Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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ft s rr? r *" \i' t ?? *r -A *?/' V.V M* r ; . * i ,(1 ??? 'M,,?_^ Editor axd Pbofrdttor. DEVOTED TO th k. r IVrETffiRTft OF KEBSHA.W CQu\^3E^_^' j 4 V ?,? "?> ?- - ?- %? TERMS :?S2.00 per ajikc*, ijr advakc*. VOL.1, CAMDEN. S. C., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29,-1874. ' / .Na'SO. THE STORY OF THE GUN. i . BT VICTOB HUGO. One of the carronadee of the battery, a twenty-four-pound Ar, had got loose. - 01 bis m ntflmpfefiM molt formidable <4 ac<3ra acjdontf Hafhfa% , more terrible can happen to a vessel in open sea and toder full st&. . A gun that breaks Its isoprLnRs be comes BUuuerQy some mdiscribable su pernatural beast. ) .It is a machine which transforms itself into a monster. This mass turns upon its wheels, has the rapid movements of a hilliurd-Dall; rolls with the roQixqf, pitches with the pitching; goes, comes, panses, seems to meditate ; assumes its course, rushes along th* strif) from end Id end like an arrow, ? Mil :<t?uttt, springs aside, evades, rears, breaks, kills, extermi nates. It is a battering-ram which as saults a wall at its o^rn caprioe. More over, tljp battering-awn w lfletal, the wall wood. "Tt Is the "Mlfranoe of matter into liberty. One jnight say that this dmUJ it ijisaiw as if the power of tfvil hidden in what we call ilahiMsU obfdls finds a vent and bursts suddenly out. It has an air of having lost patience, of seeking some ileioo* "?obicure t retribution ; nothing more inexorable than this rage oi the inanimate., . The mad mass has the botmJs ol a panther, the weight of the elephant, the agility of the mouse, the ?bstinacy of^the axe, the unexpected ness of the aurge, the xapidity of light ning, the deafness of the. tomb. It weighs ten -thoasond pounds, and it re bounds like ashilrila ball. Its flight is a wild whirl abruptly cot at right-angles What is to be done ? How-to end this ? A tempest oeases, aayel?D? passes, a wind falls, a broken mast is replaced, a leak is stopped, a fire dies out; but how to oofctiolthfr Mtomona brute of 'bronze V Jn what ifay oan oho attack ^qo^apmSTa msatiff hmt reMOB, {Mooxpe ,fm that monster, a cannon looae. -|on> can not kill it?4t is ,4**dz aft tte iame til lira* with a sinister life ?by HaAnity. ia4i ??_ . The plank* beneath it gi '-the ship,which Miaoved by the Wlrid. - a plaything. Tie -1 a IZA "i L w. How to I of complication ? How __ j&ira4trona mechanism for ship ? How foyoaoe ita oom ita return*, ita stops, fTr-\J one of these blows side*. maj stave out the ves w divine Ita awful gyrations t to deal with, aj>roj ecu!? which ?tqp the coarse of some iran be avoided? The fluup itself about, ad the right, , disoon-| batacles, I a great dan-l 'the mobility! an inclined! The ship, I prisoned! __ r_>cape ; i 11 thUfcdar rofying abovwan earth ii??ci ?* - ? I In an ' were on I _foot; the fault was the ohief franner'a ;| he had njgleoted to flihopM the screw nut of ?uMHM'AUA, and had sol badly shackled the four wheels of the! ?f<^ft, ana^ennw?T Dy oraakin^the breeching. The oordage had broken, so that t&gftn Hta ho longer aeon re on the a*triage. The stationary breeching! ? ?rhidh prereirts reooil waa not in nse at I that period. Ae a hesrry w*va straokl <rifce woatciM toaraonade, wMklt attaoh-l sil, aft# began I to rnah wy(j|j^%o*f}tjOnfeeive, in or-| then. given ?mia |she both. and shadows to this vision. The shape of the cannon was {indistinguishable from the rapidity of its oourae; now it i looked black in the light, now it oast | weird reflections through the'gloom. It kept-on its work of destruction. It had already shattered four other pieoes and dug two crevioes in the side, for-1 tcmately above the water-line, though they vould leak in case a squall should oome on. It dashed jtself frantically against the frame-work ; the solid tie-1 beams resisted, their curved form giv ing them great strength, but they I creaked ominously under the assaults | of this terrible elub, whioh seemed en- i dowed with a sort 'of appalling ubiquity, striking on every side at olcc. The strokes of a bullet shaken in a bottle would not be madder or more rapid. The four wheels passed and re passed above the dead men, cut, carved and slashed them, till the five oorpses < were s score of stumps rolling about the deck ; the heads seemed to cry out; streams of blood twisted in and out of the planks with every pitch of the ves sel. The oeiling damaged in several places, began to gap. The whole ship was filled with the awful tumult. The captain promptly recovered his composure, and at his order the sailors threw down into the deck every thing which could deaden and check the mad rush of the gun?mattresses, ham mocks, spare sails, coils of rope, extra equipments, and bales of false ae ai gnats. But whst oould these rags avail ? No one dared to descend to arrange them is ?ay useful fashion, and in a few in stants they were mere heaps of lint. There was just sea enough to render ah accident as complete as possible. A tempest would have been desirable ; it might have thrown the gun upside down, and the four wheels onoe in the air, the monster oould have been mas tered. But the devastation increased. There were gashes and even fractures in the masts, which, imbedded in the wood week of the keel, pissea the decks of ships Uke great lousd, pillars. The miazen-maef inkt bracked, and the mast itself was injured under the blows of the gun.. The bat being destroyed. Ten pieoes xe thirty were disabled ; the multiplied in the side, and the corvette began to lake in water. ^ 'rK^old passenger, who had desoerided stone stationed at He stood motionless, gasLig sternly about upon the devaatation. Indeed, It seemed impossible to take a single ( step forward. ? ?acb bound of the liberated carronade menaced the deetrnotion of the veeseL A. few minutes more and shipwreck would be inevitable. They must perish or put a summary end to the disaster?a decision must be made?but howT I -.What a- oombatant?this oannon ! Th?y must check this mad monster. They must seise this flash of light ning. They must overthrow fhis^hun-1 der-bolt. " " 1 Boisberthelot said to La Vienville, " Do you believe in God, chevalier?" La Vienville replied, "Yes. No. Sometimes." "In a tempest?" " Tes ; yia in momenta like this." ?? Qnly^Ood can aid us here," said All were silent?the oannon kept up its horrible fracas. The waves beat against the ship; their blows fr?m without responded to the strokes of the oeQnotu {' ~ ll was like two hammers alternating. | Suddenly, into the midst of this sort of inaooeuiMMlninsjrherw the escaped oannon WeTAiid bo unfed, there sprang ? man with air ffon T>ar in his hand. It wss the author of this catas trophe, the gunner whose oulpable I negligenoe had oaused the aooident? mfirw.a.r fortune, n? desired to repair it. He had oaught up a handspike in one fist, a tiller-rope with a slipping noose in the other, and jumped down into the t gun-deck. Then a strings combat be gan $ a Titanio strife?the struggle of the gun sgainst the gunn*r, a battle between matter and intelliffenne, a duel between the inanimate and Khe human. The man was posted in an angle, the bar and tope in his two flsts ; backed one of the riders, settled firmly on his legs as on two pn]??, at steel, livid, calm, tragic, rooted as it were in the plankif, he waited. He waited fer the oannon to pass near him. m t,\ ? The gunner knKWifcilf pieoe, and it seemed to himlfctt she must recognise 'ftrMtkiH but?a& he* Jaws ( It was his tsme monster. He began to address it ss he might have done his %a*so? toward him. wMlM i fted silence. ?self biwiilii hy the no4stiaTm*.u ??. -w, rtj ^ 4Ka kmA saa iirftotnd iry# S.'l -,d! Tl wheft, ?eeptiag this <4fWt .! " . 'Vs?? kept it far a moment immovable, m if suddenly stupefied. " Come on!" the man Mud to it. II seemed to listen. Suddenly it darted upon him. The gunner avoided the shook. N* The straggle began?etruggle rtm heard of. The fragile matching itaelf against the invulnerable. The thing of flesh attacking the braxen brute. On the one side blind foroe, on the other a soul. The whole passed in a half-light. It was like the indistinct vision of ft miracle. A soul?strange thing ; but yon would hare said that the oannon had one also ?a soul filled with rage and hatred; This blindness appeared to have eyes. The monster haa the air of watching the man. There wae?one might have fanoied so at least?conning in this mass. It also chose its moment. It became some gigantio insect of metal, having, or seeming to have, the will of a demon. Sometimes this colossal grasshopper would strike the low ceiling of the gun-deck,then fall back on its four wheels like a tiger upon its four claws, and dart anew on the man. He? supple, agile, adroit?would.glide away like a snake from the reach of these' lightning-like movements. He avoided the encounters ; but the blows which he escaped fell upon the vessel and con tinued the havoc. An end of broken chain remained at tached to the oarronade. This chain had twisted itself, one oould not tell how, abont the screw of the breeoh button. One extremity of the chain was fastened to the carriage. The other, hanging loose, whirled wildly abont the gun, and added to the danger of its blows. The screw held it like a clinched hand, and the ohain, multiplying the strokes of the battering-ram by its strokes of a thong, made a tearful whirlwind abont the oannon?a whip of toon in a fist of braes. This chain complicated the battle. J '? 1 WTj Nevertheless the man fought. Some times, even, it waa the man who at* tacked the oannon. He orept along the aide, bar and rope in hand, and the oannon had the air of understanding, and fled as if it peroeived a snare. The man pursued it, formidable, fear Boob * duel cannon, Appeared to have, or seemed to all4 sentient being?a furi ous premeditation. It sptang unex pectedly upon the gunner. He jumped aside, let it pftMk an<l cried oat with a laugh, "Try againI" The gun, as if in a fury, broke a carronade to larboard ; then, seized anew by the invisible sling whiSh held it, was flnng to starboard toward the man, who escaped. Three oarronadee gave way under the blows of the gun ; then as if blind, and no longer oonaoious of what it was do ing, it turned its back on the man, rolled from the stern to the bow, bruis ing the stem ana making a breach in the plankings of the prow. The gun ner had takon refuge at the foot of the stairs, a few steps from the old man, who was watching. The gunner held his handspike in rest. The oannon seemed to peroeive him, and without taking the trouble to turn itself, backed upon him with the quiokness of an are-stroke. The gun ner, if driven baok against the side, was lost. The orew uttered a simul-1 tan eons cry. Bat the old passenger, until now im movable, made a spring more rap'd than all those wild whirls. He seised s bale of the false assirnat*, and. at the risk of being crushed, succeeded in flinging it between the wheels of the oarronade. . The bale had the effect of ft plug. ? pebble may stop ft log, a tree branch turn an avalanohe. The oarronade ?tumbled. The gunner, In his turn, seizing this terrible ohanoe, plunged his iron bar between the spokes of one | of the hind wheels. J The oannon was stopped. It staggered. The mftn, using [ the bar as a lever, rocked it to and fro.. , The heavy mass turfed aver with ft , clang like a falling bell, and the gun : ner, dripping with sweat, rushed for * ward headlong, and passed the slipping noofte of the tiller-rope about the broftse neck of the overthrown men ster. I It Wfts ended. The man had oon qner?*l. , The ana had snbdne^.'ih* I mastodon; the pigmy kad taken the thunder bolt prleonetf. he marines and ihe ssilors clapped The whole crew hurried dowi with otbla* and chain*. Mid in an in*t*nttho " Sir," he said to ha Sftt^amyllfc.^ ^ Tf ? The old man'had rammed hds impfte* able aMitnde, and ^ " " ,1 The man. had might say ihat the < SsSaSS to look about it, offered a terrible spec tacle. The interior tf a mad elephant's cage ooold not have been move oom- * pletoly diamantled. Howeter great the neoeaaitj that the oorrette should oeoape obeerratjon. a still more imperious necessity present ed itself?immediate safety. It had been neco?ary to light up the deok by lanterns placed here and there along the ?idea. But daring this whole time this tragic diversion had laated the crew were so absorbed by the one question of life or death that they noticed little what was passing outside the soene of the duel. The fog had thickened ; the weather had changed ; the wind had drivpa uxe vessel st will; it had got oqt of ita route, in plain sight of Jersey and Guernsey, farther to the south than it ought to havegone, and was surrounded by a troubled sea. The great wavee kisaed the gaping wounds of the cor vette?kisses full of periL The see rocked her menacingly. The breeze became a gale. A squall, a tempest perhaps, threatened. It was impossible to see before one four oars' length. While the crew were repairing sum marily and in haste the ravages of the gun deok, stopping the leaks and put ting baek into position the guns which had esoaped the disaster, the old pas senger had gone on deck. . He stood with his back against the mainmatf* . . He had paid no attention to a pro ceeding wnioh had taken place on the vesael. The Chevalier La Vieuville bad drawn up the marines in line on either side of the .mainmast, and at the whistle of the boatswain the aailorn busy in the rigging stood upright on the yards. Count du Boisberthelot advanced toward the passenger. Behind the captain marched, a man haggard, breath less, his dress in disorder, yet wearing ? satisfied look under it all. It was the gunner who had just now so oppor tunely sho^tn himself a tamer of mon- j store, and who had got the better of the oaniyon. The oount made a military salute to the unknown in peasant garb, and said to him, "General, here is the maa,^..:.; .. . . r .. The gunnec. held himself erect, his standing in a soldierly or ~*? ^ s.^~ ^ _ th*h? old ? " Be good enough to give the orders," returned Boisberthelot. r ?? It ie for you to gift them. Ton ere the oaptein. ; , "Bat joa are the general," answered Boisbertnelot. The old man looked at the gunner. " Approach," Mid he. The gunner mored forward a step. .The old man tamed toward Ooant du Boisberthelot, detached the - oroaa . of Saint Louis from the oaptain'a uniform, and fastened $ 'q^\ *ha jacket of the gunner." " Hurrah I" cried the eailert The marines presented afma. The old passenger, pointing with hia finger to ward the bewildered gunner, added, " Now let that nfkn be Shot . Stupor suooeeded the applause. Then, in the midst of a silenoe like that of the tomb, the old man raised his ?oioe. He said: , " A negligenoe haa endangered this ship. At this moment she is perhaps lost. To be at sea is to face the enemy.' A Teasel at open serf is an army which giree battle. The tempest oonoealn, but does not absent itself. The whole sea xs an ambuscade. Death is the pen alty of any fault eommitted in the face of the enemy. No fault is reparable. Courage' ought to be rewarded, and negligence punished." These words fell one after the other slowly, solemnly, with a sort of inexor able measure, like the blows of an axe upon an oak. And the old man, turning to the sol* diers. added: I. " I>o your duty." . ???... The man upon whjae breast shone the cross of Saint Louis bewed his head. At a sign from Oouut du 'Boisber thelot two sailors descended between decks, Chen retained, bringing the ham mook winding sheet. The ship's shap lain aooompanied the two sailors; a* sergeant detached from the fine twelve merino*, whom he arranged in two ranks, six by six; the gaaner, without Wttstlng a word, plaoed himself be* tween the two flies. Th* ohaplain, cru cifix in hand, advanced ana stood near him. - - - " March r said the a?Mut. The platoon moved with alow steps towards the bow. The twe arises who carried the shroud followed, . . A gloomy silenoe fell upon the cor vette! A hnrHoR?? moaned in the dia ? few iostahU later these wee a flash ; a report followed, ssfcein? along *h? ?hanows 1 then all was si lent,:. Ah en came the thud <4 a body flEIng into "rCoMp-, enger still leaned back again* the maim* as* *Rh*?ld?4 arms, egiektog siieaUy. -** . J Boislirthriot pointed towards him with tfca IomAnnmI hia left hand,aar said in a low watee to JLe Vieurille, " The Veodee h?, to,,nd# hetl I" :t*?? 1 """K THE ETILS OF LYICH LAW. * - ? * ? Th? ConfkHlon of th* Wan who Aaalitcd la Two Oth?n to* o Crime of whkh la* wu . The telegraph has already related how a dying man in Colorado reoently ooofeased that he alone was guilty of outraging and murdering a young girl in Ohio two years ago, for which crime two innooent msn were lynched by the inoenaed citizens. The particulars of the case are thus given by the Indian apolis Journal: In June, 1872. a girl named Mary Belle Seoor, while on her way through the woods to the hotne-of-ber sister, in Mercer county, Ohio, near the Indiana State line, on a Saturday poming, was assaulted, outraged, and murdered. The discovery of the crime caused intense exaitement in Che neighborhood, and suspicion lighting upon two men named < Mclieod and Kimball, and a younger | brother of the latter, the exasperated people, despite their protestations of innooenoe, wrought summary vengeance upon them by hanging McLeod and the elder Kimball?the boy being ppared through the intercession of a brother of ; the murdered girl?to a tree in the vi- | cinity of the spot where the crime had ; been committed. The general belief ; was that the men were guilty, and though the better class of the comma- J nity deplored the reeort to mob law, there were but few who did not believe the fate whieh had overtaken the men was jnst A few days ago a man named Thomas Bradwell Douglass, ft former resident of Mercer county, who re moved to Colorado for the Deneflt of his health, which had been undermined by oonsumption, died at Denver. Half an hour before his death he became greatly agitated, and insisted upon the attanaanoe of a Catholic priest. To the priest who came in answer to his sum mons, the dying man dictated the fol- . lowing oonfession: In this, my dying hour, and in the fall hoj>e that by doing so I will secure absolution from my sins, I make free and full oonfession of a deed that has weighed upon my mind like a death pall from the day of its commission. I am the guilty wretch who outraged and murdered the girl Seoor, near Selina, Ohio, fet the summer of 1872. Heaven alone knows what motive prompted me to do the deed; but st-the time my brain it .. _ _ I now know and feel that In acting as' did throughout ihm. horrible affair I committed sins of t most grievous charaeter. I hope God will pardon me, and thai the publication of state ment will relieve the families the men, MoLeod and JQmball, from th6 stigma of dishonor resting upon them. I feel that I have but a few mpre mo ments to live/ sad with my last breath I avow the truth ot all statements herein related. ?; *?-, ? , ? ... ( To the oonfession is appended a note signed by the priest, attesting that the1 ooriffceeion was written by him at the re quest of the dying man. MuRMknMtti Farmers. There are about 40,000 farmers, and 30,000 agricultural laborers in the State of Massaohusett*, according to the re port of the Btate Board of Health. Of the former, 924 per oent. are Americans by birth, and of the latter, 77 1-6 pet oent. The farmers are in comfortable oiroumataneea, aoossding to the figure* given, making larger peaoentages of groflt than their brethren in any State at Minnesota, where land is cheapest. They have a market at their elbotr, and1 according to the report would get rioh if they did no**have to upend mere money than - their Western brethren to. keep up their oiviliaation. They gen erally get a oommot school education, ana read the newspapers. "Hence, says the report, 44 they are a sturdy, re liable el ass oI man, of strong preju dices, slow to ohange their opinions, but possessed of shrewd aommon-sense. Their hard work and moderate means make them thrifty, sharp at a bargain, eoonomioaL 'Voi nnfre<jn?ntly, like other people, they fall into parafamony. Bui the great body of our farmers form the beet Qf material lor the diaeemina tion of sanitary science, for tn^dr fntel ligflno* leads t hem to unden Halite principles and appreciate their value, while their pmofecal ingenuity servee U apply theni jto the beat ad v ad tag A Fight with a Bear^ ^ tt A letter from Osbkoek. Mi**, relates doer. The b*ar Mtoftfc ift, aod>rr two houra Mae ttan and th*-< beam fought in deadly oombat. children .moun^d a ladder through a hole \nlo\mm1 to Mi's face, arsAs, kMd b*hf Wefca lmarp' " "Jfcy the slews of Items oT Interest. - ?.t* - - .4 . . t . The first pioture of the moon was taken in 1849. Never scare off a fly with a clut) when a feather will do as well. Chloroform hala been discovered to be an antidote to poisdn. There are twelve htmdMd shades ?f the different oolora of kid gloves. . A new Mormon temple ?? being built at St. Qeorge, Brigham Young's winter home. j , . . , Five hundred millions of dollar* and three millions of m$n are the cost and force of Europe's standing armfes. A western moralist thinks that the two great evils of the present day are " intoxication and costly funerals." Leaden bullets are too soft to be used in hunting rnd killing elephants, and iron ones have to be used for the pur pose. hLood, on being shown a portrait of himself very unlike the original, said that the artist had perpetrated a fatse Hood. A flg orchard at Mormon Island, Sacramento oonnty, California, oontalns 1,000 bearing trees of the white Smyrna variety. Our young ladies are the sweetest and most truthful in the world ; ut least there are none other who are so caud(i)ed. A Sunday school scholar being asked what became of meu who deoeived their fellow men, promptly exclaimed : "They go to Europe. A Missouri paper says that " nothing annoys a man more than to have liis house burglared three or four time a week for a straight month." It is estimated that there are 800,000 life insurance policy-holders in this country, the amount they are insured for being equal to the national dsbt. " And did you hear him call her my dear or anything like that ?" asked the lawyer. M*No, sir 1-^rf coarse not ; why, she was his wife," answered the wit neM- .i i ?* It often happens with people who were born " with silver spo6ns in their mouths," that, when they grow up, nothing oan be seen of them but the ?poous. .* _ ? ? . i^Wtiei ts jmH Tney are after the seeial. position whioh saoh an offloegttes. Pennsylvania Rave the {fatted States their first tturnpike rq^d, railroad, water.works, locomotive, hospital, law school, pnblio museum, music hall, and free library. Women are fast beooming familiar 'with polltias. We have heard of a wo man sWho believes so thoroughly in in fotion^hat she blows her husband up three times a day. In SaUL^e* Oily recently a Mormon named Jdttt FUlon publicly an nounced that he would kill any man Brigkam Young did'nt Mke iKordered by the Prophet to do so*, a*.., , a When, the flood in the* Mississippi was at ivs height, the width of the river from Cairo all the way to the Gulf was n<ft less than forty miles, and in some plaoM It reached sixty miles. * * Be qivil and you'll be happy." At least that is' tbe experience of John Host; at Fhiladplpiiia, who gave a stranger a night's lodging years ago and has ju%t reoeived a legacy of $20, - ^ .We learn from a Western ?exchange . thill somebody has recently died of '4tiAc?ase ?>f the Main." Bat n<rt>orly need be alarmed. It is very evident that the affliction is not ueoessarily # ,1 ' Mong Ohin Foo was Admitted to citi tfp Court at Grand* le, Michican, lately. He claims the fttstof his nationality that has rencrtiftfted allegfenoe' to the Chineae Empire. ' * . -j,i. .v-' . .*** , At Tmokee, Itev., an ieiele eighteen feeiloag and estimated to weigh ten tona fell and smashed a portiop of the jflume of the Trucke? Lumber Oom pany attneir miu. The icicle wart over six feet in thickneai ~ In OsKalof**,' Iowa, * Mrs. 'Com stock, in opposition to the reformers, has ?n Listed in the cause of the ramsallers. She goes from saloon to saloon, enoour ?g>ng the proprietors to present a bold front lo the crusaders. ly propSSl abffl^^V^llSlS^etlw of the Lagialatuitf, pm*mA and future, a bona flie attorney and oonneeJor at law. His seasoning was directF<>r, we. know enough to make t fctt V'tthool **>her <+?ry morning by in rt?e if tlMphave ye ad tttd'aneh "a?in the qm.and their opin ~ fcfr <TW* comment*. Ohio, was kha srusade be ItTh^bar' ffj I ks she eon Id the Was drank, and ? tears rolling _ V Come home,