Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE WINTER BLASTS. REV. DR. TALMAGE SHC\OW HO W TO WARM THE WORLD. A Unique Text aud a. rowerful sprmom. The rflect of the ,ol-warmth of the Church of God -The worlds Fireplace. WAsHN-TON. MarcA 15.-The freez ing blasts which Iave scept over the country at the time we expected spring weather make this ser:uon especially appropriate. Dr. Talnage's text was Psalm cxlvii, 17, "Who can stand be fore his cold?". The almanac says that winter is ended and spring has come, but the winds, and the frosts. and the ther mometers, in Fome places down to zero, deny it.. The psalmist lived in a more genial climate than this, and yet he must sometimes have been cut by the sharp weather. In this chap ter he speaks of the snow like woo!. the frost like ashes, the hailstones like marbles and describes the con gealment of lowest temperature. We have all studied the power of the heat. How few of us have studied the power of the frost? "Who can stand oefore his cold?' This challenge of the text has many times been accepted. Oct. 19, 1812, Napoleon's great army began its retreat fiom Moscow. One hundred and fifty thousand men, 50. 000 horses, 600 Diecesof cannon. 40,000 stragglers. It was bright weather when thev started from Moscow, but soon somiething wrathier than the Cossacks swooped upon their flanks. An army of arctic blasts with itcichk for bayonets A-4b1, f5jifor shot, ..af65mn ded by voice of tempest, marched after them, the flying artil lery of the "eavens in .pursuit. The troops at nightfall would gather into circles and hiddle themselves togeth er for warmth, but when the day broke they rose not, for they were dead, and the ravens came for their morning meal of corpses. The way was strewn with the rich stuffs of the east, brought as booty from the Rus sian capital. An Invisible power seized 100,000 men and hurled them dead into the snowdrifts and on the hard surfaces of the chill rivers and into the maws of the dogs that had followed them from Moscow. The freezing horror which has appalled history was proof to all ages that it is a vain thing for any earthly power to accept the challenge of my text, "Who could stand before his cold?" In the middles of December, 1777, at Valley Forge, 11,000 troops were, with frost-, ed ears and frosted hands and frosted feet, without shoes, without blankets, lying on the white pillow of the snow bank. As during our civil war the cry was "On to Richmond !" when the troops were not ready to march, so in the Revolutionary war there was a demand for wintry campaign until Washing ton lost 'his equilibrium and wrote emphatically, "I assure those gentle men it is easy enough seated by a good fireside and in comfortable homes to draw out campaigns for the American -army, but I tell them it is not so easy to lie on a bleak hillside, without blankets and without shoes." Oh. the frigid horrors that gathered around the American army in the winter of 1777! Valley forge was one of the tragedies of the century. Benumbed, senseless, dead! "Who can stand be fore his cold?" "Not we," say the frozen lips of Sir John Franklin and his men, dying in arctic exploration. "Not we," answer Schwatka and his crew, falling back from the f-ortresses of ice which they had tried in vain to capture. "Not we." say the abandon ed and crushed decks of the Intrepid, the Resistance and the Jeannettee. "Not we," say the procession of Amer ican mrysreturned home for Amer ican seuture, DeLong and his men. The hgetpillars of the earth are, pillars of ice-Mont Blanc, Jun'frau, the Matterhorn. The largest ga eries of the world are galleries of ice. Some of the mighty rivers much of the year are in captivity of ice. The e-reatest sculptors of the ages are the glaciers, with arm and hand and chisel and hamme of ics. The cold is imperial and has a crown of glittering crystal and is seated on a throne of ice, with foot stool of ice and scepter of ice. Who can tell the sufferings of the winter of 1433, when all the birds of Germany perished, or-the winter of 1658 in England, when the stages roll ed on the Thames and temporary houses of merchandise were built on the ice, or the winter of 1821, in Amer ica, when New York harbor was froz en over and the heaviest teams crossed on the ice to Staten Island? Then come down to our own winters, when there have been so many wrapping themselves in furs, or gathering thiem selves around fires, or thrashing their arms about them to revive circulation' --the millions of the temperate and the arctic zones who are compelled to confess, "None of us can stand before his cold." One-half of the industries of our day are employod in battling inclemency of the weather. The furs of the north, the cotton of the south, the flax of our own field~s, the wool of our own flocks, the coal from our own mines, the wood from our own forests, all em ployed in battling these inclemencies, and still every winter, with blue lips and chattering teeth, answers, "None of us can stand before his cold." Now, this being such a cold world, God sends out influences to warm it. I am g lad'that the God of the frost is the Gdof the heat; that the God of the snow is the God of the white blossoms; that the God of January is the God of June. The question as to-how shall we warm this world up is a question of immediate and all encompassing practicality. In this zone and weath er there are so many fireless hearths, so many broken window panes, so many defective roofs that sift the snow. Coal and wood and flannels and thick coat are better for warming up such a place than tracts and Bibles' and creeds. Kindle that fire where it has gone out; wrap something around~ those shivering limbs; shoe those bare feet; hat that bare head; coat that bare back; sleeve that bare arm. Nearly all the pictures of Martha Wahington represent her in courtly dress as bowed to by foreign embassa dors, but Mrs. Kirkland, in her inter esting book, gives a mcre inspiring portrait.of Martna Washington. She comes forth from her husband's hut in the encampment, the hut 16 feet long by 14 feet wide-she comes forth from that hut to nurse thie sickr, to sew the patched garments. to console the soldiers dying of the cold. That is a bet ter picture of Martha Washinton. Hun dreds of garments, hundredsof tons of cbal, hundreds of glaziers at broken window sashes, hundreds of whole sould men and women, ar-e necessary to warm the wintry weather. What are we doing to alleviate the condition of those not so fortunate as we i Know ye not, my friends, there are hundreds of~ thousands of people who cannot stand before his cold L useless to preach to bare feet, and to empty stomachs, and.to gaunt visages. Christ gave the world a lesson ia common sense when, before preaching the gos pel to the multitude in the wilderness. he gaye them a good-dinner. When I was a had, I remember see ing two rough woodcuts, but they made more impression upon me than any pictures 1 have ever seen. They woodet represe'ntett the conuing o: the sinw in winter and a lad looking out at the door of a great mansion, aud he was all wrapped in furs, and hiis che:ks were ruddy, and, with glowin countenance, he shouted: "It suows: It snows!" On the next page there was a miserable tenement, and the door was open, and a child, wan and sick and ragged and wretched, was looking out, and he said, "Oh, my God, it snows:' The winter of gladness or of grief, according to our circumstances. But my friends. there is more than one way of warming up this cold world, for it is a cold world in more respects than one, and I am here to consult with you as to the best way of warmng up the world. I want to have a great heater intro duced into all your churches and all your homesthroughout the world. It is a heater of divine patent. It has many pipes ,with which to conduct heat, and it has a door in which to t row tne fuel. Once get this heater introduced, and it will turn the arctic zone into the temperate, and the tem perate into the tropics. It is the power ful heater; it is the glorous furnace of Christian sympathy. The question ought to be, instead of how much heat caa we absorb, How much heat can we throw out? There are men wh6 oo through the world floating icebergs. They freeze everything with their forbidding look. The hand with which they shake yours is as cold as the paw of a polar bear. If they float into a religious meeting, the tempemture-. d-ops from 80 above--t6i0 degrees be low zro. There are icicles hanging fiom their eyebrows. They float into a religious meeting, and they chill everything with their jeremiads. Cold prayers, cold songs, cold greetings, cold sermons. Cliristianty on ice! The church a great refrigerator. Chris tians gone into winter quarters. Hib ernation: On the other hand, there are people who go through the world like the breath of a spring morning. Warm greetings, warm prayers, warm smiles, warm Christian influence. There are such Dersons. We bless God for them. 'We rejoice in their companionship. A general in the English army. the army having halted for the night, hav ing lost his baggage, lay down tired and sick without any blanket. An of ficer came up and said: "Why, you have no blanket. I'll go and get you a blanket." He departed for a few moments and then came back and covered the general up with a very warm blanket. The general said, "Whose blanket is tbis?" The officer replied, "I g6t that from a private sol dier in the Scotch regiment, Ralph McDonald." "Now," said the general, "vou take this blanket right back to that soldier. He can no more do with out it than I can do without it, Never bring to me the blanket of a private soldier." How many men like that general would it take to warm the world up? The vast majority of. us are anxious to get more blankets, whether anybody else is blanketless or not. Look at the fellow feeling dis played in the rocky defile between Jerusalem and Jericho in Scripture times. Here is a man who has been set upon by the bandits, and in the struggle to deep his property he has got wounded and mauled and stabbed, and he lies there half dead. A priest rides along. He sees him and says: "Why, what's the matter with that man? Why, he must be hurt, lying on the fiat of his back. Isn't it strange that he should lie there? But I can't stop. I am on my way to temple ser vices.- Go along you beast. Carry me up to my temple duties." After awhile a Levite comes up. He looks over and says: "Why, that man must be very much hurt. Gashed on the foreheadi. What a pity ! Stabbed under his arm. What a pity: Tut, tut: What a pity! What, they have taken his clothes nearly all away from him. But I haven't time to stop. I lead the choir up in the temple service. Go along, you beast. Carry me up to my temple duties." After awhile a Samaritan comes along-one who you might suppose through a national grudge might have rejected this poor wounded Israelite. Coming along he sees this man and says. "Why, that man must be terri bly hurt. I see by his features he isan Israelite, but he iis a min. and he is a brother." "Whoa:" says the Samari tan, and he gets down off the beast and comes up to this wounded man, gets down on one knee listens to see whe her the heart of the unfortuate man is still beating, makes up his mind there is a chance for resucitation, goes to work at him takes out of his sack a bottle of oil and a bottle of wine, cleanses the wound with some wine, then pours some of the restorative into the wounded man's lips, then takes some oil, and with it- soothes the wound. After awhile he takes off a part-of his garments for a bandage. Now the sick and wounded man sits up, pale and exhausted but very thank ful. Now the good Samaritan says, "You must get on my saddle, and I will walk." The Samaritan helps and tenderly steadies this wounded man until he gets him on toward the tav ern, the wounded man holding on with the little strength he has left, ever and anon looking down at the good Samiaritan and saying: "You are very kind. I had no right to 'ex pect this thing of a Samaritan when I am an Israelite. You are very kind te walk and let me ride" Now they have come up to the tav ern. The Samaritan, with the help of the landlord, assists the sick and wounded man to dismount and puts him to bed. The Bible says the Sam aritan staid all night. In the morn ing, I suppose, the Samaritan went in to look how his patient was and ask him how he passed the night Then he comes out, the Samaritan comes out, and says to the landlord: Here is money to pay that man's board and, if his convalescence is not as rapid as I hope, charge the whole thing to me. Good morning, all." He gets on the beast and says. "Go along, you beast, but go slowly, for those bandits sweeping through the land may have somebodvelse wounded and half dead." Sympathy! Christian sympathy! How many such men as that would it take to warm the cold world up? Famine in Zarepthath. Everything dried up. There is a widow with a son and no food except a handful of meal. She is gathering sticks to kin de a fire to cook the handful of meal. Then- she is going to wrap her arms around her boy and die. Here comes Elijah.- His two black servants, the ravens, have got tired waiting on him. He asks that woman for tood. Now that handful of meal is to be divided into three parts. Before it was to be divided into two parts. Now she says to Elijah. "Come in and sit down at this solemn table and take a third of the last morsel." How many women like that would it take to warm the cold world up? Recently an engineer in the south west, on a locomotive, saw a tramn coing with which he must collide. He resolved to stand at his post and slow up the train until -the last min ute, for there were passengers behind. The engineer said to the fireman: '-u mp: One man is enough on this engine: Jump: The fireman jumped and was saved. The crash came. Tne engineer died at his post. How many men like that engineer would it take to warm this cold world up? A vessel gers and the crew were wu-tlo:u! , and a sailor had a sheillsh unde- his coat. lie was saving it fr- his at morsel. He heard a little child c-y t her mother: "Oh., mothpr, 1 amt so hungyrv: Give me something to eat. 1am so hungrv The sailor took the shellfish from under his coat and said, "Here, take that." How muanv men like that sailor would it take to warm the cold world up? Xerxes. Ilceing from his enemy, got on board a boat. A great mny Persians leaped into Le samte boat, and the boat was sinking. Sonie one said. "Are you not willing to make a sacrifice for your king' And the majority of those who were in the boat leaped overboard and drowned to save their king. HIow many men like that would it take to warmi up this cold world? Elizabeth Fry went into the hrrors of Newgate prisonand she turned the imprecation and the obscenity and the filth into prayer and repentance and a ref .rmed life. The sisters of charity, in 1863, on the northern and southern battle fields, came to boys in blue and gray while they were bleedidg to death. The black bonnet with the sides pinn ed back and the white bandage on the brow, may not have answered all the demands of elegant taste, but you could not persuade that soldier dying a thousand miles from home that it was anything but an angel that looked him in the face. Oh, with cheery look. with helpful word, with ki try to ma -it was his strong sympathy that brought Christ from a warm heaven to a cold world. The land where he dwelt had a serene sky. balsamic at mosphere. tropical luxuriance: no storm blasts in heaven; no chill foun tains. On a cold December night Christ stepped out of a warm heaven into the world's frigidity. The ther mometer in Palestine never drops be low zero, but December is a cheerless month, and the pasturage is very poor on the hilltops. Christ stepped out of a warm heaven into the cold world that cold December night. The world's reception was cold. The surf of be stormed Galilee was cold. Jc,.:eph's sepulcher was cold. Christ came, the great warmer to warm the earth, and all Christendom today feels the glow. He.will keep on warmirg the earth until the tropic will drive away the arctic and the antaitctic. He gave an intimation of what he was going to do when he broke up the funeral at the gate of Nain and turned it into a reunion festiva,, and when, with his warm lips, he melted the Galilean hurricane and stood on the deck and stamped his foot. crying, "Silence!" and the waves crouched, and the tem pests folded their wings. - Oh, it was this Christ who warmed the chilled disciples when they had no food by giving them plenty to eat and who in the tomb of Lazarus shattered the shackles until the broken links of the chain of death rattled into the darkest crypt of the mausoleum. In his genial presence the girl who had fallen into the fire and the water is healed of the catalepsy, and the withered arm takes muscular. healthy * action, and the ear that could not hear an avalanche catch es a leaf's rustle, and the tougue that could not articulate trills a quat rain, and the blind eye was reillumed, Count that day not lost whose low des cer- ding un View% from thit hand r o .generousi action done. and Christ, instead of staying three days and three nights in the sepulcher, as was supposed, as soon as the world ly curtain of observation was dropp ed beg'an the exploration of all the underground passages of earth and sea, wherever a Christian's grave may after awhile be, and started a light of Christian, hope, resurrection hope, which shall not go out until the last cerement is taken off and the last mausoleum breaks open. Ah, I amn so glad that the Sun of Righteousness dawned on the polar night of the nations! And if Christ is the great warmer, then the church is the great hothouse, with its plants and trees and fruits of righteousnes. Do you know, my friends, that the church is the institution that proposes warmth? I have been for 27-years studying how to make the church warmer. Warm er architecture, warmer hymnology, warmer Christian salutation. All outsid Siberian winter we must have it a prince's hothouse. The only in stitution on earth today that proposes to make the world warmer. Univer sities and observatories, they all have their work. They propose to make the world ]ighz, but they do not prc pose to make the world warm- Geol ogy informs us, but it is as cold as the rock it hammers. The telescope shows where the other words are, but an as tronomer is chilled while looking through it. Christianity tells us of strange combination and how inferior affinity may be overcome by superior affinity, but it cannot tell how all things work together for good. World ly phylosophy has. a great splendor, but it is the splendor of moonlight on an iceberg. The church of God pro poses warmth and hope-warmth for the expectation, warmth for the sy m pathies. Oh, I am so glad that these great altar fires have been kindled. Come in out of the cold. Come in and have your wounds salved. Come in and have your sins pardoned. Come in by the great gospel fireplace. Notwithstanding all the modern in ventions for heating, I tell you there is nothing so full of geniality and so ciability as the old fashioned country fireplace. The neighbors were .to come in for a winter evening socia bility. In the middle of the after noon, in the best room in the house, some one brought in a great'back log, with great strain, and put it down on the back of the hearth. Then the lighter wood was put on, armful af ter armful. Then a shovel of coals was taken from another room and put un der the dry pile, and the kindling be gan, and the cracking, and it rose un til it became a roaring fiame, which filled all the room with geniality and was reflected from the famiry pictures on the wall. Then the neighbors came in two by two. They sat down, their faces to the fire, which ever and anon was stirred with tongs and read justed on the andirons, and there were such times of rustic repartee and story telling and mirth as the black stove and blind register never dreamed of. Meanwhile the table was being spread, and so fair was the cloth and so cle-an was the cutlery they glisten and glis ten in our mind to day. And then the best luxury of orchard and far'n ard was roasted and prepared for the table to meet the appetites sharpened by the cold ride. ~Oh. my friends, the church of Jesus Christ is the world's fireplace, aud the noods are from the cedars of Lebanon, and the firesare fires of loye, and with the silver tongs of the altar we stir the fame and the light is reflected from all the family nictures on the wall pictures of those who were here and are gone now-. Oh, come up close to the fireplace. 11ave your worn faces transigured in the light. P'at your cold feet, weary of the journey, close up to the blessed conuibgration. Chill ed through withi troule and disap pointment, come close up until you can get warm clearjthrough. Exchange experencee, talk over the harvests athered, tell all the gospel news. Meanwhile the table is spread. On it bread of life. On it grapes of Eschol. On it new wine from the kingdom. n i a thoand luxuries celestial. Hark, as a wounded hand raps on the table and a tender voice comes thr.iih saying: "Come. for all things are now ready. Eat, oh, friends: Drink, yea, drink abundant ly. oh, beloved: My friends, that is the way the cold world is goiug to be warmed up by the ,reat gospel fireplace. All na tions will coztu in and sit down at that banquet. While I was musing the fire burned. "Come in out of the cold: Come in out of the cold" CHANGE IN CHARLESTON. Dkve.nary Con Ictions at Last Being Se cared There in the Courts. CnARLESToN. March 18. --Will won I ders never cease I For the second time a Charleston petit jury bas re turned a verdict of "guilty" against an illicit liquor seller for violations of the dispensary law in maintaining places where intoxicating liquors are sold. Heretofore mistrials or verdicts of acquittal have been so invariably the rules that one of these results was considered a foregone conclusion whenever these cases were . brought up. and consequently very little inter est was taken in or importance attach ed to them. The change is so remark able that it calls for comment and we shall comment on it without prejudice and,' ' . without offence, as our o ive has reference solely to the truth of current local history. A revolution in our judicial system, beginning at the source of fundamen tai basis of it-the jury box-has gone on quietly, and unnoticed by the gen ersl public although the legal profes siou and those who are otherwise inti mately associated with the adminis tion of justice and the supervision of her machinery were quite cognizant of the significant and far reachin& character of the event. Formerly ana for a long course of years our arcan um of justice has been under the su pervision entirely of officials of a sameness of political complexion .?tlemen all and honorable men but still of the same mind and mold and disposition of character. With out intention of retlection we, never theless, state it as a fact that there grew to be much of a sameness in the result that followed the putting in and taking out of the names from the jury box. Like everything else which runs for long in an uninterupted course, things fell into an accustomed rut-what is known as the profession al juror became quite a familiar fig ure with us. It seemed strange that out of the lettery of our entire eligible citizenship these particular faces should so often repeat themselve in the jury box. Among the innovations, some good and some bad, which recent political changes have brought about, it is but truth to say that the uninterrupted even flow of the jury box has been disturbed. The elements presiding over its destinies are not so harmoni ous in eharacter and there is a lack of the sameness of result which was for merly had. Whether the change is for the better or worse we shall not undertake todecide. Thereisachange however, and our purpose is simply to account for the feet. Certain inner circles of Charleston have been sur prised by the extraordinary character of recent grand and petit juries. It cannot be denied that these juries have been and are representative of every class of tae rank and file of our citizenship. But in nothing have they .given so much cause for surprise as in the re cent dispensary verdicts. Our public sentiment is undoubtedly unfavorable to the dispensary law as a Law. We have been taught to assume that our people went so far in th'eir hostility. even as to antagonize its enforcement, Wise or unwise as this policy may have been, our juries have in the past seemingly concurred in this extreme view by the uniform character of their verdicts. The verdicts just had, how ever, are indicative of a radical varia tion somewhere. Can it be that pub lic sentiment in reference to the ad visability of enforcing the law has changed? Or have we been misled as to the real character of our pubic sen timent on that particular point? It cannot be charged that the poli tical character of the juries has been changed. If a glance at the personnel were not satisfactory as to this, the simple fact that every juror who has sat on these cases, without a single ex ception, has been examined on his voir dire, accepted and empanneled after making, in each and every in stance, the explicit and unmistakable avowal that he did not approve of the law. The conclusion is unavoidable. The free, untramnpied and uninspired judgment of this community, as rep resented by.our juries, is that while the law itself is unpopular, the defi ance of it cannot and will not longer be counterianced or condoned. Mark the distinction and mark the decree. There is no further room for mistake. Charleston puts herself on record as a law-abiding community to the last gasp of the unfortunate and ill-omen ed sumptuary law .-Sun. This should biot Be. COLC~mA, March 18.-The follow ing has been sent to The State by James L. Strain of Eetta Jane, Union county. Pontotoc, Miss., Feb. 27, 1896;. Adjutant J. L. Strain, of Camp Giles, No. 708, Union, S. C. My Dear Sir and Comrade: I here with most respectfully hand you a certificate from our family physician as to our sad, but true and unfortu nate condition. Will you, my com rade, be so rood and kind as to present the same to your camp and other friends of an old disabled comrade like myself, raise and send a contri tution for our relief. Do please, and I assure you that the kindness and amount of contribution will be great fully appreciated by your old disabled comrade and his invalid wife and daughters, and I believe that God will bless you and each contributor without a ~doubt. There were five brothers of us in the Confederate army and only two of us returned home and we two were each desperate ly wounded. I do not write this boast inigly, but that you and others may know who we were and where we were, in the great struggle between the States and how we suifered as a family in defending our rights homes, proprty and beautiful southlaad. I refer you to Frank Sereter, president of the Bank of Pontotoc, Mississippi, for any further information desired. I was tborn at Pick-ens Court Ihouse, S. C. o ur old-and d-shledl comrade, d hn N. Sloan. Tne above letter is accompanied by a zertificate fromn Dr. Ch arles D. Mitcen ell that Ca ptain Sloan was shot in thle battle of Chickamau.a, having most' of his under jawv all his upper teeth and his tongrue sh~ot aw~ay and his face terribly mutilated by the explosion of a shell. He is compelled to lie down when eating and can take only lifluid food. I r is stated that $7.500,000J of Federal pension money is paid out in the South annually, and that it is estimated that 515c,000,0 will find its way to the South next year. Old soldiers mak ing thair ho.nes in the Southern States in hopes that Our delightful climate will prolong their lives accounts for the pension money coming in this DEMON OF THE DEEP. Something About the Terrible Monster at Port Royal. PORT ROYL, March 20.-Wbile Spanish students are burning Ameri can flags, and Americas congress is undecided as to whether the exercises of courteous magnanimity of irresisti ble force would be best in dealing with the effete descendants of the once all powerful Spaniards in securing a fair fight in Cuba, must not the bones of Lucas de Ayllon, resting somewhere hereabouts, tura in their grave at the significance of the demonstration here for the past day or two. And the shade of that doughty Spaniard, the fore runner of all Europears to this coast, must tremble with chagrin that the port which he first enteied three and three quarter centuries ago in search of Indians to use as slaves, should be come the scene of jollidcation for the people of this new nation who hold the power of his old country in so little dread. Out upon the bosom of this grand harbor lies a grim leviathan bearing aloft the colors of this new country and before whose angry breath the most powerful ships of Spain's navy world shrink as men of old did he firebreathing dragon of.my thology. Within the range of vision is also the accomplishment of engi neering skill backed by nature's smiles and a rich country's gold-or silver. The laroest dry dock in America is on Paris island, and the astronomers tell us that on March 28 these two stars of naval architecture, the one on sea and the other ashore, will be in conjunc tion. By the time the keel of a great war ship is laid the magazines of the coun try give accurate technical descriptions of the ship as she will be when com pleted, with a representatiou of her as she will be some years later cleaving the green waters of the Atlantic. So such a description of the Indiana would now be out of date. The ship must be seen to be realized, and it would probably require several days devoted to close inspection to enable one to fully comprehend her many wonderful parts. On approaching the Indiana I was impressed by the smallness of her ex posed surface to the guns of an enemy. Lying low in the water and painted a light brown stone color, she is not conspicuous at a mile's distance. Her great steel military mast with fghting tops-or round armor-protected- plat forms in which are mounted machine guns 30 feet above the deck-is the most conspicuous part of the ship at a distance. This mast is, of course, hol low, the communication with the fighting tops being by ladders up the interior. At the deck the interior of the mast is about 15 feet in diameter, tapering up. Its weight, with the fighting tops, is 1,000 tons. On the Indiana are the largest guns ever mounted on an American ship and the most effective of any cannon in the world. She mounts four can non that fire steel projectiles 13 inches in diameter and weighing 1,100 pounds each. These guns protrude their long black bodies 2U feet beyond the steel turrets which protect them. These turrets look like huge brown dishpans turned upside down over the guns and with slits cut in them through which the muzzle may peep out, as it were, to sight an enemy. But they are pans made of the hardest steel known to man and 12 inches thick. The me chanism is so perfect that the gun and turret revolve to the pressing of a but ton which sets electrical powers in motion. The 13-inch guns are loaded by hydraulic power; all the others on the ship are loaded by hand. Each turret with its great guns weigh 500 tons. There are eight 8-inch and four 6 inch rifles, each protected by turrets similar in construction to those of the 13-inch guns. Besides the machine guns in the fighting tops, the ship also mounts 20 3-pounder rapid fire Hotch kiss rifles. 'he is also supplied with six torpedo tubes for projecting into the sea the terrible Whitehead torpe do, loaded with 500 pounds of gun cotton, and supplied with a storage battery, propeller and steering appara tus. They can be so adjusted as to run at any desired depth under water and in any direction for E00 yards. Steaming up between two ships of an enemy and delivering simultane ously a single fire from all her guns this demon of the deep will hurl forth 11,000 pounds of steel and with a force that makes pale into insignificanice the most terrible stroke of a thunderbolt ever recorded.- No other ship in the world can cause such destruction at a single blast, and no other ship is so securely protected by such tremen dously thick steel armor from the as saults of an enemy. Down in the interior there are won ders to behold. The many uses to which electricity is applied is astonish ing. A big room, full of dynamos of the most improved description, would be an hour's paradise for an electric ian. During a battle these dynamos furnish auxiliary power in many ways. All of the ammunition is brought from the depths below and supplied to the firing scauad at each gun, the tur rets are revolved and all the minor machinery kept in motion by electric ity. The quarters of the crew and mar ines are exceedingly neat.- There are 430 of themi,includino. several negroes. I saw a couple of Ohinese, but they seemed to be in the laundry business. Each sailor has a workbox furnished by the government. They also have a library supplied with standard works-many being on subjects of war. No hotel can boast of better appoint ed kitchens and pantries than the In diana. I was there during the prepa ration of dinner, which was savory and substantial. In everything and everywhere cleanliness is of first im portance. The dining' room of the sailors is a spacious 'hall. Between meals the tables are hoisted up and folded on the ceiling and the men havye room for gymnastic sports. The life of aman-o'-war's man is not now what it was a century ago. The officers' quarters are distinct from that of the captain, who keeps to himself. Each of the principal officers has a cabin 7 by 9 feet. They are furnished by the individuals and look very cosy. True, the walls are of cold steel. but the interior is giveu a rough finish like some plastei ing, and is painted white. Among the oflicers are some v-ery fine looking men. Captain Evans, Fighting Bob," 2s he has been dubb ed, is a man of medium height and rather slender build, with a smooth shaven face, who says what he means in the fewest possible words. He suf fers a good deal at times from an old wound in his leg. Just now he thinks that the Indiana has proved herself the finest ship alloat, and that the navy is increasing much too slowly.-State. IN the Bango, Me., municipal court a woman was put on trial for thump ing her husband very severely on the head the day befe. The husband was complainant. The woman was fined dollars and costs, but she declared she had no ruoney. Thereupon the meek and loving husband fished out his pocketbook, paid the money into court, and was trumphantly led away y his much hbetter half. VESTS SPICED "VINEGAR. HOKE SMITH AND CLEVELAND HU MOROUSLY ROASTED. The Secretar.'-4 Failure to Obey a Law Opening a Reservation in Utah, and Cleveland's Home Mission Speech. the Subjects. \\ASHINGTON, March 1S.-The feat ure of today's proceedings in the sen ate was a short debate upon a joint resolution directing the secretary of the intericr to execute the law for opening to settlement some 2,000,000 acres of land in the eastern part of Utah, which have been part of the Uncompabgre Indian reservation. Severe strictures upon the secretary of the interior for his attempt to nullify the act of congress were made by Sen ators Cannon, Wolcott and Vest. The latter inveighed with much vehem ence, against the secretary declaring that the time had been when the head of a department would have to answer to the bar of the senate for such an at tempt to trample upon the legislative branch of the government. Mr. Vest also caused much rusement b Cleveland's recent speech before the Home Missionary society in New York. Mr. Vest began with the remark that there was a time when a cabinet officer, who deliberately failed to exe cute an act of congress, would be brought before the bar of the senate because he had trampled upon the leg islative department of the government and had violated his oath of office. He happened to know all the facts in i-egard to the matter. He said that some years ago a com pany had been organized in St. Louis for the purpose of opening up certain asphalt deposits in the Uncompaghre reservation in the eastern part of Utah and had invested a large amount of money. The St. Louis company had not gone into the reservatton. It had bought land outside and wagoned the product down to the Union Pacific railway by which it was sent to the different cities. The company did not want the lands because the asphalt ex isted in such enormous quantities that there could be no monopoly in it. There was also, Mr. Vest said, a New York corporation which came on the scene last summer and which made some adjustment with the St. Louis company. The question was whether congress knew what it was doing when it passed the act to open up those lands. Congress did know it and knew very well that there were great aspoalt deposits there. What sort of right, Mr. Vest de. manded angrily, had the secretary of the interior to nullify that act of con gress. That practice had grown up until it demanded reprehension of congress and at once. Tne action of the secretary of agriculture on the seed question was another instance of the same kind. "And now," said he, "comes the secretary of the interior and says that congress did not know anything about these enormous deposits; and he takes the responsibility of saying to the President of the U~nited States that the proclamation opening these lands to settlement shall not be issued. Here is a nositive statute nullified by the beatd of a department, with no other excuse except the paltry one that he assumed that congress had not the in formation which it has had for the last seven years. "Th'ere seems." Mr. Vest continued, "to be a disposition on the part of the administration to treat the Western people as if they were in a condition of pupilage, as if they do not know their own rights or their own interests, and as if they must be informed ex cathedra, from the east in reference to what is best for them and what should be done for them. Even the President of the United States, lately on a mis sionary occasion (laughter) spoke of the west as a land of immorality and crime. He stood with the light-the ghastly light-of the hell-holes and r'um cellars of New York blazing upon him, and cantingly, said that home missions must be used to civilize" to Christianize the men who have left their homes in the civilized east and gone out among the mountains and valley of the wild and wooly west. (Loud and general laughter.) "Our President stood with Dr. Tal mage on one side and the Rev. Shel don Jackson on the other and gave us a new version of that beloved old missionary hymn: -"From Montana's sinful mountains, From Utah's wicked plains, They call us to deliver, Their land from error's chains.'" (Continued laughter.") "We are told upon high ecclesiasti cal authority that his excellency has lately laid down his honors at the feet of Jesus. I am glad to know it. It has been the general. impression of Democrats that Mugwumps and in cense burners had got those honors and intended to keep them. I have great respect for the Christian religion and for missions at home and abroad, but this was a slander upon the men who, with rifle in one hand and axe in the other, have gone cut and blazed that pathway of civilization in the western wilds. I went to Missouri when it was a frontier State, roamed by the Indian and buffalo. 1 have lived with thosn people nearly 50 years, and I say to our president now that if he will pretermit hunting ducks in North Carolina and silver Demo crats in Kentucky long enough to come out west, we will show him a God-fearing, self-respecting, law-abid ing people. We will show him churches in which there is real and unaffected piety; we will show him happy and Christian homes,where the sons, the fathers and the husbands pray. Our spires may not go as near heav en as those eastern cities, we may not have organs that roll delorious tones along fretted aisles, but we have a people who fear God and obearve the law and the commandments. In connection with this :2umble, but real religion, I am tempted to quote these beautiful lines of the Scotch poet: "Compared with this how poor reli gions pride, "In all the pomp of method and of art, "When men display to cone regations wide, "Devotions every garb, except the heart." "This, Mr. President, is what we have come to at last-that the Presi dent of the United States in his official capacity says to the people of the whole world that in one portion of this country, the surroundings are such that missions-home missions are necessary in order to bring the people to the poorer knowledge of what is real and true. At this point the vice president ask ed Senator Vest to suspend his speech until a message could be received from the President of the United States. Mr. Vest stopped and the mes sage was delivered. T'Tus Judge of all the earth will do right. No human being will suffer mors than he deserves, or more than his own conscience will recognize as Expenses of The State. CoLUMrBA, Mcb. 20.--State Treasurer Bates in conversation with a represen tative ot The State. said that since the adjournment of the legislature he had paid out between $180,000 and $190. 000 for the back salaries of the State officers and for the expenses of the legislature. Last year the expenses of the general assembly amounted to about $35,000 and this year about $60, 000 was paid out. Treasurer Bates said that since November the expenses of the State government had amounted to about$.380,000, including the expen ses of the Constitutional convention, the legislature and the salaries of State officers and that this large amount had been paid in the past few weeks. The State has been placed at a great er expense this year owing to the long session of the general assembly. The State officers up to a few days ago had not received any salaries for four month and were not paid until the appropriation bill was passed. Vari ous banks, however, have cashed war rants for them and patiently awaited the passage of the bill. State Treasurer Bates has handed the press the following explanation of the expenses of the State: "In giving information to the pub. lic, newspapers sometimes commit er rors that are amusing. For instance, the State treasurer is reported to have paid out since the adjournment of the legislature between $1S0,000 and $190. 000 for the back salaries of the State officers and for the expense of the leg islature. If this were correct there would surely be merit in the claim that salaries of the State officers should be reduced. The amount mentioned included not only legislative expenses, but also amounts due public institu tions for four months (one item of which was $3,142.84, paid to the luna tic asylum alone, certain special appro priations and the salaries of all State officers, including judges, solicitors, stenographers, auditors, etc. '"The legislative expenses for the year ending October 31st, 1895 was $33,370.27. The legislative appropria tion bill for the year 1896 calls for $5,7857.QO. I am quoted as giving the amount at $60,000. I had not the ex act figures with me, but I told the young gentleman of the press that the amount was between $55.000 and $60, 000. "Of the $380,000 paid out of the general fund since November 1. 1895, nearly $140,000 went to pay the Janu ary interest on the public debt. "Other amounts have been paid than those in the general fund--an in stance, $34,000 out of $45,497.62 of the privilege tax fund and large amounts on the special dispensary fund."' He is a Hero. COLUMBIA, S. C., March 18.-Tom Carter, a colored man, who works at Strickland's stables, proved himself a hero yesterday afternoon and but for his courage and doing one human life, in all probability, would have been lost. Carter was standing on the street near the Grand Central when a runaway mule attached to a wagon, in which was a little child, passed by at a terrific speed. Carter with a great deal of presence of mind and with danger to his own life rush-d after the wagon, caught it, got in and took the child in his arms and jumped out, saving the child's life and suffering no injury himself. The mule and wagon belonged to Mrs. Hendrix of Lexington County, and it was stand ing quietly on PlainI street just op posite Mimnaugh's establishment yes terday afternoon about 4:30 o'clock. Rev. Mr. Blackburn came riding up the street on his bicycle and the mule got frightened. Without a moment's warning it dashed off towards Main street. In turning into that street, Mrs. Hendrix and one of the children were thrown out. Spectators thought they certainly must have been killed, but when they were reached it was found that to all appearances they had only been badly bruised. The little girl escaped almost harmless, but Mrs. Hendrix, who was already unwell, suffered more or less injury which happil was not serious. Inte meantime the mule went on the mad career down Main street to wards the Opera House. The little child was in the wagon and the many people lined along the streets expected to see it instantly dashed to death as the mule was heading straight for the curbstone at the corner of Washing ton and Main streets. All stood mo tionless and speechless, when sud denly Carter dashed out from the crowd and sped after the runaway like a deer. He caught up with the wagon and got the child out as already told. The mule was finally stopped at Washington street just as it was about to turn the corner and run into a tele graph pole. Carter didn't seem to realize what an act of bravery he had done and modestly took the child back to the Grand Central Hotel. The crowd, .-howeve.r, appreciated whbat he had dona and instinctively every man went in his pocket and handed Carter dollais, half dollars, quarters, dimes and nickles until, it is estimated, he had $10 or more. Mrs. Hendrix and the child who were thrown out of the wagon were taken to a residence on Plain street near the scene of the runaway and a physician was called in who attended to their injuries, which as stated proved not to be very serious.-Riegis ter. Prehistoric Egyptian Giants. In 1SS1. when Prof. Timmerman was engaged in exploring the ruins of an ancient temple of Isis on the banks of the Nile. sixteen miles below Najar Djfard. he opened a row of tombs in which some prehistoric race of giants had been buried. The smallest skele ton out of sonme sixty odd which were examined (during the time Timmerman was excavating at Najar .Djfard measured seven feet and eight inches in length and the largest eleven feet and one inch. Memorial tablets were discovered in great numbers, but there was no recordl that ev-en hinted that they were in the memory of men of ex traordinary size. It is believed that the tombs date back to the year 10;:3 B C. A Delicate Dlsh. The Berlin Echo has discovered that among the Chinese the "milhi~ is priced as the most delicious ash. It consists of new-born ice. still blind. They arc dipped in oil. and then connoisseurs swallow themi very slowly. At the marriage feast of the present emperor of China not less than five thousand of these sleek bon-bons glistened on the festive board. Bikes and Pianos. Bicycles are said to have seriously af fected the sale of pianos in England. The reason given is that when a girl is asked to choose between the two for a present she invariably selects the wheel. Hung in Efligy. DA~VmLLE, Ky., March 18.-Gover nor Bradley was hung in etligy in Danville last night. The perpetrators of the deed are unknown and it is im possile to identify them. The police know nothing. The figure was very skilfully made up and topped by the famous white hat which the Governor always wears. Across the breast on a card were written the words: "Riot SENATOR TILLMAN'S POSITION. The Possible Refusal of th, National Con vention to Declare for Free Silver. The followin2 correspondence be tween Rev. R H. R-id and Senator B. Rt. Tillnan has recently appeared in the Cotton Plant: REIViLLE. S. C.. Feb. 5, 1S. The Ho. B. R. il/a1n. Washing. foa. D). C.: DFA SI: After my kindest re gards to you personally. I write to day to say that I have read with great pleasure your speech in the Senate Chamber on the 29th ultino. It has the ring of your speeches in 1890 on State politics, which first drew my attention to you and led me to admire your good sense, courage and ability, and nade me a steadfast friend and supporter. I was born and reared near John C. Calhoun and have al ways voted the Democratic ticket. While I am a Democrat of the type of Jefferson, Calhoun and Jackson, I am thoroughly disgusted with such De mocracy as we have exempli6ed in Cleveland, Carli.,Ie and their support ers. It is only a name-a shell; all the principles of true Democracy are extracted from it. I presume that in the month of May our Democratic clubs will be called together to send delegates to the Na tional Democratic Convention which meets next July in Chicago to nomin ate candidates for President and Vic President. My religion and my pat riotism have produced such convic tions of right, truth and duty that my conscience forbids me to take any part whatever in sending delegates to an other National Democratic Conven tion since the control of the party has fallen into the hands of the Shylocks of Wall street. As you have doubtless seen in the papers, the Populists and the free sil ver men will both hold National Con ventions (in St. Louis on the 22nd of July, and, after having adopted their plat forms, will, by conference commit tees, agree to nominate the same can didates for President and Vice Presi dent I am convinced that our only hope to emancipate the toiling masses from the grasp of organized monopoly and to drive the money changers out of the temple of our liberties is to en list under this banner, and I have de ter mined to do so. I agree with you that our present financial system is a "patent contrivance with thieves at at one end and dishonest officials at the other to rob the American peo ple," The following I think would be a good plan to carry our State into the national reform ranks. You are aware that the reform movement in South Carolina in 1890 under Your leadership captured the State Demo cracy. Can we not capture it again this year for the genuine national re form party on the issue of the free coinage of silver, and send our dele gates to the free silver convention at St. Louis? Will not this fusion ticket command the support of all true re form elements in the United States, and give us a glorious victory over covetousness and corporate greed, which are -.he chief causes of all our troubles? Oa the silver issue the De mocracy of our State will be nearly a unit. Will not such a course send you into the silver convention with an un divided State at your back, and in crease your- chances for nomination for President? This is what your friends in South Carolina would like to see. I believe that the candidate wvho receives the joint nomination of Populists and free silver men at St. Louis will be our next President. May God so order it, is may humble prayer. It seems to me that you can carry the State without any serious division among the Democrats. Such a course will heal our divisions, and prevent the organization of another political party and give us again true Demo cracy, it may be unader another name, but "what's in a name?" I hope you will give me your views on the plan I have suggested. Your reply will not be made public wvithout your p.armission. Stamp enclosed. With best wishes for your success, I remain yours respectfully, R. H. REmD. UNITED STATES SENATE, WA3HENGTON, D. C.. Feb. 7, 18%. The Rec. R. IL. Reid. Reidt-ille. S. DEAR SIR: I have your letter of February 5th and appreciate very much your kind words of commrenda tion. In order to preserve the unity of the white Democracy of South Carolina we cannot act on your sue gestion not to send delegates to the National Convention at Chicago. We have already captured the State Democracy. We are the State Demo cracy and we must go to Chicago as such, prepared to bolt if need be. and ally ourselves with the free silver men of the West. It wouki be a fatal blunder not to send delegates to th~e National Democratic Convention and would only be placing it in tue hands of our gold bug enemies. If the National Democratic Con yen tion does not adopt a platformn to suit us and put a man on1 it abore suspiciona as to his loyalty, we can~ then leave the party, but no: before. The effort of all true friends of sil ver and financial reformi shoud be directed to having the State Democratic Convention composed solidly of men of their way of thinking so as to hare it act as a unit. I1 return your letter with this so as to give you the liberty of p..blishinig your letter and my reply should you see fit and so dc-sire. Very sincerely yours, B3 R. TILLMAN. Piatno% for wi:i; hro. In August last fiiv pinos' from 4-ne maker and one each fr. ii t wo cther makers were purchased by the Wini throp Normal College o'f Rojck Hill, S. C., as trii instruments, wiho the un der-standing that ir satisfactory others from the same makers were to be add ed. Time and test dos s not seem to prove them entirely satisfactory since when eight more pianos were needed they were not chosen from either of tile makes before taken on trial. This rime the selection was made from a purely musical stazidpoiut by those qualified to judge the actual merits of a piano; and, as a result the MAsoN AND HIAMLIN and MATHIUsEK were chos en from some twenity-two competing makers. We shall be pleased if those who are thinking of buying pianos will write tile msic departmnent of this college ask-ing ho-w rihey like the 3IASoN AND U.3ILIN and MATHIUSEE pianos, and why they were chosen above all others. L~UDDEx & BATES, Savannah, Ga., wholesale agents for Mlason and Hamzlin and MIathusek pianos._________ Tr E- New berry- 'hse' ver prop~hesies that a Republican will be elected President tnis year, anad Harper's Weekly, which has a wider field of observation and more experience in national polities, prophesies that such a thing is not very probable. IN commenting on thes candidacy of Secretary Carlisle for the Presi dency. thie S partanburg Herald says it has thie cons':lation or kon wing that if nominated he could nlot carry a single state in the Union. A man with a rm~ord may have some hope,