The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, October 20, 1898, Image 5
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THE LEDGER! GAFFNEY, S. C„ OCTOBER 20, 1898.
5
THE TROWEL OP GOD.
DR. TALMAGE TELLS HCW AMERICA
WAS MADE.
Tlte Vafitnc*a of Onp Continent—The
Wonders of the West—The Ileantles
of Yello,rstone Park—The Garden
of the Gods—Plutonic Appellations.
[Copyright, 1S9S, by American Press Asso
ciation.]
Washingtos, Oct. 16.—Dr. Talraage,
In this disconrrge, takes ns with him on
a jonmey to the Pacific, and finds “the
footsteps of the Creator” everywhere,
as Hngh Miller found them in the old
red sandstone; texts, Isaiah xxxv, 6,
“Streams in the desert;” Psalms civ,
32, “He tonoheth the hills and they
smoke.”
My first text means irrigation. It
means the waters of the Himalaya or
the Pyrenees or the Sierra Nevadas
poured through canals and aqueducts
for the fertilization of the valleys. It
means the process by which the last
mile of American barrenness will be
made an apple orcbaid or an orange
grove or a whoatfield or a cotton plan
tation or a vineyard—“streams in the
desert.” My second text means a vol
cano like Vesuvius or Cotopaxi, or it
moans the geysers of Yellowstone park
or of California. You see a hill calm
and still and for ages immovable, but
the Lord out of the heavens puts his
finger on the top of it and from it rise
thick and impressive vapors. “He
toucheth the hills and they smoke!”
Although my journey across the con
tinent this summer was for the eighth
time, more and more am I impressed
with the divine hand in its construction
and with its greatness and grandeur,
and more and more am I thrilled with
the fact that it is all to be irrigated,
glorified and Edenized. What a change
from the time when Daniel Webster on
yonder Capitoline hill said to the Amer
ican senate in regard to the center of
this continent and to the regions on the
Pacific coast: “What do you want with
this vast, worthless area, this regiou of
savages and wild boasts, of deserts and
cactus, of shifting sands and prairie
dogs? To what use could we ever put
those great deserts or these great moun
tains, impenetrable and covered with
eternal snow? What can we ever hope
to do with tho western coast, rock
bound, cheerless and uninviting and not
a harbor on it? I will never vote one cent
from the pnblio treasury to place the
Pacific coast one inch nearer Boston
than it now is.” What a mistake the
great statesman made when he said that!
All who have crossed tho continent
realize that tho states on the Pacific
ocean will have quite as grand oppor
tunities as the states on tho Atlantic,
and all this realm from sea to sea to be
the Lord’s cultivated possession.
The Colorado Cross.
Do you know what in some respects
is the most remarkable thing between
the Atlantic and Pacific? It is the fig
ure of a cross on a mountain in Colo
rado. It is called tho “Monnt of the
Holy Cross. ” A horizontal crevice filled
with perpetual snow and a perpendicu
lar crevice filled with snow, but both
the horizontal lino and the perpendicu
lar line so marked, so bold, so signifi
cant, so unmistakable, that all who
pass in the daytime within many miles
are compelled to see it. There are some
figures, some contours, some mountain
appearances that yon gradually make
out after your attention is called to
them. So a man’s faco on tho rocks in
the White mountains. So a maiden’s
form but in tho granite of tho Adiron-
dacks. So a city in tho moving clouds.
Yet yon have to look under the point
ing of your friend or guide for some
time before yon can see the similarity.
But the first instant yon glance at this
side of the mountain in Colorado yon
cry out, “A cross, a cross!” Do you
say that this geological inscription just
happens so? No. That cross on tho Col
orado mountain is not a human device,
or an accident of nature, or tho freak
of au earthquake. The hand of (iod cut
it there and set it up for the nation to
look at. Whether set up in rock before
tho cross of wood was set upon the bluff
back of Jerusalem or sot up at some
time since that assassination I believe
the Creator meant it to suggest the
most notable event in all tho history of
this planet, and he hung it there over
tho heart of this continent to indicate
that the only hope for this nation is in
tho cross on which our Immanuel died.
The clouds were vocal at our Saviour’s
birth, the rocks rent at bis martyrdom,
why not the walls of Colorado bear the
record of the Crucifixion?
First, consider the immensity of this
continental possession. If it were only
a small tract of land, capable of noth
ing better than sagebrush, and with
ability only to support prairie dogs, 1
should not have much enthusiasm in
wanting Christ to have it added to bis
dominion. But its immensity and afila-
ence no one can imagine, unless in im
migrant wagon or stagecoach or in rail
train of tho Union Pacific, or the
Northern Pacific, or the Canadian Pa
cific, or the Southern Pacific, he has
traversed it
An Edenlaed Continent.
I supposed in my boyhood, from its
size on the map, that California was a
few yards across, a ridge of land on
which one mast walk cantionsly lest he
hit his head against the Sierra Nevada
on one side or slip off into the Pacific
waters on the other. California, the
thin slice of land, as I supposed it to be
in boyhood, I have found to be larger
than all the states of New England and
all New York state and all Pennsylva
nia added together, and if yon add them
together their square miles fall far short
of California. And then all those new
born states of the Union, North and
South Dakota, Washington, Montana,
Idaho and Wyoming. Each state an em
pire in size.
I “But,” says some one, “incalcnlat-
fOg the immensity of onr continental
acreage yon must remember that vast
reaches of onr publio domain are uncul
tivated heaps of dry sand and the Bad
Lands of Montana and the great Ameri
can desert.” I am glad you mentioned
that. Within 26 years there will not be
between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts
a hundred miles of land not reclaimed
either by farmers’ plow or miners’ crow
bar. By irrigation the waters of the
rivers and the showers of heaven, in
what are called the rainy season, will
be gathered into great reservoirs, and
through aqueducts let down where and
when the people want them. Utah is an
object lesson. Some parts of that terri
tory which were so barren that a spear
of grass could not have been raised there
in a hundred years are now rich aa
Lancaster county farms of Pennsylva
nia, or Westchester farms of New York,
or Somerset county farms of New Jer
sey. Experiments have proved that ten
acres of ground irrigated from waters
gathered in great hydrological basins
will prodnee as ranch as 50 acres from
the downpour of rain as seen in our re
gions. We have onr freshets and our
droughts, but in those lands which are
to be scientifically irrigated there will be
neither freshets nor droughts. As yon
take a pitcher and get it full of water
and then set it on a table and take a
drink out of it when yon are thirsty and
never think of drinking a pitcherful all
at once, so Montana and Wyoming and
Idaho will catch the rains of their rainy
season and take up all the waters of
their rivers in great pitchers of reser
voirs and refresh their land whenever
they wilL
GoA’a Karthiy Throne.
The work has already been grandly
begun by the United States government.
Over 400 lakes I ave already been offi
cially taken possession of by the nation
for the great enterprise of irrigation.
Rivers that have been rolling idly
through these regions, doiug nothing
on their way to the sea, will be lassoed
and corralled and penned up until snch
time ns the farmers need them. Under
tho same processes the Ohio, the Missis
sippi, and all the other rivers will be
taught to behave themselves better, and
great basins will be made to catch the
surplus of waters in times of freshet and
keep them for times of drought. Tho
irrigating process by which all the arid
lands between tho Atlantic and Pacific
oceans are to be fertilized is no new ex
periment.
It has been going on successfully
hundreds of years in Spain, in China,
in India, in Russia, in Egypt About
800,000,000 of people of the earth today
are kept alive by food raised on irrigat
ed land. And here we have allowed to
lie waste, given up to rattlesnake and
bat and prairie dog, lands enough to
support whole nations of industrious
population. The work begun will bo
consummated. Here and there excep
tional lands may be stubborn and refuse
to yield any wheat or corn from their
hard fists, but if the hoe fail to make
an impression the miner’s pickax will
discover tho reason for it and bring up
from beneath those unproductive sur
faces coal and iron and lead and copper
and silver and gold. God speed tho
geologists and the surveyors, the en
gineers and the senatorial commissions,
and the capitalists and the new settlers
and the husbandmen, who put their
brain and bund and heart to this trans
figuration of the American continent!
“Streams in tho desert!”
But while I speak of tho immensity
of the continent, I must remark it is
not an immensity of monotone or tame
ness. Tho larger some countries are, the
worse for the world. This continent is
not more remarkable for its magnitude
than for its wonders of construction.
Yoseinite and tho adjoining California
regions! Who that has seen them can
think of them without having his blood
tingle? Trees now standing there that
were old when Christ lived! These
mouarchs of foliage reigned before Cmsar
or Alexander, and tho next thousand
years will not shatter their scepter!
They are tho masts of tho continent,
their canvas spread on tho winds, while
tho old ship bears on its way through
tho agcsl
Our Nntion'a IMaytrround.
That valley of the Yoseinite is eight
miles long and a half mile wide and
8,000 feet deep. It seems as if it had
been the meaning of omnipotence to
crowd into as small a place as possible
some of the most stupendous scenery of
the world. Some of the cliffs yon do
not stop to measure by feet, for they
are literally a mile high. Steep so that
neither foot of man or beast ever scaled
them, they stand in everlasting defi
ance. If Jehovah has a throne on earth,
these are its white pillars. Standing
down in this great chasm of the valley,
yon look up, and yonder is Cathedral
rock, vast, gloomy minster built for the
silent worship of the monutaius! Yon
der is Sentinel rock, 3,270 feet high,
bold, solitary, standing guard among
the ages, its top seldom touched, until
a bride, one Fourth of July, mounted it
and planted tho national standard, and
the people down in the valley looked up
and saw the head of the mountain tur-
baned with stars and stripes. Yonder
are the Three Brothers, 4,000 feet high;
Clond’s Rest, North and South Dome
and the heights never captured save by
the fiery bayonets of the thunderstorm.
No pause for the eye, no stopping
place for the mind. Mountains hurled
on mountains. Mountains in the wake
of mountains. MounAi'ns flanked by
mountains. Mountains split Mountains
ground. Monutaius fallen. Mountains
triumphant As though Mont Blanc
and the Adirondacks and Mount Wash
ington were here uttering themselves
in one magnificent chorus of rock and
precipice and waterfalL Sifting and
dashing through the rocks, the water
comes down. The Bridal Veil falls so
thin yon con see the face of tho moun
tain behind it. Yonder is Yosemite
falls, dropping 2,634 feet, 10 times
greater descent than that of Niagara.
These waters dashed to death on the
rocks, so that the white spirit of these
slain waters ascending in robe of mist
seeks the heavens. Yonder ii Nevada
falls, plunging 700 feet, the water in
arrows, the water in rockets, the water
in pearls, the water in amethysts, the
water in diamonds. That cascade flings
dc vn the rocks enongh jewels to array
all the earth in beauty and rashes on
until it drops into a very hell of waters,
the smoke of their torment ascending
forever and ever.
The Work of God’s Trowel.
Bnt the most wonderful part of this
American continent is the Yellowstone
park. My two visits there made upon
me an impression that will last forever.
Go in by the Moneida route, as we did
this summer, and save 250 miles of rail
roading, yonr stagecoach taking you
through a day of scenery as captivating
and sublime as the Yellowstone park it
self. After all poetry has exhansted it
self concerning Yellowstone park and
all the Morans and Bierstadts and the
other enchanting artists kive completed
their canvas there will be other revela
tions to make and other stories of ita
beauty and wrath, splqndor and agony
to he recited. The Yellowstone park ii
the geologist’s paradise. By cheapening
of travel may it become the nation’s
playground! In some portions of it there
seems to be the anarchy of the elements.
Fire and water and the vapor bom of
that marriage terrific. Geyser cones or
hills of crystal that have been over 5,000
years growing! In places the earth,
throbbing, sobbing, groaning, quaking
with aqueous paroxysm. At the expira
tion of every 65 minutes one of the gey
sers tossing its boiling water 185 feet
in tho air and then descending into
swinging rainbows. “He toucheth the
hills, and they smoke.” Caverns of
pictured walls large enough for the
sepulcher of the human race. Forma
tions of stone in shape and color of calla
lily, of heliotrope, of rose, of cowslip,
of sunflower and of gladiolus Sulphur
and arseuio and oxide of iron, with
their delicate pencils, tnrning the hills
into a Luxemburg or a Vatican picture
gallery. The so called Thanatopsis Gey-
ler, exquisite us tbo Bryant poem it was
named after, and Evangeline Geyser,
lovely as tho Longfellow heroine it
commemorates.
Wide reaches of stone of intermingled
colors, blue as tho sky, gieen as the
foliage, crimson as the dahlia, white as
the snow, spotted as the leopard, tawny
as tho lion, grizzly as the bear, in cir
cles, in angles, in stars, in coronets, in
stalactites, in stalagmites. Hero and
there are petrified growths or the dead
trees and vegetables of other ages, kept
through a process of natural embalm
ment. In some places waters as inno
cent and smiling as a child making a
first attempt to walk from its mother’s
lap, and not far off as foaming and fren
zied and ungovernable as a maniac in
struggle with his keepers.
But after you have wandered along
tho geyserite enchantment for clays and
begin to feel that there can be nothing
more of interest to see you suddenly
come upon tho peroration of all majesty
and grandeur, the Grand canyon. It is
hero that it seems to me—and I speak
it with reverence—Jehovah seems to
have surpassed himself. It seems a
great gulch letdown into tho eternities.
Here, hung up and let down and spread
abroad, are all the colors of land and
sea and sky. Upholstering of the Lord
God Almighty. Best work of the Archi
tect of Worlds. Sculpturing by the In
finite. Masonry by au omnipotent
trowel. Yellow ! Yon never saw yellow
unless you saw it there. Red! You nev
er saw red unless you saw it there. Vio
let! You never saw violet unless you
saw it there. Triumphant banners of
color. In a cathedral of basalt, sunrise
and sunset married by the setting of
rainbow ring.
The Archnneelii’ Amphitheater.
Gothic arches, Corinthian capitals
and Egyptian basilicas built before hu
man architecture was born. Hugo forti
ficutions of granite constructed before
war forged its first cannon. Gibraltars
and Sevastopols that never can betaken.
Allmmbras, where kings of strength
and queens of beauty reigned long be
fore the first earthly crown was ern-
pcarled. Thrones on which no one but
tho King of heaven and earth ever sat.
Fount of waters at which tho hills are
baptized, while the giant cliffs stand
around as sponsors. For thousands of
years before that scene was unveiled to
human sight tho elements wore busy,
and the geysers were hewing away with
their hut chisel, and glaciers were
pounding with their cold hammers, arid
hurricanes were cleaving with their
lightning strokes, and hailstones giving
the finishing touches, and after all
these forces of nature had done their
best in our century the curtain dropped,
and the world had a new and divinely
inspired revelation, the Old Testament
written on papyrns, tho Now Testament
written on parchment, and this last
testament written on the rocks.
Hanging over one of the cliffs, I
looked off nutil I could not get my
breath, then, retreating to a less ex
posed place, I looked down again. Down
there is a pillar of rock that in certain
conditions of the atmosphere looks like
a pillar of blood. Yonder are 50 feet
of emerald on a base of 500 feet of opal.
Wall of chalk resting on pedestals of
beryl. Turrets of light trembling on
floors of darkness. The brown bright
ening into golden. Snow of crystal
melting into fire of carbuncle. Flaming
red cooling into rnsse.t. Gold blue warm
ing into saffron. Dull gray kindling
into solferino. Morning twilight (lush
ing midnight shadows. Auroras cronch-
ing among rocks.
Yonder is an eagle’s nest on a shaft
of basalt Through an eyeglass we see
among it the young eagles, bat the
stontest arm of onr group cannot burl a
•tone near enough to disturb the feath
ered domesticity. Yonder are heights
that wonld be chilled with horror bat
for the warm robe of forest foliage with
which they are enwrapped. Altars of
worship at which nations might kneel.
Domes of chalcedony on temples of
porphyry. See all this carnage of color
np and down the cliffs. It must have
been the battlefield of the war of the
elements. Here are all the colors of the
wall of heaven, neither the sapphire,
nor the chrysolite, nor the topas, nor
the jacinth, nor the amethyst, nor the
I jasper, nor tho 12 gates of 12 pearls
wanting. If spirits bound from earth to
heaven could pass np by way of this
canyon, the dash of heavenly beauty
would not be so overpowering. It would
only be from glory to glory. Ascent
throngh such earthly scenery in which
the crystal is so bright wonld be fit
preparation for the “sea of glass min
gled with fire.”
The Golden West.
Standing there in the grand canyon
of the Yellowstone park for the most
part we held our peace, but after awhile
it flashed upon me with such power I
could not help but say to my comrades,
“What a hall this would be for the last
judgment!” See that mighty cascade
with the rainbows at the foot of it I
Those waters congealed and transfixed
with tho agitations of that day, what a
place they wonld make for the shining
feet of a Judge of quick and dead! And
those rainbows look now like the crowns
to be cast at his feet. At the bottom of
this great canyon is a floor on which
the nations of the earth might stand,
and all up and down these galleries of
rock the nations of heaven might sit.
And what reverberation of archangels’
trnmpet there would bo through all
these gorges and from these caverns
and over all these heights. Why should
not the greatest of all tho days the
world shall ever see close amid tho
grandest scenery omnipotence ever
bnilt?
Oh, the sweep of the American conti
nent! Sailing up Puget sound, its shores
so bold that for 1,500 miles a ship’s
prow would touch tbo shore before its
keel touched the bottom. On one of my
visits I said, “This is the Mediterranean
of America." Visiting Portland and
Tacoma and Seattle and Victoria and
Port Townshend and Vancouver and
other cities of the northwest regiou 1
thought to myself: “These are the Bos
tons, New Yorks, Charlestons and Sa
vannahs of the Pacific coast. ” But after
all this summer's journeying and my
other journeys westward in other sum
mers, I found that I hud seen only a
part of the American continent, for
Alaska is as far west of San Francisco
•s tho coast of Maine is east of it, so
that the central city of tho American
continent is San Francisco.
I have said these things abont the
magnitude of tho continent and given
yon a few specimens of some of ita
wonders to let you know tho compre
hensiveness of Christ’s dominion when
he takes possession of this continent.
Besides that, tho salvation of this con
tinent means the salvation of Asia, for
we are only 36 miles from Asia at the
northwest. Only Bering straits separate
ns from Asia, and these will be spanned
by a great bridge. Tho 86 miles of water
between these two continents are not all
deep sea, but have three islands, and
there are also shoals which will allow
piers for bridges, and for the most of
the way tho water is only about 20
fathoms deep.
IMntonle Xomenclntnro.
The Americo-Asiatio bridge which
will yet ‘span those straits will make
America, Asia, Europe and Africa one
continent. So, you see, America evangel
ized, Asia will be evangelized. Europe
taking Asia from one side and America
taking it from the other side. Yonr chil
dren will cross that bridge. America
and Asia and Enrope all one, what sub
traction from the pangs of seasickness,
and the prophecies in Revelation will
bo fulfilled, “There shall be no more
sea.” But do I mean literally that this
American continent is going to bo all
gospelized? I do. Christopher Colum
bus, when ho wont ashore from the
Santa Maria, and his second brother
Alonzo, when he went ashore from the
Piuta, and his third brother Vincent,
when ho went ashore from tho Nina,
took possession of this country in tho
name of the Father and tho Son and the
Holy Ghost. Satan has no more right to
this country than I have to your pocket-
book. To hear him talk on tho roof of
tho temple, where he proposed to give
Christ the kingdoms of this world and
the glory of them, yon might suppose
that sutan was a great capitalist or that
ho was loaded up with real estate, when
the old miscreant never owned an aero
or an inch of ground on this planet
For that reason I protest against some
thing I heard and saw this summer and
other summers in Montana and On^on
and Wyoming and Idaho and Colorado
and California. They have given devil-
istic names to many places in the west
and northwest.
As soon as you get in Yellowstone
park or California yon have pointed
out to you places cursed with such
names as “The Devil’s Slide,” “The
Devil’s Kitchen,” “Tho Devil’s
Thumb,” “The Devil’s Pulpit,” “The
Devil’s Mush Pot,” “Tho Devil’s Tea
kettle,” “Tho Devil’s Sawmill,” “The
Devil’s Machine Shop, ” “The Devil’s
Gate, ’’ and so on. Now, it is very much
needed that geological surveyor or con
gressional committee or groopof distin
guished tourists go throngh Montana
and Wyoming and California and Co
lorado and give other names to these
places. All these regions belong to the
Lord and to a Christian nation, and
away with such Platonic uomenclatnre I
But how is this continent to bo gospel
ized? The pulpit and a Christian print
ing press harnessed together will be the
mightiest team for the first plow. Not
by tho power of cold, formal istio theol
ogy, not by ecclesiastical technicalities.
I am sick of them, and the world is
sick of them. But it will be done by
the warm hearted, symputhetio presen
tation of tho fact that Christ is ready
to pardon all onr sins, and heal all onr
wounds, and save ns both for this
world and the next. Let your religion
of glaciers crack off and fall into the
gulf stream and get melted. Take all
yonr creeds of all denominations and
drop ontof them all human phraseology
and put in only Scriptural phraseology,
and yon will see how quick the people
will jump after them.
FUfclnff For Bfen.
On tbe Columbia river we saw the
salmon jump clear out of the water in
different places, I suppose for tbo pur
pose of getting the insects. And if when
we want to fish for men we could only
have the right kind of bait, they will
spring ont above the flood of their sins
and sorrows to reach it. The Young
Men’s Christian associations of America
will also do part of the work. They ere
going to take tbe young men of this na
tion for God. Theso institutions seem
in better favor with God and man than
ever before. Business men and capital
ists are awaking to the fact that they
can do nothing better in the way of liv
ing beneficence or in last will and testa
ment than to do what Mr. Marqnaud
did for Brooklyn when he made the
Young Men’s Christian palace possible.
These institntions will get onr young
men all over tbo land into a stampede
for heaven. Thus we will all in some
way help on the work, you with yonr
ten talents, I with five, somebody else
with three. It is estimated that to irri
gate the arid and desert lands of Ameri
ca as they ought to be irrigated, it will
cost abont 8100,000,000 to gather the
waters into reservoirs. As mnch contri
bution and effort as that wonld irrigate
with gospel inflnences all the waste
places of this continent. Let ns by
prayer and contribution and right liv
ing all help to fill the reservoirs. Yon
will carry a bucket, and you a cup, and
even a thimbleful would help. And
after awhile God will send the floods of
mercy so gathered pouring down over
all the laud, and some of ns on earth
and some of us in heaven will fling with
Isaiah, “In tho wilderness waters have
broken ont, and streams in the desert,”
and with David, “There is a river the
streams whereof shall make glad the
sight of God.” Oh, fillup the reser
voirs! America for God!
ABOUT RAILROAD CARS.
tVhat Some of Them Cost nnd What
They Weitch.
An ordinary passenger car on a steam
railroad costs from 84,000- to 85,000
and weighs 38,000 pounds, or 19 tons.
A marl car, which costs from $2,000 to
82,500 and is shorter by about one-quar
ter than tho ordinary passenger coach,
weighs 32,000 pounds, or 16 tons. A
baggage car without tho baggage in it
weighs 28,000 pounds, or 14 tons, and
costs about as mneh as a mail car. A
sleeping car is more expensive than any
of the others, and it weighs a good deal
uroro too. A plain, simple, but durable
sleeping car, with observatory attach
ments, literary annex and culinary de
partment, costs anywhere from $10,000
to $20,000. Tho average weight of a
sleeping car is from 20 to 22 tons.
A full train in motion, as a little fig
uring will show, is no light affair. The
ordinary weight of tho railroad locomo
tive for passenger service, inclusive of
tender, but not of fuel in tho tender, is
40 tons. One baggage car weighs 14
toes and one mail ear 16 tons, bringing
up the weight of the locomotive and
the baggage and mail cars to 70 tons.
Six passenger cars at au average of 19
tons, weight of baggage, of tho fuel cur
ried and eight cars would bo 184 tons,
ox 868,000 pounds, exclusive of the pas
sengers and mail matter.
Pulling 184 tons along rails at tho
rate of 60 miles an hour or more is an
achievement which has not been easily
brought about, and tbe more the prob
lem is studied the more clearly it is un
derstood how far tho meehanical work
on railroads has been pushed. There
were 1 y tho last figures reported 86,000
locomotives in use on the American
railroads, 26,000 passenger cars and
8,000 marl and baggage cars. These
figures seem largo until compared with
tho number of freight cars on Arnerieau
railroads, and then they seem insignifi
cant, for the number of freight cars in
use is 1,250,000.
Freight cars among the railroad men
are divided into four classes—flat cars,
snch as are used for the transportation
of stone, machinery and lumber; box
cars, such as are need for the transporta
tion of grain, fruit and ordinary mer
chandise; stock cars, such as are used
for cattle, and coal cars, such as are
used for the transportation of coal and
oil, those nsed for oil being supplied
with tanks. The average weight of a
fiat or gondola car is seven tons. The
car costs from $800 to $400. Box curs
weigh a ton more and cost $100 more
each. Stock cars weigh eight tons each
on tho average. Coal cars weigh three
tons each. It costs about $200 to build
coal or oil cars, and they are designed
to carry five tons apiece. Tho weight
of 50 coal cars is 150 tons and of their
Contents, if all filled, 250 tons, which,
with locomotive and caboose added,
make 420 tons as the weight of a train.
It may be added rongbly that the weight
of loaded trains—passenger, coal or
freight—ranges from 200 to 550 tons.
The lighter tbe train tbe greater the
speed. That’s the railroad role.—Bos
ton Traveler.
A Hawaiian Caatom.
There is n pretty custom in the Ha
waiian Islands of decorating a popular
resident or visitor on leaving the island
with wreaths and streamers of flowers
which are hung around tbe neck and on
every available part of the frock and
hat. These wreaths are composed prin
cipally of carnations, of which large
quantities are grown lor tbe purpose.
A native yellow flower with n powerful
scent is employed to this end. These
wreaths, or “leis,” as they are called in
the vernacular, are also presented to
women on every possible occasion by
their men friends.
K E ON JLY the best when you
■ need a medicine. Hood’s Sarsapa
rilla is the best blood purifier, nerve
arid stomach tonic. Get HOOD'8.
FOR ~
Up-to-Date Job Print
ing, call at the
LEDGER Office.
Gaffney t S> C.
Scrofula to
Consumption.
Any one predisposed to Scrofula can
never be healthy and vigorous. This
taint in the blood naturally drifts into
Consumption. Being such a deep-seated
blood disease, Swift’s Specific is the
only known cure for Scrofula, because
it is the only remedy which can reach
the disease.
Scrofula appeared on the head of my little
grandchild when only 18 months oid. Shortly
after breaking out it spread rapidly all over
her body. The scabs on the sores would pee!
off on tne slightest touoh, and the odor that
would arise made tbe at
mosphere of the room
sickening and unbearable.
The disease next attacked
the eyes, and we feared she
would lose her sight. Em
inent physicians from tho
surronnefing country were
consulted, but could do
nothing to relieve the lit
tle innocent, and gave It
as their opinion that the
ease was hopeless and Im
possible to save the child's eyesight. It was
then that we decided to try Swift's Specific,
That medicine at once made a speedy and com
plete cure. She Is now a young lady, and has
never had a sign of the disease to return.
Mbs. Ruth Berkeley,
Sallna, Kan.
Scrofula is an obstinate blood disease,
and is beyond the reach of the average
blood medicine. Swift's Specific
S.S.S. r Th, Bicod
is the only remedy equal to such deep-
seated diseases; it goes down to the
very foundation and forces out every
taint. It is purely vegetable, and is
the only blood remedy guaranteed to
contain no mercury, potash or other
mineral substance whatever.
Books mailed free by Swift Specific
Company, Atlanta, Georgia.
A. N. WOOD,
BANKER,
does a general Banking and Exchange
business. Well secured with Burglar-
Proof safe and Automatic Time Lock.
Safety Deposit Boxes at moderate
rent.
Buys and sells Stocks andBonds.
Buys County and School Claims.
Your business solicited.
CLINE BROS. & CO.,
Livery Feed and Sale Stables,
Opposite National Bank.
First-H:iss turnouts; ptonipl ulteiitiou;
iind courteous iittfinliiuts.
\\V solicit your patronage.
Tiie Pearl
Steam Laundry
Is operating on full time und turning out
first-class work. Keiiu-iniicr us when you
want work done. We will call tor your
package. Wo also have In operation
A First-Class Grist Mill.
We respectfully solicit your patronage
and ask the people ut of town to bring
t heir i-urn along w hen 1 hey come in to do
their shopping. Will make your meal
while you are busy hero and you will lose
no time.
Richardson Bros.
You should
keop posted on the issues
of the day. Don't worry
your neighbor hy burrow
ing his paper when you
can get The Ledger for
$1 a year, 50c for sh
months, or 25c for thret
months. It will keep you
posted, so order it al
once. Don't delay.
DR. J. F. GARRETT,
Dentist,
Gaffney, - - - S. C.
Office over J. It. Tolleson’a new store
In office from 1st to 2Gth of each
month;
At Blacksburg Thursday morning
each week, returning to office ut 2:30
J. E. WEBSTER.
■Attorney-A-t> L,«\w»
fflceln Court Homo. (Probate Judgo’nolHec
Gaffney City, S. C.
Practices in all the courts. Collec
tions a specialty.
DR. S. H. GRIFFITH,
Physician and Surgeon
In addition to u general practice, make, a
specialty of dlttOHacu peculiar to tho eye,
oar, none and throat; U fully prepared and
equipped for performing all nperatlomi com
ing within tho scope of modern aural, imaul
and opthalmlc surgery. Glasses fitted with
scientific skill and accuracy.
Office over J. R. Tolleson's store.
Phone No. 1L