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THE MOST ROMANTIC AND DARING
FIGURE OF THE SEPOY MUTINY
The most heroic figure upon
ait! in the final campaign of the
poy rebellion in India, fifty years
was a woman and a rebel, and
ear t and death of the rani of
* 1 , n< surpassed in passionate
in." and chivalry by the story of Joan
of Arc herself, Is recorded among
pages of history which will move
in;i'i sympathy forever.
The outbreak of the mutiny found
the East India Company in possession
of the principality of Jhansi.
people were a quarter of a million in
number. A few years beforp the
jah had died childless, and his
tory had been annexed. His
widow had been treated with
ness, and her heart burned with
wrath against the alien dominion,
which she believed to be as sordid as
cruel.
The news of the outbreak was no
■ooner brought to the great stone
fortress where a brooding woman
lived with her ladles than the rani,
with the instant and unexpected deci
*ion that never failed her to the end,
resolved to strike against those who
had, ns she conceived, usurped the
lands of her dead husband’s house,
and withheld her rightful revenues.
She unearthed burled guns; she dis¬
pelled the suspicion of the British
•cent; she was allowed to enlist
troops upon the pjea of protecting
herself against the rebels with whom
•he was secretly negotiating, and
when her preparations were com¬
plete she attacked, swift and fierce as
a tigress.
The handful of Christians in the
cantonment threw themselves into
the fort, a massive structure built
apon a high granite rock. Among
the little garrison there were women
and children, as well as a number of
British officers. The rani leveled
against the walls the hidden cannon
whicli had been again brought to
Bght. In spite of a gallant defense,
the doomed garrison were short of
.water, of food, of ammunition. They
attempted to parley. The rani killed
their envoys and renewed her attack.
Her impatient efforts were foiled,
and she passed swiftly from honor¬
able warfare to the act, of ruthless
perfidy which lias left a stain upon
her name. The rani herself sent in
a flag of truce, offering the garrison
aafe conduct to a British station. The
defenders accepted her terms. As
they passed out unarmed they were
aeized and bound, and without dis¬
tinction of sex or age were utterly
destroyed.
For a time the rani of Jhansi was
fueen of all the land that she beheld
from her towers. Her stronghold,
.with its elaborate cincture of granite
walls from sixteen to twenty feet
thick, was a formidable danger upon
the flank of the British operations in
Central India, and for some time they
had not available any force sufficient
to reduce It. When Sir Hugh Rose
arrived with his inadequate force be¬
fore the walls of the rani’s capital
*he odds against the' British must
have appeared hopeless to the native
sniud. The city of Jhansi was more
than four miles in circumference,
with 30,000 inhabitants. The towers
and cannon of the citadel dominated
all the country below. In sheer mil¬
itary ability, nothing in the mutiny
from'end to end was better than Sir
Hugh Rose’s campaign in Central In¬
dia, and that born warrior had
•reached a critical moment of his ca¬
reer. But he had grasped' by intui¬
tion one great secret. He knew it
to be even truer of Asiatic warfare
than of other situations in life that
he who hesitates is lost,. “When your
enemy is In the open go straight at
Kira, and keep him moving, and when
Behind ramparts still go at him, cut
off ehr.uces of retreat when possible,
pursue him if escaping or escaped.”
These were the golden rules which a
eenUary of India experience had
.taught him.
But the rani was determined to
hold out while resisthnee was possi¬
ble, and never to fall alive into the
hands of the besiegers. She inspired
her own sex by her own example. The
aative women were often seen work¬
ing on the walls and carrying ammu
aition to the defenders. There are
lew more picturesque and gracious
Tisions than that of the rani and her
ladies, in jeweled attire, visiting the
“Black Tower” in the magical light
•f the cool hour of the evening.
But the rani was reserved for a
treater and a stranger death. Into
the few last weeks of her life was
crowded more drama than she had
yet known in all her previous years,
Sir Hugh Rose stormed the city but
e ‘ " L ” 15 OU5 \ 1 e nu 11 !ns b J - ' •
The British , had to carry the palace
tootn by room. The enemy fired
trains of powder laid along the floors,
and exploded even the ammunition in
their pouches. This struggle went
•n for thirteen hours under an a
palling sun, but “the queen” w r as not
among the prisoners.
All day long she had watched the
struggle. When every hope of saving
the day was gone she made such an
escape as Dumas might have imag
iued. Her horse had been brought
••m I
t into the fore ditch with the conniv
ance of some native troops serving
! with the British forces. From a win
dow in the turret side she was low
ered down and swung into the saddle.
With a few hundred men about her,
, and with her little stepson in her
lap, she rode away and reached Kal
! pi in safety. This was another native
fortress at a distance of 100 miles,
and again the presence of the rani
(created the storm centre of a strug
gle in Central India. Sir Hugh Rose
followed hard on the track of the fu
git.ive, and marched as much as pos
sible by night. Kalpi was perched
on a high rock rising out of the Jum
ma, rlnth and of was deep surrounded ravines. Here by a again laby- |
the rani fought in person, but Sir
Hugh Rose was not to be denied,
Constantly felled by sunstroke he
was up again fighting his way for
ward, and Kalpi was won.
But even yet the Mahratta amazon j
was filled with iwiconquerable will
and courage never to submit or yield,
She now conceived and carried out a
maneuver almost Napoleonic in its
unexpectedness and overwhelming
effect. With the whole rebel army !
she wheeled round, crossed the Cham- 1
bal River, not like a fugitive, but |
like a conqueror, and dashed upon i
the great fortress of Gwalior, whose |
mighty rock rises out of the plain as J
Gibraltar towers above the sea. The I
Maharaja Sinhhia had remained loyal |
to the British raj. His army was at- j
tacked and vanished. His troops
joined the rani as soon as she ap- j
peared, and Sindhia, the greatest of
the Mahratta princes, was a fugitive;
his palace was captured, and its
treasury, with its famous jewels, was
looted; the arsenal fell into hands of
the enemy. In a single day the rani,
thought to have been crushed by two
disasters, had more money, more
arms and more troops than ever.
No marvel that this great feat oc¬
curring in the middle of 1858 caused
at first almost as much excitement
.
and alarm as the original outbreak j
of the mutiny a year before. Sir
Hugh Rose was worn out, and his |
leave had just been granted. With- |
out a moment’s hesitation he bent
himself to his work once more, and
gathered up all his energies for a
final blow. Again he covered the
distance between him and his goal j
by heavy marches in the fatal heat, j
and pushed toward Gwalior, breaking j
the enemy, in hand-to-hand fights. I
Before the fortress was taken the
rani was dead. Dressed like a man, I
in a red jacket and trousers and with
a white turban, she perished in re¬
sisting a squadron of the Eighth
Hussars, who charged through the
enemy’s camp, carrying everything
before them. A pursuing trooper*
believing her to be a man, cut her
down with a mortal stroke. Round
her neck was the celebrated pearl
necklace, taken from Sindhia’s treas¬
ury, and once belonging to the Por¬
tuguese regalia. She was only twen¬
ty when she passed away, leaving be¬
hind her, with all her faults, a name
which had won imperishable honor,
and the memory of a spirit as high as
ever nerved a woman for war.—De¬
troit News-Tribune.
WISE WORDS. •
Too many canaries spoil the con¬
cert.
There’s a mirror maze in every
man’s heart.
My own self-conceit I modestly
label “ability.”
When May weds December, Cupid
salts down another heart in his cold
storage plant.
We swear to love forever and a
day—and life at best is but a twenty
minute vaudeville skit.
The rain descends on the just and
the unjust, but principally on the um¬
brella-less.
The bird of time is either a lark
or a carking crow, accordingly as you
are young or old.
For a bruised heart try the lini¬
ment of another love.
Rainbow gold is currency in the
land of dreams.
A chaperon is Cupid’s accredited
ambassador.
Too often the early bird gets
broiled for breakfast.
Little pitchers never get full, once
you start to supplying the neighbors
with milk. >
Greater love can no woman pro¬
claim than this: That girl is good
enough for my son
„ An Infant crying in the night » can
shatter the silence as effectively as an
® army with bauners and a
, .
rass an
A man alw &ys feels as if he had
been held up by a highway robber
when he is approached for his part
the preacher s salary.
The disinterested devotion of broth
ers is evidenced by the fact that the
only girls they ever try to help be
perfect ladies are their own sisters.—
From “Eve’s Epigrams,” in the New
York Telegram.
id ev.’S? eaj £ii fr»im u* i
practical advice about
DIVERSIFIED FARMING
Indirect Fertilizers.
Gypsum, or land plaster, is sul¬
phate of calcium, and has a limited
action. It does furnish calcium and
some sulphur, which are both re¬
quired in considerable quantities by
such crops as clover and turnins, but
its chief action is in aiding the pro¬
cess of nitrification by which ammo
nia and the nitrogen of organic mat
ter are converted into forms which
are readily assimilated by the plant,
and in liberating potash and other
elements of plant food from insolu
ble forms of combination and mak
\ n g them available. Lime, like gyp
sum. aids nitrification and liberates
plant, food from insoluble forms of
combination, action.’ but ft is more powerful
j n its Heavy clavs, which are
rich in insoluble form of potash, and
RO ils containing large quantities of
humus are those most benefited by
lime. In reclaiming swamp lands
the acid humic matter of the peat is
neutralized by the lime and the con
ditions thus made suitable for the
oxidzftion of the nitrogenous organic
matter and the production of ammo
n ia and nitrates. Lime has also a
very beneficial influence on the phy
S j ca i condition of the soil.
Common salt supplies no
Ingredient of plant food. The little
value which it possesses is probably
due to its action in the soil where it
helps to set free more imnortant con
stituents, particularly potash.
it is important to bear in mind
that these indirect fertilizers do not
add plant, food to the soil, but that
their chief value lies in the fact
they liberate plant food from insolu
ble forms of combination. Hence if
crops are not growing on the land to
make use of the liberated food, or if
the soil has been overstimulated by a
large and frequent application
lime, gypsum, or salt, loss of nitrogen
potash and phosphoric acid will
cur. Consequently these stimulants
should be used in moderation. On
soil not acid in nature one to one and .
one-haif tons per acre of lime at in- :
tervals of five six would be ’
or years
a sa f e application. — Professor A, ;
Harcourt.
The Farm Timber Supply.
There are hills now that have tim
her of more or less value on them
which the owners intend to clear off i
just as soon as possible, Timber is
going to be worth more than what it, kind ever j
been worth, no matter ! :
is. The United States Forestry
is doing good work in find- !
new ways to use lumber of poor
to better advantage. Lumber
would not have been put in
fifteen years ago is gladly
now. Furthermore, the farm
always have its supply of wood
fuel, for posts, poles, etc. If the
hills were used to the best
a large proportion of them'
have the timber cut off grad¬
and with discretion. It should
the aim to keep a stand of timber
a large area—not merely in
When a tree died, it could be
for whatever it was worth most..
trees were- standing too thick,
of them could be cut out; but
cutting should be done in a way
would give a- regular supply of
to be cut from year to year.
trees would tend to keep a layer
rich leaf mold to enrich the land,
water, provide shade for stock
nesting places for birds. The day
not distant when it will generally
considered favorable to a farm to
many birds about to feed on
insects. Birds that are now
supposed to be enemies to
farmer will in the flight of fuller
be seen to be more friends
enemies. The .timbered land
tend to perpetuate springs, since
rains, instead of rushing off down
hillsides, will be caught by the
mold and held there till it slow¬
penetrates to the deeper layers of
land. From these deeper layers
will gradually come forth in
which will supply water for
and maybe to run a hydraulic
for raising water for use about
and barn.
Cottonseed Meal For Hog Feeding.
To those wishing to use cottonseed I
for hogs recommend: '
now we
1. For animals on heavy feed that
more than one-fourth the weight
the grain ration consist of cotton
meal. i
2. That this feeding continue not I
than fifty days, cr that the pro-'
of meal be reduced if feeding
to be continued longer.
3. That the meal be mixed with
he other feed and all soured te¬
eth er.
4. That as much green feed as
ossible be furnished the hogs.
5. That a close watch be kept ant!
taken from any animals not
or gaining well.
Feeders who have had experience
the meal will probably be able
o exceed these recommendations.
vliich, however, allow the use e
meal to greatly improve a
diet. One pound of cottonseed
J meal to five of corn furnishes the
nutrients in the most desirable pro¬
portions for fattening, while one or
two of corn are more nearly correct
for young growing stock. Of course
other feeds are desirable for their in¬
fluences not attributable to their
composition, but it is not often that'
the adopted standards can be ignored
in feeding any animals for profit.—
From Texas Agricultural Experi-
1 ment Station.
| Gottin Bermuda, Getting Rid of It.
£
Bermuda seeds very sparingly in
our climate, and when pastured there
i is very little danger of it spreading
■
through the manure, It can be
grown from seed, which can be had
of the leading ? a edsmen, or it can be
mo re quickly, I think, grown from
cuttings of the running streams
planted In the soring. It is a hot
weather grass and should be planted
in the spring only, When it is de-
1 sired to break up a piece plow it shal
: lowly and rake out all that you can.
, then sow thickly with cowpeas, and
there will be little left, for it will not
stand shading. But when you once
have a good pasture of Bermuda, I
hardly think: that you will want to
break it. ir you will top dress it
, with some bone meal every spring
you will have the finest pasture you
ever saw for tire summer. But even
where Bermuda grows rank enough
to make a fair crop of hay, I would
hesitate about using it for hay, for
while it seeds sparingly, it does seed,
and in this way it may be scattered
to fields where we do not want it.—
W. F. Massey.,
Don’t Be a Soil Robber!
What does it profit a man if he
sells $10,000 worth of produce at,
say, $5000’ profit, and damages bis
farm $6000, Many never think of
I do not think than any man has a
right to rob his soil of all its fertility
any more than he has to rob a friend;
for God'gave us a f ertile land to pro¬
duce our crop, and should we rob it,
what will the future generations do?
When looking over the worn,
waste,, gullied lands of washed farms
of once fertile soil, I stop and wonder,
should the owner ever be lucky
enough to reach the pearly gates, if
St, Peter would not send him back
to stop those hollows that he let wash
out during his shiftless and unappre
ciative life upon earth.—J. D. Stodg
hill, Shelbyville,, Ky.„ in Progressive
Farmer,
Money in the Woodlot.
The treatment of the woodlot or
of vacant land that ought to be made
into a woodlot is a subject to which
too little attention is paid, consider¬
ing the money that there is in it. In
traveling over the country one sees
an aggregate of thousands of acres
of old fields whicli have lain idle for
twenty years, encumbered with scrubs
or worthless growths. Had they
been intelligently handled they would
now be producing merchantable trees.
“Oh, well, twenty years is too long to
wait, anyways,” says Simpson Slack.
But, Mr. Slack, you can look ahead
ten years, surely. Now when your
woodlot is ten years old, you can find
a purchaser who will wait the other
ten.
Pine Woods Mold For Sweet Potatoes.
If your soil is rather heavy for po¬
tatoes, try plowing under a heavy
cover of half rotted trash from a pine
woods, pine straw and rotted stuff.
The great market crop of sweet pota¬
toes on the eastern shore of Virginia
is largely made with this material.
Every pine woods there is raked' clean
every spring for the sweet potato
crop. And they make them, too.
But I know, too, that a crop of
crimson clover on the land would do
better and be cheaper than the labor¬
ious hauling from the woods. But
where there is no clover and you want
a late crop of sweets, try the woods
trash.—W. F. Massey,
Example For the South.
At Hutchinson, Minn., not long ago
there was a procession in connection,
with a dairy convention in a section
that went to the bad a few years ago
on account of the chinchbug. A Jer
sey cow headed the procession and
wore a silk blanket on which was
printed, “I raised the price of land in
McLeod Councy to ?100 per acre.”
That was a nice jump, and thousands
of counties in the South can have as
good experience if the farmers will
go at dairying in the way the Minne
sota bunch did.
Use Sprightly Breeds.
For the use of the farmer the more
breeds of chickens have
in their favor, since they
will travel about more to hunt food
consume more insects.
A Hint About Food.
There is toe much salt pork and
beef used in the South. More
poultry for home consumption
better meals and more health.
^Oixir^S §yrup#fT^s
gently enflft
acts yet prompt¬
ly on the bowels, cleanses
ft te system ojl'ectually
assists one in overcon -Co
habitual constinati ion
permanen oenejicial ejects ly. To get buy its
the genuine.
California planujactured battle
Jig 'Strup Co.
SOLD BT LEADING DRUGGi STS - 50f po-BSfru.
' V.
TOWER S FISH BRAND
WATERPROOF -W)
OILED CLOTHING
looks belter-wears longer- 11,1 '
and gives more m l\ \
bodily comfort’
because cut- on i
large patterns, yet than ^ d
costs no more vj} \ \
the just as good kinds
SUIT 5 TO 5 LICK[R 5 $ 3 Qom\
SOLD EVERYWHERE \
Every garment °
bearing (he „ ,
sign of the rish f 5 i
CATALOS FRCt
A J TOWTR CO BOSTON U 5 A
T°WCP CANAQ'AN CO LlMiTCD TQPQNTQ CAN
Spicy conversation should be handl¬
ed gingerly.
Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup for Children
teething, softens thegums, reduces inflamma¬
tion. alla vs pain, cures wind colic, 25e a bottle
Bad iuck doesn t bother trie man
who makes the best of it.
Hicks’ Capudine Cures Women’s
and Monthly Headache. Pains, It’s Backache, Nervousness*
diately. Prescribed by Liquid. Effects imme¬
results. 10c., 25c., and physicians with best
50c.. at drug store*.
The Housekeeper's Error,
A young married woman walked
Into a grocery store the other day
angry to the roots of her hair. Throw¬
ing a piece of yellow substance on
the counter she shrieked forth to the
grocer’s clerk who had: taken refuge
behind the counter:
“Here, you swindler,, is the soap
that does the washing alone;, the
soap that makes wash day a thing
of joy, when the housewife- may sit
In her easy chair and; receive callers;
the soap that makes a lather fine
enough for a man to shave- with, hut
Which takes out every stain—no mat¬
ter of what nature—from the linen
Here is the soap—”
“I beg your pardon, ma’am,” be¬
gan the clerk.
“Never mind'^sir; d'on’t interrupt
me,” broke in the irate bride.
“But,, ma’am,” insisted 1 the clerk,
picking up the piece of yellow stuff
the woman had’ thrown upon the coun¬
ter, ‘This isn’t soap, this is cheese.”
“Cheese! - ”' exclaimed the astonished
woman. “'Cheese?"
“Yes, ma’am, your husband bought
three pounds of soap yesterday, and
also three pounds of cheese, This
is the cheese, ma’am.”
“Well, that accounts for the oth¬
er thing also,” said the young house¬
keeper, becoming milder in temper,
“That’s why I couldn’t get a suds
today, and why—the welsh rabbit
tasted so queerly Ta«t night. — -
NO GUSHER
But Tells Facts About Postum.
“We have used Postum for the
past eight years',” writes a Wis. lady,
“and drink it three times a day. We
never tire of it.
“For several years 1 could scarcely
eat anything on account of dyspepsia,
bloating after meals, palpitation, sick
headache—in fact was in such misery
and distress I tried living on hot wat¬
er and toast for nearly a year.
“1 had quit coffee, the cause of my ,
trouble, and was using hot water, but
this was not nourishing.
"Hearing of Postum I began drink¬
ing it and my ailments disappeared,
and now I can eat anything i want
■without trouble.
“My parents and husband had
about the same experience. Mother
would often suffer after eating, while
yet drinking coffee. My husband was
a great coffee drinker and suffered
from indigestion and headache.
“After he stopped coffee and began
Postum both ailments left him. He
will not drink anything else now', and
we have it three times a day. 1 co :ld
w r rite more, but am no gusher—one
state plain facts.” Battle
Name given by Postum Co..
Creek, Mich. Read “The Road to ,
Wellville,” in pkgs. “There’s a Rea¬
son.”
Ever read the above letter? A new
one appears from time to time. 'I b ( 'F
are genuine, true, and full of human
interest.