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T. A. HAVRGN, Publisher,
QUEENS OF THE BIBLE.
VaPbt!, and Rachel, Deborah, Hah
nah and Mary.
Unselfish Unit Glorious Work for tho
iVorW* IWtressert— I Talninge'g Sermon.
Brooklyn, >l— Rev. Do Witt Tal-
Uiage, D. D., prcsched Sunday morning
the fifth in the “Series of Sermons to the
Women of America, with Important Hints
to Men.” His subject was, “The Veil of
Modesty.” and hi - t xt, Esther 1.. 12: “The
Queen Vashti refused to come.”
If you will aceopt. my arm I will escort
you into a throne-room. In this fifth ser
mon of the series of sermons there are cer
tain womanly excellencies which I wish to
commend, but, instead of putting them in
dry abstraction, I present yon their imper
sonation in one who seldom, if ever, gets
sermonic recognition.
Wo stand amid the palaces of Bliushan.*
The pinnacles are aflame with the morning
light. The columns rise festooned and
wreathed, the wealth of empires flashing
from the grooves; the ceilings adorned
with images of bird and beast, and scenes
of prowess and conquest. The walls aro
hung with shields and emblazoned until
it seems that the whole round of splen
dors is exhausted. Each arch is a
mighty leap of architectural achieve
ment. Golden stars, shining down on
glowing arabesque. Hangings of em
broidered work, in which mingle the blue
ness of the sky, the greenness of the grass,
and the whiteness of the soa-foam. Tapes
tries hung on silver rings, wedding to
gether the pillars of marble; pavilions
reaching out in every direction. These
for repose, filled with luxuriant couches,
in which weary limbs sink until all fa
tigue is submerged. These for carousal,
where Kings drink down a Kingdom
at one swallow’. Amazing spectacle!
Light pf silver dripping down over stairs
of ivory on shields of gold ! Floors of stain
ed marble, sunset-red and night-black, and
inlaid’ with gleaming pearl! Why, it
stems as if a heavenly vision of amethyst,
and jacinth, and topaz, and chrysoprasus
had descended and alighted upon Shushan.
It seems as if a billow of celestial glory
had dashed clear over Heaven’s battle
ments upon this metropolis of Persia.
In connection with this Palace there
is a garden, where the mighty
men of foreign lands are seated at a
banquet. Under the spread of the oak,
and linden, and acacia, the tables are ar
ranged. the breath of honeysuckle nnd
frankincense tills the air. Fountains leap
up into the light, the spray strtte-x tbroifgh
with rainbows falling in crystalline bap
tism upon flowering shrubs —then rolling
down through channels of marble, and
widening out here and there into pools
swirling with the tinny tribos, of foreign
aquariums, watered with scarlet ane
mones, hyporicums, and many-colored
ranunculus. Meats of rarest bird
and beasts smoking up amid
wreaths of aromatics. The vases
filled with apricots and almonds. The
baskets piled up with apricots, and dates,
and figs, and oranges, and pomegranates.
Melons tastefully twined with leaves of
acacia. The bright waters of Kulacus fill
ing the urns, and sweating outside the
rim in flashing beads amid the traceries.
Wine from the royal vats of Ispahan and
Shiraz, in bottles of tinged shell, and lily
shaped cuj.s of silver, and flagons and
tankards of solid gold. The music rises
higher, and the revelry breaks cut into
wilder transport, and the wine has flushed
the cheek and touched the brain, and
louder than all other voices are the hic
cough of the inebriates, tho gabble ol
fools and the song of tho drunkards.
In another part of the palace Queen
V-ashti is entertaining the princesses of
Persia at a banquet. Drunken Ahasuerus
says to Ids servants: “You go out and
fetch Vashti from that banquet with the
women and bring her to this banquet with
the men, and let me display her beauty.”
Tim servants immediately start to obey
the King’s command, but there was a rule
in oriental ’ society that no woman might
appear in public vvilhout having her face
Vailed. Yet there was a mandate that no
one dared dispute demanding that Vashti
come in unvaiied before tho multitude.
However, there was in Vashti’s soul a prin
ciple more regal than Ahsuorus, more bril
liant than tho gold of Shushan, of more
wealth than tho realm of Persia, which
commanded her U disobey this order
of the King: and so all the righteous
ness, and holiness, and modesty of her
nature rises up into one sublime refusal.
Hhe says: “1 will not go into the banquet
unvailed.” Of course Ahasuerus was in
furiate; and Vashti, robbed of her posi
tion and her estate, is driven forth in pov
erty and ruin to gutter the scorn of a na
tion, and yet to receive the applause of
after generations who shall rise up to ad
mire this martyr to kingly insolence.
Well, the lust vost igo ot that feast is gone,
the last garland has faded; the last arch
has fallen; the Inst tankard has been de
stroyed, and Hhushan is a ruin; but as
long as the world stands there will be mul
titudes of men and women familiar with
the Bible who will cotne into this picture
gallery of God and admire the Divine por
trait of Vashti the Queen, N ashti the
vailed, Vashti tho sacrifice, Vashti the
silent.
In the first place, 1 want you to look up
on Va hti the Queen. A blue ribbon,
rayed with white, drawn around her fore
head, indicated her queenly position. It
w.ts no small honor to be Queen in such a
realm as that. Hark to tho rustle of her
robes! Heo the blaze of her jewels. And
yet, my friends, it is pot necessary to have
a palace and regal robes in order to be
queenly. When I see a woman with stout
faith in God. putting her foot upon all
meanness and selfishness, and godless dis
play, going right forward to serve Christ
and tho ruoe by a grand and glorious
Soviet, l say: “That woman is a
Q .oen,’ 7 and the ranks of Hea\en
look over the battlements upon the
•;oiouation i and, whether she comes up
bom the shanty on the common* or vb*
**on9a *f vbt iquu’i, *
her with tho shout: “All hail, Queen
Vashti!” What glory was there on the
brow of Mary of Scotland or Elizab tli
of England or Margaret of France or
Catharine of Russia, compared with the
worth of some of our Christian mothers,
many of them gone into glory? Or of that
woman mentiouo l in the Scriptures, who
put her all into the Lord’s treasury 1 or of
Jephthah’s daughter, whe made a demon
stration of unselfish patriotism? or of
Abigail, who rescued the herds and flocks
of her husband? o cf Ruth, who toiled
under a tropical sun for poor, o'd, helpless
Naomi* or of Mrs. Ad on Tain Judson,
Who kindled the lights of sal
vation amid tho darkfioss of Bnrmah! or
of Mrs. Herkans, who poured out her holy
soul in words which will for ever be asso
ciated with hunter’s horn, and captive’s
chain, and bridal hour, and lute’s throb,
and curfew’s knell at the dying day? and
scores and hundreds of women, unknown
on earth, who have givoi. water to the
thirsty, and bread to the hungry, and med
icine to the sick, and smiles to the discour
aged—their footsteps beard along dark
lane and in Government hospital, and in
alms-house corridor, and by prison gate?
There may be no royal robe—there may be
no palatial surroundings. Hhe does not
need them; for all charitable men will
unite with the crackling lips of fever
struck hospital and plague-blotched laza
retto in greeting her as she passes: “Hail!
hail! Queen Vashti.”
Among the Queens whom I honor are the
female day-school teachers of this land. I
put upon their brow the coronet. They
are the sisters and the daughters of our
towns and cities, selected out of a vast
number of applicants because of then
especial intellectual and moral endow
ments. Theie are in none of your homes
women more worthy. These persons,
some of them, come out from affluent
homes, choosing teaching as a useful pro
fession; others, finding that father is older
than he used to be, and that his eye-sight
and strength are not as good as once, go
to teaching to lighten his load. But I tell
you the history of the majority of the fe
male teachers in the public schools when
Isay: “Father is dead.” After the estate
was settled tho family, that were com
fortable before’, are thrown on their own
resources.
It is hard for men to earn s living in this
day, but it is harder fer women—their
health not so rugged, their arms not so
strong, their opportunities fewer. These
persons, after tremblingly going through
the ordeal of an examinatioh as to their
qualifications to teach, half-bewildered
step over the sill of the public school to
do two things—i nstruct the young and earn
their own bread. Her work is wearing to
the last degree. The management of forty
or fifty fidgety and intractable children,
tho suppression of their vices, and the de
velopment of their excellencies, the man
agement of rewards and punishments, the
sending o I so many ba.-s cf s;ap and fine
tooth combs on benignant ministry, the
breaking of so many wild colts for the
harness of life, sends her home at night
weak, neuralgic, unstrung, so that of all
the weary people in your cities for five
nights of the week, there are, none more
weary than the public school teachers.
Now, for God’s sake, give them a fair
chance. Throw no obstacle in the way. If
they come out ahead in the race, cheer
them. If you waat to smite any, smite the
male teachers; they can take up the cud
gels for themselves. But keep your hands
off of defenseles s w omen. Father may be
dead, but there are enough brothers left to
demand and see that they get justice.
Within a stone’s throw-of this building
there died years ago one of the principals of
our public schools. She had been twenty
five years at that post. She had left the
touch of refinement on a multitude of the
young. She had, out of iter slender purse,
given literally thousands of dollars for
the destitute who came under her observa
tion as a school-teacher. A deceased sis
ter’s children were thrown upon her hands,
and she took care of them. Hhe. was a kind
mother to them, while she mothered a
whole school. Worn out with nursing in
the sick and dying-room of one of the
household, she herself came to die. She
closed the school-book, and at the same
time the volume of her Christia.i fidelity;
and when she went through the gates they
cried:
“These are they who came out of great
tribulation, and had their robes washed
and made white in tho blood of the Lamb.”
Queens are all such, and whether the
world acknowledges them or not, Heaven
acknowledges them. When Scarron, tho
wit and ecclosiastic, as poor as he was
brilliant, was about to marry Madame de
Maintenon, he was asked by the notary
what he proposed to settle upon mademoi
selle. The reply was:
“Immortality! the names of the wives of
Kings die with them ; the name of the wife
of Scarron will live always.” In a higher
and better sense, upon all women who do
their duty.”
God will settle immortality, not the im
mortality, of earthly fame, which is mor
tal, but tho immortality celestial. And
they shall reign for eve ■ and ever. Oh, the
opportunity which every woman has of
being a queen! The longer I live the more
1 admire good womanhood. And I have
come to form my opinion of the character
of a man by his appreciation or non-ap
preciation of a woman. If n man have a
depressed idea or womanly character he is
a bad man, and there is no exception to tho
rule. The writings of Goethe can never
have any such attractions for me as Shak
speare, because nearly all the womanly
characters of the great German have
some kind of turpitude. There is his
“Mariana,’’with her clandestine scheming,
and his “Mignon,” of evil parentage: yet
worse than her ancestors, and his “The
resa,” the brazen, and “Aurelia,”of many
intrigues, and his “Fhiiint,” the terma
gant, and his “Melina,” tho tarnished, and
his “Baroness” and hit, “Countess,” and
there is seldom a womanly character in
all his voluminous writings that would be
worthy <>f residence in e. respectable coal
cellar, yet pictured, and dramatized, ami
emblazoned till the literary world is com
pelledtosoc, No. No. Give me William
tShakepeare'e idee of woman; and I ice it in
"Seidfmenaj'' aal *'Cer4«li»,"and
TRENTON, DADE COUNTY, GA., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10. ISSS.
llnd,” and “Imogen,” and “Helena,” and
“Hermoine,” and “Viola,” and “Isabella,”
and “Sylvia,” and “Perdita,” all of them
with enough faults to prove them human,
but enough kindly characteristics to give
UK the anthor’s idea of womauhood, his
“Lady Macbeth” only a dark background
to bring out the supreme loveliness of his
other female characters.
Oh, women of America! rise to your op
portunity. Bo no slave to pride, or world
liness, or sin. Why ever crawl in the dust
when you can mount a throne? Be queens
unto God forever! Hail Vashti!
Again I want you to consider Vasht I, the
vailed. Had she appeared lx:fore Ahasuer
us and his court on that day, with her face
uncovered, she would have shocked
nil the delicacies of Oriental sociely, and
the very men who in their intoxication de
manded that she come, in their sober
moments would have despised her. As
some flowers seem to thrive best in the
dark lane or in the shadow, and where
the sun does not seem to reach them,
so God appoints to most womanly natures
a retiring and most unobtrusive spirit.
God once in a while does call an Isabella
to a throne, or a Miriam to strike the tim
brel at the front of t ost, or a Mnrie An
toinette to quell a French mob, or a Debo
rah to stand at the front of an armed bat
talion, crying out: “Up ! up ! This is the day
in which the Lord will deliver Sirera into
thy hands.” And when women are called to
such outdoor work, and to such heroic posi
tions, God prepares them for it; and they
have iron in their soul,and lightning in their
eye, and whirlwinds in their breath,
and the borrowed strength of the Lord
Omnipotent in their right arm. They
walk through furnaces as though they
were hedges of wild flowers, and cross
seas as though they were shimmering sap
phire, and all the harpies of hell sink down
to their dungeon at the stamp of their
womanly indignation. But these aro ex
ceptions. Generally, Dorcas would rather
make a garment for the poor boy; Rebecca
would rather fill the trough for the cam
els; Hannah would rather make a coat
for Samuel; the Hebrew maid would rath
er give a prescription for Naaman’s lep
rosy; the woman of Sarepta would rather
gather a few sticks to cook a meal for.
famished Elijah; Phebe would rather
carry a letter for the inspired Apos
tle; Mother Lois would rather educate
Timothy to the Scriptures. When I see
a woman going about lier daily duty—
with cheerful dignity presiding at tho ta
ble, with kind and gentle, but firm, dis
cipline presiding in the nursery, going out
into the world without any blast of trum
pets, following the footsteps of Him who
went about doing good—l say: “This is
Vashti, with a vail on.” But when I see a
woman of unblushing boldness, loud
voiced, with a tongue of infinite clitter
clatter, with arrogant look, passing
through the streets with a masculine
swing, gayly arrayed in a vory hurricane
of millinery, I say out: “Vashti has lost
her vail.” When I see a woman strug
gling for political preferment, and
rejecting the duties of home as insig
nificant, and thinking the offices of wife,
mother and daughter of no importance,
and trying to force her way up into con
spicuitj’, I say: “Ah, what a pity; Vashti
has lost her vail.” When Iseo a woman of
comely features, and of a Iroitness of in
tellect, and endowed with all that the
schools can do for one, and of high social
position, yet moving in society with super
ciliousness and hauteur, as though she
would have people know their place,and an
undefined combination of giggle, and strut,
and rodomontade, endowed with allopathic
quantities of talk but only homeopathic
infinitesimals of sense, tho terror of dry
goods clerks and railroad conductors, dis
coverers of significant meanings in plain
conversation, prodigies of badness and in
nuendo—l say: “Vashti has lost her vail.”
But do not misinterpret what I say into
a depreciation of the work of those glori
ous and divinely called women who will
not be understood til! after they are dead
—women like Susan B. Anthony, who are
giving their life for the betterment of the
conditiou'of their sex. Those of you who
think that women have, under tho laws of
this country, an equal chance with meu,
are ignorant of the laws. A gentlemau
writes me from Maryland saying: “Take
the laws of this State. A man and wife
start out in life full of hope in every re
spect; by their joint efforts, and, as is
frequently the case, through the eco
nomic ideas of the wife, succeed in accum
ulating a fortune; but they have no chil
dren; they reach old ago together, and
then tho business dies. What does the law
of this State do then? It says to the wid
ow, hands off your late husbands proper
ty: do not touch it; tho State will find oth
ers to whom it will give that, but 3’ou, the
widow, must not touch it, only so much as
will keep life within your agod body, that
you may live to see those others enjoy
what rightfully should be your own.” And
the Stato seeks the relatives of the de
ceased husband, whether they be near or
far, whether they were ever heard of be
fore or not, and transfers to them, singly
or collectively, the estate of the deceased
husband and living widow.
Now, that is a specimen of unjust laws
in all ttie States concerning womauhood.
Instead of flying off to the discussion as to
whether or not the giving of the right of
voting to women will correct these laws,
let me say to men, be gallant
enough, and fair enough, and hon
est enough, and righteous enough,
and God-loving enough to correct these
wrongs against women by your own mas
culine vote. Do not wait for woman suf
frage to come, if it ever does come, but so
far as you can touch ballot-boxes, and
Legislatures, and Congresses, begin the
reformation. But until justice is done to
your sex by the laws of all the States, and
women of America take the platforms and
pulpits, no honorable man will charge
Vashti with having lost her vail.
Again: 1 want you this morning to con
sider Vashti the sacrifice. Who is that 1
see coming out of that palace gate of Shu
shan ? It seems to me that I have seen her
before. She comes homeless, houseless,
friendless, trudging along with a broken
heart. Who is she? It is Vashti, tho sac
rifice. Oil, what a change it was from re
gal position to a wayfarer’s crust! A little
wfiii* eg* fppi'9V*i tad leugfct ion #*w
none bo poor as to acknowledge her ac
quaintanceship. Vashti, the sacrifice. Ah,
you and I have seen it many a time. Here
is a home cm; alaced with beauty. All that
refinement, and books, and wealth can
do for Ilia’ home has boen done; but
Ahasuerus, the husband and the father, is
taking hold on paths of sin. Ho is grad
ually going down. After a wlii'o he will
flounder and struggle like a wild beast in
tho hunter’s net —further away from God
further away from the right. Soon the
bright apparel of tho children will turn to
rags; scou the household song will become
tho sobbing of a broken heart. The old
story over again. Brutal Centaurs break
ing up tho marriage feasts of Lapitha?.
The house full of outrage, an i cruelty,
r ... aba nination, while trudging forth
i.’um the palace gate aro Vashti aiul her
children. There are homes represented
in this house this morning that aro in
danger of such breaking-up. O Ahas
uerus, that you should stand in a
home, by a dissipated life destroying the
peace and comfort of that home. God for
bid that your children should ever have to
wring their hands, and have poiple point
their fingers at them as they pass down the
street, and say: “There goes a drunkard’s
child!” God forbid that the little feet
should ever have tj> trudge the path of
poverty and wretchedness. God forbid
that any evil spirit, born of the wine-cup
or the brandy flask, should come forth and
uproot that garden, and, w tli a blasting,
blistering, all-consuming curse, shut for
ever the palace gate against Vashti and
the children.
Oh, the women and the meu of sacrifice
are going to take the brightest coronals of
Heaven! This woman of the text gave
palatial residence, gave up all for what
she considered righ 1 . Sacrific ! Is ther
any thing more sublime? A steamer call
ed the ‘'Prairie Belle ” burni ig on the Mis
sissippi river, B u Iso, the eng neer, de
clared ho woul I keep tho bow of (he boat
-to the shore till all were off, nnd he kept
his promise. At his post, scorched and
blackened, he perished, but he saved all
the passengers. Two verses of pathetic
poetry describe the scene, but the verses
are a little rough, and ; o 1 changed a word
or two.
“Through the lict, black breath of the burn
ing
J m Bludso’s voice was heard.
And they all had trust in h'g stub o me ss.
And knew he would keep his word.
And sure’s you’re born they all got off
Afore the smoke-stacks fell;
And Bludso's ghost went up above.
In the smoke of the ’Prairie rdie.’
He weren’t no saint, but at Judgment
I’d run my chance with Jim.
' ‘Long side of some pious gentlemen
That wouldn’t shake hands with him,
seen his duty, a dead-sure thing,
And wont for it there and then,
And Christ is not going to be too hard
On a man that died for men."
Once more: I want you to look at Vasht.
tho silent. You do not hear any outcry
from this woman as she goes forth from
the pa'ace gate. From the very dignity of
her nature you know there will be no vo
ciferation. Sometimes in life it is neces
sary to make a retort; sometimes in life it
is necessary to resist; there are crises
when tiie most triumphant thing to do is
to keep silent.
The philosopher, confident in his newly
discovered principle, waited for the com
ing of the mere intelligent generation?,
willing that men should laugh at the
lightning-rod nnd cotton-gin nnd steam
boat—waiting for long years through the
scoffing of philosophical schools, in grand
and magnificent silence. Galileo, con
demned by the mathematicians and monks
and Cardinals, caricatured every
where, yet waiting and watching with
liis telescope to see the coming up
of stellar reinforcements, when the
stars in their courses would fight
for the Coperuican system; then
sitting down in complete blindness and
deafness to wait for the coming of the gen
erations who would build his monument
and bow at his grave. The reformer, exe
crated by his contemporaries, fastened in
a pillory, the slow fires of public contempt
burning under him, ground under the cyl
inders of the printing-press, yet calmly
waiting for the day when purity of
soul and heroism of character will
get the sanction of earth and the
plaudits of Heaven. Affliction, endurin' 1 ’
without any complaint the sharpness oi
the pang and the violence of the storm
and the heft of the chain and the dark
ness of the night; waiting until a divine
hand shall be put forth to soothe the pang
and hush the storm and release tho cap
tive. A wife abused, persecuted an l n
perpetual exile from every earthly com
fort ; waiting, waiting until the Lord shall
gather up llis dear children in a Heavenly
home; and uo poor Vashti will ever be
thrust out from the palace gate. Jesus, in
silence, and answering not a word, drink
ing the gall, bearing the cross, in prospect
of the rapturous consummation when
“Angels thronged his chariot wheel,
And bore Him to His throne:
Then swept their golden harps and sung—
The glorious work Is done.”
An Arctic explorer found a ship floating
helplessly about among the icebergs, and
going on board he found that the captain
was frozen at hi- log-book, an 1 the helms
man was frozen at the wheel, and the men
on the lookout were frozen in their places.
This was awful, but magnificent. All the
Arctic blasts and all the iceberg could not
drive them from their duty. Their si'euce
was louder than thunder. And this old
ship of a world has many at their posts in
the awful chill of neglect, and frozen of
the world's scorn, and their silence shall
be the eulogy of the skies, and be reward
ed long after this weather-beaten craft of
a planet shall have made its last voyage.
I thank God that the mightiest influ
ences are the most silent. Tho fires in a
furnace of a factory, or of a steamship,
roar, though they ouly move a few shut
tles or a few thousand tons; but the sun
that warms the world rises and sets with
out a crackle or faintest sound. Travelers
visiting Mount Etna, iiaving heard of the
glories of a sunrise on that peak, went
up to speud the night there and
see the sun rise next morning, but when it
came up it was so fir behind their antici
pations that they actually hissed it. The
mightiest influencos to-day are like the
S’.anetary system vsmpletely *ii«in.
it! t fail* in'? lUSI
FIFTIETH CONGRESS.
First Session.
Washington, Feb. I.—Senate. -An adverse
report \va< made on the bill to open an over
land route between the United Slates. Asiatic
Russia and Japan. Bills were reported for an
inspection of meats for exportation, and in
creasing the pension of soldiers and sailors who
have lost both hands. A resolution was adopt
ed calling on the Secretary of the Navy for in
formation in regard to the change
of plans on the new cruisers. Among the bills
introduced was a service pension measure by
Mr. Cameron, fixing the rate at a cent a day for
the time served,the amount to be paid monthly.
Mr. Call's resolution hhout railroad receivers
was considered until the Blair bill came up. Mr.
Pugh addressed the Senate until 4:30.
House.—A memorial was presented praying
that pensions be granted to Ihose engaged in
the iife-saving service. The urgent deficiency
bill was reported. Additional committee
rooms were ordered in the Congressional Hotel
on the report of the Commitler on Accounts
that there was not sufficient accommodation
in the Capitol. A resolution was adopted
calling on the Attorney-General for the
names of all U. S. Assistant District At
torneys being paid out of the hist sundry civil
appropriation bill. A joint resolution was pass
ed ordering fourteen thousand additional copies
of the report on wool from the Bureau of
Statistic*. A bill extending the leave of ab
sence to Government Printing Office employes
to thirty days was passed. The Reading strike
resolution was considered. An investigation
by a special committee of five was ordered.
Washington, Feb. 2.—Senate.—Unimport
ant bills were reported and others introduced.
The special Committee on the Pacific railroad
was announced. The resolution in regard to
the Insufficiency of postal service in the West
and Smith was discussed. Mr. Riddleberger
tried to secure consideration of the British
treaty in open session, but failed. At 2pm.
Mr. Kenna replied to the tariff speech of Mr.
Sherman. Mr. Sherman answered, and Mr.
Reagan followed. The motion to refer the
President's message went over without action.
Mr. Stewart spoke ou the Blair bill, and Sena,
tor Call obtained the floor. At 4:10 p. m. the
Senate adjourned until Monday.
House —A bill was passed amending the
statutes to provide that no publications that
are but books or parts of books, in whole or in
part, bound or unbound, shall be admitted to
the mmj as second-class matter. Also a bill
regulating the construction of bridges across
the Muskingum river, in Ohio. Speeches were
made by Messrs. Barry, of Mississippi, and
Cooper, of Ohio, on the White-Lowry contested
election cuse, and the matter went over until
to-morrow. The House at 4;45 p. m. adjourned.
Washington, Feb. B.—Senate.—Not In ses
sicn.
HOUSE.—A bill was reported authorizing the
appointment of eleven division superintend
ents of the Ra'lway Mail service. Private bills
were considered and a dozen passed. At 4:05
p. m. the House adjourned, Mr. Crist) giving no
tice that he would 'all up the I.owry-White
contested election case to-morrow.
Washington, Feb. 4.— Senate —Not in ses
sion.
House —A petition was presented against
the enactment of prohibitory laws in the Dis
trict; nt,o against menhaden fishing cn the
coast. Jills were passed for the holding of
terms of U. S. District Courts in Minnesota,
and for the payment of certain claimants iu
Cincinnati. The Lowry White contest was
taken up. and speeches made by Messrs. Moore,
Tex.; Dji'erra! l , W. V r u.; Roivell, Til.; Coch
ran, N. V.; Wilson, Minn.; Oathwaite, O.;
and Maish, Pa. The House, without reaching
a vote, adjourned at 4 p. in.
WASiiiNGiON.Feb. G.—Senate—Unimportant
hills were reported and petitions and memo
rials presented. A joint resolution was reported
and passed for the Constitution Centennial
celebration in the hall of the House. Mr. Snuls
bury, ol Delaware, spoke on the resolution re
filling to international coinage. The educa
tional bill was laid before the Senate, but tem
pojjirily set aside. Mr. Platt made a speech
on the President’s message, arguing that the
President is a free-trader. At 4:3) p. m. the
Senate went into executive session and at 5:80
p. m. adjourned.
HOUSE. —Mr. White, of New York, denied
that he had a wire to his office in New York
for dealing in stocks. Under the call of States
a number of sew bills were introduced, includ
ing Mr. Butterworth’s, for reciprocity with
Canada. Mr. Carlisle resumed his duties in the
chair amid applause, and Mr. Cox received the
thanks of the House for his able and impartial
services as speaker pro tem. The White-Lowry
conlcst election case was taken up. Speeches
were made by Johnson, of Indiana, O'Neil, of
Indiana, Lodge, of Massachusetts, and Crisp
of Georgia. The majority report declaring tlio
sitting member, White, entitled to his seat was
-<r eed to—yens 187, nays 105. Ats:2o p. m. the
House adjourned.
Washington. Feb. 7.—Senate.—Petitions
and memorials on all sorts of subjects were
presented as usual; one askinglhe appointment
of a commission to investigate charges alleged
against Catholic priests in hearing confes ions.
Bills were reported and a resolution adopted
instructing the Committee on Commerce to in
quire into the expediency of Congress assuming
control of the erection of bridges overnav igable
waters within State limits Mr. Platt spoke at
engthon the President's message.
House —A resolution was adopted calling for
information in regard to the loss or destruction
of U. S. notes. Unfavorable reports were made
on joint resolutions proposing constitutional
amendments, giving Congress power to reg
elate factory hours, and the alcoholic liquor
traffic. The diplomatic appropriation bill was
reported—total, 11,408,805. Among bills re
ported favorably was one to create a
Fourth Assistant Postmaster General. Also
to organize the Territory of Oklahoma. Also
for the relief of Win. McGnrruhan. Also to
limit the hours of letter-carriers’ labor. A num
ber of bills from the Judiciary Committee were
passed. Also a bill increasing to eleven the num
ber of postal mail superintendents. A hill was
reported authorizing the President to appoint
and retire Alfred Pleasontou as a Brigadier
General. The Military Academy appropriation
bill vat leported. *
The first recorded photograph of a rain
bow has been exhibited to the Photographic
As ociation of London. The arch has the
appearance of something solid—like an
arch of wood. «
Fkank Brigg- was drowned at Wicen
don, Mass., and the bo iy was found by use
of an electric light, which was put under
water on a pole.
Thebe's a craze for short hair mid wigs
among the Washington ladies.
Tin New York Stock Exchange has de
clared war against the bucket-shop?., and
has raised a fund of #lo,o Dto carry on the
warfare.
James Patterson, who died recently at
Oakland, Gal., was tho mun who gave
Garfield his first employas drive* «u
ttiiefiMli
VOL. IV.—NO. 50.
A MOTHER AT THIRTEEN.
Sirs. Stevenson’s Remarkable Story of Mat*
rlmony and Maternity.
St. Joseph, Feb. 7. —The police of this
city vi ere called upon to deal with the most
wonderful case with wiiich they have ever
come in contact. Sunday night a girl,
who looked r.ot older than thirteen years
of age, was taken up at tlio union
depot. Sho was given lodging, and tli la
afternoon stated to the chief of po
lice that sho had been deserted
by her husband, and that she had come to
St. Joseph to look for him. The police
were at once disinclined to believe the
girl’s story on account of her extreme
youth, but it was afterward learned that
she was telling the truth about her lost
husband, and that she had been twice mar
ried and was tlio mother of two children,
now deceased, although she is not yet thir
teen years old. The girl’s story is given
as reported to tho police, and is as follows:
“About two years ago she was married in
G rundy County, Mo., to Robert Patterson, a
boy seventeen years of age. She was then
ten years oi age and both of her children
were tlio result of this marriage. Her
husband died in the meanwhile and she
returned lo her father’s home, near High
land Station. Her father seemed to re
gard her as a burden, and she was com
pelled to marry John Stevenson, a
young man of the neighborhood, twenty
three years of ago. Tho last marriage
occurroil about three months ago and
until Tuesday last the two lived hap
pily together. On tho last mentioned day
Stevenson decamped, leaving her without
food or fuel. The little she had was sold
and sho started in pursuit of her husband.
Hhe saw him in Mound City, but ho con
trived to cludo her uni she started for St.
Joseph.” She was kindly taken care of, and
Mayor Doyle provided her with a ticket to
Hickory Station, Grundy County, where
her father resides.
—
GAVE HIMSELF UP*
President Means of tlie Defunct Metropol
itan in a Hail 15ox.
Cincinnati, Feb. 7.—At noon District
Attorney Burnet told Mr. Means, presi
dent of the Metropolitan Bank, that lie
was to bo arrested und that it was the de
sire of the Government to spare him all
tlie mortification possible in tiie matter.
Mr. Means did not want to have the mar
shal come to tho bank for him and he went
to Marshal Urner’s office this afternoon
nnd gave himself up. Ho took his bonds
men with him. Mr. Means is charged with
misappropriating tho funds of the bank to
the extent of *200,000. Thi3 is a grave
criminal charge and is exactly similar to
the one on which Harper was convicted.
It is now thought that the bank can not
hope to pay more than 00 cents and it may
not bo moro than 50 cents.
Thinks She’s Struck Oil.
St. Louis, Feb. 7.—While boring an arte
sian well, on Clark avenue and Twenty
second street, a few days ago, an oily sub
stance was noticed on tlio water that was
struck at. a depth of 700 feet. The boring
was continued, and at a deptli of 1,100 feet
the oil was found iu considerable quanti
ties. Tests proved it to he crude petro
leum. A pump has been at work for sev
eral days, and, though a very imperfect ex
periment, brings up about two ban-els of
oil a day, mixed with large quantities of
water.
- - ♦ ♦
Mo Need To Turn Your Cuffs There.
Springfield, 111., Feb. 7.—There is a
fierce war being waged between the laun
dries of this city. It was begun a few days
ago and they arc now washing collars and
cuffs at the rate of two dozen for one cent-,
and shirts for two cents each. The Chi
nese laundries have refused to cut tho
rates so far, and declare they will quit
rather than work for nothing. It is
thought by some that the fight is a schema
to run the Celestials out.
A Book-Keeper’s Luck.
Pittsburgh, Feb. 7. — Joe Craig, the oil
prince, is to be married to-morrow at
White Plains, N. Y., to Miss Mitchell,
daughter of a New York broker. Craig is
one of the largest individual producers iu
the world. Ho was a book-keeper three
years ago. To-day lie is very wealthy. He
is not over thirty years old.
— ♦ ♦
Murder and Suicide.
PiT'ifßutoii, Pa., Feb. 7. A laborer
named Onoill, residing at Thirtieth and
Smallman streets, quarreled with his wife
this morning. He pulled out a revolver
and shot his wife, killing her instantly. He
then shot Himself through the head. The
wound is considered fatal. Jealousy is said
to bo the cause. ■
♦ ♦ ■
Cast Up by the Sea.
Portland, Ore., Feb. 7.— A special from
Olympia, W. T., says: Fourteen bodies
from tho wreck of the Abercoru have been
washed ashore. Among them are Pilot
Charles Johnson, of Astoria, and Captain
Irving. Those tsaved are Andrew Akiu,
cabin boy; Gus McCloud and Robert Ran
kin, seamen.
■ —-
Canadian Underwriters Discouraged.
Montreal, Feb. 7.—The insurance com
panies lost #1,530,000 by fires in this city
last, year which is two or three times as
much as they received from premiums.
One company is already closing up busi
ness in this Province, and it is not unlike
ly that one- or two more will follow its ex
ample.
— ♦
Gang of Counterfeilers Captured.
Shawneetown. 111., Feb. 7.— J. F. No
len, sheriff of Gallatin County, yesterday
arrested Joe Williams and three other
men at Saline Mines, who have been pass
ing counterfeit money. The sheriff also
got their molds and a lot of bogus half
dollars.
Coa! Ready at Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh, Fob. 7. —The coal operators
have thus tar succeeded in shipping very
little coal on tho present rise, ou account
of ice, though it Is how pretty well run
out. There are ttti'ee Million tiUehelt
awaiting shipment*