Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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IF THE SHADOWS FELL OT. It the shadows fell not-Oh: wir re w re the stars, . The gems of the siy ad tIi ,ih If the shadows fell hot, wo(ld tH' ptl', golden moon Flood the earth with its ric. u 14w l'ght" Oh! where were the ts: ue n , bezced in glory Wrought vivid in natu:e, in sorg, and in story If the shadows fell not'? If the shadows tell not-Oi! where were the teas. The crystals of love atd of woe? They would vani-h with siniles born of sympathy sweet, And its words whispered softly and low; Oh! where were the herces, the martyrs and sages, The deeds cf the noble, the wisdom of ages, If the shadows fell not? AS IT 9FTEN HAPPENS. BY WW. J. LAIPTON. I was nineteen, and pretty Lois Tanner was three years my junior. Sweet sixteen: Is there in all this world anything sweeter? There may be other Sweet Sixteens, but the conipar ative degree of the adjective in this connection has grown rusty from long disuse and Sweet Sixteen remains 'ositive in kind and superlative im And Lois Tanner was sixteen. From the first day of our meeting -we were the children of wealthy pa rents and were summering by the sea -some intangible influence, some in explicable force seemed to draw us to each other and to run the lines of our lives parallel. For two years we had known each other, and one day-it was the third summer after our meet ing-we sat on the rocks by the shore and as the waves beat in rhythmic measures upon the silver sands stretch-' ing out at our feet, I looked into her sweet blue eyes and knew that Lache sis as she drew two threads from Clotho's spindle was twisting them into one cord, forever indivisible. In early youth, how far the eyes, undimmed by years, can see into the future, and how keen is young love to decipher the handwriting on the wall. "Lois," I said, as we sat there in the fading twilight. "do you know how long we have known each other?" "Does it seem long, Mr. Belden?" she replied with a coy little smile. "It has been two entire years, Miss Tanner," said I. falling into her mock formality of manner. "And one learns a great deal in two years," she added. "In one direction I have learned nothing Lois," I said with a quietness, I did not feel - "Why, Jack," she exclaimed, "I don't see how you could stand still." "But I have," I insisted. "How?" and her eyes looked her guilelessness. "In loving you,Lois," I broke forth. "I couldn't love you any more in a thousand years, than I loved you af ter our first meeting." "Oh, Jack," she cried nervously, "what made you say that?" "Why shouldn't I say it ?" I an swered with a dogged resolve not to be Put down by any woman's whim. 'Because, Jack," she said very ear nestly, "papa has been saying all along that you and I were tooether too much, and the first thing tie family knew there would be a case of puppy love to cure." "Did your father say that?" I asked with the anger showing in my face. "He did Jack, and he says "Well, Idon't want to hear what he says, or has said or will say," Iinter upd."If he says anything. like ththe doesn't know what he is talk -ing about and hasn't the most remote idea of what a man truly in love with the one woman in all the world for him, feels." "He ought to know something about it," Lois said hesitatingly. "hou know, Jack,he has been married three times." "That's just it," I o'rowled; "he's -grown callous. He t'iks because I am not a hundred years old I dont know my own heart and am irrespon sible into the bargain. If it weren't for you, Lois," I added, ameliorating my wrath to a slight extent, "I 'wouldn't have a man like he is for my -father-in-law under any circum stances." "Papa isn't so awfully bad, Jack." she said in extenuation of the paternal 'weakness. "I never thought he was, either, un til you told me what you have," Ilad mittedi "But, Lois," and I grew hard again, "you must know that no father whio regards the future happiness of his daughter can take the position he does and assume to dictate the course of two lives which in the nature of things' must be independent of his." "Papa says your papa said the same thing and agedwith him thoroug'h ly"khe rehdarguing as women do. -"Lois,"I said in my firmest tone, "don't speak to me of your father again. If you do I shall be tempted to do him some bodily imaurv. The-dear little woman laid her hand on my arm restrainingly and smiled with such irresistible sweetness that I even forgot the wound my father had given me. "Let it go, dear," she pleaded. -"The~y have forgotten they were ever young."~ The shadows were growing into a deeper purple and the waves took on: the mellower shades of the evening sky. The night wind, just rising, tossed Lois's golden hair about her smooth, white forehead, and the pink of the sunset broug'ht a rosier glow to her cheeks. I brushed my hand across my'eyes and looked into her face. "Do you remember what I said a few moments ago?" I asked, returning to the prvious subject. "Wh*at did you say?" she i'eplied, , trembling a little, I thought, for she surely. coukd not have forgotten so soon. "I said, darlin&'-it was the first time I had ever ca'fled her that, and it almost frightened me-"I said that there was one thing I had not learned in the last two years, and that was to love you better than I did when I first met you. Do you think I should have learned?" "Perhaps, Jack," she blushed, 'if you had, you would have gone ahead of me in the class." "Oh, Lois," I began to say. and then began to stamamer and grow red in the face. I could feel the blood fly along my neck, and my hands shook so I could not have put them out to her if she had asked me to- I had never spoken of love to a woman, and now my inexperience was painful to me. I knwtat the brave man could win a triumph now, but I was not brave. On the contrary. I was a cow ard, an arrant coward, and in my fear I slipped down off the rock, where we had been sitting, and walked out upon the sand. "Where are you going. Jack ?" she called to me. "I don't want to be left here all alone. I'm sure Charlie Ver der wouldn't treat mue like that." That was enough to set me wild. Verder was the one fellow I dreaded, and he hadn't known her six months. either. I went back to the rock and stood at the foot of it, just near enough to touch the hem of her gown -such a sweet, white gown, with a bit of blue showing through it as the blue sky peeps in and out from the fleecy white clouds. [enls. -Not any iiore, I guess, than yon like Matti' Swann," she retorted, with A perk of her nose and a shake of her ;lutfy hair. "Then you like him pretty well," I said, in worse humor than ever, and quite insistent upon nagging her all I c-ould. "Perhaps I do," she snapped, "and if I do, I'm sure he's a very nice fel low." "Not any nicer fellow than Mattie Swann is a girl," I put in as mean as I knew how. "Well. I don't care," she said, as she slipped ot of the rock and touched the sand as lightly as a thistle down. "I'm going home, and when you get me to come away off down here in this lonesome place again at this tine of dar. or any other time, I think you'll know it." Then she started off along the beach toward the row of cottages. It was a mile or more. and I thought I would keep within call. Fo I let her get some distance ahead of me. I poked along behind, gazing out to sea and wonder ing where all the beauty of the purple shadows had gone. and why it was the waves looked so cold and cruel and clammy. They were the same shadows and the same waves, and there I was, and-but where was Lois? Fifty yards up the shore and hurrying along as if she were afraid of twilight ghosts or other strange inhabitant of the crepuscular air. I looked over my shoulder nervously, and all around, and shivered. What it was I don't know, but on the instant, I call ed to her and went after my call as fast as I ever ran after a football. "Lois, Lois," I kept on calling, but she gave no heed. Her face was set away from me and she was going with it rapidly. But not so fast that I could not catch her in the next fifty yards or so. "Oh. Mr. Belden," she said in a tone of pretty surprise as I came up panting by her side, "how you frightened me. I had no idea you were on the beach this evening. Think of that, and still her father havingthe temerity to talk about pup py love. If that wasn't full grown mastiff sarcasm. I'd like to know what it was. But I was not to be thwarted by a woman's whim now, any more than I was in the beginning. "Oh. Lois, Lois," f pleaded, though I puffed as I did so. "We are not children to let a trifle come between us and our love. You know I love you and I know I love you. It was because I love you so that I grew wild with jealousy when you spoke of Ver der. I don't care a rap of my finger for Mattie Swann, even if you do like Charlie Verder." "Mr. Belden," she began very stiff lv-"Call me Jack," I cried with all my feeling come again. "Call me Jack, as you have always called me." "Perhaps I'd better," she said cold lv. "You have acted so childishly that Mr. seems scarcely an appropriate title. "You shan't talk that way to me. Lois Tanner," I exclaimed as I stepped in front of her and blocked her path. "I have done wrong and I apologize humbly for it. Now as a lady you cannot do otherwise than accept it." "I accept the apology, and pray, let that end the matter." "No, it shall not. I insist upon your accepting the apology and the apologizer as well. I want you Lois, and that's what I started to tell you down there on the rocks. Answer me now with only the sea and the sky and the sweet twilight as witnesses." I was about to take her hand and more tenderly urge my claim to an answer, when she gave a slight scream and sprang to one side as if she had stepped on a mouse in the sand. "Look there." she whispered, point in' to a couple seated on an old spar half in the sand, and which until then was not visible. I looked and saw Verder and Miss Swann, very close together and talking earnestly. "Let them be witnesses also, if they will, darling," I said bravely, and this time I took her hand in mine. But it was too dark for them to see, and when Lois and I walked by them in the duskier shadows of the later evening, she, had promised to be my wife, and though the great sun of the heavens had set over the world and the earth was full of the shadows, the --eater son of love had risen in our Searts and they were filled with the light inextinguishable. That was a dozen years ago, and to day Lois is the proud and happy mthei- of three of the prettiest and sweetest children in the world except four that I am the proud and happy father of. She is Mrs. Charles Verder and Mrs. Belden wais Miss Swann.-Detroit Free Press. -T HE ST AT E'S PENS!ONERS. The Amount Each Pensioner is to Receive this Year. COLtUMBI, May 3.--The pensioners of the State of South Carolina can now 'et their annual pension money by applying to the clerks of court of their several counties. This year each pen sioner gets $21.75. The warrants for each pensioner were sent out by the Comptroller General yesterday. The total amount which goes to the pen sioners this year is $50,199, the $199 having been saved over from last year's appropriation. This year there has been an increase in the number of pensioners, there being 2,308 against 2273 last year. The following shows by counties the number of pensioners in each county this and last year: 1894. 1S95. Abbeville................ 66 67 Anderson............. 148 147 Beaufort..............---1 1 Berkeley.... ........... 18 1$ Charleston..............45 45 Chester............. :34 33 Chesterfield .......... -- 87 90 Clarendon...... ......... 46 49 Colleton........----... 67 71 Edgefield........ ....... 105 107 Florence '.. .. ...---- -2 31 Fairfield........'...... 34 51 Georgetown.......... 2 2 Greenville.......-..--.-- 10 174 Hampton......... 42 4 Horry .......--.--.---- 30 37 Kersha.............-- 45 45 Laurens.............---6 Lancaster ......--..--- 75 .) Lexington *........... 59 - 61 Marion.............-----9 93 Marlboro .............: :6 4 Newberry......--.------ 41 44 Oconee..-....--..-------- 8 Orangeburg............--- 5 52 Pickens..........--- ' 4 Richland..........-----4 42 Spartanburg..........--W 219 Sumter...........--- -> 4 Union..........----- .' .' Williamsburg.........-a - Total..............----7 -0 A Duel t o the Death Cry 01" MFXI.o, April 30--A delS to the de'ath took place yesterday in th suburiban tow-n of Nopola between two jealous rivals for the hand of a vong lady named Rlamiez. One of the lov'ers, Jacobo Omano, was killed and the other. V'incent Esmueldo. wvas SEEKING SALVATION. REV. DR. TALMAGE PREACHES AN EL OQUENT GOSPEL SERMON. Isaiah's Full Length Portrait of Chri-.t. How to Seek the Lord--Necesity For Seeking Him Now--The Sinner Who Was Ton Late. NEW YOuK, April 2S.-Rev. Dr. Talmage today again preached to a great audience in the Academy of Mu sic. As usual many were turned away for lack of seats. The sermon was on "Salvation," the text selected being Isaiah iv. 6. "Seek ye the Lord while lie may be found." Isaiah stands head and shoulders above the other Old Testament authors in vivid descriptiveness of Christ. Oth er prophets give an outline of our Say iour's features. Some of them present as it were, the side face of Christ, oth ers a bust of Christ, but Isaiah gives us the full length portrait of Christ. Other Scripture writers excel in some things-Ezekiel more weird, David more pathetic. Solomon more epigram matic, Habakkuk more sublime-but when you want to see Christ coming out from the gates of prophecy in all his grandeur and glory you involun tarily Turn to Isaiah, so that if the prophecies in regard to Christ might be cal ed the "Oratorio to the Messi ah" the writing of Isaiah is the "Hal leluiah Chorus." where all the batons wave and all the trumpets come in. Isaiah was not a man picked up out of insignificance by inspiration. He was known and honored. Josephus and Plilo and Sirach extolled him in their writings. What Paul was among the apostles Isaiah was among the prophets. My text finds him standing on a mountain of inspiration, looking out into the future, beholding Christ ad vancine and anxious that all men might T-now him. His voice rings down the ages, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found." "Oh," says some one, "that was for olden times," No, my hearer. If you have traveled in other lands, you have taken a circu lar letter of credit from some banking house in New York, and in St. Peters burg or Venice or Rome or Melbourne or &lcutta you presented that letter and got financial help immediately. And I want you to understand that the text, instead of being appropriate for one age or for one land, is a circu lar letter for all ages and for all lands, and wherever it is presented for help the help comes. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found." I come today with no hairspun the ories of religion, with no nice distinc tions, with no elaborate disquisition, but with an urgent call to personal re ligion. The gospel of Christ is a pow erful medicine; it either kills or cures. There are those who say: "I would like to become a Christian. I have been waiting a good while for the right kind of influences to come,''and still you are waiting. You are wiser in worldly things than you are in re liious things. If you want to get to Albany. you go to the Grand Central depot or to the steamboat wharf, and having got your ticket you do not sit down on the wharf or sit in the depot; you ret aboard the boat or train. And et thsere are. men who say they are waiting to get to heaven, waiting, waiting, but not with intellie-ent wait ing, or they would get on oard the line of Christian influences that would bear them into the kingdom of God. Now, you know very well that to seek a thing is to search for it with ear nest endeavor. If you want to see a certain man in this city, and there is a matter of $10,000 connected with -yotjr seeing him, and you cannot at first find him, you do not 0ive up the search. You look in the Nirectory, but cannot find the name; you go in circles where you think perhaps he mayimingle, and hav ing found the part of the city where he lives, but perhaps not knowing the street, you go through street after street, and from block to block, and you keep on searching for weeks and for months. You say, "It is a matter of $10,000 whether I see him or not." Oh, that men were as persistent in seeking -for Christ! Had you one-half that p~er sistence you would long ago have found him who is the joy of the for given spirit. We may pay our debts, we may attend church, we may relieve the poor, we may be public benefac tors and' yet all our life disobey the text, never seek God, never gamn heaven. Oh, that the Spirit of God would help me while I try to show you1 in carrying out the idea of my text, first how to seek the Lord and in the next place when to seek him. I remark, in the first place, you are to seek the Lord through earnest and believing prayer. God is not an au tocrat or a despot seated on a throne with his arms resting on brazen lions, and a sentinel uacing up and down at the foot of the throne. God is a father seated in a bower, waiting for his chil dren to come and climb on his knee and get his kiss and his benediction. Prayer is the cup with which we go to the "fountain of living water" and dip up refreshment for our thirsty soul. Grace does not come to our heart as we set a cask at the corner of the house to catch the rain in the shower. It is a pulley fastened to the throne of God, which we pull, bringing the blessing. I do not care so much what posture you take in prayer nor how laroge an amount of voice you use. You might et down on your face before God, if you did not pray right inwardly there would be no response. You might cry at the top of your voice, and unless you had a believing spirit within your voice would not go farther up than the shout of a plowboy to his oxen. Prayer must be believing, earnest, loving. You are in your house some summer day. and a shower comes up, and a bird,'attrighted, darts into the windowv and wheels about the room. You seize it. You smooth its rutled plumage. You feel its fluttering heart. You say, " Poor thing. poor thing:" Now,. a prayer goes out of the storm of this world into the window of God's mercy, and he catches it, and he feels its iluttering pulse, and he puts it in his own bosom of affection and safety. Prayer is a warm, ardent, pulsating exercise. It is an electric battery which touched, thrills to the throne of God: It is the diving bell in which we go down into the depths of God's mercy and bring up " pearls of g-reat price." There was an instance whecre prayer made the waves of the Gennesaret sol id as stone pavement. Oh, how many wonderful things prayer has accom plished: Have you ever tried it ? In the days when the Scotch Covenanters were persecuted, and the enemies were after them, one of the head men among the Covenanters prayed: " O Lord, we be as dead men unless thou shalt help us: Oh Lord, throw the lap of thy cloak over these poor things!" And'instantly a Scotch mist enveloped and hid the persecultedl from their per secutors-tihe pr-omise literally fulfill ed: "While they are yet speaking I will hear." Have you ever tried the po'wer' of pray er iGod says. "lHe is loving and faithful and patient." Do you believe that: You are told that Clhrist camne to save sinners. Do you believe that: You are told that all you have to do to get the pardon of the gospel is to ask for it. Do you believe that? Then come tohi a n say "0 Lord, J know thou canst not lie. Thou hasttold me to come for pardon and I could get it. I come, Lord. Keep thy promise and liberate my captive soul.' Oh, that you might have an altar in the parlor. in the kitchen, in the store. in the barn, for Christ will be willing to come again to the manger to hear prayer. He would come to your place of business, as he confronted Matthew, the tax commissioner. If a measure should come before congress that you thought would ruin the nation, how you would send in petitions and re monstrances: And yet there has been enough sin in your heart to ruin it forever, and you have never remon strated or petitioned against it. If your physical health failed, and you had the means, you would go and spend the summer in German- and the winter in Italy, and you wold think i it a very cheap outlay if you had to go all round the earth to get back your physical health. Have you made any effort, any expenditure, any exertion, for your immortal and spiritu.l health? Oh, that you might now begin to seek after God with earnest prayer. Some of you have been working for years and years for the support of your families. Have you given one-half day to the working out of your salva tion with fear and tremblir.g? You came here with an earnest purpose, I take it, as I have come hither with an earnest purpose, and we meet face to face, and I tell you, first of all, if you want to find the Lord you must pray and pray. I remark again you must seek the Lord through Bible study. The Bible is the newest book in the world. "Oh," you say, "it was made hundreds of years ago, and the learned men of King James translated it hundreds of years ago." I confute that idea by telling you it is not five minutes old, when God, by his spirit, retranslates it into the heart. If you will, in the seeking of the way of life through Scripture study, implore God's light to fall upon the page, you will find that these promises are not one second old. and that they drop straight from the throne of God into your heart. There are many people to whom the Bible does not amount to mucji. If they merely look at the outside beau ty, why, it will no more lead them to Christ than Washington's fayewell ad dress or the Koran of Mohammed or the Shaster of the Hindoos. It is the inward light of God's word you must get. I went up to the Church of the Madeleine, in Paris, and looked at the doors, which are the most wonderful ly constructed I ever saw, and I could have staid there for a whole week, but I had only a little time; so, having glanced at the wonderful carving on the doors, I passed in and looked at the radiant altars and the sculptured dome. Alas, that so many stop at the outside door of God's holy word, look ing at the rhetorical beauties, instead of going in and looking at the altars of sacrifice and the dome of God's mercy and salvation that hovers over peni tent and beliving souls: Oh, my friends, if you merely want to study the laws of language, do not go to the Bible. It was not made for that. Take 'Howe's Elements of Criti cism :" it will be better than the Bible for that. If you want to study meta physics, better than the Bible will be the writings of William Hamilton. But if you want to know how to have sin pardoned and at last to gain the blessedness of heaven search the Scrip tures, "for in them ye have eternal life." When people are anxious about their souls, there are those- who recommend good books. That is all right. But I want to tell you that the Bible is the best book under such circumstances. Baxter wrote "A Call to the Uncon verted," but the Bible is the, best call to the unconverted. Philip Dbddridge wrote "The Rise and Progress of Relig ion In the Soul," but the Bible is the best raise and progress. John Angell James wrote "Advice to the Anxious Inquirer," but the Bible is the best ad vice to the anxious inquirer. Oh the Bible is.he very book you need, anxious and inquiring soul: A dying soldier said to his mate, "Com rade, give me a drop !" The comrade shook up the canteen and said, "There isn't a drop of water in the canteen." "Oh," said the dying soldier, "that's not what I want; feel in my knapsack for my Bible," and his comrade found the Bible and read him a few of the oracious promises, and the dying sol ier said: "Ah, that's what I want. There isn't anything like the Bible for a dying soldier, is there. my comradeh" Oh, blessed book, while we live: Blessed book when we die: I remark again we must seek God through church ordinances. "What," say you, "can't a man be savecj with out going to church?" I rep'ly. there are men. I suppose, in glory who have never seen a church, but the church is the ordained means which we are to be brought to God, and if truth affects us when we are alone it affects us more mightily when we are in the assembly. the feelings of other empahisizing our own feelings. The great law of sym pathy comes into play, and a truth that would take hold only with the grasp of a sick man beats mightily aganst the soul with a thousand heart thobs. When' you come into the religious circle, come only with one notion and only for one purpose-to find the way to Christ. 'When I see people critical about sermons. and critical about tones of voice, and critical about ser monic delivery, they make me think of a man in prison. He is condemned to death, but an officer of the govern ment brings a pardon and puts it through the the wicket of the prison and says: "Here is your pardon. Come and get it." "What: Do you expect me to take that pardon offered with such a voice as you have, with such an awk ward manner as you have I would rather die than so comproise my rhetorical notions:" Ah, the man does not say that; lie takes it: It is his life. He does not care how it is handed to him. And if today that pardon from the throne of God is of fered to our souls should we not seize it, regardless of all nonessentials But I come now to the last part of my text. It tells us when we arc to sek the Lord. ."while he may -be found." When is that i Old age i You may not see old age. Tomorrow You may not see tomorrow. Tonight: You may not see tonight: Oh, if I could only write on every heart in three ca~ilal letters that word N-O-W-now: Sin is an awful disease. I hear peo le say with a toss of the head and vith a trivial manner. "Oh. yes, I'm a sinner." Sin is an awful disease. it is leprosy. It is dropsy. It is comn sumption. It is all moral disor'ders in one. Now, vou know there is a crisis in a disease. Perhaps you have had some illustration of it in y-our family. Sometimes the physician has called, and he has looked at the pati ent and said: "That cause was simple enough, but the crisis has passed. if -ou had called me yesterday or this inorning, I could have cured the pati' ent. It is too late now: the crisis has passed." J ust so it is in the spiritual treatment of the soul-there is a crisis. There are some here who can rememn ber' instances in life when, if thcy had bought a certain property, they wonuld have become very rich. A fe' w aces that would have cost them al most nothing were offered them. Af terward a large village or city sprung up on those acres of ground, and not buying the property. There was an opp ort.unity of getting it. It never came hark again. Aild so it is inl regard to a mans spiritizal and, eternal fortane. There is a ctaice: if you let that go. perhaps it never comes back. Cer tainly that one nev"r conies back. A geutlenian told me that at the battle of Gettysburg he stood upon a height looking off upon the conflict ing armies. He said it was the most exciting moment of his life, now one army seeming to triumph and now the other. After awhile the host wheeled in such a way that he knew in five minutes the whole question would be decided. He said the emo tion was almost unbearable. There is just such a time today with you-the forces of light on one side, the forces of death on the other side, and in a few moments the matter will be set tled for enternity. There is a time which mercy has set for leaving port. If you are on board before that, you will get a passage for heaven. If you are not on board. you miss your passage for heaven. As in law courts a case is sometimes ad journed from term to term and from year to year till the bill of costs eats up the entire estate. so there are men who are adjourning the matter of re ligion from time to time and from year to year until heavenly bliss is the bill of costs the man will have to pay for it. Why defer this matter, oh, my dear hearer? Have you any idea that sin will wear out: that it will evaporate: that it will relax its grasp; that you may find religion as a man accidental ly finds a lost pocket-book? Ah, no No man ever became a Christian by accident or by the relaxing of sin. The embarrassments are all the time increasing. The hosts of darkness are recruiting, and the longer you post pone this matter the steeper the path will become. I ask those men who are before me now whether in the 10 or 15 years they have passed in the postponement of these matters if the y have come any nearer God or heaven I would not be afraid to challenge this whole audience, so far as they may not have found the peace of the gospel, in regard to the matter. Your hearts, you are willing frankly to tell me, are becoming harder and harder, and that if you come to Christ it will be more of an undertaking now than it ever would have before. The throne of judgement will soon be set, and if you have anything to do toward your eternal salvation you had better do it now, for the redemption of your soul is precious, and it ceaseth for e'er. Oh, if men could only catch one glimpse of Christ, I know they would love him! Your heart leaps at the sight of a glorious sunrise or sunset. Can you be without emotion as the Sun of Righteousness rises behind Calvary and sets behind Joseph's sepulcher? He is a blessed Saviour ! Every nation has its type of beauty. There is German beauty, and Swiss beauty, and Italian beauty. and English beauty. but I care not in what land a man first looksat Christ he pro nounces him "chief among 10,000 and the one altogether lovely." The diamond districts of Brazil are carefully guarded, and a man does not get in there except by a pass from the government, but the love of Christ is a diamond district we may all enter and pick up treasures for eternity. "Today, if ye will hear his t'oice, har den not your heart." Take the hint of the text that I have no time to dwell upon-the hint that there is a time when he cannot be found. There was a man in this city S0 years of age who said to a clergy man who came in, "Do you thimk that a man SO years of age can get palr doned ?" "Oh, yes," said the clergy man. The old man said: "I can't. When I was 20 years of age-I am now SO years-the Spirit -of God came to my soul, and I felt the importance of attending to these things, but I put it off. I rejected God, and since then I have had no feeling." "'Well," said the minister, "wouldn't you like to have me pray with you?" "Yes," re plied the old man, "but it will do no good. You can pray with me if you like to." The nmster knelt down and prayed and commended the man's soul to God. It seemed to have no ef fect upon him. After awhile the last hour of the man's life came, and through his delirium a spark of intel ligence seemed to flash, and with his last breath he said, "I shall never be forgiven !" "Oh, seek the Lord while he may be found." 'Zhe Decline in Cotton. ATLANTA, April 29.-The Constitu tion will publish tomorrow morning an able and exhaustive article on the declined price of cotton, from the pen of Mr. J. W. Labouisse, president of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange. Mr Labouisse is one of the most promin ent business men of this country and is eminent authority on all matters pertaining to cotton. Mr. Labouisse addressed himself particularly to Mr. Edward Atkinson's article in the April Forum on "The Battle of the Standards and Fall of Prices" to show that the decline in the price of cotton is not due to cheaper production. The president of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange gives gives the total crops and the average price of cotton the world over since 1842. He shows that during a period of twelve years, preceding the war betw-een the States, the cotton cropof the worldincreasedn early 82 per cent. and the average price advanced more than 50 per cent. This increase in price coupled with the largely increas~ed production, he attributes to the in creased outp~ut of the mines of Califor iia and Australia. Mr. Labouisse con trasts this with this period, the crop and prices of 1893 and 1S94. The crop of 1893 and 1894-1,69,000O bales showed an increase of neairly 73 per cent. over the crop of 1859-60. The price during the later period declined 50 per cent. This fall in the price of cotton. lhe points out, is clue to the con traction in the volume of metallic legal tender money ofthe world. Mr. Lbouisse fails to see anything benehec ent in the fall of prices of crops to the farmer when his mortgage hia., r'emain stationary. He shows that the price of gold is fiat, because the mints of tihe world over are required to buy all gold oti'ered at a fixed price. Mr. Labousisse takes up the q1uestion of ratio arid other pioints, making a clear and strong argument throughout for the rehabiliation of silver as money of final rddemption. The statistics which he presents are very 'omlplete and of excetional value. The paper is one which will certainly attract much at tention frorn the disputants on both sides of the financial issue. A Way out for Nicaragua. WXasmI;ros, MIay 3.--The depart ment of State this afternoon received a cable message from Ambassador Baard, stating that Great Britain had accepted the guarantee made by Sal vador of the payment of the indem nity by Nicaragua in London within a fortnlight, and so. as soon as Nicara gua confirms the agreement and so informs the British admiral, the latter is instructed to leave Corinto. Durrant Denied nlail. SAN FRAaIsco. May :3.-Judge Con lan this mor-ning held Theodore D ur rant to answer before the Superior Court without bail, for the murder of BEFORE .UD1 E GOFF. 'N-r iNt it E INM l'.E ONE. forth in the !D'ti and 17th paragraphs of the hill. your respondent submits that the requirements of the act of 1894 for registration are not unreasonable and unconstitutional, the sections 4. 5, G and 7 of which said act are: iHere are set forth the provision of the Act of 1894, fixing rules for the election of delegates to the Conven tion) 11. That as to the number of voters of African descent in South Carolina unregistered in 1892 or since, and as to any perference of any supervisors in registrating electors, your respondent has no kuowledge or information suf ficient to form a belief and denies the same, but your respondent is ad vised and avers that in no provision or section of the registration law of South Carolina. referred to in the bill, and in no other section or sections of the law is there any discrimin ation against citizens of African des cent, "on account of race, color orpre visious condition of servitude." and that the said registration law in nowise violates or contravenes the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments of the Constitution of the United States. 15. That your respondent calls at tention to section seven of the act of 1894, as heretofore set forth, and de nies that it demonstrates any unlawful purpose on the part of the General As sembly of South Carolina as charged in the twenty-fourth paragraph of the bill. 18. That as to the matters and things set forth in paragraph twenty-eight of the bill, that there was no time al lowed for the registration of voters in the State of South Carolina, who ar rived at the age of twenty-one years before the 14th day of March, 1894, and were citizens of the State at the time, and are not now registered, but avers that by section six of the act of 1894, hereinbefore set forth, all electors in the State of South Carolina, are now registered, have four days, towit. the first Mondays in May. June and July, and August, 1895, within which to apply for registration, and that, if the complainants and other citizens now unregistered, do not so apply, their in ability to vote for delegates to the con vention will be due to their own care lessness and direliction. 19. As to the matters and facts stat ed in the paragraph twenty-nine of the bill, your respondent is advised and avers that the acts of the General Assembly of the State of South Caro lina. passed in 1882 and 1894, do not violate or contravene the Constitution of the United States or the acts of Congress. or the Constitution of the State of South Carolina in any re spect; that the election held in 1894 to determine whether a Constitutional convention shall be held was consti tutional and valid; that your respond ent, as to the other matters and things set forth in the said paragraph of the bill, has no knowledge or information sullicient to form a belief, and, there fore, denies the same; that as to the matter of the Legislature of the State discriminating against voters purpose ly in its legislation, those are contra dicted flatly by the act itself, which contains the following: [Here follows the prov~isions of the law.] As soon as the returns were read, Dr. Pope called attention to the fact that that of Governor Evans and his corespondents was not sworn to. Gen. McCrady, for the State officials, ar gued that as the paper raised legal points only, it need 'not be verified. After some little talk from the law yers. Judge Goff decided that the re turn should be sworn to, and gave counsel time to have the matter at tended to. Court then adjourned for dinner. THE ARGUMENTS. In the afternoon session the Attor ney General submitted the return of the Governor duly sworn to by his Excellency; and Judge Goff directed counsel to proceed with the argument. It was agreed that the attorneys should speak in the followidg' order: Attorney General Barber, Mr Doug lass, Mr. Mower, Dr. Pope, Mr. Cald well, Gen. McCrady. Attorney General Barber addressed the court in an argument of two hours' duration. He began by refer ring to the injunction as the "strong arm of equity," oy which it was now sought to arrest the power of the legislative branch of a sovereign State. He touched on the growing tendency to use the power of the Federal Courts for different purposes. He denied the jurisdiction of the United Slates Court to determine the matters now brought before Judge Goff. He maintained that the matters suggested by the complainants were not the lawful sub ject of judicial inquiry-at least in the form no y- attempted. He denied that the courts of the United States ac quised jurisdiction of the matters in hand, by reason of the 14th or the 15th amendment to the Constitution. He urged that the proceeding here was, in effect, a suit against a State-which could not be maintained. He cited numerous authorities in support of his different propositions. But, ever. admitting the jurisdiction of the Fed eral Courts in the subject-matter of the complainants, Mr. Barber denied that the registration law is in viola tion of any provision of the State Constitution or of the Const'tut'on. of the United States. He maintained that the complainants were mere vol unteers -that there was apparent none of the allegecd robbery of the rights of voters under the registration law that only three persons had come into this court to attach the law- and these three had ample opp)ortunity to get their full rights without this aid of the Federal Court. He asked that the Court dismiss both bills, for want of jurisdiction. 'At the close of the Attorney Gen eral's argument. Judge Gotf, in an swer to a question from that gentle man, stated that the hearing of the disensary case would commence im mediately on the conclusion of those on whichi the court was now engaged. The court then adjourned till Fri day morning. Yesterday morning the hearing of the case was r'esumed. The number of spectator's was somewhat smaller than on Thursday: but the court-room was guite full. Mr. C. A. Douglaiss spoke in behalf of the complainants in the case against the lRichland Supervisor of Registra tion. is argument was ver-y full. covering all the points of his case. Mr. Douglass spoke more than four- hours: and he cited numerous authorities in support of his main proposition-that the present election law of South Car olina is unconstittutional and therefo-e null and void, Hie made a most searching analysis of the law, laying particular str-ess on those provisionsof it which. as lie insisted, presented ob stacles to the registration of the voter, and were therefore an invasion of the right to vote. His line of argument was that any law which puts obstacles in the way of a voter's exercise of the right of suff'rage is an invasion of the rights of citizenship guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment to the Con stitution of the United States. These are but the general points made by.Mr. l'ouglass. lHe handled each very fully, and, aefr sad cited numerous :ases in support of his positions. Next came the argument of MIfk 1Iower for the State. He covered principally the same ground traversed :y the Attorney General-laying ;tress on the proposition that the mat :ers complained of in the bill are not within the jurisdiction of the Court. E. argued that the attempt in this proceeding to control the conduct of the officers of the State would be an invasion of the undoubted authority of the executive department, and was therefore beyond the jurisdiction of the Court. ~He cited several cases from the Federal courts to sustain his different propositions. He spoke about two hours. This morning the argument was opened by Dr Pope. He, like ~Mr. Douglass, discussed the election laws of the State, referring especially to their bearing on the Constitutional Convention. Dr. Pope spoke with his I usual warmth and readiness, and cited t many cases in support of his different P positions. Mr. Caldwell made the chief argu ment on the case against the Governor . and the Commissioner of Election in Richland county. He uroed that the ceall of the Convention, anl the action t ot the Legislature on it, as well as the i action of the Governor since, showed s a purpose to deprive some citizens of their rights under the Constitution. Like all of Mr. Caldwell's arguments, his presentation of his case on this oc- I casion was terse, strong, clear and abounding in authorities. He engaged the attention of the court about three hours. The closing speech was made by Gen. McCrady for the State. He pres- I ented a most admirable analysis of 1 the provisions of the registration law. taking the position tlat they are nowise an abridgment or invasion of any citizen's right to vote, but in re ality an execution of the clause in the State Constitution, requ.ring the Leg islature to provide for the "registra tion of all electors." He urged that the law is but a reasonable regulation of the exercise of the elective franchise, within the proper bounds of both the State and the Federal Constitution. As Gen. McCrady was the author of well-nigh all the provisions of the ori ginal registration law, he handled it in a manner that showed his entire familiarity with all its require ments and with the purpose of each of these. Replying to the different points made by the complainants' lawyers who had preceded him, Gen. McCrady sought to show that neither of the cases presented any ground for the Federal court to interpose its power to restrain the execution of a statute duly passed by the Legislature of a soverign State. At the close of General McCrady's speech Judge Goff said that the points raised were of such magnitude as to entitle them to the most careful con sideration of the Court; and he would therefore take both cases under ad visement, and file his decision at some future day. SILVER THE GREAT ISSUE. Speaker Crisp Expresses Himself on Coin age. ATLANTA, April 30.-Speaker-Charles F. Crisp in an interview at his home in Americus, declared himself Satur day to a staff correspondent of the Constitution in favor of the free coin age of silver. He believes the Demo crats should nominate a Western man with a military record, for President, and says the party should not nomin ate Mr. Clevelanid for a third term that no man should have a third term. The Speaker is in fairly good health, but his physician has ordered him to spend the summer quietly and he ex pects to leave shortly for Asheville. "The platform," said Mr. Crisp ob servantly, "should declare for the free coinage of silver direct and with a set of principles responding to the de nands of the common people; we should select some good man from the West-some man with a military re cord, identified with the dominant sentiment that now controls the party, and go forth with confidence to the victory which the people give those who are brave enough to fight for it. The only fear I have, is not that the people are not in favor of free silver, but that the free silver people, who are in the majority, may divide into factions, running two or three candidates, in which event the election would boe thrown into the House, which could elect a Republi can. "Such a contest as I have outlined would cause many people to make new party alignments. There are Demo crats strongly wedded to the gold the ory and many Republicans just as strongly wedded to free silver. Of course, these men would have to choose between their old party and their convictions on this issue. The Democrats of the East want gold, the Republicans of the West want silver. The re-alignment will be as interest ing as they will be puzzling, ,but to the lottery of politics the whole issue must be committed. "Of course," said Mr. Crisp, "there is a contingency in which the people might not bcaled upon to settle the question-that is, the possible action of an international conference. That would be the best and easi'est method, of re-establishing silver, and with less of the olement of experiment in it. If such a conference should be called and it took action restoring silver so that the peple would be satisfied, then we wofl have the final action for 1896. Ithe meantime, however, the people othe'UnitedStates-~will moving along to that result in their own con stitutional way. The people want the free coinage of silver. I am in favor of its free coinage, as I have always been, and the Democratic voters will declare for it next year." "There is some talk,"' it was suer gested, 'that you may be a candidate for the Presidency next year: - "I see,"' said Mr. Crisp, smilingly, "that for want of a better subject many newspapers are printino editorials on that line. Not in the ifetime of the eneration passing off the stage will a bouthern man be elected. The qutes tion of residence, for a long time to come, will be a controlling one, and no man who was ever in the Confederate army can aspire to that office. We shold get our next candidate from the West. The talk of Mr. Cleveland for a third term, under any conditions. has no basis. The people will not make that brea~k in the record. His views on the Jinancial question are not shared by the people, and the con ditions will be in many other ways different from what they were in 1892." Personally, Mr. Crisp regrets the manner in which the silver issue is be ing forced to the front. "'This is an off year," he said, "and it is fully six months before the campaign of 18%t can be intelligently entered upon, and if the dicussion is continued, as now seems to be inevitable, it subjects us to a campaign which will cover near ly two years of political excitement. Personally, I would have preferred that all discussion should have been postponed until the coming winter. whien, under the conditions that will then exist, we could enter upon the race which will be run for the supremacy in this country. From the time of the tariff comm is sion of 1880) down to a year ago-four teen years-the cry for tariff reform had its varying fortunes, resulting aLt at i a revision, whih I believe will POWDER Absolutely Pure. A cream of tartar Darmg powder. lighest of all in leavening strength.-La ?st United States Government Food Be art. loyal Baking Powder Company, 106 Wall St.. N. Y. e so acceptable to the people that here will be no general move made pon it for years to come. The dispo ition of the tariff clears the way for ettlement of the silverquestion. That 1uestion is now fully before us." "Will it be the one issue before the )eople next year?" "It will," said he, "and in such a rav that it must be settled directly, .ot by subterfuge or evasion, but' op nly, so that the people may uderstand t. It will not down. The fact that )rogress in silver rehabilitation has een slow should not be discour ging. This is a big country, from he Atlantic to the Pacific, with pro )ably 70,000,000 of the most civilized eople in the world. The basis of all aw with us is the will-of the people. hen after years of discussion and fte:1 contrary action, they made up hei- minds for tariff reform, there vas no power on earth strong enough o resist it. The silver question is go ng through the same couse of publicr liscussion. It is meeting with defeats nd victories just in the same ratio as :haracterized the tariff fight. Just is in that fight, the silver men will iave their battle royal; then the. Am rican people will award the victory." "How do you think the quiestion will be settled ?" "The majority of the American peo people in both political parties are in favor of the restoration of the ree coinage of silver. They are. i conservative people, respecting ill rights and moving slowly. that they may not disturb them. They may be repressed once in a while, but once they take up a question, there will be no cessation until it is brought to a culmination. The Ameiican peo ple are today behind the free silver movement and they will push it on to success and have silver re-established to its old equality with gold. When the people take up a question, the party succeeds which has the fore sight and the wisdom to constitute it self the agency through which their desires can be accomplished. This great financial question, which has come to us side by side with the tariff question, will be settled likewise by the Democratic party. In the next campaign the rehabilitation of 'silver will be the main and controling issue upon which the Democracy will ap peal to the people. Party platforms should always be plain and direct., I o not believe in those planks which are so written as to catch voters com ing and going. "Parties should be honest to the. people. Whatever room existed for ifferent constructions of the platform >f 1892 should no longer exist and for this purpose that to be adopted in 1896 shoud be so plain that even a school boy could understand it." Speaking of Secretary Morton's let ter, Mr. Crisp said: "Yes, I have read the letter in which Mr. Morton de lares himself for the gold standard. But have you not noticed that Presi-. dent Cleveland has disclaimed respon siblity for the utterances of his Secreta ry ?" Then headded: "If Secretary Mor ton had written a letter favoring the free coinage of silver, Mr. Cleveland would probably have dismissed him from his cabinet, instead of merely disclaiming his act," IT WAS ALL A GAME OF BLUFF. Crisp Fathoms the Talk About a Southern President. WASHINGTON. April 30.-Ex-Speak er Crisp's authorized interview, in which he advocates the selection of "a Western man, with a military record, to head the Democratic Presidential ticket in 1896," is causing much com ment among Northern Democrats who are disposed to force the nomination upon a Southern man. Mr. Crisp ap parently understands' the motives which prompt the Northern Democrats to be so generous with their Southern brethren at this particular junction. As Speaker of the House for two terms Mr. Crisp has been brought in closer contact with the members of his party from all sections of the country than any other one man in Congress. He is aware that the great majority of Northern Democrats have but little hope of electing a President in 1896. They are not making the announce ment publicly, but whcn they meet their confidential friends they do not hesitate to sav: "We have no chance of electing ouir man next time, so the nominaion might as well go to a Southem'n.an. Mr. Crisp hi~rprobably heardl some of the Northern.mien express them selves on the subject, anud lie is prob ably aware that they would undertake to unload the responsibility of the ex pected defeat upon the South. ie is alsoaware that Hill, Gormnan. Gray, Whitney. Ex-Gove nr P'atterson, of Pennsylvania, and other Presidential aspirants in the North are quietly let ting their friendsknow that they wonld not accept the inmination if they could get it under th~e xistirng condi tions in the party. It is possible that it was with this fact in view that Mr. Crisp, who is the recognized leader of the Democracy in the South, took upon himself the responsibility of -ex posing the "political bluff" thre North ern Democrats propose. Although Mr. Crisp may not be in accord with the practical men of his party in the South on the financial question~hie is nevertheless the one man in the House who can induce his party associates to follow him in a strict party tight. lHe knows full w~ell that if a Southern man is placed at the head of the ticket, providing the conditions do not undergo a material change and defeat should follow, the very men who are now urging the selectioin of a Southern man would( be the first to rush to the front and declare that the party had been sacri ficed to gratify the p~ersonal ambition of a Southern stand ard-bearer. If the conditions change. as they a'e apt to do. within the next twelve months. the advocacy of a Southern man will cease, and all of the Northern men whlo have long had the Presi dential bee in their bonnets will jump into the arena and proclaim the un wisdoin of dr'aggin g th e sectional issue into the next campaign. They may consent to hav-ing a Southei'n man on the ticket as Vice President, but they will insist upon f irst place' b(eing given to a Northern or W\estern man.