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FUBLISHED THREE SAYS COOK LIED Wftan Ha Claimed to Have Been to the North Pole PEARY'S VAIN BOAST That He Alone Reached the Goal is Not Strange, But it is Not Accepted as True by Many Scien tific Men, Who Award the Honor to Cook Alone. The lie was hurled Wednesday concering the aiscovery of the North Pole, and the foundation laid for a controversy unparalleled in his tory. Commander Robert E. Peary is making uncertain progress south ward off the coast of Labrador in his ship, ihe Roosevelt, but there came from him Wednesday a mes sage as uirect as his homeward jour ney has been slow. It challenges the veracity of Dr. Frederick A. Cook, of Brooklyn, and further com plicates a situation which the whole world is discussing. In effect Peary discredits Cook's claims with the intimation that ne (Peary) and he alone, planted the American nag at the {North Pole on April 6, 19u9, and that Dr. Cook who asserts that he unfurled the flag at the pole on April 21, 1908, must substantiate his claims. Peary's statement reflecting on Dr. Cook's achievement came first to the Associated Press early Wednes day morning, dated Indian Harbor, Laborador, the point through whicn he first reported his success by wire less. It had probably been delayed in transmission and read as follows: "I have nailed the Stars and Stripes to the North Pole. This is (authoritative and correct. Cook's story should not be taken to serious ly. The two Eskimos who accom panied him say that he went no dis tance north, and not out of sight of land. Other members of the tribe corroborate their story." To the Associated Press Peary had sent the dispatch, replying to an urgent request for an authoritative statement and some comment con cerning Dr. Cook. While Peary's assertion is of a nature that makes Dr. Cook's position one of defence, the Brooklyn explorer yet has .sup porters both at home and abroad. Many of the Continental scientists are marking time, pending develop ments, while those who have formed no decided opinions in this country have assumed a similar stand. STANDS BY COOK. One of Peary's Former Surgeons Defends Cook. Dr. Thos. H. Dedrick, of Washing ton, N. J., who was surgeon of the Peary expedition in 189S-1902, promptly came to the support of Dr. Cook Wednesday. He said: "The charge (referring to Peary's statement) may lesson Mr. Cook's standing in popular estimation until his defence can be heard, but the scientific world will be affected only by scientific discrepancies. Dr. Cook will undoubtedly have scien tific records and observations with out Eskimo proof. "If Eskimo proof is needed, there are enough admirers of fair play in the world to send impartial inter preters to the tribe." Analyzing the Eskimo character, Dr. Dedrick is inclined t think them unreliable, "with a temperament which would lead him to agree for suavity's sake and because of imme diate benefit with a man on the spot, having a ship loaded with what is most dear to an Eskimo's heart. This would be especially true," ar gues Dr. Dedrick, "if their former benefactor had departed homeward as Cook did on a sled with no halo of a ship's prestige." In conclusion Dr. Dedrick said: "Suppose Oook next year went up and distributed presents as ships do. and asked if his rival had got ten out of sight of land and they said 'no.' what matter would it make to the public?" Other important parties may yet be heard from. The whalers which arrive at Dundee this fall may also know what the Eswimos say. Declare Peary a Fakir. At New York among the friends of Dr. Cook who rallied to his de fense was Capt. B. S. Osborn. sec retary of the Arctic Club, of Ameri ca, who In an interview, said: "Peary in making these charges is digging his own grave. He is a colossal fakir, and his statements are a fabric of untruths. As soon as he sets foot in New York, Mr. Bradley and myself will srive out affidavits in support of our position. "I have an affidavit stating that Peary opened Dr. Cook's trunk* and data and that he opened a letter Dr. Cook had written to Mrs. Cook, read it and then sealed it up again. Peary also wrote Mrs. Cook telling her baldly that her husband was a fakir." Another Took Support. Prof. Wm. |{. Brewer, of Yale, honorary president for life of the Arctic Club of America, of which both Peary and Cook are members, telegraphed to New York as follows: "I believe that both Cook and Peary have reached the pole." TIMES A WBEK. WHAT COOK SAYS HE DECLARES HE CAN AND WILL PROVE HIS CLAIM. Will Send for His Eskimo Compan ions and Asserts That Peary Took Food Stored for Him. At Copenhagen, Cook, shown Peary's statement Wednesday night stood by his gun, declined to enter into a debate and calmly asserted that his records would sustain him. He said: "I have been to the North Pole. As I said last night when I heard of Commander Peary's success, if he says he has been to the pole, 1 believe him. "I am willing to place facts, fig ures and worked-out observations before a joint tribunal of the scien tific bodies of the world. In due course I shall be prepared to make public an announcement that will effcectually dispel any doubt, if there can be such, of the fact that I have reached the pole. But know ing that I am right and that right must prevail, I will submit at the proper time my full story to the Court of last resort?the people of the world. "I will not enter into any contro versy over the subject with Com mander Peary, further than to say that if he says I nave taken his Eskimos, my reply is that Eskimos ars nomads. They are owned by nobody, and not private property of either Commander Peary or my self. "As to the story that Command er Peary says I took provisions stor ed by him, my reply is that Peary took my provisions, obtaining them from the custodian on the plea that I had been so long absent that he was going to organize relief stations for me in case I should be alive. For this I have documentary proof/' This is Dr. Frederick A. Cook's reply to Commander Peary. Com ing so quickly upon other dramatic incidents of the week, Commander Peary's dispatch denying that Dr. Cook has achieved the triumph for which he has been feted and honored in Copenhagen, beyond the lot of any other private person, has been read. there with feelings of amaze ment and concern. But Dr. Cook himself seems in no wise disturbed. He was perfectly cool and apparent' ly unmoved when confronted with telegrams from the United States saying that Commander Peary had denounced him as an imposter. His demeanor has not changed in the slightest from the day he landed at Copenhagen. When it was suggested to him that his chances of proving his case might be ruined unless he made a satisfactory statement immediately, 1 he smiled?his usual quiet smile? and asked how could a man be ruin ed by popular clamor calling him an imposter when he had proofs of his case which could and would be published, as he had oft times repeated, when they were in proper form to be given out. Regarding the ?conmoversy over his alleged taking of Peary's stores, Dr. Cook asserts that he has written, and other satisfactory evidence, that Peary took bis stores, perhaps be lieving him deadV "Harry Whit- i ney is personally acquainted with all the facts, and perhaps what he has to say when he returns may be in teresting," added the explorer. Dr. Cook told Capt. Sverdrup and another friend the day after he had landed that he hoped there would be no unpleasantness over supplies with the Peary party; that he had found some of Peary's men in possession of one of his depots and had turned them out uncermoniously. It is settled that Cook will send a ship back to bring to America the two Eskimos who accompanied him on the last stage of his journey to the pole, as well as some of the party who were sent back when the start of the stage begun. Capt. Sverdrup may command the expedition; it is Dr. Cook's desire that he shall do so, and they conferred for several hours a few days ago. Murder and Robbei-y. A band of robbers, masked and armed with bombs and revolvers, at taked the postoflice at Miass, Rus sia, Wednesday night and aft-^r killing the night watchman and three policement looted the office and made their escape with $40, 000. Ten men were more or less seriously wounded in the fighting. The robbers cut the telegraph wires and fled up the track on a locomo tive. After traveling some mile*, they stopped the engine and disap peared into the woods. Figures Were Wrong. Tn our Tuesday's issue, we stated that there was about $1,500 worth of cotton sold at North. Since then we have received a letter from a resident of that place, who says that the sales for Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week were $15.000. Swept by Floods. A dispatch from La Paz. Lower California, dated September 6, says that that place was overwhelmed by a flood. No details as to the damage wrought were given more than that the postoflice building was destroy OKAN?BBUB?. 8. HAVOC OF FLOODS PRIESTS BRING NEWS OF DE STRUCTION IN MEXICO. Towns Entirely Wiped Out and Thousands of People Drowned by Mexican Freshet. Advices from Monterey, Mexico, is to the effect that a number of village priests, after making jour neys over miles of devastated coun try, have arrived there, bringing the first news of the destruction wrought by the recent floods in the outlying districts. Their stories indicate that the havoc is more widespread and terrible than was at first be lieved. The priests of Arramberi have informed Archbishop Lenares that Arramberi was destroyed, and today his people are wandering over the I country in search of food. The de struction of the roads has made it j impossible to send on relief sup i plies. I The story brought in by the priest of La Ascension is to the effect that I this town and its population of 2,000 I souls have entirely disaPPeare^ The people, he says, may have taken to the. hills, or they may have per ished. "Not a stone was left upon a stone in La Ascension," the priest said. [ "Where there was once rich farms is now nothing but water." Another priest from Allende says that place also disappeared with large loss of life, and that the neighboring fields have been con verted into lakes. The priests were more than a week in making their way Into Monterey. They describe the destruction as the most awful e/er experienced in Mex ico. Aid Is urgently needed in these outlying districts, particularly as the authorites are busy with Monterey and its vicinity. Bustamemnte and La Escondida have been added to the list of de stroyed villages. DRAGGED BY TRAIN. The Narrow Escape of Conductor Davis From Death. A special to the Augusta Chroni cle from Columbus, Ga., says John H. Davis, a Central of Georgia rail road conductor, residing in Colum bus, while walking along the top of his freight train in Lee county, Ala., Wednesday, lost his balance and fell between two coal cars. Just as he struck the track he grasped; the grab iron of one of the cars and was pulled along in this manner for three miles, his feet dragging ithe ground. When the train approached a trestle he man aged by superhuman effort to pull himself up and threw himself out between the two cars, fortunately clearing the track as he fell. His left ankle was dislocated and he was severely bruised, but he will recover. DEATH OF A HERMIT. For Forty-six Years Had Not Left His Premises. Basil Hayden. who died recently at Greenbrier. KyY, had not stepped outside the picket fence that bound ed ,his yard since President Lin coln freed the slaves. It is said that he shut himself in a little room that day in 1863, after his sweet heart died, and looked no more up on men. An overseer of Hayden's estate named Borders was the only human being whom the anchorite saw, and he took care of Hayden s property until a mistake in account ing made by a bank clerk exasperat ed the hermit. Thereafter the re oluse hid an estate which wi'l amount to nearly $100,000 in chinks and pillow slips and cast off cloth ing. Cannibals Eat Them. Advices received from the French Congo say that cannibalism is ram pant in the Matab and Sangbar re gions, where the blacks are in com plete revolt. They have killed and oaten a number of factory employes and a telegraph operator was slain at his key and devoured. Native (,'rtachments, headed by four Frj ic'i officers, have left for the scene to punish the cannibals. Brothers in Fatal Eight. As the result of an encounter 1 e Iwtcn two brothers .m the McG.'i. ness farm Id miles south of Salem. Ind.. Luther McGlnness, aged 48, is mortally wounded and Horace McGinnis, aged 4"?, lies at his homo in a serious condition. Since the ii' :it'i of William McGinness, father of the men. who was found dead iu a barn six weeks ago. ill reeling has existed between the brothers. Crew Massacred. The captain and crew of the French schooner Quality, engaged in recruiting laborers, have been mur dered by natives of Mallicollo Island, in the New Hebrides. The vessel was driven ashore by a storm and while stranded she was attacked. In spite of their stubborn defense the crew were massacred to the last man. A British war ship is investigating the occurrence. C, SATURDAY. SEPTEI THE DARK DAYS Tillman Tells the Story of the Strugles of 1875 IN SOUTH CAR0?L? An Address Delivered by Senator Tillrann at the Red Shirt Reunion at Anderson, S. 0., on August 25, in the Presence of Several Thou sand Enthusiastic People. The Hamburg Riot. Judge Aldrich told you last night that he could tell more about the Hamburg riot than I could because he would not have to criminate him self. As for that I have nothing to conceal about the Hamburg riot. I told the Republicans in the senate that we had to shoot negroes to get relief from the galling tyranny to which we had been subjected and. while my utterances were used in the Republican campaign book for 1900, I think my very boldness and the frankness with which I explain ed conditions did more to enlighten and disarm the fanatics than any thing else I could have said. Even Senator Hoar was so impressed that he became my warm personal friend. Because of the potent influence in arousing the white men of the State to their duty, I shall give you the story of the Hamburg riot in full, not dealing at this rime with the two Ned Tennant riots and the Ellenton riot. The third of these disturbances or riots occurred in Hamburg in July, 1876, and this tragic episode in the struggle for white supremacy caused more widespread comment through out the north and was more far reaching in its influence upon the fortunes of the white people of South Carolina than anything of the kind which ever occurred in the State. Congress appointed an investigation committee to take testimony and the bloody shirt was waved by the northern press and politicians from one end of the country to the other. The two preceding disturbances, of which I have spoken, while causing great excitement (an/d uneasiness, had resulted in no blood shed other than the wounding of two' negroes, near Dr. McKie's, but the Hamburg riot caused the death of seven ne groes and one white man, while two negroes and another white man were seriously wounded. The cause of the trouble, as in the two Ned Tennant riots, was the ne gro militia. The town of Hamburg, opposite the city of Augusta, and thirteen miles below where I was born and reared and wad then liv ing, had been a prosperous mart of trade between 1840 and I860. At one time it had a population of be tween 3,000 and 4.000 and did an immense business with the South Carolina planters . Owing to fits liability to overflow by the Savannah river it had begun to decline and at the time of which I write it was occupied almost entirely by negroes. The white population consisted of a few families. The number of stores was small. The negro population in 1S76 probably numbered 1,200 and it had become an harbor of refuge for all of the cow thieves, cotton thieves, house burners, and other types of criminals among the negroes. Owing to the fact that the municipal government was com posed of negroes, the town marshal was a negro. Gen. Prince R. Rivers, an ex-Union soldier, commander of the negro militia, State Senator from Aiken county and Trial Justice, lived there and the negroes were exceed ingly insolent and it was dangerous for white men to go through the town unless they were well armed. A negro militia company of about one hundred men had been organiz ed in this lawless den and one Dock Adams was captain. On the after noon of the 4th of July, 1876. this company was drilling and parading on Main street and as was usual a very large proportion f-f the negro population were admiring specta tors. A young man, Thomas But !er, whose father lived on the hill two miles away, returning home from Augusta whither he had betn on business found the street blocked by the negro militia company. Tiw militia wen? marching "company front" and the line extended from sidewalk to sidewalk. As young Butler approached, instead of throw ing his men into "column of fours" or "column of platoons" or wheel ing them out of the way. Dock Adams gave the order to "charge bayonets" with the view no doubl of showing off before the assembled negroes and to compel the young white man to turn his horse around and l'ee. Hiit he was not of that kind, and knowing he had a right to the highway, as the approaching line of leveled bayonets came for ward be siopped his buggy and reached for his pistol, cocked it and shouted. ?Til shoot the first man who sticks a bayonet in niy horse." lie was alone and there were more than ion negroes with Springfield rifles and gleaming bayonets and sev eral hundred others looking on. He knew and the negroes knew that they could butcher him with great ease, but they felt certain he would kill one or more of them before IBER 11, 190). it could be done. The captain shouted "halt!' and opened the ranks so that Butler could pass and in a little while dismissed hrs com pany and went to Gen. Prince Riv ers and swore out a warrant hcarg ing young Butler with interfering with his company at drill. Butler went on home and told his father what had happened, and Air. Robert Butler, whose plantation lay above Hamburg and who had a great deal of trouble with negro thieves and was in every way a very pugnacious man, hurried to ithe trial justice and swore out a warrant for Adams for obstructing the highway. The trial was set for the succeed ing Saturday, July .8 The incident was noised about all over the coun ties of Edgefield and Aiken in a very little while. It had been the set tled purpose of the leading white men of Edgefield to seize the first opportunity that the negroes might offer them to provoke a riot and tach the negroes a lesson, as it was generally believed that nothing but bloodshed and a good deal of it could so well answer the purpose of re deeming the State from negro and carpet bag rule. Mr. Robert Butler sent to Edgefield for Gen. M. C. Butler to defend his son and prose cute Adams at the trial. Col. A. P. Butler, the captain of the Sweet water Sabre Club, summoned our company to meet at Summer Hill, three miles from Hamburg at 12 o'clock. It was our purpose to at tend the trial to see that young Butler had protection and, if any opportunity offered, to set the ball rolling, and if one did not offer, we were to make one. We did not go in uniform and were expressly ordered to leave our rifles and car bines so that when assembled we were only armed with pistols. Va rious schemes were presented and discussed but nothing definite was arranged except that we would go to Hamburg in a body at 4 o'clock, the time for the trial and see what would turn up. The fact, however, that we had assembled was made known to Prince Rivers and when the company reached Hamburg v,? were informed that the trial had been postponed and it appeared for a while that all of our trouble and pain3 as well as the schemes we *had formulated would come to naught. Dock Adams had assembled his company in the armory of the Sibley building, a two-story brick structure on the corner of Main and River streets. General Rivers had dirappeared from town. There was much talking and plan ning among the leaders, the two But lers and others of the leading citi zens. At about 5 o'clock it was de cided that the demand should be made of Dock Adamms to surrender his guns, and notice to that effect was sent him by Gen. M. C. Butler with the further information that he had shown that the guns were a menace to peace and good order and that the whites having lost all patience were resolved to put an end to his outrageous and insolent conduct. When the demand was made he promptly and peremptorial ly refused. He was then told that we would take them. When the sun was about half an hour high the little band of white men, mini boring about seventy in all, nf whom forty-five belonged to the Swer watur Sabre Club, rode down Alain street towards the armory and wheeling into a cross street we ap proached the. river and halted in ? the street which was occupied by the trestle of the C. C. and A rail road, now the Southern railway. The Sibley building was on the southwest corner of the square. We dismounted in regular cavalry fash ion and linked bridles. All of the disengaged men lined up. Then the order came, "All men having car bines or rifles step five paces to the front." Only five responded. It was now shown how groat a mistake had been made in ordering the rifles left at home. The purpose of that order is easy to understand. We did not. wish it to appear that we had come to Hamburg with malice aforethought, but merely as specta tors at the Butler trial. Events had shaped themselves so that the pur pose of compelling the surrender of the arms by the negroes once formed there was no time to make new pre parations.. Ejixty white men (the others were detailed to take care of the horses) were about to attack 100 negroes who were armed with the most approved army rifles, had plenty of ammunition, antl were for tified so to speak in a brick fort, while the whites had shot guns and pistols. But the difference in the blood and the color of the skin far more than made up the odds in the armament. The five men to whom the duty was assigned of opening the attack were Henry Getsen, Dan lap Phinney. McKle Meriwether, j Thos. Settles and Demltrious Myers. 1 I will always remember with sad ! iiess an incident which took place I just at this time. Young McKie Mer iwether. belonging to the sabre vlub. j bill his father did not. The older man. Joseph M< riwether, it will be j remembered, was the manager of I Shaw's Mill two years before, who had manipulated that box and chang ed the negro majority into a white majority. lie had heard of the trial and had brought hi.. Winces', r rille with him. When the elder Meriwether joined the squad, which was to take position behind the abutment of the railroad bridge, diagonally in front of the Sibley building and some seventy-five yards away, his son, a very handsomo \mm. TW' WILL BE PROBED SHOOTING OP MRS. G. C. BIGHAM LEADS TO ARRESTS. Coroner Swears Out Warrants for: W. B. Avant, who Shot Mrs. Big ham, and for Her Husband. A diBpatch from Georgetown to The News and Courier says Coroner C. J. Fletcher Tuesday swore out a warrant for William B. Avant as principal, and for Dr. J. C. Bigham as accessory for the killing of Mrs. G. C. Gigham, wife of the latter, a Murrell's Inlet, on Saturday night last. The verdict of the coroner's jury reads as follows: "That the de ceased came to her death by a gun shot wound at the hands of. W. B. Avant and G. C. Bigham as accessory thereto, both men laboring under great mental excitement and fear at the time of the deed." \ It is the strong opinion of every one in this neighborhood that the shooting was inexcusable in its gross carelessness, and deserves to he in I vestigated to the bottom. It is re ported that one of the probable caus es of the men shooting at the un known object was because Sunny side house was said to be haunted, and they thought it a ghost. The deputy sheriff is expected to arrive with the two men tonight. Dr. G. C. Gigham, of Georgetown county, who was implicated by the coroner and jury in the killing of his wife at Murrell Inlet, was ar rested at the home of his mother, Mrs. M. S. Bigham, at Forestville, Wednesday afternoon by Deputy Sheriff Harrell. Dr. Gigham was carried to Florence and placed in jail upon telegraphic instructions from the sheriff of Georgetown. young man, about 25 years of age, came running towards him and un buckling the pistol as he ran, he handed the two pistols to his fath er and said, "Here, papa, take these and let me have the rifle." The exchange wac made and the elder man took his place in the .-anks, while the younger, along with the other four, stepped off at a lively pace towards the end of the bridge. They marched in full view of the negroes who could see them from the windows of the Sibley . building. The rest of the men were deployed on the other two sides of the square, being on the north and east sides of the Sibley building, which had no windows on those sides. In fact, it had no windows at all except on the front towards the river. As a be longed to the first set of fours, I was detailed along with Pierce But ler and James McKie and one other whose name I forget, and placed in position at the northwest corner of the square directly in the rear of the Sibley building. The square, I will state, was a small one, with sides probably seventy-five yards long. The entrance to the second story of the Sibley building where the negroes were in hiding, was by a pair of steps running up on the outside from Main street to a land ing in frout of the door on the west side. The sun was just setting when or ders were given to the squad at the bridge abutment to begin firing on the building. The other whites were stationed up and down the sidewalks on the northern and eastern sides of the square, while the western side was left unguarded. As both sides were using breech-loading guns not withstanding only five white men were doing any shooting, the fusilade of shots was very rapid. The armory had five windows and the negroes were firing from these, hut most of the shots must have been fired while they were squatted below the win dow sills and their guns were elevat ed as there was little or no signs of where the bullets went. The marks of the bullets on the sand stone window sills are still to be seen though filled up level with cement. The noise of the battle, if it may be termed one, was of course heard in Augusta ;>nd soon a considerable body of men gathered on the Geor gia bank, but as some stray bullets from the negroes' rifles at the win dows gave them notice that they were in danger, they very soon re tired out of sight. However, it was not long after dark before men be longing to the military organizations i:i Augusta and others began !o pour across the bridge with arms to take part in the fray. The square on which the Sibley building rteod had two or three other stories on the Main street side. The old hank building was on .the southeastern corner and there were several small wooden shanties on other pact:; of the square. As soon as darkness ? fell the whites began to search all of these buildings an! vry shor'ly a negro man was discovered in liid !?&? He was dragged out while squalling at the top of his voicfl through fright. He w.-;s shot by some one who in the excitement and anger forgot himself and though not seriously wounded his screams and cries resounded so as to be heard for half a mile around, .lust about this time v.v were all shocked and enraged by the news from the bridge abutment that Mc Kie Me^iwether. the brave young man whose exchange of arms wirh his father, I have mentioned, had been killed. There has always been (Continued on page 3.) 0 CENTS PER COPY GONE TO REST Col. James T. 8acon Passed Away on Wednesday WAS BRAVE SOLDIER And Brilliant Writer, Col. Bacon Fought Bravely for the Sourh Bar ing the Civil War and Ably La bored for South Carolina With His Ten for Many Years. Col. Jas. T. Bacon, after a linger ing illness, died at his beautiful home in Edgefield on Wednesday af ternoon, and a dispatch says all Edgefield and throughout the district is sorrow and shadow, for he was the best known and most universal ly beloved man in the county, and his name was synonymous with all that is pure, generous, noble aud good. Col. Bacon had attained hia 78th year. He was descended from splendid Revolutionary stock. HJs ancestors came from Virginia, where the family had been prominent among the colonists for over a cen tury. Edmond Bacon, for many years a brilliant member of the Edgefield Bar, and the "Ned Brace" In Lonpstreet's Georgia scene?, was his grandfather. Edmond Bacon, although a Geor gian by birth, in early life moved to South Carolina, and he, with Col. Arthur Simkins, settled the town of Edgefield. He had four children, the second, Edmond Speed, being the father of the subject of this sketch, his mother being Sarah Bacon, a cousin to her husband, she having married twice, her last husband be ing the Rev. Arthur Wigfall. ' The Bacon family has been closely con nected with the county's and State's history. Col. Bacon had one brother, the Hon. John E. Bacon, who was secre tary of legation at St. Petersburg when Governor Pickens was minis ter, and afterwards minister to Uruguay and Paraguay under Pres ident Cleveland, and a full sister, Mrs. Baker, of McClellanville, S. C, and two half-sisters, Mrs. Kate W Cheatham, of Edgefield, and Mrs. Dr. Trezant, formerly of Columbia. ? A dispatch from Edgefield to The News and Courier says Col. James T. Bacon was born here, and his long and useful life was spent amidst the scenes of his nativity. After receiving an academic education at this place, he completed his studies in Germany, making a specialty of music, in which he excelled, and which was one of the joys of his beautiful life. After his return from Germany, he taught music here, and at Anderson, but it was to journal ism that he devoted his splendid talents, in which field he won fo; himself a name and reputation, sel dom equalled in this country.- After serving with conspicuous bravery In the War Between the States, he re turned home, and assumed the edi torship of the Edgefield Advertiser, and the files of that paper will best tell how ably and brilliantly he performed the duties of that office. Gentle as a woman, yet brave as a lion, he could write with all the soft ness and sweetness of Washington Irving, but when necessity and duty demanded it, with all the boldness and fire of Wendell Phillips. During Reconstruction times, when Federal troops were station ed here, and the negro and scala wag held high carnival, Col. Bacon printed the Advertiser in red let ters, and his "Leader" was filled with such patriotic fire and defiance as to cause offence to tne Federals. For this he was arrested, and taken to Cnarleston, but no harm befell hin?, and ho returned home only to continue the brave fight for Anglo Sa-\on supremacy. He was a game cock in those stirring days, as be ever was, and never did hia red plume lower its crest. After leaving the Advertiser, he, with his nephew, Mr., L. W. Cheatham, conducted the Edgefield Chronicle, a mtper that is ' loved and read by every man, wo man and child in the county, because back of it has been the brains, wit, and eloquence of Jim Bacon. His correspondence to the Colombia State and special articles to The Sunday News attest the unique style, versatility, and brilliancy of the man. Many of his uose friends here have often urged him to collect and print his wrl'ings. >)nt his innate modesty forbade?they would make a volume worthy of his wit and genius. Col. Bacon was never married, feat he wast beloved and courted by all for Iiis magnetic personality, social attributes and brilliant conversation of powers. One beautiful trait of his- character was his love and loy alty to his immediate family. His venerable mother, the late Mrs. W?p fa.ll, as well as other members of his family, would often urge him to seek broader fields, where his talent would have won higher distinction and greater pecuniary reward, but he pr- ferred to remain with them, and with his life-long friends and at the home he loved so weli, and administer to their happiness and support. Now that he is gone, Edge field mourns for him, as never did she sorrow for man before. He has left a void that cannot be filled.