About The sunny South. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1875-1907 | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1887)
Us VOLUME XII.—NUMBER 597. ATLANTA, GA., SATURDAY MORNING, APRIL 23,1987. PRICE: $2.00 A YEAR IN ADVANCE. mi Shaking Across the Bloody Chasm. BEAUTIFUL HOME. [by UBS. MARY WARE.] D'ar B'nebesluethe river! Fair Georgia’s mountain scrltel Sweet nature's pretty ravarite- O, tm got Beaut; bri^tn 1 Long may your bloom and brightness Be woven Into son*. And ripple down your rivers. Fair Georgia’s bills among! Ni music like sweet nature's, C m woo, and wlo, and please, Wien tbe murmur of glad waters Is mingled wltn tbe breeze. And nature never fashioned A lovelier sprite or lay, Tuan R ime beside tbe rvers. Wnere mountain bi et z jb play I O gem of rar f at beanty, Wid e na urn's veaiih Is tblne, Toe band of art bath crowned thee Wltb many a noble shrine. AM long ss memory lingers. Or reeling's fountain t rills, F.lr R mie win bud andbiossom Among tbe Gaoi gla bills I Birmingham, Ala. TO GEORGIA BOYS. New York and its Golden Gods Not the Place for Southern Boys Without Capital. My Dear Young Friends: Delay does not always mean neglect, and explanations often amount tj a justification which supercedes an apology, as I trust mine will now. It was my --^rntuiti. u to h"ve followed up my lastiletter with others fraught with such facts and sugges tions as I had promised you, but unfortunate ly physical pain produces the opposite effect upon :ny nervous system and intellectual re sources from that, if we are to judge from re sults, it must have produced upon Sir Walter Scott, for his biographer and son-in-law, Lock hart, tells us that while he was writing Ivan- hoe, the groans he uttered under the tortures of the gout, could be heard in every apartment of Atbottsford, and albeit, critics may differ about whether Roweuna or Rebecca is the he roine of Ivanhoe, nobody doubts or disputes that Ivanhoe is the chef d'ouvre of the Wizzard of the North. The past winter has been dis tinguished not only for its rigors but its in- clemencj, to a degree which that venerable remnant of antiquity, “the oldest citizen,” re ports as without a parallel in the past, and un less it has been your misfortune to know some thing experimentally of rheumatio neuralgia, I am seriously apprehensive that the eloquence of depr old Aunt Betsey Trottwood when in speaking of Dora’s health to David, she shook her head and exclaimed, “clouds, clouds, clouds,” must be lost upon you as well as all hope that I can cherish that you will ever un derstand or appreciate the constantly recur ring paroxysms of which I have been the vic tim this dark and dreary winter. Instead of resuming the line of thought I was pursu'ng when I closed my last letter, I beg permission to call your special attention to a recent event tbe conspicuity of which has attracted universal attention and is threaten ing, or rather promising, to .produce a revolu tion in popular sentiment that must be felt throughout the broad borders of civilization. I refer of course to the scaffold on which Mrs. Druse was on last Monday strangled to death because she killed a husband who possessed not one of the instincts of humanity nor lack ed one of the instincts of the brute. You are anxious to know all about the tone, spirit and idiosyncracies of this latitude on which several subjects I respectfully submit, that verdict and its consequences, sheds floods of light Presumptively heartless and hardened a wretch as Druse was, he amounted after all to an average husband, and as juries are composed of the same material, it should excite no sur- surprise that one found a verdict calculated and intended to warn wives to beware of an intemperate resentment of brutal abuse. The old common law has always regarded mar riage as a civil contract and the average hus band in this latituds is educated under a strict construction of the laws letter which excludes utterly and forever everything like sentiment from his interpretation of it whenever it af fects marital relations. In your latitude mar riage is rightly regarded as a sacrament hal- lowei by the authority of God, the approval of His Son, (who did not only consent to be a guest at a marriage feast, but to contribute by a miracle to the happiness of the occasion) and its univert-al adoption from time imme morial in all climes and countries illuminated by tbe light of civilization, while its sanctity has received the reverential recognition of the purest, noblest and best classes, casts and con ditions of society. Nevertheless half the world seem to regard it now as a mere arrange ment of convenience involving no sentiment that is sacred, no emotions that are tender, no obligations that are binding, and no hopes ’hat are bright. Tae truth is a majority of modern marriages in cold climates seem to be the result of whim*, the most popular of which is a cariosity to discover, if they can,how long they can endure each other; aid this is much more frequently the case on the masculine than on the fcmanlne side of the contract, and hence man being the law-maker, anticipates what he expects to need by furnishing all of the legal facilities he can obtaining divorces and when he finds his wife willing to submit to every conceivable immolation of her rights and feelings rather than become a party to a dis graceful domestic litigation, he resorts to the dastardly device of cruelty and violence, and the wonder is that as many women submit to it as do. Instead of hanging a woman for killing her husband in this age and country, they ought to pay her a premium for his scalp, and in reflecting upon that subject, I am reminded of the answer of the wag, to a demand for a reason for his refusal to contribute to snpport the church which was, that there were not half as many people going to hell now as ought to go. Verily, it is true I fear, that there are not half as many wives who kill their husbands now as ought to. There is no other form which cowardice can assume that is half so contemptible and despicable as when it seeks to despotise a helpless woman and trembling children. If there must be a head to a family it should always be the result of the blended and united authority and wisdom of the hus band and of the wife. The law says they are one aud their lives should say so too and illus trate “Two souls with but a single thought, Two hearts that beat as one,” which can never happen under the roof of a brutal boss—a domestic demon, or the mildest type of a tyrant profoundly impressed with the necessity of a constant ventilation of his conscqnence to the terror of his household and the assertion of the fact that beyond a perad- venture he is the “big Injun me” on his own premises. Calamities are sometimes blessings in disguise and the scaffold tragedy of the 28th uit. promises to prove a blessing to civilization —not from the terror with which it should in spire the wicked, but from the disgust and horror with which it should inspire the good. The principle of lex tallionis, is of Mosaic ori gin and may have suited the Tribes of Israel and the age in which the great author of the Pentateuch rose, reigned and wrote; but as that was fifteen hundred and seventy-one years before the Star of Bethlehem shot into its orbit, how can we admit that in the 33 cen turies that have since intervened the darkness that reigned then should reign still. God’s chosen people always were a law unto them selves, and if we are indebted to the terrors of the scaffold for their good behavior, such as it is, I respec fully suggest that society would have occasion to be grateful could they be in duced to depreciate the value of life if in the same proportion they can only learn to appre ciate the value of other sentiments and princi ples of which they are sometimes suspected of being oblivious in the hereditary passion by which they seem to be handicapped for tbe tricks of the trade. Capital punishment is a relic of barbarism that should share the de served fate of the companions of its youth. It has survived the most of them only because a partial civilization can never accomplish com plete evangelization. The fallibility of flr-sh is the one cliuging and crushing curse from which there is no escape. Born frail and fee ble, man is at best, as Shakspeare tells us, “moulded out of faults,” which Ouida follows up with the scathing sarcasm that he is “A limited animal—extremely limited.” In the face of which truths, what are we to expect of him and his institutions but faults, flaws and defects, of the earth, earthy. Reformations are rarely cheap and blood is generally the price of those which are great, especially when they accelerate the regeneration of the raze. Smitblield was one of its great battle-grounds —the faggot and the stake were its weapons and its martyrs were its heroes. We almost fancy we can hear now the crackling of the thorns that broiled tho flesh of John 'Rogers, as centuries hence those will doubtless live who will fancy they hear the last shriek of Mrs. Druse on the scaffold, the appalling tones of which now promise to become so potent a factor in the- abolition of the most degrading and iniquitous relic of barbarism that still lin gers upon our statute-books to mock the best efforts, this creature—his “limited animal,” “moulded out of fae'T.” cau rn.’e to adminis ter judicial justice. Xe sentence of death can ever be pronoun zed save upon the authority of a verdict found by twelve “extremely limited” creatures that had been “moulded out of faults,” and no two of which were afflicted with perhaps the same faults notwithstanding the faults of ore as much as those of another conspired to incapacitate him for a safe, cor rect and thorough discharge of his duties as a juror, called to deal in that responsible posi tion, as he is, with technical terms sometimes couched in a language to .which he is a stran ger—with the motives of men on the witness stand, which are cunningly concealed with their misapprehensions of fact, even when in tending to tell the truth, and also with the conspiring coherency of circumstances, chal lenging credence when plausible and demand ing consideration in the absence of explana tion, when silence would seem to make them conclusive. Is it just either to expect infalli bility of this “limited animal” under such aus pices, or can it be just to expose the life, hap piness, liberty or character of a fellow-being to a mere guess from such a “limited animal” as to what may be the key to the mystery they are seeking to solve? The argument, how ever, against capital punishment, to the an swer of which neither eloquenoe nor logic is equal, is the immutable fact as expressed by the metrical monarch of the world, “But from our lips the vita! spirit fled, Returns no more to wake the silent dead.” THE OLD SOUTH. Its Traditions and Food for the Ro mance Writer. SARAH BERNHARDT. SAVANNAH, GEORGIA. From Savannah to the Sea. Editor Sunny South: I was glad to receive a sample copy of the Sunny South. In style, appearance, beauty of diction and elegance of design, it is all that its poetic name implies, the Sunny South! What a sweet euphonious title for a literary paper! With what a charm it appeals to the pride, sentiment, chivalry and patronage of the South. It ought to find ready and welcome access to every fireside and family circle within its limits. I notice in its arrangement a department for every species of literature but politics. What is the matter with politics, or what crime has it committed that it should be os tracised and excluded from Its column? Well, I suppose it was considered that as there was a thousand and one papers in the South de voted to politics, one might be set apart and held sacred to the noble cause of literature, and fostering of the higher attributes of man; and yet, gentle reader, politics is an import ant science—the science as it is familiarly called, of our bread and butter. What reli gion is to the soul, politics is to the body; And were a judge, jury, hangman and crown counsel to hold, after the execution of an in nocent man, a penitent conclave, and dedicate their deliberations tj remorse, albeit they might shed tears enough to extinguish the last infernal spark In Plutonian pits; neverthe less, that Mede and Persian sentence having been executed, its injustice must remain an eternal satire upon the rash recklessness, the blind blunders of which made them each and all parliceps criminis in a legalized assassina tion, for which the legislation that left the gap down, through which such a possibility could pass into the history of time, is even more culpable than can be any one of the agents of the revolting crime they have committed. If we were all endowed with prescience, all had been ecuminicalized, clothed with infallibility, and were too God-like to make mistakes, then capital punishment would be relieved of one of the features that should now excite the hor ror and loathing scorn of every true and manly lover of justice living. I have no fault to And with the severity of the penalty of death, agreeing, as I do, with Caesar when he opposed, in the Roman Senate, Cicero’s motion to make the penalty of Cata- line’s conviction “death" on the ground that “death is no punishment.” And be was right. Had you suffered as I have from the tortures of rheumatic neuralgia, you would be more than ready to agree that life is not only a greater punishment than death, but requires more fortitude to endure it. My sole objection to capital punishment is that no tribunal should be clothed with the power to pronounce a sentence or enter a de cree or a judgment that cannot be reviewed and reversed when it may be subsequently dis covered it was iniquitous and unjust. The history of British criminal jurisprudence fur nishes over one hundred instances of the rev- e ation of the innocence of convicted prisoners after their exezu ion had transpired. And when you shall be able to name another enor- m.ty as abhorrent to conscience as is the des- pic ibie, damnable and infamous iniquity of injustice, I will with alacrity agree that cap ital punishment, having been tolerated so many centuries—notwithstanding it is a found ling of darkness and should flourish only in deserts where the longest sword and the strongest arm rights its own wrongs—never theless should wait yet a little while longer for that progress of civilization, the shadow of whose coming events are upon us and the re generation of whose redemption is among the inevitabilities of destiny. Ehskine. Intelligence from Holy Land informs us that in Jerusalem, in the streets once trod by King David, may be heard the shrill whistle of the steam engine. The city has, in the last twenty-five years, doubled its number of buildings and in other respects keeps pace with the great cities of the modern world. The full Bench of the Massachusetts Su preme court has decided that a sleeping car company is responsible if a passenger is rob bed while sleeping in a berth on its cars. Such a rule, the court says, is required by public policy, and by the interests of both the pas sengers and the company. both are essential and indispensibie to the well being and existence of humanity. Cer tain it is that politics is the science and found ation stone of national and domestic prosper ity, and until prosperity in some degree enters the household, neither will books, music, hap piness, not even the Sunny South enter. You therefore perceive how important a thing is the derided science of politics. Bat I may be violating your rules by saying even this much upon politics; if so, pardon me, for I assure you there are many other subjects more congenial to me than politics, and to begin with one, let me say a word about Savannah, which to such of your readers as have not seen that beautiful forest city, may not be without interest. Savannah! Fair Savannah by the sea, whose name sounds as sweet and musiSal to the ear as the Sunny South to the eye, is situated, geographically speaking, upon a high bluff or elevated plateau overhanging the murmuring waters of the Savannah river and command ing a distant and panoramic view of the At lantic ocean, with its white sails and stream ers fluttering in the breeze, and on whose briny bosom porpoises gambol and dolphins play in the dreamy days of summer, and turning north the eyo may wander with de light o’er rice fields and farms and luxuriant landscapes of the Palmetto State, athwart the placid waters of Broad river. The Savannah river which divides Georgia from South Carolina, and refreshes and en riches the flowery city I am describing, has its headwaters as the reader is aware bevond the beautiful Tallulah falls (who has not heard of them? immortalized in song by the poet, and scholar, Gen. Henry R. Jackson, of Savan nah,) and plunging in its onward march to the sea, past the flourishing inland metropolis, throwing its waste of waters into the raging canal that shouts loud hozannahs to the city of Augusta, and sets thousands of cotton spindles in motion, or commotion thence it pursues its devious course to the ocean bearing on its bosom gav steamers, and sailing crafts, full laden with freight and passengers for Sa vannah, and giving that city the grand salute continues joyfully its course to the sea. We have now reached in our narrative the beautiful seaside resort if Tybec—the Long Branch or Cape May of the South—with its pure artesian water, and magnificent and con tinuous beach as “smooth as marble,” com manding a complete view of Tybee roads and the ocean throughout the entire length, afford ing a drive which can scarcely be surpassed. Close by its cocksnun island, where stands Fort Pulaski, which played an important part during the late war. To this beach a railroad from Savannah is now being construced, aud for this we are in debted to the energv and public spirit of Capt. D. G. Purse aided by Capt. Henry Plum, Capt. John Fiannery of the Southern Bank, Col. Es’ ill of the Savannah Morning News, and other prominent cit izens and will be completed about tbe first of June. Its opening will be celebrated by a grand railroad excursion from Savannah to the sea. The wealth, beauty aud fashion of Savannah and its environs will turn out, and mirth, music, eloquence, and song will lend their magnetic influence. May not you Mr. Editor be induced to put away dull care for a day or so, and brir g your numerous readers and friends along to sniff tbe briny and invigorating breezes of the At lantic, and join us in celebrating an event which will be memorable in the annals of the Forest City. The Mussulman’s home in Eastern bowers. Is the burden of his ditty, The Chinaman’s pride is the kingdom of flowers And ours be the flowery city. Respectfully. J. C. Duggan. Savannah, Ga., April 9th 1887. MEMORIAL TO BEECHER. Tennyson, Homes, Whittier and Lo well to Participate—Quantity of Beecher Biographies—Liter ary Journals—Nora Perry, Etc. New York, April 0.—A mJst unique and what promises to be a notable' literary memo rial to the late Henry Ward Beecher is near ing completion for early appearance. The memorial will consist of contr butions, both in prose and verse, from the mo t eminent men and women of America and Lhrope. The ar ticles will take the form main*) of estimates of the great p- teacher’s oh -re his serv.ses to the world, and not a few (if them will he importaut in their nature. Literary people will be fully represented, and foremost, per haps. is Lord Tennyson, who has promised to write something for the memorial. Of our own authors Dr. Holmes and Mr. Whittier will be represented, with the possible addition of Lowell. Bancroft, the historian, has also promised to write. Will Carleton has written one of his most pathetic rhymes and Lucy Larcom has likewise sent a production in verse. Julia Ward Howe will also figure quite prominently, as will George William Curtis, Edward Everett Hale, William Winter and more than a score of other well-known literary figures. Besides these, there will be a full representation of statesmen, clergymen, actors, soldiers and men and women who stand highest in the different professions. I understand that the memorial will be issued privately, it being principally intended for Air. Beecher’s family and his friends. A laige number have already been subscribed for and the memorial will receive general re cognition in that it has received the entire ap proval and approbation of Mrs. Beecher. Beecher literature promises to be exceeding ly plentiful even if only one-half of the pro posed works concerning the dead preacher ever see the light of day. From what I can learn there are not less than four different bi ographies of Mr. Beecher intended, although not one of these has received the approval of Mrs. Beecher or her family. The work more likely than any of the others to be regarced as the standard biography is in contemplation by two members of the family, and I under stand that a contract has already been signed by a firm of New York publishers looking to its issuance in the near future. In this volume will be embodied much of the data which Mr. Beecher had laid aside or intended for his au tobiography, and will naturally give the work a paramount value. Into whose hands to in trust the completion ot the "Life of Christ’ has not yet been decided upon, though it would not be surprising if it was eventually carried out by Dr. Lyman Abbott, who of all Mr. Beecher’s closest friends is best adapted for the work. Rev. Phillips Brooks has been asked to undertake the completion of the book, but has communicated Uis declination, owing to th'e pressure of church work and other literary engagements. Editor Sunny South:—The Richmond Dis patch, while granting the wondrous future of lhe New South, at the same time feels called upon to warn that young giant and its mighty patron, the North, not to forget for an instant, that it is building on the foundations of the Old South. That this fact to a certain extent, may be ignored, is not improbable; that it can ever be forgotten is utterly impossible. So long as there is the least history and romance to be worked out of tho Old South for money, so long will there be champions to defend it. Why, throughout its length and breadth, there is scarcely a step of the way tbat is not rich in reminiscences of tho past. Some of our towns and villages are already filled to the brim with tales, which, in the years to come, may be worth much to the romance writer. Even under the old Regime, they were not to “fame unknown.” And yet it will not be so much the notable deeds of history, as the home lives of the people that will be sought after. We can imagine some lucky fellow resurrecting from an ancient worm-eaten li brary long consigned to tiie garret, “Bill Arp” and “Mozis Adams,” ana after sufficient gar nishing to exhibit his own handiwork, serving them up to the public as an “authentic ac count of the curious habits and customs of the Old South, especially as throwing light upon that fearful institution of slavery, of which one might fain wish there were some extenu ating circumstances, some lights among the shadows, to lessen the horrors thereof.” Ab, yes, in spite of the “horrors thereof,” the old plantation melodies will go sounding down the ages, along with traditions of the" kindly relations that existed between master and man, between mistress and maid, of which posterity will not trouble itself much as to the right or wrong, but only the romance of the thing, as seen through tbe gauzy veil of time. Aud then the great “civil war,” which, of course, we want to hear nothing about—in deed it-is not in good taste to allude to tLat “unfortunate affair” under scarcely any cir cumstances, when we are trying so hard to forget—but a generation will arise who, while conceiving little of the horrors, can imagine a great deal of the excitement, the glory, the self-sacrificing devotion insenarable from the “lost cause.” Literary enthusiasts by the score will speDd days, weeks and months knocking around our streets, straying through the alleys, out on the suburbs, into broken-down hovels, heark ening to old hags’ stories of how their grea - grandmothers saw the troops come marching in from all the surrounding counties, who, with their own, were Bmiled and sighed over, laughed and wept over, then cheered and sent off to tbe sound of drum aud the wail of wo men. Obi th«.’pilling little love stories that will be written from just inch gleanings; the scenes that will be described, both tragic aud comic, of terror-stricken mothers hugging, by turns, to their throbbing bosoms, their weeping chil dren and their camphor bottles; the familiar places that will be seized upon, and made fa mous by the halting of a general for the night, the blazing of carp-fires, and the sudden rous ing of the weary troops at dawn; the very streets through which the “thin gray line” marched in and out for the first and last time; the very hills on whose summits it turned and faced the dark blue columns, giving the affrighted inhabitants hidden in railroad cuts, attics and cellars, a few sharp notes of war’s grim music. How strange to think that the time will come when the- historian, the poet and the novelist will pine for just one-fourth of the knowledge of actual facts which we possess I Were we, like Swift’s Struldbrugs, doomed to live forever, how jealously would we hoard up our little olds and ends of information, and how niggardly would we barter them for a comfortable support and a modicum of atten tion azainst that miserable forescore, to be lengthened out with Fromethens-like torture through endless ages. Virginia. WASHINGTON CITY. Reminiscences of Distin guished Public Men. Inoidents Which Have Transpired at the National Capitol. By BEN. PERLY POORE. No. 181. The Mechanics’ Institute, of San Francisco, received last year §00,580, of which §31,000 represented the profits of the industrial exhi bition. The Institute holds property to the value of §696,582. Mrs. Hendricks’ Object in Life. [Baltimore American.] Mrs. Hendricks, widow of the late Vice- Preiident, made a short visit to Washington this week, arriving on Tuesday and leaving again for her home in Indianapolis yesterday attemoon. During her stay Mrs. Hendricks, who made the journey to see an ill friend, was the guest of her cousm, Maj. Thomas P. Mor gan. She is looking unusually well, and speaks enthusiastically of her life work, which is to carry out to completion every little wish or plan projected by her late husband. Dar ing their long life together Mrs. Hendricks made a practice of quietly jotting down what ever was said in regard to any plans for the future. Since the death of the late Vice-Pres ident these notes have proved of incalculable value to his widow, whose sole object in life now is to do all in her power to advance them to fulfillment. She lives entirely alone in her large house, spending the greater portion of each day, as daring her husband’s liletime, in his study—busily engaged in correspondence and such literary work as necessarily devolves upon her for the accomplishment of her plans. Tfle most difficult task which presented itself to her after Mr. Hendricks’ death was to enter the dining-room where their meals had always been taken with such a cheerful, cozy air about things, and get through the first dinner alone, with the Bight of the empty chair opposite and the awful sense of desolation, to which it seemed to add a two-fold keenness. Since that time, however, Mrs. Hendricks has ac customed herself to it; and whether or not she has any one dining with her, the chair Is al ways m its accustomed place, but no one is ever allowed to occupy it. Her friends all re gard the pathetic little tribute so silently paid by the loyal, loving wife to her dead husband, aud honor her for the feeling, though no word is ever passed on the subject. . Borrowing an Umbrella. There are times when men are tried beyond endurance. Brother Nye can complain about hard winters in the Sunny South and clanging cars at midnight, but it’s nothing to borrowing a friend’s umbrella to go to supper and leave him to wait your return, which was my expe rience to-day. The rain froze as it fell, mak ing the umbrella so heavy that it broke loose at the end, and the handle flew through the top and the tent-like trap closed around my head, and such a time I I reached home, ate supper and then proceeded to mend that um brella, for I could not return it broken, and concluded a simple job like so many others I could do in a jiffy; so a piece of wire was pro cured from an old broom handle and a pair of President Tyler and China. At President Tyler’s request, Daniel Web ster wrote the following letter accrediting Caleb Cushing, which was signed by the Pres ident and by Mr. Upshur as Secretary of State: ‘ To the Emperor of China—I, John Tyler, President of the United States of America, send you this letter of peace and friendship signed with my own hand. “I hope your health is good. China is a great empire, extending over a great part of the world. The Chinese are numerous. You have millions and millions of subjects. The tweDty-six United States are as large as Chi na, thsugh our people are not so numerous. The rising sun looks upon rivers and moun tains equally large in the United Stales. Our territories extend from one great ocean to another; and on the west we are divided from your dominions only by the sea. Leaving the mouth of one of our great rivers and going constantly towards the setting sun, we sail to Japan and to the Yellow Sea. Now, my words are, that the governments of two such great countries should be at peace. It is proper, and according to the will of Heaven, that they should respect each other ana act wisely. I, therefore, send to your court Caleb Cushing, one of the wise and learned men of this country. On his first ar rival in Caina he wiil inquire for your health. He has strict orders to go to your great city of Pekin, and there to deliver tnis letter. He will have with him secretaries and interpre ters. “The Chinese love to trade with ou'r people, and to sell them tea and silk, for which our people pay silver and sometimes other articles. But if the Chinzs3 and the Americans will trade, there shall be rules, so that they shall not break your laws nor our laws. Our min ister, Caleb Cushing, is authorized to make a treaty to regulate trade. Let it be just. Let there be no unfair advantage on either side. Let the people trade not only at Canton, but also at Amoy, Ningpo, Shanghai, Fuchow and all such other places as may offer profitable exchanges both to China and the United States, provided they do not break your lawi nor our lasts. We shall not take the part of evil-doers. We shall not uphold them that bitiak your laws. Therefore we doubt not that you will be pleased that our messenger of peace, with this letter in his hand, shall come to Pekin and there deliver it; and that your great offi cers will by your order make a treaty with him to regulate affairs of trade so that nothing may happen to disturb the peace between China and America. Let the treaty be signed by your own imperial hand. It shall be signed by mine, by the authority of our great council, the Senate. “And so may your health be good, and may peace reign. “Written at Washington, this twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-three. “Your good friend, John TtleR- “By the President, “A. P. Upshur, Secretary of State.” The Attorney and Carman Witness. Joseph R. Chandler, who was a Whig editor and Representative in Congress from the city of Philadelphia, used to tell a story about the examination of Gotleib Scherer, a good-look ing German beer-house keeper, by George M. Dallas, a precise gentleman of the oli school, with a wealth of white hair. Mr. Dallas ex pected to make a strong point by eliciting something out of the following questions: “Were you at Harrisburg, Mr. Scherer, in December?” “At Harrisburg in Deccember, did you say. Mr. Dallas?’ “Yes, sir, I said at Harrisburg In Decem- scissors. I waded in; I gathered the ends and ran the wire through, when lo! they were not in rotation and I was compelled to yank it out and try it over. By this time the ice had melted and a black stream of water had trickled down my pantaloons and on the car pet. This caused my dear mamma to raise my hair. Still that umbrella must be repaired, and one hour had now gone by. Well, my ba:k got pretty stiff, aud our Lena she re marked we could raise strawberries on Uncle Bill’s patience. This caused a laugh andBro. Arty claimed if I knew the business I could do it in five minutes. I was getting weaker and madder every moment; so I gently stood the machine, for now it began to look like a knitting machine struck by our Texas norther, into the corner; donned my rubber coat and returned to business; loaned the coat to my friend and told him I had forgotten the um brella and left it at home. So it is my advice to get wet irstead of bor rowing an umbrella. I don’t own one now. I loaned my fine umbrella to a professor who roomed with me last summer aud in going out the gate he ran foul the post and busted it. Tbe honest professor returned and paid for it, and I invested in a rubber coat. This was done that no one else could borrow again, and as I wear a 50-inch coat, few would care to ask for for it. Bill Aujiock. Dallas, Texas. Among 200 students of the State Univer sity of various religious creeds there are but three atheists. The long iron bridge at Bismarck, Dak., contracts and expands eleven inches by the heat and cold. THE KELLEY BANQUET. A Memorable Occasion In Anniston, Ala.—Mr Kelley’s 73d Birthday. Anniston, Ala., April 12.—The banquet in celebration of the seventy-third birthday anni versary of Hon. W. D. Kelley, as predicted, was the moBt memorable occasion ever wit nessed in the model city of Alabama. The “menu" of the banquet was fully in keeping with the repatation of Manager Hardell, of that famous institution. Abie speeches were made, first by Hon. W. D. Kelley, editor Jas. R. Randall, Colonel John McKleroy and Sam uel Noble; and from all these speeches it would seem, from facts and figures addneed by the speakers, this city is still in her merest in fancy. At this late hour the speaking is still going on. Ash ejected from Cotopaxi, Mexico, In Jnly, 1885, has yielded two-fifths of a troy ounce of silver to the ton. This metal has hitherto been unknown among volcanic products. ber.’ Putting his head down thoughtfully for a mo ment, he replied, “No, sir, I was not.” “Were you at Harrisburg in January, Mr. Scherer?” “At Harrisburg in January, did you say, Mr. Dallas?” “Yes, sir, I said at Harrisburg in January.” Relapsing into a thoughtful mood for a mo ment, “No, sir, I was not at Harrisburg in January.” “Well, Mr. Scherer, were you at Harrisburg in February?” “Did you say at Harrisburg in February, Mr. Dallas?” “Yes, sir; answer me, if you please, I said at Harrisburg in February.” Studymg for a moment or two as before, “No, sir; I was not at Harrisburg in Febru ary.” Getting somewhat out of patience with him, Mr. Dallas elevating his tone, demanded: “At what time, sir, were you at Harris burg?” “At Harrisburg, at Harrisbnrg, Mr. Dallas. I never was at Harrisburg in my life, sir!’’ The Ohio Traveller in North/Carolina. Tom Corwin once replied to a humorous ac count of Ohio, bf Stanley of North Carolina, at one of Col. Seaton's famous suppers, by narrating a conversation which he said took place between an Ohio traveller and the inhab itant of a cabin in the piney barrens of the North State. After the usual salutation, the Ohio traveller said: “My friend, you seem to have a barren spot.” “I reckon so,” said he of the cabin. “You raise plenty of corn, I suppose?” “I makes no com.” “Sweet po tatoes then, I guess?” "Avery sorry chance o’potatoes.” “You raise a good supply of pork, then?” “No, I raises no pork.” “Plenty of game in the wood3, I guess-” “A small chance of game here, stranger.” “Catch fish then, I suppose, eh?” “No Seh here.” “You have good water, then?” “The water is mighty bad.” “In the name of all that is good,’’ exclaimed the mystified and astonished visitor, “what do yon stay here for?” “Why, stranger,” replied the Carolinian, “we have a right smart chance of light wood here, I reckon.” The Czar and the Nihilists. London, April 13.—A telegram from Gen eva, purporting to come from a Nihilistic source, denies that notice of sentence to death has been sent to the Czar. The telegram also says that the Nihilists have changed their tac tics, and that they have abandoned the dagger and bomb in favor of the persuasive policy, and have formed a committee to unmask the maneuvers of certain agents who spread in the press fictitious Nihilist proclamations. PERSONAL MENTIOI. What the People Are Doing and Saying. Hni r te™L Clevela £ d - has lnTited Governor Hous^ P d a W6ek W,th him 8t the Whito President Cleveland is said to have in con templations visit to Postmaster General Vilas’ homein Wisconsin. 'Hie men whose names appear on the bond of Postmaster Mo wry, of Charleston, S C represent about §3,000,000. A young woman in Detroit who recently in herited §2-50,000, has refused thirty offers of marriage in the last three months. A diamond pin beirnging to Mrs. Wm. Fletcher, of Brooklyn, was found in the Rich mond Hotel ruins at Buffalo. N. Y.,.yesterday. Secretary Bayard has received from a lady a smoking chair” of oak, upholstered in dark brown leather, with a richly upholstered leg Gen. P M. B. Young Is still in Washington. He is said to aspire to the Austrian mission Senator Colquitt, it is understood, is backing Harry Miner, who now owns three or four theatres and is worth several millions was once a night watchman on a very slender salary. A. little hook containing a short letter in Latin, written by Christopher Columbus, was |0>«at auction in Cologne the other day for The pope has approved plans for the new Catholic University at Washington. Bishop Keane, of Richmond, it is said, will be made president. Two American girls have recently made suc cessful debuts m Berlin—Constance Siebass in the opera of “Mignon," and Madge Wickham as a violinist. At a typewriter contest in New York last week one contestant, Miss M. C. Grant, is said to have written 384 words in four minutes and ferty two seconds. Rev. Dr. Meredith, of Boston, has been called to take the place lately filled by Mr Beecher as pastor of Plymouth church, Brook- lyn, and has accepted the call. lhe contributions to the Beecher monument fund now amount to §8,392.32. Sometimes it is better to be a preacher than it is to be a preacher than it is to be a President. Prof. G. A. Woodward, formerly superin tendent of the Public Schools, Montgomery, Ala., dropped dead, suddenly, at his residence m that city on the afternoon of the 12th. Cornelius Vanderbilt is receiving flattering notices from the press in all parts of the conn- tery for his gift of Rosa Bonhenr’s “Horae Fair to the Metropolitan Art Museum. Mr. John Wanamaker, tie famous Philadel phia merchant, has decided to give ali em ployees la at have been with him over seven .years a shore in the profits or his business. Queen Ranavalona Hr., of Madagascar, is a brave young woman, only 25 years of ago and is said to be a sincere Christian. About 400 - 000 of her people also profess the Christian re igion. Mr. Samuel Simpson, the uncle of Gen. Grant, and for whom the general was named Ulysses Simpson, died at his home tear Ba tavia, Ohio, last Friday aged 91 and was buried Sunday. Mrs. Fairchild, the wife of the new Secreta ry of the Treasury and the first lady of the Cabinet, is a most charming, cultivated wom an, one of whom it will be a pleasure to regard as a leader. ° Sir Edward Thornton, ex-Minister from Great Britain to the United States, sailed from London on the 10th, to represent the British bond-holders in the conference with the com mittee of the Virginia Legislature at Rich mond. Gen. Lew Wallace rejoices. “Ben Hur” is in its one hundredth and sixty-fifth thousand He is not so generous as he wai. Letters be ginning, “I was a rampant infidel until I read ‘Ben Hur’ ” do not now invariably draw a check out of him. The total amount contributed during the past year for the erection of a monument to the late Vice-President Hendricks is §21 000 The sum required to erect the monument is §50,000, and it is thought that it can be raised during the next year. Death of Dr. Alfred Lee. Wilmington, Del., April 12.—Rev. Alfred Dee, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church of Delaware and primate of the church in America, died at his home here to-day of typhoid fever, after an illness of about two months. Ex-Senator Bruce, now in New York, has been lecturing during the past winter, and is now engaged in some literary work touching upon the colored people. His treatment at the New York hotels is precisely the same accord ed to white guests. Col. Jack Haverly, of minstrel fame, called on the President a few days ago, and the two passed a pleasant hour or two together, the President remarking it was such a relief to talk about something besides politics and ap pointments to office. Joseph T. Braine, of the British Trade Jour nal, a London industrial monthly publication, is making a tour of the United States as spe cial commissioner in behalf of the proposed American exhibition announced to open in London on May 2. Roszoe Conkling and Governor Foraker have promised to attend a banquet given by the American Club at Pittsburg on April 27, the anniversary of Gen. Grant’s birth. A number of other Republicans of national fame are also expected to be present. Mrs. Toomey, a childless widow, is one of the richest women in Pittsburg. She is over 00 years old, lives in one room, does all her own work, including the care of her room and' the collecting of her rents. At the death of her husband his property was worth not less than §2,000,000. Mr. Allen Thorndike Rice, of The North American Review, has become the owner of the silk coat, waistcoat and knee trousers, and the gold knee and shoe buckles which George Washington wore when he took the inau jural oath of first president of the United States. The price is supposed to have been about §500. King Christian IX. of Denmark, famous for having married off his children so well, intends to be in London on the occasion of the cele bration of Queen Victoria’s jubilee. He is the only sovereign living who was present on the occasion of her majesty’s accession in 18-37. The Princess of Wales and Empress of Russia are his daughters. Gen. Thomas M. Logan, President of the Virginta Midland, and Vice-President of the Richmond & Danville and Richmond & West Point Terminal railways, was born in Charles ton, S. C. in 1843, volunteered and entered the Confederate army as a captain of alight troop, and became a Brigadier-General at twenty- two. He is now forty-four, and by recent brilliant railway operations has become a ^ Iionaire. •’•ir* Maj. Ben. Perley Poore has served longer In Washington as a newspaper correspondent than any man now at the capital. He was at one time Clerk of the Printing Reoords, and has for some years published the Congres sional Directory. His volume of “Reminis cences” has not been exactly a goldmine. His publisher not long ago made him a payment of §900. The basis of the book appeared first in twelve papers in the Atlantic Monthly, for which he received §1,200. He has also used them in newspaper work, and feels satisfied with their aggregate financial resalts. Maj. Poore is a successful farmer, and his place at Indian Hill, Mass., has been to him a source of comfort and profit.
