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lOTIMES
|(CwEMh
VHT 4.7 I THE MORNING NEv/ i
V Vz-Lla tr i • 1850. - -IncorporaiJ a 8 jB. I
I J. H. ESTILL, President. f
SUFFERED TO SAVE SOULS.
TAL.UAGE PREACHES ON CHRIST’S
GREAT SACRIFICE.
'C’ae Fountain Filled With . Blood
Only a Figure of Speech—As Much
Common Sense Must Be Exercised
in Religion us In Anything Else.
Business Men of To-day Working
and Struggling Only For t<he Home
a Few Blocks Away From the
Scene nt Their Toil.
Washington, March 21.—From many con
ditions of life Dr. Talmage, in this ser
mon, draws graphic Illustrations of one
of the sublimest theories of religion,
namely, vicarious sacrifice. His text was
Hebrews 8:22, “Without shedding of blood
is no remission.**
John G. Whittier, the last of the great
uchool of American poets that made the
last quarter of a century brilliant, asked
me in the White mountains, one morning
after prayers, in which I had given out
Cowper’s famous hymn about "The Foun
tain Filled With Blood,’’ “Do you really
believe there is a literal application of the
blood of Christ to the soul?” My nega
tive reply then Is my negative reply now. t
The Bible statement agrees with all phy
sicians, and all physiologists, and all sci
entists, in saying that the blood Is the life,
and In the Christian religion It means
simply that Christ’s life was given for
our life. Hence all this talk of men who
say the Bible story of blood is disgusting,
and that they don’t want what they call
a “slaughter house religion,” only shows
their Incapacity or unwillingness to look
through the figure of speed toward the
thing signified. The blood that, on the
darkest Friday the world ever saw,
or trickled, or poured from the brow, and
the side, and the hands, and the feet
of the illustrious sufferer, back of Jeru
salem In a few hours coagulated and dried
up, and forever disappeared; and if man
had depended on the application of the
literal blood of Christ, there would not
have been a soul saved for the last eigh
teen centuries.
In order to understand this red word of
my text, we only have to exercise as much
common sense In religion as we do in
everything else. Pang for pang, hunger for
hunger, fatigue for fatigue, tear for
tear, blood for blood, life for life, we see
every day Illustrated. The act of substi
tution is no novelty, although I hear men
talk as though the idea of Christ’s suffer
ing substituted for our suffering were
Something abnormal, something distress
ingly odd, something wildly eccentric, a
solitary episode in the world’s history;
when I could take you out into this city,
and before sundown point you to 600 cases
of substitution and voluntary suffering
of one in behalf of another.
At 2 o’clock to-morrow afternoon go
among tho places of business or toll. It
will be no difficult thing fot* you to find
mon who, by their loqWs, .ihoy-you that
turely old. They are hastening rapidly to
ward their decease. They gone
through crises In business that shattered
their nervous system and pulled on the
brain. They have a shortness of breath
and a pain in tho back of thq head, and
at night an insomnia that alarms them.
Why are they drudging at business early
and late? For fun? No; it would be dif
ficult to extract any amusement out of
that exhaustion. Because they fire avar
icious? In many cases no. Because their
own personal expenses are lavish? No;
a few hundred dollars would meet all
their wants. The simple fact is, the man
is enduring all that fatigue and exaspera
tion, and wear and tear, to keep his home
prosperous. There Is an invisible line
reaching from that store, from than bank,
from that shop, from that scaffolding, io
a quiet scene a few blocks away, a few
miles away, and there is tho secret of that
business endurance. He la simply the
champion of a homestead, for which he
wins bread, and wardrobe, and education,
and prpfaptority, and tn such battle 10.000
men falL Os ten business men whom 1
bury, nine die of overwork for others.
Some sudden disease finds them with no
power of resistance, and they aro gone.
Life for life. Blood for blood. Substitu
tion!
A,t 1 o’clock to-morrow morning, the
hour when slumber is most uninterrupt
ed and most profound, walk amid the
dwelling-houses of the city. Hero and
there you will find a dim light, because
It is the household custom to keep a
subdued light burning; but most of the
houses from base to top are as dark as
though uninhabited. A merciful God has
sent forth the archangel oKsleep, and he
puts his wings over the city. But yon
der Is a clear light burning, and outside
on the window casement is a glass or
pitcher containing food for a sick child;
the food is set in tho fresh air. TTtis is
the sixth night that mother has sot up
with that sufferer. She has to the last
point obeyed the physician’s prescription,
not giving a drop too much or too little,
or a moment too soon or too late. She Is
very anxious, for she has buried three
children with the same disease, and she
prays and weeps, each prayer and sob
ending with a kiss of the pale cheek. Uy
dint of kindness she gets the little one
through the ordeal. After it is all over,
the mother Is taken down. Brain or nerv
ous fever nets In, and one day she leaves
the convalescent child with a mother’s
blessing, and goes up to join the three in
the kingdom of heaven. Life for life.
Substitution! The fact is that there aro
an uncounted number of mothers who, af
ter they hove navigated a large family of
children through all the diseases of infan
cy, and got them fairly started up the
flowering slope of boyhood and girlhood,
have only strength enough left to die.
They fade away. Some call it consump
tion; some oaP it nervous prostration;
gome call It Intermittent or malarial in
disposition. but I call it martyrdom of the
domestic circle. Ute. for life. Blood for
blood. Substitution!
Or perhaps the mother lingers long
•lM>t)gh to see a son get on the wrong
road, and his foymer kindness becomes
rough reply when she express** anxiety
about him. But she goes right on. looking
carefully after his apparel. remembering
bls every birthday with some memento,
and when be U brought home worn out
with dissipation, nurses him till he gets
well and starts him again, and hopes. and
expects, and prays, and counsels, and suf
fers. until her strength gives out and she
falls. t»ne is going, and attendants, bend
ing over her pillow, ask her if she has any
message to leave, and she makes great ef
fort to say something, but out of three
or fourt minutes of indistinct utterance
they can catch but three words: “My poor
boy!” The simple fact is she died for
him. Jt-ife for life. Substitution!
About thirty-six years ago there went
forth from our northern and southern
home* hundreds of thousands of men to
do battle for their country. All th® poetry
«»♦ war »oou vanished, and Kit theta noth- 1
’a ’
lllil &
- * ar oli^ 1
ing but the terrible prose. They waded
knee-deep in mud. They slept in snow
banks. They marched till their cut feet
tracked the earth. They were swindled
out of their honest rations and lived on
meat not fit for a dog. They had jaws all
fractured and eyes extinguished, and
limbs shot away. Thousands of them
cried for water as they lay dying on the
field the night after the battle, and got it
not. They were homesick and received no
message from their loved ones. They
died in barns, in bushes, In ditches, the
buzzards of the summer heat the only at
tendants on their obsequies. No one but
the infinite God who knows everything,
knows the ten thousandth part bf the
length, and breadth, and depth, and hight
of the anguish of the northern and south
ern battlefields. Why did these fathers
leave their children and go to the front,
and why did these young men, postponing
the marriage day, start out into the
probabilities of never coming back? For
the country they died. Life for life. Blood
for blood. Substitution!
But we need not go so far. What Is
that monument in Greenwood? It Is to
the doctors who fell in the southern epi
demise. Why go? Were there not
enough sick to be attended in these north
ern latitudes? Oh, yes; but the doctor
put a few medical books In his valise, and
some phials of medicine, and leaves his
patients here in the hands of other phy
sicians, and takes the rail-train. Before
he gets to the infected regions he passes
crowded rail-trains, regular and extra,
takifag the flying and affrighted popula
tions. He arrives in a city over which a
great horror is brooding. He goes from
couch to couch, feeling of the pulse and
studying symptoms, and prescribing day
after day, night after night, until a fel
low-physician says, "doctor, you had bet
ter go home and rest; you look misera
ble.” But he cannot rest while so many
are suffering. On and on, until some
morning finds him In a delirium, in which
he talks of home, and then rises and says
he must go and look after those patients.
He Is told to lie down; but he fights his
attendants until he falls back, and is
weaker and weaker, and dies for people
with whom he had no kinship, and far
awsy from his own family, and Is hastily
put away In a stranger’s tomb, and only
the fifth part of a newspaper line tells
us of his sacrifice—his name just men
tioned among five. Yet he has touched
the furthest hight of sublimity In that
three weeks of humanitarian service. He
goes straight as an arrow to the bosom
of him who said: “I was sick and ye
visited me.” Life for life. Blood for
blood. Substitution!
In the legal profession I see the same
principle of self-sacrifice. In 1846, Wil
liam Freeman, a pauperized and idiotic
negro, was at Auburn, N. Y., on trial for
murder. He had slain tho entire Van
Nest family. The foaming wrath of the
community could be kept off him only by
armed constables. Who would volunteer
to be his counsel? No attorney wanted
to sacrifice his popularity by such an un
grateful task. All were silent save one,
a young lawyer with feeble voice, that
could hardly be heard outside the bar,
pale and thin and awkward. It was Wil
liam H. Seward, who saw that the pris
oner was idiotic and irresponsible, and
blight to bo put In an asylum rather than
put to death, the heraU coUnsoLu tiering
IHHBk words; *
“f speak now in the hearing of a peo
ple who have prejudged prisoner and con
demned me for pleading in his behalf. He
Is a cftnvlct, a pauper, a negro, without
intellect, sense, or emotion. My child
with an affectionate smile disarms my
care-worn face of Its frown whenever I
cross my threshold. The beggar in the
street oblige me to give because he Bays,
’God bless you!’ as I pass. My dog ca
resses me with fondness if I will but
smile on him. My horse recognizes me
when I fill his manger. What reward,
what gratitude, what sympathy and af
fection can I expect here? There the pris
oner sits. Look at him. Look at the as
semblage around you. Listen to their Ill
suppressed censures and their excited
fears, and tell me where among my neigh
bors or my fellow-men, where, even In his
heart, I can expect to find a sentiment, a
thought, not to say of reward or of ac
knowledgement, or even of recognition?
Gentleman, you may think of this evi
dence what you please, bring in what ver
dict you can. but I asseverate before heav
en and you, that, to the best of my knowl
edge and belief, the prisoner at the bar
does not at this moment know why it is
that my shadow falls on you instead of
his own.”
The gallows got its victim, but the post
mortem examination of the poor creature
showed to all the surgeons and to all the
world that the public was wrong, that
William H. Seward was right, and that
hard, stony step of obloquy in the Auburn
court room was the first step of the stairs
of fame up which he went to the top, or
to within one step of the top, that last de
nied him through the treachery of Amer
ican politics. Nothing sublimer was ever
seen in an American court room than
William H. Seward, without reward,
standing between the fury of the populace
and the loathsome imbecile. Substitution!
In the realm of the fine arts there was
as remarkable an instance. A brilliant
but hypercrlticixed painter, Joseph Will
iam Turner, was met by u volley of abuse
from all the art galleries of Europe. His
paintings, which have since won the ap
plause of all civilized nations, “The Fifth
Plague of Egypt.” “Fishermen on a Lee
Shore In Squally Weather,” “Calais Pier,”
“The Sun Rising Through Mist,” and
“Dido Building Carthage.” were then tar
gets for critics to shoot at. In defense
of this outrageously abused man. a young
author of twenty-four years, just one year
out of college, came forth with his pen,
and wrote the ablest and most famous
essays on art that the world ever saw, or
ever will Bee—John Ruskin’s "Modern
Painters." For seventeen years this au
thor fought the battles of the maltreated
artist, and after. In poverty and broken
heartedness, the painter had died, and the
public tried to undo their cruelties to
ward him by giving him a big funeral and
burial tn St. Paul’B cathedral, his old
time friend took out of a tin box nine
teen thousand pieces of paper containing
drawings by the old painter, and through
many weary and uncompensated months
assorted and arranged them for public
observation. People say John Ruskin In
his old days is cross; misanthropic, and
morbid. Whatever he may do that he
ought not to do, and whatever he may
sav that he ought not to say between now
and his death, he will leave this world
insolvent as far as it has any capacity rp
pay thia author’s pen for its ehlvalric and
Christian defense of a poor painter’s pen
cil. John Ruskin for William Turner.
Blood for blood. Substitution!
What an exalting principle this which
leads one to suffer for another! Nothing
so kindles enthusiasm or awakens elo
quence, or chimes poetic canto, or moves
nations. The principle Is the dominant
one in our religion—Christ the Martyr.
Christ the Celestial Hero, Christ the De
fended. Christ the Substitute. No new
principle, for it was as old as human na
ture; but now on a grander, wided. high
er. deeper and more world-resounding
scale! The shepherd bey as a charquon
; tw Israel wHh a sling toppled the giaf \ of
Philistine braggadocio in the dust; but
here Is another David who, for all the
armies of churches militant and triumph
ant, hurls the Goliath of perdition into
defeat, the crash of his brazen armor like
an explosion at Hell Gate. Abraham had
at God’s command agreed to sacrifice his
son Isaac, and the same God just in time
had provided a ram of the thicket as\a
substitute; but here is another Isaac
bound to the altar, and no hand arrests
the sharp edges of laceration and death,
and the universe shivers and quakes and
recoils and groans at the horror.
All good men have for centuries been
trying to tell whom this Substitute was
like, and every comparison, inspired and
uninspired, evangelistic, prophetic, apos
tolic and human, falls short, for Christ
was the Great Unlike. Adam a type of
Christ, because he came directly from
God; Noah a type of Christ, because he
delivered his own family from the deluge;
Melchisedec a type of Christ, because he
had no predecessor or successor; Joseph
a type of Christ, because he was cast out
by his brethren; Moses a type of Christ,
because he was a deliverer from bondage;
Samson a type of Christ, because of his
strength to slay the lions and carry off the
iron gates of impossibility; Solomon a
type of Christ, in the affluence of his
dominion; Jonah a type of Christ, because
of the stormy sea In which he threw him
self for the rescue of others; but put to
gether Adam and Noah and Melchisedec
and Joseph and Moses and Joshua and
Samson and Solomon and Jonah, and
they would not make a fragment of a
Christ, a quarter of a Christ, the half of a
Christ, or the millionth part of a Christ.
He foorsook a throne arid sat down on
his own footstool. He came from the top
of glory to the bottom of humiliation, and
changed a circumference seraphic for a
circumference diabolic. Once waited on
by angels, now hissed at by brigands.
From afar and high up he came down;
past meteors swifter than they; by starry
thrones, himself more lustrous; past larg
er worlds to smaller worlds; down stairs
of firmaments, and from cloud to cloud,
and through tree-tops and into the cam
el’s stall, to thrust his shoulder under our
burdens and take the lances of pain
through his vitals, and wrapped himself
in all the agonies which we deserve for
our misdoings, and stood on the splitting
decks of a foundering vessel, amid the
drenching surf of the sea, and passed mid
nights on the mountains amid wild beasts
of prey, and the point where all
earthly and infernal hostilities charged
on him at once with their keen sabers—
our Substitute!
When did attorney ever endure so much
for pauper client, or physician for the
patient in the lazaretto, or mother for the
child in membranous croup, as Christ for*
us, as Christ for you, as Christ for me?
Shall any man or woman or child In this
audience who has ever suffered for an
other find it hard to understand this
Christly suffering for us? Shall those
u hose sympathies have been wrung in be
half of the unfortunate have no apprecia
tion of that one moment which was lifted
out of all the ages of eternity as most
conspicuous, when Christ gathered up all
the sins of those to be redeemed under his
one arm, and. all his sorrows under hiS
Other arm, and said: “I will atone for
these under my right arrn, and will heal
all those t nder arm.
toina" mt with "il iny tglitr-r
--ing shafts, O Eternal Justice! Roll
over me with all thy surges, ye
oceans of sorrow?’’ And the thunder*-
bolts struck him from above, and the seas
of trouble rolled up from beneath, hurri
cane after hurricane and cyclone after
cyclone, and then and there in presence
of heaven and earth and hell, yea, all
worlds witnessing, the price, the bitter
price, the transcendent price, , the awful
price, the glorious .price, the infinite price,
the eternal price, was paid that sets us
free.
That is what Paul means, that is what I
mean, that is what all those who have
ever had their heart changed mean by
"blood.” I glory in this religion of blood!
I am thrilled as I see the suggestive color
in sacramental cup. whether it* be of burn
ished silver set on cloth immaculately
white, or rough-hewn from wood set on
table in log-hut meeting house of the wil
derness. Now, I am thrilled as I see the
altars of ancient sacrifice crimson w*ith
the blood of the slain lamb, and Leviticus
is to me not so much the Old Testament
as the Now. Now I see why the destroy
ing angel passed over Egypt in the night
spared all those houses that had blood
sprinkled on their door-posts. Now I
know what Isaiah means when he speaks
of "one In red apparel coining with dyed
garments from Bozrah;” and whom the
Apocalypse means when it describes a
heavenly chieftain whose “vesture was
dipped in blood;” and what Peter, the
apostle, means when h® speaks of the
’’precious blood that cleanseth from all
sin;” and what tfie old. worn-out, de
crepit missionary Paul means when, in
my text, he cries: “Without shedding of
blood is no remission.” By that blood
you and 1 will be saved—or never saved
at all. Glory be to God that the hill back
of Jerusalem was the battle-field on which
Christ achieved our liberty!
The most exciting and overpowering
day of one summer was the day I spent
on the battlefield of Waterloo. Starting
out with the morning train from Brussels.
Betguim, we arrived in about an hour on
that famous spot. A eon of one xvho was
in the battle, and who had heard from
his father a thousand times the whole
scene recited, accompanied us over the
field. There stood the old Hougomont
Chateau, the walls dented, and scratched,
and broken, and shattered by grape-shot
and cannon ball. There is the well in
which three hundred dying and dead were
pitched. There is the chapel with the
head of the Infant Christ shot off. There
are the gates at which, for many hours.
English and French armies wrestled.
Yonder were the one hundred and sixty
guns of the English and the two hundred
and fifty guns of the French. Yonder the
Hanoverian Hussars fled for the woods.
Yonder was the ravine of Ohain .where
the French cavalry, not knowing there
was a hollow in the ground, rolled over
and down, troop after troop, tumbling into
one awful mass of suffering, hoof of
kicking horses against brow and breast
of captains and colonels and private sol
diers, the human and the beastly groan
kept up until the day alter, all was shov
eled under because of the malodor arising
In that hot month of June.
“There." said our guide, “the Highland
regiments lay down on their faces wait
ing for the moment to spring upon the
foe. In that orchard 2,5X1 men were cut
to pieces. Here stood Wellington with
white lips, and up that knoll rode Mar
shal Ney on his sixth.horse, five having
been shot under him. Here the ranks
of the French broke, and Marshal Ney
with his boot slashed of a sword, and his
hat off. and his face covered with powder
and blood, tried to rally hla troops as he
cried: "Come and see how a marshal cf
France dies on the battlefield.,' From
yonder direction Grouchy was expected
for the French reinforcement, but he
came not. Around those woods Blucher
was looked for to reinforce the English,
and just in time he came up. Yonder is
the field where Napoleon stood, his arm
through the reins of the horse’s bridle,
, dazed and insane, trying to go back. *
SAVANNAH, MONDAY. MARCH 22, 1897.
Scene from a battle that went on from
twenty-five minutes to twelve o’clock, on
the 18th of June, until 4 o’clock, when
the English seemed defeated, and their
commander cried out: “Boys, can you
think of giving way? Repember old Eng
land!” and the tide turned, and at 8
o’clock in the evening the man of des
tiny, who was called by his troops Old
Two Hundred Thousand, turned away
with broken heart, and the fate of cen
turies was decided.
No wonder a great mound has been
reared there, hundreds of feet high— a
mound at the expense of millions of dol
lars and many years in rising, and on the
top is the great Belgian lion of bronze,
and a grand old Hon it Is. But our great
Waterloo was in Palestine. There came
a day w'hen all hell rode up, led by Apoll
yon, and the captain of our salvation
confronted them alone. The rider on the
white horse of the Apocalypse going out
against the black horse cavalry of death,
and the battalions of the demoniac, and
the myrmidons of darkness. From twelve
o’clock at noon to 3 o’clock in the after
noon the greatest battle of the. universe
went on. Eternal destinies were being de
cided. All the arrows of hell pierced our
chieftain, and the battle-axes struck him,
until brow’ and cheek and shoulder and
hand and foot were Incarnadined with
oozing life; but he fought on until he gave
a final stroke and the commander-in-chief
of hell and all his forces fell back in ever
lasting ruin, and the victory is ours. And
on the mound that celebrates the triumph
we plant this day two figures, not In
bronze or iron or sculptured marble, but
two figures of living light, the Lion of
Judah’s tribe and the Lamb that was
slain.
BIG FIRE AT OTTUMWA.
Up to O o’ClocU the Loss Was ¥250.000
and the Fire Was Still Raging.
Ottumwa, la., March 21.—A fire, which
started at 5:30 o’clock this afternoon in
Cullen’s dry goods store, had destroyed
a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of
property at 9 o’clock, and at 11 o’clock to
night is beyond control. A gale is blow
ing and there seems to be but little hope
of saving any of the big brick business
block, in which Cullen’s store is located.
The tire started in the basement, its
origin being unknown, and it baffled the
department from the start. The firemen
could find no fire and were driven back
continually by dense clouds of smoke,
which filled the entire block up stairs and
down, and allowed the flames to eat their
way up and out from the interior of the
building.
Cullen’s dry good store, 350,000, went first,
then Prugh & Co.’s wholesale queensware
and china house, §15,000, while the dry
goods stock of J. G. Meek, $15,000, and W.
J. Donlan & Co., $39,000, will be ruined by
smoke If they escape the flames, which
seems improbable. The block was worth
$50,000 and office tenants in the second
story lost heavily. The Insurance is not
heavy. The Cullen Company had just re
ceived its spring stock and had not yet had
It Insured.
LOCOMOTIVE HOILE" »UILST«i.
i f ?
Two Met* Killed, Fassensrers Unseat
ed and a Frelsfltt Train Fired.
Chicago, 111., March 21.—The engine
drawing the New York and Boston special
on the Lake Shore and Michigan South
ern railroad, which left here at 10:30
o’clock this morning, blew up In the Ea-
yards, a half hour’s run from the
city, and the fireman and engineer were
instantly killed. The dead are:
Alexander Frank, engineer, of Chicago.
E. B. Smith, fireman, of Chicago.
The engine was completely demolished
by the explosion and the baggage car
wrecked.
The train came to a sudden stand still,
and It is probable that had its speed not
been slow every car would have been de
railed. As it was, the passengers were
thrown from their seats and some sus
tained slight bruises.
A line of freight cars on a side
caught fire and the flames did considera
ble damage before they were extinguish
ed.
Another engine was procured from the
Forty-seventh street house, and after a
delay of nearly two hours, the train pull
ed out.
PARKS IN A BAD PREDICAMENT.
Convicted of Murder Tltough Be
lieved to Be Innocent.
Augusta, Ga., March 2L—Congressman
William H. Fleming returned from Wash
ington to-day, in order to go up to Ap
pling to-morrow to attend Columbia su
perior court, where he will appear In be
half cf a new f |al Ed Parks, a negro
boy, who was convicted of the murder
of Mr. Verdery at Harlem last year, Mr.
Fleming does not believe the negro guilty,
but thinks he has been made the scape
goat for others. He succeeded In getting
a new trial for his client, and it is to
represent him in this second trial for his
life that Mr. Fleming goes to Appling.
It has been whispered from time to time
that a Mg sensation is behind it all when
the real story gets to light, but so far the
sensation has been carefully guarded.
Congressman Fleming says he has no in
terest in the matter, except an unwilling
ness to see a negro hanged whom he be
lieves to be absolutely innocent, and with
out fee he is doing what he believes to
be his duty at considerable inconvenience
and expense.
ELECTRIC CARS COLLIDE.
Pamt-ngeM Thrown From Their
Scat® and the Car* Badly Wrecked.
Augusta, Ga.. Maccb 21.—At the corner
of Broad and Kollock streets there is a
turnout from the street electric line for
the Monte Sano cars. This afternoon this
switch was open, and a Summerville car
was coming down Broad street and,a Lake
View car was going up. They met just at
the Kollock street turnout, but as the
route of the Lake View car was straight
up Broad, neither car anticipated trouble
as they approached each other on the pa
rallel double tracks. Instead of going
straight up Broad street, however, the
Lake View car ran into the Kollock street
turnout and went directly across the par
rallel track upon which the Summerville
car was speeding in the opposite direction.
The two cars rushed together with, a
sounding crash which splintered glass,
stove in dashboards and sent the passen
gers tumbling from the seats. Fortunately
nobody was dangerously injured, the most
seriously hurt being an elderly lady who
was riding in the front seat and whose leg
was struck by the dashboard when it was
< i stove in by the collision.
SHIP MANY MONTHS AT SEA.
THE T. F. OAKES 259 DAYS FROM
HONG KONG TO NEW YORK.
Scurvy Breaks Out Among the Crew
and the Captain’s Wife and Two
Mates Finally the Only Ones Able
to Navigate the Vessel—The Wo
man at the "Wheel Eight Hours on
a Stretch Without Food or Driulr.
Started Her Luckless Voyage by
Being Struck by Two Typhoons.
Quarantine, S. 1.. N. Y., March 21.—The
long overdue ship T. F. Oakes, which left
Hong Kong July 4, 259 days ago, with a
general cargo for this port, and which
had been given up as lost, was towed
Into this port this morning by the Brit
ish. tank steamer Kasbek, Capt. Muller,
which picked her up last Thursday in
latitude 38:10, longitude 68:44.
The Kasbek was bound from Philadel
phia for Flume, Austria, with a cargo of
and left the former port on Saturday,
March 13. On the following evening at
11 o’clock the blue lights were seen, and
Capt. Muller ordered the steamer’s course
altered, and bore up for the distress sig
nals. At 1 o’clock she was close along
side the ship and stood by until day
break, when signals were observed flying
from the ship asking that a boat be sent
alongside, as the ship’s crew were so dis
abled as to be unable to man their own
boats. Chief Officer C. P. Holahem and
three seamen at once put off in the Kas
bek’s yawl, and when within speaking
distance heard a tale of suffering and sick
ness from those on board the ship such
as made them shudder. Capt. Reed cf
the Oakes reported that his crew were all
laid up with scurvy and that the pro
visions were well-night exhausted. He
was unable to navigate the ship with the
hands at his command, and begged that
he be at once supplied with fresh food
and vegetables, and to be taken in tow
for the nearest port. The boat returned
to the Kasbek with the message, and
Capt. Muller at once decided to take the
vessel in tow.
The weather, which had been threaten
ing, now became boisterous and a norther
ly gale sprang up. Nevertheless prepara
tions were made to pass a hawser to the
Oakes, at the same time that the boat
loefd of provisions was sent. A manila
hawser was paid out over the Kasbet’s
stern to the yawl, but a tremendous wave
washed it into the propeller, which was
turning slowly at the time and before the
engines could be stopped the screw was
so entangled that It stopped suddenly and
all the power of the engines was not suf
ficient to move it.
An effort was at once made to free the
screw, but as it was so deeply submerged,
and the sea running so high, it was found
♦ ? he Imposßiblp. For eight Mytgg the en
g'neers' staff labored to clear r
and finally disconnected the shaft and
found that by placing a small block of
wood between the couplings the screw
could be made to turn.
By that time the Oakes had drifted out
of sight, and Capt. Muller, despairing of
being’ able to tow her with his disabled
screw, determined at least to find her and
supply her with provisions. All night he
searched the horizon for traces of her,
and at 6 o’clock Tuesday morning she was
again sighted. The sea was boisterous
at the time, but Chief Officer Holsham
agqln volunteered to attempt to board her,
and, as the engineers reported the pro
peller to be working well, it was decided
to send a hawser aboard. Accordingly a
line was dragged by the boat, and after
a deal of hard work tw’o hawsers were
made fast, Mr. Holsham and his boat’s
crew of three doing most of the work.
They found only the second and third
mates able to help them. The provisions
they brought were a Godsend to the
scurvy-stricken survivors, and they be
gan to gather hope that they might live
to see the land. From last Thursday
morning, when the hawser was passed
aboard, until the Sandy Hook bar was
reached at 7 o’clock last evening, no in
cident of importance occurred. The Oakes
was anchored on the bar and again taken
in tow this morning.
Capt. Reed, of the Oakes, when inter
viewed % a< quarantine, on his arrival this
morning, told a story of suffering and pri
vation. The Oakes left Shanghai on May
17 last, and after completing her cargo
at Hong Kong sailed from that port July
4. The crew were apparently in the best
of health, with the exception of Capt.
Reed, who had been ailing for some time,
but who under the careful nursing of his
wife thought himself on the high road to
recovery.
When six days out in the China sea a
terrific typhoon was encountered, lasting
several days, during which the fore and
main topmasts were sprung.
The vessel was obliged to run before
the gale, which had no sooner blown it
self out than it w'as followed by a second
typhoon, which blew with great fury for
twenty-four days. The vessel was now
well out In the North Pacific and so far
off her course that Capt. Reed decided to
shape his course via Cape Horn rather
than by the Cape of Good Hope, hoping
thereby to make better time. The weath
er remained fin< nothing but light airs
and calms were experienced until Cape
Horn was rounded 167 days out.
In the meantime, the Chinese cook had
been taken down with a severe cold and
died on Nov. 11. Afterwards, a seaman
named Thomas King was taken down •with
what appeared to be scurvy and died Dec.
26. In quick succession Thomas Olsen was
taken ill and died Jan. 12.
Thomas Judge, another seaman, was
now taken ill with cancer of the stomach
and later Mate Stephen G. Bunker showed
symptoms of scurvy. The latter died Feb.
4, and was quickly followed by George
King, an old man, who died on the 9th. On
the 17th, Judge succumbed, making in all
six deaths.
One by one, the other sailors were oblig
ed to quit work, until on March 1, nobody
was left except the second and third
mates.
The captain and his wife were nigh ex
hausted, and when a strong northerly
gale sprung up on that day, the brave
woman was obliged to take the wheel for
eight hours without relief, and without
as much as a drink of water she kept the
ship on her course. The provisions were
running short, although a supply bad been
obtained on Jan. 12, from the American
ship Governor Roble, from New York for
Melbourne, when off the Island of Trini
dad, and the crew were left without other
than the barest necessities. A sharp look
out was kept for passing vessels, but
nothing was seen until the Kasbek hove in
Bight. The only vessel sighted during the
entire voyage, with the exception of the
ship Governor Robie, was a north-bound
Lamport and Holt steamer, which passed
.the Oakes off! Pernambuco, but was too
far off to distinguish signals. For the
past twenty days, the Oakes encountered
a succession of north and northwest gales
with high turbulent seas.
On her arrival at quarantine, the vessel
was visited by the health officer and plac
ed In strict quarantine. It is probable
she will be released to-morrow after a
thorough disinfection, which was decided
upon by the health officer, owing to the
fact that Hong Kong was an infected
port.
Health Officer Doty this afternoon re
moved the scurvy-stricken crew of the
ship, thirteen in number, to the United
States hospital at Stapleton, S. 1., where
they will receive prompt medical treat
ment.
The Oakes, on March 13, was reinsured
at 90 guineas premium.
Mrs. Reed, the wife of Capt. Edward
W. Reed, of the ship T. F. Oakes, is a
woman of great pluck and endurance. She
was born in New Hampshire about fifty
years ago, and is a direct descendant of
Mollie Stark, wife of Gen. Stark of revo
lutionary fame. For the last fourteen
years she has accompanied her husband
on all his voyages, having been nine years
with him in the T. F. Oakes. On March
1, during a moderate northerly gale, Mrs.
Reed went on deck before breakfast. The
man at the wheel asked her to take the
wheel for a few minutes and she did so.
The man left and did not return, and for
eight hours she stood at her post and
kept the vessel on her course without re
lief and without food or drink. At that
time there were only four men able to
work besides the captain. These were the
second and third mates, the Chinese stew
ard and the Chinese cabin boy. Mrs. Reed
labored day and night to amelloriate the
condition of the stricken sailors, and,
although the fresh provisions were run
out, she made broths and gruels of corn
meal and oat meal for them, often mak
ing as much as five gallons a day. The
men begged for meat, but there was noth
ing but “salt horse,” which would have
aggravated the scurvy.
Capt. Edward W. Reed was born in
Pottsville, Pa.,1836. He first went to sea as
an apprentice in 1853 aboard the clipper
ship Decatur and gradually worked his
way up. He has been for nine years In
command of the Oakes.
UNCLE SAM IN CRETE.
Attempts to Board American Ships
Might Be Resented.
Washington, March 21.—The representa
tives in Washington of the six powers,
signatory to the Berlin treaty, Great
Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria-
Hungary and Russia, have in concert, no
tified this government of the blockade of
Crete, the respective notes having been
delivered to Secretary feherman to-day.
They were almost identical and consist
ed of a mere formal announcement of a
blockade to Cretan ports against ships
under the Greek flag commencing at 9
o’clock this morning. Merchant vessels of
neutral powers, including those of the
United States and of the treaty powers,
while subject to overhauling by the block
art hg the concerting fleets, are
not to be in their ordinary com-
mercial occupations if they carry no mer
chandise intended for use of the Greeks
or insurgents on the Island.
It Is a question whether this government
will give its assent to this form of block
ade, which Involves a grave departure
in international law, and would establish
a precedent abolishing rights that the
United States might not desire to surren
der. There is little or no likelihood of an
American vessel attempting to run the
Cretan blockade, for the stars and stripes
on merchant vessels in the Mediterranean
is practically unknown.
An indication of this is given in the
records of the Suez canal, the American
flag having passed that highway only
three times in 1895, on two private yachts
and man-of-war, while in 1896 not a sin
gle vessel showed our flag in the canal.
This year the passage of the cruiser De
troit, early next month, will probably be
the only occasion for showing the Amer
ican colors in the Red sea. Around Crete
an American ship Is rarer than at Suez.
Nevertheless, if the United States should
tacitly consent to being kept out of Crete,
where there is no proclaimed condition of
war, any more than there Is in Cuba at
the present time, such action, It is antici
pated by those familiar with interna
tional precedents, may establish an un
toward precedent in relation to countries
where American commerce Is unmeasur
ably more important and where American
merchant flags are more numerous.
GREEKS FIRKf ON TURKS.
Narrow Escape From n Pitched Bat
tle at Pranianda.
Athens, March 21.—1 t Is stated here that
the powers are seriously discussing the
question of nominating Prince George of
Greece for governor of Crete.
A number of Greek sharpshooters at
Pramanda, on the frontier, fired upon
some Turkish soldiers who were on their
own territory. The Turks were deeply an
gered, and it was only with the greatest
difficulty that the’r officers prevented a
conflict. The Greeks were equally desir
ous with the Turks for the opening of hos
tilities and it was hard to hold them In
check. The advices reporting the inci
dent do not state when it occurred. ,
Canea. March 20..—According to the pro
clamation issued by the foreign admirals,
the blockade of Crete began at 8 o’clock
this morning. It is apparent that the
blockade is directed solely against the
Christians in the Interior, and that the
Moslems will suffer little inconvenience
from tho action of the six great Christian
nations of Europe. It appears that the
object of the blockading squadron is to
prevent the landing of supplies of food,
clothing, et., destined for the starving
Christians In the interior, while the Mus
sulmans who have flocked to the coast
towns are allowed to land whatever they
want.
The few Christians remaining here find
it difficult to understand the motives that
are prompting the powers to exert their
energies to crush the Christian population
of the island, while the Moslems are given
a free hand to do about as they please.
About the only hope of the Christians
outside the coast towns is in Greek block
ade runners, who will not hesitate to run
through the cordon of foreign warships
around the island.”
There was an exchange of shots yester
day between insurgents and Moslem vol
unteers in the vicinity of Suda Bay. The
Turkish warships in the bay bombarded
the Insurgents, but the result is not
known. A number of foreign warships
were in the bay, but the ytook no part in
the firing. * J
( WEEKLY 2-TIMES-A-WEEK $1 A YEAH 1 ATO
J 5 CENTS A COPY. I IN V?.
| DAILY, $lO A YEAR. f
MONDAYS
-AND
THURSDAYS
WALL OF RUSHING WATER.
THE FLOOD STILL BITTERIXO
DOWJf THE LEVEES.
They Go AH to Pieces From Osceola,
Ark., to a Point 15 Miles South;
and St. Francis Basin Transformed
Into an Immense Lake—Cairo, 111.,
the Only Point Reporting a Cessa
tion in the Rise of the Water—Dis
heartening Intelligence From lhe
lowa and Dakota Valleys of th«
River.
St. Louis, Mo., March 21.—The latest ad
vices from the flood country south of hero
state that the situation is hourly grow
ing worse. Walls of water have beaten
down the levees at many points and dwell
ers are at the mercy of the floods.
Out of thirty-eight telegrams received!
here from the lower river, but one records
a cessation of the rise. This was from Cai
ro, 111., but the halt of the flood to-day,due
to the breaks in the levees adjacent in
Kentucky and Missouri.
The most disheartening intelligencet
comes from the lowa and Dakota valleys
of the Missouri river. Warm weather has
turned the snow to water, which is added
to the already overflowed streams. World
on levee barriers is practically abandoned
in Arkansas and Mississippi as useless.
At Chicot, Ark., a barge load of sand
bags was dumped into a levee break.
They only served to widen the breach.
This is the experience at other points and
work on the outer barriers is abandoned,
and every hand turned to save the innei?
levees.
A dispatch from Ripley, Tenn., saya
there is a strong current through Reel
Foot lake and the Old River bayou. It
is feared the river will take its old chan
nel through the lake, which was shifted
twenty miles west by the earthquake o£
1812.
South of Helena, Ark., the levee breaks
are most numerous and the damage great
est. The five steamers employed by tha
Memphis relief committee were re-in
forced to-day by two government boats
towing barges. These steamers pick their
way through the tree tops. The C. B.
Bryan steamed due west from Memphis,
thirty-eight miles, and returned' with 139
people and a barge load of livestock.
At Austin, Miss., forty miles below
Memphis, but two houses on dry
land. From these twenty-four people,
were rescued.
Relief work is now occupying more at
tention than endeavors to fight the flood,
with levees. A relief committee was or
ganized in Little Rock, Ark., yesterday.
Memphis continues to save life and prop
erty unaided by the government of Ar
kansas.
Last night Maj. Ambury, in charge oC
the river and harbor work at St. Louis,
received a telegram from Secretary
directing/bn hoin qnd JKSSII 6 bo
qi once indertakeA' ly --ftip U'L ;d fliatca
fleet In this vicinity. 4
■The Merchants’ exchange took up the
rescue work yesterday. A wholesale shoe
merchant received this appeal from a cus
tomer at Osceola, Ark: “Our entire coun
try In great distress from overflow. Wa
need help badly. Start subscription at
once.” %
Another establishment received the fol
lowing from the Mayor of Osceola; “Gen
tlemen: At the request of our citizens, I
write for the assistance of our people. We
are in the flood; our people are suffering,,
and we must have help. Send us soma
money. (Signed.) J. W. Borum, Mayor.”
Gov. Jones of Arkansas yesterday sent a
company of militia to guard the levees of
Desha county, as there were fears that
Mississippi men might try to save their
homes by cutting the levee on the Arkan
sas side.
Unconfirmed rumors of great loss of life
are met at every hand, but the death roll
cannot even be approximated till the flood
sudsides. The situation is indeed gloomy;
with small prospects of immediate better
ment.
Memphis, Tenn., March 21.—The leveetf
for a stretch of fifteen miles from andl
south of Osceola, Ark., went all to pieces
to-day. There were some twelve or fif
teen breaks, in extent from 200 to 1,009
yards, and the water from the over bur
dened river is sweeping over the St-
Francis basin to return to the river just
above Helena. Breaks are expected at
Luxora on the same side, but above Os
ceola. Most of the women and children
had already left Osceola, only the men,
remaining to strengthen and guard the le
vees. These were to-day taken across tha
river to the Tennessee side, which la se
cure by reason of a tall bluff. Below,
also on the Arkansas side, there is a
break at Modoc. Along the Mississippi
front every levee is reported intact and
in no immediate danger. Engineers here
are rather dubious, however, about their
holding out, although every material
break on the opposite side is a relief to
just that extent.
The acres of farming lands submerged
through the breaks already occurred ag
gregate well up in the thousands. No
drownings were reported to-day.
line river fell one-tenth of a foot to-day.
FEATHER-WEIGHT FLOORED.
He Tried to Fight a Heavy-Weight
15 Rounds.
Hot Springs, Ark., March 21.—Billy Lay
ton, middleweight, knocked out Johnny
Van Heest, featherweight, in eight
rounds last night at Whitington park.
The’ knockout came unexpectedly, whan
the midget seemed strong and was giv
ing his big antagonist hard work to get
away from his vicious swings.
Layton, with twenty pounds the better
of the weight, played with Van Heest
all the way, and did not start to finish his
man until the seventh round. In the
eighth Van Heest swung with his right
and slipped down. He arose wild and
Layton smashed in a straight left and
turned his man over with a right swing
on the jaw, putting Van Heest out for
half a minute.
The fight was for SSOO a side. Van Heest
agreeing to stay fifteen rounds for the
money.
SCOTT* COMING HOME.
He Was Arrested For Having Caban
Postage Stamps In His Possession.
Havana, March 21.—Charles Scott, the
American, who was arrested on Feb. S,
on the charge of having Cuban postage
stamps in his possession, was released to
day, the court having dismissed the case
against him. lie will leave for the Unit
ed States on the steamer sailing Wednes
’ day.