Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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ALPHA AND OMEGA. THE MOST CONSPICUOUS CHARAC TER OF HIISTORY. Christ tie Overtoppinu Figure of All Tiie -The Alpha and emega, the Beginning and the End-An Example to. Preachers. On Sunday morning the Rev. T. )e Witt Talmage, D. D., preached on "The Glorious Christ." His text was: "He that cometh from above is above all." John iii, 31. The preacher said: The most conspicuous character of history steps out upon the platforn. The flnger which, diamonded with light, pointed down :o nim from the Betble hem sky, was only a ratification of the Inger of prophecy, the finger of gene alogy, the finger of chronology, the fin ger of events-alli.ve fingers pointed in one direction. Christ is the overtop ping figure of all time. He is the vox humana in all music, the gracefulest line In all sculpture, the most exquisite ming ling of lights and shades in all paint ings, the acme:of all elimaxes, the dome of all cathedral grandeur, and the pero ration of all splendid language. The Greek alphabet is made up of twenty-fonr letters, and when Chri!t compared himself to the Irst letter and the last letter, the alpha and the omega, he appropriated to himself all the splen dors that you can spell out either with thost two letters or all the letters be tween them. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the irat and the last." Or, if you pre fer the words;of the text, "above all." What does it meant It means after you have piled up all Alpine nnd Him alayan altitudes, the glory of 'Christ would have to spread its wings and de scehd a thousand leagues to touch those summits. Pelion. a high mountain, of Thessamy; Ossa, & high mountain, and Olympius, a high mountain; but mythol ogy tells us when the giants warred against the gods they piled up these three mountains, and from the top of - them proposed to scale the heavess; - but the height was not great enough, and there was a complete fdilure. And after all the giants-Isaiah and Paul, prophetic and apostolic giants; Raphael and Michael Angelo, artistic giants; cherubim and seraphim and archangels, celestial giants-have failed to climb to the top of Christ's glory. They might all well unite in the words of !he -tert and say: "He that cometh.-fr6' above is - 8 rist must be above all else in our preaching. There are so many books on homiletics scattered through the country that all laymen, as well as all clergymen, have made up their min !s what sermons ought to be. That ser mon is most effectual which most neint edly puts forth Obrist as the pardon of allsin and the correction of all evil-in dividual, social, political and national. There is no reason why we should ling the endless changes on a few phrases. There are those who think that if an ex hortation or a discourse have frequent mention of justification, sanctification, bovenant of works and covenant of grace, that therefore it must be pro foundly evangelical; while they are sus picious of a discourse which presents the same truth, but under different phras~e ology. Now, I say there is nothing in all the opulent realm of Anglo-Saxonism of all the word treasures that we inherit *ed from - from the Latin and the Greek, and the Indo-European, but we have a right to marshal it in religious discus ons. Christ sets the example. His tions were from the grass, i the flowezs,sthe spittle, the salve, the barn *yard fow~l ~ieh crystals of salt, as well as from the stas and the sthrs-adw do not propose in our Sunday school teaching and in our pulpit address to be put on the limits.. - know that there is a great deal said in our day against words, as though they were nothing. They may be mis used, but they have an imperial power. They are the bridge between soul and soul, between Almighty God and the human race. What did God write upon the tables of stone? Words. What did Christ utter on Mount Oliveat? Words. Oat of what did Christ~strike the spark for the illumination of the universe? Out of Words. "Let there be light," and light was. Of course, thought is the cargo nnd words are only the ship; but how fast would our cargo get on without the ship? What you need, my friends, in all your work, in your Sab * bath school class, in your meformatory institutions, and what we all need is to enlarge our vocabulary when we come to speak about God and Christ and heaven. We ride a few old words to death w :en there is such an illimitable resources. Shakespere employed 15,000 diferent words for dramatic purposes; Milton employed 8,000 different- words for po etic purposes; Rufus Choate employed over 11,000 different words for legal purposes; but the most of us have less than 1,000 words that we can manage, less than 500, and that makes us so stu .pid, When we come to set forth the love of Christ we are going to take the tenderest phrasoology whenever we find it, and if it has never been used in that direction before, all the more shall we use it. When we come to speak of the glory of Christ, the Conquerer, we are going to draw our similes from triumphal arch and oratorio, and everything grand and stupendous. The French navy have eighteen flags by which they give sig nals, but those eighteen flags they cn -put inte sixty-six thousand different combinations. And I have to tell you that these standards of the cross may be lifted into combinations infinite and varieties eve: lasting. And let me say to these young *men who come f rcm the theologieal semi naries into our services every Sabbath, and are after a while going to preach Jesus Christ, you will have the largest liberty . and unlimited resources. You only have to present Christ in your own way. Jonathan Edwards preached Christ in the severest argument ever penned, and John Bunyan preached Christ in t he sub limes allegory ever composed. Ed ward Payson, sick and exhausted, leaned up against the side of the pulpit and wept out his discourse, while George Whit field, with the manner and the voice and the art of an actor, overwhelmed his auditory. It would have been a differ eat thing it Jonathan Edwards had tried to write and dream about the pilgrim's progress to the celestial city, or John Bunyan had attempted an essay on the human will. Brighter than the light, fresher than the fountains, deeper than the seas, are all these Gospel themes. Song has no melody, flowers have no sweetness, sun set sky no color compared with these glorious themes. These harvests of grace spring up quicker than we can sickle ~ them. Kindling pulpits with their fire, and producing revolutions with their t power, lighting up dying beds with their C glory, the-y are the sweetest thought for t the poet, and they are the most thrilling ' 11llustratlon for the orator, and they offer s the most intenses scene for the artist, and ' they are to the ambassador of the sky all t enthusiasm. Complete pardon for direst t guiit. Sweeteet comfort for ghastliest agony. Brightst hope for grimmest 'l death. Grandest resurrection for darkest t sepulcher. Oh, what a Gospel to preach!t Christ over all in it. His birth, his suf- a fering, his miracles, his parables, his t sweat, his tears, his' blood, his atone- t maent, his intercein.-what g1nriousjA heues! Di yo.u exercise faith? Ch:ist s its object. Do we have -lov? It fastens )n Jesus. E .re we a fur uc for the i cll It is bcus ChriL. diel. for it. El a .-ope of iavern It is because wt::: a ead, the 'c.:d and fo&: V':exy ro:>e etDem) rius was .o :cs)tly, so bzautifui, that af er he had put it uti no one ever dared put it ou; but tis robe of Cbrist, richer than that, the poorest and the wannest and the worst may wear. "Where sin aboundeth grace may much more abound." "Oh, my sins, my sins," said Martin Luther to Staupitz, "iny sins, sins" The fact is, that the brawny Gbrman student had found a Latin Bible that made him quake, and nothing else ever did make hi- quake; and when he found how, t'rough Cl.st, he ws pardoned and savd, he wrote to a friend, saying: "Come over and join us great and awfui sinuerE saved by thu ,race of G..d. You seem to be only a slender sinner, and you don't much extol the mercy of God; out we :bat have been such awful sinners we praise his grace the more now that we hare been redeemed." Can it be that you are so desperately egotistical that you feel yourself in first rate spirit uat trim, and that from the root of the hair to the tip cf the toe you are scar less and immaculate? What you need is a looking glass, and here it is in the Bible. Poor, and wretched, and misera ole, and blind, and naked from the crown of the head to the so:e of the foot, full of wounds and putrefying sores. No health ia us. And tuen taae tue ia;t that Christ gathered up all the notes against us and paid them, a:.d ten offer ed us the receipt. And how much we need him in our sorrow! We are independent of cir cumastances if we Lave His grace. Why, He made Paul sing in the dungeon, and under that grace, St. John from desolate Patmos heard the blast of the apocalyp tic trumpets. After all other candles have been snuffed ou:, this is t: light that gets brigbter and brighter uuko the oerfect day; and alter, under the hard hoofs of calamity, all the pools of world ly enjoyment have teen trampled iuto deep :unre, at the foot of the eternal rock the Christian, from cups of granite lily rimmed and vine covered, puts out the thirst of his soul. Again, I remark that Christ is aove all in dying alleviatiosa. Saladin, the greatest conqueror of his day, while dying, ordered that the tunic he bad on him be carried after his death on his spear at the head of his army, aid that then the soldier, ever and anon, should stop and say: "Bebold, all that is left of Saladin, the emperor and con querer! Of all the states he conquered, of all the wealth he accumulated, noth ing did he retain but this shroud !' I have no sympathy with such behavi',r, or such absud demonstration, or with much that we bear uttered in regard to depart ure from this life .to the next. There is a commonsensical idea on this subject that you and I need to consider-that there are only two styles of depart ure. A thousand feet underground, by light of torch toiling in a miner's shaft, a ledge of rock may fall uuon us, and we may die a miner's death. Far out at sea, falling from the slippery ratlines and broken on the halyards, we may die a sailor's deith. Oa mission of mercy in hospital, amid broken bones, and reeking leprosies, and raging fevers, we may die a philanthropist's death. On the field of battle, serving God and our country, slugs through the heart, the gun car riage may roll over us, and we may die a patriot's death. But, after all, there are only'two styles of departure-the death of the righteous, and the death of the wicked-and we all want! to die the former. God grant that when that hour comes you may be at home. You want the hand ofyourH kin.dre4- in your hand.[ You want your children to surround you. You want the light on your pil low from eyes that have long reflected our love. You want the room still. You do not want any curious strangers standing around watching you. You want your kindred from afar to hear your last prayer. I thiak that is the wish of all of us. But is that all? Can earthly friends hold us up when the bil lows of death come up to the girdle? Can human voice charm open heaven's gate? Can humana hsnd pilot us through the narrows of -death into heaven's harbor? Can any earthly friendship shield us from the arrows of death, and in the hour when Satan shall practice upon us his infernal archery? No, no no, no! Alas! Poor soul, if that is all better die in the wilderness, far from tree shadow and from fountain, alone, vultures circling through the air waiting for our body, unknown to men, and to have no burial, if oniy Christ could say through the solitudes: "I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee." From that pillow of stone a ladder would soar heavenward, angels coming and going; and across the aulitude an'd the barienness would come the sweet notes of heavenly minstrelsy. Gordon Hall, far frotm home, dying in the door of a heathen temple, said: "Glory to thee, 0 God!" What did dying Wilberforce say to his wife? "Come and sit beside me, and let us talk of heaven. I never knew what happiness was ustil I found Christ." Wha: did dying Hannah More say? "To go to Christ, who died that I might live! Oh! glorious grave!. Oh, the love of Christ, the love of Christ, the love of Christ." What did the dying Janeway say? "I can as easily die as close my eyes or turn my head in slee p. Before a few hours have passed I shall stand on Mount Zion with the one hundred and forty and four thousand and with the ust men made perfect, and we shall as cribe riches, and honor, and glory, and majesty, and dominion unto God and the Lamb." Dr. Taylor, condemned to burn at the stake, en his way thither broke away from the aguardsmen and went bounding and leaping and jump. ing toward she fire, glad to go to Jesus and to die fcr him. Sir Charles Hare, in his last moment, hadl such rapturous vision that he cried "Upward, upward, upward !" And so great was the peace f one of Christ's disciples that he put is finger upon the pulse in his wrist sd counted it and ooserved it; and so ~reat was his placidlty that after a vhile he said "stoppsd!" and his life -ad ended here to begin in heave.. But ~razder than that was the testimony of .he wornout first missionary, when, is he Mamartine dungeon, he cried: "I tm now ready to be offered si~d the time. >f my departure is at hand;I have fought he good fight,.I have finished my course :have kept the faith: henceiorth is laid ip for me a crown of righteousness, 'hich the Lord, the righteous Judge, vil give me in that day, and not to me nly, but to all them that love his ap-I :aring!" Do you not see that Christ is .bate all in dying al!cviations? Toward the last h'our of our earthly esidence we are speeding. Brighter than a banqueting hall brough which the light feet of the ancers go ap and down to the sound of rumpeters will be the sepulcher throuf a hose rifts the holy light of heaven reameth. God will watch you. lHe] ill send his angels to guard your slum ering ground, until, at Christ's behest, dey shall roil away the stone. So, also, Christ is above all in heaiven. he Bible distinctly says that Christ is 1e chief theme of the celestial ascrip-, on, all the thrones f.icing his throne, il the palms waved before his face, all 1e crowns down at his feet. Cherubimu >cherubim, seraphim to seraphim, re-1 recite the Savior's earthly sacrifice Stand on tome high hill of heaven, ard i- all the radist sweep -the moat glori ous object will be JCsUS. Myriads gnz ing on the scns of his suffering,in siiaceGra afterward breaking to:h into acciamation. The martyrs, all the jurer fo'r the flume through which they passed, will say: "This is Jesus, for whom we died." The apostles, all the happier for the shipwreck and the scourging through which they went, will say: "This is the Jesus whom we preached at Corinth, and at Cappadocia, and at Antioch, and at Jerusalem." Little children clad iu white will say: "This is the Jesus who took us in His arms and blessed us, and when the storms of the world were too cold and loud, brought us into this beautiful place." The multitudes of the bereft will say: "This is the Jesus who com forted us when our hearts broke." Many who wandered clear off from God and plunged into vagabondism, but were saved by grace, will Bay: "This is the Jesus who pardoned us. We were lost on the mountain, and He brought us home. We were guilty, and he has made us white as snow." Mercy boundless, grace unparalleled. And then, after each one has recited his peculiar deliver ances and peculiar mercies, recited them as by tolo, all the voices will come to gether into a great chorus, which wi 1 make the arches ecio and re-scho with the eternal reverberation of gladness, and peace, and triumph. Edward I. was so anxious to go to the Holy Land that when he was about to expire he bequeathed $160,000 to have his heart, after his decease, taken to the Holy Land in Asia Minor, and his request was complied with. But there are hundreds to-day whose hearts are already in the Holy Land of heaven.. Wherc your treasures are, there are your hearts also. Quaint John Bunyan, of whom I spoke at the opening of the discourse, caught a glimpse of that place, and in his quaint way he said: "And I heard ;n my dream, and lo! the bells of the city rang again for joy; and as they opened the gates to let in the men I looked in after them, and loI the city shoae like the sun, and there were streets of gold, and men walked on them, harps in their hands, to sing praises withal; and after that they shut up the gates, which when I had seen I wished myself among them." YOUTH UNDER THE AX. Remarkable .rre Exhibited By the Youngest Victim of the Guillotine. "That man has recently witnessed a rare and infrequent sight," said a well known man-about-town to a New York Journal reporter on Broadway. point ing to a foreign-looking man who was just going into the Fift'h Avenue Hotel. The reporter approached the gentle man, who gave his name as George Herbillon. a well known Parisian jour nalist. Heleft Paris about ten days ago. "Yes; I have witnessed a strange sight, and one I don't care about seeing again," he said. with a strong foreign accent. He then related the incident. He had seen the guillotining, about twe weeks ago, at Paris, of thes youngest person who had fallen a victim to the grim ax in Paris since the French Rev olution. It was a bov of 18 who had suffered the awful punishment. His name v-as Georges Henri Kaps. He had murder ed his sweetheart in May last. At the trial for this crime it was shown that vouing, beardless Kaps, at the age of 14, had assassinated an old man in a dark side street. When arrested for this last murder, boy though he was, ho threatened his guards wiith death. "I have seen many persons die," said M. Herbillou. "I was in the com mune in '71 and at the executions after it, but I never saw anything so distress' ing as the end of this young murderer. "He was only a boy fit still for n mother's caressing,' "went on M. Eer billon, "but he displayed the most re markable nerve during the trial and greeted the verdict of death with a smile." When the officials came in to the prison to announce that his hour had come he showed no fear,though till that moment he had expected a commutation as sentence. He dressed himself with out assist ance. When a priest approached he motioned him to leave with a wave of his little hands. Afterward he gayly skipped to his place in the sad procession for the guillotine. When he arrived at the "Place of the Ax" he glanced curiously at the few spectators. Catching sight of the deadwagen that was soon to carry away his lifeless body he smiled visibly. Standing beneath the glittering knife, the priest extended the cruciix to the boy's lips, but he turned aside his head. The victim's manner was so naive that a movement of pity made a mur mur in the little throng as the execu tioners forced him back and laid his neck in the fatal groove. "As he lay for a second before the blade dropped," said Mr. Herbillon, "I caught a lingering smile upon his lips. "Then I turned away." he said, "and the sound of the falling knife was heard. The boy died more like my idea of a Christian martyr than any one I ever saw die." -Ibsenlana. Ibsen lives in Munich, and he is a very peaceable man. Every evening at the same hour, he walks alone, with slow steps, up and -down Maim ilian street. Punctually, and ever rep eat ing itself, this promenade takes place. In the "Maxmil lan" he sits alone, mo tionless, always at the same table, for about an hour, before him is a glass of beer, sometimes accompanied by a lit tle glass of cognac. Thoughtfully the keen eyes gaze through the spectacles straight ahead; the thin lius remain closed, for he is rarely addrcsscd. His acquaintances-of whom lie has not many-remember well a remark he once made with the friendly look of a man who means no harm and simply says what he thinks: "I like to be alone." Should he nevertheless be en gaged in conversation, he we will hard ly say anything that some one else might not also say. He likes to hear everything new; especially facts rather than thoughts. He never talks about his own works unless some one else in troduces the subject, and then only with miserly words, and even these soon eease. When Frederike Gossmann had re cited "Nora" to him in his own house, the variety of opinions about the play was mentioned. '"They make a sense less objection," Ibsen declared, in his labored, halting German, "who main tain that I have said a woman shall or may not leave her husband and chil dren. I have not said at all what any woman may or shali not do. I have soken only of one woman. Of my N ora. Of this single woman. I have asked myself: What will this woman bere do according to her nature? And [ thought to myself: She will not go tway. Another ene perhaps would iae done something else." In the last act of the "Wild Duck" i gave the stag-e directiens concern ng the winter forenoon after due con ideration. "On a clear summer after ioon Hedwig perhaps would not have hot herself. One feels differently ren one stands in a room or on a neadow between hills. Before dinner1 Ld after dinner--that is a great differ mne. Our feeling is different in a right day than on a cloudy day." WOOLFOLK. SEE ORRORS. And le Desc 'bs, r I 't lor 1o ovr'nor Gords.. ATLANTA, FCb. 20.-Tn' Wofelk s wrinten a letter to Goveraicr Gord.on beggieg to be removcd froni the jail in Macon. - The story he tells is not cre3ited a the executive department, as it is writ ten in a wandering way toward the lns although the first part is coherent After beggng t-) be rEmoved Tom says: "I could give you a dozen reasons for this, but one will do. "In the cage below my cell are be tween fifteen and twenty prisoners. I don't know for certain, but I earnestly believe it, that white pcople, men, wo men and children, have been trapped by the jailer and some of his assistants :nd tortured. "I believe these people trapped are miy witnesses and frieuds. "Tbev are first arrested, tied, gagged, thrown into a ba:b tub, while one of the assailants sus oz him till he drowns. "They are then thrown out among the negroes while some of the prisoners put on boiling wa:er nnl then :dl the hair is scalded ofl the drownedI ncn or women. "One of the assant sI who is a ter, then pains the white bodies black or covers them ;ver very rticely with rcme pieces of seal skin, and when the r fcers come the jailer tells them a rigger is dead. He continues, saying tha. the men who do this are in - gang together and open all letters *cn t. prison rs and take out all money that ia in then befre thev receive the lettert. Ile contirues, saying tha' many '-i r mers and othe'r strangzers in M nave been trapped by the jail i been organized for tne piurp) of mak ing money. The drummer, T01M thitks. are carred into the crar at the jail or thrown into the sewer wbhic opens into the jail and empties into the river, first being cut ui: So that they can be easily handled. A Prolbund Youngster. There was convention of Sunday school teachers in Illinois, and the teachers of three counties were there to the number of 400. On the last day of the convention the clairman anrtouced that he would be pleased tc have the k-:owing ones think up some hard questions on subjects per taining to their work. write them on slips of paper, aad submit them tc him, and that evening at the laSt sea sion, which was to be a sort of enter tainment, he would answer them. A lot of people wrote these ques tions, and gave them to the great pro fessor, and when evening came he had about fifty good old problems in his bunch of paper slips. The evening exerciscs began with reading and answering the questions, and though some of them were very obtuse, the professor coped with them successfully, and impressed the great gathering with his vast knowledge. Finally he ran against a question that made him knit his brows; He scowled at it a moment and then laid it aside. When he answored the rest he picked up this query and said: "Here is a question which confess I am unable to answer. I submit it to the audience, and if any one is able to give the answer I will be glad tc hear what it is." Then he read this query: "'Who was the boy, and what wa~s his name, who held the basket con taining the nyve loaves and two liahet which fed the xrultitude?' "' Nobody made any effort to ansve it, and the professor said: "It seems that nobody knows any more about it than I do. I will have to call on the person who submitted the question to come forward and answer it. Will you please do so?" To the great surprise of the 400 peo ple, and his mother as well, Frank Jones, a thirteent year old school boy got up and modestly walked up th~ aislo. Everybody looked at hirt amazed. TIhe professer said: "Did you sub mit this question?" "Yes sir." "Can you answer it?" "Yes sir." "Well, I am sure everybody will be gla-1 to hear it." "The boy," said Frank, quietly but steadily, 'was Ben Eara, son .of Niri am, who was a sister of Philip, one of the twelve disciples." A murmur of astonishnment ran ove: the audience. Here was something too deep for even the proferssed theo logians in convention assembled. The professor turned to the boy. "Did you find that in the Bible?" "No sir." "W here, then, did you get it?" "In Greek history." That was the cap sheaf. A lad oj thirteen bowling down ~400 declared teachers in the Christian cause, and telling them in an unassuming way that he dug the informat-ion out o. Greek history. To Start an Alliance Organ. CoLBEM, S. C., Feb. 2.-It is re ported that at an early day some of the wealthiest Alliapce farmers of several of the counities will meet in this city to organize a jo~nt stock company for the purpose of publishing "a p~urely agricul tural paper" for the benefit of the farm ers of this State, and that the very best talent wiil be employed that can he found in the South to~ conduct it-men who can instruct the farmers not only in the sciesce of agriculture, but in all the practical methods and reforms necessary to make farming a success. The projec tors say that some of the papers have beconie poli tico-agriculturat, sud have failed so far in irnstructing the farmers as to their ag'ricultural wants. Thaecapital will be $25.'i00 at $100 per share. The paper will be published in this city. Gecrgia' Dar: Fund. '.: a rcW: 20.- sraina~ i~r ' (.,Ahbun, who is greagtr..er of t.:e m window and orphan furad for Georgia, states that he ha, so far only collected a little over $7,000 of the amount sub scribed, and he rtquests that ni! tru:.tees and others havieg tn their hands any part of the Lund forwar the same to him at once, as he is desirous of making his report to the Governor. Probable str-ike or Coal Miners. .LosNo, Feb. 10.-A great striku of British coal rminers it, thre-atened. Four hiuudred thousand of the operatives having determined to insist upaa their emaind for ten per cent. incre:.se of wages. Should the strike he inaugurated, it will be followed by a decreas;e of thre3 gaarters in the out put of coal. MIrs. Parniell VWanit a Pens-ion. Mrs D~eli-. Paraell. the mother of Charles Stewart IParnel, visi ted~ Go-er nor Abbott yesterd'- to run his support >f the bill befre C ongress. giving to her a pension of $1,00 Mrs~f 'Ih rnell : the daughter of Adii 8:ra t, .h a S soldlGr (of the. &etia .end Cc:I1 wars. She presented aliidavit Sh'owir"' her aed of the pensi:on. ad the Governor ignedi it, exprsnthe - . piio t'd dec!:nring himnsecf in favor of the passage of the bill.-Wa&rinton Star. -Thelanehas been definitely or lered to be adopted as the arra of the sermaa cavalry, against the advice, it GENERAL NEWS ITEMS. -:: Iiterc.r aierc from Vari ont -ourc:s. -Dr W.J hmsne .of th-le mo-_;. p ::psc of North Caro i, ii Wilingtou Tuesday, of diphtheria, aged seveuty-two ye rs. - scri:ius c'lliery ex plosion took place W'inesdny niuht rear Decize, France. Thirt-four bodies have thus far been re coverd, Th total iumber of victims is not known. -The Railrcad Comm'ssion has taken a to toh vMteilr:co:ier ke! cl's" eonner a Clumbii, wi h the train lvn . c-y '.r 8part'u-g at 10.40 a. m. -M wr Twan (S. L. Clemens) has bcen invited to take part in the forth coming London reception to Stanley, and he seriously thinks of making the ocean trip for the special purpose. -Popular Branch Alliance, in North Carolina, has got up a mutual aid so ciety, and when a member loses a horse or a cow they contribute the sun of one dollar each provided the loss will require that much. -Henry J. Fanz, the victim of the Aberdeen outrage, has been recom men(cd by Superintendent Porter for appoir.tment as special agent of the eleventh census to collect statistics relative to the recorded indebted ness. -Four hundred thousand miners in Great Britan have decided to adhere to their Ocemand for an increase of ten per cent. in wages. It is probable that the men will strike. Should they do so, tbe coal output will be decreased three quarters. -A theatrical performance for the benelt of Mrs. James G. Blaine, Jr., came off Wednesday afternoon in Uroadway theatre and netted $4.000. Among the performers were Elsie Leslie, William H. Crane and Mrs. Kendall. - --The Paris correspondent of the Lon d'i News says Dni Pedro's nervous disease increases and partly unhinges his mind. le lives in daily expectation of bleing recalled to rule Brrzil, and does not rea!ize the precarlous state of his own finance. He rcfuses to reduce his imperial suite. and maintains his expen ces on a graUd cale. -S. P. Chandler writes from Max, Sumter County, S. C., as follows: "Our Alliance is thriving, and is still growing. All seem much interested in the progress it is making against trusts, combination etc., and wish it success. Yout see from the way old subscribers have renewed their subscriptions to The Cotton Plant that they know how to appreciate it." . -Washington Post: Senator Vance says a constitaent of his in a pine woods district of North Carolina, to whom he sent a copy of of the Pat, ert Office annual reports, spoke to him of the occurrence in this way: Gineral, I got them speeches o' yourn, but I cou.11't read 'em through. Thar war a le!'le-too much Whig doetrin into 'em. Poor Place for Stamps. An amusinz incident occurred in the postoffice recently. Stamp Clerk lereke had just sold a natty old gen, tleman a dollar's worth of "2." The old man was wondering where to put them, when he accidentally put his damp fingers on the sticky side of the stamps, and they began to stick togeth er. "Say, how do you keep these things from stecking?"h~e asked. "Rub them ou your head," the clerk roplied. "Ah, that's a new scheme," said the purchaser of the stamps. and he re moved his hat and began to rub them over his bald head. "The longer we live the more we learn," he said, 'smiling, as he allow ed the stamps to remain on his head while he paid for them and put some papers back into his coat pocket. The stamps stuck. "Thbere, now, that's"- he said, as he reached up and tried to - remove the stampu. They were sticking clo ier than a brother to the shiny white scalp. He tore one of them off arnd he said it brought the skin: The clerks could not contain themselves, and the bald headed eld gentleman slapped his hat over his head and hur. ried off to get a sbamnpoo.--Savannah~ News. .A Midnight Funeral. A midnight funeral is a queer sight. . hortly before that alsmal hour Sun -day night a long line of carriages trail ed through the mud and mist of M!adi son street. The plate glass sides of the sable trimrned hearse flashed back the struggling gleams of the electric lights and the dull rumble of the ve - hicles sent a shiver thrcough the peo ple who faced the fog and chill of the night. A dozen carriages followed the black transport of the dead. Weeping women in mourning veils and relations and friends of the dead, with bowed heads, were seen as the carriages passed beneath an electric lamp. The body had evidently arriv ed by a late train and the-last rites of the dead were being performed in the darkness of the night. It was agloomy, sorrowful procession-the weather, the hour, the grief, the pall, all inidnight blackness--not a ray of light.-Chica go News. Boycott ing tihe Bishxop. CH1ALE6ToX, S. C., Feb. 20.--The col or questi'n in the Episcopal Church in this diocese has cropped out again. For over one hundred years the diocesan co:'ention whenever held in Charleston bas always met in St. Philip's church. At the last convention which was held in Aiken, it was decided that the con vention of 1800 should meet in St. Philip's church in Charleston. It is now announced that the convention will be held in anuher church, the congrega tion of St. Philip's having notified the Bishop that they will not permit the convention to meet in their church. The delegates of St. Philip's are the leadera in the opposition to the admis sion of the colored clerey and led the dimeusion in the convention several years ago. The collorel question is ex peced to turn up again in the conven tion. Eurnedt to JDeathi. LAN.SsTEIn, S. C. Feb. 20-A colorca wom-mn, the wife of James Creighten. -Aout 40 years of age, living en the plan. :ation of Mr. M1. J. Williams of this Countyl, was fatally burned on Wednes day iast Sh was engaged in burning brush inanwground when her clotbes caught feand before the flames could be extinguished the unfortunte woman wa& burned in a most horrible manner. .Judge KeilleyM Suecessor. P H U..DEL!An, Pa., Fe b. 1.- The. ull vote cast yesterday in the Fourth' Cngressional district for :be une-xpired tear~n of the late Judge Win. D. Kelley, wa: eviurn, Riepublien:, 24,S;30; A-yers, Detaocrat, 16,446; Tumbixston,| P~inkibiition. 238: Reyburn's plur..hty b.:18. Kelley's plurality over Ayers in Th etVirglnia House hasrpasied i alot- form law, and the Senate bas k illed 't. The H-ouse is Democratic, nd' the Senate is Republican. That :eem st'ge, in view of the schemes "enggested by menu like Chalmers and hndler to -'reform" the ballot in the A Sad Mistaks. We have recently seer a uinted etter io'.tc; out oV an Alliancc man who wvants offiec. It sets forth in od . mIe hi titu nsc for the poeiti. an ui ves Ie co:ceives to be *d .-is..u<. vWay ;t sh.-ld he supi'red. Thi I nI a ken n:irie frum te ;:Ls e.,'ItIectiolI with the Alliance, would not cause any comment upon our p irt, but when mci. try to use the Alliance as a steppiog stone to office, we most seriouly oliject. The aspirant is not in any way coninecred with the State Alliance, either as an offi cer or as a committeman, and does not aspire to be gr.vrnt:r. but he ints p ti n i f ' u A !d h is p i t e - d lei % giv ch :'e -,f the Aihbi:cc to If ima ..n he :iniOn of the Die'erie par: nme w:.nt to tiee hinm seek it ,s a Dcrnore:, but not enfbpr to cOnS1Itute. himself an Alliance candii dI~e, an d o a hii tinted campaign clrcIkZrs to 3:reet Alliance mien of prominnice, seeknt: their endorsement which he in turn would add to h's cam paign literature. If a brother is so well known and his fitness for a position is so evident that the people thr.-ughout the State want hirn to serve them, he will not have to se%,d out letters to the order telling them who be is and how he is needed in -flice. These of our brethren who are now or ever expect to indulge in that ktad of p( liy will dd that they have made a great mistake. Simply be ing an Alliatce man does not Ct one for office any-m(e- than it tinfis him for it. The order wiii nlways condemn such at tempts to use its influence. That is the kind of politics .e are to far.-South ern Alliance. Negrow in New York. A young r(al estate man who has charge of the renting of a goed dcl of property telsme that be would rather have colored people for tenantz than any other class. Same years ago Le got hold of a block of tenements <nd rented them out to colored people. The owner of the buildings was highly incensed, -but has since chadged his views. Where he previously got but 5 or 6 per cent. on his investments he now gets 10 or 12, and he is loud in his praise of his agents sagacity. Colored people, the real es tate men have just begun to realize, are a very desirable sort of tenants. They find it so difficult to secure good qui;r ters in this city that when once settled they remain for an iadefinte period TIhey pay promptly, complain little and give infinitely less trouble to their landlords than do any other race of peo ple. I am told they are charged on an average 10 per cent, more than white people are, but they make no protest. The only objection real estate men have to renting buildings to colored people is that they are never able to re't white tenants to occupy the apartments after wards.--N. Y. Letter. A Pointed Incident. The Washington correspondent of the Atlanta Constitution says: It is conceded on all hands that Thomas Brackett Reed is the House of Repre sentatives, that he is the only mem ber, and that the others who hold seats are merely honorary members. An incident showing this was when the clerk of .the House went te the Senate this morning with a batch of bills that had been passed by the House. Either inadvertently or pre meditatedly, as the clerk was intro duced, and placed the bills in the hands of the secretary of the Senate, he said: "Mr. President, I am instructed by the House of Representatives to in form the Senate that the Speaker of the House has passed the following bills.". The dignified Senators were quick to detect the error, and- laughed hear tily. Some one on the Democratic side was heard to say: "So the Speaker passes all the bills in the House, does he?" North Carolina Negroes Mad. A Washington letter says: The negroes of NorthCarolina are raising a great howl because the administration bhas giuen all the offices in that State to white Republicans. There is a gang of a dozen negro politicians here from that State, and they are raising much of a rumpus. They say there are 140,0 10 colored voters in North Carolina, and they have not a single office. They send the only negro to Congress in that body, yet ho cannot get an office for a constituent above a job as laborer to haul wood or cleasn spittoons. They swear that although Harrison made a dicker with some of the white Republicans in the Tar Heel State, giving them the control of pat. ronage for the promise of a solid Har rison delegation in '92. the negro vote of North Carolina will be cast against him, and the delegates will go instruct ed for another man. Harassed by In~cenijaries. RALEIGH, N. C., Feb. 20.-The peo plc of Rocky Mount, a town just north of Wilmington, are in a state of indig nation and alarm, by reaeson cf reteatid incndiary fires. Sunday night, the cotton seed warehouse of R. D. Arm strong was destroyed by an incendiary fire, and Monday night the torch was ap plied to the large carriage arnd buggy factory and] eight small buildings were destroyed; loss $20,000. Telegrams re oeived here today state that the fair ground buildings at Rocky Mount were burned last night. It is believed there that negroes are the incendiaries. Last night when the fire broke out at the fair grounds, which are half a mile from town, thc white people thought it 'ns a ruse to induce .them to leave ticeir homes, but they did not turn out. Sams Jones~ Will Quit Georgia. A special from Cartersville says: Oar people received with much regret the anneuncement that the Rev. Sam Jones is soon to take no his residence in the State of Kentucky. The famous evan gelist will, on or about the 1st of June, remove to his beautiful farm at Imi nonce, thirty miles from Louisville. We understand that Mr. Joncs's !.urnose in going to his Kentucky farm is to take a few years of much neededi rest. Only Partially Educated as Yet. Mrs Kidsma-John left a vase on the table today where Willie could reach it, and the little man went over, put his bands behind his back and said: "Willie mus'n' touch, Willie mus'n' touch!" John-And he let it alone, eh? Mrs. Kidsma-N-o; he said that three or four times, and then he grab bed the vise and dashed it againist the mantel before I coula stop him. But he's learnihg to let things alone a liL tie; doit you think so? There is no country li ke France fo sta~rtingi journals. l)urirg 1889) no les than 950 new ne wapaipers were brough out, of which no~t one remains in life' On the other hand, the Petit.Journal now claims a circulation of 1,005, 000 copies. During the same prriod there were pripnted in France over 15, 000 new books, including 5,000 new musical piece. The pasion grab does rat dimiltish in extent. The pension ::ppropriation bill ft the ::e:t tiscal year gives $n8. 427, 491 -heinc an iicrease over the previous year of $16,668.761 lDut i: vwil! requre $21,59S,SM to me'e the deficiency of the present year. So tiai: :here is a decr ease of $t4,930i,073. Corp.;rJ T:acoer's 3iews were so liberal that even the Rei ubli cans cun't adopt them. A CANARD EWLODD. ,t Seraiion-tt %torr eS. ,Fb. 2-3-The ato ry n ir - Cierwo, - G., to the di . L Comer.~ ilmeh, who rceaetly shot L ii-.gro in Lhe ect of s-exiig, held the mnqnl t over the hody of the de ceased is '.otally falc. DISCRACEFUL DEATH RIT.ES. The Ghastly Merriment That Prevailsat Many English Funerals. It has been as;erted with tedious ir ritation that the English people take their pleasures sadly. says the London Rej'cro. No one will deny the truth of the indictment, but it is seldom urged that in revenge we take our sadness pleasantly. Nevertheless, an English funeral is often a nerry-making.ajovial excuse for dance and song and the pass ing of the flowing bowl. To go to a funeral is with soume of us equivalent to going out for a festive holiday. Let any one who is anxious to study the manners and customs of the En glish mourners spend an afternoon Monday afternoon for choice-in the neighborhood of a 1,ublic house near a cemetery. Ill warrant me he'll come away with all his preconceived notions of "going to a funeral" knocked into the cockedest of cocked hats. The other day it was my good-or evil -fortune to have an hour to spare in a rorthern suburb of London. I had driven some distance, and I wanted to give my horse a rest, and so I put up for an hour and then wandered away to a public house in the neighborhood, to which I was attracted by a large number of empty hearses and mourn ing coaches drawn up in picturesque confusion around it. Outside the un dertgkers' men were chatting together. with their hands in their pockets, and were smoking short clays, and passing the pewter along. Inside the bar was crowded with men and women dressed in deep mourning. I explored the house and found mourners in the coffee-room, mourners in the smoke room. It was a case of mourners mourners everywhere, and-I can't finish the quotation, for there certainly was a drop to drink. The mourners in the coffee-room were more subdued than the mourne's in the bar, but they were merry. Here was a widow, who had just left the dear departed "up the road," smiling at a story which another lady mourner was telling about "old Jones." There was a young man with a black band np to the top of his hat coaxing a girl mourner to have another whisky. I looked round the room for tears, and I saw but few. One or two eves were red, but smiles were in the ascendant, and, altogether, the various belonging to the hearse out side seemed disposed to have a pleasant hour at the "pub" before they went home. An Interesting Time in Maine. The skunk is inighty. He always is for that matter, but just now he rules three or four villazes in the vicinity of Bangor with an irresistible and odorif erous rule. Hampden has been over ridden of late with a herd of active and strong-breathed skunks who havemade things interesting for folks whoventured out at night. A whole prayer-meeting was demoralized by them recently when the worshipers were returning home. That was the only nice thing about it. Had the attack been made on the way to prayer-meeting it is doubtful if the exhortations would have been delivered in the same spirit of good will and peace. They might have been more earnest and fervent though. The up-river towns have had similar experience. A fellow and his girl go ing to a ball met a skunk and didn't go. The fellow swore and the girl cried, and then they went home and put their clothes in pickle. The skunk can be spared. He is unnice.-Bangor Ncws. HE FOUND OYSTERS ON TREES. How the Succulent Bivalve Grows and Thrives in Honduras. Business recently called me to Hon duras, and I have just now returned, well pleased with myv trip. I had often heard of cysters growing on the trunks and branchies of trees,-groves of living green umbrageous trees, with oysters growing upon them-and my friend and I set aside the day to investigate the fact. Our dory cut the water like a knife and slipped along rapidly and easily, with hardly at ripple in her wake, and in about half an hour we had left thle sights of the town, with its convent and shipping and soldiers' barracks. behind us. We were then nearly abreast of an island called Mono Cave. The front of it is embowered in graceful co coanut trees, and the back part trends o011into swvamp and is cov ered with a dense growth of the red mangrove. This mangrove tree grows in either fresh or salt water swamps, and even in water three or four feet deep. The limbls of the tree send shoots or roots down into the water, and thus a thicket of mnanLroves is a matted mass of trunks, and limbs, and roots. On these trunks, and limbs, and roots, deep down under the surface of the water, cling hunches of single oysters, and thus are formed the oyster grve I had heard of. The leaves of these trees are of a beautiful dark green, and the swamp islands,from a distane, look like fairy bowers. We p6led our dory around to the south of the island, but could not get near. as we were scraping bottom all the time, We passed over numerous oyster beds while doing so, andl, with an ordinary~ rake which had been provided, we hauhed aboard a lot of osters. They were small and flat, and te shell looked more like a, lant clam than an oyster. But the inside tasted all right,~and our boatsmnan swallowed that dtown with a relish. I did not care mu -h for them myself, except as curi osities, for the mud that stack to them did not smell app)etizing.-F'orest and Sruen. Artificial Lightning in War. '"This s the age of patent new inven tions for killing bodies aund for saving sous," is what Byr'on wrote nearly a ceintury ago. There -is a man over in Trenton who coumes forward today with a sehenme for ki!ig bodies which, he thinks, when duly patented, will revolutionize mnoden warfare. Unless he is in error, lhe plan will certainly serve to put an end to battles, because the inventor will by this ingenliouS (de vice kill wvhole armies in a day. The man's name is Grinnell. He is aJersec man and feels a little anxious to know what tihe effect of his planu 'will be be fore getting a patnt on it. ie wvants it used only in c:ase it wvould pult an end to wars. The Jerseymani, you will see. is a kinid-hecarted destrover. His in ventionI re-ides in the power~ to pro due lightning by artilleial mneans. Br' tile use of a small den :uo Grin nell hs already kiiled :he liies in a :Hx20j room,and by a littie wor'k in perfecting his scheme he expects to be able te kill an army any fair day in the weck. The~ act of wholesale destrutionm will have to be suspended on wvet days.---5 Y Letter. ________ ___ Three-story Waigon. A three-story wvagtou was captured at Martiusville. Md. a few days since. Thec iirst story under the runn'ing gear was a coop of live chicke'n:: the see :d, sandtwichecd between he first and ird and lhdd-: frona vi'w. was dec r'otedl to "mii-0ineia a:rh: the third Those Good Old-Fashioned Fok. Somehow the people of to-day ain't as they used to he. At::ny rate.I'm I retty sure 1he3 re not the :1met oIme. I uy-dtokne w Tit :trr- s.-ores :,i1 e-o:'= :a:!:' ::0 .t I i]hat. are onily so tad m.. we ust..l to :~t"way ta!.:L aai "a "!via he said. But now it's safe to t..-e hin .usL the other wa: instead. It does iny ho:irt Just lots of good to meet once in awhile Son.c of t ho,-e ot'nd .i tie folks so near ly out otyl" . I wouldn't say the world in hcnesty is 5iPPLU9 "I w~- V:y:: - hitiains hunntang grace I w.h.':...:.....--.....to-d:ay are less the >,, :t;- tb : ir rrin tLe ones I 's. V . - .. I~ : - o me tite ats well as these I - -i I :: nd wre honest and their Di.i tieet d.f:shiotni peop!e now :o nearly out of htZyle. we're wier h an we tised to be. we may be weTkr to: lii ood 0o! hOt:'esn I:nest y inay lcss our Th':-c -atter tIy. we are all hent on gett'ng rie so fa-t we haVen't time to think of things they thourht ' in ihe past. We're wildly striving after gol..we rush and push and crowd. Anl after wiile well each be warning pockets in1 his rw. But non- of , s can e'er outrai:k within the afterwih l Those good obi-fashioned p:oplc now so nearly outof *ty'e. Snake Charming Is a Gift. Men with sn:-kes in their bots are of such frequenit occIrrentce :hat they havc no t!anati01ons as cuioie; but a womtan with snakes ii her hair has proved a great and drawing :turaCtion at Wonderland. Not only has se snakes in her iair, but they are wound about her whhie throat like a necklace and twined about her wrists lie brace lets. -There. there. Samson. old fellow, don't get excited," she said in a low, purring tone to the great bo.t constric tor that was wound about her and which is vicious and ugly if teased. "He sprang at a man's heal once," she said, "make a leap of four feetwith his mouth open. but he missed, and we caught him again." -Does he knew your voice?" "Indeed he does, just like a dog or any animal. When the man who takes care of him puts a tray of hot water in the bottom of the trunk where the snakes are kept Samson hisses angri ly. Be quiet. Baby-there - there, pet. "Baby" is a small snake of a lighter color that Miss Fatima, the snake charmer wreathes in the electric hair which ornaments her head. "Python" is a South American snake. Samson she has raised.from its infancy. This snake could crush in her ribs with one turn of its little body; but refrains from love of its trainer. 'How often do you feed them?" "Once in six weeks. Then we give them all a full meal of live pigeons, rabbits and other things." Miss Fatima was restoring them to their warm blankets in the trunk. They clung to her bare arms and ran out their pretty forked tongues and. seemed loth to return to the snake chest. One lay supinely along the iron railing, moving its head to and fro at the curious crowd that watched its every motion. The snake-charmer picked it up with her jeweled fingers and pressed its ugly muzzle against her delieate cheek. --You wouldn't imurt me, would you pet?" she purre~d as sihe caressed it before dIroppimg it -with its mates in among the warm blankets. "You've got more nerve than I have," said a man who had been watch ing her. "Do you use anything to charm them with?" '-Nothing. Snake-charming is a gift. It was born with me." she answered. .Detroit Free Press. Do the Dying Suffer Pain? The rule is that uneonsciousness, pain. attendsl the final act. A natural death is not more painful than birth. I Painlessly we come; whence we know not. Painlessly we go; where we know; not. Natuire kindly provides an xesthetic for the body when the sp)irit leaves it. Previous to that moment. and in preparation for it. respiration becomes feeble, generally slow and short. often accompanie~d by long in spirations, and short. sudden expira tions, so that the blood is steadily less and less oxygenated. At the same time. the heart acts with corresponding .de bility.p)rodlucing a slow,feeble,and often irregtular pl)lse. As this process goes on the blood( is not only (driven to the head in dliminished force and in less quantity. b)ut what flows there is load ed with carbonic acid gas, a powerful antesth~etie, the same as derived from charcoal. Subjected to the influence of this gas the nerve centers lose' con sciousness and sensibility, apparent sleep creeps over the system; then comes stupor and then the end.--St. Louis 1?cpub''. * Said to be 180 Years Old. The oldest man in the world is a citizen of Bogota, in the Republic of San Salv'ador. The new Methuselah declares that he is 180 years old, and it would seem he flatters himself, for his neighbors give the assurance that he is older -than he says he is. H~e is a half-breed, named Michael Solis, whose existence was revealed to Dr. Louis Hernatndez by one of the old est planters in the locality, who as a cild knew Solis as a centenarian. Tihey hav'e found in the year 1712 his signature among those of persons who contributed to tihe building of a Fran cisro convent which exists near San Seb:stian. His skin is like ptarchmtent, his long hair, of the whiteness of snow,envelops his head like a turban, and his look is so keen that it made a disagreeable im pression on the Doctor. Interrogated hy the D~octor, he answered complaisantly that his great age was (due to his regular niode of liv ing, and to his never giving up to any excess of any sort whatever. "I never eat but once a da'y," said he, "btut I never use any but the strongest andl most noturishing foodls. My meals last a half hour; for I believe it is im posible to eat more in that time than: the body can digfest ina twenty-fouri hours. I fast the iirst and fifteenth day of each month, antd on those days I drink ats mutch water as I can heal-. I 1ways let mny food become cold before I touch it. It is to thee tinis 'hat I a(;niu':o my grol e' - Uion~ Lieralc 3f Qut..tcc. Many Mockingt 15!rds. A writer who lhas recenmly visited the Bridal Veil Falls in the Yosemite Val ley thus describes the mocking birds in that vicinity in the New Yor~k Press: "Milions o'f brown-coated birds there were everywvhere, m::til t~he whole of our very flatunre seemed permieated with their music. Sometimes lo w and sweet, agia sad and plaintive, anad then full, rich and triumphant, like a p~ean of joy and gladness, while we looked at each other in wondleringl silence. Just - as it seemed that the nie'lodv Wras un suportably sweet. and that'our hearts could not contain more without the re lief of tears or shouts, the wind died away anud the water aga~in st:-ck with an awesome roar into its rocky hollow with a force that matde theC earth trem ble. and was aan meed to ftrious foam and the sonr t.f the socking birds m ushed. TJ'eus it 'o,,'-on eyer andY ever, dlternatelt , atn.! has for ages, the song f the birds andI the thunderous revn beration of the catarat"