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STRAiNIi AS Dr. Talmage Preaches on Human inconsistency. MAKES USE OF AN ANCIENT Epigram to Illustrate the Folly of Mankind. Prone to Mag nify Small Things Heedless of the Great. In this discourse. foundeud on an an cient epigram repeated by Christ. Dr. Talmage illustrates the folly of being very particular about insignificant things while neglectiul of vast concerns The text is Matthew xxiii, 24, -Ye blind guides., which strain at a guat and swallow a camel." A proverb is compact wisdom, knowl edge in chunks, a library in a sentence, the electricity of many clouds dis charged in one bolt, a river put through a mill race. When Christ quotes the proverb of the text, he means to set forth the ludierouz behavior of those who make a great bluster about small sins and have no appreciation of great ones. In my text a small insect and a largi quadruped are brought into com parison--a gnat and a camel. You have in museum or on the desert seen the latter, a great awkward, sprawling creature, with back two stories high and stomach having a collection of res ervoirs for desert travel, an animal for bidden to the Jews as food and in many literatures entitled "the ship of the desert." The gnat spoken of in the text is in the grub form It is born in pool or pond, after a few weeks be comes a chrysalis and then after a few days becomes the gnat as we recognize it. But the insect spoken of in the text is in its very smallest shape, and it yet inhabits the water, for my text is a misprint and ought to read "strain out a gnat." My text shows you the prince of in consistencies. A ian after long ob servation has formed the suspicion that in a cup of water he is about to drink, there is a grub or the grandparent of a gat. He zoes and gets a sieve or strainer. he takes the water and pours it tbrough the sieve in the broad light. He says, "I would rather do anything almost than drink this water until this larva be extirpated." This water is brouirht under inquisition. The ex periment is successful. The water rushes through the sieve and leaves against the side of the sieve the grub or gnat. Then the man carefully removes the insect and drinks the water in pla cidity. But going out one day, and hungry, he devours a "ship of the des ert," the camel, which the Jews were forbidden to eat. The gastronomer has no compunctions of conscience. He suf fers from no indigestion. He puts the lower jaw under the camel's forefoot, and his upper jaw over the hump of the camel's back, and gives one swallow and the dromedary disappears forever. He strained out a gnat, he swallowed a camel. 'While Christ's audience was yet smiling at the appositeness and wit of his illustration-for smile they did, un less they were too stupid to understand the hyperbole-Christ practically said to them, "That is you." Punctilious about small things: reckless about af fairs of great magnitude. No subject ever winced under a surgeon's knife more bitterly than did the Pharisees under Christ's scalpel of truth. As an anatomist will take a human body to pieces and put the pieces under a mi croscope for the examination, so Christ finds his way to the heart otf the dead Pharisee and cuts it out and puts it under the glass of inspection for all generations to examine. Those Phari sees thought that Christ would flatter them and compliment them, and how they must have writhed under the red hot words as he said, "Ye fools, ye whited sepulchers, ye blind guides, which strain out a gnat and swallow a camel." There are in our day a great many gnats strained out and a great many camels swallowed, and it is the object cf this sermon to 'sketch a few persons who are extensively engaged in that business. First, I remark that all those mini+ ters of the gospel who are very scrupu lous about the convevitionalities d :e ligion, but put no particular st o:Ss upon matters of v'ast importance, are photographed in the text- Church ser vices ought to be grave and solemn. rThere is no room for frivolity inrelig ious convocation, but there are illustra tions, and there are hyperboles like that of Christ in the text that will ir radiate with smiles any intelligent au dience. There are men like those blind guides of the text who advocate only those things in religious service which draw the corners of the mouth down and denounce all those things which have a tendency to draw the cor ners of the month up, and these men will go to installations, and to presby teries, and to conferences, and to as sociations, their pockets full of line sieves to strain out the gnats, while in their own churches at home every Sun day there are 50 people sound asleep. They make their churches a great dor mitory, and their somniferous sermons are a cradle and the drawled out hymns a lullaby, while some wakeful soul in a pew, with her fan, keeps the flies off unconscious persons approximate. Now, I say it is worse to sleep in church than to smile in church, for the latter implies at least attention, while the former implies the indifference of the hearers and the stupidi:y of the speak er. In old age, or from physical infirmi ty, or from long watching with the sick, drowsiness will sometimes over power one, but when a minister of the gospel looks off upon an audience and finds healthy and intelligent people struggling with drowsiness it is time for him to give out the doxology or pro nounce the benediction. The great fault of church services today is not too much vivacity, but too much som nolence. The one is an irritating gnat that may be easily strained out, the othe~r is a great, sprawling and sleepy eyed camel of the dry desert. in all our Sabbath schools, in all our Bible classes, in all our pulpits, we need to brighten up our religious message with such Christlike vivacity as we find in the text. I take down from my library the biographies of ministers and writers of the past ages, inspired and uanpired, who have done the most to bring souls te Jesus Christ, and I find that, with out a single exception, they consecra ted their wit and their humor to C hrsit. Elijah used it when he adised the Baalites, as they could not make thieir god respond, to call louder, as their god might be sound asleep or grone a-hunting. Job used it when he Nisde; wil d ieto. Chi o only -t-ed it in the text. b:t vhcn ironically, conplimented the corrupt l'haris. =3ying. -The whole need not aL dvSician." and when, by one word, ie described the cunning of Herod, savin,, "Go ye. and tell that fox." Matthew leiry's commentaries from the first page to the last corruseated with humor as summer clouds with heat lightnin,. John 'Bunyan's writings are as full of humor as they are of saying truth, and thwre is not an atced man here who has ever read "P1ilgrims Progress," who does not remlember that while reading it he smiled as ofte as he wept. Chry sostel, George Herbert, Robert South, George -Whiteield. Jeremy Taylor, lowlandl lill, Ashnel Nettleton,Charles G. Finner and all the men of the past who greatly advanced the kingdomn of God! consecrated thir wit and their humor to the cause of Christ. So it has been in all the ages, ard I say to all our young theological students, Sharpen your wits until they are as keen as scimiters and then take them into this holy war. It is a very short bridge be tween a smile and a tear, a suspension brideo from eye to lip, and it is soon CrOsSed over, and a smile is sometimes iust a, sacred as a tear. There is as nueh religion, and, I think, a little more in a spring morning than in a star less midnight. ieligious work without any humor or wit in it is a banquet with a side of beef, and that raw, and no condiments and no dessert succeed ing. People will not sit down to such a banquet. By all means remove all frivolity and all pathos and all lightness and vulgarity. Strain them out through the sieVe of holy discriminuation, but, on the other hand. beware of that wons ter which overshadows the Christian church todav--conventionally-conming up from the great Sahara desert of ec clesiasticism.' having on its back a humn 0f sanetimonius gloom, and vehenently refuse to swollow that canmel. )h. how particular a great many pen ple are about the infinitesiials while they are quite rockless about the mag nitudes! What did Christ say? Did lie not excoriate the people in his time who were so careful to wash their hands before a meal, but did not wash their hearts? It is a bad thing to have un clean hands. It is a worse thing to have an unclean heart. How many people there are in our time who are very anxious that after their death they shall be buried with their faces toward the east and not at all anxious that dur ing their whole life they should face in the right direction, so that they shall come up in the resurrection of the just, whichever way they are buried! How many there are chiefly anxious that a minister of the gospel shall come in the line of apostolic succession, not caring so much whether he comes from Apos tles Paul or Apostle Judas! They have a way of measuring a gnat until it is larger than a camel. Again, my subject photographs all those who are abhorrant of small sins while they are reckless in regard to magnificent thefts. You will find many a merchant who, while he is so careful that he would not take a yard of cloth or a spool of cotton from the counter without paying for it, and who, if a bank cashier should make a mistake and send in a roll of bills $5 too much, would dispatch a messenger in hot haste to return the surplus, yet who will go into a stock company, in which after awhile he gets control of the stock, and th en waters the stock and makes $100, 000 appear like $200,000. He only stole $100,000 by the operation. Many of the men of fortune made their wealth in that way. One of those men engaged in such unrighteous acts that evening, the even ing 'of the day when he watered the stock, will find a wharf rat stealing a daily paper from the basement door way and' will go out and catch the urchin by the collar and twist the col lar so tightly the poor fellow has no power to say that it was thirst for know ledge that led him to the dishonest act, but grip the collar tighter and tighter. saying: "I have been looking for you a long while. You stole my paper four or five time.s, haven't you, you miser able wroteh?" And then the old stock gambier, with a voice they can hear three blocks, will cry out, "Police, po lice!" That same man the evening of the day in which he watered the stock will kneel with his family in prayers and thank God for the propsperity of the day, then kiss his childien good night with an air which seems to say, "I hope you all will grow up to be as good as your father." Prisons for sins insectile in size, but palaces for crimes dromedarian. No mercy for sins ani malcule in propoition but great leniency for mastodon iniquity. A poor boy sly ly takes from the bosket of a market woman a choke pear-saving sonme one else from the cholera-and you smother him in the horrible atmdosphiere of Ray mond Street jail or New York Tombs, while his cousin, who has been skillful enough to steal 8'50.000) trom the city, you make a candiate for the state leg lature. There is a good deal of uneasiness and nervousness now among some people in our time who' have not got unrighteous fortune,- a great deal of uneasiness about dynamite. I tell them that God will put unler their unrighteous for tunes something more explosive than dynamite-the earthquake of his omni potent indignation. It is time that we learn in America that sin is not escusa be in proportion as it declares large dividends and has outriders in equip ae. Mlany a man is riding to perdi doo, postilion ahead and lackey be ind. To steal one copy of a. newspa per is a gnat to steal many thousands of dollars is a camel. There is many a fruit dealer who would not consent to steal a basket of peaches from a neigh bors stall, but who would not scruple to depress the fruit market, and as long as I can remember we have heard every summer the peach crop of Maryland is a failure, and by the time the crop comes in the misrepresentation makes a diference of millions of dollars. A man who would not steal one basket of peaches steals 5O.0,00 baskets of peaches. Go down into the public library, in the reading rooms, and see the newspa per reports of the crops from all parts of the country, anc their phraseology is very nmuch the same, and the same men wrote them, methedically and infam ously carrying out the huge lying about the grain crop from year to year and for a score of years. After awhile there will be a "corner" in the wheat market, and men who had a contempt for petty Itheft will burglarize the wheat bin of a nation and commit larceny upon the American corn crib. And some o the men will sit in churches and in reformatory institutions trying to strain out the small gnats of scoundrelisnm while in their grain eleva tors and in their storehouses they arc fattening huge camels which they ex pet after awhile to swallow. Society has to be entirely reconstructed on this subject. We arc to find that a sin is Iinexusable in proportion as it is great. I know in our time the tendency is to charge religious frauds upon good men. They say, "O)h, what a host of frauds day" And bne kmrf 01 a uren. ora dacon. or a minister of thc gospel, or a superintendent of a Sabbath school turns out a defaulter, what display heads there are ii many of the newspa pers! Great primer type. Five line pica. "Another Saint Absconded," "Clerical Scoundrelism," "Religion at a Discount," while there are a thous and scoundrels outside the church to one inside the church, and the misbe havior of those who never see the in side of a church is so great that it is enough to tempt a man to become a Christian to get out of their company. But in all circles, religious and irreli gious, the tendency is to excuse sin in proportion as it is mammoth. Even John Milton in his "Paradise Lost," while he condemns satan, gives such a grand description of him you have hard work to withhold your admiration. Oh, this straining out of small sins like gnats and this gulping down great iniq uities like camels! This subject does not give the pic ture of one or two persons. but is a gal lery in which thousands of people may see their likenesses. For instance, all those people who, while they would not rob their neighbors of a farthing, appro priate the money and the treasure of the public. A man has a house to sell, and he tells his customer it is worth $20,000. Next day the assessor comes around and the owner says it is worth -15,000. The government of the United States took off the tax from per sonal income, among other reasons be cause so few people would tell the truth, and many a man with an income of hundreds of dollars a day made state ments which seemed to imply he was about to be handed over to the over seer of the voor. Careful to pay their passage frotu Liverpool to New York, yet smuggling in their Saratoga trunk ten silk dresses from Paris and a half dozen watches from Geneva, Switzer land, telling the custom house officer on the wharf, there is nothing in that trunk but wearing apparel," and putting a five dollar gold piece in his hand to punctuate the statement. Described in the text are all those who are particular never to break the law of grammar and who want all their language an elegant specimen of syn tax, str'aining out all the inaccuracies of speech with a fine sieve of literary criticism, while through their conversa tion go slander and innuendo and pro fanity and falsehood larger than a whole caravan of camels, when they might better fracture every law of the ls uage and shock their intellectual ta. and better let every verb seek in o. for its nominative, and every noun . r its government, and let every prop 'i. tion lose its way in the sentence, a.,d adjectives and participles and pronoins get into a grand riot worthy of 1he Fourth ward vf New York on elect:ion day, than to commit a moral inaccurac'y. Better swallow a thousand gnats than one camel. Such persons are also described in the text who are very much alarmed about the small faults of others and have no alarm about their own great transgressions. There are in every community and in every church watch dogs who ftel called upon to keep their eyes on others and growl. They are full of suspicions. They wonder if this man is not dishonest, if that man is not unclean, if there is not something wrong about the other man. They are always the first to hear of anything wrong. Vultures are always the first to smell carrion. They are self ap pointed detectives. I lay this down as a rule without any exception, tha't those people who have the most faults themselves are most merciless in their watching of others. From scalp of head to sole of foot they are full of jealousies and hypercriticisms. They spend their life in hunting for muskrats and mud turtles instead of hunting for Rocizy mountain eagles, always for some thing mean instead of something grand. They look at their neighbors' imperfec tions through a microscope and look at their own imperfections through a tele scope upside down. Twenty faults of their own do not hurt them so much as one fault of somebody else. Their neighbors' imperfections are like gnats, and they strain t'hem out; their own im perfections are like camels, and they swallow them. But lest too many might think they escape the scrutiny of the text, I have to tell you that we all come under the divine satire when we make the ques tions of time more prominent than the questions of eternity. Come now, let us all go into the confessional. Are not all tempted to make the question, Where shall I live now? greater than the question, Where shall I live forev er? Ilow shall I get more dollars here? greater than the question, How shall I lay up treasures in heaven? the ques tion, How shall I pay my debts to man? greater than the question, Ihow shall I meet my obligations to God? the qlues tion, How shall I gain the world? greater than the question, What if I lose my soul? the question, Why did God let sin come into the world? great er than the question, How shall [ get it extirpated from my nature? then si - tion, What shall I do with the: 2' uir l or 70 years of my sublunar existemec? greater than the question, What shall do with the millions of' cycles of my past terrestrial existence? Time-how small it is! Eternity-how vast it is! The former more insignificant in com parison with the latter than a gnat is insignificant when compared with a camel. We dodged the text. We said. "That does not mean me,. and that does not meaLn me," and with a ruinous be nevolence we are giving the whole ser mon away. But let us all surrender to the charge. What an ado about things here! What poor preparation for a great eternity! As though a minnow were larger than a behemoth, as though a swallow took wider circuit than an albatross, as though a nettle were taller than a Leba non cedar, as though a gnat were great er than a camel, as though a minute were longer than a century, as though time were higher deeper and broader than eternity. So the text which flashed with lightning of wit as Christ uttered it is followed by the crashing thunders of awful catastrophe to those who make the questions of time greater than the (questions of the future, the oncoming, overshadowing future. Oh! Eternity! Eternity! Eternity! Killed by a Wall. A dispatch to The State from Pied mont, S. C., says: "G. W. Shidtoni was killed here this morning. Joseph Austin and WV. B. Bryant w're proba bly fatally injured. RI. A. Ponetr had his leg broken. R~obt. Freeman had his shoulder dislocated and arm broken. Calaway Smith, N. P. Fleming and Jack West were painfulhy injured. They were all at work on a warehouse being built for the Piedmont M1anufac turing company when at about 11 o'clock the centre brick wall, which was fully 30 feet high, suddenly caved in, burying Shelton, wh, was instantly killed, and inflicting ig.uries on the the others as above stated. All that medical skill can do is being done for the injured. The verdict of the coro ner's jury was that G. W. Shelton camne to his death by the accidental falling of the fieait" ThN CROPS -iN WEATHER. What the Department of Agriculture Says About Them. At the beginning of the week end ing July 17th the temperature was lower than usual, but with steadily in ci asing heat up to Saturday (15th) on which date it rose to from 96 to 105 degrees except on the imiicdiate coast. The extreme maximum of 105 is the highest ever recorded r;t Columbia. The tropic heat coninued to the close of the week. With the exception of quite general but light showers throughout the State on the 8th. and in t few places on the 11h, there has been no rain of any consequence in two weeks, and over the greater portion of the State the need of moisture is urgent to maintain the condition of the various crops; in deed, over the central r.nd western counties, crops are fast failing under the combined influence of pr.longed torrid heat and extreme dryness Water courses are very low, and stock water is becoming scarce. Desicating winds, too, aided in drying the soil and vege tation, but made the beat more endura ble for animals. For the first time this season, the majority of the reports are unfavor able on cotton, relating that growth has practically stopped, that the plants are losing their prr.vioas healthy color, and are shedding leaves and squares, and are blooming to the very top. Gen erally they are well fruited with bolls. In Marion, Marlboro and Cherokee coanties the crop is unimpaired. Sea island cotton continues to do well, but in places is blighting. Old corn is suffering severely from the dryn;ss, and much is injured be yond recuperation even shoiuld it rain soon. At a few points only is corn up to au average condition. Young corn has not reached its critical stage of growth and generally maintains its color, but ii not making seasonable growth. Tobacco has improved. Gathering aad curing has made rapid progress. The crop is yielding well, and some fields excellently. Nearly all but the very latest plart ings of rice have been laid by, and as eiterpillars am no loruger trouble:ome, crop is in fine shape. Upland rice is, however, suffering for rain. I Melon vines are failing. Peas dying, a'd a:reage reduced. Pastures and gar dens are Lurning up. Pears, apples, grapes and figs are plentiful in Char lerton, but the commercial crop of fruit throughout the State is szxall. Grapes are ripening over the eastern counties. The Value of Cornstalks. The farmers have reason to regard with aversion our numerous tariff-pro teoted trusts, but the farmers on the prairie lands of the West at least will probably view with favor the fifty-mil lion-dollar cornstalk trust whi.h is be in; organized, it is stated, to make a market for the 250,000,000 tons of corn stalks that go to waste every year. The cornstalk is to be developed by the new trust into a commercial commodity, as cotton seed were a few years ago, and it is believed that "there are millions in it." According to the New York Commercial our farmers have hitherto been throwing away $900,000,000 a year in stalks. The yield of stalks aver ages three tons to the acre, the acreage averaging 80,000,000, and but a frac tion of this is utilized as fodder. iDur ing the last twenty years our farmers have destroyed, it is estimated by the 'Commercial,' $18,000,000,000 worth of their product-a value equal to the sum total of their mortgages plus the public debt. This sum the new trust proposes to enable the farmers to put in their pockets during the nest score of years. Six different commodities are now being manufactured from corn stalks-namely, cellulose, worth $400 a ton, used by the Government as an au tomatic hole-stopper for battleships, excellent cardboard, a fine grade of pa per, an unequalled foundation for dy namite, a patent cattle food, and a su perior glue. The value of the cellulose lining for warships is well known. When a leak develops the cellulose swells in such a manner as to automat ically close it. With fifteen tons of stalks, worth $90, one ton of such eel lulose is made, for which, as already stated, the Government is now paying at the rate of $400 a ton. Two facto ries-one in Riockfort, Ill., and another in Owensboro. Ky.-are now making coi nstalk cellulose, together with~ other products of less value. As respects the cornstalk cattle food, it is stated that the stalks, when ground to a coarse meal, cooked, sweetened with molasses, and pressed into cakes, form one of the most nutritive and valuable foods yet placed on the market. The absorptive power of cellulose dust fits it admiira box for the manufacture of dynamite by upsi with~ nitroglycerine, such dust rbnie s nror even to gun cotton. Five icurie, says the Commercial. are to be at once erected. in addition to those already in operation. The more the better It is the good for tr~e of the proposed comzbine that it will, if successful, have for its object to enlarge. or, in fact, crente. an industry, not to stifle it. Street Car Strike. New York and Brooklyn are now hay ing to contend with a strike of conside rable magnitude from the operatives of the rapid transit lines of the city, and hundreds of policea.n are constantly called into service to quell alleged dis turbances from the strikers. It seems the strikers have mucli sy mpathy from the puibic. TrIIE Grand Army pest at SprinE ill, Kas , is getting blasphemous. Recently it adopted a resolution that "it is just and proper to invoke a just God to remove a president that retains H. Clay Evans as pension commission er" When God 'removes" a ma lhe is dead. This Kanoas pot. therefore. wants the rithi of the president. But it shou:ild. h I me specific. Harrison and To ir died during office from nat ural causes, Lincoln and Garfield by as sassinat ion. Does the post want the president promptly murdered or does it merely want some mortal disease to smite him? The first honor man of the South Carolina College this year is J. E. Swearingen, a blind man and a nephew of Senator Tillman. Mr. Swearingen is totally blind and studied his lessons by getting his college mates to read to him. Hie is said to be posssessed of a wonderful mind, and he proposes to become a lawyer. -'Marvelous, indeed, is the age in which cowless milk is sold from horse less wagons, exclaims the Chattanooga THE DISMSARY SYTEhM. What a Northern Visitor Has to Say About It. Paul Standish writes as follows to the Boston Transcript regarding the dispen sary system: South Carolina's legislation in two particulars stands out in bold con trast to that of all other states of the Union. First. It has no divorce laws, and no divorce has ever been granted in the history of the state. Second. Its liquor law is utterly unlike that of any other in Christendom. The writet recently spent five months in the city of Aiken and had abundant opportunity to study the character and working of the dis pensary law. Ile came away an unhe sitating convert to its wisdom and practicabiLity. Aiken has a resident population of 3.500, with 1,000 North ern visitors in the winter. More than half the residents are Negroes, and the average Negro is far from being a teeto taller, and yet in five months of con tinued observation I did not see five in toxicated person. Stand with me a half hour in the Aiken dispensary and see what tran spires. The establishment is on the main street, and is a single room 100 feet long by perhaps thirty wide. A small space opposite the door, shaped like the letter V with its apex cut off is for the public; all the rest is for the dispenser and his goods. The s: ace for customers is not more than ten feet long by six at its widest end; a high fence encloses it, save at its apex, where the customer makes his purchase. No seats of any sort welcome the visitor. There is no counter to lounge upon the fence prevents. No glasses wait to be filled-no pic tures hang on the wall-no crackers and cheese speak the pleasant language of hospitality-no tempting odors salute the nostrils. Oaly bottles (sealed ones) adorn the shelves. There is no para phernalia for mixing drinks. There is no disnlay of goods in the windows. All is plain, unattractive, inhospitable. Wait-here comes a customer. Watch him! Ile walks to the hole in the fence, says to the dispenser, "I want a pint of whiskey," names the grade he wishes and signs a blank form put be fore him. The dispenser passes him a sealed h-.tle which the purchaser puts in his pocket aud immediately walks away. Two men come in together. Each makes his purchase and pays for it and they go out together. How striking the contrast between this matter-of-fact commercial transaction and the way things go on in a typical Boston saloon! No treating here; no longing; no click ing of glasses and drinking of health; no clubroom this for the young men of the village; no insidious attractions to tempt the boys. It is the use of alco holic liquors as a beverage rid of all the gilded trappings that are responsible for at least a half of all the intemper ance of the land. It is said that no man ever pays for his first drink. Somebody always gives it to him. Abolish the abominable treating cus tom and you immediately reduce drink ing enormously. Abolish the saloon, that is, its social attractions, and you reduce drinking as much more. The dispensary does both. What are the fundamental principles of this unique law? They are only three, viz., these: First, the sale of pure liquor only by the state alone; second, payment of fixed salaries to the men who sell; third, no drinking on the premises. Remote either of these and the whole structure falls to the ground. Retain all, and there is only one more step to take, and that is the absolute destruction of the traffic. Selling liquor on a salary and selling for a profit are as unlike as light and darkness. Into the last comes the mighty factor of avarice, only equalled in its strength by that other resistless impulse, appetite. License brings into working contact these two forces, and the result is inevitable and dire disas ter. Under the dispensary system avar ice ceases to act. There is no induce ment whatever to the dispenser to in crease his sales. Should he do so he would simply work harder for the same money. Appetite, alone and hamper ed is thus the main factor in the prob lem. Is it not plain upon the face of it that such a system must greatly re duce the sale of liquor? Do the varied and seductive attractions of the saloon count for nothing--the tempting win dow displays, the brilliant lights, the free lunch, the comiradleship? Is it any wonder the arrests for drunkenness in 18 cities and towns of South Carolina were 576 during the last si-. months under license, and only 283 during the first six months under the dispensary? Who can doubt that sim ilar effects would follow similar causes in this and other states? The regula tions imposed upon the dispensers are most salutary. No sales are permitted to minors, intoxicated persons 'r hab itual drunkards, or between sunset and sunrise, or on Sundays or holidays, and no loafing is permitted. If the dispenser is warned by one member of a family and does so, his bodsman can be muleted $200 fur each offence. The dispensary law has suffered attacks more bitter and more powerful perhaps than any legislation in the history of our country, but has triumphantly withstood them all, and practically silenced all, Ridicule and argument-the shot zu'is an d the courts (all but the highest) have struc-k it blow after blow. A year ago it looked as though it had re ceived its death blow in the repeated decisions of Judge Simonton, United States Circuit Judge, who emasculated the law by his injunctions and opin ions, thereby flooding the state with ".'P.., (original package) shops, run by "agents" from other states, and making ridiculous the state dispensa ries. But the final appeal to the high est authority, the United States su preme court, resulted in a magnificen victory for the dispensary. The de. ision uphld the law; closed every 0. IP thi; in 24 hours: routed the ene uis of the dispensary in tumultuous fgrht, and established the right of a sovereign state to regulate, as it pleases, the liquor traffic-yes, even to monopo lize it for the public good. A fair specimen of the style >f criti cism which the dispensary has been made the subject of may be found in the September, 1893, number of the North American Review, where Mayo Chaffee, of Aiken, bitterly attacks the law, characterizing it as paternalism run mad; as an abominable injustice to the liquor sellers, who were entitled to compensation when thus driven out of a business in which, naturally, they ex pected to remain for life: as a serious blow to the prosperity of the state since merchants (especially wholesale and retail liquor dealers) had moved to other states. But his sense of justice compelled him to say at the end of his letter: "The new system, however, is not totally bad. There has been a marked decrease of drunkenness since pality of' which the kritcr is th chie executive officer the police haxc not made an arrest for drunkenness since July 1st." THE STATE MILITIA. Adjutant General Floyd Issues a Very Important Order. The Columbia State says: A great many difficulties have been encountered in the effort to bring the State militia up to a creditab-le standard and much time has been consumed in getting the various organizations to understand what would be expected of them under the reorganization. The following gen eral order issued Wednesday, however, shows that the time has arrived to shape things and that Gen. Floyd pro poses to have a militia force that will be a credit to the State or none at all. The last two paragraphs of the order make such provisions: Columbia, July 20, 1899. General Order No. 4. Par. 1. The mustering of the State volunteer troops and national guard that have not been mustered into ser vice, and the annual inspection of com panies that have complied with general orders Nos. 2 and 3, will commence Aug. 10, 1899, and continue until com pleted. Par. 2. Companies will be inspected at their respective places of meeting and timely nntice of the arrival of the inspecting officer will be duly forward ed to all companies enrolled. Par. ". The comanding officer of com panies are hereby ordered to have all State property, funds, books, etc., on hand ready for inspection together with a complete inventory of same in order that delay mry be avoided. Par. 4. In conducting the approach ing inspection companies are hereby warned that unless a creditable knowl edge of the manual of arms, evolutions, etc., is clearly demonstrated at the in spection, and a mark of 60 attained dis bandment of companies failing will be ordered. Par. 5. While geographical condi tions and the distribution of companies according to the statutes of the State must and will be duly considered, nev ertheless the report of the inspector as per paragraph four will be strictly ad hered to, and assignment of companies to the active or reserve branches of the service thereby determined. By order. Gen. Floyd. Official: John D. Frost, A. A. and I. Gen. TWO FAITHFUL DOGS. The Coroner of Richland Had an Ex citing Fight With Them. William Ric':.ardson, a colored man, was fo'und dead Wednesday evening a few miles below the city. He was al out 55 years old and has been very feeble. Notwithstanding the prote:;ts of his wife he went out in the morning to shoot a young rabbit as a relish for dinner. The old single barrel gun he carried ha. been patched up by having tin twisted and nailed about the barrel and stock. Even with the smallest charge of powder and shot it was a dan gerous weapon to fire. Probably if he had come across s. young rabbit the coroner woul' have had to hold an in quest anyway and the rabbit would have been safely ensconced in its ned. But he hadn't gone far when his physi cal nature naturally gave way and the old man naturally fell to the ground on his Yace, his gun being under him- He had two dogs of dogs of m can lineage with him, one being a half setter, and the other a common cur 'yellow dog." But they both kept vigil over the body of their master. The first man to dis cover the body gas a Negro who ap proached it, but the two dogs attacked hirn ravagely and he ran. They did not foilow but went back to guard the body. Coroner Green was notified and with Dr. C. C. Johnson he went to where the body lay. A man named Will'ams was with them. Mr. Green jumped from his buggy and started to the body, when the two dogs made a vicious onslaught on him. He defen ed himself with his whip and notwith standing the lashes he gave them, the dogs still advanced and the coroner -was retreating. It looked for i moment as if the dogs would tear him to ;'ieces, and he called for assistance. Neither of those with him coming to his aid, he took the butt of his whip and after a fight with the dogs, lasting full fifteen minutes, the coroner succeeded in beat ing them off. H~e now has great re spect for the much maligned "yaller dog" and believes a man has no better friend, when they once-become attach ed to ene. TJ.hc body of i~he deal was bro'.ghit to the colored hospital last night and, after a post mortem exami nation, the jury returned a verdict that the deceased came to his death fromi heart disease.-Columnbia Record. A Good.Showing. Reliable poultry statistics that are of practical value are difficult to get, for the reason that not one poultry raiser out of a hundred in this section even pretends to keep a record. Mr. H.-.1b Inman. of Yorkville, however, gavc the reporter of the Enjuirer recently sonme figures that are quite interestingr. "Since January last up to today," said Mr. Inman, "I have had 263 Brown Leghorn hens, and in the time mention ed they have laid 225 dozen egg:s. A great many of these eggs, I have sold at a dollar a setting, but at 123 cents per dozen the gross inc-ome would ha~ve amounted to $28.12l. During this time, the hens have cost on account of feed and other expenses $11.80, leav ing a net profit of $16. 32, and the hens practically of the same value as at the beginning of the year." Accordinig to these figures it would seem that chick en raising is a pretty good business, es pecially if the chickens arc leoked after properly, and accorded intelligent at tention. The Enquirer' says there are several other poultry raisers in York ville who are in the business as exten sively as Mr. Inma-n, and perhaps some of them may be able to report results even more satisfactory. THlE Lexington IDispatch meets the proposition of The State to consolidate Richland and Lexington counties with ridicule. The Dispatch will find that ridicule will not do in this case. Look at the State's proposition from any standpoint you please and there is merit in it. WXe would therefore ad vise The Dispatch to treat the matter more seriously, andhu nt up some facts to off-set the ones presented by The State. The proposition cannot be rediculed out of existerce. It will take stubborn facts, and plenty of them, to kill it. Can the Dispatch array them? The latest wonder to have been dis covered by Kansas is the "raspberry, stawberry,' grown by one P. Hi. Hart man. "'It is a beautiful red berry," says the Kansas City .Journal, "looks very much like a stawberry. It has flavor resembling a mixture of straw berry and rastberry. It is easy of cul tivation and is a very handsome frii ABSLUTELY P Makes the food more deli ROYAL 9AKNG POWI AN OLD SUPERSTITION Many stories Prove That Rats Will Leave an Unseaworthy Vessel. The old superstition, which has grown into an adage, that rats desert a ship which is no longer seaworthy, is still an article of faith with the fresh water sailors of the great lakes. Sundry well-authenticated instances seem to justify this belief. The Ver non was a three-master, which did a tramp business. Built in Buffalo in 1850, she was for many years regard ed as one of the best craft on the lakes. Late in the fall, about fifteen years ago, she unloaded a cargo of grain in Buffalo, and reloaded with package freight for Chicago. She was about to sail one rough November night Just before the lines were let off, one of the seamen saw a rat run over the hawsers to the wharf. In a moment another was seen. The seaman called others of the crew to see the unusual sight. Between fifty and seventy-five rats poured out of the ship and took refuge along the wharf. The crew re fused to sail, but the captain was ob stinate, shipped a. fresh crew, and sail ed forthwith. The ship was lost with all hands. The Idaho, a fine passenger steamer, foundered in Lake Erie in November, 1897. Out of her crew of twenty-one men nineteen were drown ed. Just bfore the vessel left her moor ings a swarm of rats crawled over the hawsers to the wharf. This was known to part of the crew, and four men de serted at the last moment. Similar stories are told of other wrecked ves sels, and an old lakeman says: "It has been proved a hundred times. There are a whole lot of things in this world that we don't know arything about. Rats live in the very filcrs of a ship. They see what we can't see. When the timbers are hollowed and the seams open, these little animals know that the ship is unsafe, and they desert it" Music In the Sierras. Travelers In the Sierra forests usu ally complain of their want of life, es pecially of birds. "The trees," they say, "are fine, but the emp':y stillness is deadly; there are no animals to be seen, no birds. We have not heard a so'g In all the woods." And no won der, going in large parties with mules and horses, making so much noise, dressed in outlandish, unnatural col ors, every animal shuns them. Even the frightened pines would run away if they could. But nature lovers, de vout, silent, open-eyed, alert, looking and listening with love, sitting still here and there for hours or days, as their genius directs, find no lack of inhabitants in these mountain man sions, and they come to them gladly. Not to mention the large animals or the small insect people every waterfall has its ouzel, and every tree its squir rel or tamias, or bird-tiny nuthatch threading the furrows of the bark, cheerily whispering to itself as it deft ly pries off loose scales and examines the curled edges of lichens, or Clarke crow, or jay, examining the cones, or some singer-oriole, tanager, warbler, resting, feeding, attending to domestic affairs. Hawks and eagles sail over head, and grouse walk in happy fiocks below, and the song sparrow sings in every bed of chaparral. There is no crowding, to be sure. Unlike the low Eastern trees, those of the Sierra in the main forest belt average nearly 200 feet in height, and of course many birds are required to, make much of a show in them, and many voices to fill them. Nevertheless, the whole range from foothills to snowy summits is shaken Into song every summer; and though low and tin in winter, the music never ceases. Prompt Mr. scott. A certain Mr. Scott, of Exeter, Eng., whose business required him to travel constantly, was one of the most fa mous characters for punctuality in the kingdom. By his methodical habits, combined with unwearied industry, he accumulated a large fortune. For a great many years the landlord of every inn in Cornwall and Devon that he visited knew the exact day and hour he would arrive. A short time before he died, at the advanced age of eighty, a gentleman who was making a jour ney through Cornwall put up at a small inn at Port Isaac for his dinner. He looked over the bill of fare, and found nothing to his liking, Hie had, however, seen a fine duck roasting on the fire. "I'll have that," said he. "You cannot, sir," replied the land lord, "it is for Mr. Scott, of Exeter." "I know Mr. Scott very well," re plied the traveller. "He is not in your house." "Very sorry," said the landlord, "but six months ago, when he was last here. ie ordered the duck to be ready for him this day, exactly at 2 o'clock." And to the amazement of the travel er, who chanced to look from the win dow, the old gentleman was at that moment entering thle inn yard, about. five minutes before the appointed time. A Curious Collection. One of the most remarkable collec tions or souvenirs ever made is a col lection of male opera hats by one of the actresses of a London company. She owns no fewer than 216 of these articles, for it was her whim to make every young man who was introduced to her give her his opera hat as a souvenir. She not only keeps them in their pristine condition, but converts them into all sorts of other things, such as photograph frames, work baskets, and some are even used for the purpose of holding flower pots. The Chinese are said to remove the pulp from oranges and substitute vari ous jellies. The closest examination fails to reveal any openiing or incision in the skin of the t rit. Very few persons would suspect how small the salaries of presidents of re publics are, when the enormious sums crowned heads receive are taken into consideratIon. '1 he foreigner often thinks the $50.000 salary of the Presi 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. T he 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 L 104KNOC POWDER . UJRE cious and wholesome R CO, NEW YORU. UPPER REGIONS OF THE AIR. Unexplored Space More Interesting ThSa the North Pole. Above there extends a vast unex plored space far more interesting from a scientific point of view than the icy regions around the north pole. No one can reach the limit of the upper re gions of the air and live, unless he car ries with him air to breathe and fuel to warm him, for at the paltry distance of ten miles above the earth the air is too thin to support respiration, and the thermometer would register far '-".q below zero. It would be a region of perpetual snow on a peak of the earth if it should rise to such a height. A person in a balloon could not hear a friend in a neighboring balloon, even if they were near enough to shake hands. There would be no medium for the propagation of sound waves. There would, however, still be a me dium for the conduction of electricity -a medium in fact of great conducti bility-almost as good as a metal, and it is this medium at even a less height which Tesla proposes to use in his methods of transmitting power hun dreds of miles through the air without wires. We live under a blanket of air which protects us from the extreme cold of outer space. This low temperature be comes evident fourteen or fifteen thousand feet above the surface of the earth, and would, as I have said, reach a point far below zero at a height of ten miles. At this height we should no longer observe the twinkling of the stars, for this scintillation is due to the movements of our atmosphere, which at the height I have mentioned would be extremely rarified. If one could photograph the sun's spectrum - at this altitude we could greatly ex tend our -knowledge of the shortest wave lengths of light; for the atmos phere completely absorbs such wave lengths as are concerned in the X-ray phenomena. That this absorption really takes place can be proved in a laboratory. The heat and light which we receive from the sun are greatly modified by this blanketing layer of air. The long waves of the energy from the sun are called heat waves. The Intermediate waves are termed light waves, and we receive these in full measure. The very short waves, however, are stopped by our atmosphere and are transformed into-what? The Worth of a Match. How much may depend on a seeming trifle is shown in the incident on the lumber schooner, Johanna Swan, which was abandoned in a gale off Hatteras. The cabins were flooded and the water supply had given out In four days the sailors had not tasted water. To drink the brine of the sea was to Induce tortures and endure a 2nore deadly thirst than ever. There was a tank holding three gallons that could be fashioned into a condenser and the mate and a sailor so convert ed it. A piece of the schooner's rail, ,i dry and full of resin, was chopped off 7 for fuel, and now all that was neces sary was a match. A search revealed just one match, that the captain bad stowed in a dry pocket If that went out, woe be to them. But after sput tering for a moment, it blazed up, the shavings caught, the- fire was set, the water boiled and the drip from the steam was enough to provide a drink for every man-pretty smoky water, but as welcome as cocktails, under the circumstances. A German bark heard their bell and took off the crew before its perils and sufferings became more serious. A condensing apparatus of a simple sort would not be a bad thing to take on all craft, considering the possibilities of ill fortune that follow the toilers of the sea. Ears Beat Eyes. Most people would no doubt be in clined to fancy that the eye was the gateway of quite the most delicate of all our senses. But this is not so. The sense of hearing has been proved to be far the most delicate of all the senses. And the sense of .touch appears- to be perhaps the keenest of all. The tests are very simple. For testing sight a disc half black, half white is revolved quickly before the eyes. When it reaches a speed of twenty-four revolutions a second the colors cease to appear distinctly any longer to the eye, and the result is gray. For sound a revolving toothed wheel makes a series of clicks, and these to the average man appear dis tinct sounds up to sixty a second. Al ter that they cannot be - distinguished apart. The sense of touch Is tried by rapid blows of a tiny electric hammer on the skin. Up to 1,000 a second these blows have been felt separate and distinct. How a Gol d Field Was Discovered. A novel way of discovering a gold field was recounted by the agent gen eral for western Australia. In 1888 the Mallina gold field was discovered by a lad in this wise: The boy, In picking up a stone to throw at a crow, observed a speck of gold In It, and re ported it to the nearest resident magis trate. The magistrate was so excited a-t the news that he telegraphed to the then governor, and stated that a lad picked up a stone to throw at a crow, in his excitement omitting to say "and saw gold in it." So the governor wired back these words, "What happened to the crow?" Odorless Flowers. Most people will be surprised to learn that the majority of flowers have no perfume whatever. An Austrian chem ist, who has been making researches into the subject, declared that out of ;,110 varieties known and cultivated in Europe, scarcely 400 have any odor: and of these nearly fifty have an odor which is, if anything, disagreeable. Queer cus'tona of Quito. It Is customary in the town of Quito,. when a visitor takes off his hat upon entering a room, to beg him to put It on again, and, in the absence of per mission, leave is generally requested. - This, it is said, arises from apprehen sion that cold will be taken by re maining uncovered. The PocketbookC Register. A useful attachment for pocket.. - books consists of a register by which the amount of money on hand can be indicated at a glance, a series of dIals being placed inside the cover to be turned until the figures show the right numbers.