Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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DAILY LIFE HEROISM Dr. Talmage Preaches on Com mon Duties and Rewards. WORDS OF ENCOURA GE MENT and Cheer For These Who Toil and Struggle. Heroes and Heroines Everyday Ex periences. Dr. Talmage, who is now preaching to large audiences in the great cities of England and Scotland, sends this dis course, in which he shows that many who in this world pass as of little imI portanee will in the day of final read' justment be crowned with high honor: text, Il Timothy ii, :. "Thou I herefore endu:e hardness." Historians are not slow to acknowl edge the merits of great military chief tains. We have the full length rirt raits of the Cromwells, the Washing tons, the Napoleons and the Welling tons of the world. History is not writ ten in black ink, but red ink of human blood. The gods of human ambition do not drink from bowls made out of silver or gold or precious stones, but out of the bleached skulls of the fallen. But I am now to unroll tefore you a scroll of heroes that the world has ncver acknowledged-those who faced no guns, blew no bugle blast, conquered no cities, chained no captives to their chariot wheels and yet in the great day of eternity will stand higher than some of those whose names startled the na tions, and serph and rapt spirit and archangel will tell their deeds to a listening universe. I mean the heroes of common, everyday life. In this roll, in the first place, I find all the heroes of tte sickroom. When satan had failed to overcome Job, he said to God, "Put forth thy hand and touch his bones and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face." Satan had found out that which we have all found out, that sickness is the greatest test of one's character. A man who can stand that can stand anything. To be shut in a room as fast as though it were a bAc~ile; to be so nervous you cannot endure the tap of a child's foot; to have luscious fruit, which tempts the appetite of the robust and healthy, excite our loathing and disgust when it first appears on the platter; to have the rapier of pain strike through the side or across the temples like a razor or to put the foot into a vise or throw the whole body into a blaze of fever, yet there have been men and women, but more women than men, who have cheerfully endured this hardness. Through years of exhausting rheuma tisms and excruciating neuralgias they have gone and through bodily distress that rasped the nerves and tore the muscles and paled the cheeks and stooped the shoulders. By the dim light of the sickroom taper they saw on their wall the picture of that land where the inhabitants are never sick. Through the dead silence of the night they heard the chorus of the angels. The cancer ate away her life from week to week and day to day, and she became weaker and weaker, and every "good night" was feebler than the "good night" before, yet never sad. The children looked up into her face and saw suffering transformed into a heaven ly smile. Those who suffered on the battlefild amid shot and shell were not more heroes and heroines than those who, in the'field hospital and in the asylum, had fevers which no ice could cool and no surgery cure. No shout of a comrade to cheer them, but numbness and aching and homesickness-yet will ing to suffer, confident in God, hopeful of heaven. Heroes of rheumaiism. Hero'?s of neuralgia. Heroes of pinal complaint. Heroes of sick headache. Heroes of lifelong invalidism. Heroes and heroines! They shall reign forever and ever. Hark! I catch just one note of the eternal anthem, "There shall be no more pain!" Bless God for that! in this roll I also find the heroes of toil who de' their work uncomplaining ly. it is comparatively easy to lead a regiment into battle when you know that the whole nati'a wdll applaud the victory; itis comparative:esy to do0' tor the sick wILln0t au .VA that y<u skill will be appreciated by a ar company of friends and relative; ii - comparatively easy to address an anot ence when the gleaming eyes and the flushed cheeks you know that your sentiments are adopted. But to do sewing when you expect the employ er will come and thrust his thumb through the work to show how imper fect it is to have the whole garnment thrown back on you, to be done over again; to build a wail and know there will be no one to say you did it well, but only a swearing emplcyer howling across the scaffold; to work until your eyes are dim and your back aches and your heart faints, and to know that if you stop before night your children will starve-ah, the sword has not slain so many as the needle! The great battle fields of our civil war not Gettysburg and Shiloh and South Mountain. The great battlefields were in the arsenals and in the shops and in the attics, wheie women made army jackets for a sixpence. They toiled on until they -died. They had no funeral eulogium, but, in the name of my God, this day, I enroll their names among those of whom the world was not worthy. He roes of the needle! Heroes of the sew ing machine! Heroes of the attic! He. roes of the cellar! Heroes and heroines! Bless God for them! Society today is strewn with the wrecks of men who, under the northeast storm of domestic infelicity, have been driven on the rocks. There are tens of thousands of drunkards today, mace such by their wives. That is not poetry; that is prose. But the wrong is generally in the opposite direction. You would not have to go far to find a wife whose life is a perpetual marty r dom-something heavier than a stroke of the fist, unkind words; staggering home at midnight and constant mal treatment, which have left her only a wreck of what she was on that day when in the midst of a brilliant assem blage the vows were taken, and full organ played the wedding march, and the carriage rolled away with the bene diction of the people. What was the burning of Latimer and Ridley at the stake compared with this.? 'Those men soon became unconscious in the tire, but there is a :30 years' marty rdom, a 50 years' putting to death, yet uncom plaining. No bitter wordb when the rollicking companions at -' o' clock in the morning pitch the husband dead drunk into the front entry. No bitter words when wiping from the swollen brow the blood struck out in a moidnight carousal. Bending over the battered and bruised form of him who when he: ised love and kindess and protection, yet nothing but sympathy an:1 prayers and forgiveness before they are asked for. No bitter words when the family Bible goes for rum and the pawn broker's shop gets the last decent dress. Some day, desiring to evoke the story of her sorrows, you say, "Well, how are you getting along now ? and, rallying her trembling voice and quieting her quivering lip, she says, "Pretty well, I thank you; pretty well." She never will tell you. In the delirium of her last sickness she may tell ail the other secrets of her lifetime, hat she will not tell that. Not until the books of eternity are upened on the throne of judgwent will ever be known what she has suffered. Oh, ye who are twisting a garland for the vietor, put it on that pale brow. W\ hen shc is dead, tli. neighbrs will bee liret' to uike her a shroud, and sh will be carried out in a plain box. with no -,ver plate to tell her years. for she has lived a thousand years of trial and anguish, The gamblers and swindlers who destroyed her husband will not come to the funeral. One car riage will be enough for that funeral one carriage to carry the orphans and the two Christian women who pre sided over the obse juies. But there is a flash, and the opening of a celestial door and a shout, "Lift up your head, ye everlazting gate, and let her come in!" And Christ will step forth and say: "Come in. Ye suffer ed with me on earth; be gloritied with me in heaven." What is the highest throne in Heaven? You say, "Throne of the Lord God Almighty and the Limb." No doubt about it. What is the next highest throne in heaven? While I speak it seems to me it will be the throne of the drunkard's wife, if she with cheerful patience endured all her earthly torture. Heroes and hero ines' I find also in this roll the heroes of Christian charity. We all admire the George Peabodys and the James Len oxes of the earth, who give tens and hundreds of thousanis of dollars to good objects. But I am speaking now of those who out of their pinched pov erty help others-of such men as those Christian missionaries at the west who proclaim Christ to the people, one of them, writing to the secretary in New York. saying: "I thank you for that *25. Until yesterday we have had no meat in our house for three months. We have suffered terribly. My chil dren have no shoes this winter." And of those people who have only a half loaf of bread, but give a piece of it to others who are hungrier, and those who have only a scuttle of coal, but help others to fuel, and of those who have only a dollar in their pocket and give 25 cents to somebody else, and of that father who wears a shabby coat, and of that mother who wears a faded dress, that their children may be well ap pareled. You call them paupers or ragamuffins or emigrant. I call them heroes and heroines. You and I may not know where they lived or what their name is. God knows, and they have more angels hovering over them than you and I have, and they will have a higher seat in heaven. They may have only a cup of cold water to give a poor traveler or may have only piced a splinter from under the nail of a child's finger or have put only two mites into the t reasury, but the Lord knows them. Considering what they had, they did more than we have ever done, and their faded dress will be come a white robe, and the small room will be an eternal mansion, and the old hat will be exchanged for a coronet of victory, and all the applause of earth and all the shouting of heaven will be drowned out when God rises up to give his reward to those humble workers in his kingdom and to say to them, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Who are those who were brav'est a:.4 deserved the greatest monument, LordI Clavrhouse and his burly soldiers or John Brown, the Edinburg carrier and his wife? Nr. Atkins, the persecuted minister of Jesus Christ, in Scotland was secreted by John Brown and his wife, and Claverhouse rode up one day with his aimcd men and shouted in front of t e house. John Brown's little girl came out. Hie said to her, "Well, miss, Mr. Atkins here?" She made no answer, for she could not betray the m>'iter of the gos pel." "Ha!" Claverhouise said, "then you are a chip of the old block, are you? I have something in my pocket for you. t is a nosegay. Some people call it a humbserew, but I call it a nosegay." .nd he got off his horse and he put it on the little girl's hand and began to turn it until the bones cracked and she cried. He said: "Don't cry, don't cry. This isn't a thumbscrew, this is a nose say." And they heard the child's cry, ad the father and mother came out, and Claverhouse said: "Ha! It seems thatyou three have laid your holy heads together, detcrwined to die like all the rest of your hypocritical, canting. sniveling crew. Rather than gi .e uip good Mr. Atkins, pious Mr. Atkins, you would die. 1 have a telescope with me that will improve s.ur vision," and he pulled out a pistol. " Now,"! he said, "you old pragmatic, lest you should catch cold k. tis cold morning of Scotland and f'or the honor and safety the king, to say nothing of the glory of God and the good of our souls, I will proceed simply and in the neatest and most expeditious style possible to blow your brains out." John Brown fell upon his knees and began to pray. "Ah," said Cliaver house, "look out, if you are going to pray; steer clear of the king, the coun cil and Richard Cameron." "0 Lord." said John Brown, "since it seems to be thy will that I should leave this world for a world where I can love thee bet ter and serve thee mre. I put this poor widow woman and these helpless, fatherless children into thy hands. We have been together in peace a good while, but now we must look forth to a a better meeting in heaven. And as for these poor creatures, blind-folded and infatuated, that stand before me, convert them before it be too late, and may they who have sat in judgment in this lonely place on this blessed morn ing upon me, a poor, defenseless fellow creature-may they in the last judg ment find that mercy which they have refused to me, thy most unworthy but faithful servant. Amen." He arose and said, "Isabel, the hour has come of which I spoke to you on the morning when 1 proposed hand and heart to you, and are you willing now, for the love of God, to let me die?" She put her arms around him and said: "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." "Stop that sniveling, said Claverhouse. " I have had enough of it. Soldiers, do your wvork. Take aim! Fire!" And the head of John Brown was scattered on the ground. While the wife was gathering up in her apron the fragments of her hus band's head-gathering them up for burial-Claverhouse looked into her face and said, "Now, my good woman, how do you feel now about your bonnie man' Oh," she said, "I always thought well of him; he has been very ing anything but well of 1cm, and think better of him now." Oh, wh1A a grand thing it will be in the last day to see God pick out his beroes and ne roines. Who are those paupers of eter nity trudging off from the gates of heaven? Who are they? The Lord Claverhouses and the Hlerods and those who had scepters and crowns and thrones, but they lived for their own aggrandizeienlt, and they broke the hearts ot natioDs. Heroes of earth, but paupers in eternity. I beat the drums of their eternal despair. Woe, woe, wok. But there is great excitement in leaven. Why those long processions? Why the booming of that great bell in the tower? It is cornation day in heav en. Who are those rising on the thrones with crowns of eternal royalty? They must have been great people on the earth, world renoaned pCple. No. They taught in a ragged school. Taught ia a ragged school: k that all? That is all. Who are those souls waving scepters of eternal dominiot? Why, they are little children wLo waitcd on invalid mothers. That ali? That is all. She was called "Little Marv" on earth. She is an empress now. Who are that great multitude on the highest thrones of heaven? Who are the)? Why, they fed the hungry; they clothed the naked, they healed the sick; they comforted the heartbroken. They never found any reh. uutil they put their head down on the pillow of the sepal cher. God watched tihem. God laughed defiance at the Cuemies who put their heels haid down on these, his dear chil dren, and one day the Lord struck his hand so hard on his thigh that the omnipotent sword rattled in the buckler as he said, "I am their God, and no weapon formed against them shall prosper. What harm can the world do you when the Load Almighty with uusheath ed sword fights for you? I preach this sermon for comfort. Go home to the place just where God has put 3ou to play the hero or the heroine. Do not envy any man bis money or his ap plause or his social position. Do not envy any woman her wardrobe or her exquisite appearance. Be the hero cr the heroine. If there be no flour in the house and you do not know where your children are to get bread, listen, and you will hear something tapping against the window pane. Go to the window, and you will find it is the beak of a raven, and open the window, and there will fly in the messenger that fed Elijah. Do you think that the God who grows the cotton of the south will let you freeze for lack of ciothes? Do you think that the God who allowed his dis ciples on Sabbath morning to go into the grainfield and then take the grain and rub it in their hands and eat-do yuu think God will let you starve? Did you evcr hear the experience of that old man, "I have been young and now am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread." Get up out of your discourage ent. 0 troubled soul. 0 sewing woman, 0 man kicked and cuffed b) unjust emplo3 ers, 0 ye who are hard beset in the battle of life and know not which way to turn, 0 you bereft one, o you sick one with complaints you have told to no one, come and get the comfort of this subject. Listen to our great Captain's cheer, "T'o h>a that overcometh will I give to eat of the fruit of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God." A Good Big Family. M~. ('arron, a member of Congress from Rhode islands, boasts of a con stituent natsed Levy Brisson, living in the town of Foster, Providence County. who has been the father of forty-one children, of whom thirty-two are now living. Brisson is a French Canadian by birth and is supposed to be in the neighborhood of 90 years of age, accord ing to his own "ealculations."' He claims to remember the war of 1812, when he was a liatle child, but does not know when or where he was born. He was the eldest 0r cighntcen children and has spent the gr.. ater part of his life at Foster, where he has been three times married, lie took unto himself his first wife in 18%4 and and she had fif teen children; his second wife, to whim he was married in 1852, had twelve, ad his third wife, whom he married in 170, had fourteen children. Twenty five of his children are married, have families of there own and are scattered all over the country from Massachusetts to Idaho. The old man does not hear from them "regular," as they are all poor letter writers, and he has little talent that way himself, and therefore he does not know how -many grandchil dren he has, but they numbered con siderably ovur a hundred when he made his last computation, He has twice been blessed with triplets and four times with twins. The Filipino Casualties. Gen. MacArthur cables as follows from Manila to Secretary Root in an swer to inquiry as to the number o'f Filipinos killed and wounded and the number of prisoners taken since thec in surrection began: "With rct r c to your telegram of 221 ultimno, Fiiic nos killed 10,780; wounded, 2,104; ea; - tured and surrendered, 10,425; number of pisoners in our possession, about 2,00. No systematic record of Filipi no casualties at these headquarters. Foregoing, compiled from large number reports made immediately after engage m~ents, is as close an approximation as now possible, owing to wide distribu tien of troops. More accurate report would take weeks to prepare. Num ber reported killed probably in excess of accurate figures; number reported wounded probably much less, as Filipi nos managed to remove most wounded from the field and comparatively few fell into our hands. Officers of high rank and dangerous sus;picious men have been retained as pilisoners; most other men discharged on field as soon as disarmed. I propose to release all but a very few prisoners at an early date." Bold, Bad Burglars. Three burglars was detected trying to rob a store in New York Wednesday by two policemen. The burglars took to the roof. They were followed by the policemen, who captured one of the burglars. The other two were not visi ble. After a while the two were seen trying to descend on a clothline pole which is close to the wall of the house. A policeman called to the menCf tol e,' C back or he would shoot. Ju-t then usie man on the pole nearest the top it balance and fell, s~ ~ second thief, and both dre;ped into the yard in the rear of the store, The policemen hurried down stairs, and reached the prostrated thieves. One was dead; the other lay on his face ser iously injured internally. Gainesville, Ga., Dec. 8, 1899 Pitts' Antiseptic Invigorator has been used in my family and 1 am per fectly satisfied that it is all, and will do all, you claim for it. Yours truly, A. B. C. Dorsey. P. S.-I am using it now myself. It's doing me good.-Sold by The Mur ray Drug Co., Columbia, 8. C., and all TROUBLE IN CIllNA. The Natives Excited and Foreign Residents Are Alarmed. MANY MURDERS REPORTED. More American Warships Ordered to Chinese Waters to Pro. tect American Interests. The situation in Chin.> seems to be very critical and the foreign residents of that country are. greatly alarmed. Ministcr ('orger, at l'tkin, cabled Wednesday that the nituation was worse at Pekin. ar.d this statcment, taken in connection with Admiral Kem'ff s alarming cablegram announc ing that an eugagemnit had begun, de eided the -tate departient to stiength en the naval forces nearcat the scene of I trouble. Accordingly, a cablegram was sent to Admiral Romey, at Manila, di recting him to dispatch at once to Ad miral Kcuiffs coumaind the gunboat Helena. or if that craft is not at Ma nila and ready for immediate service, then some craft of correspondingly light draft and power. A dispatch from Pekin says the situ ation is growing worse. Events tuove with such rapiaity and affairs, owing 'o the excitement of the natives, are so critical that the foreign ministers held I frequent meetings. Native emrloyes who have returned from Feng Tai say they left the "boxers" openly drilling in the aijicent villages. A strong im perill edict, issued this evening, cen sures the "cowardice of the imperial trcops" and orders the viceroy of Pecii Li and Gen. Jung Lu immediately to suppress the "boxers " Violent dis sensions are reported to exist between the Chinese commander-in-chief of the forces, Jung lu, and Prince Ching Tuan, who in accordance with the wishes of the dowager empress, is strongly sup porting the cause of the "boxers." The mobs who Murdered the English mis sionaries, Robinson and Rowan, mutil ated and disemboweled the bodies. The station at Yan Tin, three miles I ro'n Pekin, has been burned. special from Shanghai says the .tnbers of the majority of the lega :ons at Pekin, including the members .0f the British legation, are sending t heir families away. It is also said that .-everal prominent Chinese residents Ire leaving the city. There is an un confirmed report that two Russian en .-ineers have been murdered at Yu Chow Fu, northwest of Port Arthur, after their wives had been outraged. Uhe total damage done to the Chinese - ilroads by the "boxers" is now esti :mared at $5,000,00o A dispatch from Tien Tsui says the I Chinese servants of a Belgian engineer, ; ho left Pao Ting Fu two days after the Belgians, saw the five foreign and two Chinese dead bodies in the Grand canal, one being the body of a woman. A "boxer" placard threatens the exter nination of the foreigners here on June 10' It is rumored that the "boxers" and Catholic Christians fought at fung IHu Tluesday, three Christians being killed. Her majesty's ship Bar fiear has arrived and the Terrible is Cx reted. One hundred and thirty-one British, :u German, .50 French and 45 Italian marines have arrived here. These rein forcements render Tien Tsin secute. The following cablegram was rceived at the navy dep'artwent Friday morning from Admiral Kemipff, on board the Newark. efi thie Taku forts: Yong Ku, June 8, 1900. Battle yesterday between Chinese and boxers near Tien T?.in. Large numbers of booxers expected to reach Tien Tsin tomorrow. K..mpff. WEATHER AND CROPS. What Young Crops Are Doing in South Carolina The following is the weekly bulletin of the condition o-f the weather and crops of the State issued last week by Director Bauer of the South Carolina section of the United States weather bureau's weather and crop service: About normal temperature condi tions prevailed during the week ending 8 a m. Nor day, June 4rh, but early in the week the nights were too cool for rapid growth of the crops, with, how ever, favorabe conditions at the close There was an entire absence of rain until Friday, when light showers oe curred over the extreme northwestern portions, follo wed on Saturday anid Sunday by showery weather over the central and eastern portions also. Rain was badly needed over the eastern half of the State, while the moisture condi )i.s were quite favorable over the w-e ~ra half. T..weather was extremely favorable for ic e ullivation of crops during the we.1 m. in, J which have been well wo k , ana' f or h-trvcsting wheat and oats now under way, except in the ex treme northwest counties where both are fast ripening. Wheat is an excel lent crop generally, while oats varies greatly, but falls little, if at all, below the average of tormer years. Upland corn is small but he-ahhy, and has good stands. Bottom land corn has made good gr.owth, but stanus arc kept badly broken by the ravages of worms. Eurlv corn is in silk and tassel. The cool nights retarded the growth of cotton, which is unseasonably small, and also caused it to die on certain soils. Stands are generally full but very lousy in places. Cotton is gener ally well worked but a few fields are still grassy. Early cotton is putting on forms. Ses-island needs rain. The weather conditions at the close of the week were very favorable for cotton. The condition of tobacco ranges from good to very poor, and generally the plants are small for the season, and in Marion county are buttoning. Worms arc numerous and damaging. Some fields have been laid by. Rice, trua w is-:', sweet potatoes, sugar en :4r ,st~hum arc doing well, W'' ~ - r ic ed of rain, which has be a quite copiously supplied. Fruit prospects, except for apples, contiune promising. The shipments of peaches have begun. Many farmers have begun to plant peas in corn fields, which is unusually arly. __________ Severed by a Saw. At Grantham's saw mill, six miles from Fitzgerald, Ga., last Thursday, Joe Ewinig, the eldest son of the Hon. Daniel Ewing, met a hor rile death by falling upon a circular saw. Hie was near the saw and in some marner fell upon it and was cut entire ly in two before the saw could be stop ped. He lingered but a short time in the most horrible agny D H. CH AMBERLAIN% VIEWS. South Carolina's Ex Governor Prefers Bryan to McKinley. To the l'litc.r of the Springfield Repub lican: The Reruhlican has already gener ouly given place to the expression of my inipressions-not convictions yet or final conclusions-of what will be the duty and best policy of opponents of Mc Kinley and what he represents, in the Coming campaign. I do not wish now to repeat those impressions or to attempt further to justify them, but what I would like to do, especially in view of Wiiliam Everett's letter on which Y311 comment editorially today, i- to advert to one ,iew often put for ward and arparetrtly accepted by some or many as having great. for,-c in a con sideration of rext fail's situation. It is this: Cone.:ding or promiing that McKitley and 1ryan will again be t1 e caydidates Of their parties, .t is urged that there being much that is objec jpetionable in Wkyan's position and Me K-mley being wholly intolerable, it will be wis and Iolitic as well as accord ant with conscience acd principle, to set up and vote for a third candidate who shall stand for exact views and priuciplci. .Judgitg from general ob servation among my acitaintances and corrcspondents, this -ecms to be re garded as a real sulution <f a difficulty; and so it has occurred to me to raise the question whether the proposed so lutivo is a so!ution, as well as whether the suggested course would be in any degree sagacious. This is the question, the crux, as I understand it. The independent says: I cannot vote for McKinley. Any thiug to beat him. I abhor IG to 1, distrust deeply the Democratic party and Bryan's entourage generally. Here is a choice of evils, one qnite intoler abie, the other nearly so, but less so. Cannot I avo'd making a choice of evils by voting for a third candidate; and if I can, i; it not best to do so, it being also conceded or clear that the inde pendent vote solidly cast would almost certainly decide the election as between McKinley and Bryan?' My first remark on this is that with a third candidate it still remains true that the choice lies between McKinley and Bryan. Indeed, that fact, however disagreeable, must be distinctly faced; namely, the fact that either McKinley or Bryan will be elected. By voting directly for McKinly or Bryan we di rectly determine or help to determine, to the full measure of votes, the choice. By voting for a third candidate we af fect only the aggregates of votes for McKinley and Bryan, but do not change their relative votes. The result, there fore, remains the same 9s if we had voted directly for McKinley or Bryan; and if this is true, we do in strict fact make a choice of evils after all. We do choose, so far as our votes go, either McKinley or Bryan. Under this view, what avails it for independents to seek a third candidate when it appears that no third can be elected and that our votes if cast solid ly will determice the choice? We cs cape from no dilemmna; we soivC no crux; we avoid no choice of evils. A vote cast directly for Bryan counts one against McKinley. A vote east for a third candidate counts only one-half of a vote agintst McKinley. Or to illus. trate coucretely and by figures, suppose a State to have 100 00) voters who cast their votes. Suppose 5,0(0 of these voters are independents who sincerely say "an. body or anything to biest Mc Kinley." If the independe .t votes are cast for a third candidate, the suc cessful candidate must have at least one more than the half of 9J5,i'00, that is 47,501. Ir. on the other hand, there in no third candidate, the successful can didate must have at least one more than the half of 10(000 vote~s, that is, 5001, while if the independent vote is east solidly fur one of the two leading candidates. that candidate will need only 45,04)1 other votes, instead of 47, 301, to carry the State. 1 repeat, then, a vote for a third candidate when one of two other candidates is certain to be elected has only one-half the value or effect of a vote given directly to the least objectionable of the two lead ing candidates, while the choice of one of the two leading candidat es is just as certain in the one case as in the other. If, in reply to all this, it is said that with some or many independents it is a matter of principle or conscience; in other words, that they cannot con scientiously vote for Bryan, thou.;h preferring him to McKinley; my sug gestion would be that the scruple is a mere "sticking in the bark," and not a well-founded objection. I should re mark somewhat thus: "You say you cannot conscientiously vote for Bryan, though preferring him to McKinley, and so you will vote for a third candi date; but you see on reflection, do you not, that by voting for a third candi date you not only do actually make a choice between McKinley and Bryan, but you contribute only half a vote, instead of a whole vote, toward elect ing Bryan and defeating McKinley, a result which you admit is the more desirable one, if not the only tolerable result possible?" As well as I can reason out the mat ar, it is a fallacy ar.- illusion, how ever conscientiously held or warmly cherished, to think that under the con ditions supposed there is any escape for the independent, who sincerely counts it, as I do, his foremost duty to beat Mciraley, from a choice be tween McKinley and Bryan. On the contrary, he must face the dilemma. A third candidate is no solution at all. A vote for a third candidate is a vote half thrown away. Under this view, whoever insists on a third candidate who cannot possibly be elected, seems to be chargeable with shrinking from duty, if he seriously wishes to do his best to defeat McKinley. The greatest living master of the Eaglish language has lately given in this aphorism: "The utmost that can be doio 'i t he time is the best thing to .' llowever much we may disrate Bryan and his party, if it still remains that Bry an and his party are opposed to giving free swing to trusts and monopolies and the tariff which large ly supports them, and to turning our republic into an empire. then it should seem that the election of Bryan being the utmost that can be done at the time to ward off these mortal ills, is the best thing to do. At all events, I believe we shall do well to think care fufhy on these things and not let any mere notion of sentiment or conven ience or filmy scruple of conscience keep us from putting all uur votes where they will do most good. D. HI. Chamberlain. West Brookfield (Mass.,) May 19. A kingdom for a cure. You need not pay so much. A twenty-five cent bottle of L. L. & K Will drive all ills away. The Book of Books. About one hundred and fifty years ago Voltaire predicted that by the end of the nineteenth century the Bible would be for gotten. The nineteeth century has only a little more than seven months left and when we con sider how the Bible stands now we can understand what sort of prophet Voltaire was. The Atlanta Journal referred recent ly to the contention of an emin ent educat:r that Bible reading was declining in this country and that an alarming ignorance of the Bible existed among the rising generation, even that part of it which enjoys the best edu cational opportunities. The New York Observer takes square issue with this view. and says of the Bible: --It has never been remembered miore lovingly nor studied more reverently nor guarded niore carefully than it is todav: it has never been circu lated nore widelv nor has it wielded so potent an influence as in the century about to close. Instead of being forgotten or out of (late, it has been and it is pre-eminently the book of the century." The Atlanta Journal says the position of The Observ er is strongly supported by the fact that whereas at the begin ning of this century there was not a Bible society in the world, now there are no less than 73, and they have distributed no less than 200,000,000 copies of the Bible. When we remem ber that other publishers in all parts of the world have printed many millions of Bibles, it seems probable that during this cen tury no less than 500,000,000 copies of "the book of books" have been circulated. The Ob server says that this enormous increase in the circulation of the Bible is due to the fact that "it deals withthegreatest of all subjects-those which relate to God and to the human soul and to man's eternal destiny." And "no critic, however brilliant, can uproot a single one of its doctrines." FREE BLOOD CURE. An Offr Providing Faith t> Sahsrers Eating Sores, Tumors, Ulcers, are all curable by B. B. B. (Botanic Blood Balm,) which is made especially to cure all terribie Blood Diseases. Persistent Sores, Blood and Skin Blemishes, Scrof ala, that resist other treatments, are quickly cured by B. B. B. (Botanic Blood Balm). Skil Eruptions, Pinas ples, Red, Itching Eczema, Scales, Blisters, Boils, Carbuncles, Blotches, Catarrn, Rheumatism, etc., are all due to bad blood, and hence easily cured bi B. B. B. Blood Poison p'roducing Eating Sores, Eruptions, Swollen glands. Sore Throat etc., cured by B. B. B. (Botanie Blood Balm), in one to five mnontfls. B. B. B. does not con tain vegetable or mineral poison. One bottle will test it in an case. For sale by druggists everywhere. Large bottles $1, six for five~ $5. Write for free samplcbottle, which will be sent, prepaid to Times readers, describe simptoms and personal free medicaf advice will be given. Address Blood Balm ('o.. Atlanta, Ga. The Cotton Acreage. latham, Alexander & Co., a large couanD house of New York, have issued a circular, givirg atn estimuate .of the cotto.'~aerenge or the unitee States June 2nd. lltlt TUhe estjire is be d. upon letters Mr:.t o it t hrewhd 'he South, to sas, F'lorida Georgia, IAmisinna Mis si:-sippi, Nerti Care!!nca, Southi Caro lina, Tcnnessec, ani Tex as The num ber of repies receivtd from South Car olina was 250, and t be incre ase in aereage is given at 5S per cent. Ac cording to the tigures giveni, which are only approximately correct, the acreage in 1899 was 1,.962,800 anid in 1900 it is 2,875,661l. Tlhe plantiug teason is 24 days lattr. "The total estimated increase of cottoul acreage in the United States for 1600 is nearly 5:' per cent. or 1,222.574 ae'res more than last year, and the average planting of the cr .p is about fiteen days later than last year.' The acreage in T xas, the largest cotte' n growing State, is but 2 per cerut. over last year. Thin is due to ih-: fact that exces~ive rains ret-.rdcd planting. From all the States the crop is reported as being late, due to unfavorable weather-for planting early in the season, and slew growth, the result of cool nights. Tie canelusion is that "al together the erop conditions ti is year are not consideced as p.romising as at same d ate last year." This report is as nearly correct, we suppose, as can he made just now. The incr~a e in acreage is not very great, and if the crop recovers itself the yield will not be very much larger than it wvas last year. The indicatious noiv are that the crop will be much smaller than the last, which should sasure good prices. Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria was born May 24, 1819; ascnded the throne o'i the death of ner uncle. King William lV.. ihue 20, 1837; was crowned at Westminster abbey .June 28 1838, and tarried Pricee Albert of' Saxe-Coburg-Gotha February 10, 1840. She becime a widow Decem her 14, 1861. Qscen Victorit had seven enildren; the first Princess Vic toria, horn November 21, 1840, married Prince Friendrich Wilhelm, who be came Fricdrich I , and is the mothcr of Wilhelm I., present emperor of Ger many. Albert E iward, prince (f Wales, was born November 9, 1841; Prince Alfred, duke of Edinburgh, was horn August, 6, 1811; Princess Helena was horn May 25, 1846; Princess Louise was born March 1848; Prince Arthur. duke of Connaught, was born May I, 1850, and Princess Beatrice was born April 14, 1857. A Deadly Feud. Three prominent eitzens of San Augustan, Texas lost their lives there on Wednesday in a shooting affray. They were: Felix Roberts, correspon dent of the Galveston News; Sid Rob erts. and Sheriff Noel Roberts. A few weeks ago Sheriff George Wall was shot to death by Curd Borders as the result of an old feud. Wall's nephew, Noel Roberts, was appointed sheriff. Last Saturday week the second life was taken in a quarrel, when Eugene WVall, son of the murdered sheriff, killed Benja min Brocks, a member of the opp)s ing faction. Wednesday the contend - ing factions met in the Court House. All were heavily armed. The sheriff nd two of his family fell before the deadly fire of their enemies. ABsOLUrLY 'v Makes the food more del ROYAL BAKING POW DAZZLING LIGHT. Illumination of a Car That Has Been Short-Circuited. Electricity played a queer prank on a Northern Central car the other night. To lookers-on at a sat! distance it waS merely a remarkable display ,the like of which as never before seen in St. Louis. To those on the car it had many elements of tragedy. One man narrowly cscaped death by fire and others of the passengers may have been injured in the panic that fol lowed. Even the officials 01 the United Railways Compamy have not yet ar rived at he exact extent of the damage done. The cars on the Northern Central line are the oldest In the service. Their fus es burn out freuently, but that night's occurrence was the most serious acci dent of the kind that has yet occurred. At 9:30 o'clock a car was rounding the sharp down-grade curve at Thomas street and Leffingwell avenue. It was half filled with passengers. Suddenly there was a grinding noise, which deafened those in the car and awakened residents in the neighbor hood. The car came to a sudden stop. What followed is told by an eye-wit ness. who was attracted to his window by the unusual sound. "When I looked out," he said, "the street was lit up for several blocks as if a powerful searchlight had been turned into it. The brilliancy all radia ted from the car, which I at first thought was on fire. I could see the car distinctly. It seemed a shadowy form, seen through a halo of light. The outer edge of this light was a brilliant, dazzling white, but the inner portion, the nucleus, as It were, nearest the car, was the deep red of a consuming blaze. "With the first play of the flames I heard passengers in the car cry out in alarm. Two young men jumped through a window and the other pas sengers rushed for the back door. I saw a man leap from the rear platform with his coat smoking. He pulled the garment off as he left the car. "The illumination could be seen at a great distance, apparently for people come flocking from blocks around to see the illuminated car. Most of them walked home. Another car pushed the disabled one to the sheds." Investigation Saturday morning showed that the accident was one of a number of electrical freaks caused by the recent damp weather. At the power house of the Northern Central line it was said that the current had become short-circuited. This meant that the current on coming from the wires, In stead of going through the controller on the front platform operated by the motorman, went through the one on the rear platform. Unable to get into the motors by that route it passed out again and sought the nearest route to the rails. This was by way of the met al work about the sides and roof of the car. On its journey around the car a por tion of the current escaped into the moist atmosphere, causing the appear ance of a halo. Enough of the current went through the controller and the motors to burn them out, which caused the red light of consuming flames. It was the burning out of the controller that ignited the coat of the man who stood near it on the rear platform. Street railway men agreed that the ac cident was a most unusual one-St. Louis Post Dispatch. TH REE JOINTS. Removed From a Man's Backbone and He Still Lives. Minus three joints of his backtbone, John Kaller, of No. 50 Willoughby street, Brooklyn, N. Y., lies on a cot In St. John's Hospital, Long Island City, making a brave fight against death. The missing pieces of his spinal column were removed on Thursday last by five surgeons. It was an opera tion almost unparalleled in surgery, but It was his only chance for life. Kaller has been a telephone lineman. Recently he was sent to repair, wires along the Shore Road. In A4 toria. About noon he was working at t e top of a pole near the Woolsey estate. Just how It happened neither Kaller nor any one else knows, but suddenly the line man found himself in the clutches of an electric current. He had grasped a live wire, his, body was twisted in tor ture and puffs of smoke arose from his burning hands. The man kept his senses. Hanging there, burning and In terrible pain, he realized that to remain In contact with the wire for but a few seconds more meant death to him. With strength born of that knowl edge Kaller tore himself free from the live wire on which he had fallen and deliberately threw himself to the road way. He fell 35 feet and struck upon his head and back. He was taken to St. John's Hospital, and doctors worked over him for eight hours before the dangers from the electric shock were removed. Then they performed the operation. In falling Kaller had broken his back. The seventh, eighth and ninth verte brae were badly fractured, and splin ters of the broken bone pressed on the spinal cord. The pressure had produced paralysis, and would hav'e caused death If not removed. Dr. John Francis Burns was in charge of the operation. Assisting him were Dr. H. A. McGronen, Dr. J. J. Mulcahey, Dr. Thomas Cassidy and Dr. John F. Farwell. Technically, the doc tors took out the spinous prosesses and transverse sections of the seventh, eighth and ninth vertebrae. The oper ation was successful. "I do not know of an exactly similar case." said Dr. Burns, last night. "Three vertebrae were badly fractured, and had to be removed, leaving arches to protect the spinal cord. But Kal Ier's other Injuries make his recovery doubtful, and at my suggestion his rel atives have telegraphed to his mother. asking her to come to his bedside. She lives in Illinois." Kaller's condition is very grave. He has remained conscious from the first, and has taken a keen interest in the remarkable operation performed upo:1 him. Following closely upon the rumor of the retirement of John Burns. of Eng land, from all active participation in the great movement of organizedi lab' r. in Great Britain is the loss of another famous leader In the rerson of Joei Arch. the well-know n agricultural - borer and member of Parliament. .33:. Arch confirms the rumor that he wilT retire from all active work !n ih" la bor field at the next generali rIection. Train Twisted Loose. A severe wind storm swept over Kansas Thursday doing much damage o buildings, fences, trees and growing rops. The elevator at St. Paul, Kansas, was destroyed. At Emporia, Kas., the Crown Point Milling plant and other institutions were badly amaged by wind and lightning. At' iami, I. T., a livery stable was wreck d and Thomas Skinner blown against atree and killed. The westbound St. ouis and San Francisco passenger rain was wrecked two miles west of Ohwego by a wind storm. The entire rain was twisted loose from the engine, if ted from the track, and two expressi ars full of fruit wero thrown about tweny fet an drppedone ide L SAKIMO FOWDER URE icious and wholesome ER CO., NEW YORK. POWER OF WATER *ole Bored in a Bluff as if by a Can non Ball. x little group of solid citizens was standing on Baronne street, New Or leans, watching a cleaning gang at ork with the hose. 1 "That reminds me of old days in Cal Ifornia," said one of the party as the stream veered slightly and shaved off the corner of a pile of dirt. "I never arelized how much force could be de livered by a jet of water," he con utied, "until I tried hydraulic mining. t was in 1870, up on the Sacramento iver. They bad brought a stream down the Sierra Nevada Mountains In a big flume' that ended in a length of ,ire-wrapped hose and a six-foot noz zle with arm on the side for a couple of men to take hold of. "They played the stream on a big bluff directly opposite, and it bored out the solid, packed foundation like living fire eating Into tinder. For a dozen feet from the nozzle the water seemed like a hard blue bar and there was something strange and murderous look Ing in the way It drove straight out that made by flesh creep to watch It. Several laborers had been accidentally struck by the stream and in each case the man was killed as suddenly as If hit by a cannon ball. "I remember on one occasion some rival claimant came down from Shasta and took possession of a cabin not far from the end of the flume line. Our boss. who was a big Irishman named Murphy, told us to play the stream .on the place, and as we were all spoiling for a row we lost no time in obeying I never saw such a demolition in my life. The shanty flew seven ways for Sunday and one of the fellows inside was pitched bodily through the air and landed In the river. The distance was so great nobody was hurt, and after that our gang was known as 'Murphy's light artillery.' Mark Twain draws a ery vivid picture of hydraulic mining In 'Roughing It,' and from personal ex perience I can assure you he hasn't embroidered the facts in the least." A Tornado's Freaks. .Tohn R. Musick of Kirksville, Mo., thus describes, in the Century, certain madcap pranks of a tornado which passed through tht city. -Many strange freaks were played by the tornado. In a tree-top was found a woman's hais, supposed to have been torn from her head as she was carried through Its branches, yet no person was found near it. A human scalp was found three miles from the city limits, under a bridge. Notes, let ters, and papers were blown from the city into Iowa, and found ninety miles away. One promissory note of $400 was found in a field near Grinnell, Iowa, nearly 100 miles away, while clothing and papers were scattered along the entire distance. "One woman was decapitated by a tin roof, and her child was killed near her. Some persons who were outside the rotating current were killed or In jred by flying timbers, which, like bolts from the catapult of Jove, flew with deadly force for a great distance, while others in the very center of the storm escaped with little or no Injury. Perhaps the most remarkble experi ences were those of Miss Moorehouse, Mrs. Webster, and her son. The three were caught up in the storm. and were carried beyond the CatholIc church, nearly one-fourth of a mile, and let down on the common so gently that none were killed. Mrs. Webster had some slight cuts about the head, her son had one arm fractured, but Miss Moorehouse was uninjured. "I was conscious all the time I was flying through the air,' said Miss Moorehouse, 'and It seemed a long time. I seemed to be lifted up and whirled round and round, going to a great height. at one time far above the church steeples, and seemed to be car ried a long distance. I prayed to the Lord to save me, for I believed he could save me, even on the wings of the tornado, and he did wonderfully preserve my life. As I was going through the air, being whirled about at the sport of the storm, I saw a horse soarIng and rotating about with me. It was a white horse, and had a harness on. By the way It kicked and struggled as it was hurled about I know It was alive. I prayed to God that the horse might not come in con tact with me. and it did not. I was mercifully landed upon the earth un harmed-saved by a miracle.' "Young Webster says he saw the horse in the air while he was being borne along by the storm. 'At one time It was directly over me. and I ws very much afraid I wou d come in contact with its flying heels.' The horse, it is said. was caught up and carrned one mile through the air, and. according to the accounts of reputable witnesses, at times was over 200 feet high, passing over a church steeple. Many who were not in the storm say that they saw horses flying in the wind. Beyond being well plastered with mud. the white horse was unin jured by his aerial flight." A Fine Job. Two park laborers sat on thie curb stone of the Eastern Parkway In Brooklyn eating dinner out of their pails. for it was the noon hour, and discussing their surroundings in a brogue which suggested that tliey had n't been over very long. One of them fell to admiring the Museum of Arts and Sciences, which stands back from the Parkway. "It's a foine big buildin'," he said; "an' solid enough put up to last for Iver." -"'Tis that," agreed the other. "But what Is it fer?" "To kape dead boogs an' other crachures in." said the first. "It's a museum, It is." "An' are tbem big letters cut Into the stone above the windies the name uV "I dono what thim leters wud be," said the first speaker. He fell-to spell ing out the words, and presently a ray. of Intelligence succeeded the puzzled expression on his face. "Sure, I hay it," said he. "Thim is the names av the contractors." "'Tis a foIne job they done. anny way," observed the otpfr -admirigly. "They'd be big men In their own line vd slathers of inflocence, belike." And Patrick made a goof guess, for the names graven In the stone were Aeshylus, Sophocles, Pericles, Hero dotus, Socrates, Theydides, and Demos the~ns. Purple Ore. A Noweigian vessel has just brought to Philadelphia a load of purple ore taken from the site of the ancient city of Telmessus, in Asia Minor. The boat was loaded at Macri, or Makree. a small port near the site of Telmessusi and about-50 wiles from Rhodes. The cargo, which will be used in the manu facture of paint, was dug from the great amphitheatre of Telmessus, which historians say had a seating ca pacity of 2i,000 persons. A volcamic eruption destroyed the ancient city, and it is said that the earth in the vi cinity was transformed into a mass of ore, for which there is now a demand rm all parts of the world.