. All winter travel forthe South has Jack?
sonville for a final objective point. The Neapo?
litan saying is, "See Naples and die." Ihe
more practical American says, "See Jackson?
ville and live." Jt has become a fashionable
resort, and nearly all who settle down for the
winter in .Charleston or Savannah, feel bound
to make a hasty flight to the Florida fountain
of health. Consequently, in addition to the
permanent pilgrims to the latter place, there
is another crowd that is continually sifting
through Charleston, and, of course, paying
tribute when so doing. Omnibuses are con?
stantly shooting out passengers into the hotel,
and others are continually snapping them up,
like the Dragon of the Feudal times, and bag?
gagemen pitch huge trunks onto the sidewalk
as if they were knocking down their deadliest
fees. Skillful fellows they are. What study
it must have required to enable them to make
?a "Saratoga" strike on one of its corners, with
the balance of it rampant like an animal in
heraldry. If there is.any burst to that trunk
it is bound to come. I commenced my jour?
ney with a small trunk, so diabolically sugges?
tive that the temptation for a baggage-man to
hold it up over his head and fling it with the
venom of A jax himself was, I suppose, irre?
sistible. I held an inquest on this small trunk
this morning, and found that seams were open?
ing all over it. It reminded me of the gouty
old Commodore, he whose hull, you remember,
had been so knocked about that he could never
more be fit for sea. I am sadly afraid that the
next hundred miles will finish the job. My
house, for my trunk is my house, will be con?
demned. I think I will buy a salamander
safe to replace it, and trust to providence for
its alighting squarely on the toes of the first
baggage smasher that handles it.
MAHLSTICK.
The White House.?The Presidential man?
sion is just one mile and a half from the capi
tol. It stands on elevated ground, and forms a
conspicuous object in the landscape, seen from
a distance. It is an old-fashioned, cumbrous
looking edifice, with a double porch, immense
windows, and has the appearance of a cross be?
tween a demoralized Greek temple and a New
England village town house. In length it is
170 feet, by 86 in depth, and is two stories in
height. The entrance hall is 50 feet in length
by 40 in width, the two parlors which flank it
30 by 25 feet, while the famous East Room is
SO by 40, requiring five hundred yards of. car?
peting. The height of these rooms is twenty
two feet. A writer, some time since, in descri?
bing these apartmeuts happily says, they are as
"home-like as a connected series of meeting?
houses."
The reader who has never penetrated the
mysteries of the presidential mansion may be
astonished to know that the entire first floor is
public property, and that the care of it does not
at all appertain to the household arrangements
of the occupying family, The private portion
of the building is confined to part of the second
story and three rooms in the basement. The
remainder of the second story is occupied by
the President's offices. At the foot of the en?
trance hall is the "oval room," which is flanked
by the two square parlors. From the one on
the right the visitor enters the large dining
room; from that on the left, the banqueting or
east room. In these rooms are held the presi?
dential levees and receptions. They are gor?
geously furnished, and the amount of pauelmg,
and glass, and gilt, and mirrors, and ginger?
bread work is absolutely painful to behold.
There has been little change in their decoration
and arrangement for the last forty years. The
furniture and carpets have been renewed and
re-renewed, but with a sort of religious venera?
tion for the taste of the original upholsterers,
thf general appearance and effect has been re?
tained.?Boston Gmmercial Bulletin.
? The Athens Watchman publishes the fol?
lowing, which it says is no fancy sketch, as the
facts were obtained from a reliable gentleman,
and challenges the State to beat it: Mrs. Jane
Meadows, of Banks County, is now about
ninety years old, and has eleven living child?
ren?the youngest forty-eight years old, and
the oldest about seventy. One of her children
is a preacher, and several of the grand children.
She nas ninety-one grand children, one hun?
dred and fifty-five great grand children, and
fifteen or twenty great, great grand children!
? Contennial celebratiotts are so plenty in
1875 that we may be very sick of them by the
Fourth of July, 1876.
Dent? of Gen. John C. Breckenridge*
I Lexington, May IS.
Gen. John C. Brecken ridge died of abscess of
the liver, combined with consumption. His
last hours were quiet and pleasant. On Sun?
day night he was very restless, and sent during
the night for his regular physician, who ad?
ministered an opiate to thesutFerer, after which
he slept until late the next morning. Then he
was visited by Dr. Lewis R. Sayre, of New
York, who dressed the wound made by the
operation of last week. The doctor, seeing
that a discharge was taking place from the
wound, expressed himself hopeful of the pa?
tient's rapid recovery, with the proper atten?
tion. After this the sufferer took some nour?
ishment. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon a
change for the worse was perceptible, and his
friends became alarmed. Stimulants were
administered but without effect, and he sank
rapidly until near 5 o'clock, when he became
speechless. He died at 15 minutes to G o'clock.
He was conscious, apparently, up to within a
few minutes of death. There was no scene, no
last words. The only allusions he made to
death were once after the operation performed
on him last week by Drs. Sayre and Gross,
when he said he felt so comfortable he believed
mortification had set in ; and again in his will
made next day by Hon. James B. Beck, in
which he used these words: "After all my
just debts, which are few and small, and the
expenses of a modest funeral are paid, I desire,
etc." Around the death bed of the General
was his wife, two daughters, one son and a few
other immediate relatives.
From the Augusta Constitutionalist.
The last hours of the dead Breckenridge
will be read with painful interest. When the
Black Camel knelt at his door he mounted it
with perfect consciousness and without a mur?
mur, and thus left the world forever at the age
of only fifty-four, one of the greatest men ever
born in America. There was nothing but the
truest greatness in his composition. He was
the finest looking man we ever saw. God
seemed to have stamped his own patent of no?
bility upon his brow. He sinks into the grave,
into eternity, leaving not even a blended stain
upon a record of honor. It is fitting that the
South should weep for him, for he was ever
true to her in her days of prosperity and in
the midnight hours of her late war for inde?
pendence. In the supreme moments of peril
and public danger, the people always knew
where to find him. He left the forum and
drew the sword to defend his principles, and
from the beginning to the end of the struggle
the Confederacy did not muster under its ban?
ner a braver soldier or a more sagacious coun?
sellor. No man can point to a single act of
treachery or a single act of his not in accord
with the highest code of morals or the truest
principles of chivalry.
From t/te Charlotte Observer.
One of nature's noblemen, in the fullest and
broadest sense of the word, has fallen. It is
with much regret that we chronicle the death
of General John Cabell Breckenridge, who
died in Lexington, Kentucky, on the 17th inst.
Although the public mind, through the me?
dium of the press, has been prepared to antici?
pate his death at any time, since the partial
operation was performed upon him some days
ago by Drs. Sayre and Gross, and which failed
to relieve their distinguished patient, yet the
sad announcement of the death of the idol of
Kentucky will not only awaken many regrets
and carry sadness to very many hearts in his
own native State, but throughout the length
and breadth of the whole Union. The death
of a man so gifted by nature and endowed with
such pre-eminent abilities is a national calam?
ity, even when he has reached mature and ripe
old age, but more especially is such the case
when a full orbed statesman, in the prime of
life and in the midst of his usefulness, is re?
moved from time to eternity. "Like Saul, the
son of Cis," he stood head and shoulders above
the majority of our public meu in most of the
intellectual attributes that compose and make
a pre-eminent statesman and forensic speaker,
and when "the golden bowl was broken and
the silver chord loosened," and the immortal
spirit of John C. Breckenridge wps wafted
from time to eternity, one of the greatest in?
tellectual giants that America has ever given
birth to, fell to rise no more. His name was
but a synonym for physical manhood in its
most perfect and uuique form, lor the refined
and polished gentleman, for political integrity
and incorruptibility. He possessed in a great
degree personal magnetism which attracted
and retained for him fiostsof strong and ardent
personal friends not only among his own party,
but from the ranks of those who differed with
him politically. He was the most popular man
who helped ennoble Kentucky, and transcend?
ed in this respect Henry Clay in the zenith of
his glory and popularity. If hero worship ever
was pardonable it was in the case of General
Breckenridge, who had often been tried, often
trusted in the highest position of place and
honor and never proved recreant,'whether he
was stationed in the legislative halls, State and
National, or amid the serried hosts of armed
men, whether he was performing the duties in?
cident to the legal profession, or discharging
the functions pertaining to a private citizen iu
its various ramifications.
He was doubtless, since the war, after the
christian-soldier Lee, the most popular man in
the South. Like the peerless Lee, the match?
less Breckenridge died without having his dis?
abilities removed. Their names were, however,
not born to die, and their memories will ever
be fondly cherished, embalmed as they are in
the hearts of their countrymen, and future
generations will ever fondly emblazon their
deeds.
John Cabell Breckenridge, an American
politician and soldier, born near Lexington,
Kentucky, January 21, 1821. He was educa?
ted at Centre College, Danville, studied law at
Transylvania Institute, and settled at Lexing?
ton. At the breaking out of the war wfro
Mexico, he was elected Major of the Third
Regiment of Kentucky volunteers, but had
little opportunity for active service. After the
war he was elected to the House of Represen?
tatives of Kentucky, and in 1851 was chosen
to Congress, and in 1853 was re-elected after a
violent and protracted contest. During the
first session oi the 33d Congress, in the course
of the discussion of the Kansas-Nebraska bill,
he was involved in a personal altercation with
Mr. F. B. Cutting, a member from New York,
leading to the preliminaries for a duel, which,
however, did not take place. Upon the acces?
sion of President Pierce he was offered the
ministry to Spain, but declined it. In 185G he
was elected Vice President, in conduction with
Buchanan as President. In 1860 the dis-union
delegates iu the Democratic National Conven?
tion, having separated from the supporters of
S. A. Douglas, nominated Mr. Breckenridge
for President, and be received the electoral
votes of all the Southern States except Vir?
ginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri. In
the same year ho was elected United States
Senator. After defending the Southern Con?
federacy in the Senate, he went South, entered
the army and rose to the rank of Major-Gcn
cral. He was repulsed in an attack on Baton
Rouge in August, 1861 ; commanded a corps
under Bragg at Stone River at the end of 1862,
and at Chickamauga in September, 1863; de
I feated Sigel at Newmarket in May, 1864; par
j ticipated in Early's advance on Washington
; in July of that year, and shared in his defeat
1 near Winchester in September. In January,
j 1865, he was appointed Confederate Secretary
I of War. After the surrender of Gen. Lee he
went to Europe, whence he returned in 1868,
and has since lived in Kentucky.
Prof. Broun, of the Georgia University, on
the Late Cyclones.
Upon the special request of the Georgia
Teachers' Convention, lately held in Griffin,
Prof. LeRoy Broun made the following re?
marks upon the subject of the recent cyclones
that have devastcd this section of the country:
Whenever we are unable to account for any
occurrence beyond the range of the ordinary
in nature, we are accustomed to say it is the
result of electricity. What is electricity?
Many'of those who so flippantly use the name
would be unable to answer the question.
Electricity is produced by the falling of rain ;
by the change of air to vapor; by the change
of vapor to rain; by the uniform physical
changes that occur upon the surface of the
globe. We see the.evidence of its existence
in the flash that leaps from cloud to cloud, and
illuminates creation by the blaze of its intol?
erable glory. We see the proof of its exist?
ence in the bolt that shivers to atoms~the mag?
nificent forest king, or leaves in ruins the
structure that boasts to be the result of the
architectural art of ages.
Electricity has nothing whatever to do with
these cyclones.
It had been reported that the trauist of Ve?
nus had caused these atmospheric disturbances.
These troubles were caused by the unequal dis?
tribution of heat upon the surface of the earth.
To any one having the slightest idea of the
relative size of the Sun and the planet of Ve?
nus, to say nothing of the comparative influ?
ence of the source of all heat, and a body that
is not even self-luminous, it would be hardly
necessary to say that the idea is absurd. Ve?
nus has no more to do with those disturbances
than the amours of the fabled goddess whose
name she bears.
To give the simplest illustration : Suppose
a circular sheet of water to be covered oy a
surface of iron, precluding all escape, save at
one small orifice. Suppose an immense press?
ure to be applied upon this iron surface. Com?
mon sense would teach that this water would
have a tendency to escape through this orifice
with a force and upward tendency propor?
tioned to the pressure and the smallness of the
orifice. Now the earth is covered with a
stratum of atmosphere which may be taken for
all practicable purpose to be forty-five miles in
thickness. In the equatorial regions where
the solar heat is greatest, the atmosphere be?
comes rarified and consequently lightened and
rises upward. A partial vaccum is necessarily
produced. The air from the polar regious
moves in to supply the deficiency or partial
vacuum. Were the earth stationary, a current
would be produced from the North pole to the
equator. For the sake of simplicity we will
only consider the Northern hemisphere in
which we live. Were the earth stationary, the
current would bo due North to South, but the
earth moves from West to East and consequent?
ly the current is bent out of its natural course
into a Northwest wind. The rarified and
lightened air rises and begins to flow back to?
ward the North pole. These two currents must
be opposed to each other, and whenever two
winds of approximately equal force meet there
must, be rotary motion.
About the time of the cyclones that swept
across Georgia, an area of low barometer was
reported at the Signal office in Washington,
extending from southwest to northeast. Above
or north of this area was an area of high press?
ure. Thus this area of low pressure formed a
trough upon which the areas of high pressure
were superimposed, and the added weight rest?
ing upon the lower stratum of air produced a
tendency to rise upward at the point of least
resistance. These from all directions were es?
tablished currents towards this point, and to
any one who has observed the tendency of
water to form in what are familiarly known as
whirlpools the rotary or whirling motion thus
produced will bo easily understood. #
" A cannon ball moves at about the rate of 13,
000 feet per second. A cubic yard of air
weighs about two pounds, and would therefore
move toward this vacuum and orifice with a
momentum of about 26,000 pounds. A thou?
sand cubic yards of air would move at the mo?
mentum of about 26,000,000 pounds, and when
we consider the apparently immeuse height of
the atmosphere, we can, to some extent, con?
ceive of the limitless force of the tornado.
And as the rotating current of air passes up?
ward, it encounters the northeasterly current
which carries it forward with great velocity in
the prevailing direction northeast.
The phosphorescent appearance of the clouds
was due to the relative opposite conditions of
electricity of the earth, and the surrounding
atmosphere, and thus one side of the cloud
might assume the appearance of phosphores?
cence or electrified brilliancy while the other
side would appear shrouded in gloom. These
clouds are not the producers but the mere ac?
companiments of the cyclone and their elec?
trical conditions and the accompanying phe?
nomena of rain and hail are accounted for
upon the simplest natural principles that need
not be enumerated here. From the tremen?
dous momentum of huge bodies of air rushing
toward a common centre with an awful power
to which the rush of the bullet or the impetus
of the cannon ball are but as the breath of the
Zephyr to the whirl of the storm, we can readi?
ly conceive how in its path, the strength of the
oak becomes as a straw, and the work of man
dissolves into ruin before the power of Him who
holds the world in the hollow of His hand.
The above is but a brief and imperfect sum?
mary of the remarks of Professor !3rouu. Be?
fore the magic of his clear analysis and plain
and simple statements, the causes producing
the ordinary phenomena to the cyclone, became
easy of comprehension to the audience who
fronted him. To explain the terrible power and
unusual accompaniments of an extraordinary
cyclone, would require beside a knowledge of
the abovo facts, all the influences excited upon
our atmosphere during the period immediately
preceding the cyclone, by whatever of distur?
bing agencies that may exist without the
knowledge of the scientist, who depends and
must depend upon the present imperfect in?
struments and systems for collecting and utiliz?
ing the data of atmospheric storms.
? There is an elderly lady in Shermam
? Conn., who is very indignant with the present
; laws, as she understands them. Talking with
i a friend a while ago, she said: "My husband
! only got ten dollars for voting the?ticket,
! while father got eighteen for voting the?tick-1
ct. Wa'n't that loo bad ? They ain't nothin'
square nor right about sich laws! They orter
be made more equal, and sumthin' should be
done 'bout, it so they'd pay one as much for
votin' as another."
j ? A Memphis paper defines advertising to
be a "blister which draws trade."
A Family Record Closed?Three Generations
Blotted Out on Earth.
The terrible disaster to the steamer Schiller
j closes the record of an entire family, beloved
! and honored in St. Louis. To all of our older
j citizens, Joseph Ridgway, of the copartnerships,
i successively, of Erskine& Ridgway and of Ers
kiue, Gore & Ridgway, was well known. In
their days those firms were among the largest
and most prominent in this city. Of their
members, Mr. Greene Erskine alone survives.
After these firms were dissolved Mr. Ridg?
way devoted himself solely to the care of his
private estate, residing in a family mansion
j built by himself, on the northeast corner of
! Seventh and Walnut Streets, which he sold to
Gen. Blair about 1855, at which time he re?
moved to the vicinity of Boston for the educa?
tion of his two daughters?his only children.
About 1858 he leased the well-known residence
of Horatio Greenough, the celebrated sculptor,
at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in which, sur?
rounded by its wealth of art, he remained until
his daughters had finished their studies at the
school founded by Professor Agassiz. At that
time the daughters of several St. Louis citizens
were also pupils at the same school. Those
school days having ended, Mr. Ridgway, after
a European tour with his family, returned with
them to St. Louis about 1860, and purchased a
residence on Lucas Place. Among the young
ladies theu just entering society, none were
more lovely and attractive than Misses Lizzie
and Clara Ridgway?the companions in that
brilliant circle many of whom are now young
wives and mothers, resident here and in East
ert cities. It was here, about 1866, that Miss
Lizzie became the wife of Charles W. Walter,
a merchant of New York, but previously a
partner in the firm of Thomas H. Larkin &
Co., of St. Louis. That marriage, with the
consequent residence of the married pair in
New York, induced the removal of the Ridg?
way family to that city about the year 1865,
where, to be with his family, Mr. Ridgway
purchased a residence on Forty-third Street,
anticipating that at last his wanderings had
ceased.
About the year 1868-'69, his younger daugh?
ter's health required, under the advice of some
eminent physicians, her instant removal to
Southern France. Leaving the married daugh?
ter (Lizzie) and her two children in New York,
Mr. and Mrs. Ridgway hurried with the young?
er daughter (Clara) through Paris, consulting
there with Dr. Pope, to the neighborhood of
Nice. i
The day after their arrival their daughter
died. The sorrowing parents hastened home
at once, with the dead body, to learn for the
first time, on reaching New York, that their
elder daughter, with her children and husband,
had been during the winter and was still at
Montmorency, S. C, as the last hope, under
medical direction, of saving her waning life.
Instantly the father and mother joined her
and the grand-children. In the latter part of
April Mr. Ridgway telegraphed to a friend in
St. Louis of the improved health of the invalid
daughter, and of his intention to return early
in May with the remaining family via St. Louis
to New York, and requested the needed accom?
modations. The succeeding day brought a tel?
egram from Mr. Walter that Mr. Ridgway had
suddenly died the previous night, leaving his
wife, invalid daughter and little grand-children
in South Carolina, and that the survivors
would proceed directly to New York. A few
weeks later another dispatch summoned St.
Louis friends to New York to witness the de?
parture for the Tyrolean Alps of the surviving
daughter.
During * summer repeated telegrams gave
encouraging accounts of restored health, until
at last came the sad message that she had died,
without premonition, on the margin of a lovely
lake in Northern Italy. The afflicted husband,
grand-mother and grand-children returned
home, bearing the remains of her for whom
this last European tour had been ventured.
Thus, at length, through extraordinary suf?
fering and affliction, the sad remains of the
family, the grand-mother and two little grand?
children, with the disconsolate son-in-law,
reached New York.
A few weeks ago a voyage of love and devo?
tion was planned. The grand-mother could
not be content until she had again visited the
sad scenes in Europe where her daughters had
died. Full of this thought, which she freely
communicated to her friends here, she took
passage on the ill-fated Schiller, with her niece,
son-in-law, grand-children and servant (an
emancipated slave of olden time.) The voy?
age was one of devotion to the memory of her
departed daughters. Her thoughts were solely
of those in the spirit land, and of the two
grand-children to whom she so fondly clung.
Thus, on this last and sacred mission, the
aged grand-mother, with these two little ones
and their father, started on the fateful voy?
age.
The sad news indicates that she and those
dearest to her have sooner than she expected
met those loved ones, for re-union with whom
she pined daily, yet with an ever agonizing
fear that she should go alone, leaving the dear
little ones to follow in an indefinite thereafter.
Her holiest wish is fulfilled?she and those
little ones have gone together; all of the three
generations left a united family at last.
Within five years there have thus disap?
peared three generations of that one family.
All that ample fortune and human skill
could accomplish, and all that devoted affec?
tion could achieve were in vain, for despite
them all this family record was closed when
the Schiller went down into the ocean depth
with her precious freight of human life and
love.
It is seldom that thus, within so few years,
an entire family, favored by fortune, passes
away leaving so many, startled and sorrowing
friends to lament their melancholy fate.?St,
Louis Democrat. _
More Testimony From the North.?The
editor of the Providence, R. L, Press, after a
tour of several months through the Southern
States, gives the following candid and gratify?
ing corroboration of the testimony of Judge
Kelly: "Mr. Kelly is right and can afford to
be cursed bv party friends. We have seen for
ourselves; have mixed and conversed with all
shades and kinds of people South?negroes,
whites, officials, ex-rebels, military and civil,
non-partisans and partisans, Republicans and
White Leagues, and for weeks have examined
into the whole status of the South, civil, polit- .
ical and financial, and our note book and mem?
ory fully corroborate all that Mr. Kelley or
any other intelligent or fairminded man has
or must say, in truth, of the South and its pres?
ent position. It is time this humbug and folly
of coercing a now loyal people ceased. It is
time that swindlers and knaves were turned
I out of Southern Federal offices, and honest
men put in their places; it is time that a
j roign of justice was inaugurated and the reign
I of corruption and oppression ceased. If the
i leaders of the Republican party are cither wise
or shrewd, they will acknowledge their errors
and commence an immediate reform of the
j Southern service."
I ? Grammatically speaking, a kiss is a con-1
1 junction.
Got. Chamberlain's Declination.
We stated last week that Gov. Chamber*
I lain had declined the invitation to deliver
the anniversary address before the literary so?
cieties of Erskine College. His reasons for de?
clining the invitation are set forth in a letter
addressed to the committee, which we copy
from the A. R. Presbyterian:
Executive Department, 1
_ May 10th, 1875. J
Gentlemen: Your pleasant and pleasanly
conveyed invitation to me in behalf of the
Philomathean Literary Society of Erskine Col*
lege, to address the Literary Societies of that
Institution on the approaching Commencement
July 7th, has been received.
It would be a pleasure which I should great?
ly enjoy, and a duty which I should readily ac?
cept, to deliver such an address, if it were not
for the fact that I am now under a previous en?
gagement to perform a similar service, on the
30th of June, at Yale College, my Alma Mater.
I assure you that it is not a merely formal re?
gret which I now express in saying that if the
two occasions had been presented at the same
1 time I should have accepted yours.
There are many things which in the^eculiar
situation of our State and people I should have
hoped to say, which might tend to the peace,
happiness and hopefulnes of my fellow-citi?
zens. ?
By this I do not mean our local politics?far
from it. Such occasions should be sacred from
the approach of anything savoring of the party
politics of the day, unless it be some discussion
of the great common principles which underlie
all gqvernment and hold together human socie?
ty itself.
But I should have tried particularly to im?
press upon those whom I should have addressed
the incalculable importance, at this juncture,
of deep and true scholarship. By scholarship,
I mean familiarity with the recorded product
of the world's thought and action. Than this
nothing can be more essential to broad and
wise views of present events and dutjes. No
occasions call more loudly for those influences
which scholarship and culture can alone fur?
nish than when "the times are out of joint."?
True catholicity of mind, true liberality of life,
are to be gained by resort to those vast treas?
ures which constitute the learning of the world.
The true scholar is the truest man. He is pa?
tient in adversity because be is in thought and
feeling the companion of Socrates and Galileo.
He is undaunted by the mockings of changing
fortune because he remembers Aristides ana
Erasmus. He is hopeful and enterprising in
the pursuit of truth because he lives in the
company of those who labored to hasten results
which they knew they would not themselves
witness. This is the spirit of scholarship?
reverent, recipient, docile, on the one hand
bold, hopeful, farsighted, on the other?but al?
ways generous and helpful to all.
Can any qualities be better suited to this
day in South Carolina? Can her sons bring to
her service better gifts than these?
It would be a great privilege to endeavor to
enforce and illustrate these thoughts to a sym?
pathizing audience, such as your Commence?
ment would furnish?but I must not attempt
it now. I sat down indeed merely to thank
you and to tell you why I can not serve you on
the 7th of July. At all other times and in all
ways within my power 1 am, very truly, your
friend and servant,
D. H. Chamberlain.
Hon. Ben Hill as an Agriculturalist.
The Nashville Union and Americant which
concedes to Hon. Ben Hill consummate ability
as an orator and a lawyer, has no faith in his
agricultural knowledge and counsel. The
statement of Mr. Hill particularly excepted to
is this: "I tell you to-day, I care not what
seasons may come, what large crops you may
raise, still under existing conditions, you will
ever grow poorer who produce cotton, and they
will ever grow richer who handle after it is
produced. Under the present policy the next
generation of Southern people will become the
poorest, the most helpless and the most con?
temptible of earth's inhabitants; while under
a wise policy the next generation of Southern
people may become the richest, the most pow?
erful and the most respectable of people.?
Which destiny will we choose?"
The Union and American takes issue with
Mr. Hill's idea that we should make a support
on the farm, and have cotton a clear money
crop as gain. Conceding that this, as a gener?
al rule, is sound, the editor proceeds to point
out Mr. Hill's mistake in these words: "Ihere
are many planters, particularly in the Atlantic
and Gulf States, who know so much more about
raising cotton than grains, or producing grass,
meat stock, wool or horses, that they cannot
shift their operations without great risk of loss
from ignorance and bad management. There
are at least tweuty different trades in the arts
of tillage and husbandry. Suppose a planter
understands one or two of these well, and no
more. Should he abandon the trade he knows
to follow one which he has yet to learn ? No
doubt the South would be greatly prompted by
diversified agricultural and manufacturing in-^
dustry; and to attain this object the people*
should sustain industrial schools, in which the
most skilful labor, art and science may be
blended. This would be true progress.
"How will you have a man or woman under?
stand the business of making first-class cheese
who never saw a cheese dairy in their lives?
It is easy to find fault and scold, when the sim?
ple truth is our people have no opportunities
to learn new pursuits in civilized and highly
cultivated industry. They have no teachers of
diversified agriculture; no examples to follow;
their education is still rudimentary and in the
embryo state. It is absurd to expect a youth of
either sex to learn any useful lesson which is
neither taught, nor seen, nor heard, nor felt in
the community. Our mechanical and agricul?
tural schools are the merest myths.
"Mr. Hill does not touch the great evil in the
way of suggesting an available remedy. It
will hardly do to say, 'be ye wise in all the pro?
ductive industries of the most advanced nations
of the globe.' Of what possible value is such
advice ? No human being is made wiser, < r
better off in his environment, or estate. This
language is high-sounding and mystical, but
like the philosophy of Plato*-For etprceterea
nihil?'voice ana nothing more.' Shadows pass
too often now-a-days, for statesmanship, and
vibration of air for sound agricultural knowl?
edge."
We think, for our own part, that the truth,
as usual, lies in the middle ground between the
Union and American writer and Mr. Hill.?
While it is not to be expected that Southern
planters shall all at once jump into the perfec?
tion of diversified industry, the fact remains
that they could do much more than they are
now doing to make themselves measurably self
sustaining.
? "That ar' patch of ground's mem'rible,"
said an Omaha man, pointiug to a grave all by
itself outside the town. "I reckin' you'll k iow
that, stranger, when you see it ag'in. The
ockypant of that was the furst man Horrus
Greeley ever told to git West?likewise he was
hung for stealin' a mewl."