Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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BY E. B. MURKAY & CO. ANDERSON, S. C., THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 23. 1RftT VOLUME XVI.-NO. 50 I Tilt lUiviAAww ur nnin .ful Scenes li? the Track of Desolation L,|0j,, Families Literally Koastcd to Lriitli Along Hie Hoad? ?hilo Trying to Leane. CHICAGO, September ll. the Kev. Z. (irenoll, Jr., pastor of the L iJantist Church ot Detroit, ha? ar Ul in that city from Sand Beach by [ Narrow ?augo aud Grand Trunk, Line through moat of the burued re L ?n Sanilac county. He gave a re ker a graphic and fearful description Che calamity aa he saw it and heard of from eye-witnesses. On his way to ft Huron hy the Narrow Guage Rail? w it was noticed that in somo places [track had proved an effectual harrier [be Haines, which did not find fuel in j j,ravel of thc roadbed. In other tees, however, it burned tho ties and fated and destroyed tho rails, which i to bc replaced. In other places it I leaped clear over the road and taken Jew start on tho other r-ide. For the St part, it got across in some way, and repots of unburnt country were small, '< and Ire between. From the car win lb all the way, it presented to tho a- ' the aspect of a burned desert of CB and i mouldering embers, without lien of animal or vegetable life, a miry abandoned by Cod and man, and which il waa impossible to imagine f one returning. The telegraph poles all bumed, and the wires had been it upon any stick that could bo found. ? for long distances were merely laid ag the tics beside tho rails. THE SCENES OF HORROR the woods were too frightful for any i to portray. The dead were found rywhere, "very rarely recognizable, [ iu most cases undistinguishable as oan boings. Many were mere masses burnt flesh, which fell apare when ched, and in very few could BOX or bc distinguished. From one body bead fell when it was lifted up; from Ither, that of a young woman, the leg arated and hung suspended by the Jons. In somo placea families were nd reduced to an undistinguishable p of roasted and blackened blocks of i where they fell together, over timed by the rushing flames. The ?fold horrors of tho calamity were Inplied by fearful tornadoes, which off retreat in every direction. The ul heat of the atmosphere raised tho ke a little from the ground, and it lg above the earth in an impenetrable 19, shutting out every ray of light and ring the poor creatures below, helpless [ blind, until the fire caught them and fed their agony in death. Now and a Hames shot up in tremendous sse?, which would he seized by a tor io and carried bodily a quarter of a e away and then pushed down again itart the Hames in a new quarter. In I way helpless fugitives flying for life e penned in by seas o? flame and steu like rats in u cage. Among the BOUS burned out who have como to iroit to get relief for the sufferers ia in Ballantyne, of Verona M?UB. In Interview be told the following story : i Monday morning last it waa as tsant at Verona Mills aa it is this ming here. We had no more appre aion of dauger by fire in our locality a you apparently have here to-day. about 12 o'clock a dense smoke an to blow out toward thc lake and a ible wind began to arise. A numbei ts went back into the woodB to inves te. We soon found what was the ter, and, hurrying back, I told my ily that we were going to be burned -that it was impossible to .ive any ig. It was not more than twenty ute? before a cloud of smoke cnvel i us and we wero LEFT IN TOTAL DARKNESS. se who could flee to a piaco of refuge BO. I aud ray family started to go were caught by the flamea before wt gone more than fifteen or t went j I. Wo managed to get into a corr ?, aud remained there from about ] ock in thc afternoon till 3 next morn , nearly suffocated and unable to He< thing about us. It waa a perfec ? of blackness. After the fire swep r it almost everything waa gone re and there was a farm dwelling ye idiug. Nearly all the stock, cattle Bp aud horses were killed, and wo suv ii lying by thc roadside. The peopli e left almost entirely deatituto o hing and provisions In one inatanc El knew of fifty pounds of flour wer he provisions that could he obtainei seventy-five people, in auother plac te were one hundred and four peopl with about the same amount of floui ire was no meat or provisions of au; J. I owned a aaw mill and flourinj !, aud the consequence was that peo began to come in from all about thor ippeal to me for aid. AB soon as pos e I came away and sent them som ef from Sand Beach. From there te down telling them I would se U could bc done. As I was leavin t day they had found fifty-eigli lies. I have not been able to lean detail? of the loss of life ii. tho towi raris, but the report is thnt there wa reat number." Another experienc ?cajiing is a? follows : Tho wife wa fined to her bed, sick ; the huaban i tired with fighting fire. There wer eral children. At noon on Monda was evident that they muat fly fe ir lives. It suddenly grew dark, s k that the mau had difficulty in gel S the horses. By thc time ho gc m it was so dark from tho Btnoke tin could not see to ?harneas them ; ht ES the smoke blinded the eyes and oi sacd the lunga. Ile got tho horse nessed to tho wagon ; then he wei ? the barn for a neck yoke, and whe came out ho [ COULD NOT FIND THE WAilOV I team. For a minuto or two ho ha eel ab^-it for them like a blind mai sn h>_ W3nt into tho house and carrie wife out ou her bed, bcd aud all, an 'her in the wagon. The children gi H girl of fifteen drove the team o se miles in the darkness and blindin >ke, over a bad road, with trees fallin ' ""'sea perfectly frantic with terro w fhe did it she hardly knows. Th ? being loft bohind, to make a la " to start his cattle, escaped on foo ore be left the barn and farm we rally covered with flying cinders, tl ?of tho windows broke with the boa Bellowing, moaning cattle gathen ?thor and staggered aimlessly nbou he got into tho road the building -es, sucks-the wholo place-bur ) names, which inado an awful yello re rn tho Binoke. With all thia ll "H blew with frightful violence ar fing gusta ; sonie'times the smoke KC down about him in dense darknes 'oat he staggered from auffocatio ?ri the smoke would rise beforo a gu "r, anij an awfu, bi?atcr? heat ^ place of tho smoko. The woo ?K the road took firo behind on ea< Lil inr ,FRONT OF HUN. BLLT H0 8 Tgh safely, happy to find that tl ?i VV1,. hi9 fam,'y had successful rW h,m: Tho dense smoko ma nark as night in the day-timo a. wi in tho night, but tho ronda wc or>'y paths to safety. Ono mn riding toward the fire, found it sudtlei'.v ' , w"d in.m,' an,i only escaped by aban oonmg h,8 horse and buggy' to the?llames. Those who escaped come in with their cloth-ng scorched and often with bli?, tered Landa faces und feet. On r. "paco dead ?nd T, C8 0H ?T' roa(i 3ix P?"?n? dead and dying wero found. One family consisted of tBo husband nearly dead with hair and whiskers gone and face and hands peeled, but hts8feet protected J? clothing burned oiT up to her waist fJ!?heri3g8B,r,ged'* theirtwo children, WI i,cy,w,ei? trying to save, ?ero dead Probably a number of parent? could have saved their owu lives, but they died in ' TRYING TO BAVE THEIR CHILDREN'. The awful fury of the fire is shown in ita effects upon tho earth. In places the soil is actually burned to a depth of sev eral inches. Acres aud acres of laud have been divested of every living thine clear down to tho very root? in tho ground, leaving tho country as bare as a desert and strewn with ashes. In many cases ono cannot tell by thc looks thc difference between a ploughed field and one ou which there was a dense wood, lhere are square miles of lauds all roady lor the plough, cleared as thoroughly as if years of labor had been expended upou them, and there aie other E<J are miles where the pioneer can now make a farra by removing a few scattered chunks, not wholly consumed, and put ting un fences. There aro placea where tho telegraph linea were so effectually destroyed that one cannot even find a vestige of thc iron wire. The section n which thc fires raged most furiously and were most destructive to life and property embrace; the larger part of Huron county, moa of Sauilac county, and a large tract in the north east, east and southeast of Tuscola coun ty, and some territory iu the northwest ern portion of Lapeer county. Thc ?rea were also very disastrous 'in (Jeueaeo, Saginaw and Midland counties, but in comparison with the widespread destruc tion in Hurou, Sauilac and Tuscola the losses are insignificant. An idea of TUB EXTENT OF THE DESOLATION iu the ahoro counties may be formed when it is said that from back of Tort Austin, or from Grindstone City, in the extreme north of Hurou county, the lire has cut a swath of from ten lo thirty miles in width down to the southern por tion of Sauilac county, a distance of sixty miles. Hundreds of square miles of territory were burned over, aud the number of the destitute reaches thou sands. Tl ? townships in Huron county bordering c.. Saginaw Bay seem to have got oil" most lightly, but the central and eastern townships suffered heavily. Some of thc shore villages escaped, but others received a severe scorching, and of sonic lhere is scarcely a vestige left. Reporta have been received showing that every township in Sauilac county suffered more or less injury. The whole interior ol'thc couuty had been laid waste, while thc townships of Tuscola bordering thereor have sustained severe losses. The ihre? counties ol Huro*:, ffaailac and Tuscoli were ravaged by the great fires of 1871 but the'DSSCB then, great as they were do not equal those occasioned by the fire; of this week. Tho three counties namci bad, in round numbers, a population ii 1870 of 37,000, and iu 1880 of 72,000 They have therefore doubled in popula lion since the destructive fires of tel years ago, while as respects t.?cir agricul tural developments, the rate of iucreas was much larger. The loss will read hundreds of thousands of dollars, and next to thc loss of life, its saddest featur is that it deprives huudieda of all mean of sustenance. Pillar or Fire and Smoko-The YTilil Bid or a Muulac-FEght ot Wild AclsuaU Tlie Churrcd Remains. Detroit Free Frets Correspondence. On Saturday, the 3d instant, along th eastern shore of Michigan a thin clou of smoke rested over the forests and gav the lake a hazy look. On Sunday tbi cloud was thicker. Cattle and horse had a wild, excited look, and fowls adc in a strange manner. For ten days past fires had been buri: ?ng in Sanilac, Huron and Tuscol counties, but no one apprehended nn danger. Farmers had set fire to slosl ing to clear thc ground for fall whea but this happens every fall, aud the fal that not a drop of water had fallen i from fifty to seventy days was not cot sidered by those who saw the suioki clouds and replied that there was u danger. There was danger. Uehiu that pall of smoko was a greater euem than an earthquake, and it had a tornac nt its back and 200 miles of forest in tl front. Monday morning thc smoko cloud Ki 'bicker. Far out in the lake it settle down until lambs on shipboard had toi lighted io seo the compass and the was a weirdness about it which mai sailors fear. At noon, on land, no mu night was ever darker. Lamps we powerless to light even a small roor All business was suspended in the ?tree of the towns, and in tho country the fa mers gathered their wives and childn about them, and whispered that it TV the coming of judgment. Hot wav swept through the forests aud over t farms, parching the green leave, as they had been placed in hot ovei Smoko was everywhere-thick, NU smoke, which blinded and suffocat children ?0 their mother's arms. Pro noon until 2 o'clock a strange terror lie the people in its grip. Iben all of a su deu, the heavens took fire, or so seemed to hundreds. In some loeahti it came with the sound of thunder, others it was proceeded by a terni roaring, ns if a tidal wave wore sweep! over tim country. Almost at the ssl ininuLo ibo fiaojca appeared in et? spot over a district of country toil miles broad by a hundred in length. A billow of Hame ton-thirty-foi and in some places six ty feet bj fanned by a hot and brisk south* wind, rolled over this track and left 1 hind it charred bodies of hundreds people, thousands of live stock, and can hardly tell how many homes. 1 very air was in flame. A gas .ora ahead of thc wall of flames, and t snapped and crackled and score bed?I withered and left green leaves as dry P?At Kchmondvillc, ten ?niles ab Sauilac, one hundred and fifty people comfortable homes, stacks of hay i wain.teams, cows, pig?, sheep and fear of thc fire which they knew burning a mile away. At 2 o'clock Sames rushed out of the woods lea the fences, ran aero? swallowed every house but two roasted alive a dozen ncop e. I ? b ly forty rods to tba beach of tho ll ami yet many people had not time reach tho water. Others rcac i it clothing on lire and faces and h blistered. Tho houses did DO singly, hut ono billow of Hame seized atonce.andrediTcedthemtnnotlnMf ten minutes. Tho two buddings s* were pared by the ^~^L ^ tho hana of man. Hie J?"?" ? each aide of them, as if mere, ally tending to leave some landmarks ol hamlet ami some place to shelter womeu aud children and the sick. Forty fami nes in and around this hamlet raced through flame aud smoke for the lake. Sorno reached it, to remain in tho water for hours while otherr fell on the high way and were burnod to a crisp. There was no time to save anything from tho houses, and when I rode through the dis trict, fr-miliej v.l..ch but a day before had been possessed of plenty, were not thc owner of a knife or spoon. Women were bareheaded and barefooted, chil dren still worse off, and bareheaded men sat on the parched ground and wondered if dod had not forsaken them. A terrible cyclone struck this district with the flames and I saw manv and 1 manya spot where tho biiiow of fire! jumped a clean half milo out of thc for est to clutch house or barn. The roaring and crushing were aw'ul. Horses ran j hero and there neighing and almost ?>-reaming in their terror ; cows and oxen i plunged and bellowed, aud the most ?av ago dogs wen so overcome by| fear that they ran bac'i into the blazing houses and died in the flames. In thia awful confusion, with trees crushing iown before tho cyclone, and houses being unroofed by its terrible power while a great billow of flame came sweeping on aa fast aa a horse could gal lop, fathers and mothers were called upon to save each other and their chil dren. The highways were lines of fire. Rivers and creeks were dry ditches. Tho only chance to eacape was to rush for tho open fielda, aud yet in the open fields, men women and children were bumed to cinders. Those who preserved their thought through the terrible confusion preceding the ap pearance of the flames aeized the woolen blankets, wet them thoroughly, and drew these over them aa they crouched dowu on the plowed ground, aud where thia plan was followed their lives were generally Bated. In somo cases people lay out in the fields four teen long hours before it waa6afe to riso up. To one riding through the district it seeniB miraculous that a Bingle soul escaped. The fire swept through the green trees tho aaine aa the dry. It ran through fields of corn with a speed of twenty miles an hour, and fields of green clover were swept as bare as a floor. Dark and gloomy swamps, filled with ponde of stagnant water, and tho home for years of wild cats, bears and snakes were struck and shriveled and burned almost in a flash. Over the parched meadows the flamea ran faster than a horse couid gallop. Horses did gallop before it but were overtaken and left roasting on the ground. It seemed as if every hope and avenue of escape were ofT, and yet h . idreds of lives were spar ed. People spent ten to twenty boura in ditchea and ponds, or in fielda under wet blankets, having their hair singed, their limbs blistered and their clothing burn ed off piece by piece. A mite north of where the old man Goodrich lived waa a family which had a crazy son. When the smoko began to darken the country he began to get excited, and on the dark day, two boure before the flamea came, he mounted a horse aud galloped up and down the country, crying out tho last day had come, and that the earth waa to be swept denn. Later he was seen rushing head long towards the flames, whoopiug ana cheering, and no doubt he perished first of all. The horse seemed to partake of thc rider's spirit, and bia shrill neighs answered the cheers of the rider. People felt the beat while the fire was yet miles away. It withered the leaves of trees standing two milea from the path of the fiery serpent. The very earth took tire in huudrcda of places, and blazed up na if the fire were feasting ou oordwood. The stoutest log buildings stood up only a few minutes. The fire seemed to catch them at every corner at once, and after a whirl and a roar noth ing would be left. Seven miles off the beach, at Forrester, sailors found the heat uncomfortable. Where some houses mid barna were burned we could not find even a blackened stick. Every log, beam and board was reduced to fino ashes. The people who sought the oeach had still to endure much of the heat and all of the smoke. Wading out up to their shoulders lucy were sale from tue flames, bul sparks and cinders fell like a snow storm and the amoke was auffocating. The birds not caught in the woods were carried out to sea and drowned, and the waves have washed thousands of them ashore. Squirrela, rabbits and auch small animals Btood no show nt all, but deer and bear sought the beach aud the company of human bciugs. In one case a mau leaped from a bluff into thc lake and found himself close behind a large bear. They remained in company under the bank nearly all night, ana tho bear seemed as humble as a dog. In another instance two of the animals came out of the foreat aud atood close to a well from which a fanner was drawing water to dash over his bouse, aud they were with bim for two hours before they deemed it prudent to jog along. Deer came out and Bought tho companionship of cattle and horses, and paid no attention to per sons rushing past them. Half enough coffins to bury thc dead could not have been got into tho burned district in a week. Some were buried with neither collin nor shroud, while others had rude boxes as their last re ceptacle. The dead are buried, but there ia left a horribly desolate waste of country full of the ashes of prosperity, and crowded with sick, wounded aud discouraged hu manity, whose tears and groans must open tho heart of sympaty in every cor ner of the country. Turn which way they will, they Bee black ruin and utter desolation. STRANGELY AFFLICTED.-A lady of this city, thc mother of a large family, and a lady of unusual intelligence, who is in coo'd health and withal like any other lady, with the exception of a strange malady, or whatever one may term it, that at times occasions her much pain, in fact almost prostrates her. As strange ns it mny seem, her trouble ia caused by looking nt any striped fabric, such aa calico ahirtinga, etc. Numeroua physicians have tried to solve the mys tery but without success. The lady statt? that abe waa fitat affected some years ago while ironing a ahir? for one "of ber little boys. The sensation of ; sickness at the stomach and violent headache came on BO Bho was compelled to lay aside the work. She soon felt bet ter, and not aware of the real cause of her indisposition mado nuother attempt to finish thc garment, but with the same result aa before, the second attack prov ing more severe than the first. Tho circumstances passed from her memory until a few days later a littlechild entered ber re tn wearing a striped apron ; the samo peculiar sensations returned at sieht of the apron and remained as long as the child wore it, but upon removing thc apron all pain ceased. If any one cm explain tho cause we would bo glad to publish lt.--Louiirilte (Ay.) .SYratr*. - Pay your tutscription. VANDERBILT*. JEW PALACE. "Tho Moro it Coat, Ul? Hotter," saya tho Ka ll road King. Cor. Newt and Courier. NEW YORK, September I. It waa my good fortune to get a g'ympso M fae inside of the new Vander bilt l'ai ace iast 1'riday evening. ? say good fortune because it is no easy ma.ter to get into tho Vanderbilt mansion, es pecially ifone is suspected of being a news paper tuan, and after mauy futile previous attempts I was only allowed to pass rap idly through thc building, after the work men had gone for the day, and was, moreover, requested not to show ign of peucil or paper, and not to exam... any thing too ?osfcly. Karly in the week I had gone lo Herter, who, though an up holsterer and furniture maker, has de signed Vanderbilt's house outside and inside, taking with mea request from one of our foremost daily journnls that I might be allowed to see the marvels ol interior finish which are said J be lav ished upon the inside of the railroad king's future home. 1 was treated very courteously but met with a refusal. Mr. Vanderbilt would not like it, was thc answer. To cut a long story short I met with a refusal from every one connected with the work-Herter, Snooks, au archi tect employed to supervise tho construe- , tion, and Flint, a furniture maker, who , informed tue that ho was only finishing three bedrooms aud a butler's pantry, thc contract for which amounted to $18*0,000. ; lint I got in at last and saw enough to ! make me envious for the rest of my days if I were disposed that way. Twenty years ago "Hilly Vanderbilt," as he was called in those day?, struggling with a sterile farm down on .Staten Is land, barely making a living and some times falling in arrears for taxes aud other expenses. Theu his father, tho rich but crusty Commodore, would help him out, remarking with many au oath that "Billy was no good," and would die in the poorhouse. With years the old man softened and gave "Billy" achat, taking him into the railroad business. So it happens that ten years ago we find "Billy" installed in a splendid house on Fifth avenue and on tho high way to fame. Whether W. H. Vanderbilt has any real shrewdness for money making is a disputed point with men who know him. When he and Could became part ners to a certain extent in the Western Union speculation last Spring it was said that Vanderbilt would soon nave all tho experience to be got out of that financial melon and Gould would have all the money, and so it is said to have proved. "That will be the way in all speculation in which those two men are together," said a shrewd broker to me, commenting upon the adair. "But," I remarked, "I sometimes hear it said that Wall street is afraid of Vanderbilt. If he is so stupid how is that?" "Thc big man," was the answer, "who knows nothing about spar ring, can sometimes by mere weight crush the little man who may be chock full of science. Thc weight of Vander bilt's money enables him to play a game that is not possible to any who does not control ouo hundred millions." What ever he may be, dunce or genius, he had como sufficiently to the front ten years ago to live in a splendid house and drive twenty thousand dollar horses. When the Commodore died and ho be came the richest man in America ho resolved to let people know it, and for that purpose ho called upon Herter, the fashionable dictator of the day in the matter of rich furuuure and decorations, to build him a house. Her ter, who was not anxious to get the ill will of every architect in New York by going outside of his business to design bouses instead of sideboards, said that he would rather not. "Then I will get everything in the way of decoratious and furniture in Paris,'" said Vandeibilt. "You must do it all or you will get noth ing of it." So Herter reflected that he could make at least $200,000 out of the job and resolved to brave the architects. The result is that we now have on Fifth nvenue a piece of Cabinet work as big ns a palace-a gigantic stone bookcase in the highest style of Hertcr'a art, with windows on all sides. The most common criticism is that it is not a house at all, except in having windows anda roof; all thc rest and all the details might be long to a bookcase. A millier criticism which is freely made is that the material out of which it is built-brownstone-?B wholly unsuited to the delicate carvings which have been lavished upon it at a cost of $280,000 for carving alone. Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt, the eldest sou, who is building a house across tho street from his father's, lias paid even more for elab orate carving, but it is doue on a light colored and very durable sandstone. It is conceded that brownstone will not last in this climate for more than thirty years aud minuto details loso all their sharp ness of outline before they have been ex posed to tho weather twenty years. To this criticism it has been answered that brownstone ?B the handsomest building material in the country, and that when it is worn out Mr. Vanderbilt can build another house just as handsome which will not only give him something to think about, but will give employment to sev erul architects, a score of draughtsmen, and several hundred workmen and build ers for three or four years. This is all very true, but waste is waste, whether by the cook or thc million dre, aud it is nev er a pleasant thing to the man of sense. I had occasion this week to go through the Kennedy mansion, a noble old dwel ling house at No. 1 Broadway, built in 1742 by sir Peter Warren, and connected with a dozen famous names in Ameri can history. Washington lived there nearly a year, Clinton, Howo aud Andre have all lived there, not to mention sev eral famous New York merchante-Na iLuuiei Prime, Koben Kay and o i'm-rs whoso homestead it has been. The body of the hoti80 is of brick with lintels of marble and steps of brownstone. The marble is iustaa perfectas the day it waa laid one nundrea and "forty years ago, while tho brownstone steps aro almost worn into pieces. In less marked degree the same deterioration of brownstone may be seen in every New York house ofthat material built moro than tv.'enty-five years ago. Even flat surfaces of brown stone are apt to scale off. What will become of the bands, four feet wide, of delicately carved vine leaves which run all around Vanderbilt's house nt the second and third stories and form ono of its best features ? A few year* of fror>t will wholly mar their beauty. The fact that Vanderbilt can afford to build such a house every year is no excuse for such waste. OM: MILLION rou THE O ROUND. The houses building for W. H. Vander bilt occupy the plot fronting on Fifth av enue between Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets, on the westerly side of the avcuue. Directly opposite is the Catholic institu tion for boys. A little below, on the other side of the avenue, is the noble Catholic Cathedral, beside which any dwelling, is dwarfed. On thc same side the avenue with Vanderbilt live S. D. iJabcock, Ogden Goelct, Frederic Stevens, and other millionaires It ia a neighbor hood fit only for millionaires, the land being worth i?0,000 for plot? 20 feet wide by 100deep. Vanderbilt'* plotof land ?8 exactly square, two hundred faet on the avenue aud the sumo on Ibo stroet. He paid $1,140,000 for tho land and got !t cheap,the cortisr cn tho next block ' above being included. Upon this uppc* corner W. K. Vanderbilt, tho son, is putting up a house designed by Richard Kl. Hunt, which will undoubtedly be tho Quest city house in America. It is a French chateau. Whether a French cha tau is appropriate to the spot is a mooted poiut, but the house is unquestionably beautiful. To go back to tho father's house, it looks as if two separate h ou-es were upon bin plot, and in reality there aro three, the northerly pile of brown stone being divided into two separate , houses, ono fer Mr?. Elliot P. Shepard and ono for Mrs. J. C. Sloane, both daughters of Mr. Vanderbilt. Mr. ; Vanderbilt's house occupies tho southerly corner of tho lot aud is seventy-four feet wido by one hundred and fifteen feet deep. The other bouse to be occupied by tho daughters is not quito so large. Roth are three stories and attic in height, and both aro iden tical in outside fiuish. The two enormous piles of brownstone are joiucd by a ves tibule or portico which forms the Connec ting link und cutrauco for both houses. It is in front of this vestibule that is laid the enormous sidewalk slab of blue stone, fifteen feet wide and twenty-five feet long, which cost $5,000. Al the entrance of tho vestibule, facing the ave nue, are to swiug the famous bronze gates or doors ordered in Europe at a cost of $20,000. Once inside the vestibule, which is walled with polished icu gran ite, you turn lo the south to enter Vanderbilt's house, aud to the north to euler that of the daughters'. WIIERK WO It PS FAIL. It is mere wasto of words to give a de tailed account of every room, or of the chief rooms of the Vanderbilt house, pvenjif I could do so, without having been able to take notes. My supply of ad jectives would bo used up before I could ?;et through the main hall. I shall there ore, sketch briefly what impressed me as being cf unusual cost, effect, or novel ty. The entrance hall is small for the immense size of the house and thc height of the ceiling, sixteen feet. It is barely twelve feet wide and lands tho visitor in a square hall out of which open thc library, drawing-room and parlor on the east or Fifth avenue side, the dining room on the west; to the north are the entrance hall of which I speak and the grand staircase. The chief feature of the hall which is thirty feet square, is a monu mental fireplace and chimney piece twen ty feet wide and reaching to the ceiling. It is of mahogany and Egyptian marble, and is said to havo occupied eleven men for two years. The parlor, library aud drawing-room aro twenty-five feet square each aud are finished respectively in cherry, ebony and mahogny ; the finish ot i'ne wood work is so perfect that it is like velvet to the touch Through all the rooms, and through thc whole house in fact, tho magnificence is monot onous. Every room has its chimney piece upon which a fortune has been lav ished in the way of carving. Through out tho first and second floors there is nol one inch of plaster wall to bo seen, thc walls from floor to ceiling being panelled with marble wood leather or tapestry. Upstairs silk and satin aro the chief wall coverings ; down stairs it is marble and wood. The dining room, a superb apartment, thirty-six feet long by twenty-eight feet wido, has a chimney piece almost as big as a house and buffets of oak to match. The whole room is panelled in-oak minutely carvec in most superb style Rt a cost of il00 foi every cqtiarc yard, the cost of the wooc carving for this room alone footing nj $87,000. Sixteen panels in thc walli will contain paintings of sporting scenes fish and game by famous artists. Tin butler's pantry ia a room eighteen fee square, finished in a style which woult ho considered very costly for a bnndsomi drawing-room, and contains five ponder otis steel safes built into thc walls to con tain, I suppose, the service of solid gob which Vanderbilt ia said to have orderet in Paris. A JEW F.I. BOX FOR AN ELEVATOR. The elevator ia not yet in place. It i said to bo an exact copy on a big scale o a silver jewel box mado for Diana d Poitiers. It will bo seen from HI fou sides aa it rises and fall? ut ono aide c the inaiu staircase, and will be entirel of fretted ailver lined with silk cushion: The main staircase ia of oak, tbirtee feet wide and present? an exceeding! beautiful and novel feature. Each ris of the steps contains two long paneli one on each side of tho Htrip of Persia Btair carpet. These panels are to b filled with paintings done in Franco ut cost of $100 apiece. Each oue is si inches wide by two foot long. There ai eighty of these in all. Mrs. Vanderbilt bedroom will be a wonder if only on tu count of the painting for thc ceiling oi dored from Le.febyre, thc Frenchman, fe $32,000. it represents ?he dawn of da; The room KS finished in amaranth an white marble, and hung with white aili The other rooma are only a little lc: magnificent. There aro eight rooms c thc finit floor, eleven on tho second, an sixteen ou the third. From a cabine maker who went through the house la week i learned that not one of the: thirty-five rooms on the first three floo cost leas than $4,000 to finish. MOST OF THE WORK NOT AMERICAN Tho hou8ea of Mr. Vanderbilt'sdaug tera arc palaces, and aro finer than ai hou8ea in the city. Rut after goit through tho largo palace cverythii seems insignificant. Vanderbilt baa been criticiaed beeau he went to Europe with Herter to ord all the glass work, chandeliers, cr.rpe IjaQrr?grva rnarhle y.'cr!:, ziid much r.ft! furniture. Having made bia money America ho ought to spend il here. T only art work douc in thia country I the house arc the bronze railings arou thc house and the bronze cresting aroui the roof. This work waa done in ni montba by a Philadelphia firm for $4 000. It waa offered to Mitchell & Vam of New York, who declined it because was stipulated that it should be done three months. Tho chandeliers, incl ding ono of solid silver, weighing half ton, for the ball room or picture gaile are now being mado by Rurbedienno Paris. Vanderbilt hos two of Herte men acouring 'urope for whatever ni be unique in furniture. Cost is said be of no importance whatever. "1 more tho house costs the better," Vi derbilt is said to havo remarked to old friend disposed to lecture bim iq the sin of extravagance. From care estimules it ia thought that the th houses on that one plot of ground \ have coat when ready for a housc-wai ing about four and a half millions of i lars-not one year'? income of this sn Pilly Vanderbilt, who, twenty-five ye 1 ago, waa bani presset! to nay taxes his farm, and perhaps wondered wh poor man like bim had ter. children j support. H. H. i - Governor Brown is reported as i in:; that ibero will be a tumble in r I road stocks in Georgia before long. Tho Tost of (Jultcnu's Mullet. Tho Long Branch correspondent of thc Charlcstoi. AVirj ami Courier sauls the following to that journal in a letter in which various things connected with the President's mishap is discussed : Tho amount oftheso bills was thc next topic discussed, and Secretary Brown, after figuring up for a inoroent.Vstiinnted that the cost of the President's illness would not be far short of $250,000. Tho doc .ors, he thought, wita tho exception of Harnes and Woodward, who as army surgeons ore expected to attend the Prei idcut as part of their official duties.. should receive at least $100,000, and per haps much more if tho convalescence is a long one. as it is now likely to be. Dr. lieyburn lias been in attendance sixty eight days, which at $100 a dav would eutitle him to $6,S00. Dr. Bliss will probably receive $25.000, and Drs. Ham ilton's and Agnew's bills will not, it is thought, bo more than $15,000 a piece, unie s tho cas? should keep them busy for ri ?nths longer. ll must bu remem ber'., that the professional fortunes of all tucsc men are made by their connec tion with (his case, and thero is nota, surgeon in the country who would not attend tho President day and night for months for the mere honor and reputa- ? tion of the thing. "A singular thing," I said Mr. Brown, "and one which indi- ' catee tho feeling of the people in the ? matter, is that we experienco the greatest j difficulty in getting bills from any one. Even perdons who render services which an Usually paid for at once, such as fur nishing food, carriages, medicine.?, in struments, etc., refuse to send in their bills, uud I do nut know of a singlo bill yet seut in for services or goods rendered to tho President." It is generally thought that thc plan to be followed when Congress meets and thc President is completely convalescent will probably bo to send a circular to wvery person who has rendered services to the President, requesting that a bill shall be sent, and theo an appropriation can bc mado for tho whole sum. The President is very scrupulous iu wanting everything paid for, and wishes all the articles sent by tradesmen as presents to him at tho White Hiiuse either to bc returned or bought and paid for if they arc consid ered ns worth kceeping. "The truth is," said Mr. Brown, speak ing of this, "that not one article out of the scores I receive every day is worth anything. On an average I get five or six medical concoctions warranted to cure tho President, no matter what his condition. Then there are tho patent furniture men who scud beds and chairs and ventilators and foot rests without end. Unless they aro paid for in ad vance I refuse to receive them, for the bills for expressage arc sometimes form idable. One lunatic seut a full set of articles for a sort of "gymnasium at home," trapeze, Hwingiug bars, spring board, &c, expecting the President to ?et well by practicing with his devices. 1?re is a queer article which 1 received to day, said Mr. Brown, pulling out a sort of enormous rubber handkerchief which thc article was really iuteuded for. "Tho man who scuds this writes that every man eau 'be his own washerwoman' by using this handkerchief, for no other washing is ncedod except to throw it into water aud wriug it out. Jt keeps down the wash bill, you seo. Thc inventor says ho hopes the President will use it hecnusc it is tho first ono made lifter tho patent was granted. If there wns any danger of tho President's stock of hand kerchiefs giving out wo might take to a rubber handkerchief, but not befoie." PRIVATE SECRETARY BROWN. Since the departure of Ileyburn, Woodward and Barnes, Secretary Brown has taken up his quarters in tho doctors' cottage, having a large reception on the ground floor aud a bedroom ofi' it. Tho work of tho. fifty or more correspondents now at Long Branch is much facilitated by thc kindness of Mr. Brown, whose door is always open, and who consents to tell the news without showing his fatigue, to couutlcss applicants. His room lias become a sort of rendezvous for people who want to know the latest, for thero may bo met Col. Kock well and Gen. Swain) when they are oft" duty, and Dr. Bliss spends an hour or two thero every morning and every evening. Dr. Ham ilton has a room righi off Mr, Brown's, and sits and chats in the reception room for a few moments every night before go ing to bed, prefacing every remark about the President with : "Now I tell you thia only on condition that it will not be used iu print." Of all the surgeons connected with tho case Dr. Hamilton is the shyest of having his uamn in the pupcra, and any remarks that you may see in his namo have been built, you may bo nure, out of very slender materials-a nod, or a "yes," or a "no." SIX i;OCTOUS IN A ROW. Talking of the doctors, I had all six of them ut thc table next to mine iu the Elbcron dining-room on Tuesday and Wednesday last. Since then three of them have gone, and Dr. Bliss, having been joined by his wife, tho pleasant medical circlo has been broken up. When the six of them were at meals to gether the sight was enough to strike ter ror to any patin::!.. I could not bein ob serving that Dr. Agnew disjointed his j chicken with more skill than ordinary mortals and enjoyed the congenial work of dissecting anything-even a fowl. The funny stories which Dr. Bli?a related to the company were the subject of much laughter, and were probably professional anecdotes of a nature to make a sick mnu shudder and a well man lose his appe tite-for which reason I did not try to catch tho drift of thc stories, ono of the funniest being, so far as I learned fr word or two, about au absee: - .inch turned black. Thc signaturas of tho different surgeons on the register were the subject ol much comment that even ing. Dr. Bliss signs in a big scrawling hand, Dr. Hamilton in a Binai! scratchy, indistinct writing, and Dr. Agnew writes his naroo Uko a writing master. The characters of the men somewhat cor respond to their signatures. Bliss is a bluff, stout man, with short iron-gray sido whiskers ; ho is always ready to talk. I complimented him thc other day upon bis invariable readiness to receive uews paper men. "Well," ho said, "some times in Washington I felt as if I should have to scold. I would tell the story of the day to a score or so of reporters at tho White House, then go home to find a dozen moro on the steps of my house, and then find five or s;-; more wattiug in my reception room disguised as patients ; it was hard work to keep my temper. Thc correspondents arc not so bad here, though thiee of them followed mo into 1 the water this morning when I took my I bath and plied mc with medical ques ? tions between every breaker." It has beeu said that Bliss talks too I much. Ho gavo mo hi., views upou that ! point at length, ono night recently, tho i chief points of his argument in favor of ! talking being that thc bulletins have to j l>e interpreted by some one, and who can : do it better than bc. Tho majority of people would rather be told upon good authority lhat "thc President is better," or "tho President is worse," than to read a column of statistics as to pulse and temperature, and su forth, aud it must ho aaid that without Bliss thc lot of thc \ newspaper correspondents would he fur from a nappy one. lie is good for half I a column of matter for whoever catches him. It has also been said that Ur. Bliss can lie as fast aH he can talk. One of thc most reliable of the Washington corres pondents admits BI?SS'H good nature and ? Iiis skill us a surgeon, hut contends that , no faith can bc put in bim. According to this gentleman, Dr. Bliss bas no hesi tation in telling one story to newspaper men and another to doctors. He ia said ! to bo a little afraid of Ulaine, ami usual ly speaks more frankly to him than to . anybody, which may perhaps account for ; the possum ?st character of Blaine's dis patches to Loudon. When the President '. wax very low three weeks ago it wa? rc : ported that Dr. Hamilton discovered that Iiis bowels were in a rightful condition and were the real cause of tho alarming symptoms, ami without consulting with Dr. lilias ran to the nearest drug store and got some charcoal, with which tho ! patient was relieved. This WUK contrary , to tho laws of medical etiquette, fur it was Dr. Hamilton's part to give his views j tu Dr. Bliss, who would iden ?lo as be saw lit. The fact that any such incident took place waa denied point blank by Dr. Miss, and yet il occurred just as re lated without any doubt. This is only one of many similar incidents. Hamil ton is a slight old mau with round shoul ders. He ia well past sixty years, and his beard is nearly white. No man connect ed with the case knows more about the President's condition, bul no mau will say less. Ile is modest and retiring, and courtesy itself to newspaper men, but he will not talk. H. H. H. TRAVELING BRIDES AX? GROOMS. tilgiin l>y Which tho tlotul Clork Knows Them and Willett Hove to lie Tutti For. "To walch thc newly-married couples who travel is one of tho compensations of cur ardttotis life," said an old hotel clerk thc other day. "How can you tell whether they are newly married or not ?" inquired IbeaSim reporter, to whom this remark was ad dressed. "Tell them?" ejaculated the clerk : "I can pick them out as easily UH if they carried sign?, 'Wo are just married.' " "Yea ; but how ?" "Well, in the first place, they are al ways most abundant in thc Fall and Winter. I don't know why it is, bul auch is the li>et. One of tho signs of ti newly-married couple is their Bpick and span new clothes. Somehow, when peo pie get married, they generally get a^ many new clothes ns possible. Tho bridt and groom have new hats and new trunk; and new dusters. Then, again, the} upend money more freely. When . mut is in bia honeymoon he generally feels a; if be ought to be generous. He has t grateful sort of spirit, and throws hil money around aa ii bo wanted to ahoy that the world had used him well. Ht has put by his money for the occasion and is not afraid to spend it. lie is ape eially anxious that thc bride Hhall ea and drink of thc best. He must have t room with a private pa;lor, und not up Btnirs very far, and with a good view Sometimes ho is r ', Lile chary O t link ?ill for these things but when we Kugees them he alwaya auya 'Yes.' Of course i ia part of our busin^a-i lo suggest thom We consider that wc have the same righ to pluck a newly-married couple aa a undertake, has to pluck bereaved rein ti ves." "Do they behave differently from othe people ?" "1 should-well, yes. The husbnn does nut run off to tho bar-room or th billiard-room, as the old married mon di When tho old married couple art ive yo may be certain that tito first thing th husband does is to take a drink or louug about tho billiard tablea, telling bia wil that he baa aome business to attend to. "Are newly-married people baxbful '; "That depends. Tue widowers an widows don't mind it, hut the young pei plo aro a little coy. At Niagara Fal wo had moat of the new couples late i the jenson when the regular boarders hf left. I have seen aa many aa a dozen a time file into the dining-room, try it to look aa if they had not been marm yesterday, but casting furtive gi ail C about lo ace il they were suspecte The mon were specially watch tu! le somebody should be ogling tho bridi One day ? thought we should have a fig! in the dining room. A strapping b fellow from the Weat in a new suit Btoro clothes Bat down to the table wi his bride, a buxom brown-eyed boaut She looked ao fresh and rosy that al could not but attract attention, and a! got it. Every gentleman in tho roc took more than one look at ber, and s knew it. Of course, she did not obje But the man began to get angry. 1 did not like to speak to the bride abo it, bccauBO ?ho was evidently not d pleased. Finally ho got up and walk to thc nearest gentleman whom he h observed and said : " 'Look here, stranger, I'd like to km what you are staring at my wife for?' " 'Your wife ! Allow nie to congratub you, my deal fellow. You have got t finest wife tn tho city,' said the gent man addressed. 'The fact is, I thuin, she was your sister. Excuse me if I v rude ; but if you don't wnnt people look nt your wife you really must tie1 take ber out in public. No ofl'ci meant, sir.' "The bridegroom went back tu place, but be took good care at tho m meal to put bia wile with her faco to wall." "Which do you think take to thc n conditions moat gracefully?" "Women, by all odds. The men alwuvH betraying ? hempel ve?.. They w to talk about it; they are full of thc a jed. Women are moro artful, aud h moro adaptability to new circumstan Rut, with all their arts, they can't ceive the old hotel clerk, and it is v seldom that wc don't turn tn a lew < lara extra lo ibo houae on account of knowledge." "Anotlier peculiarity of tho nc married couples who go to hotels," t tinned tho clerk, "is that many of tl live in the city. They alwaya c equipped for a long journey. They 1 left tho wedding gueata with tho corniced intention of takiug r. long j ney, connpicuoualy displaying, peril their railroad tickets, and havo I driven by way of tho depot to a tirst-i hotel previously aelected. I know caso wiicro a bridal couple, to avoid tection, actually boarded a train started apparently on a journey, but at thu next station a train back tc city, and stopped at a hotel a few bl from home. Then tho wedding g were permitted to stay at thc fea long as they pleased without diatui anybody."-Aim; i 'or? Star. - Asiatic brecda of fowls lay eggs deep chocolalo through every abai coffee color, while tho Spaniah, 1 burg aud Italian breeds are know the pure white of the egg shell. A however remote, with Asiatics w ill even tho last named breeds to lay a slightly tinted. Nows nnd (ionsip. - Thc Georgia Pacific Road is graded out about lificcn miles from Atlanta. - A passenger car goes out on the Augusta and Knoxville Railroad every afternoou. - Hewn crossties are being shipped North from alon"; the line of the Florida Southern Railroad. Florida is shipping timber for nearly every new railroad on the Continent. - The lady visitors nt Saratoga aro accused of playing poker, in which they make their jun money fly, and it is said that some of thc worst scrapes that mar ried women get into i* trying to account for their lack of jewels to their husbands. - Senator Sawyer, of Wisconsin, has presented his son with two huudrcd and li fly .(piare miles of land in the St. Croix Valley, north of Hudson, Wiscon sin. The price paid by Mr. Sawyer was one dollar an acre, or ?100,000 for the w'--?le vast tract. - The Virginia l'ont, an Alexandria paper, owned and edited by colored men, has come out for thc Democratic Slate liekQt because il cannot approve of tho dishonest financial methods advocated by Mahmie. These colored men have set an example which some white Re publicans in very high places might lind it worth while to study. - The timber of Arkansas, like that of Tennessee, is attracting attention. About one-tenth of thc State is covered with thc yellow pine, which attains an enormous size. Seventy different kinds of timber grow in this State, among them several varieties of oak, the black walnut, cherry bois d'arc, holly, maple, cedar, beech, poplar, cypress, hickory and ash. - A company has been formed for ibo purpose of building a belt line of rail around Atlanta. This road will connect all thc roads with each other, and the through freight ears that cumber White hall street crossing will be transferred outside of town. The capital of the company is all subscribed, the charter has passed the Legislature, and the work will be commenced at once. - Marietta Journal: Southern girls will and do work. Our factories are full of industrious, nice girls. Our homes, stores, shops, dressmaking and military establishments, and, yen, even in the corn and cotton fields, busy, bright and fiore girls work and make money. And when they get married they will make good wives, too. They deserve a great deal more credit than is accorded them. - San Antonio, Texas, is t? have ono of the grandest hotels in the United States. Col. F.d. Wiekes has the matter in hand, and Jay Gould and C. P. Hun tington arc down for $50,000 each to bc increased to $100,000 each if necessary. It will bo known (so it is now thought) as tho Grpnt Southern Hotel, and it will be tho half-way house between the City of Mexico and New York, as well as be tween San Francisco and New York. All the money necessary to build a mammoth structura can be had at once. - The Fish Commissioners of Maine havo adopted the plan of marking sal mon to obtain the data with regard to the development and migra'ions of theso fish. Several hundred salmon lately set free in the I'euobscol ??ver have been labelled with metal tags, the number on each being recorded. Tho commission ers ask that whoever catches a labelled salmon in any waters of tho State will forward to them the fish, for which they will pay an extra price, or else fi.-rward the label and whatever tlmy know of the fish that wore it. - A company of Knoxville tncu havo organi; d the Winter's Gap Railway Company, and claim that they intend to build a road from the proposed line of tho Knoxville and Cincinnati Southern Railway through Winter's Gap, in Wal den's vicinity. The company wa? or ganized to "choke otP the project of the Oakdale iron Works to build a narrow gauge road through Winters Gap, and they have enjoined the latter company from proceeding with thc work. The new company is composed of the owners of the Coal (.'reek Mines. - Thc affair between Miss Nellie Haz eltine, the noted St. Louis belle, and John A m wog, a chorus singer in an opera company, has been settled. Am weg brought au action for damages against W. Ii. Hazeltine, Jr., and Fredrick W. Paramorc, respectively brother aud affi anced husband of tho girl, for having enticed him into a room and assaulted him in order to make him say that his story of having won her love was a lie. He subsequently produced love letters, sentimentally inscribed pictures, und other proofs that she had either fallen desperately in love with him or was turning him into a diversion. Her father has now settled the case out of court, by paying A m weg $500, besides ? 1,000 counsel fees." - About fourteen milos from Live Oak., Fla., there lives a woman with a Btrange family. One day while she was out walking a huge alligator attack ed and pursued her for Borne distance, frightening her much. Subsequently she gave birth to twins, both males. Thoy were perfect child.en down to their waists and complete alligators below, tail and all. There are short webbed feet and legs at the lower portion of tho abdomen like alligators. They crawl with their hands, dragging themselves about just as au alligator does. They niako a squealing inarticulate noise. The mother has bad a largo trough or tank filled willi waier, in which she keeps them, and they live pretty nearly all the timo in it. They feod and eat regular and seem to ba doing well, and are apparently happy. They aro now about l i or 15 years old. Comparatively few outsido tho immediato neighborhood know of it. The mother has rofused large offers of money for their exhibi tion.-Meridian (Mixt.) Mercury. - The old employees in a Chicago iron foun?i'.y had quit work on a strike and their places were filled by new men who were making ready for a large cast; ing. Tho clay mould had been clamped in ita Iron frame tho d.iy before, and al that remained to do was to pour in th? molten iron. The liquid mass wa: brought by tho men in long-handlec ladles, and in another moment wouh have boen emptied in, when a sligh displacement of tho mould attracted at tentiou and it was opened. Tho cavil; was full of gunpowder. One drop of th melted metal would have caused ai awful exposition, probably killin everybody in the building. That th etrickers were guilty of tho plot wa shown by tho fact that, instead ol crowd ing abo.*! .ho doors and windows to jec at the new meu, as thoy hod done o previous dap, they remaiued at a coi sidorable distance. A detective clain to have discovered that tho powder iVl depesited by a committc of turco men, i whom the task of wroaking vengoam had been given by thoir companion J Several arrests havo boon made.