Ths Sinking of the Birkenhead,
How She Went Down Off the Cape of Good Hope.
Visitors to the hospital of the
pensioners at Chelsea will,
have noticed in the colonnade a
ple memorial tablet, placed there
order of the late Queen Victoria,
record the heroic constancy and
pline of the officers and soldiers
lost their lives in the wreck of
transport. Birkenhead, off the
of Good Hope, on February 26, 1852.
On January 7 of that year, after
barking re-enforcementsamounting to
fifteen officers and 476 men for
troops engaged in the Kaffir War,
Birkenhead left Ireland for the
On board were also 166 women
children, the wives and families
soldiers. All went well until
transport reached Simon’s
where ten officers and eighteen
were landed; the ship continued
course on the evening of
25. But the captain, in his
for a quick passage,
kept so close to the shore that
the night the ship got among
rocks which line the coast.
three miles off Danger Point, at 2
o’clock in the morning of the
while all except those on watch
sleeping peacefully in their
mocks, the ship struck with a
shock. The bulk of the men on
were young soldiers who had been
a short time in the service, yet
behaved with as much coolness as
though they were on their
ground, and with as much courage as
if in action in the field.
The rush of water on the
head striking was sp great that
of the soldiers on the lower troop
deck were drowned in their ham¬
mocks. The remainder, with all
officers, appeared on deck, many only
partly dressed, and fell in as orderly
and as quietly as on the barrack
square. Calling the officers round
him, Lieutenant-Colonel Seton. of the
Seventy-fourth Highlanders, the sen¬
ior officer on board, impressed on
them the necessity for preserving or¬
der and silence among the men. The
services of the next senior, Captain
Wright, Ninety-first Highlanders,
were placed at the disposal of the
commander of the ship to carry out
whatever orders he might consider
essential. Sixty men were put on the
chain pumps on the lower after deck,
and told off in three reliefs; sixty
more were put onto the tackles of the
paddlebox boats, and the remainder
were brought onto the poop to ease
the fore part of the ship, as she was
rolling heavily. The commander
next ordered the officers’ chargers to
be pitched out of the gangway, The
plunging and terrified horses were
got up and cast over, five of them
managing to swim ashore. The cut¬
ter was then got ready for the women
and children, who had been collected
under the poop awning; and they
were passed in one by one. There
being room in the boat for one or two
more, the order was given for any
trumpeter or bugle boys to be taken,
A young drummer standing near was
told by an officer to get into the boat,
but, drawing himself up, he refused,
exclaiming that he drew man’s pay
and would stick by his comrades.
To Try Growing Hemp in Wisconsin.
Experiments in the growing of
hemp in Wisconsin will be conducted
by the agronomy department of the
University of Wisconsin in co-opera¬
tion with the United States Depart¬
ment of Agriculture and the State
Board of Control. The farms of the
State penitentiary at Waupun, the
Mendota insane asylum and the agri¬
cultural experiment station at Mad¬
ison have been chosen for the exper¬
iment, which will be carried on un¬
der the supervision of L. H. Dewey,
a government agronomist. The plan
is to discover what soils in this State
are best adapted to the culture of
hemp, and whether crops can be pro¬
duced at a price to make possible its
use for binder twine. Experiments
will also be made with various ma¬
chines for the separation of the fibres
from the plant, and to discover the
economic value of hemp as a rota¬
tion crop.—Madison Corespondence
Milwaukee Sentinel.
Wandering Molecules.
Even the most solid metals lose
some of their molecules by dispersion
from the surface, but some curious
peculiarities are observed in the pro¬
cess of molecular dispersion. For
instance, when a piece of gold is
pressed against a piece of lead, some
of the molecules of the former dis¬
perse into the lead. The process is,
of course, extremely slow, and years
are required before its effects be¬
come evident. But, slow as it is, the
dispersion of the molecules of gold
into a mass of lead takes place faster
than into either air or water. The
surface molecules of water disperse
readily into air, hut refuse to enter
oil. The molecules of salt disperse
quickly in water, but refuse to enter
air, or most solids, in appreciable
quantities.
Greenland has a population of 11,-
895.
The cutter then shoved off in charge
of one of the ship's officers, and the
women and children were safe.
No sooner was she clear than the
entire bow of the vessel broke off at
the foremast, the bowsprit going up
in the air toward the fore-topmast;
the funnel also went over the side,
carrying away the starboard paddle
box and boat and crushing the men
on the tackles. The paddlebox boat
capsized on being lowered, and the
large boat in the centre of the ship
could not be got up. * The men were
then ordered onto the poop, where
they stood calmly awaiting their fate.
Within a few minutes the vessel
broke in two, cross-wise, just abaft
the engine room, and the stern be¬
gan rapidly to fill. In this extremity
the commander called out: Those
who can swim jump overboard and
make for the boats,” but the officers
begged the soldiers not to, as the
boat with the women and children
would be swamped. They were young
men ix the prime of life, with all
before them, yet no one moved, nor
did any sign of terror or fear escape
them. Lower and lower sank the
vessel into the deadly sea. The old
transport shivered, gave a final
plunge, and disappeared, carrying
with her the baud of heroes on deck
and those working below at the
pumps.
Men of all ages and ranks they
were—the colonel and the drummer
boy, officers of gentle birch, and men
from the workshop, the plow and the
mine; but all animated with the same
heroic resolution, fortitude and chiv¬
alry—as cool as though they had been
on their parade ground, with as much
courage as in action in the field. A
few managed to cling to the rigging
of the mainmast, part of which re¬
mained out of water, while others
got hold of floating pieces of wood
and were eventually rescued, but of
fourteen officers and 458 men no
fewer than nine officers and 349 men
perished, many falling a prey to the
attacks of the sharks, which sur¬
rounded the ships in shoals, waiting
for their victims. Every woman and
child was saved. «
It need hardiy be said that the ap¬
palling extent of the misfortune cast
a gloom over the whole community,
a grief which was only lessened by
admiration for the extraordinary dis¬
cipline and fortitude displayed from
the time the ship struck until she to¬
tally disappeared. There was not a
murmur till she made her final
plunge. The senior surviving officer
likened the scene to an ordinary dis¬
embarkation, only a more orderly one
than he ever remembered to have wit¬
nessed. The Duke of Wellington, as
Commander-in-Chief, gave fitting ex¬
pression to the feelings of the army
on the subject; but perhaps the great¬
est compliment ever paid to the mem¬
ory of the brave was the order of the
King of Prussia for the account of
the wreck of the Birkenhead to be
read on three successive parades at
the head of every regiment in his
army; and it was spoken of in every
school in Prussia and Germany.—
London Globe.
Strength of Rings.
Some elaborate calculations,
backed by experiments, have been re¬
cently made in England to deter¬
mine the breaking strength of rings.
It appears that a ring of ductile
metal, like malleable iron, will be
pulled out into the form ct a long
link before it breaks, and that the
ultimate strength of the ring is vir¬
tually independent of its diameter.
Fracture finally occurs as the result
of almost pure tension, and the re¬
sistance to breaking is a little less
than twice that of a rod of the same
cross-section subjected to a straight
pull. As the ring increares in diame¬
ter there appears to be a slight ap¬
proach toward equality, with double
the strength of a bar. Thus a three
inch ring, made of three-quarter-inch
iron, broke at nineteen and one-half
tons; a four-inch ring at 19.9 tons,
and a six-inch ring at twenty tons,
the strength of a bar of the same
metal being ten and one-half tons.
Seeing Lightning Strike.
In July last William F. Rigge of
Creighton University had the unusual
fortune to see a bolt of lightning
strike an isolated cottonwood tree
about a quarte- of a mile away. The
flash appeared as a “superb column
or shaft of light about 46 ■> or 5 00
feet high and eight to twelve inches
in diameter, perfectly straight, ver
tical and steady.” The shaft was
white, but its base was tinged with
red. This column seemed to stand
between two di- erging trunks of the
tree, and lasted about two seconds.
Afterward Mr. Rigge found that one
of the two trunks of the double tree
bad its bark stripped off in the shape
of a ribbon six inches wide and two
yards- long. The othe trunk showed 1
two furrows beginning ten fee t above
the und. They It ked as if they
had oeen plowed by a piece cf steel,
There was no sign of fire.
LW j L~BjJM 2
A SERMON ’
Kf r tAg rev'
[rriV-]kNDEI^oN'W^A'F
Subject: Bcth-el.
Brooklyn, N. Y.—Preaching on the
above theme at the Irving Square
Presbyterian Church, Hamburg ave¬
nue and Wierfield street, the Rev. Ira
Wemmell Henderson, pastor, took as
his text Gen. 28:19, “And Jacob
awaked out of his sleep, and he said,
Surely the Lord is in this place; *
* * * this is none other but the
the house of God, and this is the gate
of heaven, * * * And he
called the name of that place Beth¬
el."
The scene is as grand as the lan¬
guage is inspiring. And the sublim¬
ity of the picture and the elevation
of the language are only to be ex¬
plained upon the assumption that at
this time and under the conditions
that are described Jacob enjoyed a
special and glorious spiritual experi
ence.
Jacob was journeying from Beer
sheba to Haran. He stopped on the
way, took stones for a pillow and lay
down to rest, the day being spent,
for the night. “And he dreamed,
and behold a ladder set up on the
earth, and the top of it reached to
heaven: and behold the angels of God
ascending and descending on it. And
behold! the Lord stood above it.”
Is it any wonder that Jacob ven¬
erated the place? Here he found
blessing. Here was inspiration. Here
was the manifestation of the ever¬
lasting God. It was but a stone in
the open, roofed with the arching
heavens, walled by the horizon be¬
yond which his vision could not pen¬
etrate; but here he had seen God.
And he called the place Beth-el.
No one is so foolish as to imagine,
that the stone and the surrounding
locality were any more sacred in and
of themselves than were a thousand
similar stones upon which Jacob
might have rested his tired head or
were a hundred other places in the
quietude of which he might have
found repose. But upon that stone
his head had rested when the God of
Abraham and of Isaac reiterated to
him the covenant He had made with
the fathers. In that spot he had been
the recipient of the richest joy that
the heart of man may experience in
this life or the mind of man desire: a
vision of the living God. And so he
poured oil on the stone and conse¬
crated the place where he had tarried
through a memorable night.
What else would any man have
done? The event was not common¬
place. The vision was beatific. The
covenant was tremendous both as to
its authorship and its duration. Con¬
sidered from any point of view the
occasion was to be commemorated
and the locality was forever invested
with a subduing and soul warming at¬
mosphere that would be effective
with us to-day were we within the
scope of its influence. Jacob would
have been neither courteous nor hu¬
man if he had not set the place as in
a sense apart. If we may remember
heroes with monuments and good
men with statuary, shall not Jacob
commemorate the revelation of Jeho¬
vah with an oil soaked stone? If we
are conscious of a thrill as with bared
heads and reminiscent minds we stand
in Independence Hall or about the
graves of the martyr dead shall we
not admit the sacredness of the spot
where God showed Himself to the
leader of His people?
All of which is not to push sense
over, the border line of reason, or to
make the logical become illogical.
Jacob called the place Beth-el, the
house of God. And so we call our
churches. Every church is a Beth-el
or it is nothing better than a club¬
house. A church is not simply a col¬
lection of stone and brick and plaster
and wood and glass and iron and
nails bound into a building, any more
than the stone was the sanctuary or
the place where Jacob heard the
voice of God the shrine. A church is
more than an edifice as the shrine
was something more than a geogra¬
phical or geological entity. We con¬
secrate our churches to the benefi¬
cent uses of the religious life of the
people not because we consider that
God abides simply and solely within
them or that a blessed brick is holier
than an unblessed stone. We enter
•ur churches, rather, I should say we
should enter our churches, because
in a real way they stand for an exper¬
ience, they teem with reminiscence,
they commemorate individual and so¬
cial blessings and visions of the sov¬
ereign God.
Jacob called the place Beth-el be¬
cause he had a compelling religious
experience. And so we should ven¬
erate our churches. A church that
lacks the spiritual atmosphere, that
is not the expression of a deep spirit¬ i
ual conviction, that commemorates :
no visions and that is ineloquent of
mighty spiritual exaltations, is not a |
church. It is a fraud. !
A church is a Beth-el. And as such, j
it should be revered. Within it |
should be found blessing and inspira¬
tion, out of it should flow the influ¬ !
ences that tend toward God and that
militate for the weal of men.
Beth-el .was notable as the com¬
memoration of a blessing. And what
blessings have we not had within the
confines of our churches. Where
such holy reveries, such -glorious in¬
spirations, such lasting joys, such
revelations through the abiding of a
tnon spirit? Here we have seen
*u glory of the Lord, here ,we have
) w n the power of His love, here
we have fed upon His promises and
been augmented in the riches of His ;
grace. Here, as was Jacob at Beth-el,
Real Estate f Fire Insurance
Fort Valley Realty & Development Co.
The leading Fire Insurance Companies Represented.
Office Over Exchange Hunk, Port Valley, Ueorgla. f
(
have we been inspired, filled with
larger hopes, urged on to nobler and
to holler achievements, filled with the
energy that no man may describe, in
effnble, intensive and divine. Here
we have felt the warmth of the spir
itual atmosphere and have clasped
hands with God.
The Influences that rolled with pre-i
dieted vigor from the simple shrine
at Beth-el ought to flow and will,
from any well appointed church. The
cnurch is not a pool, it is a stream.
It is rather a dynamic than a static.
From the church should well forth
the influential streams of righteous¬
ness and of truth and the healing of
the nations. The world owes an In¬
calculable debt, as do we, to the
church, and the church should by her
unceasing and compounding influence
for good and for God, and unremit¬
ting service for men, place the world
ever more largely in her due.
The churches must be Beth-els or
many of them never could withstand
the abuses to which they are lout.
Only upon the assumption that the
spiritual influences that move within
them are born of God can we under¬
stand how many of them survive the
desecrations to which they are sub¬
jected. The average fair is enough
to kill any church. The average
church entertainment, paltry and
puerile as it is expressionless, would
be a death blow to the social activi
tics of any organization less hardy.
What with moving pictures and wax
works and spelling bees and turkey
suppers and men's smokers and wom¬
en’s gossip, it is wonderful that we
have any veneration for churches at
at all, that we find any blessing, any
inspiration within them, and any in¬
fluence moving from them.
The church should be Beth-el. It
should be the house of God. There,
too, we should see the ladder
stretching down from heaven- there
the ascending and descending angels.
There we should see God. There wa
should make covenant with Him.
There we should enter into the pos¬
session of His interminable promise.
There we should have a glorious, an
exalted spiritual blessing.
FEMININE NEWS NOTES.
Mary Brush, of Davenport, Iowa,
invented a boneless corset.
London regards smoking in res¬
taurants by women as good form.
Mrs. Kendall, the actress, invented
a very handsome and popular lamp¬
shade.
The Japanese youth gives his
sweetheart, instead of an engagement
ring, a piece of silk for her sash.
The Women Suffrage League, of
New York City, wishes the support
of the labor organizations in its agi¬
tation for political equality.
Mrs. Cadawalader Jones, president
of the Woman’s Auxiliary to the S.
P. C. A., surprised the society by
frankly declaring herself in favor of
vivisection.
Empress Augusta Victoria while
riding with the Emperor at Sans
Soucl fel from her horse, fortunately,
however, suffering no other injury
than bruises.
There are in Europe 10,000 women
and girls who earn a living as artists’
models. It is strange to say that
there are not ten among them who
possess a perfect face and figure.
Mrs. W. H. Eaton, widow of the
letter carrier who was drowned sav¬
ing the lives of two boys, was granted
an annunity of $300 and $25 a month
for her children from the Carnegie
Fund.
Mrs. Owen Jones Wister, mother
of Owen Wister, novelist, is dead in
her home in Philadelphia. Mrs.
Wister, who was in her seventy-sec¬
ond year, was Miss Sarah Butler, a
daughter of Pierce Butler and Fanny
Kemble, the actress.
That Senator Platt, of New York,
paid his wife $25,000 cash and agreed
to give her $10,000 a year for five
years was brought out in a suit
brought against the Senator by Mrs.
Platt’s former counsel to recover
money advanced to pay some of her
debts.
Life Not a Holiday.
Sooner or later we find out that
life is not a holiday, but a discipline.
Earlier or later we will discover that
the world is not a playground. It is
quite clear that God means it for a
school. The moment we forget that,
the puzzle of life begins. We try to
play in school. The Master does not
mind that so much for its own sake,
for He likes to see His children
happy; but in our playing we neglect
our lessons. We do not see how
much there is to learn, and we do not
care.
But our Master cares. He has a
perfectly overwhelming and inexpli
cable solicitude for our education;
and because He loves us He comes
into the school sometimes and speaks
to us. He may speak very softly and
gently or very ,loudly.
But one thing we may be sure of:
The task He sets us to is never meas¬ I
ured by our delinquency. It is meas
ured by God’s solicitude for our pro- |
gress; rnea measured d :,l_'ly that solely the by scholar God’s love; may j I
dacated when he arrives at ]
his F; r’s home.—Henry Drum- I
mond.
New Grand Army Heads.
Auburn, Me It Department of
Maine, G. A. It., elected Woodbury
K. Dana, of Westbrook, department
commander.
j j ! ! Kennedy’s
| j Laxative
i
| Cough Syrup
Relieves Colds by working them out
of the system through a copious and
healthy action of the bowels.
Relieves coughs by’ cleaaslng the
mucous membranes of the throat, chest
and bronchial tubes.
ti As pleasant to the taste
as Maple Sugar *»
Children Like It*
For BACKACHE-WEAK KIDNEYS Try
GeWitt's Kidney and Bladder Fills Sure and Safa
Sold by Holmes Clark & Co.
W. H. HAFER,
DENTIST.
Fort Valley, Georgia
Office over First National Bank,
C. Z. McArthur,
Dentist
FORT VALLEY, GA*
Office over Slappey’s Drug Store.
A. C. RILEY,
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW,
WRIGHT BUILDING,
Fort Valley, Ga.
Practice in all the courts. Money
loaned. Titles abstracted.
Tire $ Cife Insurance
fl. D. Skcllic
Office Phone No. 54.
FORT VALLEY, GA.
C. L. SHEPARD,
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW,
Fort Valley, Ga.
Office Over First National Bank.
TONSOR1AL ARTIST
For anything in the tonsorial line
don’t fail to call on
WILLIAMS
Next Door to Post Office.
Experienced workmen and courteous at*
tention to all. Everything up-to-da^#.
Ml
SAM LOO,
FIRST-CLASS LAUNDRY
FORT VALLEY, GA.
PRICE LIST.
Shirts, plain.............. 10c
Shirts, plain or puffed with
collar............ ,121-2c
Suits cleaned....... 50 & $1.
Pants pressed........ . ..25c
Collars............... ...2 1-2
Capes, collar or fancy 1>C
Cuffs each per pair 5c
Chemise........... 10c
Drawers........... 5e
Undershirts....... 5 c
Socks, per pair ... 5c
Handkerchiefs...... 2 1-2
Handkerchiefs, silk 5c
Shirts, night, plain. 10c
Coats............ .. .15 to 25c #
Vests............ ... 15 to 20c
Pants......,..... ... 25 to 85c
2 1-2 to 5c
Table cloths...... ... 10 to 25
Sheets........... ......7 1-2
Pillow cases, plain .......5c
Napkins.......... ......2 l-2c
Bed spreads..... ..15 to 25c
i > > lankets......... 25 to 50c
i ..
Lace Curtains.... 20 to 25c
Ladies’ shirt waist......15 to 25c
Skirts 20 to 85c
ONLY NATURAL.
ou ?r
. r I be
in avoid
Ther :oo much
to suit the f ill IX r.
