Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THREE CH Faminine, JPesti In one of Lander's "Conversations" a certain author is made to say that God has three chastisers for the hu man race, namely : "Famine, pesti lence and the hero." Aa a punish ment for sin, or because the sons of men are multiplying too rapidly, or to teach a fearful object-lesson, or for some other reason so mysterious and inscrutable that no human mind can grasp it, God reaches down and strikes the earth by territories, whole districts burn up and dry out from frightful droughts, and the people fall by scores and hundreds starved. India han been one of these cursed territo ries. Again the Fateful strikes hu manity by the assembly. In crowded cities disease takes its strongest hold and devours its greatest number of victims. Through contiguity and as sociation death reaches from soul to soul. The most awful instance we ?now of this particular dispensation was the black death in the seventeenth century which destroyed half the population of England. The chastiser as a hero whips the human race by the nation. Alexan der was born ; Greece, Macedonia, Egypt and Persia gave their sons to 1 him. At one time in the mere begin- i ning, this hero sold thirty thousand ? inhabitants of a refractory city into slavery, and he then a youth of barely : twenty-two years. Before Christ Cae sar came. To this day eertain por tions of the earth carry the scars of this chastiser--indestructible roads ? that he laid for the marching of his i army. In calculating the census of 1 the ancient world Caesar's dead made ? a difference almost appreciable. In ' our own day he whom half the world would name matchless, Napoleon, < took his stand at the right hand of j Destiny. God said "Strike!" And j then there was the battle of the Pyra- < mids, Marengo, Austerlitz. The re- < treat from Moscow, the battle of the i . Nations and Waterloo. Stupendous j autograph of our name ! France was j forever glorified, geography changed, j and-hundreds of acres of earth en- j ri ched with blood. There are old chateaus yet that bear ] the wounds in displaced beams and ' broken columns of the rollies this i ' hero directed. There are old wells < from which none draw water to this \ day because of the whole company of : corpses shoveled into them after one i of these tragedies. Plastic humanity i sprung back after the wheel had rolled \ on, and is blooming rank again over i the face of the earth, scarless ; for ? the great multitude of them that bore < this man's scars in their bodies many j years after his voyage to St. Helena, ? have long since died, rotted and dissi- ? pated into dust and traditions ; and ' the E till greater host of them who bore ] his deep scars in their hearts have, i likewise, long since followed those j myriads they mourned for. The very i 'form ' of government he would have .' -erected over the mind of men has j -ceased to be in France, and a republic ! : stands for the empire. i Famine, cholera and Napoleon were '. ^fearful scourges, and have left on the : history of man deep scars, but they : were adequate. Man stands meek and : ?must acknowledge before them that he is beaten. He feels the invincible ?touch of the hand of Fate. He bows j beneath it, and is perhaps too over- j whelmed for awhile to see the reason | or good in it. But after ? time he j does. To every man's eyes sometime or other comes that finer insight which stays with him longer or shorter, ac- ? cording to the greatness of his soul that insight into the purpose of things. He sees for a moment the perfect in the imperfect, the goodin the evil and is satisfied. Each of these calamities has its good ; and after the return to the stunned senses of serenity the good begins to be apparent. The famine of India has helped India and the world morally. The cry of distress that went up from her starving districts brought forth aid from all Christen dom. Shiploads of food, whole for tunes of gifts were sent to her by alien countries. Those countries which re sponded most generously were the civilized nations, the Christian na tions. Half-civilized India, as she reached her bony hands for the bread of life, took note that it was a Cau casian hand that stretched toward hers. India is beginning to sec the superiority of Christian over Moham medan civilization as she never saw it before. She may respond to its bene ficent overtures and welcome its en nobling revolutions as she never would have done had she depended only on casual observation. The famine had a beautiful effect on the Christian nations. Thc good that we do for others bestows its greatest benefit on ourselves, abd a greater benefit than any other good can. While I should hesitate to say that our generosity to India had a national effect, yet it is certain it had an indi vidual effect for good that cannot bc questioned. As a smaller good many were made to feel the personality, we might say, of that far-off land called AST?SERS. lenee and War. India. India came to our doors ; we felt that there was really a country of that name across the waters ; that it was not merely a map picture in our geographies. The famine of India made our world bigger. In other words, we were broadened, and to broaden the perspective is not only an intellectual good, but it can scarcely escape being a moral good. And, individually, it touched and ennobled every single heart in every land that listened to that pitiful cry coming up from the stricken plains of the Ganges ; whether they listened to it and gave, or whether they listened and only sighed. That cry turned the eyes of sympathy for a moment from the selfish concerns of our individual household, or our city, or our nation. We looked beyond ourselves, we felt the touch of nature that makes the whole world kin. And from the mo ment one does that the world becomes contracted for him ; no part of it is any longer barbarian ; we all become brothers. We feel and know from that good time forth that there are others in the world as well as our selves, and those others have a claim on us. ?I believe America, individu ally, is a little broader, little nobler, a little nearer brotherly love than she was before any of the famines she bas responded to from time to time. Every great ship she has sent out loaded with food to the frozen Siber ian, the persecuted Armenian, or the starving Indian, has brought back on its return double and triple loads of the invisible coin of nobility which lies increasing in the deep vault of national character. Ravages have likewise been ordain ed to bring good in their wake. A golden harvest lies incipient in every plowing. The Black Death may be sailed one of the seven wonders of salami ty. It was stupendous. It was to all other diseases their Napoleon ; it had neither fear nor remorse. Once its course began, like Napoleon, only the annihilation of a people stopped it. It had no more to feed on, as Na poleon no longer had an army. Be hind it was a clean path ; it atc its way on to the edge of England and stopped only at the North Sea. Lon don was the Austerlitz of the Black Death : there, as no where else, it rained its torrents of invisible skulls that bent down the people like wheat ander a hailstorm. It raged through the'streets, it swept through the by ways, whole blocks and almost whole 3treets were left unowned. It increas ed so rapidly and grew so deadly that at last the people did not so much as put out its sign ordered by the Mayor, a red cross on the door with the legend, :?Lord be merciful to our souls!" It became too common to necessitate a sign. When thousands of the cursed inhabitants fled into the country and surrounding towns for refuge the Black Death, with a tenacity and inexorableness that characterizes only Destiny, followed them, found them out, aud in spite of every subterfuge, precaution or defiance gave the sting it came to give. Not only to these, possibly bringing the poison with them from the city, but also to all those who had harbored the miserable wretches. But the eloquent historian of those dark days describes them as they have never since been described. Turn to Daniel DeFoe for the story of London in the time of the plague. The greatest good result of this sacrifice, a result that increases in good to England always, was the im provement of the condition of the laborer. So many thousands died of the plague (if I have not forgotten, as many as a thousand died in a day when the disease was at its worst) there were practically but a few left to till the land and to do thc other man ual work of the country. The mortal ity among the lower classes was greater than among the upper, because of their habits of life and their inability to get away. Consequently after the plague labor became dear, and as their necessity to employers became more and more evident to thc laborers they made demands for certain honest rights that had heretofore been de nied. The circumstances compelled concessions to these demands. Exor bitant taxation was removed, and the right to have the land at a reasonable rent Tas conceded. Thc laborer rose, in short, from a position hardly above slavery to one of real liberty, with the possibility of accumulating property of his own. The b?n?ficient effect of these conditions on England's career is best seen by contrasting that career with France going through the most frightful distortion of revolution in history, her hopeless, down-trodden, lord-ridden serfdom rising in wrath and madness and ungovernable feroci ty against the nobility, is only thc excre8ence of a diseased body politic. England was saved through the night mare of a "Black Death from such a revolution, and owes part of her great ness to-day to one of God's three scourges." Wari we must hurry ; these arc swift and breathless times. Delibera tion is about to cease to be i'ora while and dispatch is the word. The las scourge Lander's author puts in thi hand of Destiny is the hero. It i uncertain whether he puts the hen last because he ranks as thc superla tive in the scale of these three scour ges. This is true, however, that the thin ! of these three great scourges is ver] different from the other two in its in j dividual effects. In both the forme instances the body itself of every in dividual implicated is laid hold of ! His flesh is literally assailed, and ai his organism deteriorates, perhaps hil I mind and morals deteriorate with it for, generally speaking, let famine 01 disease ever get a hold on a nation and its valor declines. Selfishnes: exhibits itself where one is astonished to observe it ; almost unhumau cal lousness characterizes even those whe were known to be of benevolent ten dencies. Mothers desert their owi children in the one instance, and eat them in the other. Children fly fron the prayers of their dying parents under the unnatural hallucination ol the plague. Husbands and wives shun each other, or snatch food fr?re one another. All the kind relations of life are reversed under the poison ing influence of either famine or dis ease. It is understood, there arc noble exceptions to the rule ; but this is the rule. War wakes up and intensifies the pure emotions. Patriotism, the back bone of sentiment, defense of home, arouses a latent bravery that might, without the voice of war, have re mained unknown. And all the dear domestic loves are tenfold strength ened, when the possibility arises of saying good-bye to the brother or the son or the sweetheart bound on the grave and hazardous expedition of war, of sayiDg good-bye with a large possi bility of never saying welcome. Oh, then, if even down underneath the crusts of our self-centered and unsym pathetic hearts there is the smallest spot of space which is capable of hold ing the image of another, surely at that moment that spot of space ex pands, that germ of affection shoots a bud. Surely then, if our eyes are of that polite sort that never commit the blunder of a tear, surely they will at least, at such a moment, smart a little. 0, war is a strong conjunction! Here is a picture of one of the inci dents (?) of Napoleon's Waterloo. We have all read it in that monument of fiction, Les Miserables ; but it is not unworthy a eecond reading. This pic ture may be called an incarnation of war. This could be the picture of nothing but war-you volunteers of Georgia, you bright-eyed, gay-hearted heroes. This is one of the accidents only of war. Listen : "All at once, tragic to relate, at the left of the English, and on our right, the head of the column of cuirassiers reared with a frightful clamor. Ar rived at the culminating point of the crest (of a small elevation,) unmanage able, full of fury, and bent upon the extermination of the squares and can nons (of the English) the cuirassiers saw between themselves and the Eng lish a ditch, a grave. It was the sunken road of Ohain. "It was a frightful moment. There was the ravine unlooked for, yawning at the very foot of the horses, two fathoms deep between its double slope. The second rank pushed in the first, the third pushed in the second ; the horses reared, threw themselves over, fell upon their backs, and struggled with their feet in thc air, piling up and overturning their riders ; no power to retreat ; the whole column was nothing but a projectile. The force acquired to crush thc English crushed the French. Thc inexorable ravine could not yield until it was filled ; riders and horses rolled in together pell-mell, grinding each other, making common, flesh in this dreadful gulf, and when this grave was full of living men, the rest marched over them and passed on. Almost a third of Dubois' i brigade sank into this abyss. Here the loss of the battle began." This sunken road of Ohain goes down in history as one of the mon strosities ; Waterloo and the sunken [ road of Ohain look not like a scourge, but revenge-if one might say the word of God. And that sunken road filled half a brigade was the first letter of the doom of Napoleon. St. Helena became possible there. France has been cruelly ruled with her Louis VI, her military Louis XIV. her weak Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, her Catherine de Medici, her Pompadour, her Maintenaut, her Napoleon. War has been her meat and blood her drink. Oppression she has known so bitter and so heavy that the most patient of people raised in 1793 r.he most terrible of cries. But France-that is, France, not the no bility-suffered and struggled and did her cruel lord's bidding for century after century, with never a hope of freedom to illuminate her until after Waterloo. Waterloo, or rather Na poleon, cured thc ophthalmia in France with an excrutiating operation. After Napoleon, when France had taken a little breathing spell, she rose up, and the way pointed out to her by that hand through the smoke of Aus terlitz and Waterloo (pointed out to him whether he would or not, ) that I way France beheld clearly, and that way she took with all the determina tion and tenacity of England. That way was liberty. And now wc will hear Victo Hugo again. "In presence of and confronting this ancient Europe made over, the lineaments of a new France began to appear. The future, the jest of the emperor, made its appearance. It had on its brow this star, Liberty. The ardent eyes of rising generations turn ed toward it. Men became enamored of this future Liberty. And to-day there is a republic-France. Napo leon, the friend and the scourge of the people, had let them realize their own power, not as rioters and regicides, lawless, for they already knew that, but as builders of States. After his death they put in practice the lesson he had taught them and built the free State of France." Catherine de Medici is an impossi bility in France to-day, and Madame de Pompadour is forever dead. Thc reign of terror is as inexorably extinct as is the man who said of them: "Let the people eat grass." The Bastilc cannot be rebuilt, and thc throne of the miserable Louis XV shall not be sat up again. Supersti tion is weakened, and slavery has broken his bonds. The divine right of man is recognized in place of the divine right of kings. In Napoleon's splendid and tragic defiance of custom and authority the people of France first conceived a declaration of inde pendence, which they read aloud in triumphant tones in less than fifty years after the death of the "child of destiny," caged on the rock of St. Helena. So Genseric, Attilo and Alaric, with their yelping hordes of Norsemen, meant strength to degenerated Rome. In place of the ruined splendors, the mutilated statues, the desecrated tem ples, they gave Rome fresh, strong blood and a new hold on life that pres ently developed into those hardy young states of Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. "William the Conqueror brought to England through the clamor and chaos of the field of Hastings, new energy, broader culture and high er philosophy. The wail and boom of Bunker Hill were the travail throes of the birth of the most splendid repub lie on the green globe. War has its meaning ; in war there is a truth. Behind the rolling vol umes of smoke the serene face of Des tiny shines; through the roarof death and the wail of sorrow the voice of thc Omnipotent is heard. I*, is not chance. Thc most momentous event in human history is war ; it cannot be chance. God must know it as well as He knows of the fall of the sparrow ; neither does God go on a journey and leave the battle to us. His wings stretch abroad in the black cloud of battle, and under his features we gather, though in the midst of trouble. And we shall yet know that over the raging and over the madness of every slaughter-field our God watched. In the war that is upon us no suffi cient reason yet appears for its exist ence, and no good equal to its evil is yet apparent. But this may even yet continue to be our hope, that there is a destined end in it for the beautifica tion of man. ANN STEWART ETIIBIDGE. A Small Chance for His Honey. A Missouri paper to illustrate the hopeful feeling that some men have when they are in debt, tells of a farm er who owed Walt Perkins $25, and had owed him for years. One day he met Walt and said : "Don't be uneasy, Walt; I have the thing all fixed by which I can pay you. Walt asked him how he had got it fixed, and the old granger said : "Well, Walt, if nothing happens, next year I hope to raise a good crop of corn, and I intend to trade some of the corn for a yoke of oxen, and I know an old man in St. Charles coun ty that owns an old mare, and he wants to trade her for a yoke of oxen. Now, Walt, when I raise the corn and get the oxen I will make the trade for the old marc, and then I will bring her home and raise mule colts-and, Walt, the very first mule colt I sell you shall have the money." Mr. John Peterson, of Patoutville, La., was very agreeably surprised not long ago. For eighteen months he had been troubled with dysentery and had tried three of the best doctors in New Orleans, besides half a dozen or more patent medicines, but received very little relief. Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy having been recommended to him he gave ita trial, and to his great surprise three doses of that remedy effected a per manent cure. Mr. Wm. McNamara, a well known merchant of the same place, is well acquainted with Mr. Pe terson, and attests to the truth of this statement. This remedy is for sale by Hill-Orr Drug Co._ DEAN'S PATENT FLOUR EVERY BARREL GUARANTEED. Our MUI writes us that we, upon their re sponsibility, "may guarantee every Barrel of Dean & Rat?flVs Fancy Patent, Dean <fe Ratliffe's Patent, Dean's Patent, Dean & Ratliffe's Choice Family, and Dean & Ratliffe's Standard, and that they mean every word they say." This ia a gilt edge guarantee, and we stand ready to make it good for them If you can gen a guaranteed FJonr at the same price as a wild-cat article, why not buy the ooe that ia guaranteed " We want to say that we have the Cheapest line of Shoes in town-all new styles, Dress Goods of all kinds, and Light and Heavy Groceries, To suit a poor man's pocket book. All we ask is a trial. DEAN & RATLIFFE. 1/ar* Parties owing us for GUANO will please come forward at once and close their accounts by Note, as we require this to be dune by May 1st. D. & R. ? J "YOU DON'T KNOW, DO YOU ?" WHO ? Are always away up-to-date, With prices seldom beaten, With latest goods in the State, Which are "out of sight" when eaten. Selling Pickled Shad is their latest fad, And Graham Flour is their pet ; It's mighty hard to beat their lard, And their Hams are the rage yet ; Their Canned Goods the famous "Royal Scarlet" brand, Many medals have won as purest under the sun, And Blanke Bros. Candy finest in the land, For sale by H. B. FANT & SON, who give the best goods for the "mon." Phone 89. Free City Delivery. Fine old Apple Vinegar. COTTON IS CHEAP A IV O SO ARE eROCEBing. LIVE AND LET LIVE IS OUR MOTTO ! WE have a choice and select Stock ol' FAMILY and FANCY G?O?EEIES, Consisting of almost everything you may need to eat. Our Goods are fresh, were bought for cash, and will be sold as low as the lowest. Please give me a call before purchasing your Groceries. Thanking all for past favors and soliciting a continuance of the same We are yours to please, GL F. BIGBY. DUBING THE SPRING MONTHS While business is supposed to be dull, we have decided to offer GREAT IN DUCEMENTS in our large and well selected 8toe* of. DEY GOODS, NOTIONS, HATS and SHOES. We have several thousand dollars worth of these Goods that we are going to sell for leas than same Goods can be bought for elsewhere. No wind-work about this. Come see for yourself. We carry a Splendid Stock of Heavy Groceries, And make Specialties of Fine Flour, Molasses, Coffee, Tobacco and Sugar. If you will honor us with a visit when you want to bny your next bil), we will appreciate it and make it mighty interesting for you. Come see for yourself. Yours for Traffic, BROWNLEE & VANDIVERS. EN LETTER To MOTHERS. WE ARE ASSERTING IN THE COURTS 'OUR EIGHT TO THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF THE WORD "CASTORIA," AND "PITCHER'S CASTORIA," AS OUR TRADEMARK. I, DR. SAMUEL PITCHER, of Hyannis, Massachusetts, was the originator of "CASTORIA," the same that has borne and does now bear - on every the fae-simile signature of (^!a^/yf^^&i wrapper. This is the original "CASTORIA" which has been used in the homes of the Mothers of America for over thirty years. LOOK CAREFULLY at the wrapper and see that it is the kind you have always bought r - on the and has the signature of wrap per. No one has authority from me to use my name exeept The Centaur Company, of which Chas. H. Fletcher is President. March 24,1898 J? ?* j Do Not Be Deceived Do not endanger the life of your child by accepting a cheap substitute which some druggist may offer you (because he makes a few more pennies on it), the in gredients of which even he does not know. "The Kind You Have Always Bought" BEARS THE SIGNATURE OF Insist on Having The Kind That Never Failed You. THC ct NT* un COMPANY, Tr MURRAY STRUTT. N CW YORK CITY. MMMMMMMMMMMJMMQAJM^MMRMMMMMMMMJMBMMJMM BAGS, RAGS, RAGS ! I am again buying Bags-Save them up and bring them and your Hides ! If"yon. need a good STEEL RANGE OB STOVE AT bottom prices, either for Cash or ou time for a good Note don't, feil to see my line. I will swap you a New Stove for your old'one or for Cattle, and give you the market price for your Cattle. Now is the time to get you a good ?stove before cotton-planting time Tinware, Crockery, Glass, Lamp Goods, Ac., A. SPECIALTY. Thanking you all for past favors, and soliciting a continuance of same Respectfully, U?KN T. BIfRRIRK CRESCENT BICYCLES. MORE of them sold thau any other There must be good reasons for this, when the same condition prevails every year. They must have merit. Why You Should Side a Crescent ! The price as well as the quality is guaranteed. If you buy a CRES CENT you will never be annoyed by having a duplicate of your wheel adve. tised at Department Store prices. CRESCENTS are sold through Bicycle Dealers, who protect aud stand by their customers. We sell the CRESCENTS aa cheap as they can be bought anywhere in the wide world. Buy where you are assured fair treatment / 83,000 Crescents sold in one year. Best liked where best known. SULLIVAN HARDWARE CO. W. W. SULLIVAN, Manager Bicycle Department. THE OLD, RELIABLE Furniture Store! - OF - ee F. TOXJIJT * ?UN Still in the Xjead ! They have the Largest Stock, Best Quality, and Certainly the Lowest Prices ! OTHERS try to get thtre, but they miss it every time. New, benutiful and select Stock of Furniture, &c, arriving every day, and at PRICES NEVER HEARD OF BEFORE. Here you have the Largest Stock ; therefore, you ean get ;uet what you want Here you have the Best Grade of Furniture ; therefore, you can get Goods that will last Here you have the very LOWEST PRICES ; therefore, you save good big money. SST Come along, and we will do you as we have been doing for the laa forty years-sell you the very best Furniture tbr the very lowest prices. B?, The largest Stock in South Carolina and the Lowest Price in the Southern States. New Lot Baby Carriages Jost Received. C. F. TOLLY &> SON, Depot Street, Anderson, S. C. THIS IS WO FAKE ! That Jewelry Palace - OF - WILL. R. HUBBARD'S, NEXT TO F. and M. BANK, Has the Largest, Prettiest and Finest lot of . . . XMAS AND WEDDING PRESENTS II\ THE CIXY. Competition don't cnt any ic? with me when it comes to prices. I don't buy goods to keep. I want the people to have them. Gold and Silver Watches, Sterling and Plated Silverware, Jewelry, Clocks, Lamps, China. Spectacles, Novelties of all kinds. Rogers' Tripple Plate Table Knives Sd 60 per Set. A world beater. WILL R. HUBBARD.