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About Savannah weekly news. (Savannah) 1894-1920 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1897)
lotimes ” A I WEEK VY'iT, A’ ( THE MORNING NEWS. 1 VvlbTe - Established 1850. - -Incorporated 1888. > I J. H. ESTILL, President. f STORMING OF THE HIGHTS. REV TALMAGE IN THE PULPIT OF THE PRESIDENT’S CHURCH. HIM Text Taken From Zechariah It., 7—The Story ol Zerubbnbel and the Great Mountain of Obstacles—lie Spoke of the Prejudice Ag-ainwt the Holy Writ—He Inveijjfhß Agrainst Bud Literature, Bad Homes and All Bad fnMtitntiouN. Washington, Jan. 17.—1 n the Presldent'a church, and before an audience in which were prominent senators and members of the House of Representatives and people of all nationalities, this discourse of su blime encouragement was delivered. Dr. Talmage’s subject was, "Storming the Hights," and his text, Zechariah 4-7: "Who art thou, O great mountain? Be fore Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain!” Zerubbabel! Who owned that difficult name, in which three times the letter "b" occurs, disposing most people to stammer in the pronunciation? Zerubbabel was the splendid man called to rebuild the destroyed temple of Jerusalem. Stone for the building had been quarried, and the trowel had rung at the laying of the corner-stone, and all went well, when the Cuthaeans offered to help in the work. They were a bad lot of people, and Ze rubbabl declined their help, and then the trouble began. The Cuthaeans prejudiced the secretary of the treasury against Zerubbabel, so that the wages of the car penters and masons could not be paid, and the heavy cedar timbers which had been dragged from Mount Lebanon to the Mediterranean and floated in rafts from Beyrout to Joppa, and were to be drawn by ox team from Joppa to Jerusalem, had halted, and as a result of the work of those jealous Cuthaeans for sixteen years the building of the temple was stopped. But after sixteen years, Zerubbabel, the mighty soul, got a new call from God to go ahead with the temple building, and the angel of the Lord in substance said: "They have piled up bbstacles in the way of Zerubbabel until they have become as a mountain, hight above hight, crag above crag; but it shall all be thundered down and made flat and smooth as the floor of a house, ’Who art thou, O great moun tain? Before Zerubbabel thou shall be come a plain.’ " Well, the Cuthaeans are not all dead yet. They are busy in evpry neighbor hood and every city and every nation of every age, heaping obstacles in the way of the cause of God. They have piled up hindrances above hindrance* until they have become a hill, and the hill has be- a mountain, aad y the njourXfclu has Alp, aiuf there it stands, right an the way of all movements for the World's salvation. Some people are bo discouraged about the hight and breadth of this mountain in front of them chat they have done nothing for sixteen years and many of those who are at work trying to do something toward removing the mountain toil in such away that I can see they have not much faith that the moun tain of hindrances will ever be removed. They feel they must do their duty, but they feel all the time—l can hear it in their prayers and exhortations—that they are striking their pickaxes and shovels into the side of the Rocky mountains. If the good Lord will help me while I preach 1 will give you the names of some of the high mountains which are really in the way, and then show you that those mountains are to be prostrated, torn down, ground up, leveled, put out of sight forever. "Who aa*t thou, O great moun tain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt be come a plain," First, there is the Mountain of Preju dice, as long as a range of the Pyrenees. Prejudice against the Bible as a dull book, an inconsistent book, a cruel book, an unclean book, and In every way an untit book. The most of them have never read it. They think the strata of the rocks contradict the account in Genesis. The poor souls do not know that the Mosaic. Recount agrees exactly with the geological account. No violin or flute ever were In better accord. By crowbar and pickax and shovel and blasting powder the geo logist goes down in the earth and says: "The first thing created in the furnishing of the earth was the plants." Moses says. "Ay! I told you that in the Book or Genesis: 'The earth brought forth grass and herb, yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit.’ “ The geologist goes on digging in the earth and says: "The next thing in the furnishing of the earth was tho making of the creatures of the sea.” Moses says, "Ay! I told you that was next in the Book of Genesis: •God said. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life; and God created groat whales.” The geologist goes on digging, and says: "Tlie next thing in the furnishing of the earth was the creation of the cattle and tho reptiles and the beasts of the field.” "Ay!” says Moses, "I told you that was next in the first chapter of Genesis; ’And God said. Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth af ter his kind.' ” The geologist goes on dig ging in the earth, and says: "The next creature was the human family. “Ay!" says Moses, “I told you that was next In the Book of Genesis; *Bo Qod created man In his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female, created he them.' " Those prejudiced against the Bible do not know* that the explorations in Egypt and Palestine and Syria are confirming the scriptures—the same facts writtan on monuments and on the walls of exhumed cities as written in the Bible. The city of Pithotn has been unburied, and its bricks are found to have been made without straw, exactlv corresponding with the Bible story of the persecuted Hebrews. On terracotta cyl inder recently brought up from thousands of years of burial, the capture of Babylon by Cyrus is told. On a Babylonian gem recently found are the figures of a tree, a nun, a woman and a serpent, and tho hands of the tnan and woman are stretch ed up toward the tree as if to pluck the - fruit. Thus the Bible story of the fall is conn »- In n mwum nt Constantinople you see u piece of th* wall that once in tho an* ottnt temple of separated the court of the Gentiles and the court of the IsraeUb ii, to which Paul refers when he says of Christ. "He is our peace, who hath broken down the middle wall of par tition between ua." On tablets recently discover*.! have been found the names of prominenttmen of the Bible, spelled a little different, .according to the demands of ancient iwmtuage. "Adamu" for Adam. ‘•Alw»mn "<tor Abraham. "ANu“ for Abel, and so on. * Twenty-two feet under ground has been found a seal inscribed with the lllcchln News. words "Haggai, son of Shebanlah," thou sands of years ago cut, showing that the Prophet Haggal, who wrote a part of the Bible, was not a myth. The royal engi neers have found, eighty feet below the surface of the ground at Jerusalem, Phoe nician pottery and hewn stones with in scriptions, showing that they were fur nished by Hiram, King of Tyre, just as the Bible says they were. The great names of Bible history, that many sup pose are names of imaginary beings, are found cut into imperishable stones which have within a few years been rolled up from their en tombment of ages, such as Sen nacherib and Tlglath-Pileser. On the edge of a bronze step, and on burned brick has been found the name of Nebuchad nezzar. Henry Rawlinson and Oppert and Hlncks, and Palestine exploration so cieties, and Asyriologists, and Egyptolo gists, have rolled another Bible up from the depths of the earth, and lo! it corre sponds exactly with our Bible, the rock Bible just like the printed Bible, inscrip tions on cylinders and brick-work cut thirty-eight hundred years before Christ testifying to the truth of what we read eighteen hundred and ninety-seven years after Christ. The story of the tower of Babel has been confirmed by the fact that recently at Babel an oblong pile of brick one hundred and ten feet high evidences the remains of a fallen tower. In the In j spired Book of Ezra we read of the great and noble Asnapper, a name that meant nothing especial, until recently, in pried up Egyptian sculpture, we have the story there told of him as a great hunter, as well as a great warrior. What I say now Is news to those prejudiced against the Bible. They are so far behind the times that they know not that the Old Book is being proved true by the prying eye of the antiquarian and the ringing hammer of the archaeologist and the plunging crowbar of the geologist. No more is infi delity characterized by its blasphemy than by its ignorance, but oh! what a high mountain of prejudice against the Bible, against Christianity, against churches, against all evangelizing enterprises—a I mountain that casts its long, black shad- I ows over this continent and over all con tinents. Geographers tell us that Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Oh, no! The mountain of preju dice against Christianity is higher than the highest crags that dare the lightnings of heaven. Before our Zerubbabel can it ever become a plain? Another mountain of hindrance is that of positive and outspoken Immorals. There is the Mountain of Inebriacy. It Is piled high with kegs and demijohns and decanters and hogsheads, on which sit the victims of that traffic whose one business is to rob earth and heaven of the most generous and large-hearted and splendid |of the human race. If their business was to take only the mean and stingy and con temptible and useless, we would not say much against the work, for there are tens of thousands of men and women who are a nuisance to the world, and their obliter ation from human society would be an ad vantage to all that is good. The removal of these moral deficits . woutet jrot arouse ’in us much *of a protest. Buti Insobriety takes the best. The Mountain of Ine briacy stands in the way of the Kingdom of God, and hundreds of thousands of men, but for that hindrance, would step right into the ranks of the Lord's host and march heavenward, each one taking a reg iment with hlrf. The Mountain of In ebriacy is not an ordinary mountain; but it is armed. It is a line of fortresses con tinually blazing away its destructive forces -upon all our neighborhoods, towns, and cities, their volleys of death poured down upon the homes and churches. Un | der this power more than one hundred thousand men and wo men are in this country ev- ery year imprisoned, and an army of six hundred thousand drunkards almost shake the earth with their staggering tread. It causes in this country 300 murders and 400 suicides a year. This Mountain of Ine briacy has not only assaulted the land, but bombarded the shipping of the sea, and some of the most appalling ship wrecks on Atlantic and Pacific coast have been the result. What sank the steamer Rothsay Castle, on the way from Liverpool to Dublin, destroying 100 hu man lives? A drunken sea captain. What | blew up the Ben Sherrod on the Missis- I sippl and sent 150 to horrible death? A drunken crew. What drove on the break ers a steamer making its way from New York to Charleston, and sent whole fami lies, on the waV home from summer wat ering places, to the merciless depths of the sea. A drunken sea captain. Gather up from the depths of the rivers, and lakes, and oceans, the bones of those shipwrecked by intoxicated captains and crews and you could build out of them a temple of horrors, all the pillars and al tars and floors and ceilings fashioned of human skulls. Is It possible that such a Mountain of Inebriacy can ever be made a plain? Yonder also is the Mountain of Crime, with its strata of fraud, and malpractice, and malfeasance, and blackmail, and burglary, and piracy, and •embezzlement, and libertinism, and theft, all its bights manned with the desperadoes, the cut throats, the pickpockets, the thimble-rig gers, the plunderers, the marauders, the pillagers, the corsairs, the wreckers, the bandits, the tricksters, the forgers, the thugs, the garotters, the flre-flends, the dynamiters, the shoplifters, the klepto maniacs, the pyramanics, the dipsoman | iacs, the smugglers, the kidnappers, the I Jack Sheppards, the Robert Macaires, and the Macbeths of villainy. The crimes of I the world! Am I not right in calling them, i when piled up together, a mountain? But we cannot bring ourselves to appreciate great bights except by comparison. You I think of Mount Washington as high, es | pecially those of you who ascended as of i old, on muleback. or more recently by rail train. to the Tip Top house. Oh, no! That | is not high! For it is only about six thous and feet, whereas, rising on this western hemisphere are Chimborazo, twenty one thousand feet high, and Mount Sahama, twenty-three thousand feet high, and Mount Sarota. twenty-four thousand eight hundred feet high. But that is not the highest mountain on the western hemis phere. The highest mountain is the Mountain of Crime, and Is it possible that this mountain, before our Zerubbabel, can ever be made a plain? There Is also the Mountain of War, the most volcanic of all mountains—the Ve suvius which, not content, like the Vesu vius of Italy, with whelming two cities. Herculaneum and Pompeii, has covered with its fiery scoria thousands of cities and would like to whelm all the cities of I both hemispheres. Give this mountain full utterance, and It would cover up Washington and New York and London as easily as a householder, with his shov el. at 10 o'clock at night, banks a grate fire with ashes. This mountain is a pile of fortresses, barricades and armories, the world's artillery heaped, wheels above wheels, columbiads above columbiads. seventy-four pounders above seventy-four pounders, wrecked nations above wrecked nations. This Mountain of War is not only loaded to cannonade the earth, but It is also a cemetery, holding the corpses of thirty million slain in the wars of Al- ’ SAVANNAH, MONDAY, JANUARY IS, 1897. exander and Cyrus, sixty million slain in Roman wars, one hundred and eighty mill ion slain in war with Turks and Sara cens, and holding about thirty-five billion corpses, not million but billion, which was the estimate made by Edmund Burke more than a hundred years ago of those who had been destroyed by war, so that you would have to add many more mill ions now. Twenty years ago a careful au thor estimated that about fourteen times the then population of the world had gone down in battle or in hospital after battle. Ah! This Mountain of War is not like an ordinary mountain. It is like Kilauea, one of the Sandwich Islands, which holds the greatest volcano in all the earth, and concerning which I wrote from the Sand wich Islands a few years ago: "What a hissing, bellowing, tumbling, soaring force is Kilauea! Lake of un quenchable fire: convulsions and parox ysms of flame: elements of nature In tor ture: torrldity and luridity: congregation of dreads: molten horrors: sulphurous abysms: swirling mystery of all time: in finite turbulence: chimney of perdition: wallowing terrors: fifteen acres of threats: glooms insufferable and Dantesque: cauld ron stirred by the champion witch of Pan demonium: camp-fire of the armies of Diabolus: wrath of the mountains in full bloom: shimmerinng incandescence: pyr otechnics of the planet: furnace-blast of the ages: Kilauea!” But, my friends, mightier, higher, vaster, hotter, more rag ing is the volcanic Mountain of War. It has been blazing for hundreds of years, and will keep on blazing until, until,—but I dare not hazard a phophecy. Can it be that its flres will ever be put out? Can It be that its roar will ever be silenced? Can it be that before our Zerubbabel that blaz ing mountain will ever become a plain? The mightiest, grandest movement for driving brutal war out of the earth dates from Jan. 11, 1897. The men who on either side of the sea did most to effect that plan of arbitration have made themselves im mortal. The eve of the present administration of the United States government has been honored with the gladdest event of eigh teen centuries. All civilized nations will copy the sublime example. I implore the illustrious Senate of the United States to a.low nothing to interfere with a vote of ratification, that the bells of church Christendom may ring out “Peace on earth, good will toward men.” Senators, many of you my personal friends, let me say that this is the oppor tunity of your lives. By emphatic and enthusiastic vote rise to the splendor of the occasion and win the favor of all the good of earth and all the mighty In heav en. Let the aye, aye, of our American Senate resound through all the capitals of Europe and make all the arsenals and armories of the round world hear that there shall be no more murder among na tions. There is also the long range of moun tains, longer than Appalachian range, longer than Caucasian range, longer than Sierra Nevada range—the piled-up oppo sition of bad literature, bad homes, bad. aLiuremen bad cen turies, bad religions; Paganism, Hlndoo ism, Buxldlsm, Mohammedanism, and buttressed and enthroned Godlessness, de voted to ambition and lust and hydra headed, argus-eyed abomination, as it stands with lifted fist and mocking lips, challenging Jehovah upon the throne of the universe to strike if he dare. Oh, It 1s a great mountain, as my text declares. There is no use in denying it. The most authentic statistics declare it. The signs of the times prove it. All Christian work ers realize it. It Is a mountain. "The mountain can never be brought down," says worldly- speculation. "The mountain can never be made a plain,” says small faith in, the churches. "Well, let us see. Let us look about for the implements we can lay our hands on. Let us count the number on our side who are willing to dig with a shovel, or bore a tunnel, or blast a rock. Let us see if there is any foreign help that will come in to reinforce us. 1 do not want to make myself absurd by attempting an impossibility. If it is only one spade at the foot of Mount Blanc; if it is only one arm. capable of lifting but a few pounds, against a moun tain that weighs a hundred million tons, let us quit before we make ourselves the travesty and caricature of the universe. If we are to undertake this job, first of all we must have a competent engineer, one who knows all about excavations, about embankments, about tunnels, about moun tains. I know engineers who have carved up mountains, cut down mountains, re moved mountains. I will do nothing un less I know who is to be our Engineer. Zerubbabel led at the rebuilding of the ancient Temple, and Matthew Henry, the greatest of commentators, declares that our Zerubbabel is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Zerubbabel of my text was only a type of the glorious and omnipo tent Jesus, and as I look up into the face Os this Divine Engineer and see it glow with all the splendors of the Godhead, and see that in his arm is the almightl ness that flung out all the worlds that glitter in the midnight heavens, and that to lift the Himalayas would cost him no more effort than for me to lift an ounce, my courage begins to rally, and my faith begins to mount, and my enthusiasm is all aflame, and the words or my text this momtnt just fit my lips and express the triumph of my soul, and I cry out, “Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerub babel thou shalt become a plain." My experiences with the shovel are that you cannot do much by one push of that implement, and that after you have been digging with it an hour what you have accomplished seems very little; but just go along by the place where they are build ing a railroad through a mountain and see what a great work a thousand shovels can do, and know that while there are a thou sand shovels at work on this side of the mountain there are a thousand shovels busy on the other side, and all I have to do is to manage my own particular shovel. It cheers me to think that against this old Mountain of Sin there are hundreds of thousands and millions of shovels this mo ment busy, and we are all at work under the one Engineer who came down from his throne in heaven to oversee and help the removal of that mountain, and who has contracted to have it done. I have seen the contract, and He is well paid for it. The compensation promised by the throne of heaven is, "I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the ut termost parts of the earth for thy pos session." The reason so many of us are idle is that we want a bigger shovel or we would like to manage some great hy draulic engine. No, brother. Stick to your shovel. Dig away in your Sabbath classes. Dig away in your missions. Dig aw in your homes. Dig away in your pulpits. Do the work next to you. Do not spend too much time look ing at the great size of the mountains, or at the way others use their shovels' All that you can accomplish toward the removing of that mountain will be with your own particular shovel. Remember little David, with Saul’s helmet on him, dropping clear down over his ears, even unto his shoulders. But when he got in his hand the boy’s sling, how well be used it! If you do not understand Greek, do not attempt to tell the people was t the text is in the original. If you do not understand Latin, attempt no drafts upon Latinity. You who want to help in the removal of the mountain, hold on to your shovel. Much time has been lost by the fact that many of the sharpest shovels, instead of being used for the removal of the moun tain, have been used in fighting each other. The great Presbyterian church was mightily hindered by the fight that for years went on between Old School shovels and New School shovels, and it was not until the meeting of the general assembly at Pittsburg, thirty or forty years ago that many good men made up their minds that shovels are not made to fight with but to dig with. Many of the old theologians went around with band aged foreheads which had not been struck by the swords in the battle for God, but by the shovels of ecclesiastical embroglio. They had a special admiration for that Psalm of David which said, “Blessed be the Lord which teacheth my hand to war, and my fingers to fight.” So also the Meth odist church had a battle of shovels over the questions of lay delegates, and wom anly representation. I am glad to Say that most of the ecclesiastical pugilists, in all denominations, are dead, and that they had big funerals. But there are so many shovels now rightly engaged that no sta tistics can fcount them. I tell you the mountain Is coming down. It is coming down rapidly. It will all come down. There are those who hear or read these words who will gaze upon its complete prostra tion; for what is the use of my keeping back any longer the full statement of the fact, which I have somewhat delayed through lawful sermonic strategy, the fact that the Lord God Almighty, in the full play of his omnipotence, will accomplish this supernal work. = If God can build a mountain, I guess he can remove a moun tain. After GOd has given full opportu nity for the shovels, he will eome in with his thunderbolts. We have amplified the idea of the Lamb of God. I tell you now of the lion. Here is a thought that I have never seen projected, and yet it is the most cheering of all considerations and plainly scriptural, the thought that as at the open ing of the gospel dispensation, in the Christly, and Johanian, and Pauline days, the machinery of the natural world was brought into service, the shadow of eclipses and the agitation of earthquakes, tempests put to sleep under the voice of divine lullaby, iron bolts of prisons shov ed back by invisible muscle, kindling of flame on heads of worshippers, by instan taneous pharmacy blasted vision given full eyesight, and the dead returned from the eternal world, mingling amid earthly scenes, so it will be again. As I read my Bible, these supernaturals are to return. Again the eclipses, as at the destruction of Jerusalem, will put red wing under the moon and black wing under the sun, and the mountains will shake with ague of excitement, and hospital cots be emptied as their patients bound into sudden health, and the Gospel of Mercy emphasized by most tremendous spectacles. “And I be held whacuhe djtenwV-3*xtl< seat; ana, id, there was & great earthquake: and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood ... and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” There you have it. The shovels now digging away at the moun tains to be reinforced by thunderbolts. The gospel is only partlaly successful be cause we preach it amid all placidities, the hearers having heard the invitation a thousand times before, and expect to hear it a thousand times more, but in coming times to be preached amid pulverized rocks and stellar panics and shattered masonry of cemeteries, from which the pallid dead will spring into roseate life. I say then the gospel will be universally accepted. There is the programme. First the shov els, then the thunderbolts. Ours the shov els, God’s the thunderbolts. The text, which before we uttered with something of trepidation, now we utter in laugh of tri umph, “Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.” Sometimes a general begins a battle be fore he is ready, because the enemy forces it on him. The general says, “The enemy are pushing us, and so I open battle. We are not sufficient to cope with them, but I hope the reserve forces will come up in time.” The battle rages, and the general looks through his field-glass at the troops, but ever and anon he sweeps his field glass backward and upward toward the hill, to see if the reserve forces are coming. “Hard pushed are we!” says the general. “I do wish those reinforcements would come up.” After awhile the plumes of the advancing cavalry are seen toss ing on the ridge of the hill, and then the flash of swords, and then the long lines of mounted troops, their horses in full gallop, and the general says, “All is well. Hold out, my men, little long er. Let the sergeants ride along the lines and cheer the men and tell them reinforcements are coming.’ And now the rumbling of the batteries and gun-car riages is distinctly heard, and soon they are in line, and at the first roar of the newly-arrived artillery the enemy, a little while before so jubilant, fall back in wild retreat, their way strewn w-ith canteens, and knapsacks, and ammunition, that the defeated may be unhindered in their flight. That is just the way now. fn this great battle against sin and crime and moral death the enemy seem too much for us. More grogshops than churches. More bad men than good men, and they come up with bravado and the force of great num bers. They have opened battle upon us. before we are, in our own strength, ready to meet them, and great are the discour agements. But steady, there! Hold on! Reinforcements are coming. Through the glass of inspiration I look, and see the flash of the sword of "him who hath on his vesture and on his thigh, a name writ ten, King of kings and Lord of lords.” All heaven is on our side and is coming to the rescue. I hear the rumbling of the King’s artillery, louder than any thunder that ever shook the earth, ami with every roll of the ponderous wheels our courage aug ments, and when these reinforcements from heaven get Into line with the forces of God already on earth, all the armies of unrighteousness will see that their hour of doom has come, and will waver and fall back and take flight and nothing be left of them save here and there, strewn by the wayside, an agnostic’s pen or a broken decanter or a torn playbill of a debasing amusement or a blasphemous paragraph, or a leper’s scale, or a dragon’s tooth, to show they ever existed. Let there be cheering all along the lines of Christian workers, over the fact' that what the shovels fail to do will be ac complished by the thunderbolts. “Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerub babel thou shalt become a plain.” The mountains look on Marathon, And Marathon looks on the sea, • • • • Shrine of the mighty can it be That this is al! remains of thee! Appendicitis’ Deadly Work. New York. Jan. 17.—Chevalier Louis Contencin, consul general to the two Sici lies, and one of the most prominent Ital ian merchants in the city, died at JO o'clock to-night of appendicitis. THE PORTE AND THE POWERS. EUROPEAN DIPLOMATS CONSIDER COERSIVE MEASURES. England and Italy Argue That the Decision of the Powers Should He Promptly and Energetically Forced by Sea and Land—Summary of the Proposed Reforms—Kaiser Wilhelm Thinlcs the Sultan Should Have Time in Which to Act. Copyright, 1897, by the United Associated Press. Berlin, Jan. 17.—Under instructions from the foreign office, Baron Saurma von Genlitch, German ambassador to the porte, has given persistent support to M. Nelidoff, the Russian ambassador, throughout the series of ambassadorial conferences held in Constantinople, which are now about to terminate, but in the decision of the financial and administra tive reforms proposed by M. Nelidoff, however, Baron Saurma has taken no prominent part. M. Cambon and Sir Philip Currie, respectively French and British ambassador, are understood to have obtained some Important additions to the Russian proposals, which claimed the consent of the European governments. The English and Italian ambassadors advocated a distinct plan of armed en forcement of the decisions of the powers, and argued that the presentation of the reform projects to the sultan should be accompanied by an explicit declaration that the powers were prepared to enforce them by sea and land. The report is entirely credited in official and diplomatic quarters here that Sir Philip Currie placed before the ambassa dors a fully matured project of naval and military operations, designed to cover the occupation of Constantinople, the Darda nelles and the Bosphorus and also to over awe the Moslem population in the all too probable event of a rising and attempted massacre. To any consideration of coer cion, Baron Saurma took a decided stand in opposition. The kaiser obviously con tinues to hold that the sultan must be trusted to carry out the reforms and that his sovereign powers should not be inter fered with. M. Nelidoff professed no un willingness to agree to the principle of co ercoon, but opposed the English proposals on the ground that they were premature and that the sultan must have time in which to act. On this point of time com munications are proceeding between the powers. The English government, which appears tp think that .the kaiser’s opposition to coercion will disappear if France and Russia agree to act with England, is ne gotiating directly with St. Petersburg and Paris. It is known here that under no cir cumstances will Russia assent to any form of armed interference until the spring is well advanced, the Black sea ports un obstructed by ice and the roads, railways and rivers in Southern Russia in good condition. It is a winter of almost un precedented mildness in Southern Russia, being as warm as early spring at Odessa, and traffic with Nicolaieff and Kherson is still open. But it is no part of the Rus sian policy to permit a concerted armed intervention in Turkey. The sultan will get time and take it. The Berlin season is now in full swing and the past week has been one of almost incessant festivity. The reception given to the members of court society at the United States embassy last Monday by Ambassador Uhl was a magnificent func tion. The ambassador’s saloons were re splendent with gorgeous uniforms, and the exquisite costumes of bejeweled la dies, whose diamonds presented a most pleasing effect. Following the reception at the American embassy, came Count von Wedel’s “polter-abend” (nuptial eve), given upon the occasion of the marriage of his daughter to Count Johann von Bis marck-Bohlen of the First Regiment of Foot Guards. The emperor was present at the wedding dinner, and presented the bride with a costly porcelain table. On Tuesday there was a reception at the French embassy similar to that given by Ambassador Uhl, and there was also a ball at the Austrian embassy, followed by a dinner at the English embassy, besides a number of aristocratic balls and other functions during the week. The court marshal’s programme of fes tivities during the carnival period opened with the coronation orders of the day. To morrow will be the festival day of the Order of the Black Eagle, which will bring together as notable an assemblage of royal, high military and other digni taries as Germany can produce; on Wed nesday will be the grand court held by their imperial majesties in the royal castle and on the kaiser's birthday, Jan. 27, there will be a reception at the royal castle, fol lowed by a banquet and gala opera per formance at the royal theater. Wednesday, Feb. 3, the kaiser will give a banquet. On the following Wednesday a private ball will be given at the castle and on March 2 a grand masked ball will be given, with which the kaiser and kaiserin propose to conclude their Berlin season. There is also to be an unusual stream of aristocratic private functions. Many well known princely families, who were absent last season, owing to discord with the kaiser or to his intrigues, have now appeared, and Berlin court tradesmen are rejoicing thereat. The trial of Maj. Baron von Tausch, formerly chief of the police, upon charges of forgery and perjury, will not begin before the end of March. Almost daily new witnesses are coming forward, and new charges are cropping up. A rather sensational article in the Staatsburger Zeitung seeks to prove that one of the principal informers against Tausch is the Berlin correspondent of a Hanover paper, Herr H. G. Keller, once a member of the staff of the Tageblatt. The Staatsburger Zeitung asserts that Herr Keller, besides “rounding” on Tausch, set to work to im plicate in the case other Berlin journal ists, although they were in no way con nected with It. The article re stricts the petty jealousies, if not the corruption. prevalent In the ranks of the Berlin journalism It is not surprising that the report gains credit that the kaiser has set his face against the whole system of official and semi-official journalism and has requested all leading officials to cease communicat ing with the representatives of these newspapers. If greater latitude were al lowed to the expression of opinion in the press and actions less easily brought, the disappearance of “inspired” articles would be beneficial. Ministers have so long been accustomed to supply certain papers with views, upon the appearance of which other papers waited for the key-note of attack or defense as to make the entire cessation of their inspiration very em barrassing to some journalists. The reception of Count Golouchowskl, the Austrian minister of foreign affairs, by the emperor and Chancellor von Ho henlohe was most cordial and it is be lieved that the assurances which he will receive in regard to the status of the drel bund powers in view of certain European complications, the proposed Increase of armaments and other matters will be en tirely satisfactory to the Austrian gov ernment. The appointment of Count Muravieff, who is a friend of France and a pronounc ed Germanophobe, to the office of Russian minister of foreign affairs, has been made the subject of a very undignified discus sion in the German press, and was tne sub ject of a scare, which is now subsiding. The appointment of a successor to Prince Lobenoff, the Messenger says, remains in suspense. The fact is now recognized here that the promotion of Count Muravieff need not excite the least degree of dis quiet in Germany. The number of German royalties who are already booked for attendance at the queen’s jubilee in England includes a large list of names figuring in the Almanach de Gotha. It is the desire of the kaiser *that there shall be the fullest attendance of Queen Victoria’s German relatives. The Grand Duke and Duchess, the Crown Prince and Princess of Roumania, with others of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family; Prince and Princess Aribert of Anhalt and some of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz fam ily, will attend the celebration. The czar, with the czarina, if her health permits, will take part in the London festivities. The opposition of the produce bourses to the new bourse law is still confined to the exchanges of Prussia proper. Operations through the Berlin, Breslau, Stettin, and Dantzig organizations proceed, but the rec ord of dealings by no means comes up to that of the same period in 1896. The stock bourses are also feeling the pinch of the new laws most acutely. If the dimin ution of transaction, continues, the brokers agree, Berlin will lose her position as an international market for securities and be come merely a sort of minor local bourse. Herr Giesen, the editor of the Frankfort Gazette, who was recently arrested for refusing to disclose the identity of the author of an article published in his pa per containing insulting references to the emperor, has been released. The offense of the writer of the article was lese ma jeste, but the authorities failed in their efforts to induce Herr Giesen to disclose the name of the author of the article and the matter was dropped. The imperial decree dissolving the Aus trian Reichsrath is likely to be issued on Jan. 31, the general elections will occur about March 15, and the new Reichsrath is to assemble the first week in May. DEATH BY ASPHIXIATION. Well-Known New York Newspaper ■Man Suffocated in Bed. New York, Jan. 17.—Rudd Smith, a well known newspaper man, was found dead in bed this morning at tho Putnam house, Twenty-sixth street and Fourth avenue, death having been caused by asphyxia tion. Mr. Smith had gone to the hotel about 1:30, and was assigned to a single room on the third floor. He was shown to his room at once, and that was the last seen of him alive. A chambermaid passing Hr. Smith’s room about 8:30 o’clock, detected the odor of gas, and the door was forced. The room was filled with gas, and it was sev eral minutes before an examination could be made. Meanwhile a call had been sent to Bellevue hospital. Dr.. Powers, who -came with the ambulance, pronounced Mr. Smith dead, although the body was still warm. The gas was turned on full head. Mr. Smith had apparently undressed lei surely and gotten into bed. On the table were powders, probably for the purpose of producing sleep. An empty paper on the table indicated that he had taken a similar powder. Mr. Smith’s associates are of the opinion that death was due to an accident. They say he was apparently in good spirits and light-hearted, and, so far as known, in perfect health. Mr. Smith was 38' years of age, and had been in newspaper work in New York and in the west for about fifteen years. He was a brother of Ballard Smith, the Eu ropean correspondent. His mother and sister are now in Europe. Mr. Smith was one of the telegraph editors on the Jour nal. TRAGEDY IN SPRINGFIELD. A Murderoni Tole’s Assault on His Stepdaughter. Springfield, Mass., Jan. 17.—There was a murder and a probable suicide on Sharon street early this morning. Dominick Kra tafoski, a Pole, shot his step-daughter twice, killing her almost instantly, and then turning the revolver against himself put a bullet into his brain. He is now lying at the hospital, with the prospects against his recovery. It seems the murderer has been crimi nally intimate with his step-daughter for nearly a year. Whenever he is drunk, which has been quite often, he has tried to assault her, and she has often com plained to the police. About a year ago the police were called to the house to af ford her protection against her step father. This morning Kratafoski tried to assault her, she resisted, and in a fit of rage he shot her. It is thought he committed some crime in Europe before coming to this country. He is 29 years of age. FREIGHT HAIES CUT. Biggest Railroad War in Years May . Result at Once. St. Paul, Minn., Jan. 17.—The Minneap olis and Sault Ste Marie Railroad Com pany created a sensation yesterday even ing by announcing that on Jan. 25 it will put into effect a freight rate between New York. Boston and Atlantic seaboard points and St. Paul and Minneapolis based on $1.05 first-class. This is a cut of 20 cents on a hundred on this class of freight. The slash may cause the big gest rate war in years. The Twin City Freight Association has been at work to secure this concession from the “Soo” the past eighteen months. The Trunk Line Association, whose rate Is $1.35, is expect ed to meet the reduction, if not go below the “Soo” figures. PEACE AT BYRON AGAIN. Candidates Exchange Shots Over a Political Contest. Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 17.—Peace is restored at Byron. In the confusion resulting from a third tie between the candidates, four men, C. C. Richardson, C. I* Bate man, C. E. Bateman and R. H. Baskins, engaged in a row yesterday. Richardson and Clabe Bateman exchanged shots, but neither were seriously hurt. The parties are all of the best families, and highly connected. ( WEEKLY 2-TIMSS-A-WEEK $1 A YEAR > XTZA - •2 5 CENTS A COPY. pr DAILY, $lO A YEAR. f MONDAYS a|n THURSDAYS WRECKERS’ DEADLY WORK. CROSSTIES PILED ON A TRACK J CAUSE WOUNDS AND DEATH. Engineer Clemons So Terribly Hurt W That His Death Im Certain— Others of the Crew as Well as an Express ■ Messenger and a Postal Cleric, Badly Injured—A Bad Smash-Up in Texas Canned by Fiends in Human. Form. Dallas, Tex., Jan. 17.—The through ex press from St. Louis on the Iron Moun tain and Texas and Pacific route, due at Dallas at 6:20 o’clock a. m., was wrecked last night at the little station of Forest, in Cass county, near Springdale. Engi neer Clemons had both legs broken and sustained other injuries so severe that he died to-day. His home was at Marshall, Tex. The express messenger is reported as being fatally injured and a postal route agent seriously injured. The wreck was the work of train wreckers, who had piled crossties on the track. The full details have not yet reached Dallas. Two trains have been abandoned and two others are late and are expected to arrive between 9 and 10 o’clock to-night. Half a dozen or more passengers are reported injured, but none fatally. The engine and three cars, mail, baggage and express, were thrown down an embankment, but no passenger coaches left the track. THE WAR IN CUBA. Persistant Rumors Current That Maceo Still Lives. Kingston, Jamaica, Jan. 17.—Seven Cu bans, including Senor Sauvennell, have arrived here bringing dispatches from Cuba. In view of the quarantine regu lations they were detained for observa tion. Rumors continue to reach here that Maceo is still alive. It is said that he was desperately wounded in the engage ment in which he was reported to hav| been killed, but that he is now improving. Little credence is placed in these rumors. Advices which have reached here are to the effect that Maximo Gomez now has his forces completely equipped, and is prepared to open a vigorous campaign against Capt. Gen. Weyler. Tampa, Fla,, Jah. 17.—Passengers by the Olivette bring news of the war situa tion on the island of Cuba. Port au Prin cipe and Santiago are practically in the hands of the Cubans, the Spaniards not daring to leave their fortresses, except under the protection of a. str£M»“_£Ssarf. In fact, whole eastern portion of the island la now under the government of the Cubans. Gen. Weyler permits nothing against his Interest to pass his censorship, but it now comes out that the 200 wounded sent into Havana last week came as the result of an attack made on the trocha twenty miles from Havana by a Cuban column. It is now certain that the Cuban general, Jose Aguirre, died of pneumonia at El Englis, in the province of Havana, on th® 29th ultimo. The Spaniards are now driving the coun try inhabitants into the cities and are fortifying them. They continue the work day and night at Havana. On Saturday morning, before the Olivette left, Spanish troops were out practicing with heavy artillery. The bellowing of the great guns shook the ground and could be heard for many miles. The stories published in this country that the Cuban leaders and sympathizers are ready to treat with the crown on a basis of autonomy are denounced as slan ders on Cuban manhood. They are em phatic in the statement that the Cubans will never accept anything at the hands of Spain but absolute independence. Gomez has never authorized anything to the con trary. It is reported that Col. Fondeviela con tinues to butcher "pacificos" at Guana bacoa. A large body of insurgents under Castillo and Delgado is reported near Havana. It is also reported that Gen. Calixto Gar cia has defeated Gen. Segura, inflicting a loss of 500 in killed and wounded on the Spaniards. FLORIDA PALACE HOTELS. Royal Poinciana and Royal Palm Open For th*» Season. Jacksonville, Fla., Jan. 17.—The Hotel Royal Poinciana on Lake Worth and the Hotel Royal Palm at Miami were opened for the season yesterday. These belong to the chain of hotel palaces erected by Henry M. Flagler on the east coast of Florida. The hotel system begins at St. Augustine and extends south to Key West. A CONVENTION FOR SANFORD. National Farmers and Fruit Growerg to Meet. Sanford, Fla., Jan. 17.—At the adjourned meeting of the citizens of Sanford, held Saturday afternoon, the committee previ ously appointed, made a report, recom mending that a convention be held in San ford on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 16th and 17th days of March, 1897, which shall be called “the national farmers, vegeta ble and fruit growers' convention." FOUND DEAD IN BED. Sudden End of a Well-Known and Wealthy Brunswiclcian. Brunswick, Ga., Jan. 17.—E. Brlesenlck, a well-known and wealthy citizen, was found dead this afternoon. His body was discovered lying across the bed in his room. A coroner’s inquest rendered a verdict of heart failure as the cause of his death. SOMETHING NEW PROMISED. Evening Constitution to Appear This Afternoon. Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 17.—The Evening Con stitution will make z ita appearance Mon day afternoon. In style and service it will be something entirely new In southern ..journalism. A complete force of bright, well trained yopng men have been secured. Its news service will be up to that of the morning edition. ACCIDENTAL DROWNING. A Young Rhode Islander’s Death in Florida Waters. St. Augustine, Fla., Jan. 17.—The coro ner’s jury has rendered a verdict of ac cidental drowning in the case of Clarence Gladding of Providence, R. 1., who tost hia life off the yacht Coeheco at St. Au gustine.
