The morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, May 23, 1887, Image 1
{ ESTABLISHED I*so. )
'i if. H. KBTILL, Editor and Proprietor. )
STEAMERS IN COLLISION.
STEAMSHIPS BRITANNIC AND CEL
TIC COLLIDE IN MID-OCEAN.
During a Dense Fog the Celtic Dashes
Into the Britannic, Causing Great
Damage Several Steerage Passen
gers Reported Killed and Wounded—
Cowardly Conduct of the Firemen.
New York, May 22. —Thursday, May 19,
at 5:25 o’clock iu the afternoon, while the
weather was calm and the sea smooth,
with a dense fog, the steamer Celtic, of the
White Star Line, from Liverpool, came
into collision with the steamer Britannic, of
the same line, from New York for Liver
pool, striking her on the port side aft and
doing considerable damage. The Britannic’s
boats were lowered and filled with the
women and children from the cabin and
steerage iu a very orderly and expeditious
mannner.
PUSILLANIMOUS CONDUCT.
It is to their shame that several of the
men forced themselves into the boats also.
Meanwhile, an examination was
madeaiul the damage to the
Britannic ascertained, and it being
found that the vessel was not likely to foun
der, such boats as wero within hail were re
called and their occupants received on board.
Others, however, had already boarded the
Celtic. A pad was made and placed over
the hole iu the Britannic’s ride, and she was
turned about towards New York, having
arranged with the Celtic to keep in com
pany.
SEVERAL STEERAGE PASSENGERS KILLED
AND WOUNDED.
The saddest result of the accident is that
leveral of the steerage passengers, who were
lounging about aft at the time of the col
lision, were killed and several others in
jured. Both vessels were accompanied by
the steamships Marengo, from Swansea
for New York, and the British
Queen, from Liverpool for
New York. They arrived at the bar at 1
o'clock this morning.
REFUSES FURTIIER INFORMATION.
The above report is from the purser of
the Britannic, who refused any further in
formation. Both of the steamers are an
chored off the bar, being detained by the
fog.
CONFLICTING REPORTS.
One report says that one man and three
women were killed, while another says the
victims were one woman, a child aged 13
and five men.
FURTHER PARTICULARS.
It is now said that James Trowbridge and
three female steerage passengers were in
stantly killed in the collision. There were
many affecting scenes on the dock when the
passengers arrived up to-night. Fathers,
mothers, sisters, relatives and friends met
and hugged and kissed each other
with the greatest possible affec
tion. The steerage and cabin passen
gers mingled in one common throng,
and while the friends of both were taken
away to their homes, there were over fifty
poor women and children with a few men
who had escaped with just what they stood
up in. Some even had not a full complement
oi wearing apparel, and one poor woman
had to take off one of her skirts to cover her
babe with.
DASTARDLY CONDUCT OF THE FIREMEN.
The scene, when several of the firemen
rushed for the boats,was described bv a lady
passenger with a great deal of emotion. She
said the firemen, nine of them, jumped into
the boat and were ordered back by the Cap
tain. Mrs. Brown says she did not see the
Captain present a pistol, but she knows
that he said he would kill any man who at
tempted to get in that boat again or any
other until the women wero saved. They
were then taken on board the Celtic. The
accident occurred about 5:30 in the after
noon. There was no sea on at
the time, but the ground swell
was heavy, and a jump from
the deck would have lauded one in the
water, as the boats were bobbing up and
down at a great rate. Eight or ten people
were injured by the iron work as it fell or
tho wood work as it was crushed in board.
DANGEROUSLY INJURED.
Four of these were too dangerously
wounded to be takou care of on the steamer
after it arrived outside the bar to-day, and
were brought on tho steamer Fletcher to
1 incent Hospital. They were a boy, George
Robinson, and Patrick Burke, aged 47, of
Wilkesbarre, Pa., who was taking his wife
on a visit to Ireland; A. M. Lawler,
aged 05. who was on his
way from St. Louis to Ireland,
and a young woman named Rose Kelly.
Eurke has his ribs fractured and suffered
severe internal injuries, and Lawler’s hip
was dislocated, his ribs fractured, and he
is suffering greatly from the shock. These
men are in a critical condition. Hose Kelly
"as injured about the back and legs.
WERE BODIES THROWN OVERBOARD?
The steerage passengers state that the
known killed included three men, a woman
and the girl. But they added their belief
that two or three others whom t hey had not
iy'di since the collision might lie among the
dead and were thrown overboard, as they
twy bodies were thrown over during the
night
A PILOT DESCRIBES THE ACCIDENT.
Charles Richardsoiij a man who has had
some practical experience as a St. George
channel pilot, described what ho saw of the
accident as follows: “It was Thursday
night about 5 o’clock and wo were about :KM)
Jmlos out, I should judge. I heard a shout
that the Celtic was heading in to us. I stood
°n the starboard side aft the
mizzenmast and ran to the port ride round
the deck house. The Celtic, as the vessel
subsequently proved to bo, wus coming dead
ahead full on one beam. I said ‘sure she’ll
strike us;’ and I saw her trying to veor off,
nut she was too close.
THOUGHT THEY WOULD PASS FREE.
''" hen I first saw her the Celtic was about
’ yards away. It was foggy and I think
we were both going under half steam. I
thought when I saw her veer that she
just miss us, and the Captain of tho
Celtic wofi going to shake hands wit h our
captain off tho bridge as the Celtic
passed alongside, but when I saw he
could not, miss us I jumped forward before
lac mainmast on the port side to avoid lieing
tli h >’ tailing timbers or rigging.
Si t e w Celtic crashed into our boat
just forward of tho mizzenmast.
A THRILLING EXPERIENCE.
As she scraped our side with her nose on
ur deck j could fed the shock and hear
ie heads of the bolts ily off one after
another like the rattle of a light field bat
inV lotion. 1 went below to look after n
Hi. ", WHS under my care, and saw that
♦[:* * !( Je of the vessel was torn away. As
** Celtic scraped along our side the fierths,
i l j lo People in them, wero pushed along,
10 People were crushed to pulp,
on t ’’Ulticient human remains in a heap
V' *to make about five bodies. It was
„ ‘ f*™*!**® ight, and I hopo never to wit
c* j ogain. Han not the Celtic
n er course about two points she
e crashed into us plumb on our
ts k ” vnizzeu and jigger rigging and
we bulwarks were carried away. Nothing
ut our water-tight bulkheads saved us.”
9
UNJUST TREATMENT.
Indian Traders Present a Long List of
Grievances.
Washington, May 22.—Senator Platt,
Chairman of the Senate Select Committee,
directed to investigate certain allegations
with respect to the appointments of Indian
tradesmen, has returned from the West,
whither t-lie sub-committee went a fortnight
ago to take testimony. The witnesses to be
examined had been subpoenaed to appear at
Arkansas City, a town on the southern bor
der of Kansas, and they came for the most
part from the Indian Territory.
REMOVALS TOO SUMMARY.
The complaints of the traders, who were
sharply and ably cross-examined by Senator
Blackburn, are to the effect that they wore
summarily removed upon no substantial
pretext, except that they were Republicans,
and that personal, and political friends or
the people now in high authority were given
their places. The statements of the
traders showed that they had an
average of $20,000 each invested
in their business. Much, sometimes
all of their investment, was swept away by
these changes, and men in middle and in
old age, who had thought themselves pros
perous and well provided for, were reduced
at once to bankruptcy. The Indians receive
an annuity and lease money, and are
periodically in funds for a few days at a
time; at all other seasons they are in debt to
the traders, who usually have one-half
or three-quarters of their investments out
standing.
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND.
Tho Indians pay their debts promptly
enough to traders who remain in the busi
ness and who can continue to trust them,
but one whose doors are closed, or who, as
in some cases, is peremptorily ordered away
from the Territory, has no chance of re
covering more than a small fraction of his
dues. Whatever may be the verdict with
regard to the blame-worthiness of the ap
pointing power, in respect to these things as
developed, Senator Platt thinks the commit
tee will be a unit in the opinion that the
power of arbitrary interference in the pure
ly business affairs of private citizens,
or making or breaking for
tunes of worthy men, calls loudly
for reform, and that whatever may lie the
divergence of their views respecting the
civil service reform in general, the Indian
traderships ought not (as evidence shows
they were not under former administrations)
to be disposed of as the rewards of political
service. After completing the taking of
the testimony at Arkansas City, the com
mittee proceeded by wagon into the Indian
Territory.
BOUNTIFULLY PROVIDED FOR.
Almost directly south of Arkansas City
lies the Kaw reservation, consisting of more
than 120,000 acres of as fine laud as can bo
found in the West, which is the sole prop
erty of a tribal remnant, numbering exactly
197 individuals, counting women and chil
dren. These people are worthless beggars,
upon whom the best efforts of philanthropy
are lavished in vain. The committee rode
twenty or twenty-five miles across this res
ervation without discovering a single sign of
inhabitancy, except the wire fences or the
cattle men and the buildings at the agency.
MORE OF UNCLE SAM’S WARDS.
Coming into the Osage country they found
1,500,000 acres reserved for about 1,500 peo
ple, two-thirds of which number are lull
bloods, as uncultured and worthless as their
ancestors of a century ago. These people
are, per capita, perhaps the wealthiest on
the globe. If their trust fund and their
lands were divided among them every man,
woman and child would possess a fortune of
about $12,000.
ARISTOCRATIC RED MEN.
A few of them have taken to farming,
but this development is not all that might
lie gathered from the bare statement. They
toil not with their hands, but employ white
men to do it for them. Fastidious aristo
crats are daily seen coming to the agency in
their gaudy blankets to purchase supplies.
For their own consumption they select the
most delicate viands, and will take nothing
else, but for their white laborers they buy
cheaper and coarser goods. The committee
came back filled with the conviction that
our national Indian policy is not accom
plishing all that was expected of it.
SPOILED BY KINDNESS.
In their contact with experienced men,
traders, agents and the employes they found
it to be the almost universal opinion that
to feed and cloth the savages and guard
them tenderly against all influences and ne
cessities which have served to civilize white
non is not calculated to make them good
citizens, in which opinion Senator Platt con
fesses a deposition to concur. The Indians
had, indeed, ceased to be dangerous as sav
ages, but only to become the most despicable
of all worthless idlers.
A BASE FRAUD.
The So-Called Irish Memoir Declared a
Criminal Canard.
London, May 22.— A telegram from
Rome says a summary of tho so-called me
moir on the Irish question has readied Rome.
A second inquiry at the Irish College elicit
ed another indignant denial of any knowl
edge of any such document, which is de
clared to be a malicious and stupid inven
tion, devoid of the least probability. The
glaring absurdity of the alleged memoir and
the ignorance it displays are evident to
every person who considers the nature and
origin of the Irish College, so that the opin
ion is general that it could not have
come from Rome. “It is an outrage that
such canards as this can only occur in the
condition of affairs when men lose tbeir
honor and journals sacrifice decency in
order to gain party ends. The. prospects
must be hopeless indeed when recourse is
had to such criminal and unworthy means.”
STEAMER WRECKED.
Tho Thistle Loses Her Bowsprit, But
Rescues Three Sailors.
London, May 22.—The new racing yacht
Thistle lost her bowsprit and was otherwise
damaged in her run from Clyde to Cowes
during the gale on Friday. While on this
trip the Thistle rescued three men in a life
boat belonging to tho steamer Hark away,
which hail foundered. Sixteen lives were
lost when the steamer went down. The life
boat originally carried six persons, throe of
whom succumbed to their great privation.
TELEPHONE INTERESTS.
Decision of the Supremo Court Ex
pected to Favor tho Bell Company.
Washington, May 22.—The United
States Supreme Court is expected to an
nounce its decision in tho great telephone
case to-morrow. No extraordinary efforts
havo been made to ascertain in advance
what the decision would be, because it lias
boon generally understood among the lawyers
interested that it would lie generally in
favor of the Bell Telephone Company.
A Vicious Hors® Kills His Keeper.
Winchester, Va., May 22. — Clydesdale,
a horse belonging to Thomas Nelson, in
Clarke county, killed his keeper, Mohlon
Hodmen, yesterday afternoon. He crushed
his arm, knocked him down and trampled
on him. This is the mmmi the annual
has killed. 'mßWtMrt.
SAVANNAH, GA., MONDAY, MAY 23, 1887.
THE NAVY’S VETERANS.
REV. TALMAGE ON REMEMBERING
SEAMEN AT DECORATION TIME.
Why Honors Should be Heaped Upon
the Graves of Those Who Go Down to
the Sea in Ships—The Sailor’s Useful
ness in Peaceful Commerce and in
“War’s Rude Alarums.”
Brooklyn, May 22.— As this is tho time
for tho decoration of the graves of those
who fell iu tho war, the naval posts invited
the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D., to
preach a sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle
appropriate to the occasion, as, often in the
annual commemoration, but little had been
said of those who served in tho navy. An
American flag adorned the pulpit, and tho
congregation sang with great spirit: •
My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty.
Dr. Tahnage’s text was from James iii, 4:
“Behold also the ships.” He said:
If this exclamation was appropriate about
1,860 years ago, when it was written con
cerning tho crude fishing smacks that sailed
Lake Galilee, how much more appropriate
in an age which has launched from the dry
docks for purposes of peace—the Arizona of
the Guion Line, tho City of Richmond of
the Inman Line, the Egypt of the National
Line, the Germanic of the White Star Line,
the Circassia of the Anchor Line, the
Etruria of the Cunard Line, and the Great
Eastern, with hull six hundred and eighty
feet long—not a failure, for it helped lay
the Atlantic cable, and that was enough
glory for one ship’s existence—and in an age
which for purposes of war hns launched the
screw-sloops like the Idaho, the Shenan
doah, the Ossippee, and our ironclads like
the Kalamazoo, the Roanoke and the Dun
derberg, mid those which have already been
buried in the deep like the Monitor,
the Housatonic, the Weehawkeu and
the Teeumseh, the tempests ever
since sounding a volley over their watery
sepulchres, and tho scarred veterans of war
shipping like the Constitution, or the Alli
ance, or tho Constellation that have swung
into the naval yards to spend their last days,
their decks now all silent of the feet that
trod them, their rigging all silent of the
hands that clung to them, their portholes
silent of the brazen throats that once thun
dered out of them. If in the first century,
when war vessels were dependent on the oars
that paddled at the side of them for propul
sion, my text was suggestive, with how much
more emphasis, and meaning, and over
whelming reminiscence we can cry out, as
we see the Kearsarge lay across the bows of
the Alabama and sink it, teaching foreign
nations they had better keep their hands off
our American light, or as wo see
the rain Albemarle, of the Con
federates, running out and in
the Roanoke, and up and down the coast,
throwing everything into confusion as
no other craft ever did, pursued by the
Miami, the C*es, the Southfield, the Sassa
cus, the Mattabesett, the Whitehead, the
Commodore Hull, the Louisiana, the Minne
sota and other armed vessels ali trying in
vain to catch her until Captain Cushing,
twenty-one years of age, and his men blew
her up, himself and only one other escaping,
and as I see the flagship Hartford, and the
Richmond, and tne Monongahela, with
other gunboats, sweep past the batteries of
Port Hudson, and the Mississippi flows for
ever free to all Northern and Southern
craft, I cry out with a patriotic emotion
that I cannot suppress, if I would, and
would not if I could: “Behold also the
ships.”
At the annual decoration of graves, North
and South, among Federate and Confeder
ates, full justice has been done to the memo
ry of those who fought on the land in our
sad contest, but not enough has been said of
those who on ship’s deck dared and suffered
all things. Lord God of the rivers and the
sea, help me in this sermon! So, ye ad
mirals, commodores, commanders, captains,
pilots, gunners, boatswains, sailmakers.
surgeons, stokers, messmates and seamen or
all names, to use your own parlance, we
might as well get under way and stand out
towards sea. Let all land lubbers go
ashore. Full speed now! Four bells!
Never since the sea fight of Lepanto.
where three hundred royal galleys, manned
by fifty thousand warriors, at sunrise, Sept.
6, 1571, rrfet two hundred and fifty royal
galleys manned by one hundred and twenty
thousand men, and in the four hours of
battle eight thousand fell on one side and
twenty-five .thousand on the other; yea,
never since the day when at Actium, thirty
one years before Christ, Augustus with two
hundred and sixty ships scattered the two
hundred and twenty ships of Mark Antony
and gained universal dominion as the prize;
yea, since the day at Salamis the twelve
hundred galleys of the Persians, manned by
five hundred thousand men, were crushed
by Greeks with less than a third of that
force; yea, never since the time of Noah,
the first ship captain, has the world
seen such a miraculous creation as
that of the American navy in 1861.
There were about two hundred available
seamen in all the naval stations and re
ceiving ships, and here and there an old
vessel. Yet orders were given to blockade
thirty-five hundred miles of sea coast,
greater than the whole coast of Europe, and,
beside that, the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumber
land, Mississippi and other great rivers, cov
ering an extent of t wo thousand more miles,
were to lie patrolled. No wonder tho whole
civilized world burst into guffaw of laugh
ter at the seeming impossibility. But the
work was done, done almost, immediately,
done thoroughly, and done with a speed and
consummate skill that eclipsed all the his
tory of naval architecture. What brilliant
achievements are suggested by tho mere
mention of the names of the rear admirals.
If all they did should be written, every one.
1 suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books that should be writ
ten. But these names liave received tho
honors due. The most of them went to their
graves under the cannonade of all the foils,
navy yards and meriof-war, the flags of all
the shipping and capitals at half mast.
But I recite to-day trie doeds of our naval
heroes who have not yet received appropri
ate recognition. “Behold also the ships.”
As we will never know what our nntionnl
prosperity is worth until we realize what it
cost, I re-call the unrecited fact that the men
of the navy ran especial risks. They had
not only the human weaponry to contend
with, but the tides, the fog, the storm. Not
like other sliqis could they run into harbog
at the approach of an equinox, or a cyclone,
or a hurricane, because tho harbors wero
hostile. A miscalculation of a tide might
leave them on a bar, and a fog might over
throw nil the plans of wisest commodore
and admiral, and accident might leave them,
not on the land ready for an ambulance, but
at tho bottom of the sen, as when the torpedo
blew up the Teeumseh iu Mobile bay, and
nearly all on Lined perished. They were at
tile mercy of the Atlantic anil Pacific
oceans, which have no mercy. Much trnii
jieste as wri eked the Spanish Armada might
any day swoop upon tho squadron. No
hiding behind the earthworks. No digging
in of cavalry spurs at the sound of retreat.
Mightier than all the fortresses on ail the
coasts is the oc-ean whan it bombards a
flotilla. In the cemeteries for Federal and
Confederate dead are the bodies of most of
those who fell on the land. But where
those are who went down in the war vessels
will not be known until the sea gives up its
: dead. The jack tars knew that, while loving
arms might carry the men who fell on the
land and bury them with solemn liturgy,
and the honors of war, for the bodies of
those who dropped from the ratlines into
the sea or went (town with all on board un
der the stroke of a gunboat there remained
< the shark and the whale and the endless
tossing of the sea which cannot rest. How
will you find their graves for this national
decoration? Nothing but tho archangel’s
trumpet shall reach their lowly bed. A few
of them have been gathered into naval
cemeteries of the land and you will garland
the sod that covers them, but who will put
flowers on the fallen crew of the exploded
Westfield and Sliawsheen, and the sunken
Houthfield, and tho Winfield Scott. Bullets
threatening in front, bombs threatening
from above, torpedoes threatening from be
neath and tiio ocean with its reputation of
six thousand years for shipwreck lying all
around, am I not right in saying it required
a special courage for the navy?
It looks picturesque and beautiful to see
a war vessel going out through the Nar
row's, sailors in new rig singing:
“ A life on the ocean wave,
A home on the rolling deep 1”
the colors gracefully dipping to passing
ships, the docks immaculately clean, and
the guns at Quarantine firing a parting
salute. But the poetry is all gone out or
that ship as it comes out of that engage
ment, its decks red with human blood,
wheeihouso gone, the cabins a pile of shat
tered mirrors and destroyed furniture, steer
ing wheel broken, smoke-stack crushed, a
hundred-pound Whitworth rifle shot having
left its mark from port to starboard, the
shrouds rent away, ladders splintered and
decks ploughed up, and smoke-blackened
and scalded corpses lying ainoug those who
are gasping their last gasp far away from
home and kindred, whom they love as much
as we love wife and parents and children.
Not waiting until you ore deud to put upon
your graves a wreutb of recognition, this
hour we put on your living brow the gar
land of a nation’s praise.
O, men of the Western Gulf squadron, of
the Enstern Gulf squadron, of the South
Atlantic squadron, of the North Atlantic
squadron, of the Mississippi squadron, of
the Pacific squadron, of the West India
squadron, and of tho Potomac flotilla, hear
our thanks! Take the benediction of our
churches. Accept the hospitalities of the
nation. If we had our way we would get
you not only a pension but a home and a
princely wardrobe, and mi equipage and a
banquet whilo you live, and after your de
parture a catafalque and a mausoleum of
sculptured marble, with a model of the ship
in which you won the day. It is con
sidered a ' gallant thing when in a
naval fight the flagship with
its blue ensign goes ahead
up a river or into a bay, its admiral stand
ing in the shrouds watching and giving
orders. But I have to tell you, O veterans
of the American navy 1 if you are as loyal to
Christ as you wero to the government, there
is a flagship sailing ahead of you of which
Christ is the admiral, and He watches from
the shrouds, and tho heavens are the blue
ensign, and Ho leads vou towards the har
bor, and all the broadsides 6t earth and hell
cannot damage you, and ye, whose gar
ments were once red with your own blood
shall have a robe washed mid made white in
tho blood of the Lamb. Then striko eight
bells! High noon in Heaven!
With such anticipation, O veterans of the
American navy 1 I charge you to bear up
under the aches and weaknesses that you
still carry from the war times. You are not
as stalwart as you would have been but for
that nervous strain and for that terrific ex
posure. Let every acne and pain, instead of
depressing, remind you of your fidelity.
The sinking of the Weehawkeu off Morris
Island, Dec. 6, 1863, was a mystery.
She was not under fire. The sea was not
rough. But Admiral Dahlgren, from the
dock of the flag steamer Philadelphia, saw
her gradually sinking, and finally she
struck the ground, but the flag still floated
above the wave in tho sight of the shipping.
It was afterwards found that she sank from
weakness throagli injuries in previous ser
vice. Here plates had been knocked loose
in previous times. So you have in nerve,
and muscle, and bone, mid dimmed eye
sight, and difficult hearing, mid shortness of
breath, many intimations that you are grad
ually going down. It is the service of
t wonty-three years ago that is tolling on you.
Be of good cheer. Wo owe you just as
much as though your life-blood hail gurgled
through the scuppers of the ship in the Red
river expedition, tor as though you had gone
down with the Melville off Hatteros. Only
keep your flag flying as did the illustrious
Weehawken.
Good cheer, my boys! The memory of
man is poor and all that talk about the
country never forgetting those who fought
for it is an untruth. It does forget. Wit
ness how the veterans sometimes had to
turn the hand-organs on the street to get
their families a living. Witness how mth
lessly some of them have been turned out of
office that some bloat of a politician might
take their place. Witness the fact that there
is not a man or woman now under thirty
years of age who has any full appreciation
of tho four years’ martyrdom of 1861 to 1865
Inclusive. But whilo men may forget, God
never forgets. He remembers the swinging
hammock. Ho remembers the forecastle.
He remembers the frozen ropes of that Jan
uary tempest. He remembers the amputation
without sufficient ether. He rememliers tho
horrors of that deafening night when forts
from Isitli sides belched on you their fury
and the heavens glowed with the ascending
und descending missiles of death, and your
ship quaked under the recoil of the one
hundred pounder, while all the gunners, ac
cording to command, stood on tiptoe with
mouth wide open lest the concussion shatter
hearing or brain. He remembers it all bet
ter tiian you remember it, and in some shape
reward will be given. God is the best of
all paymasters, and for those who do their
whole duty to Him and the world the pen
sion awarded is an everlasting heaven.
Sometimes off the coast of England the
royal family have inspected the British
navy manoeuvred liefore them for that pur
pose. Iu tho Baltic Sea the Czar and
Czarina have reviewed the Hussion navy.
To bring before the American people tne
debt thoy owe to the navy I go out with you
on the Atlantic Ocean where there is plenty
of room, and in imagination review the
war-shipping of our three grent conflicts—
-1776, 1812 and 1865. Swing into line all ye
frigates, ironclads, fire-rafts, gunlaiats and
men-of-war 1 There they come, all sail set
and all furnaces in full blast, sheaves of
crystal tossing from their cutting prows.
That is tiie Delaware, an old Revolutionary
craft, commanded by Commodore Decatur.
Yonder goes the Constitution, Commodore
Hull commanding. There is tho Chesapeake,
commanded by Captain Lawrence, whose
dying words wore: “Don’t give up the ship;”
and the Niagara, of 1812, commanded by
Commodore Derry, who wrote on the back
of un old letter, resting on his navy cap:
“We have rnet the enemy and they are
ours.” Yonder is tho flagship Wabash, Ad
miral Dm Sint commanding; vender, the
flagship Minnesota. Admiral Goldsborough
commanding: yonder, the flagship Philadel
phia, Admiral Dahlgren commanding; yon
der, the flagship San Jacinto, Admiral
Bailey commanding; yonder, the flagship
Black Hawk. Admiral Dorter commanding;
yonder, tho flag steamer Benton, Admiral
Foote commanding; yonder; the flagship
Hartford, David Glascoe Farragut com
manding. Ami now nil the squadrons of all
department*, from smallest tugboat to
mightiest man-of-war. are in proeoaiion,
docks and rigging filled with the men who
fought on the stvi for the old ilug ever since
we were a nation. Grandest fleotsthe world
ever saw. Sail on before all ages! Hun up
all the colors. Ring all the l>elTa! Von, open
all the port-holes. Unlimbor the guns and
load and fire one great broadside tout shall
shake the continents in honor of peace and
the eternity of the American Union! But I
lift my hand, and the scene has vanished.
Many of the slhjvs have dropped under tho
crystal pavement of the deep, sea-monsters
swimming in and out the forsaken cabin,
and other old craft have swung into the
navy yards and many of the brave spirits
who trod their decks are gone up to the
Eternal Fortress, from whose easements and
embrasures may we not hope they look down
today' with joy upon a nation in reunited
brotherhood i
At this annual commemoration I bethink
that most of you who were in the naval ser
vice during our late war are now in the
afternoon or evening of life. With some of
y'ou it is two o'clock, threo o’clock, four
o’clock, six o’clock, and it will soon bo sun
down. If you were of age when the war
broko out you are now at leust forty-eight.
Many of you have passed into the sixties and
the seventies; therefore it is appropriate that
I hold two great lights for your illumination
—the example of Christian admirals conse
crated to Christ and their country, Admiral
Foote and Admiral Farragut. Had the
Christian religion been a cowardly thing
they would have lmd nothing to do with it.
In its faith they lived and died. In our
Brooklyn navy yard Admiral Foote
hold prayer meetings and conducted
a revival on the receiving ship
North Carolina. and on Hub
baths, far out at sea, followed the chaplain
witli religious exhortation. In early life on
board the sloop of war Natchez, impressed
by the words of a Christian sailor, he gave
Ills spare time for two weeks to the Bible,
and at the end of that, declared openly:
“Henceforth, under all circumstances, I
will act for God." His lust words, while
dying at the Astor House, New York, were:
“I thank God for all His goodness to me.
He has been very good to me.” When he
entered heaven lie did not have to run a
blockade, for it was amid the cheers of a
great welcome. The other Christian ad
miral will lie honored until the day when
the fires from above shall lick up the waters
from beneath and there shall be no more
sea
“Oh, while old ocean's breast
Bears a white sail,
And God's soft stars to rest
Guide through the gale,
Men will him ue'er forget
Old heart of oak,
Farragut, Farragut,
Thunderbolt stroke!”
According to his own statement FArragut
was very loose in his morals in early man
hood and practiced all kinds of sin. One day
he was called into the cabin of his father,
who was a ship-master. His father said:
“David, what are you going to he anyhow ?”
He answered: “I am going to follow the
sea.” “Follow the sea,” said the father,
“and be kick's! about the world ami die in a
foreign hospital?” “No,” said David, “I tun
going to command like you.” “No,” said the
father, “a boy of your habits will never
command anything,” and his father burst
into tears and left the cabin. From that
day David Farragut started on anew
life. Captain Pennington, an honored
elder of this church, was with him
in most of his battles and had his inti
mate friendship, and he confirms, what I
had heard elsewhere, that Farragut was
good and Christian. In every great crisis of
life he asked and obtained the Divine direc
tion. When in Mobile Bay the monitor Te
cumseh sank from a torpedo and the great
war-ship Brooklyn that was to lead the
squadron turned back, he said he was at a
loss to know whether to advance or retreat,
and he says: “I prayed, ‘O God, who
created man and gave him reason, direct me
what to do. Shall Igo on?’ And a voice
commanded me: ‘Go on,’ and I went on.”
Was there ever a more touching Christian
letter than that which be wrote to his wife
from his flagship Hartford? “My dearest
wife, I write aim leave this letter for you.
I am going into Mobile Bay In the morning,
if God is my leader, and I hope He is, and in
Him I place my trust. If He thinks it is
the proper place for me to die I am ready to
submit to His will in that as all other
things. God bless and preserve you, my
darling, and my dear boy, if anything
should happen to me. .May His blessings rest
upon you, und your dear mother, and all
your sisters and their children.”
Cheerful to the end, he said on board the
Tallapoosa in the last voyage ho ever took:
“It would be well if I died now in harness.”
The sublime Episcopal service for the dead
was never more appropriately read tlian
over his casket, and well did all the forts of
New York harbor thunder as his body was
brought to our wharf, and well did the
minute guns sound and the bells bill as in a
procession having in its ranks the President
of the United States and His Cabinet, and
the mighty men of land and sea, the old
admiral was carried aim'd hundreds of thou
sands of uncovered heads on Broadway and
laid on his pillow of dust in beautiful Wood
lawn, Sept. 30, amid the pomp of our
autumnal forests.
Ye veterans who sailed and fought under
him, take your admiral’s God and Christ for
your God and Christ. After a few more
conflicts you too will rest. For the few re
maining fights with sin, and death, and hell
make ready. Strip your vessel for the fray;
hang the sheet chains over the side. Send
down the top-gallant masts. Barricade the
wheel. Rig in the flying jib-boom. Steer
straight for the shining shore, and hear the
shout of the Great Commander of earth anil
Heaven as He cries from the shrouds: “To
him that overcometh, will I give to eat of
the tree of life which is in the midst of the
Paradise of God.”
ON FREE 80IL.
O'Brien Arrives at Niagara Falls
Greatly Exhausted.
Niagara. Falls, May 22.—Mr. O’Brien
arrived here to-day and was met by over
200 of his friends, who carried him to the
carriage and then escorted him to the Inter
national Hotel. He Is severely injured and
greatly exhausted. The doctors say that the
floating eartilagesof the eighth and ninth ribs
are partially detached. There is also an in
dentation in the cartilages themselves. An
inflammation of the base of the lungs is the
result, and beside# Mr. O'Brien is suffering
from severe cold. He will probably he laid
up for three weeks or more.
A MISPLACED SWITCH.
One Telegraph Lineman Killed and
Three Others Seriously Injured.
Baltimore, May 22.—A shifting engine
on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, at Buy
view station, neur this city, this afternoon
collided with a passenger car In which were
fifteen telegraph linemen, waiting to he
taken to Chester, Pa., where they were to go
to work. Hnowrlcn Clemmons, of West
Virginia, was killed instantly, and John
Martin, Janies E. Hare and Oliver Buckalu
were seriously injured. Buckalu will prolxi
bly die. A misplaced switch caused the col
lision. ___ ‘
Paper Mills Burned.
Norwich, Cons., May 32.—The mills of
the Reade Pai>er Comjswy, near VeflMiilles,
were destroyed by fire to <Vy. The loss it,
370,000 and tlie insurance isUtbout S3iTK)O.
SIGNAL SERVICE REPORT.
Phases of the Weather for the Past
Week.
Washington, May 22.—Tho signal office
has issued the following weather and crop
report for the week ending May 21:
Temperature—During tho week past, tho
weather lias been warmer than usual in all
the agricultural districts east of tho Rocky
Mountains, except in Florida and Texas,
where the deficiency in the temperature
averages alut 26”, a daily average of about
3" below the nominal. From the Missis
sippi valley eastward to the Atlan
tic coast the excess of temperature for the
week was from 25“ to 60”, a daily average
of about 5” warmer than usual. The excess
of temperature for the season previously re
ported in the Eastern Gulf States, Tennes
see, Central Mississippi and the lower
Missouri valleys lias been inereased by the
warm weather of the past week, while a de
ficiency of temperature previously retried
for the' season in the wheat and com regions
north of the Ohio river anil in tho upper
lake regions, lowa and Minnesota has lieen
reduced, | thus lcavingj the thermal condi
tions in these sections at the close of the
week near normal.
THE RAINFALL.
During the week there has been
a deficiency of tho rainfall in
all the sections east of the
Missouri and the lower Mississippi valleys,
while slight excesses are reported in Texas,
Northern Arkansas and Central Dakota.
The deficiency in the rainfall for the season
is general, the only sections reporting an
excess being Northern New England, Ohio,
Western Pennsylvania, Northwestern Da
kota, Oregon and Washington Territory.
The large deficiency in the rainfall pre
viously reportM in the Southern States
east of the Mississippi still continues. In
the cotton region east, of the Mississippi
more raiibis needed, but the recent showers
and the warm weather leave the crop in ft
favorable condition. In the Western Gulf
•States the excellent weather of the past week
lias improved the crop conditions except 111
Northern Arkansas, whore too much rain is
ropoi’ted. In the grain regions of the Ohio
valley, and in Missouri, Kansas, and Ne
braska, the weather during tho week has
been generally favorable for com and
wheat. In Michigan, Wisconsin and Min
nesota, and Northern Illinois the weather
has been reported as favorable, hut the
crops are likely to lie injured owing to tho
absence of rain. Telegraphic reports re
ceived this morning (Sunday, May 22) show
that local rains have fallen during tho past
eight hours in the sections where t hey are
the most needed, as follows: Minnesota,
Missouri, Michigan, Dakota and Kansas.
A RICH NEW YORK FAMILY.
A Few Points About One of Wall
Street's Characters.
New York, May 21.—Among the flying
financial horsemen of tho Stock Exchange
and one of tho boldest of its stamping
squadrons is a man of slender build, slightly
under the medium height, of dark com
plexion and handsome features, named Louis
Bell. Seen on the street ho has a rather
boyish appearance, although he is about
37 years of age. He is worth
lietwoen $300,000 and $400,000, and
is ono of the boldest of the Board Room
traders. He is a brother of the present
United States Minister to the Netherlands,
who married the sister of James Gordon
Bennett, the proprietor of tho New York
Ilf raid Louis Bell secured his business
training in the banking house of Brown
Brothers. Desiring to strike out for himself,
and his father being a man of large wealth,
he joined the Stock Exchange and soon be
came known as a daring and successful
operator. Like all other speculators, he has
ha/1 his reverses, but in the main has been
successful. Sometimes he loaves Wall street
for several months at a time and retina to
his farm at Oyster Bay, on Long Island,
where he raises Ayreshlre, Jersy, Alderney
anil other blooded cattle. Ho is considered
one of the keenest brokers in the Stock Ex
change and is frequently retained by
large operators like Gould, Sage, Connor
ana others to buy or sell big blocks of stocks
when these operators do not wish to bo
identified with the movement. As he deals so
largely himself such transactions are
generally credited by “the street” to his
own account. His father, Isaac Bell, is one
of the wealthiest men in New York. He is
one of the pillars of tho Union Club and
lives in fine style in Twenty-second street.
He is a member of Tammany Hall, and was
formerly in the Board of Aldermen, when
it was no dubious honor to be a member of
that body. He inherited largo wealth from
his father, Capt. Bell, who was largely
interested in ships in the days when our
merchant navy whitened every sea and was
the boost and glory of the young republic,
Isaac Bell embarked in the cotton business
in Savannah anil was very successful. He
came North, took a prominent part in
various financial operations and became a
director in a number of railroad companies
and banks, os well as the Farmers’ l/tun and
Trust Company. Isaac Bell, Jr., now
Minister to the Netherlands, and elder
brother of the well-known Board Room
operator, like his brother, received his first
business training in tho firm of Brown
Brothers & Cos. Later on his father estab
lished him in business at Charleston with
Artur Barnwell, well known in tliataection.
The influence of his father secured a large
clientage among European spinners more
especially, and the firm was very successful,
making in addition to its regular
commissions some very advantage
ous turns in the market on Its
own account, so that in a few years
Isaac Bell, Jr., was able to retire from
business. Ho is more genial and popular
than his brother, Louis, who is called
parsimonious, and in every respect less
kindly in his instincts. During a visit to
Europe Isaac Bell, Jr., met Miss Jeannette
Bennett, who, it is understood, had refused
numerous offers of marriage, and having
embraced the Roman Catholic faith it was
further understood contemplated entering a
convent.
The brave and popular young broker
wooed this attractive lady nevertheless, and
society whs soon in a flutter of surprise over
the announcement of their engagement.
Mrs. Bell has always been highly esteemed
for her quiet, unobtrusive manners, her
kindliness of nature and her generosity in
rescinding to the appeals of charity. She is
worth in her own right something over a
million. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs.
Bell ilevideil their time between this country
and Europo. They made their summer
home at Newport, where Mr. Bell owns a
fine mansion. He was an enthusiastic sup
porter of Mr. Cleveland in the ITesidcntial
oimjiaign of I"H4, and it was understood
that his ap[>ointmeiit us Minister to the
Netherlands was due partly to this
fact and partly to the support given
to Mr. Cleveland by the New York
Herald., Mr. Bull wanted the post, however,
of Minister to Belgium, and felt some disap
pointment on finding that it hiul been given
to another, but he accented the honor of
going to the NctheriiUMls —what there was
of It and such as it was in these times, when.
foreign ministers have less importance than
in the days Ixjforc the Atlantic cable—and
ho bus filled the post very acceptably.
Oscar Willoughby Riggs.
(PRICE $lO A VEAR. 1
1 5 C ENTS A COPY, f
HONORS PAID TO PASCO.
SERENADED BY HIS FELLOW-LEG
ISLATORS.
Monticello "Right Pert” Over the Eleo*
tlon of Her Favorite Son—Taking th
Oath of Office Swearing in the New
Speaker—Sudden Activity of the Leg
islators Sundry Notes.
Tallahassee, Fla. May 22. Senator*
elect Pasco was escorted to his home in
Monticello yesterday by a ljrge number of
legislators und citizens, who were cordially
received by the citizens of Monticello.
Several speeches were made by Senator
Pasco, Speaker Lamar and others. An ele
gant. supper was then served at the hotel and
tho brass band from Tallahassee, with several
hundred persons, serenaded Senator Pasco
at his home, whore they were warmly wel
eomed and refreshments served. After pro
longing the general merriment in honor of
Jefferson's favorite son, the (lariy returned
to Tallahassee on the midnight train. Secus
tor Pom*ii and Speaker Lunar " ill return
to-night, and at 11 o’clock to-morrow
Mr. Lamar will accept the Speaker
ship and Mr. Pasco the
before lx>t 1 1 houses of the legislature aii'ii*
large crowd of visitors who are
riving.
< in Tuesday night Senntor Pasco’s
cello friends will give a grand ball at the
lienn Hotel, this city, complimentaryßSjJ
their honored townsman. Persons fromßi|
over the State will attend.
burning the midnight oil. yj
The Senate held their session until
night Saturday and passed the bills
(he mechanics* and lalmrers’ lien and
ing a criminal court of record for
county. Much time was B|ient
nil Important militia bill specially
ing to Jacksonville. T3js
It is now very evident t hat a large
of important, business will lieleft unfini-AtifHß
There are 3(H) lulls now pending, not
which can possibly be acted upon. 'CBSt
measures which the constitution requin <B|
lie adopted have not yet lieen acted
and if these necessary matters are not
after at once it suems that an extra
will lie ntiwilutely necessary. A great
of work can lie done during the
two weeks of the session, but the us 1B
talking heretofore indulged in to
extent must Is- avoided.
Tii-morrow Mr. Pasco will vacate
Speaker's choir. Hon. W. B. Lamar
installed as his successor, and the Hons.
1). lilnxham, E. A. Perry, George
McWhorter and ethers have lieen invitodß
address the Legislature on this
great rejoicing, which will la-
in by many from all parts of the State.
A grand reception will lie given
mentary to the -senator-elect, and a
jubilee will la' hail by the friendsof the
Senator and the new Kjieoker.
Pasco continues to receive letters of
gratulation from all over the Union,
the Hon. W. B. Lamar is continually infl "•
ccipt of cordial expressions of pli asure
friends who rejoice over his
the (Speakership. .spf
The new Sjieaker, Lamrr, was lorn
county he now so ably represents, on
12, lK f i<). lie graduated at the I
Georgia in 1873 and then studied lawJHßj
lif banon Law School in Tenm.-eaee in
In 1875 he began tho practice mBI
law in Tupelo. Miss., but in
returned to his native county,
entered uisiii the practice of his
in Monticello, where he soon
good practice. In 1H77 he was elected < 'Mp
of the Circuit Court, and in 1882 he BP
chosen County Judge, which place he hlii
until his election to the present Legislature
in 1888.
His father whs an officer in the Confeder
ate service and was killed on tho battlefield.
His uncle, Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, is Socre*
tary of the Interior.
MOUNT VERNON.
Excellent Record of the Ladles’ Asso
ciation In Charge of the Place.
A Washington letter to the Now York
Herald says:
The ladies of the Mount Vernon Board of
Regents will probably remain in s.-sslon
until Monday, and will on Sunday attend
the old Pohiek church, not far distant.
They are naturally proud of the harmony
which has always prevailed among the
members of tho board. The Mount Verdoa
Ijai lies’(Association was the one orgunfaa
tion which was composed of members ITota,..
the North and South both of which was not
disintegrated, or at least divided, by the
war between tho States. During the war
both armies rsported the Mount Vernon
estate us hallowed ground, where no fighting
must occur, and the members of the Ladies 1
Association resumed their meetings in the
most amicable manner as soon as possible
alter the war was over. Another source of
pride is that the purchuse of Mount Vernon
and its preservation, the restoration and
furnishing of its once bare rooms, have all
boon, from first to last, the work of women,
and tbut Congress has never been asked to
appropriate a cent for anything connected
with Mount Vernon.
One of the vice regents tells how she re
pelled with projicr scorn the suggestion It
seems a Congressman once amiably made
that if the Mount Vernon Indies’ Associa
tion wanted an appropriation for Mount
Vernon from Congri-ss it was hut ii'M-essary
to ask for it and it would be made and of
generous size.
“\Vhat!” she indignantly exclaimed, as If
there were sacrilege in the very idea, “ask
Congress for money for Mount Vernon I
Never! Do you suppose we would let Mount
Vernon lieooine u lounging pla :■ for Con
gressnien and even for Comfressmen at
large nr a Congressional picnic ground!
No, sir; Mount Vernon belongs to the
Indies’ Mount Vernon Association of the
Union, and they will keep its hallowed asso
ciations free from taint.'
There has been great mortality among
Gen. Washington’s relatives within a few
months. Each of hw brothers had large
families, which have hail many deeceAlanti,
anil it is said that Lawrance Wash A jton,
the former owner of Mount Verncm had
forty grandchildren. Lost winter thus out
of four of Gen. Washington's nieces id the
same generation died; two, one of wuom
was Senator Buck's wife, dying within turn*
days i if each other. and
Sirs. Washington, ttie vice regent
West Virginia, Dire her genealogical
to Mount Vernon when she went therein
attend the council. Both by marriage
ile.si'c-nt mi - is related to Gen.
•She was fairly weighed down with the bß|
ilcn of the fruit and olive branches
have sprung from the original stem of
George Washington was so renowned
offshoot. ”ja
$75,000 FIRE. J
U. 8. Express Company’s Stable
Horses Burned in Jersey City. Jlj
Jersey City, May 22.—'Tho United BtoiM
Express Company's stable, at Henderson ai^H
was almost consumed by
On tlie second floor nearßl
e kept, and all but 30 or 8S
Tie loss is fully $75,000.