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XA VOL. xvi. MANNING, S. C., WEDNESDAY. MAY.L10.N.2 WORSE AND WORSE. A Stream of Stone and Mud Half . a Mile Wide. PARTICULARS FROM ST. PIERRE. Thous-andts ofreol are- Ki!led ouI the Isla;mls by the Latva That lRans Down Moun taini Side. A dispatch from Fort d France savs the *'nited States government tug Potomae left there for the island of St. Vincent where conditions are re ported to be worse. La S ufriere. on St. Vincent. was in full eruption May. 10. A stream of stone and mud halif a inle wide was then issuing from the volcano. Stones two inches in diaz eter fell twelve miles :nvay. At Kingston. the capital of the island, the ashes were two inchs deep. seven hundred dead were reported Sunday. May 11. It is estimated that the to tal number of deaths on St. Vincent, reaches two thousand. Most of the victims are said to be Carib Indians. Seven estates on the island have been burned to ashes. and it is autheniti cally reported that two earthquakes occurred. It isbelieved the submarine cables at S :. Vincent have been broken by the disturbances. The present volcanic eruption on St. Vincent is the first since 1s12. LOOTING THE DEAD. The dispatch further says the tug Po* nac cruised along the coast of Ma que. She encountered an inky black column of smoke which made it; necessary for her to go live miles out of her course. Words fail to describe the present situation at St. Pierre. A small detatchment of French troops is making etorts to inter the dead. although the government seems to be strikingly unconcerned as to what is done in this direction. The looting of the dead has begun already. While, coming to Fort de France the Potomac picked up a boat containing tive col ored and one white man whose pockets were tilled with coin and jewelry, the latter evidently stripped from the tin gers of the dead. Lieutenant B. B. McCormick, the commander of the Potomac, arrested these men and turned them over to the commander of the French cruiser Suchet for pun ishment. The Potomae also brought a ton of supplies to Martinique. A famine here is imminent. The north ern section of the island is depopulat ed. BUT FEW BODIES FOUND. Strange to relate. in view of the number of inhabitants of St. Pierre who were swept to death by the vol canic waves from Mont Pelee. on Thursday last, very f ew corpses have been found by those who are engaged in the work ot cremating the dead bodies. This is due to the fact that the most populous quarters of the town are buried under a thick layer of cindered lava which apparently en tirely consumed the bodies of the vie tims. Public interest centres in the stories of the survivors and in the ef forts being made to succor the refu gees. A woman named Laurent, who was employed as a servant at St. Pierre in the household of M. Gabrel. and who was among those taken to the hos pital in. thir city, in describing her experiences, said that on the day of the terrible disaster she heard a loud report and theroupon fainted. When she regained her senses, a fe w hours later. she was horribly burned, and., glancing around, she saw two miem bers of the Gabriel family still alive but they died before assistance could reach them. Mlille. Laurent. although she lived for some time after being taken to the hospital and was con scious while under the care of physi cians, died without being able to im part any additional information con cerning the catastrophe. STRANGE sIGHTs. The path of the volcanie torren* which swept over St. Pierre is markedi out in a strange manner. The vicinity of the shore where vessels anchored was swept by a whirlwind of voleanic gas, which ripped, tore anid shattered everything in its passage. but left. few traces.of cinders behind. fln the oth er hand the fort, centre and adjourn ing partsof St. Pierre are buried under a thick bed of cinders which consum ed ev:erything beneath it. The scenes within the dead city are strange and gruesome. says the dispatch. In the section of the city known as the MIoul ege.1 no sign of tire is visible, but everything seems to have been rent and scattered as though by a tornado. The iron bedsteads in the hospitals are twisted, but bear no mark of heat. The bedclothes and all textiles in the hospital simply vanished. About two hundred corpses have b~een found in the streets of St. Pierre. most of them lying face downward. The central quarter of the town and the fort are! buried several yards under cinders. In the neighborhood of the creek, sev eral hiouses were found intact. b~ut their inhabitants were all dead and appeared to have been killed by light ning. Here the bodies were lying. sitting and reclining in curiously life like attitudes. TIIE DIsasTER D)ESCRilED. Describing the destruction of the is land city a corrcspon dent says that last MIonday week 31aunt l'eiee pouredl forth a stream of mlten lava 20 feet high and half a mtile wide. its pro gress was appaling. Rtushing down the dry bed of lViviere Blanche it reached the sea. The force (If the im' part was such that the sea receded for -!oo feet for miles along the western coast. Loud detonations followed at short irregular intervals. a bsolu telyv aw-inspiring and so) loud that they were heard 300 miles away. At night the volcano crater wa a mas of lurid flames which shot high tup over the mountain, while all the time the 'an nonading went on. It continued at intervals on Tuesda and Wc \edniesday. On Thursday morniing it was.t relative lv still. St. Pierre wa as usuIal, carly astir and business was partly going on about o cO'eke. when a sort of whirl wind of steam. bolling mnud and dire suddenly swept with incredible rapid it ve ethe city and roadstead. At once the town was in a blaze. The tire seemed to run overall. The ships were instantly canted over and began si mutaneously to burn and sink in the sea. which was then raging cauldron. The whole destruction had taken place within less than 20 minutes of the BURNING UO0D!ES. In the destroyed city of St. Pierre, the work among the ruins is being 'ontinued in an unsatisfactoryi man or, says a Fort de France dispatch to Tlc lerald. The dead are being burned. the pyres being fed with petro leun and tar. 'reat tires are kept go ing. whiAh at night light up the entire isilind. and which. being SeeI at St Lucia. led to the belie" that Fort dle France had burned. \though thousanos have beenI burned. miany still rcnain to be erc mated. Searchers. while walking through the ashes. often siep upon what appears to he a charrcd pillar of stole. only to learn. as it yields gruesome1 under foot. that it is the irunk of another unfortunate. Some of the walls of the houses that still stand. crurnble and fall at touch. Some idea of the terrible heat that poured down from Mont Pelee may be had when it is known that the iron rollers of the iPrinolle sugar mills were molted ,, though they had been put through a furnace. THE ISLAND TIZEMILES. No persons have as yet heen able to approach within eight miles of the new crater of the Sonfriers volcano. But judging from what can be seen from a considerable distance the old lake at the summit of the mountain has disappeared. The numerous tis sures in the mountain's sides continue to throw out vaper and the subter ranean murmurings and tremblings in dicate continued unrest. During the afternoon of Monday a dense volume steam and smoke rose from the vol :ano and the whole island was covered by a peculiar mist. The inhalation -f noxious vapors here is increasing the spread of sickness. Starvation threat ens the poorer classes of the afflicted district. Nearly every remaining negro hut in Carib county contains decayed bodies, and the horrible stench isdriving peo pie away. Mutilated bodies are tied with ropes and dragged to the trenches where they are buried. Sometimes bodies are cremated. The local gov ernment is feeding and sheltering about 3.000 refugees. DEsTROYED IN TEN MINUTES. The correspondent of The London Times at Paris. . Defliawits, sup pled his paper this morning with an account of the St. Pierre disaster, te!egraphed to him by a friend from Fort de France. 'Martinique, under Thursday's date. by way of the island > f Malta. It says: 'For three weeks Mount Pelee had been vomiting clouds of smoke. but the smoke seemed so normal that it was permissible for even those were inclined to look on the dark side not to dread a catastrophe. At fort de France. where the agita tion of Mont Pelee. attracted. as it went on much attention and anxiety which existed gradually eied down. May 5 a violent eruptiani of mud, hot shes having been mingled with water n the crater. overwhelmed Guerin's works. killing twenty-three persons. nd the river in the north of the island, now swollen by a muddy tor rent. noisily overflowed. On May 8, while there were still deliberations go ing on at Fort de France and St. Pierre. where the night had passed in nguish and ignorance, as to whether the eruption of mud was the precursor f the end of the disaster. St. Pierre was within ten minutes annihilated." ONLY ONE LEFT. MIargaret Stokes. the nine-year-old :hild, who is one of the survivors of the Steamship Roraima, which was :estroyed at St. Pierre, is the only re maining member of a family of five that lived in Brooklyn up to a few months ago. The child's father wa Clement Stokes, at one time a well to ao merchant of Barbadoes, B. W. L,. but for the last few years bookkeeper for a department store in Brooklyn. Stokes died recently and the widow decided to return to the home of a wealthy sister in Barbadoes. The widow packed her property and with a faithful colored nurse, Clara King, who had been with the family in Bar badoes, she started on the journey that was to be the last undertaken by the family. IHELD IN MONTREAL. When the Spray arrived in MIontreal Friday morning the party drove the to the Windsor. At 7 o'clock they again left the hotel, just as the pursuing force from Quebec which came up from Sorel on the Quebec boat reached the hotel. Chief Carpenter took his prison ers to J1udge Lafontaine's residence and an impromptu court was convened in the judge's library. D~etective Car penter handed the judge the warrants with the return marked upon the back as is usual. Thie prisoners were asked if they were guilty or not guilty. and not replying, the .judge's clerk ac cepted their failure to plead as a plea of not guilty. Judge Lafontaine then said: " Prisoners. I remand you for trial until MIonday. the 19th of this month. withotut bail." The prisoners bowed, and the judge informed Car penter that he remanded the prisoners to his custody. In the meantime High Constable Gale of Quebec. with the writ of ha beas corpus was searching diligently for MIr. Carpenter. .\t 10 o'clock he found him in his onice and served the writ. Mr. Carpenter was placed in a dilemnu:.. ie was in possessioni of a document calling (on him to produce, the bodies of (avnur and Greene be fore Jludge Andrews in Quebec F-ri day and he no longer had the prisoners in his possession. lhaving been relieved by .Judge Lafontaine. lIe consulted his counsel and was informed that if lhe attemplted( to retan the prisoners to Quebec he would be liable to arrest for cotemnpt of the local court, whose madat'e he had received and executed. oan "nswer setting forth the facts in th matter was prepared and sent do wn to Gu.-b ec. andI with that it 1s eCted( 1 the Qulebee people will have if ani extraction . Wnnissio n extends oer the en't ire U au in and the ar ress 0f G re'ene andl Gavnor was made by an odih.ur inuali ed t . make arrests in any portilon of the pinovmenr: c'ose <uently theire is nO doubt th at they~ wmii holrd CAUGHT IN CANAiA. Green and Gaynor, Fugitives from Savannah Kidnapped AND THEN ARRESTED IN QUEBEC. The Defendants Were Smuggled Out of City By Olficer-, and Were Caught 1eiore They Knew It. Colonel John F. G'aynor. who for feited his bail of :.40.000 because of his disappearance f.rom Savannah. Ga.. where he was indicted on a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States grovernment and his partner. Captain W. D. Greene were smuggled out of Quebec Thursday by an American de tective named lennett and tive as sistants. Bennett had been in Quebec since the arrival of Gavnor and Greene and has kept a keen watch on their move inents. Thursday morning he was joined by tive others who carried out a seemly well laid plan to capture th accused. About 11 o'clock Greene was coming out of the postotice when three of the men approached him and one of them producing a document showed it to Greene. The latter stood dumbfounded and asked permission to speak to some one, but was hurried in to a cab and rushed to lower town, where he was place on the Montreal tug Spray. In the meantime. Bennett and the two other detectives wentto the Chat eau Frontenac. where Gaynor and Greene were staying. Bennett re ained outside while his comrades went into the lobby. At the time Colone Gaycor was talking to the clerk. Both men went up immediately and invited him outside, where Bennett was await ing then in a cab. The detectives and Gaynor started for 1TLower town and in a short time (aynor was in company with Greene or the tug and with the detectvies on Cie way to Montreal, or some place further up the river, where they can and. * NRS. GAYNOR IN PURSUIT. These proceedings occupied about 20 minutes. The hotel people notifi'd Colonel Gaynor's counsel of what hi.l jccurred. The attorney general's de partment and Judge Chauveau were notified and they in turn asked the police to investigate the matter. Half an hour after the departure of Lhe Spray, another tug was engaged by 'Mrs. Gaynor. She went on board vith Detective Walsh. The pursuit :if the Spray was given up at Cape ouge. eight miles from the city. The spray was then almost out of sight lown the river. Upon the return of M:s. Gaynor to the city the law:yers in the case had a short consultation with her, and im ediately two petitions for habeas orpus, ordering the return of Gaynor nd Greene to this city. were prepar ~d, and two orders were signed to that ~fect by Judge Andrews in the su erior court. In the meantime four embers of the provincial police left y the 1:15 Canadian Pacilic railroad rain for three Rivers with others to ecure a tug there and try to inter ept the Spray. The latter town is 0 miles from Quebec and just half ;ay between here and Montreal. The petitions were sworn to by Mrs. aynor, who alleges that her husband nd Greene were taken away against heir consent and withoutgiving them ime to see counsel or take legal meas res to prevent their arrest. While he petitions were being prepared a pecial train was over the Canadian Pacific railroad and at 3:30 the chase egan. On train are Messrs. Cannon ad Chauveau, attorneys in the case, who are bearers of the petition: high onstable Gale and eight detectives. WHEN THEY ESCAPED. B. D. Greene and John F. Gaynor scaped from the Savannah federal ourt several weeks ago while their ase was pending before .Judge Emory Speer, of the United States court. Both defendants had been realesed on ond and we-e guests of the DeSoto otel.awaiting, supposedly, the hear ng of the court. - Saturday preceding Monday, the ay set for their hearing. they left the city, either in disguise or by a ircuitous route. Their atto rney ex pressed even as great surprise as did the government when neither one of the defendants was present in court n MIonday. It was declared by '-ounsel represent ing Greene and Gaynor that they had either been in error as to the day set for trial or were unavoidably detained in New York. The court ordered their arrest at any cost. but the ottieers had not the slightest clew to wvork upon until the court was informed by press reports that the two fugitives were in New York. Almost instantly camne the re port that Greene and Gaynor had tled to Canada. where they smilingly ad mittedl their identity, declaring they would remain across the bordier just a~s long as they wished. Every etfort has been madec since to accomplish their arrest by decoying thenm across the Canadian line and seiing them when upon Amer-ican soil. Their every movement has been watched by some of the best federal and Pinkerton detectives in the country. Since their escape the ollic-ers of the Savannah court hav-e been very active in the pr-eparation of the case the government has brought. WVill Deflect a Railroad. It is reported that the Miexican Central railway will dellect its line in der construction fi-om a point on its Guadalajara division in order to avoid proximity to the volcano of Colima. which has been more or less active ever since the earthquake at Chilpain einu. There is much alarm at pres ut among residenits of Colima owing to the activity of the volcano wvhich is smoking. M1any slight earthquakes have been experienced, terrifying the eople enaged in farming. VOLCANOES CAUSED BY STEAM. Im mense 'Force Stored Be ne ea t h Earth Bursts Forth. Dr. G. HTartwig. in his book. "Vol canoes and Earthquakes," gives the following as his views of the origin of volcanic eruptions: The phenomena attending an erup tion can leave no doubt that below every active volcano a large subterra nean cavity must exist in which melt ed lava accumulates. The partisans of the thet ry which supposes the earth to consist of a central fluid mass, with a solid shell resting upon it, attribute the fornation of volcanoes to rents or issures in this crust, through which the lava is cast forth: but the local development of heat by chemical ac tion or some other unknown cause. is quite sutlioient to account for the ex istence of tiery lakes imbedded in a solid mass. and which. though insig niticant waen compared with the sur face of the globe. may still be large enough to produce vo lcanic phenomena on the grandest sel". The cause of the reaction of such a reservoir against the surface of the earth must. in all probability, be sought for in the expansive force of steam: for when water, penetrating through crevices or porous strata. comea in contact with the heated subterranan mass it is evident that the steam thus generated must press upon the lava, and. when formed in sufficient quantity, ultimately force it up the duet of the volcano. In other cases we may suppose a continuous column of lava mixed with liquid water raised to a red-hot or white-hot temperature under the influence of pressure. A disturbance of equilibrium may first bring en an eruption near the surface by the: expansion and con version into gas of the entangled water, so as to lessen pressure. More and more steam would then be liberated, bringing up with it jets of liquid rock, and ultimately ejecting a continuous stream of lava. Its force being spent, a period of rest succeeds until the conditions for a new out burst (accumulation of steam and melted rock) are obtained, and another cycle of similar changes is renewed. THE ROUND BALE TRUST. Competition in the South Likely to Destroy Cotton Gins;. A four cornered fight between the round cotton bale, the cotton gin, the oil mills and the compresses has broken out in Texas which threatens to re volutionize the cotton ginning busi ness for next season and destroy the ginneries unless the Texas Farmers' congress. weich meets at College sta tion July, can take some steps or sug gest soir.e legislation to protect the owners of gins. The trouble is due to the Round Bale trust. which has made itself felt in Texas. particularly during the last year. The trnst got such a large share of the cotton that the compress com panies and cotton seed oil men began to feel it. Formerly, the cotton went to the gin, which seperated the seed and the lint. The seed was sold to the oil mills and the lint, which was bal ed, was subsequently taken to the compress to have the bales pressed so that theyT would occupy less room and could be carried on vessels or rail roads. When the trust took more cotton the gins got less, an~d so did the com presses and the cottonseed oil mills. They appealed to the owners of gins to make a fight with the trust and bid for the cotton, but the gin men refused to do this. Finally, seeing that they could not depend upon any assistance, the mill men and the compress men determin ed to go into the ginning business. The cotton seed oil mills in Texas are now erecting ginneries at which they will gin the cotton free, retaining only the seed for their mills. The compresses are now buying seed cotton and doing the ginning as well as the baling. In fact, all four inter ests, the oil mills, compresses, ginners and round bale men are prepared to gin and will bid on the seed cotton this fall. It is thought that the local gins will be the worst sufferers from this too active competition. Burned in a Hotel. Five persons were burned to death in the American Hotel at Point Pleas ant. W. Va. on Thudsday night and three other persons were seriously burned. The dead: .John Slack of Kanawha cgunty. Elias MIambrick of Glenwood. .John Woodall, of Mlason county. two unidentified men. The tire started in the hotel which was a frame building and burned rapidly. Slack. MIambrick and Jlohn Woodall were farmers summoned here as grand jurors at the criminal court. They were sleeping on the second floor and means of escape was cut otf by .the iames. It is not known how the lire started. Col. A. P. Butler IDead. Col. Andrew Pickens Butler of Ai ken County died Wednesday at the B~utler home. Colonel Uutler was tricken withparalysis of the heart Sat urday night. Hie never regained con sciousiess. lie was 70 years old. H~e leaves two daughters. who are mar ried. a son and several grandchildren. The funeral was held this morning at 11 oclock from Sweetwater Church. near Aiken. Everythinrg Higher. There is nothing in the way of houshold supplies which has not been made dearer by the protection offorded monopolies and legislation in favor of cl~sses. The times aresupposed to oe good, but the man who keeps a family on $1.000 a year finds that it will go no farther than 8800 would a year ago, nd its purchasing capacity is steadily decreasing. The trusts and the tar 1l arc responsible for this. Pardoned. Georgre Washington an old fashion ed " white folks" negro convicted of rae in lstO has been pardoned by the governor who discovered a case of blackmail on the part of the negro woman who secured Washington's ar rest A SALUDA MYSTERY An Illiterate Mulatto Preaches Ad mirably While He Is Sleep. A TEST IN THE SCHOOL HOUSE By Leading Citizens of the County and the Proof is Conclusive That It Is No Fake. A Dispatch from' Saluda to The News and Courier says the "Sleeping I Preacher" was here Thursday night, a large crowd went out to hear this strange man. "Major Perry," for that is the preacher's name, was in the charge Messrs of 11. P. Bouknight and 1. P. Bolie. two of this county's most reliable citizens. Perry has been liv ing with Mr. Boukright, a few miles below this place, for twelve or four teen years and, with the exception of a few nights, he has never failed to preach a sermon on going to sleep dur ing this long period. Perry is 54 years of age. of medium size, copper colored and wears a flow ing beard. lie was raised in FairtIeld County. but not by a Baptist preacher. as has been said in explanation of this strange phenomenon. Mr. Eouknight has been in the com munity where Perry was born and' raised and lived until 16 years ago, and emphati cally states that Perry did not belong to a preacher. The place of his birth was near the present town of Ridgeway. One of the peculiar things about Perry's sermonizing lies in the fact that his preaching dates from the time of his heing paraly:ed on the left side in 1888. He was never known. to preach before then and he has never failed to preach a sermon every night since then save occasionally on Friday night. A test made by your correspondent revealed that Perry is very illiterate, being scarcely able to spell out the simplest words. even with book in band. le is extremely reticent on the subject of his nightly preaching, and if pressed will resent too close ques tioning. Another peculiarity notice able is that Perry can go to sleep sur rounded by a curiois crowd as quickly as a babe in its mother's arms. Thursday evening Perry's wife ar ranged a bed in th e school building here and at 9.40 the strange man un dressed and "turned in" apparently tor the night. In fiftEen minutes, amidst the gaze and lthb of the crowd. he was soLnd asleep. Four minutes later he commenced to sing in low and measured tones an old-hymn, begin ning "Come, ye that love the Lord." After "lining out" and singing two verses lie slowly turned on his right side and reverently repeated the Lord's Prayer. making but one change in it, viz, inserting the word "all" before the words "our trespasses." He fol lowed the Lord's Prayer with an ex temporaneous petition, the logic and language of it being as good as that of the average white preacher. At the conclusion Perry turned on his back and, after a moment's pause, stated that his text would be found in the 12th chapter of Matthew and 28th verse. This he quoted and a compari son of the quotation with the original shows that he repeated the words ver batim. His discourse lasted forty-five minutes and the reading of a sten> graphic report made by Mr. Tadlock shows 3. closely reasoned (with some exceptaons) Gospel sermon, instead of being a senseless negro harangue. Few grammatical errors were made and many of his citations from the Bible were substantially correct. At times he was~ really eloquent. For the most part lhe spoke in a smooth, conversational tone, but oc casionally he became impassioned and made the welkin ring. Twice during the sermon he had something like convulsions, and when ever seized by one of these, he immedi ately left oli speaking, his heart and pulse ceased to beat and, except for the strange movement of his muscles, one would suppose life extinct. These convulsions lasted but a minute and as soonl as over he would commence his sermon just wvhere he left off and in the same tone. An examination of the eyes while preaching showed the pupils motion less and a bright light placed close to his face while the lids were pushed back did not cause him to move or flinch. During his preaching period it has always been found impossible to wake him. Pins have been stuck into his tesh, burning acids have been put about his eyes, but all to no effect, save that he suffered from there ex periments on awaking. Per:ry is particularly severe in his criticisms of the present-day preach ers, lie sta:ed that "we are told there were twelve disciples or teach r, and one of these was a devil. But today I think about eleven and a half out of twelve are devils." In elaboration of this statement he re ferred to the "man-sent preacher" and "the self-sent preacher" and "the money-making preacher." Perry mnde no gestures at all, but when under the impression that he was reading from some boek in theI Bible would run the fingers of his right hand across the bed covering as if fol foing the lines.I lie closed his sermon with an earn est exhortation and when the end was reached lay perfectly still and slept quietly until awakened by a physician, who closely watched him throughout. On being awakened he appeared frightened foi' the moment. Although he had greatly exerted himself several times during his sermon, he stated that he did not feel tired or at all ex hausted;: yet his pulse beat rapidly and his breath came quickly. Whatever else may be said of the strange "sleeping precher." the per-' formance is no fake. Time after time various citizens in this county have gone to Perry's home after night and secreted thmselves to detect the fake athe hsppsd, hat invariably af ter watching him through the cracks in his house go to bed, and giving him time to go to sleep, he wnnuld sing a hymn, offer a prayer, announce his text and preach a sermon. lie never uses the same text and the body of his discourse is always different. le rarely ever fails, however, to give the preachers "Hail Columbia." Te effect of this strange phenom enon on a spectator cannot be imagin ed. Perry's father is said to be a white man and he has Indian blood in him also. This he shows unmistakably, as does his wife, who of late years al ways accompanies him to prevent the cruel experiments which were at first practiced by some in trying to awaken I her husband while in the midst of a sermon. Men of a scientific turn of mind have an interesting subject in "sleeping preacher."' and Saluda Coun ty in his person possesses one of the mysteries of the new century. FRIGHTFUL TRAGEDY. An -Aeronaut Fell Fifteen Feet and Was Dashed to Pieces. As already wired, from Paris, Se vero, the aeronaut. and one of his as sistants were killed by the explosion of Severo's airship in making a trial trip Tuesday monrning. Severo had invited a numberof friends to witness the ascension and his wife and rela tives were following the course of the balloon in motor cars. Suddenly the spectators were horrified by a bright flash of light, followed by a loud ex plosion. The'balloon, which at this time was 1,500 feet above the ground, fell rapidly, landing on the roof of a house. The aeronaut fell in the street and was dasli'd to pieces. The bones of his legs were forced through the soles of his boots. The engineer who ac companied him was burned to death. The accident is said to have been caused by a leakage of gas. Severo started with the intention of sailing to the military parade ground at Issy. With an engineer named Sachet, Se vero sailed out of his balloon house near the Boulevard de Vaugirard, in excellent spirits, and full of confidence. The aeronut put his airship through a series of evolutions beford starting in the direction of Issy. There seem ed to be some hitch with the steering gear and the rear propelling screw turned with difficulty. Nevertheless, after several stoppages the airship sail ed off, moving steadily enough through a light breeze. Suddenly a puff of wind caught the ship and whirled it over the. Avenue Dumaine. The ship turn ed completely around and veered about in a fashion showing that control of her had been lost. Then, from the center of the outer envelope, a tongue of flame darted out. This was followed by a loud report re sembling a cannon shot and the ship sank like stone, falling on the roof of a house. thence into some trees, and finally reaching the Avenue Dumaine, almost on top of its occupants, who had previously been precipitated to the stone pavement. The fearful mangled corpses of Severo and Sachet were conveyed to a neighboring police station. The bodies presented a hor rible spectacle, especially that of Sa chet. The flame which caused the ex plosion burned the engineer in a most siocking manner. Practically not a one of either victim was left unfrac ured and both skulls were terribly :rushed._________ FOR RAITTROAD COXMISSIOE . C. Jepson, A Popular Citizen of' Florence, in the Race. .( The Florence Times, May 12, saysi , C. Jepson, one of the best known eterans of the Atlantic Coast Line, I anounces positively that he will be n the race for railroad commissioner. I le has talked with his friends in Flor- I mee and elsewhere, and has receivedI he greatest encouragement. Mr. Jep ~on has been forty years a practicalI ailroad man, and as years creep up on im he wants to retire from the throt-1 ~e and give the younger men a chance a o run the trains while he runs the ailroads a little. The life of an en- , ~ineer is a hard and exacting one, and 1 akes him away from home too much 1 fthe time. 't Mr. Jepson came to Florence in 1884 e ~nd has been with the Coast Line con- ] inuously ever since, and is one of the est men on the line. He has served nany roads in his time,-the Louis-c ille and Nashville, Central of Geor- 1 ia, and Mobile and Girard among hem. lie says that in his forty years f service he has never been dismissed, uspended or reprimanded. lie was five years in the employ of 1 he construction department and the est of the time in the engineering. ie is a skilled workman. and among 1 ther employments in his life he made ercussion caps for the use of the Con ederate government, lie claims to ave made nearly half of the number 1 sed by the army.] Since Mr. Jepson has been a citizen 1 f Florence he has made a host of 1 riends, and stands high with his fel- 1 ow craftsmen and employers. From his long, practical experience in rail od work, he is regarded as a man do is particularly well fitted for the osition and as one who would be an aquisition to the board. Murdered b~y a Burglar. P. RI. Davis, a wealthy wholesale merchant of Fort Smith, Ark., was stabbed five times Wednesday in an ncounter in his bedroom with a negro 1 burglar. Davis shot the burglar in the leg and beat him on the head with his revolver, but the man escaped. A posse star'ted immediately in search of him. The nego. whose name was learned to be .John Williams, was run down, with two negro companions, bout four miles from town on the border of Indian Territory. One of the negroes, Frank Carter, opened fire on the posse. His aim was poor, but a return shot struck him and he died an hour later. Williams and his other companion escaped. The posse con tinued the pursuit. Mr. Davis' wounds are serious. Poor Fellow. A western New York man commit ted suicide on the day he was to have been married because he was impress ed with th~e solemnity of the marriage service. He should have spent a few months in Chicago and had that sort of feeling taken out of him Snnrtnbhr .Journal. PETRIFIED SHIPS Found One Hundred Miles from the Pacific Ocean. On the bleak and barren hillside of the Arctic coast, near the headwat. ers of the Porcupine River more than 4,000 feet above sea level, and a long way above timber line, where none save the Indian hunter has ever placed foot, there lie complete hulls of two large ships, petrified. This find is so remarkable that the discoveries of re mains of mastodons, which have been made from time to time, sink into in signiticance by comparison. Mr. Liskche, a printer of Seattle, Wash., who returned from the Ko yukuk country recently, brought the news of the find to Dawson. He says that Dr. Cleveland, who is known from one end of the Territory to the rther, has gone to investigate the matter. The manner of the discovery was this: A party of Chandelar Indians was hunting near the headwaters of the Porcupine River, which they had reached by following the Chandelar Dreek. One day while on the side of i mountain one of the party, looking ibout for game, chanced to spy high in the mountain side above him a rocky formation of a shape he had iever seen before. He was about to :ontinue search for game, but changed 3is mind, and toiled up the side cf the nountain toward the strange ob ject. It was not till he got it that he iscovered that there were two objects very much alike, and then it sudden y dawned upon him that there, more 1han-one hundred miles from the sea, md high above it, were two ships, the arger probably -*Vo feet long, turned o stone. That night when the party was in amp the hunter told his story. It as not believed, but he was sQ persis ;ent that It was true that next day everal hunters went with him to see ;he wonderful ships, and their sur prise and partial fear was as great as iis own. They examined the hulls more closely than he had done and be result of this examination was uch that the story cannot be doubt Ad. They went to the interior of the vessel and brought back with them iome cups and plates made for table purposes, and of an ancient and pon lerous description. Only a few of hem could be brought out by the in fianp. It was only the recollection of he manner in which they had been lisposed to treat their comrade that nduced them to bring anything away ith them. They knew they would iot be believed If they had no evidence )ther than their words-hence the ableware. The Indians also found a petrified orest of tropcial growth even higher yn the mountain, though in the im nediate vicinity of the ships. They lescribe these trees of stone as having eaves as long as a man's body and ery broad. IS BARTOW WARREX ALIVE? I Letter Which It is Claimed He Wrote to a Relative. [From The Times and Democrat.) A few days ago we received a letter rom a prominent citizen of Colleton )ounty enclosing a letter which he ays was written by Bartow Warren. :n his letter the gentleman says under Late of May 13: 'EDITOR TDMEs AND D1!DIOCEAT: "I enclose copy of a letter which I gould be glad if you would publish. I ave always maintained Bartow War 'en's innocence, and now that he has eft the United States I give you his etter to publish. I saw a near kins nan of his who asked me to have his etter published. I send it to you. He as left for parts unknown-I know ot where. He will never return. I opied this letter from the original, eaving out certain things not neces ary or right to be published." At the request of the gentleman rho wrote the above letter we with old his name, but as we said above, e is a prominent citizen and is known o many of our people. Here is the opy of the letter which is signed by sartow Warren. It is dated March, 902, and reads as follows: "As I am about to leave my native ountry forever, I write you for the ist time to tell yougood-bye. I have een hunted and hounded down for a ood while. Now that it is reported am drowned 1 have an opportunity to scape. The prowling detectives have onstantly been trying to capture me, lut could not. I am not guilty of the obbery at Fifty-eight, when 1 was first ,rrested, and would have been acquit ed, if it had not been for one stubborn uror. The bribed testimony of rVatson and Connor was against me ,nd the Express Company used all heir power to convict me, but thanks o the efforts of Judge Izlar and Mr. runson I was not convicted. I had o lie in jail for awhile till I could give ail. Well,lIwas a poor boy, and driven , desperation, Icdetermined to kill ['o Watson and Connor. I shot Wat on to death because he had lied gainst me, and I vowed to kill Con ior, but did not have the opportunity. fter this, every crime committed, vas laid to my charge. I was accused >f robbing the postottice at Walterboro mnd of attempting to hold up the train t Fkifty-eight, and finally I was accus d of stopping the train near the same a:e, and taking the express safe and arrying it to the Edisto. and tinally ny body was found drowned. While all hese things were going on I was aibout ny old home near Buckhead, and had othing to do with these things. My ly crime was shooting Tom Watson. F'or this I would have been hung, so I cept out of the way. This dodging life oes not suit me, so I have concluded o leave my country and State forever. poor orphan boy now goes to live in oreign lands, so good-bye. Tell all ny kindred and friends good-bye for ~ver. Yours, J. BARTow WARREN. The Times and Democrat publishes his letter as requested, but as to whether it was written by Bartow Warren our readers must decide for hemselves on the testimony given ibove. The gentleman who sent it to s is a man who is prominent in :hurch and State and he seems to have ro doubt but that the letter was writ ben by Warren. ".Our 'holy wvar' in the Philippines." ays ihe Norfolk. Landmark, "has ollided with a counter one enginered by the Sultans and Datos of Min rinnno." A GREAT SYSTEM Of Railroads Formed by the Marging of the PLANT SYSTEM AND THE A. C. L. Plant System Will Probably Be Operated Independently of the Coast Line and With its 1esent Officers. The agreement for the merger of the Plant system of railways with the Atlantic Coast Line railway company was ratified Friday by meetings of the stoc.kholders of the Savannah, Florida & Western railway in Savan nah and of the Atlantic Coast Line in Richmond. The merger will actually take place on July 1. The articies of agreement, consoli dation and merger of the Atlantic Coast Line railroad company and the avannah, Florida & Western Rail way company bears the date of April 10, 1902. After setting forth the various line, aggregating 1,755 miles, owned by the Atlantic Coast Line, and the various lines, aggregating 1,733 miles owned by the Savannah, Florida & Western, to be included. in the merger, the agreement leads up to the mode of carrying into effect the consolidation. The union will be into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad company, the greement shows, which will continue is the name of the consolidated comn pany. There will be twelVe directors )f the consolidated company, and the >tficers will be a president, three or more vice presidents, secretary, one or ore assistant secretaries, a treasurer and one or more assistant treasurers, the office of secretary and treasurer being filled by the same or different persons, as the board of directors may deem best. The present directors and officers of the Coast Line company will be the frst directors and officers of the con solidated company. The consolidated company will take the property of ach company and become responsible for all debts and liabilities. The capi tal stock of consolidated company will be 420,000 shares of par value of $100, of which 188,000 will be preferred, the dividends not to exceed 5 per cent. non cumulative, and 231,000 common stock. The consolidated company may in rease the stock to not exceeding $100,000,000. Present holders of the A. C. L., will retain shares of pre ferred and common stock as they now utstand as preferred and common stock of the consolidated company. Holders of the preferred stock of the Savannah, Florida and Western will receive 50 per cent. of the par value of their respective holdings in the ommon stock of the consolidated ompany at par. The holders of the ommon stock of the Savannah, Flor ida and Western- will receive 25 per cent. of the par value of their respec tive holdings in the common stock of the consolidated company at par. Any holders of the preferred or ommon stock of the Savannah, Flor ida and Western who may refuse to :onvert it on these terms will be paid for it at an agreed valuation in 4 per :ent. mortgage bonds of the consoli lated company or in cash, or if no agreement can be reached, at such price as the law may determine. The Florida Southern, the Sanford and St. Petersburg and St. John's and Lake Eustis are the three lines of the Plant ystem that are not included in the nerger, not being incorporated with be Savannah, Florida and Western ailway. They will, however, pass mnder the control of the Coast Line. he Plant System will probably be >per'ated independently of the Coast Ane and with its present officers. St. Pierre, Martinique. Island has an area of 381 square niles. Fort de France is the capital. Population is, approximately, 192, i00. There are 12,000 whites. Others tre negroes or of mixee racial types. St. Pierre was the largest and most mportante city commercially, having population of about 26,000. Principal products of the islands are ugar, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, cotton ~nd rum. Imports for 189e3 aggregated about ~5,721,000, and exports were $5,258, 00. In the same year the United Staies ent to the island goods worth $1,502, ~32. This country takes almost noth ng frm Martinique, but our products,. ~hiedly food stuffs, are neccessary to it. Annual revenues of the island aggre fate *1,342.000. Of this sum one ~ourth is spent for educational pur >oses. Martinique is a favored colony 'of Erance, having been settled by colon sts from that country in 1605. Island was taken by Englndin 1794 mnd held till 1816, when France again ~ecured possession of it. St. Pierre was built on high cliffs )verlooking the harbor. Mont Pelee. the volcanic eruption of vhich destroyed St. Pierre, is 4,450 ~eet high. It is often in obscurity be ~ause of the dense clouds of smoke that ave enveloped its summit. Sucide of Soldier. Clifford S. Roberts of Co. D, Tnird infantry. committed suicide Friday at Fort Thomas, Ky., by taking mor pine. His otticers and comrades say the deed was due to affections that followed privations of hard campaign ing in the Philippines. His mother and brother at Savannah, Ga., have* been notified. Roberts was formerly , printer and stood high in his regi ment. Monument to Sumter. Representative Lever received as surances from the house committee on library that his bill appropriating 25,000 for the erection of a monu ment to the memory of Gen. Thomas Sumter, the Revolutionary hero, would be favorably reported this ses sion. The bill provides that the monument shall be erected in the town of Sumter, upon a suitable location.