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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. JMmL I I •j -a. 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 pLjf £3 38 == fW. f ‘ I c CKl i L 9 =r 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 & \IJ ViZS % C3-C- T I CD •VI CL 4S s EMI y ni A > -O i I I m 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 ■"'h—it—hi 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, \ 1 i, i ms? ►V y 4' i vv \ iiiitm ■ A s- I w \ i V x- S iii 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 . \ ''''fyjfb l: /j nmrrr t&BiiBEm K ) mTFl r> rtSEEES? ran mMEi y 'ii W Hi! i! J! 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,