Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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A Beret. EOh. could weo but i. o e . wib t My ito ours, The grace of days rcrever pssed away. Had we but felt the beauty of the tiowers That bloomed for us-before they knew de cay; Could we have known how we should yearn in vain For looks and smiles no more to great our eight, Orhow the fruitless tears would fall like rain For hours of sweet communion, vanished Their worth to us-had we but better known, Then had we held them dearer, while our own, Had kept some salvage from the joys o'er thrown, And loneliness itself has found us less a'one! -Agnes Maule Machar, in Century. TALM&GE'S SERMON Dr. Talmage's Discourse on the Growth and Perfection of Christianity. Although Dr. Talmage was hindered from attending the great annual meet ing of the Christain Endeavor s:ciety at Cincinnati, his sermon shows him to be in sympathy with the great move ment; text. Amos ix; 13, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper." Unable because of other important duties to accept the iavitation to take part in the great convention of Christian Endeavorers at Cincinnati, begun last week, I preach a sermon of congratulation for all the members of that magnificent association, whether now gathered in vast assemb'age or busy in their places of usefulness, transatlantic and cisatlantic, and as it is now harvest time in the fields and siokler are flshing :n the gathering of a great crop, I fi ad :nighty suggestive ness in my text. It is a picture o' a tropical clime, with a season so prosperous that the harvest reaches elet.r over to the plant ing time, and the swarthy husbandman busy cutting the grain, almost feels the breath of the horses on his shoulders, the horse hitched to the plow, prepar ing for a new crop. "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, the plowman shall overtake the reaper." When is that? That is now. That is this day when hardly have you done reaping one harvest of religious result than the plowman is getting ready for another. In phraseology charged with all venom and abuse ond caricature I knew that infields and agnostics have declar ed that Christianity has collapsed: that the Bible is an obsolete book; that the Christian church is on the retreat. I shall answer that wholesale charge to day. Between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 En deavors sworn before high heaven that they will do all they can to take Amerca for God. Europe for God, Asia and Africa for God-are not the sign most cheering? Or, to return to the agricultural figure of my text, more than a million reapers are overtaken by more than a million plowmen. Besides this, there are more people who believe in the Bible than at any time in the world's existence. An Arab guide was leading a French infidel across the de sert and ever and anon the Arab guide would get down in the sand and pray to the Lord. It disgusted the French in fidel, and after awhile, as the Arab got up from one of his prayers, the infidel said, "How do you know there is any God?" And the Arab guide said: "How do I know that a man and a camel passed by our tent last night? 1 know it by the footprint in the sand. And you want to know how I know whether there is any God? Look at the sunset. Is that the footstep of a man?" And by the same process you and I have come to understand that this book is the footstep of God. But now let us see whether the book is a last year's almanac. Let us see whether th- church of God is a Bull Run retreat, muskets, canteens and haversacks strewing all ihe way. The great English historian Sharon Turner, a man of vast learning and great ac ouracy, not a clergyman but an attorney as well as a historian, gives this over whelming statistic in regard to Chris tianity and in regard to the number of Christains in the different centuries; In the first century 500 000 Christians, in the second century 2 000,000 Chris tians, in the third century 5,000,000 Christians, in the fourth century 10, 000,000 Christians, in the fifth century 15,000 000 Christians, in the Eixth cen tury 20,000,000 Christains, in the seventh century 24 000,000 Christians, in the eight century 30,000,000 Chris tians, in the ninth century 40,000,000 Christains, in the tenth century 50, 000,000 Christians, in the eleventh cen tury 70,00)0,000 Christians, in the tweltih cenmury 80,000,0000 Christians, in the thirteenth century 75,000.000 Christains, in the fourteenth century 80,000,000 Christians, in the fifteentb century 100,000,000 Christians, in the sixteenth century 125,000,000 Chris tains, in the seventeenth century 155, 000,000 Christians, in the eighteenth century 200,000,0)0 Zhristains-a de cadence, as you observe, in only one century, and more than made up in the following centuries, warile it is the usual computation that there were at the close of the nineteenth century 470,000,000 Christians, making us to believe that before this century is clos ed the millennium will have started its boom and lifted its hosanna. Poor Christianity! What a pity it has no friends! How lonesome it must be! Who wil! take it out of the poorhouse? Poor Christianity! Four hundred mil lions in one century. In a few weeks of this year 2 500,000 copies of the New Testament distributed. Why, the earth is like an old castle with 20 gates and a park of artillery ready to thunder down every gate. See how heathendom is be ing surrounded and honeycombed and attacked by this all conquering gospel. At the beginning of the nineteenth century 150 missionaries; at the close of that century 84,000 missionaries and native helpers ani evangelists. At the beginning of the nineteenth cen tury there were only 50,000 converts. Now there are over 1,000,000 converts from heathendom. You all know that an important work of an army is to plant the batteries. It may take many days to plant the bat teries, and they :nay do all the work in ten minutes. These gospel batteries are being planted all along the seacoasts and in all nations. It may take a good while to plant them, and they may do all their work in one day. They wiil. Nations are to be born in a day. But just come back to Christendom and recognize the fact that during the last ten years as many people have connected themselves with evangelical churches as connected themselves with the churches' in the first 50 years of last century. So -Christianity is falling back, and the Bible, they say, is becoming an obso lete book. I go into a court, and wher ever I find a judge's bench or a clerk's desk I find a Bible. Upon what book could there be uttered the solemnity of an oath? What book is apt to be put in the trunk of the young man as he leaves for city life? The Bible. What shall I find in Dine out of every ten' home in this city? The Bible. In nine out of svery ten homtu in Christen- Do d Te Bimo. VYosire wrcte tL It prophecy h th LBibl i the Lirae- jt tenth century would become extinct. fro The century is gone, and I han to tell the ycu thr.t the room in which Voltaire cat wrote that prcphcoy not long ago was sh< crowded from fior to ceiling with B.- ' bles from Switzerland. ov Suppose the congress of the U cited l0 States should pass a law that there fid shculd be no more Bibles printed in im Ameriea and no Bibles read. If there pie are 60,000,000 grown people in the go United States, there would be 60.000,- to 000 people in an army to put down the such a law and defend their right to life read the Bi'le. Bat suppose the con- tis gress of the United States should make abc a law again 3t the reading or the publi- all cation of any other book, how many ing people would go cu in such a crusadc? phi Could you get 60,000,000 people to go bu out and risk their lives in the defense of of Shakespeare's tragedies or Glad the stone's tracts or Macaulay's "History the of England?" You know that there cai are a thuusand men who would die in ca the defense of this book where there te: is not more than one man who would th< die in the defense of any other book. ley You try to insult my common sense by po telling me the Bible is fading out from ral the world. It is the most popular book dif of the centuries. anc How do I know it? I know it just rot as I know in regard to other books. gle How many volumes of that history are pre published? Well, you say 5,000. How bot many copies of another book are pub- tio lishea? A hundred thousand. Wnich na is the more popular? Why, of course, wb the one that has the hundred thousand no circulation. And if this book has more me copies abroad is the world, if there are wa fi;o times as miny Bibles abroad as any rin other book among civilized nations, not does not that show you that the most abc popular book on earth today is the the word of God? ' Oh," say people, "the church is a wr collection of hypocrites, and it is los- of ing its power and it is fading out from tb the world." Is it? A bishop of the plh Methodist church told me that that de- tin nomination averages two new churches no every day. In other words, they build the 730 churches in that denomination in a jus year, and there are at least 1 500 new pu Christian churches built in America col every year. Does that look as though say the Christian church were fadiDg out, Br As though it were a defunct institution? bor What stands nearest to the hearts of Le the American people today? I do not Lis care in what village or what city or ear what neighborhood you go. What is La it? Is it the postoffie? Is it the bol hotel? Is it the lecturing hall? Ah, der you know it is no'! You know that mil that which stands nearest to the hearts en< of the American people is the Chris- am tian church. any You may talk about the church be- I ing a collection of hypocrites, but Pat when the diphtheria sweeps your chil- thi dren off whom do you send for? The tiff postmaster, the attorney general, the and hotel keeper, alderman? No. You 1 send for a minister of this Bible relig tle ion. And if you have not a r)om in a V your house for the obsequies, what an< building do you solicit? Do you say, agr 'Give me the finest room in the ho- Po< tel?" Do you say, "Give me that to.I theater?" Do you say, "Give me that a J public building where I can lay my an< dead for a little while until we say a glo prayer over it?" No. You say. ''Give me s the house of God." a~nd if there is At a song to be sung at the obsequies, Jeu what do you want? What does any- on body want? The "Marseillaise Hymn?' th< "Gad Save the Q teen?' Our own a~ grand national airr No. They want tro the hymn with which they sang their art od Christian mother into her last ha' sleep, or they want sung the Sabbath tDJ school hymn which their jittle girl sang o0 the last Sabbath afternoon she was out tha before she get that awful sickness which to broke your heart. I appeal to your common sense. You know the most fin. endearing institution on earth, the Ch most popular institution on earth today, cet is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. chi A man is a fool that doesc not recogniz iro< The infidels say: "There is gre at eec liberty now for infidels; freedom of platform. Infidelity shows its power vi fiom the fact that it is everywhere tol-~ erated, and it can say what it will." got Why, my friends, infilelity is not halfc so blatant in cur day as it was in the c) days of our fathers. Do you know that sec in the days of our fathers there were set pronounced irafidels in public auhr-ba ty, and they could get any political w position? Let a man today declara Y himself antagonistic to the Christianro religion, and what city wants him forba mayor; what state wants him for gover nor; what nation wants him for presi- o dent or for king? Let a man openly chn proclaim himself the enemy of ourSe glorious Christianity, and he cannot get a maj wity of votes in any state, ini any city, in any country, in any ward lea of America. s A distinguished infidel years ago rid- evc ing in a rail car in Ilutnois said. "What are has Chrisitiani:y ever done?' An oid bu Christian woman said: "'It has done eat one good thing anyhow. It has kept an An infdel from seing governer of lilinois." ser As I stood in Lhe side room of the opera ha house of Peoria, Iiis., a prominent gen- on teman o: that cit~y said, I can aill you nit the secret of that tremendous bitterness W against Christianity." Said I, "Wat is tia it" "Why, said he, 'in this very house there was a great conventio2 to nif nominate a governor, and there were p three or four c- -didates. At the same gel time there was in a church in this city ph a Saboaui school convention, and it it happened that one of the men who was yoi in the Sabbath school convention was Th also a member of the political conven- th< tion. In the political convention the th< name highest on the roll at that time the and about to be nominated was the name str of the great champion infidel. Tnere ani was an adjournment between ballots, tre and in the afternoon, when the nomi- th< nations were being made, a plain farmer ar< got up and said: 'Mr. Chairman, that thu nomination must not be made. The wo Sunday schools of Illinois will defeat lat him.' That ended all prospect of his ha nomination."sp The Christian religion is mightier t o- fiti day than it ever was. Do you think it' that such a scene ouald be enacted now ch~ as was enacted in the days of Robes- fitt pierre, when a shameless woman was tal elevated to the dignity of a goddess and the carried in a golden enair to a catherdral a a where incense was burned to her and ior people bowed down before her as a j divine being, she taking the place of to! the Bible and God, while in the cr- 031 ridr of that cathedral were enacted ani such scenes of dirunkenness and de- sol bauchery as had never before been fac witnessed? Do you think such a thing we could possibly occur in Christendom to- me day? No. The police of Washington, spu or of New York, or of Paris would Ar swoop upon it. I know infidelity makes wil a good deal of talk in our day. One in- ted fidel can make great excitement, but I for can tell you on what principle it is. It est is on the principle that if a man jumps hoi overboard from an ocean liner he makes prc more excitement than all the 500 who an< stay en board. But the fact that he .be DP that wreck the 500 pa ecogere? ken great cxoitoment when a man aps from the leturing platform or m tho pulpit into infidelity, but does ,t keep the Bible or the church from rying millions of passengeri to the re ot eternal safety? [hese opponents say that science is rooming rAigioa in our day. They k through the spectacles of the in mu scientists, and they say: "It is possible that this book be true. Peo are finding it out. The Bible has to go overboard Science is going throw it overboard." Do you believe ,t the B ble account of the origin of will be overthrown by infidel scien s who have 50 different theories ut the origin of life? If they should come up in solid phalanx, all agree on one sentiment and one theory, haps Christianity might be damaged, there are not so many differences >pinion inside the church a; outside churih. Oh, it makes me sick to see se literary fops going along with a y of Darvin under one arm and a e cf transfixed grasshoppers and but fi s un- er the other arm telling about "surv'val of the fittest" and Hax 's protoplasm and the nebular hy .hesis! The fact is that some Datu ists just as soon as they find out the .erence between the feelers of awaip I the horns of a be atle begin to pat size the Almighty, whila Agassiz, rious Agassiz, who never made any tension to b ing a Christian, puts h his feet on the doctrine of evola a and says: "I see that many of the uralists of our day are adopting facts ich do not bear observation, or have paised under observation. Toe=e a warring with each other-Drwin ;ring against Lamarch, Wallace war g against Core, even Herschel de aeing Ferguson. They do not agree ut anything. They do not agree on gradation of the species." Wbat do they agree on? Herschel tea a whole chapter on the the eir ,re astronomy. Li Place declares that moon was not put in the right ce. He says if it had been put four te farther from the earth than .it is v there would be more harmony in universe, but L'onville comes up tin time to prove that the moon was in the right place. How many ors woven into the light? Seven, s Isaac Newton. Three, says David wster. How high is the aurora ealis? Two and a half miles, says s. Ninety miles. say other scien s. How far is the' sun from the th? Seventy-six million miles, says alle, Eighty-two million, says Hum dt. Ninety million miles, says Hen son. 0ie hundred and four million es, says Mayer. Only a little diffjr e of 28,000,000 miles! Al split up )ng themselves-not agreeing on thing. lre these infidel scientists have im Leled themselves as a jury to decide a trial between Infidelity, the plain , and Christianity, the defendant, after being out for centuries they 2e in to render their verdict. Gan nen of the jury, have you agreed on rdict? No, no. Then go back for ther 500 years and deliberate and ee on something. There is not a ir miserable wretch in the city prison torro w that could be condemned by ry that did not agree on the verdict, lyet you expect us to give up our rious Caristianity to please these a who csnnot agree on anything. ,my friends, the church of us Carist instead of falling back is the advance. I am certaia it is on advarnce. I see the glittering of the rds; I hear the tramping ~of the ops; I hear the thundering parks of ilery. 0 G d, I thank thee that I re been permittea to see this day of triumph, this day of the confusion hine enemies! 0 Lard God, take sword fram thy thigh and rid~e forth he victors ! am mightily encouraged I ecause I , among other things that while this ristianity has been bombarded for tturies infidelity has not d estroyed one Lrh, or crippled one minister, or up ted one verse of one chapter of all the le. [E that has been their magnifi it record for the centuries of the past, at may we expect for the future? e church all the time getting the tory, and their shot and shell all nd then I find another most en raging thought in the fact that the lar printing press and the pulpit m harnesss d in the same team for proclamation of the gospel. Every her in this capital tomarrow, every 11l street banker tomorro v in Ne w rk, every State street banker tomor rin Boston, every Tatiri street ter in Philadelphia, every banker the Uaitei Ssates and every mer bt will have in his pocket a treatise Christianti, 10, 20 or 30 passages of ipturie in the reports of sermons aked throughout the land today. vill be so in Chicago, so in New Or as, so in Charleston, so in Boston, in Piladelp'aia, so in Cincinnati, so ry where. I know the tract societies doing a grand and glor:ons wora, ,I tell you the is no power on th today equtal to the fa~ct that the terican printing press is taking up the mons wnich are preachied to a few u red or a fea ih-susari people, and Monday morning and Monaday eve g scattering that truth to, mullions tt an eouragemnent to every Chris a man! ['he you have noticed a more sig .ant fact if you have talked with spe on the subj ect, that they are ing disgusted with worldly philoso r as a matter of comfort. They say les not a'nount to anything when have a dead child in the house ey tell you when they were sick and door of the future seemed opening only comfort they could find was gospel. People are having demon ted all over the land that science I philosophy cannot solace the ubles and woes of the world, and y want some other religion, and they taking Christianity, the only sympa tic religion that ever camc into the eld. You j 1st take a scientific conso ion into that room where a mother lost her child. Try in that case your endid doctrine of the "surviv.1lof the est." Tell her that child died because as not worth as much as the other Idren. That is your "survival of the est." Just try your transoenden ism, your philosophy, your sciernce, on ,t widowed soul, and tell her it was elogical necessity that her compan should be taken away from her, tas in the course of the world's his .the mnegatherium and the ichty urs had to pass out of existence, then you go on your scientific con ation until you get to the sublime t that 50,000 000 years from now ourselves may be .scientific speci ns on the geologic shelf, petrified cimens of an extinct human race. d after you have got all through h your consolation, if the poor afflio soul is not cra :d by it, we will send h from any of our churches the plain Christian we have and with one half u of prayer and read ing of Scripture mises the tears will be wiped away, tthe house from floor to cupola will fooded with the calmness of an In see the triumph of Christianity. People are disatisfied with evetryihing else. They want God. They want Jesus Christ. Young man, do not be ashamed to be a friend of the Bible. Do not put your thumb in your vest, as young men some times do, and swagger about talking of the glorious light of nature and of there being no need of the Bible. They have t the light of nature in India and China t and in all the dark places of the earth. Did you ever hear that the light of na ture gave them comfort for their trouble? They have lancets to out and juggernauts to crash, but no comfort. Ah, my friends, you had better stop your skeptici m Suppose you are put in a crisis like that of Col Ethan Allen. I saw the account and at one time men tioned it in an address. A-descendant c of Ethan Allen, who is sn infidel, said it never occurred Soon after I re- f cived a letter from a professor in one f of our colleges, who is also a descendant of Ethan Allen a-d is a Christian. He wrote me that the incident is accurate; that my statement was authentic and true. The wife of Colonel Ethan Allen was a vary consecrated woman. The mother ins'ructed the daughter in the truths of Christianty. Tae daughter sickened and was about to die, and she said to her father: "Father, shall I take your instruction or shall I take mother's instruction? I am going to die now; I must have this matter decided." That m an, who had been loud in his in - t fidelity, said to his dying daughter t "j~y dear, you had better .take your mo:her's reiigion." My advice is the same to you, 0 young man! Jou know how religion comforted her. You know what she said to you when she was dying. You had better take your mother's re ligion. FRANCE's NAVY. Will C -st Si x y-Tw> M!ltikns N'xz Year. The naval expenditure of Franc i fcr 1901 is officially proposed to be $62,520, 000, which at first sight seems to be less than in 1901, but if it is taken into ac count that the cost of maintaining the marine infantry and artillery, amount ing to about $5 400,000, has been trans ferred from the navy to the ministries of war and the Colonies, it is found that the money that France intends to spend upon the navy during 1902 is in reality $2,300,000 in excess of the naval ex enditures of the current year. It is a matter of serious considera- i tion for the French whether they are < not spending upon their navy more than i their national resources warrant. France has now piled up a dept in volving an annual charge for interest of nearly $200,000,000 or, in other words, every man, woman and child in France has now to pay $5. per annum t for interest on the National debt. The army costs the country $132,000,000 a year and the total expenditure for 1902 is officially proposed to be $750,000,000 Moreover, reflections upon the French census cause renewed uneasi ness. Last March the population in round numbers was 38,600.000, being an increase of only 330,000 since 1896; 1 and even this meagre result is mostly acounted for by Paris and its suburbs, where the increase has been 292,000, due principally to foreign immigration, so that ia the rest of France the popu lation has been augumented by only2 3,000 during the last five years. That is to say, for military and naval pur poses the population is almost station- < .ry, and in this respect France stands alone among the great nations of Europe. Un ter these conditions, M. Jaures, the socialist leader, and m any advanced thinkers among the radicals and radicali soialisti;, hold that is is impossible for1 France to have at the same time a navy and army of the first rant, simply be cause she has not the resurces of men and money to maintain both. Discipline of the Wood Pile. E very human male man who possesses even a lingering taint of temper shouldt keep an ax and a wood pile somewhere 2 handy, that he may rush out and work off his wrath when it waxes fiarce. There is nothing in this vain old world that will send a man back to his ap pinted work with a more wilted collart ann a traer comprehension of himself than this minutes' wrestling with a full flavored ax. He can use it so fiercely in the wood that all the fury of hist nature, all the hate that he feels for 2 for flis enemy, he can infuse into the ax handle, and how the chips will fly! Not very artistically, probably, but they will fly. And presently it beginst to dawn upon the man that he is feeling more calm. Evidently he is experieno ing a change or heat. tis does not hate his enemy at all. He changes -his stroke and begins to chop en the sys tem of Italian pennnship-the up strokes heavy and the down ones light. He rather loves his enemy now. At ast he puts all his falling strength int one tetrrfis blow. He misses his tip with the ax and smites the choepping- < block with the handle. A tingle, as though he had swallowed an alarm clock, goes from tloow to hip and bhck again, the axr arops fromi his powerless hands, and .a we-.k, limp, nerveless, perspiring, tremoming, gasping he stag ges to the house, hies dowa on the first thing that l.oks like a ionge, and is ready to die. 1'here isn't a lcar or a fault in his heat. Deat a has no terrors, and life has no temptations for him. He has chopped out all his baser zia ture, and he is just as ethereal and spiritual as he can be on this side of Jordan. It is a great medicine. r Big Trust Formed. News conrirming the report of the consolidation of all the cotton seed oil mills in the country was received Fri- j day morning. Tnere are seven of such I mills in New Orleans, the largest of which are the Southern Standard and ~ Union. The combined output of the seven is about 80,000 barrels per year. While dispatches from New York state the capital stock of the cotton seed oile trust to be $50,000,000, private infor mation receivef here is $100,000,000.( New Orleans manusactures more cotton i seed oil than any other city in the C country except Houston, Texas, which, by the way, only has four mills, but they are very large. Riot in Quelpart. The Cologne Gazette publishes a dis- j patch from Seoul, CJorea, dated July 6, e saying that bloody conflicts extending i over a period of ten days have occurred' on the Island of Quelpart, between the Roman Catholic missionaries and their , pupils and the populace of the island. t Fif teen of the natives and about 300 of the mission pupils are reported to t have been killed during the encounters. e The governor of Qielpart says the J trole was the fauit of the pupils and arose from their support of tax collec tors in levying illegal taxes upon the natives. NEGROEs throughout the state are said to be showing consider able interest in the Charleston n menoition. BILL ARP QUOTES BEECHER 'he Noted Minister Used Cuss Words and the Hot Weather Caused It. This horrid, torrid weather reminds me of rhat Henry Ward Beecher said in his church ne sweltering day in July. He took no ext. He wiped the perspiration from his row and looking solemnly at-the large con regation, said: "It is hot today. It is amned hot. It is as hot as hell! :verybody was amazed and shocked until e added, "That is the language I heard two oung men use at the door of the church as passed them. My y our g friends, it is not a hot as hell." Then in a tow, earnest tone .e pictured the torments of hell and the cer sin fate of the wicked until the atmosphere f the church seemed to be cool a-nd pleasant a comparison- The ladies ceased to move their ens and everybody was sill and solemn as a uneral. It was something like Jonathan Ed rards at Northampton when he got his hear rs so wrought up and alarmed that they roaned in fear and grasped the posts and ranes to keep from sinking into hell, and an ther preacher in the pulpit begged Mr. Ed rards to stop. "Stop, Mr. Eaward'; stop ow and tell them of the mrcy aLd love of od.'' What wonderful Dower is in the words of n eloqent, ea-nes' man. Mr. Beecher was 11 of that-a gifted, eloquent man. I heard rim preach twice before the war and was >rofoundly impreesed. I looked upon him as he impersonation of the man of God. Later in, when he began his vindi;tive war upon he South and said that dharp'a rifles were etter than Bibles for J hn Brown in K mnas nd it was a crime to shoot at a slave-holder nd miss him, 1 wondered at my infatuation with the mn and exclaimed with Isaiah, 'How are the mighty fallen." And stilt ster when Tilton charge: him'with alienating and seducing his wife and it took two months o try the case and the j ary two days to make p a verdict, which virtually saie, "He is sot guilty, but he must not do so any more," was mor'ified at my own weakness in be omirg his idolator and resolved to worship Lo man while he lived A great man's char cter cannot be made up until after he is lead. But I was ruminating how easy it is for a young man to say damn and pamn it, I'll be lamned, and even to take the name of God a vain. Damn is a more convenient and ex reesive word than dogyn or dingnation or lamed, and it shows a defiance of the devil ,nd a self conceit in the man who uses it Sut it is a very handy expletive and when a roung man gets in the habit of using it he arely reforms. He knows thatt is not good nanners, for he does not use it in the pres nce of ladies or preachers or his parents. Tevertheless there are some good people wh> hink damn it without saying it. I hea-d a good story the other day on Col. Livingston ur member of Congress from the Atlanta istrict. Last summer he was sent ever to Vent Virginia to speak and help the Demo rata in their canvass. He ventured into a pretty hot Republican town and was har nguing and electrifying a large audience, .nd while scarifying the Republicans and his fighting administration a soft, half done rish potato took him kerzip right between he eyes. It knocked off his spectacles and lattened into mush all over his classic coun enance. It surprised and shocked him of ourse. Recovered his glasses he wiped the ticky s'uff from his face and said with ex ited tone, "My friends, I have been-I have een a consistent-a consistent member of the resbyterian church-the Preeby'erian hurch, I say for more than-more than fifty ears-yes, fifty odd years, and have tried to ive-tried to live in harmony with all men ri-h all men, but if the dirty, dogmned, dad. lamed puppy who threw that potato will tand up or raise his right hand I 1 be-dad >lasted if I dent stop speaking long enough o come down and lhck the hair and hide off f him in two minutes by the clock." As no >ody rose or raised a hand the colonel resum d his broken remarks, but declares that he tever c une so near cursing since he joined he church. This thing of cursing is of very ancient rigin. Sometimes it was done by proxy. 3alak, the king of Moab, hired Balaam to urse Israel, anu. some of us veterans remem Gr when we, too, wanted to hire a ciissin aan to expend our w -ath upon the Yankees. ?eter cursed and swore when accused of be ng onelof the disciples. It is probable that te said "I'll be damned if I am." or perhaps rorse. S ,ldiers and sailors have in all ages reen profane-the very class that are in ;reatest peril and should have the greatest 'everence for their Maker. Uncle Toby says 'Our army swore terribly in Flanders." And Inc'e Toby himse f swore an oath when he ound the sick soldier lying and dying at hia ;ate. '"Be shalh not die, by God," be said, and he accusing spirit flew up to heaven with he oath and blushed.as he gave it in. The ecording angel as he wrote it down dropped Stear upon the word and blotted it out ior ver." that is beautiful, isentit?, Verily, harity hideth a multitude of sins. But this is enough on this subject. It is no hot to work in the garden and so I get in he shade of the vines on my verandah and uminate. Judge Griggs, our honored mem er of Congress, tells tnat story on Colonel ivingston and het told another that will make he oid men forget that it is hot, for they sever get too old to enjoy any story that has ,pretty woman in it. One of the laet cases arought before the judge was a young unso >hist:cated country boy who was charged rith an assault upon a bonnie country girl in hat he hail caugrit her at the spring and ugged and kisaked her against her will. ier mother saw it from her piazza and heard ter scream and saw him run away to the teli wher e he was plowtng. She was very adignant, and prosecaited aim. She was the ritneas and so was the girl, but the girl tidenit seem very vindictive. She said he tident hurt her but took her by surprise. She had filled her bucket and was about to go 'ack when he caught her and hugged her and ,i.'ed a r risht on her mouth. 'The sohicitor used his case. Ihe roung man was put up o make his statement, and all he said was hat ste looked so sweet and pretty he could rot help it, and he dident believe that Miss Lilly was very m d about it nohow, for she rent off singing of a h5 me '-What hyme was he smzginh? asked the judge. "I don't rnow," he said. '-What hy rue were you sing ug, Miss Molly? asked the juge. dhe mitted and said ii was'-1-he Lrd Will Pro. ide." Th e judge chbarged the jury very mild y', and toad thiem that an assault impliel iilice, etc , but as the jury couldnlt see raere the malice came in, they came back rith this verdict. "We, the jury, fiad tae .efendant not guilty, as there was no malice r hate in it, and we recommend him to the 1ercy of the court." This story reminds me of John Riley's ver iet in the Pass case. Good old John Riley, he foreman of The Rome Courier's pressroom or years and years and the foreman of the ury in the case of the State against Romu as Pass for hog stealing. Pass had been uspected of killing Wailis Warren's tshoats s they ran in the woods, and so Wallis laid or him and one evening about dusk, when .e heard a rifle shot, he slipped up and caught 'ass in the very act of putting the shoat in a ack. Wal!is cident go to the war and manag d to save his stock. P'ats went, and left his rife and three little children to the mercy of lod and the community. When he returned e found there was nothing left to liAe on, and ne of the children had died. Judge Wright olunteered to defend him, and introduced no vidence, but had the last speech. I will ever forget the tender pathos of that speech -his picture of a poor soldier returning ome to find det elation and despair. He ever alluded to the evidence, but had the ary and the court in tears. The judge charg d them as fairly as he couid; and they re red. In a brief time th ey came in with t'.d erdict: "Whereas, the late, unhappy .var educed many of our brave soldiers and their hmilies to want and poverty by reason of rhiah they were forced at times to wander in re woods for such garme as they could find 2order to keep the wolf from the door and heir little ones from starvation; therefore, -e, the jury, find the defendantnot guilty. ohn Riiey, forema2. "-By gracious!" said Walls, "they found ass guilty and then pardoned him." Judge frigtt never lost a case where he had the st speach and a woman or a poor man was is client. But it is getting a little cooler now as the in nears the horizon. I must stop and turn re water loose on my garden. The city has o water meters yet, and I can steal water said to his dock, "You musent be cotched stealin' obickens-cotched, I say." BILL Aar. THE WEEKLY CEOP REPORT. Director Bauer Say's it Was the Most Favorable Week of the Esason. The following is the weekly bulletin of the condition of the weather and crops in the State, issued Wednesday by Director Bauer of the South Caro lina eection of the climate and crop service of the United States weather bureau: The week ending Monday, July 8, averaged slightly warmer than usual over the wes-ern, northern and central portions, and slightly cooler over the southeastern. The dailey maximum ranged between 86 and 98 degrees, while a minimum of 66 was noted at Green ville on the 1st. There was more than the usual amount of bright sunshine. E trly in the week, and again near its close, there were scattered showers, heaviest in the central and south astern counties, with a maximum rainfall of 1.99 inches at St. George, while over the northern and western :ounties the week was generally rain lees. These conditions of high tem. perature abundant sushine, and ab sence of rain, made this the most fa vorable week of the season for cultiva tion, nevertheless, many fields remain grassy, and it will require at least an other week of dry weather to clean them. Rain is needed generally for the crops, and to soften the soil especially clayey land that dried out hard, and breaks coddy under caltivation. Raic is also needed to prevent fur her injury to crops that were damaged in ridding them-of grass and weeds. Cotton made a slight and general im provement, except sea island, that im proved decidedly. The plants are un usually small for the season, and are growing slowly, especially on sandy soils, where their condition is excep tionally poor. Blooms are noted over the whole State, but cotton is not blooming as profusely as it should at this season. It is reported that the crop as a whole cannot possibly attain a normal condition, however favorable the weather during the remainder of the season may be. The corn crop can now safely be characterized as the poorest in many years, and over considerable areas will approximate a failure. Corn, with some exceptions, has slender stalks, is tasselling low, and not earing well. Planting bottom and stubble lands con tinues. Tobacco shared in the general im provement during the past week, but is still very poor. Cutting and cur ing is well under way in all districts. Rice made marked improvement, but has not fully recovered from the ill effects of the excessive June rainfall. Bas are being extensively planted in with corn and on stubble fislds. Some have come up to good stands. Apples, peaches and pears continue to drop extensively, while peaches and grapes rot as they ripen. The labor situation has not improved, and continues to be a serious factor in thia year's farm economics. What the Nations Owe An article summarizing the national debts of the various countries of the world appears in a recent publication from the bureau of statistics. It shows a total of thirty-one billion, a sum that is utterly inconceiv able, and which there is about as much chance of the world ever paying as there is of elect ing a Southern man President next time. On a basis of per capita dept the following in teresting and instructive figures are given: In the Australasian colonies the debt amounts to $263.90 for each individual. The citizens of Honduras each carry $219.60. The people of France strain under a per capita debt of $150.61. In Urguay it is $148.06; in Portugal, $143.82; Argentinia $128.85; Spain, $95.53; the Netherlands, $90.74; Belgium, $75. 63, and Great Britain, $74. 83. Our burdens, much as we complain, are comparatively easy to bear, being only $14.52 per capita, though in Mexico the per capita debt is but $10.84 The debt of the United States in 1835 was only $33,000, 000, and in 1860 was but 64,000, - 000, but in five years it had soar ed to $2,750,413,571.43 the legacy of our great civil war. The British national debt is over four billions, but like the United States, Great Britain still ex pects to pay principal as well as interest, or, at least, has no thought of repudiating it even if it is never paid. France still struggles to pay the interest on her entire national debt, but at least three-fourths of it is regar ded as irredeemable, while Spain, Italy, Turkey and Aus tria-Hungary are practically bankrupt countries. Nobody expects the debts of these na tions to be paid. The only ques tion is, will they be able to con tinue to pay the interest? War is a great debt builder, and if Uncle Sam ever wants to see his national debt wiped out he must se to it that the peace treaty which he signed at The Hague bears better fruit than that which has immediately follow ed the peace conference. SUMATRA widows are tied down by an iron-clad custom. When the husband dies the widow erects a flagstaff at her front door and flings a flag to the breeze. As long as the flag remains untorn she must wear widow's weeds and keep in se lusion. The moment a rent, no matter how small, appears in the flag she can lay aside her weeds and accept the first offer bhat comes. Interehange of Confidence. "And now, my boy, don't have any secrets from your father. What are your college debts? Don't be afraid to tell me the sum total, to the last cent." "I won't, father. The whole amount [s $5,327.50." "I thank you for your confidence, my boy, and I will be equally frank. You may pay those debts the best way you can."-Chicago Tribune. A Cameo. The carpet is bobbing And flapping on high, The strawberry's throbbing In dumpling and pie. The STAGE a DRIVER'S Story : y * _____ to By Mary B. Sleight th " fa .........................h Ada SD neAT? Oh, that's old Squire, Hone's place; at least, 'twas a his once, and a mighty fine place it Io: is, too," said "Capt. Bob," the stage sq driver. sh I was the only passenger, and as he the day was fine I was sharing his gr seat for a better view of the country. gr We were just then passing a large, Bi old-fashioned mansion standing well in back from the road and surrounded st: with magnificent elms and maples. ne "Yes, its a mighty nice old place," w repeated the driver, "and it just does fa me good to see them youngsters frol- P= icking on that grass plot. Hullo! " there's the old squire himself!" and t he pointed with his whip handle to a shaggy-bearded old man who with m the help of a crutch was hobbling at down the steps. "Seems pretty bad- m: ly broken up. And he used to be one th o' the halest, heartiest men in Stan- ]a: tonville. I know I used to look up th at him when I was a boy and think or that the giants I'd read about could- hi n't have been much bigger. But the hi trouble with him was his inside co make-up didn't fit the outside. It ve always seems to me when I see some o' them great gianty-lookin' men as in ii the Lord meant 'em to have hearts co as big in perportion as their bodies, an but they don't always; or if they! th were big once, they've got so badly ch shriveled up, some of them, that I Y< should think they'd wabble 'round of like a dried kernel in a walnut shell. qi "My uncle Ben used to go to school at with the squire when he was a th youngster, and he says he was so la: mean that he wouldn't so much as dc give a fellow an apple core without ha makin' himn pay back in chewin' gum, to and when you see a boy so stingy m, as that you can most gen'ly tell co about what sort of a man he is goin' as to make. But he was an only son, w] and I s'pose that helped to spoil Wa him. He had one sister, and when se her husband died, leavin' her with two children and scarcely money enough to pay his funeral expenses, pa she begged her brother to let her Ca come back to the old home; but she might as well have asked that big w rock yonder to take pity on her. " And 'twasn't long before the poor o1 lady, not being used to hardships, gr broke down and died. Folks thought tb then that maybe he'd be shamed into o' doin' something for the two orphans, hi seein' they were his own nephews; lo and he was; he took 'em both out o' he school and 'prenticed 'em to a shoe- ge maker. Generous, wasn't he? And ri he had but one child of his own, too, he and she was a girl that would have in been glad enough to have 'em for no brothers. Her own mother was dead sc -as nice a woman as you'd care to he meet; one o' your real ladies, with gi always a smile and a heartsome word for everybody; a good prayin' worn- w an, too. Folks that knew her inti- ri mate use' to say that she was always tc prayin' for the squire, and that o sometimes she'd send a note askin' o] to have him prayed for in meetin'- b< She didn't give in his name, but hi everybody knew who it was. But 0: prayin' for a man like Squire Hone h< always seems to me a waste o' tl breath. Anyway, the poor lady died.a without seein' any good come of it, Iai and 'twasn't more'n a year 'fore he e was married again. The second wife hi was a good deal like himself, big and g1 handsome, with no more heart than al n oyster, and Annie, who was one b< o' them soft-eyed little things that b: always look as if they wanted a lot o' motherin', got to- pinin' so that in at last some of her mother's relatives je over in Waterbury sent for her and m~ kep' her till she was grown up. I si remember as well as if 'twas yester- sa day the day she came back; I'd just g2 begun drivin' the stage, and she was re one o' my first passengers, a tall, b< slim-built girl, with a forehead like or a baby's, and a look in her eyes that Y made you feel as if you wouldn't say el a swear word before her no more'n if you'd cut off your hand: and that's o: the kind o' girl that I like to have te round when that off horse begins to w get balky. Hi, there, Jerry! None!s o' your nonsense!" But the off horsee was in a mulish mood, and there was h a long break in the story. t "The squire'd been sort o' ailin' that spring," said Capt. Bob, when at pc last the balker was conquered, "and h< when Annie heard of it she hurried H1 home to see if she couldn't cheer him up. And he was mighty well tc pleased to have her there, for he and be madam didn't get on any too well together; and no matter how mean- t a man is, he likes havin' somebody d< to coddle him all the same, 'specially A when he's sick. But when he found y out that she was gettin' letters from se a young feller in Waterbury, and st was expectin' some time or tther to ei marry him, he was madder'n a March jn hare, and swore that if she didn't e: give him up he'd cut her off without he a penny. But Annie didn't take ti that part of it much to heart, for the 20 young man was purty well to do, and bi as he wasn't through college they did- ti n't feel in any hurry about marry- b< in'. But as soon as he was ready to n: start out for himself he went right w to her father, for he was a real he straightforward sort of a feller, and b< told him he'd come to ask for Annie. . For answer the squire ordered him ye to go about his business and wait in till he was sent for. But at that a: Annie braced up and said that she ez had given her promise to marry him ti as soon as he was through college, m and seein' she was of age she cc thought it wouldn't be right for her , to break her word. Big Fire in North Carolina. One of the most destructive fires in the history of this town broke out Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock in the Mlougald Furniture store and the wind was so favorable that it seemed the entire town was doomed. A rough ~ estimate places the loss at $66,000. The onrthern portion of the town is in ruins. tv No one has any adequate idea as to how the fire originated. The loses and is- i surance are estimated as follows: M. k A. McDougald, two stores and stock, loes *14,000; one-half insured; R. E Lee, two store buildings, livery stable b and stock of goods, loss $10,000; G. M. f: Wright, stock $400, insurance $200; H. d 0. Covington, two stores, loss $2,600, insurance $1,200; D. C. McNeill, stock, u $3,500; Suthernland & Morgan, $900, T insurance $500; W. 1). James and A. A James, three stores and goods, $19, 000, imfurance about $5,000, J. S. Mo- , Donffe, loss $13,000 stock insurance $13,000; J. C. Morgan les $2,000 stock J. B. Cowan $600, and W. P. Evans, l'o marry him! Marry him!' ormed the old squire, hard as a at, 'but I-warn you, not a cent will u get from me if you have tQ go the poorhouse.' And Annie, feelin' at she wasn't beholden to her ther in any way, seein' he'd let r live away from him so long, mnt back to Waterbury the next y and was married at her aunt's. "'Long about that time there was craze in this part o' the country r investin' in minin' stock, and the uire, though gen'ly a pretty rewd business man, went into it t and heavy. Fact, he was so eedy about it, he seemed to be udge anyone else havin' a chance. it all of a sudden the mine caved , so to speak, and the squire had a roke o' paralysis that come mighty 'ar making an end of him. And Lien they come to look into his af irs they found that his house and -etty much everything else that he ned had been mortgaged to raise oney for the minin' stock. "In the meantime his daughter had owed sorbewhere away out west. d there wasn't a soul to give the old iser a helpin' hand. ,But he'd had e sense to leave a few hundred dol rs in the bank, and when the folks at held the mortgages shut down him, his doctor took a room for m in a cheap lodgin' house and had m move into it. Seemed quite a me-down, bigt nobody pitied him ry much. "Well, to make a long story short, the course of a year or two the unty was voted a new poorhouse, Ad the Hone property being for sale e committee concluded it'd be eaper to buy that than to build. >u see, there was about 20 acres land and not a neighbor within carter of a mile. The squire had other stroke when he heard what ey were goin' to do with it, and his adlord, findin' that by the time the actor's bill was paid he wouldn't e a dollar left, turned him over the town. I dare say the select en were sorry to do it, but of urse they had to treat him the same the rest o' the town poor; and en he came to himself there he 3s in ehis old home under an over er, and herded with paupers. IL Two years later I chanced to be ssing over the same road with pt. Bob Moreley for driver. "Say!" he cried, facing about as a came in sight-of the Hone place, member my tellin' you 'bout the d squire? Well, sir, there's been eat doin's up there, and they say ,e old man's so changed that his vn wife wouldn't know him. Seems s daughter 'long 'bout that time st her husband, and when some. of er friends wrote her what the old : mtleman had come to she packed ght ,up and hurried on east with r little girl and took a house down the edge o' the village so's to be ar him. Tell you what, the way ime women in this world forgiv lps a fellow to understand the for vin'ness of the Lord. "But she hadn't more'n got here hen she was taken down with ieumatic fever, and not bein' able go herself, she sent her little girl rer to ask about the squire. 'The d man was sittin' on one o' the ~nches there by the gateway, with s chin on his cane, when the little 2e come in, and he started as if 'd seen a ghost. They say she's e born imrage of 'her mother when ec was her age, and she's napmed ~ter her, too, and when her grandad Lled her Annie she run right to im and clumb on his knee and be 2n chatterin' as if she'd known him 1 her life. He's gen'ly rough as a tar with children, but they say he -oke down and cried like a baby. "Well, that little midget kep' corn ' right along, bringin' flowers and' 1s and lovin' messages from her other; and 'bout the first question - te'd ask him would be: 'Have -you .id your prayers this mornin', -andpa?' And then she'd make him cite with her 'Our Father.' And ~fore folks knew what was goin' the old squire -was converted. o know the Bible says: 'A little ild shall lead 'em,' and it seems as the Lord must have sent, that little e there on purpose to bring him repentance; at least, that's the ay it looks to me. His daughter, ion as she was able to be up, want him to come live with her, but was afraid he'd be a trouble and ought he'd better stay where he as. To be sure, he said, 'twas the oriouse, but 'twas in the poor use that he'd found the way to eaven." At this point the off horse began balk, and it was several minutes ~fore the captain could go on. "Queer," he remarked, as he set ed back in his seat, "what ups and wns sometimes come to people. 1 of a sudden, one day, 'bout a tar ago, the squire had a letter yin' that a new vein had been ruck in the mine that he'd invest in, and that the stock had doubled value. Seems he'd been smart iough to hold on to the paper, so Swas once more a rich man; and e first thing he did was to deed >acres of land to the county and y back his home. Then he had t house put in order from top to >ttom, and to-day his daughter An e and her little girl are livin' there ith him, and the two nephews that 'prenticed to a shoemaker are in' fitted for college. Curious, asn't it, how it happened? Makes >u think of old Nebuchadnezzer hay ' to go down on his marrow-bones, id then gettin' back his throne aft. he'd learned his lesson. Anyhow, Le squire's clothed and in his right id at ]ast. and I've come to the elusion that his wife's prayers eren't wasted, after all."-N. Y. In spendent.. Grappling-Irons of Succees. Life is uphill an the way If you cmb and wshto stay - Where you are, you'll have to use, Like ani lnemen, well-spiked shoes. -Detroit Free Press, FEad Wet Yet in Sight. YeastI just saw your wife in the ther room. Crmsonbek-Tlking? "Yes; I heard her say, as I passed, it she had arrived at a conclusin." "Well, she hasn't done anything( of ie sort. She's talkig yet-"-Yon'. er's Statesman. A Brute. "Well," she asked her old bachelor rother, as she took the baby away om him, "what do you th of the sr little darling, anyway?" "Oh, I dunno," he said, "I guess ebby it'll do to raise." - Chicago ies-Herald. Silent Criticism.. "She is very nice and all that; but te is altogether too critical." "I assure you she never speaks of >u but in the kindliest way." "P'raps so; but every time I see her o gives me the impression that my o~k Adoe.a.t t"-:n,.kb'n Life..