Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE MISSiON oF AR A Potent Factor in Uplifting the Human Race. REV. T. DeWITT TALMAGE Preaches on the Influence of "Pleasant Pictures" In the Development of Ghristian Char acter. Dr. Talmage shows in this discourse how art may become one of the mighti est agencies for the elevation and sal rat.'on of the human race. The cxt is Isaiah, ii, 12, W, "The day of the Lord of hosts shall be * * upon all pies ant p'ctures." Pic-:ures are by some relegated to the realm of the trivial, accidental, senti mental (r worldly, but my text shows that God scrutinizes pictures, auu whether they are good or bad. whether used for right or wrong purposes, is a matter of divine observation and ar raignment. The divine mission of pie tures is my subject. 1hat the artist s pencil and the engraver's knife have sometimes been made subservient to the kingdom of the bad is frankly ad mitted. After the ashes and scoria were removed from Herculaneum and Pompeii, the walls of those cities dis covered to the explorers a degradation in art which cannot be exaggerated. Satan and all his imps have always wanted the fingering of the easel. They would rather have possession of that than the art of printing, for types are not so potent and vuick for evil as pic tures. The powers of darkness think they have gained a triumpp, and they have when in some respectable parlor or public art gallery they can hang a can vas embarrassing, to the good. but fas cinating to the evil. It is not in a spirit of prudery, but backed up by God's eternal truth, when I say that you have no right to hang in your art rooms or your dwelling houses that which would be offensive to good people if the figures picture. were alive in your parlor and the guests of your household. A picture that you.have to hang in a somewhat secluded place, or that in a public hall you cannot with a group of friends deliberately stand be fore and discuss ought to have a knife stabbed into it at the top and cut clear through to the bottom and a stout finger thrust in on the right side, ripping clear through to the left. Pliny the elierlost his life by going near enough to see the inside of Vesuvius, and the farther you can stand off from the burning crater of sin the better. Never till the broks of the last day are opened shall we know what has been the dire harvest of evil pictorials and unbecoming art galleries. Despoil a man's imagination, and he be comes a mere carcass. The show win dows of English and American cities, in which the low theaters have some times hung long lines of brazen actors and actresses in style insulting to all propriety, have made a broad path tc death for multitudes of people. But sc have all the other arts been at times suborned of evil. How has music been bedraggled? Is there any place so low down in dissoluteness that into it has not been carried David's harp and Han del's organ, and Gottschalk's piano, and Ole Bull's violin, and the flute, which, though named after so insignifi cant a thing as the Sicilian eel, which has seven spots on the side, like flute holes, yet for thousands of years has had an exalted mission? Architecture. born in the heart of him who made the worlds under .its arches and across its floors, what bacchanalian revelries have been enacted! It is not against any of these arts that they have been so led into captivity. What a poor world this would be if it were not for what my text calls "pleas' ant pictures!" I refer to your memory and mine when I ask if your knowledge of the Holy Scriptures has not beer mightily augumented by the woodcuts or engravings in the old family Bible which father and mother read out of and laid on the table in the old home' stead when you were boys and girls. The Bible scenes which we all carry in our minds were not got from the Bible typology, but from the Bible pictures. To prove the truth of it in my own case, the other d.ay I took up the oil family Bible which I inherited. S'u:e snough, what 1 have carried in my uhd of Jacob's ladder was exactly the B Ace engravings of Jacob's ladder, and so with Samson carrying off the gates of Gaza, Elisha restoring the Shunam' mite's son, the massacre of the inno cents. Christ blessing little children, the crucifixion and the last judgment. My idea of all these is that of the old Bible engravings, which I scanned be fore I could read a word. That is true with nine-tenths o'f you. If I could swing open the door of your foreheads. I would find that you are walking pie ture galleries. *The great intelligence abroad about the Bible did not come from the general reading of the book. for the majority of the people read it but littie, if they read it at at all, but all the sacred scenes have been put before the great masses, and not printer's ink, Dut the pictorial art, must have the credit of the achievement. First, painter's pencil for the favored few and then engraver's plate or woodcut for millions on millions. What overwhelming commentary or the Bible, what re-enforcement for pa triarchs, prophets, apostles and Christ, what distribution of Scriptural knowl edge of all nations in the paintings and engravings therefrom of Hlolmar Hunt's "Chnist In the Temple." Paul Veronese's "Magdalen Washing the Feet of Christ," Raphael's "Michael the Archangel," Albert Durer's "Dra gon of the Apocalypse," Michael An gelo's "Plague of the Fiery Serpents. Tintoretto's "Flight into Egypt," Ru bens' "Descent From the Cross," Leo nardo iDa Vinci's "Last Supper,' Claude's "Queen of Sheba," Bellini's "Madonna," at Milan; Orcagna's "Lsast Judgment" and hundreds of miles of pictures, if they were put in line. illus trating, displaying, dramatising, irradi ating Bible truthf until the Scriptu:es are not today so much on paper- as or canvas, not so much in ink as in all the colors of the spectrum. In 1833 forth from Strasburg, Germany, there came a child that was to eclipse in speed and boldness anything and everything that the world had ever seen since the first color appeared on the sky at the crea tion, Paul Gustave Dore. At 11 years of age he published marvelous litho graphs of his own. Saying nothing of what he did fcr Milton's "P~aradise Lost," emblazoning it on the attentiot of the world, he takes up the book o. books, the monarch of literature, th. Bible, and in his pictures, "The Crea tion of Light," "The Trial of Abra ham's Faith," "The burial of Sarah, "Joseph Sold by His Brethren," "The Dd an-d Goliath. ' "Thc Tra~nd gu ratio. The Marriage in Cana, Bab Fallen" and 205 scriptural scees in all. with a boldness and a grasp and ahost supernatural anflatus that i-makc the heart throb and the brain reel and the tears start and the cheeks blanch and the entire nature quake with the t-emendous things of God and eternity and the dead. I actually staggered down the steps of the London Art gallery under the power of Dor&u "Christ Leaving the Preetori um." Profess you to be a Christian man or woman, and Lee no divine mis sion in art, and acknowledge you no obligation either in thanks to God or man? It is no more the word of God when put before us in printe. s ink than by skillful laying on of colors or designs on metal through incision or corrosion. What a lesson in morals was Iresented by Hogarth, the painter, in his two pie tures. "The Rake's Progress" and "The Misr's least," and by Thomas Cole's engravins of the Voyage of Human Life' and the "Course of Empire- and bv Turner's Slave Ship" God in art Christ in art! P'atriarchs, prophets and apostles in art: Angels in art! IHeaven in art. The world and the church ought to come to the higher appreciation of the divine mission of pictures. yet the au thors of them have generally been left to semistarvation. West, the great painter, toiled in unappreciation till, being a great skater, while on the ice he formed the acquaintance of General Howe of the English army who through coming to admire West as a clever skater,. gradually came to appreciate as much that which he accomplished by his hand as by h's heel. Poussin, the mighty painter, was pursued and had nothing with which to defend himself against the mob but the artist's portfo lio, which he held over his head to keep off the stones hurled at him. The pictures of Richard Wilson of England were sold for fabulous sums of money after his death, but the living painter was glad to get for his "Alcyone" a piece of Stilton cheese. From 1640 to 1643 there were 4,600 pictures willfully destroyed. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was the habit of some peo ple to spend much of their time in knocking pictures to pieces. In the reign of Charles I it was ordered by par liament that all pictures of Christ be burned. Painters were so badly treated and humiliated in the beginning of the eighteenth century that they were low ered clear down out of the sublimity of their art and obliged to give accounts of what they did with their colors. The oldest picture in England, a por trait of Chaucer. though now of great value, was picked out of a lumber gar ret. Great were the tifials of Quentin Matsys, who toiled on from blacksmith anvil till, as a painter, he won wide recognition. The first missionaries to Mexico made the fatal mistake of de stroying pictures, for the loss of which art and religion must ever lament. But why go so far back when in this year of our Lord to be a painter, except in rare exceptions, means poverty and ne glect, poorly fed, poorly clad, poorly housed. because poorly appreciated? When I hear a man is a painter, I have two feelings-one of admiration for the greatness of his soul, and the other of commiseration for the ne'eds of his body But so it has been in all departments of noble work. Some of the mightiest have been hardly bestead. Oliver Goldsmith had such a big patch on the coat over his left breast ithat when he went anywhere he kept his hat in his hand closely pressed over the patch. The world renowned Bishop Asbury ha da salary of $54 a year. Painters are not the only ones who have endured the lack of appreciation. Let men of wealth take under their patronage the suffering men of art. They lift no emplaint, they make no strike for higher wages. But with a keenness of nervous organization which almost Ialways characterizes genius these artists suffer more than any one but God can realize. There needs to be a concerted effort for the suffering artist of A-nerica, not sentimental discourse about what we owe to artiets, but contracts that will give them a livelihood, for I am in full sympathy with the Christian farmer who was very busy gat .ering his fall apples and some one asked him to pray for a poor family, the father of which had broken his leg, and the busy farm er said: "I cannot stop now to pray, but you can go down into the cellar and get some corned beef and butter and eggs and potatoes; that is al! I can do now." Artists may wish for our pray ers, but they also want practical help from men who can give them work. You have heard scores of sermons for all other kinds of suffering men and wo nien, but we need sermons that make pleas for the suffering men and women of American art. Their work is more true to nature and life than some of the masterpieces that have become im mortal on the other side of the sea, but it is the fashion of Americans to men tion foreign artists and to know little or nothing about our own Copley and Allston andi Inman and Greenough and Kensett. Let the affluent fling out of their windows and into the back yard valueless dauibs on canvass and call in these splendid but unrewarded men and tell them to adorn your walls not only with that which shall please the taste, but enlarge the minds and improve the morals and save the souls of those who gaze upon them. All American cities need great galleries of art, not only open ar~nually for a few days on exhi bition, bitt which shall stand open all the year round, and from early morning until 10 o'clock at night, and free to all who would come and go. What a preparation for the wear and tear of the day a five minutes look in the morning at some picture that will open a door into some larger realm than that in which our population daily drudges. Or what a good thing the half hour of artistic opportunity on the way home in the evening from exhaustion that demands recup~eration for mind and soul as well as body! Who will do for the city where you live what W. W. Corcoran did for Washington and what others have done for Philadelphia and Bost on and New York? Men of wealth, if you are too modest to build and eu dow such a place during your lifetime, why not go to your iron safe and take out your last will and testament and make a codicil that shall build for the city of your residence a throne for American art? Take some of that money that would otherwise spoil your chrildren and build an art gallery that shall associate your name forever not only with the great masters of painting who are gone, but with the great mas ters who are trying to live, and also win the c.dmiration and love of tens of thousands of people, who, unable to have fine pictures of their own, would be advantaged. By your benefactions build your own monuments and not leave it to the whim of others. Some of the best people sleeping in Green -wood have no monuments at all or some crumbling stones that in a few years wil l1et thec rain wash out name and ep itaph, while some men, whose death a pile of Aberdeen granitc high enough for a king and eulogies inough to em 'arrass a st raph. Oh. man of large wealth, instead of leaving to the whim of others your monumental commemo ration and epitaphology, to be looked at when people are going to and fr) at the burial of others. build right down in the heart of our great city, or the city where you live, an immense free read ing room, or a free musical conservatory or a free art gallery, the niches for sculpture and the walls abloom with the rise and fall of nations, and lessons of courage for the disheartened and rest for the weary, and life for the dead; and 150 ycars from now you will be wielding influences in this world fur good. How much better than white marble, that chills you if you put your hand on it when you touch it in the cemetery, would be a monument in colors, in bcaming eyes, in living pos session. in splendors which under the chandelier would be glowing add warm, and looked at by strolling groups with catalo'ue in hand on the January night when the necropolis where the body sleeps is all snowed under! The tower of David was hung with 1,000 dented shields of battle, but you, oh man of wealth, may have a grander tower named after you, one that shall be hung not with the symbols of carn age, but with the victories of that art which was so long ago recognized in my text as "pleasant pictures." Oh, the power of pictures' I cannot deride, as some have done, Cardinal Mazarin who, when told that he must die, took his last walk through the art gallery of his palace saying: "Must I quit all this? Look at that Titian! Look at that Corroggio! Look at that deluge of Caracei! Farewell, dear pictures! As the day of the lord of hosts, ac cording to this text, will scrutinize the pictures, I implore all parents to se that in their households they have neither in book nor newspaper nor on canvas anything that will deprave. Pic tures are no longer the exclusive posses sion of the affluent. There is not a re spectable home in these cities that has not specimens or woodcut or steel en graving, if not of painting, and your whole family will feel the moral uplift ing or depression. Have nothing on your wall or in books that will familiar ize the young with scenes of cruelty and was sail; have only those sketches made by artists ia elevated moods and none of th:se scenes that seem the pro duct of artistic delirium tremens. Pic tures are not only a strong but a univ. sal language. The human race is vided into almost as many languages there are nations, but the pictures D ay speak to people of all tongues. Volal uk many have hoped, with little reasen, would become a worldwide langua-; but the pictorial is always a worldwide language, and printers' types have no emphasis compared with it. We say that children are fond of pictures; bat notice any man when he takes up a book, and you will see that the first thing that he looks at is the pictures. Have only those in your house that ap peal to the better nature. One engrav ing has sometimes decided an eternal destiny. Under the title of fine arts there have come here from France a class of pictures which elaborate argu ment has tried to prove irreproachable. They would disgrace a barroom, and they need to be confiscated. Your children will carry the pictures of their father's house with them clear on to the grave, and, passing that marble pillar, will take them through eternity. Furthermore, let all reformers and all Sabbath school teachers and all Chris tian workers realize that, if they would be effective for good, they must make pictures, if not by chalk on blackboards or kindergarten designs or by pencil on canvas, then by words. Arguments are soon forgotten, but pictures, whether in language or in colors, are what produce stronger effects. Christ was always tell ing what a thing was like, and his ser mon on the mount was a great picture gallery, beginning with a sketch of a "city on a hill that cannot be hid." and ending with a tempest beating against two houses, one on the rock and the other on the sand. The parable of the prodigol son, a picture; parable of the sower, who went forth to sow, a picture; parable of the unmerciful servant, a picture; parable of the ten virgins, a picture; parable of the talents, a picture. The world wants pictures, and the appe tite begins with the child, who consents to go early to bed if the mother will sit beside him and rehearse a story, which is only a picture. When we see how much has been ac complished in secular directions by pic tures-Shakespeare's tragedies, a pic ture; Victor Hugo's writings, all pic tures; John Ruskin's and Tennyson's and Longfellow's works, all pictures why not enlist, as far as possible, for our churches and schools and reforma tory work and evangelistic endeavor the power of thought that can be put into word pictures, if not pictures in color? Yea, why not all young men draw for themselves on paper, with pen or pen cil, their coming career, of virtue if they prefer that, of vice if they prefer that? ,After making the picture. put it on the wall or paste it on the fly leaf of some favorite book, that you may have it before you. I read of a man who had been executed for murder, and the jailer found afterwaad a picture made on the wall of the cell by the as sassin's own hand, a picture of a flight of stairs. On the lowest step he had written, "Disobedience to parents;" on the second, "Sabbath breaking;' on the third, "Drunkenness and gambling; on the fourth, "Murder," and onth fifth and top step, "A gallows." If that man had made that picture before he took the first step. he never would have taken any of them! Oh, man. make another picture, a bright picture, an evangelical picture, and I will help you make it! I suggest six steps for this flighr of stairs. On the first step write the words, "A nature changed by the Holy Ghost and washed in the blood of the Lamb;" on the secound step. "Industry and good companionship: on the third step, "A Charistian home with a family altar;" on the fourth step, "Ever wideniog usefulness;" on the fifth step. "A glorious departure from this world;" on the sixth step, "Heaven. heaven!"' Write it three times, and let the letters of the one word be made up of banners, the second of coronets and the third of thrones! Promise me that you will do that, and I will promise to meet you on the sixth step, if the Lord will, through his pardoiing grace, bring me there too. And here I am going to say a word of cheer to people who have never had a word of consolation on that subject. There are men and women in this world by hundreds of thousands who have a fine natural taste, and yet all their 'lives that taste has been suppressed, and, although they could appreciate the galierics of JBresden and Vienna and Naples far more ttan nine hundred and ninety-nine people out of a thousand who visit them, they may never go, for they must support their households, and bread and schooling for their children are of more importance than pictures. Though fond of music, they arc com pelled to live amid discord, and, though ciuiz; abodes, and, though appfeia tive of all that engravings and paintings can do, they are in perpetual depriva tion. You are going, after you get on the sixth step of that stair, just spoken of, to find yourselves in the royal gal lery of the universe, the concentered splendors of all worlds before your transported vision. -In some way all the thrilling scenes through which ,ve and the church of God have passed in our earthly state will be pictured or brought to mind. At a cyclorama of Gettysburg a blind man who lost his siaht in that battle was with his child heard talking while standing before that picture. The blind man said to the daughter, "Are there at the right of the picture some regiments marching up a hill?" "Yes," she said. "Well," said the blind man. "is there a general on horse back leadin.z them on?" "Yes," she said. "Well, is there rushing down on these men a cavalry charge?" "Yes." was the reply. "And do there seem to be many dying and dead?" "Yes," was the answer. "Well, now, doyouseea shell from the woods bursting near the wheel of a cannon?" "Yes," she said. "Stop right there!" said the blind man. "That is the last thing I ever saw on earth! What a time it was, Jenny, when I lost my eyesight!" But when you, who have found life a hard battle, a very Gettysburg, shall stand in the royal gallery of heaven and with your new vision begin to see and understand that which in your earthly blindness you could not see at all, you will point out to your celestial comrades, perhaps to your own dear children who have gone before, the scenes of the earthly conflicts in which you participated, say ing: "There from that hill of prosperi ty I was driven back, in that valley of humiliation I was wounded. Ther% I lost my eyesight. That was the way the world looked when I last saw it. But what a grand thing to get celestial vision and stand here before the cyclo rama of all worlds while the rider on the white horse goes on 'conquering and to conquer,' the moon under his feet and the stars of heaven for his tiara!" WHO ARE THE SWINDLERS? What the Government has Lost on the Ships that it Bought. Last year the A merican people show. ,.i their generosity and their confidence ia Mr. McKinley by voting an emer gency appropriation of flifty million dol lars, in advance of a declaration of war. Then, when war came, they furnished its financial sinews without stint. In fact, without the slightest hesitation, they opened the national treasury and gave the administration "the privilege of the till", expecting, however, that due economy would be observed in ex penditures. How was this trust ad ministered? For the purposes of our military dif ferences with Spain the Government bought about a hundred vessels of vari ous descriptions, and paid for them handsomely. There was not an owner >fa fine old steam yacht in the East who did not have a chance to sell it to the nation at a fair price, usually amounting to at least cost, or who has not not since been amused to observe the difference between the net selling price and that charged to the treasury. Proprietors of second-class ocean tramps, cattle boats and scows, also had their day -in Court, and it may be said with truth that there are many worthy citizens who have, to a greater or less extent, enriched themselves, acting as middlemen in the numerous transactions. They are not of the class known as "rank outsiders." They are all "good Administration men." The President has learned of this and weeps One such is described as a person who "milked every contract during the Spanish war, as a dairy maid milks a cow," and is said to be a million and a half financially the better for it. If Mr. McKinley ever had had a suspicion of such things while they were going on he would have stopped them. It is now too late. Following will be found the price paid for six bottoms just before the Spanish war,'together with the apprais ment of their present value. On the 19th of July bids will be opened for the sale of these vessels. They cost $844, 269. They are valued at $270,000 after a few months' service, during which they were liberah~y repaired and kept in excellent order, except as to their capacity to carry troops comfortably. This is the roster: What Appraise Vessel U. S. paid. ment. Loss Vulcan -... $350,000 $100,000 S250,000 Niagara. ... 200,000 60,000 140,000 East Boston 57,500 30,000 27,500 Enquirer... 80,000 20,000 60,000 Scipio..... S5,769 25.000 60,769 Gov Russell 71,000 35,000 36,000 Total loss...... .......574.269 Probably it is reasonable to lumpr these -, o'saels together as represent ing a fir aver'age of the hundred bought from the various private p,:rsons or corporations and sold to the Govern ment at a handsome profit, in the way of "commission." If so it will be seen that the average purchase price was $144.744. The loss of value, as shown in the above statement of appraisements is 68 per cent. Taking these facts as a basis, the hundred vessels should have cost $14,474,400, and the loss on them now at the ascertained ratio would be stated at $9,842.520. This is a nice sum for the treasury to lose, but there is perhaps comfort in the thought that the public loss covers and conceals a great deal of private gain. In other words, the corruption rascality and thieving which characterized the acquisition of a great many things ne cessary for the Government to buy to equip itself for the struggle with Spain have not been fully exposed as yet. fhey will not be while the relatives, friends and copartners of the criminals control the party in power -Washing ton Times. Fou Touxa 31IERM -Fretting is a fault in whiebi a child never should be allow'd to per~sist. If there is a real sen-e of uiscomfort it should be dis I cvered and removed; if it is simply from waywardness and peerishness the child should be made to understand that fretting is unprofitable. A child's reasoning powers can very soon be ap pealed to. If the mother says, "Fret. ting again! you cannot be well, you must go to bed until you feel better," the child will learn to restrain himself. Unfortunately some mothers have a bad habit of yielding to a fretful child a favor that they have at frst refused to grant. This places a premium on fret ting. No child will waste time in fret ting when he knows he will gain noth ing by it. A very little attention on the mother's part will show her whether there is anything physically wrong to excuse the fretfulness; if not, it should T .I G09T OF "GLOY." i8dawy Smith's Warning to Brothe Jonathan Seventy-Nine Years Ago. The New York World has dug up from the Edinburgh Review, Sydney Smith's Essay on America. It has rather greater pertinence and signifi cance now than it had in 1820, the year of its original publication: We can inform Jonathan what are the inevitable consequences of being too fond of glory-taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth or covers the back or is placed under the foot; taxes upon everything which is pleasant to see. hear, feel, smell or taste; taxes upon warmth, light and locomotion; taxes on everything on earth, and the waters under the car-h, on everything that comes from abroad or is grown at home; taxes on the raw material; taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man; taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite and the drug which re stores him to health; nn the ermine which decorates the judge and the rope which hangs the criminal, on the poor man's salt and the rich mrn's spice, on the brass nails of the coffin aad the ribbons of the bride, at -bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay. The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a tax bridle on a taxed road, and the dying Englishman, pour ing his medicine, wnich has paid 7 per cent, into a spoon that has paid 15 per cent. flings himself upon his chintz bed, which has paid 22 per cent., and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immedi ately taxed from 2 to 10 per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are de manded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posteri ty on taxed marble, and he is then gathered to his fathers-to be taxed no more. In addition to all this the habit of jealing with large sums will make the government avaricious and profuse, and the system itself will infallibly generate the base vermin of spies and informers and a still more pestilent race of political tools and retainers of the meanest and most odius descrip tion, while the prodigious patronage which the collecting of this splendid revenue will throw into the hands of government will invest it with so vast an influence and hold out such means and temptations to corruption as all the virtue and public spirit, even of Republicans, will be unable to resi.st. WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? LeadingMen of the Nation Interviewed on This Important Subject. "The charge is pretty frequently made by agnostics, free thinkers and atheists that this is a Godless nation and a large proportion of the leading public men are- either infidels or rapid ly becoming so," says The Christian Herald, and in order to "test the truth of this charge," that paper re cently sent to the president, members of the cabinet, supreme court, United States senate, commanders of the army and navy and governors of the various states, the following questions: I. Are you a friend of Cristianity? 11. Do you believe that Christianity is the friend of mankind? III. Does your belief extend to the recognition of the Supreme Being, to the Divinity of Christ, to the surpass ing potency of Christianity as a civiliz ing influence? Hundreds of replies were received and all were in the affirmative. Many of them have the positive ring of the true metal and many are of a hesitat ing nature. Some of the senators failedto answer. and some of the gov ernors failed to answer. This failure, if intentional, can only be taken to mean that they dare not say no to any of the questions, and this, more than anything else, goes to prove what a force they recognize the Christian re ligion to be. President McKinley replied: "My belief embraces the Divioity of Christ and the recognition of Christianity as the mightiest factor in the world's civilization." It is the custom of the members of the supreme court to decline to answer questions of any kind; but all the same Chief Justice Fuller declared, "I am a friend to Christianity." Hon. George Shiras said, "I am a Christian, of course." The other members of the court refused to be interviewed; but The Christian Herald thinks that all of them are Christians. Senator John L. McLaurin said: "To all your qjuestions. I answer, Yes." Senator B. R. Tillman said: "True Christianity is a very rare thing even in the churches, and he would be a fool who denies the beneficient influ ence of the Christian religion upon men as taught by Christ. It is the best code of morals to live by that has ever been formulated." Profit on Eggs. We have frequently asserted that a farmer, having the ordinary outbuild ings, which can be cheaply transformed into comfortable lhen houses, can add from $100 upwards to his cash receipts annually by keeping fowls. It is someiwhat difficult to get proof of this fact. owing to the neglect of statistics by farmec s. We are glad to find, in Farm-Poultry, a detailed statement in confirmation of our declaration. Our Boston contemporary gives a letter from a man in Maine, who modestly withholds his name and address. Four years ago this farmer took an abandon ed farm in that State, and went into the hen business. He knew nothing about the care of fowls and had to learn some hard lessons. But he started right. With only 25 common scrubs he practiecd the art. His first shelters were an old outbuilding and a barn. H~e wasted nothing on fancy buildings. T1e ti ecoaxd year his stock increased to 175 head; the third year he kept 400. Then he built a hen house, 12x50 feet. The next year he had 550 head, and built two houses, 13x60 and 13x50 re spectively. His flock now numbers 440 head. He lives twelve miles from a roilroad and has to pay twenty-five eents expressage on every crate of'eggs marketed. His fowls are mostly Leg horns. During the year ending last December his sale of eggs alone aver aged $66 52 a month or $798.31 for the year. The net, after expressage, was $773. The price of eggs ranged from 31 to 11 cents: an aver age of a fraction under 16 cents a dozen. Thirty -four shipments went for less than this price, and from the middle of March to the middle of June the price was steady at 11 cents. We compile this showing to demonstrate that the eges pay at the price obtainable in the South. No ac count is made of the increase in flock to the credit. The cost of feed is less in SOME T HING AEOUiT GOVERNORS Oniy Two of Them Have Died Whi:e 1Holding Offic-. Since the ratineation of the constitu tion of the State. June 3, 1790, only two Governors have died in office. Charles Pinckney was governor at that time. In 1S38 Patrick Noble, of Ab beville, was elected governor. The legislature up to the civil war elected the governor. That was done early in December and the inauguration took place a few days after the election. In 1840 Patrick Noble died and was suc ceeded by B. K. Henagan. Lieutenant Governor. That was the first time in the history of the State when a Lieu tenant Governor was called on to fill the executive office. No other governor died while in office until the death of Governor Ellerbe. So far as we know every governor after Noble's time serv ed. his full term until Hampton's time. He was elected governor in 1S76 and again it 1878. Soon after his second electioa lie was elected to the Senate of the United States and Lieutenant-gov ernor, Simpson, succeeded him. Before his termi expired he was elected Chief Justice and J. B. Jeter, president pro tem. of the Senate, took the oath of of fice and was governor for a few months. In 1880 General Johnson Hagood was elected governor. When the election of 1882 came he announced that he was not a candidate for re-election. A scramble for office followed and when the convention seemed to be tending towards a deadlock. Hugh S. Thomp son's name was put forward and he was elected, with John C. Sheppard as Lieutenant-governor. In 1881 Hugh S. Thompson and his entire ticket were re-elected. In July, 1886, Governor Thompson resigned the governorship to accept the office of Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Cleve land. Mr. Sheppard then became gov ernor and served until end of the term. In 1886 John Peter Richardson and W. L. Mauldin as running mate were elect ed, and re-elected in 1888. In 1890 the Tillman regime came in and each governor has served his full term until the death of Governor Ellerbe.-Car) lina Spartan. A Simple Remedy. A writer in one of our exchanges says: "To exterminate bed bugs, fleas and chicken lice: Take of cedar leaves and twigs. a sufficient quantity. If the seeds are on crack open with a hammer. Place in water to boil gently until two thirds has evaporated. The stronger the tea is made the more effective its execution. For bed bugs, take a feath er and apply liberally into all haunts, including mattresses and around base boards, crevices, in walls, etc. If thoroughly done every six months will be sufficient; and I'll guarantee not a bug or egg can be found about the prem ises. For fleas sprinkle liberally about their haunts; and if on a dog take a cupful and with one hand rub the hair the reverse way, dropping on the liquor as the skin is exposed. It will be amusing to see the fleas evacuate. It will kill every one it touches. For chicken lice, sprinkle liberally over roosts in all corners and crevices and especially among the nest straw. A good addition would be to mix cedar leaves among the nest straw. Not a louse will come near it and your chicks will come off perfectly free from the pest. If lice are already on the fowls, better dilute the tea a little and lift the feathers and sprinkle on the bare skin. I have experimented with this agent for four years and it has given un bounded satisfaction. A thorough go ing over the chicken house every 90 days will be amply sufficient. It will kill every louse it touches, and they will flee from it as from a pestilence. Have tried it on roaches but it has lit tle effect. I believe it will kill lice on stock. Will some of our stock owners test it an I report for the general good? Believe it will also kill cabbage worms and perhaps some other garden pests. No Prisons Needed. In Iceland there are no prisoners, and the inhabitants are so honest In their habits that such material de fenses to property as locks, bolts and bars are not required. Yet Its history for the past thousand years records no more than two thefts. Of these two cases one was that of a native who was detected after steal ing several sheep; but as he had done so to supply his family, who were suf fering for want of food, when he had broken his arm, provisions were fur nished to them and worik was found for him when he was able to do it, and meanwhile he was placed under med ical care; but the stigma attached to his crime was considered sufficient punishment. The other theft was made by a German. who stole seventeen sheep. But as he was in comfortable circum stances and the robbery was malicious, the sentence passed upon him was that he should at once sell all his property. S1,25,000 Per Pint. Some of these growths, says a writer, who is describing his visit to a germ farm, are exceedingly expensive. In deed, a rare bacillus seems to be as valuable in its way as a scarce orchid. I was shown, for instance, a species known as the bacillus indicus ruber, which is found only in the stomach of certain monkeys, and for a colony of which a ten-pound note was asked. On the other hand. you can buy enough scarlet fever micrococci to in fect a decent sized town for$2.50, while twice that sum will provide you with a choice collection of fine, healthy typhoid germs. Leprosy bacilli come expensive, though $25 per colony; while as much as $40 is asked for selected colonies of the bacillus of con junctivitis or typhus. This would work out at something like $1.250.000 per pint. ~ Fast .Trains' The high-water mark of European railway progress will probably be touched in Europe by the continental services between the channel ports and Switzerland. There is no train in Europe to match the speed of the Nord de France between Paris and Amiens SI miles in eighty-five minutes. The Basic express covers the distance be tween Basle and London, 595 miles, In fourteen hours and thirty-five min utes. a speed of over forty 3niles an hour, with two frontiers to be crossed and twenty-five miles of sea-crossing. Transparent Stone, A window made entirely of stone has been presented to a French cathe dral. The stone is nephite -found In Siberia-and so beautifully transparent that when placed as it is it catches the sun's rays and reflects them into the interior of the cathedral. Niagara's Channel The truth of the adage about con stant dripping wearing away a stone is strikingly illustrated In the fact that the Niagara River has In 36,000 years cut a channel 200 feet deep, 2,006 feet wide and seven miles long, through solid rock. Many Deaf and Dumb Seven out of every 10,000 inhabItants of the United States are deaf and dumb. The affliction is much less com mon among the negroes than among JEWELS FOR MERMAIDS. Gold and DJamonds at tho Dottom of the Soa. On the Cornish coast, about five miles from the Lizard, it is quite com mon to pick up Spanish dollars which have been washed ashore from the wreck of a galleon which went down in 1784 with a large amount of bullion on board. It is surprising that with all the modern appliances for diving, system atic attempts are not more frequently made to recover treasure from the deep. As early as 1598 a great deal of treas ure was recovered, including the his torical golden cup which once belonged to Frederick, king of Sicily, from the wreck of one of the ships of the "In vincible Armada." In 1680 an American named William Phipps came over from Virginia to this country, and craved the assistance of Charles II. toward recovering some wrecked treasure on the coast of His paniola. Charles provided him with a ship and the necessai-y funds, but the first attempt proved unsuccessful. In a second effort he was financed by the duke of Albemarle, and this time he succeeded in recovering specie to the value of ?200,000, and after pay ing all expenses he was able to give the duke the sum of ?80,000 as his share in the venture. The specie on board H. M. S. Lutine, wrecked in 1799 off the coast of Hol land, amounted to ?1, 200,000, and the whole of this still remains at the bot tom of the sea, with the exception of 299,859 recovered in the y'ear 1859. At tempts to recover the remainder are still being made. Diving operations resulted in the re covery of ?80,000 in gold from the wreck of the ill-fated Royal Charter, which took place close to Moelfra-, off the Anglesea coast, but a vast number of diamonds are still lying about the wreck. Forty thousand pounds in specie was recovered from the wreck of the Ha milla Mitchell, in the Chinese sea, af ter lying in twenty-three fathoms of water for upwards of twenty years, and ?90,000 in gold was saved from the wreck of the Alphonso XII., which was sunk in twenty-six and one-half fath oms of water off the Canary Islands in 1885. Some of the French ships sunk at Trafalga contained vast treasure. Five tons of silver plate, excluding the fa mous silver gates of St. John's Cathe dral, Malta, and a ton and a half of gold plate, mostly studded with jewels, the plunder of the Maltese churches, were on board one of these ships. Not an ounce of this treasure has been recovered. German Speaking Negroes. There is a German negro colony in Pennsylvania, who speak nothing but German. The place is in Lebanon county, and the negroes went there twenty, thirty and forty years ago, and settled amlong the quiet Pennsylvania German farmers of the Blue mountain districts. The colored children grew up on the farms, where they worked, and heard nothing but German spoken. They soon forgot nearly all the Eng lish they knew, and now they rarely speak anything but German. Their children go to English country schools In winter, but as quickly as they are out of sight of their teachers they be gin to talk the German dialect, and nothing else. Eyes That "Make Up" Well. Blue and grey eyes are more effective on the stage than very dark ones. A pair of blue eyes, delicately shaded on the upper lids, with the eyelashes care fully blackened and afterwards combed out, "get over the footlight" in a re markable way; whereas large and nat urally handsome black eyes are apt (unless blue or 'black make-up be prac tically eschewed and the complexion be most carefully toned) to look, In stage parlance, like "burnt holes in a blanket." An Expensive Railway. The underground railway in London was the most expensive to construct of any in the world. Some parts of it cost as much as 1,000 guineas per yard, of ?30 for every Inch. The cost of con structing the Great Western railway was also very great, passing, as It does, through the very hilly districts of Devon and Cornwall. Clever Oysters. Pacific coast bivalves may be lacking in flavor, but they seem to be more up to-date in some ways than those we get in the east, as witness this adver tisement from the Morning Oregonian: "WVanted-Small boy to deliver oysters that can ride a wheel" A Novel Flower. The botanical world Is interested In a novel flower which has been found in the isthmus of Tehauntepec, and which is red when the sun is upon it, white In the morning and blue in the evening. The President's Cup. The President of the United States uses a breakfast cup which is worth SGO. It belongs to a set made to order for the White House at a cost of $5,000. The Earth's Atmosphere. If the earth were not enveloped with atmosphere, the temperature on the surface would be about 330 degrees be low zero Fahrenheit. A Very Long Day. At Wardburg, Norway, the longest day lasts from May 21 till July 22, and in Spitzbergen the longest is three and a half months. Hand-Sewed Boots. There are nearly 3,000 stitches in a pair of hand-sewn boots. An exchange gets off the following: I want to be a farmer and till the virgin soil, and labor in the sunshine to sweat and stew and boil; I want to earn large acres, whereupon the rye to sow, and watch the cornstalk waving, and hear the. mortgage grow; I want to be a farmer, and grow a Hubbard squash, the pumpkin and potatoes, and other stuff, by gosh; I want to be a farmer, I do, upon my soul, but I haven't got the money to buy a gopher hole. On the Trail of a Pensioni. A somewhat pathetic letter comes from an old cciored citizen. It is as follows: "De rain has done beat down my cot ton, an' most er my co'n is done ruint. My son wuz a sojer in de war wid de Spaniels. He lost two legs In It. Do you reckon do guy-ment will give him $2 a leg fer 'em?" Level Sea Bottom. The bottom of the Pacific between Hawaii and California is said to be so level that a railroad could be laid for 500 miles without grading anywhere. This fact was discovered by the United States surveying vessel engaged in makng sondins with :a. vIew of lay. AVAGE ANb FEROCOUS Tite Devil Dancer of Ceylon and Their Mysterious Ways. The real Singhalese devil dancers In Ceylon are ferocious and savage fel lows. Their dances are revolting and horrible. But their profession is.poPu lar and affords a royal living for the men who go into it. There is a super stition among the Singhalese that when a man falls sick he is supposed -to be afflicted by a devil. In crder to rid him of the disease the devil danc ers are called in to propitiate the de mon. Two or more of them go by night to the sick man's house, in front 'of which a small, square inclosure about six feet high, has been made of grasses and palm leaves. This answers the purpose of the green room at a theatre. The men appear at first without masks and with long yellow grass streamers hanging from their head and waists. The only light cast on the scene is by torches, made of sticks, round which pieces of cloth are wrapped, dipped in oiL To the music of a tam-tam, kept up on one note ,the dancers sing a peculiar, wild funeral dirge, in which the spectators often join. The dancers begin by slowly moving about, stretching the right foot and bringing the left up to It, and appear as if they were searching for some thing, during which the singing sounds like crying. They are then asking the devil to appear. There are twenty four different sorts of devils, and after the first part, the dancers are con stantly changing their clothes to repre sent the entire species; some wear masks, some don jaws and terrible teeth reaching to their ears. The jaws open and close in a very realistic man ner. A dance lasts over two nights, as the whole twenty-four devils have all to be personated before the particular de mon who is afflicting the man is pitch ed on. When he gives signs of his presence the dancers go into a sort of frenzy, which increases as he takes possession of them; the tam-tam beats faster and faster, the cnanting grows into yells, the men whirl and stamp and the bells on their ankles jingle and clash. At this stage the dancers appear to be looking for some object to give the devil in sacriftce, and into which he may pass. A chicken is usually offered by the friend of the sick man, and the unfortunate bird is seized upon, twist ed and tormen'ted and bitten between the false teeth, until the dancers, worn out, move slower and slower, and the chicken sinks into a sort of trance, which is a sign that the devil has accepted the sacrifice, and Is will ing to pass from the man into the bird. Speed of an Earthquake. The course which an earthquake. runs is usually very rapid. From the instant when the first shock was felt at Lisbon to the period when all was over, and many thousands of people killed, not more than two minutes had elapsed. Usually from ten to thirtyr:, seconds elapsed between the frst an last shocks of severe earthquake. But this lightning speed is not always the earthquake's mode of traveling. Wile Caracas, in Venezuela, was almost totally destroyed and 12,000 people. were killed in less than twenty seconds by the great shock there many years back,- there are cases In which con stantly recurring shocks have lasted. for weeks. No matter how brief the__ span, the most frightful havoc can be wrought and the wave of destruct ion propagated from the most distant regions. The rumbling earth-sound travels at the rate of about 10,,000 -to 11,000 feet per second, and the earth. wave, on an average, about 1,200 feet in the same space of time. salaries of Presidents.4 Very few persons would suspect how small the salaries of presidents of re publics are, when the enormous sums crowned heads receive are taken Into consideration. TLhe . foreigner .often " thinks the $50,000 salary of the Preul- - dent of the United States Is merely a joke, and that he receives ten times as much in reality, but the same for eigner may not know that the French President, in a country where the wealthiest monachs once reigned, re ceives only $120.000 a year. The President of the little Andorra Re public contents himself with a salary of $15 a year, and the President of the Swiss Republic must be satisfied with $3,000 Demagnetizing a Watch. A simple method of curing-a mag netized watch consists in hanging It from a string, which latter is twisted as tightly as possible, and then hold ing the string and watch near a'dyna mo or strong magnet. The watch Is then released, and, of course, begins to spin, and while doing so is gradually carried away from the dynamo and out of the magnetic field. The demagneti- - zation is due to the rapid alternations of the poles of the magnetized parts in a magnetic field that Is decreasing In intensity. Clever Fishermen. Dutch fishermen make astonishing catches by means of the following very simple plan: They put a number of live worms and insects in a bottle partially filled with water, and then cork it securely. The bottle is dropped into the water, the fishermen sinking his line alongside. It appears that the sight of the wriggling contents of the bottle so excites the appetite of the finny tribes that they fall easy victims to the baited hooks. Eat Raw Ants. Australian savages eat the green ' ants raw. They stamp upon an ant hill until the ants run up their legs, when they scrape them off as fast as they come up and transfer them to their mouths. Steel Billiard Balls As the supply of ivory is becoming short, billiard balls of cast steel are being made In Sweden. By mangn them hollow, the weight is made to correspond with that of ivory balls, The Pope's Gold Ornaments The gold contained in the medals, vessel, chains and other objects pre served in the Vatican \would make more gold coin than the whole of the present European circulation. Royal Knees. The Prince of Wales is the third member of the royal family who has received an injury to the knee. The Queen slipped about fifteen years ago and hurt her knee-an occurrence which has caused her to refrain from unnecessary walking exercise ever since. The late Duke of Albany also fel and injured his knee, an accident which greatly tried his delicate health. Economy in Italy. Marvelous gonomy is practiced by the poor of Italy in looking after the wants of the inner man. Coffee grounds from the wealthy man's kitch en are dried and resold to the poor. In similar way oil is twice and some times three times used, the drippings after each successive frying being gathered from the pan and sold to the poor. The Cashewr Kernel. A highly fiavored nut, known as the cashew kernel, is being imported into Canada for dessert and confectionery uses. It is produced in India only, and its season is from May to November, .but the production is not large, and Im porters must place their orders In ad