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HUNG AT ZEBULON FOR MURDER
j OF SHERIFF GWYNN.
FACED DEATH WITH COOL NERVE.
'Thousand* Witness the Execution and
View the Corpse Afterward—Tom
Frays For Ilis Old Father.
Tom Delk was hanged at Zebulon,
Ga., Friday for the murder of Sheriff
Gwynn.
Governor Atkiusou had refused a
further respite and the law was allowed
to take its course.
The execution was orderly and no
disturbance of any sort occurred. The
drop fell at 2:06 o’clock.
Delk faced death as brave as a lion,
and his wonderful nerve excited tho
admiration of even his enemies.
Delk died of strangulation and was
pronounced dead at 2:22 p.m.
The execution was not private, as it
was easy for the several thousand of
those who surrounded the enclosure
to look through the clumsily strung
rolls of bagging which shut iu the gal¬
lows.
Shortly “Pa before lie died, Tom said:
will never hang. Nobody cares
anything for me, but when I’m dead
they will look out for the old man.”
He said he wanted to see all the
witnesses against his father and make
them promise to tell the truth in case
his father was given another trial.
On the Scaffold.
When all preparations had been
made the little party on the scaffold
knelt, as well as those on the outside,
while prayer was offered for the con¬
demned young man and for comfort
for the bereaved family.
When the prayer was concluded
Tom began to pray in a low voice at
first, but gradually, speaking louder
and louder, until those outside the en¬
closure could hear distinctly all that
he said. He prayed for himself and
his family and for his enemies and for
all those about him. Then, knowing
full well that they were the last words
he would ever utter on this earth, he
said with a passion of entreaty in his
voice:
“And, oh God, do Thou take care
of my poor, old, innocent father. He
has never done no wrong. Help him.
Soften the hearts of those against
him. He is innocent,as Thou kuowest.
Make his enemies know it, too. Help
him, O God, for Jesus sake. Amen.”
Everybody arose, and Torn, stepped
firmly into the exact center of the
square trap-door beneath his feet.
Several of the deputy sheriff's produced
ropes and began to bind his hands,
arms, legs and ankles. They spent
fully five' minutes in tying him up,
very much the way a grocer would
wrap a codfish. They tied ropes
around him in all conceivable ways
and places, and seemed to enjoy wind¬
ing it around liis muscular limbs.
When all was in readiness Tom
called out:
.“Goodby, people.”
“Goodby, Tom,” answered hun¬
dreds of voices.
The drop fell at exactly 2:96, and at
2:22 o’clock Tom was pronounced en¬
tirely dead.
A shout had gone up from the crowd
when the trap was sprung, and after
that there was a great deal of con¬
fusion on the outside of the tall jute
fence, but there was no serious dis¬
turbance. The sheriff sent out word
■ that everybody would be given an
opportunity later to inspect the corpse,
aud this seemed to satisfy the excited
mob.
The cutting down of the body occu¬
pied considerable time, owing to the
quantity of cutting that was neces¬
sary, but it was finally placed in a cof¬
fin, the coffin was placed in a big
wooden box, the big wooden box was
placed in a wagon and the wagon was
driven rapidly back to tbe village.
Over exactly the same road that lio
had passed a few minutes before iu the
zenith of health and strength, Tom
was carried limp, lifeless and dis¬
torted.
Thq body was taken into the court¬
house and there placed on exhibition
for the afternoon. Everybody saw it,
the crowd coining in at one door iu a
steady stream and passing out at
another.
READY FOR BUSINESS.
New Export and Import Company at Sa¬
vannah Completing Plans.
General G. M. Sorrel has arrived at
Savannah, Ga., from New York to
take charge as general manager of the
.Georgia Export and Import company,
which will begin operations at the
opening of the cotton shipping season.
General Sorrel says he is satisfied
the new company will build up a con¬
siderable expoit trade from Savannah,
but he was unwilling to talk of the
company’s plans in the absence of
President H. M. Comer.
It is expected that the company wiJI
organize on the first of the month.
OIL MEN IN SECRET MEETING.
Probable That They Discussed Formation
of Quasi Trust.
A Chattanooga telegram says: A
secret meeting of cotton oil men has
just been held at Lookout Inn, the
proceedings of which the attending
members have declined to give out.
Enough has been learned, however, to
state that the question of prices and
production was under consideration,
and that a quasi trust was discussed.
Whether it was formed or not, is not
definitely known.
JAPAN ENTERS PROTEST.
She Object* To Annexation of Hawaii To
United State*.
Before the final signature of the
Hawaiian annexation treaty at. Wash¬
ington Wednesday the secretary of
state was presented a formal protest
by the Japanese government through
its legation ut the capital, against tho
consummation of the agreement,. The
protest is understood to be based on
apprehension that the special treaties
now existing between Japan and
Hawaii, under which the Japanese
enjoy advantages, will be affected
injuriously by the complete annexa¬
tion.
Minister Hoshi declined to be seen
about Japan’s protest, and Secretary
Mutze refused to discuss tlie matter
in any way, but it is learned that the
Japanese protest was made in person
at the state department by Minister
Hoshi. .
The-news of the protest was a great
surprise to the Hawaiian legation and
as soon as intelligence of it was ob¬
tained, Minister Hatch started out to
learn the particulars. The essential
point as to* the protest, it is said, at
the Hawaiian legation is, whether the
protest is against the annexation of
Hawaii or is merely a protest reserving
to Japan'all her rights under the ex¬
isting treaty with Hawaii. It is be¬
lieved that it is the latter.
The Japanese treaty with Hawaii
was made in 1871 and provides that
natives or citizens of one country shall
have the uninterrupted right to enter
into, reside and trade in the other
country and also shall have all the
rights and privileges enjoyed by the
people of any other country under
treaty stipulations with Japan. Japan
under the trenty consequently has a
perfect right to have her immigrants
enter the Hawaiian islands.
Under international law tho annexa¬
tion of Hawaii to the United States
would abrogate this treaty. Moreover,
a new treaty between tbe United States
and Japan, made some time ago and to
become effective in 1899, provides that
the United States may exclude Japan¬
ese. If Hawaii is annexed the effect
would be to permit the United States
to exclude the Japanese from Hawaii.
It is taken for granted, therefore, that
the protest is one reserving Japanese
rights under its treaty of 1871 with
Hawaii.
WOODFORD GOES TO MADRID.
New York M»n Nominated To JBe Min¬
ister To Spain.
The president Wednesday nominated
Steward L. Woodford, of New York,
to be minister to Spain. Mr. Wood¬
ford is an old friend of Senator Platt
and the two have been on intimate
terms since they were colleagues in
congress a score of years ago.
There is excellent authority for thf
statement that Mr. Woodford will ac
cept.
Stewart L. Woodford, the newly ap¬
pointed minister to Spain, was born it-
New York September 3, 1835, and ii
descended from early settlers of Con¬
necticut. . His grandfather fought ir
the revolutionary and in the war o'
1812. General Woodford entered Co¬
lumbia college at fifteen, but spent the
sophomore years at Yale, completing
his education at Columbia and gradu¬
ating in 1854. He was admitted to
tho bar in 1857 and entered politics in
the first Lincoln campaign, I860.
The president sent the following
nominations to the senate iu addition
to that of Mr. Woodford :
Julius Goldschmidt, of Wisconson,
te be consul general at Berlin, Ger¬
many.
Treasury—Frank H. Morris, of
Ohio, to be auditor of the navy de¬
partment.
TALK OF~GORDON’S SUCCESSOR.
Generals Wheeler ancl Stewart Mentioned
Favorably for the Place.
A Washington dispatch of Wednes¬
day spates that the friends of General
Joe Wheeler, of Alabama, are pressing
him to succeed General John B. Gor¬
don as commander-in-chief of the
United Confederate Veterans. The
veterans hold their annual reunion at
Nashville the 22d, 23d and 24th. Gen.
eral Wheeler’s career as a cavalry
leader is familiar history.
The N. B. Forrest camp of Confed¬
erate veterans at Chattanooga will pro¬
test against the resignation of G enerai
Gordon as commander of the United
Confederate Voterans; but if the gen¬
eral persists iu his resignation, thi*
camp, it is said, will present the name
of General A. P. Stewart as his succes¬
sor. General Stewart is now a mem¬
ber of the national Chickamauga park
commission.
JOHNSON FOR MARSHAL.
Georgia Republican Reader Assured of a
Plum By the President.
The controversy over the date on
which there will be a change in the of¬
fice of United States marshal for the
northern district of Georgia was given
a very practical settlement at Wash¬
ington Friday.
The president sent to the senate the
nome’pf Walter Johnson. The nomi¬
nation will in all probability be con¬
firmed, so that Mr. Johnson can take
charge July 1st.
The appointment is regarded as a
distinct recognitiou of Colonel John¬
son’s future leadership of the party in
Georgia.
QUEEN STARTS PROGRAM.
She Reaves Balmoral For Windsor Castle
As a Preliminary.
Queen Victoria left Balmoral, Scot¬
land, Wednesday for Windsor castle.
This is the first step of her majesty in
the long program arranged to celebrate
tbe sixtieth anniversary of her acces¬
sion to the throne.
Saturday is know# now as the eve
of the great jubilee, and by that- time
ail preparations for the busy week to
follow will have been completed,
PYRAMIDS IN AMERICA.
TWO BUILT OF MUD ARE LOCATED IN
THE UNITED STATES.
Hid Away In New Mexico—In ft Valley of
the Koc vie* Far From the Path of
Travel—Strange People Who are Citi¬
zens, but Do Not Vote Nor Pay Taxes.
Pyramids in the United States? Yes,
two of them. They are built 6f mud
and inhabited. One, says the Cliieago-
Times Herald, has six stories and the
other five, and both have many rooms.
The inhabitants have two names, two
religions and two languages. They
are Christians and pagans at the same
time—Catholics and sun worshipers.
They have one church above ground
and several worshiping places below
ground. They are citizens of the
United States, but neither vote nor
pay taxes. They have a republic of
their own and never carry their inter¬
nal disputes outside thdir own primi¬
tive court. They owned their little
domain of six miles square long before
the United States came into existence,
and they lease farms to the descend¬
ants of haughty Europeans. They ore
the real first families of the country,
for their forefathers were living in
these same pyramids when civilization
discovered them 250 years ago. They
are aborigines but farmers. They are
semieivilized, but they punish with
the stocks and the whipping post, and
until recently stoned witches to death.
In many things this remarkable peo¬
ple reverses the white man’s order.
The children trace their descent through
the mother instead of the father. The
wife owns the house and all it contains.
Fire3 for baking are built in the oven
instead of under it. In the fireplaces
the wood is burned standing on end.
The people go into their houses
through the roofs, pulling up behind
them the ladder used in mounting the
building,.thus very nearly accomplish¬
ing the feat of going into a hole and
pulling it in after them.
The pyramids of the American Egypt
are tucked away in a little valley among
the Itocky Mountains of northern New
Mexico. A few years ago they were
4000 miles from a railroad. To-day
one can get within thirty-five miles of
them by rail by going north from Santa
Fe to Embudo, but after that the
rugged canon of the Rio Grande del
Norte and brown, waterless, intermin¬
able mesas make the approach a trying
journey of dust, jolts and weariness.
The American pyramids are known
as El Pueblo de Taos. It is the north¬
ernmost settlement of that strange race
which has left the American Egypt
strewn with the ruins of ancient cities.
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ENTRANCE TO AN UNDERGROUND PAGIN'
CHAPEL.
Its people; according to the best au¬
thorities, are descendants of the cliff
dwellers, and the pyramidal form of
their community houses was another
device to protect themselves from their
hereditary enemies, the Apaches, the
Navajoes and the Utes. A captain un¬
der Coronado, who came up from
Mexico in search of the fabled seven
cities of Cibola, whose people ate from
golden dishes, discovered these pyra¬
mids in 1540, and they stand to-day
just as he described them, though one-
story dwellings have sprung up about
the foot of the pyramids since the
American occupation assured peace.
The larger building has ninety-seven
rooms and the smaller seventy-two.
The inhabitants number about 400.
The walls of these community
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SIX-STORY PYRAMID WITH 97 ROOMS.
houses are made of these bricks dried
iu the sun. The front wall of the
second story whs built back from the
front of the first story, making a broad
terrace. The succeeding stories were
constructed in similar manner, and as
all four sides of the building were ter¬
raced the structnre became a pyramid.
The roofs were formed by laying sap¬
lings across the walls and covering
them with. mud. Until recently there
were neither doors nor windows in any
of the walls, and even now there are
very few. The people climb up the
outside on rude ladders, which may be
pulled up after them if danger threat¬
ens, and they enter their homes
through holes in the roof. Many of
the dark rooms near the centre of the
pyramids are in decay, and others are
used for storing grain, Some of the
living rooms are whitewashed, Fire-
places are, made by constructing a mud
hood across a corner with a mud flue
running to the roof, and pinyon and
cedar brought from the mountains are
burned standing on end in the corner.
The broad terraces are the playground
of the children and the lounging place
of the “old folks.”
ebnqui,stadores When discovered by the Spanish
these people were not
only peaceful farmers, but they wore
cotton clothing bought from their
cousins in the warmer lowlands farther
south, as well as the skins of wild aui-
mals. To-day the men wear in sum¬
mer cotton leggings held up by a
string and a print shirt falling loosely
outside the leggings. In cold weather
they add moccasins and blankets. The
women wear a skirt of colored cotton,
and the waist is a piece of cloth wound
around the body over the right shoul¬
der and under the left arm. For gala
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TAOS INDIANS.
attire they have gayly flowered cloth¬
ing with a silk shawl for the head and
white buckskin moccasins with leggings
wrapped about the legs until they are
nearly as big as stove pipes.
The good paders who came into the
wonderland of the southwest with the
Spanish explorers and conquerors
grafted the Christian faith on the
pagan religion, and the world is
presented with the strange spectacle
of a people with two religions, in both
carefully observed and beld rever¬
ence. There is a little Catholic church
in which faithful priests have taught
Christian doctrines for many genera¬
tions and brought the simple natives
to such an understanding that they
resent any interfence with their Chris¬
tian rites. At the same time they
continue their pagan ceremonies in
secret—except their annual sun dance.
They have several covered holes in the
ground, each perhaps twenty-five feet
in diameter and fifteen feet deep.
They are known as estufas. Here the
pagan priests perform the mystic rites
of their sun worship, and no white
man is permitted to witness them.
These people also have organizations
corresponding to the secret societies of
civilized communities, whose members
meet and lounge in the estufas, and
women are seldom or never allowed to
enter them. The entrance to these
places is by a ladder through the roof.
A hollow in the middle of the floor
serves for a fireplace. At the bottom
of the wall enter small shafts, which
permit cold air to come in from the
outside. The heated air from the fire
flies out at the opening above, and
tipis this primitive people solved the
problem of ventilation centuries before
civilized man groped his way out of
the darkness of sanitary error. The
feather is a symbol of prayer with the
pyramidedwellers. They tie the downy
feather of an eagle to a twig, stick it
in the ground in an out of the way
place where it is not likely to be dis¬
turbed, and so long as it remains there
it is a prayer constantly going up to
the Trues above.
The event of the year in the pagan
religion is the thanksgiving day of the
sun worshipers. The Christian priests
have inaugurated the day with a ser¬
vice at the church and they have
stamped the fiesta with the name of
the Catholic saint selected by their
forerunners as the patron saint of the
community. The fiesta is therefore
known as St. Geronimo (St. Jerome)
Day, and the images from the Chris¬
tian church overlook the pagan per¬
formances from a bowel, All but the
church service is a survival of the
pagan era. and fruits
Offerings of sheep, grain
are hung up on a pole in thanksgiving
to the sun for warm weather and good
crops, and the sun father is pretty
sure to be smiling on his worshipers.
There is a queer sun dance, in which
the men, with bodies painted and
decked with feathers, chant praises to
the sun. Then follows a race between
the young men, lasting perhaps two
hours, in Which the contestants run
back and forth in relays. After din-
ner the ehifonetis (priests of the sun)
with bodies striped iu black and white,
like zebras, amuse the people with
such buffoonery as may be suggested
by the occasion, much the same as the
clown of a circus, making faces,
cracking jokes and making elaborate
attempts at various feats, only to fail.
This is the one occasion of the year
when Apaches, Utes and Navajoes are
permitted to.pitch camp on wild the reser¬ tribes
vation, and some of these
are sure to be present to get a share
of the good things given away. The
antipathy to the Mexicans'is forgotten,
and Americans are prized as guests of
honor.
The subject races early learned the
Spanish language from their conquer¬
ors, and for 200 years or more it has
been tho common tongue of south¬
western peoples speaking various lan¬
guages. Even Americans in many
parts of the southwest are forced to
learn it in order to facilitate their af¬
fairs. Tho work of the Catholic
Church and the tenacity of the Mexi-
cans have kept the Castillian promi¬
nent even under American rule. The
pyramid dwellers, therefore, learn
Spanish for communication with the
outside world and retain their own
ancient tongue for home life. Few of
them know any English.
Every new born babe is baptized by
tbe Catholic priest and characterized
by a Spanish name, except in a few
cases in which French priests, who
have been brought in by the present
archbishop have given French names.
But the pagan shaman also christens
the babe, Facing the East in the
morning twilight, he awaits the mo¬
ment when the sun shall peep over the
Taos Mountains, towering 13,000 feet
above the sea, when he bestows on
the infant a native name by which he
is known among his intimates. These
people are divided into clans designa¬
ted as eagle, corn, etc., and members
of the same clan are not permitted to
intermarry. They have an admirable
family life. The fields and the pro¬
ducts of the chase belong to the hus¬
band. The house and the children
belong to the wife. The crops are the
husband’s until they are housed, when
they become the wife’s. She grinds
the corn and wheat between stones,
and this rude mill is known as a
metate.
The courts have decided that the
pyramid dwellers are citizens of the
United States under the treaty of
Hidalgo Guadalupe, by which the
southwest was acquired from Mexico,
but they do not want to be citizens,
and the Government has scarcely
treated them as such. The grant of
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RUINS OF CHURCH BOMBARDED BI AMERI¬
CAN CANNON IN 1848.
six square miles of the fertile, well-
watered valley of Taos, made by the
Spaniards more than a hundred years
ago, has been confirmed by Uncle
Sam, and the people support them¬
selves by farming, They do much of
their plowing with sticks dragged
through the soft soil by ponies. The
chief crops are corn and wheat. The
wheat is thrashed, as in biblical times,
by ponies trampling out the grain. It
is winnowed by throwing it into the
air with a pitchfork on a windy day.
The grain is then separated from the
heavier straw by running it through a
sieve made of sheep skin punched full
of holes and stretched on a wooden
frame. In this process considerable
dirt clings in the creases of the kernels,
and the wheat has to be washed to be
cleaned, though many persons think
that too finicky.
The married men of the pyramid
community elect a set of officers once
a year. There are a Governor, a Lieu¬
tenant-Governor, an Alcade, a War
Captain and several Assistants. The
inauguration takes place on New Year’s
Day in the church. The old officers
gather on one side of the room and the
new officers on the other. They march
in single file toward the altar, and,- as
they meet, the old Gobernador passes
to liis successor a silver-headed ebony
cane, presented to the pueblo by
Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Common
wands are transferred by the other re¬
tiring officers. The new officers gen¬
erally insist also on taking an oath be-
for the County Judge, although he has
no authority iu the matter. The na¬
tives imagine that their action is rati¬
fied by the Government of the United
States. They also have a Cacique,
who is hereditary and holds his posi¬
tion for life. He is the head of the
system of pagan religion, while the
..Governor is the head of * civil affairs.
but so great is the reverence of tho
people for the Cacique that iu any con¬
troversy his will is practically law as
against the rule of the Gobernador,
The pyramid people ask no help of
Uncle Sam, and he does not interfere
in their internal affairs. They have
acquired a community title to their
farms and transfer these among them¬
selves. They have gone into civilized
courts only once or twice, and then
because whites encroached on their
lands. They lease some of their land
to Mexican neighbors at the rate of $1
for ns much as can be seeded with a
fanega of grain. A fanega of wheat is
about two bushels, and it will seed
about two acres, making the rent
about fifty cents an acre.
An authority has said that nowhere
else on earth has the aborigine built
many-storied homes, and these two
pyramids are the only ones of then-
kind remaining in the Egypt of Amer¬
ica.
GREAT FEATHERED CREATURE.
Remains of it Bird Tliat Was Twelve
Feet High Discovered In Australia.
UDr. E. C. Stirling announces that
he discovered, during a visit to Aus¬
tralia, from which lie has just re¬
turned, the remains of an extinct bird
which in life measured twelve feet in
height. The bird, as Dr. Stirling de¬
scribes it, is unknown to history. In
some respects, it resembles the ele¬
phant-footed moa, and in others the
emu of the present day. It differs
from all in so great a degree, however,
as to prove it to have been of a class
by itself. Large quantities of the re¬
mains were discovered, showing that
centuries ago this great-feathered the crea¬ Aus¬
ture was a common sight on
tralian plains. called
The place of discovery is
Lake Callabouna and is located in
South Australia. If it has at any time
been visited by other than the natives,
Dr. Stirling found no trace of the fact.
Lake Callabonnais one of those basins
which are dignified with the name of
lake, but only become such during,
those tremendous downpours of water
which transform the seeming Aus- (
tralian desert into the verdure-clad’,
plain. While Dr. Stirling visited it,
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THIS BIRD WAS TWELVE FEET HIGH.
it was really a hard clay salt pan, cov¬
ered with glittering crystals of gypsum
and salt. It is salt that preserved the
bones. Salt accomplishes this, al-
though it renders the bones exceed¬
ingly brittle. The remains of the big
bird were found associated with those
of the other extinct marsupials. Owing
to the fact of the extreme brittleness
caused by the salt, the task of recover¬
ing and preserving them was one of
exceeding difficulty. It was, however,
accomplished safely, and' so far as can
be determined, all that was necessary
to make up a perfect specimen of the
bird seoured.
A Three-Foot Building.
At the corner of Gold and Platt
streets, New York, is one of the oldest
and most interesting buildings in that
city. It is three stories high, 120 feet
deep and only three feet wide. Ac¬
cording to the World, the building was
put up over forty years ago by James
Thompson. When the city laid out
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narrowest house IN THE WORLD.
Platt street little attention was paid to
the division of lots, and the result was
this queerly shaped strip of land was
left over and somehow came into the
possession of Mr, Thompson. Here
Van Buren once entertained his
friends. The building is now occu¬
pied as a saloon, while the upper floors
are given over to living purposes. It
is probably the narrowest house iu the
world.
Picture stealing in galleries seems
to be epidemic in Europe. Two cases
have recently been reported from Par¬
is, two from Budapest and one from
Madrid,
