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JOHN It. HANCOCK, Publisher.
WOMANLY AMBITION.
Her Great Influence for Good or
Evil.
A Man fs No Better Than His Wife Wilt
Bet Him Be—Ail Awful Responsibility
nests lp«n Her Course—Tul mage's Ser
mon.
In the Brooklyn Tabernacle Sunday
morning Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D.
D., preached the sixth of his series of
“Sermons to Women of America, With
Important Hints for Men.” The subject
was: “Wifely Ambition, Good and Bad,”
and Cite text was I. Kings, xxi. 7: “Arise,
and eat bread, and let thine heart be mer
ry: I will give the thine vineyard of Na
bofti.” I>r. Talmage said:
One day King Ahab, looking out of the
window of his palace at Jezreel, said to
his wife Jezebel: “We ought to have these
Royal gardens enlarged. If we could only
get that fellow Naboth, who owns that
vineyard out there, to trade or sell, we
could make it a kitchen garden for our
palace.”
“Fetch in Naboth,” says the King to one
of his servants.
The plain gardener, wondering why he
should be called into the presence of His
Majesty, comes in, a little downcast in his
modesty and with very obsequious manner
bows to the King.
The King says: “Naboth, I want to trade
vineyards with you. I want your vine
yard for a kitchen fßuden, and I will give
a great deal better vineyard in place of it,
or, if you prefer money for it, I will give
you cash.”
“No, no,” says Naboth, “I can not trade
off my little place, nor can I sell it. It is
the old homestead. I got it of my father
and he of his father, and I can not let the
old place go out of my hands.”
In a great state of petulancy King Ahab
went into the house and flung himself on
the bed, and turned his face to the wall in
a great pout.
His wife Jezebel comes in and stie says:
“What is the matter with you? Are you
sick:”
“Oh,” lie says, “I feel very blue. I have
set my heart on getting that kitchen gar
den, and Naboth will neither trade nor
sell, and to be defeated by a common gar
dener is more than I can stand.”
“Oh, pshaw!” says Jezebel, “don’t go on
that way. Get up and eat your dinner and
slop moping. I will get for you that
kitchen gar Jen.”
Then Jezebel borrowed her husband’s
signet or seal, for then, as now, in those
lands kings never signed their names, but
had a ring with the royal name engraved
on it. and that impressed on a royal letter
or document was the signature. She
stamped her husband’s name on a proc
lamation, which resulted in getting Naboth
tried for tr eason against the King, and two
perjured witnesses swore their souls away
with the life of Naboth, and he was stoned
to death and his property came to the
crown, and so Jezebel got for her husband
and herself the kitchen garden.
But while the wild street dogs were
rending the dead body of poor Naboth,
Elijah, the prophet, tells them of other ca
nines that will, after a while, have a free
banquet, saying: “Where dogs lick the
blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood,
even thine.”
And sure enough, three years after,
Ahab, wounded in battle, his chariot drip
ping with the carnage, dogs stood under It
lapping his life’s blood. Andaiittle after
ward his wife, Jezabel, who had been his
chief adviser in crime,stands at her palace
window and sees Jehu, the enemy, ap
proaching to take possession of the palace.
And to make herself look as attractive as
possible and queenly to the very last, she
decorated her person, and, according to
Oriental custom, cl> sed her eyes and ran a
brush dipped in a black powder along the
long eye-lashes, and then from the win
dow she glared her indignation upon Jehu.
As he rode to the gates in his chariot, he
shouted to the slaves in her room: “Throw
her down!” But no doubt tho slaves halted
a moment from such work of assassina
tion, yet, knowing Queen Jezebel couid
bo no more to them and the conqueror
Jehu would be every thing, as he shouted
again: “Throw her down!” they seized
her and bore her, struggling
and cursing to the window case
ment and hurled her forth till she came
tumbling to the earth, striking it just in
time to let Jehu's horses trample her and
the chariot wheels run over her. While
Jehu is inside at the table refreshing him
self after the excitement, he ordered his
servants to go out and bury the dead
Queen. But the wild street dogs had for
the third time appeared ou the scene, and
they had removed all h r body except those
parts which, in all ages, dogs are by a
strange instinct or brutal superstition kept
from touching after daeth—the palms of
the hands and the soles of the feet.
All this appalling scene of ancient his
tory was the result of a wife’s bad advice
to a husband—of a wife's struggle to ad
vance her husband’s interests by unlawful
means. Ahab and Jezebel got the kitchen
garden of Naboth, hut the dogs got them.
The trouble all began when this mistaken
wife aroused her husband out of his mel
ancholy by the words of the text: “Arise
and cut bread, and let thine heart be merry.
I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth.”
Tho influence suggested by this subject
1* an influence you never before heard dis
coursed on, and may never hear again, but
» most potent and semi-omnipotent influ
ence. and decides the course of individu
als, families nations, centuries and
eternities. I speak of wifely ambition,
good and bad. How important that every
wife have her ambition—an elevated,
righteous and divinely-approved ambi
tion! And here let me say what 1 am
most anxious for is that woman, not wait
lag for the rights denied her or post
poned, promptly and leoisively employ
the rights she already has in possession,
bome say she will he in fair way to get ad
her rights when she gets her rights to the
ballot-boll. J wish that the experiment
might be tried and se’tled. 1 would like
to see all the women vote and then watch
tbi result, i (1q pot kuow that it would
change ar.y thing for the better. Most
wives and daughters and sisters would
vote as their husbands and fathers and
brothers voted. Nearly all the families
that I know are solidly Republican or
Democratic or Prohibition. Those families
all voting would make more votes, but na
difference in the result. Besides that, as
now at the polls, men are bought up by
the thousands, women would be bought
up by the thousands. The more voters the
more opportunity for political corruption.
We have several million more voters now
than are for public good.
We are told that female suffrage would
correct two evils—the rum business and
the insufficiency of woman’s wages. About
the rum business I have to say that mul
titudes of women drink. And it is no un
usual thing to see them in the restaurants
so overpowered with wine and beer that
they can hardly sit up, while there are
many so-called respectable restaurants
where they can go and take their
champagne and hot toddy all
alone. Mighty tempernuce' voters
those women would make! Be
sides that, the wives of the rum-sellers
would have to vote in the interest of their
husband’s business or have a time the in
verse of felicitous. Besides that, millions
of respectable and refined women of
America would probably not vote at all,
because they do not want to goto the polls,
and, on the other hand, womanly roughs
would all go to the polls, and that might
make woman’s vote on the wrong side.
There is not, in my mind, much prospect
of the expulsion of drunkenness by fe
male suffrage.
As to women’s wages to be corrected by
vvoman.’s vote, 1 have not much faith in
that. Women are harder on women than
men are. Masculine employers afe mean
enough in treatment of women, but if you
want to hear of beating down of prices
and wages in perfection, listen how some
women treat washer-women and dress
makers and female servants. Mrs. Shy
lock is more merciless than Mr. Shylock.
Women, I fear, will never get righteous
wages through woman's vote. And as to
unfortunate womanhood, women are far
more cruel and unforgiving than men are.
After a woman has made a shipwreck of
her character men generally drop her; but
women do not so much drop her as hurl
her with the force of a catapu' 1 clear out
and off, and down and under.
I have not much faith that woman will
ever get merciful consideration and justice
through woman suffrage, yet I like experi
ments, and some of my friends in whose
judgment I have confidence are so certain
that alleviation would come by such pro
cess that I would, if I had the power, put
in every woman’s hand the vote. I can
not see what right you have to make a wo
man pay taxes on her property to help
support city, State and National govern
ment, and yet deny her the opportunity of
helping decide who shall bo mayor, Gov
ernor or President. But let every wife,
not waiting for the vote she may never
get, or, getting it, find it outbalanced by
some other vote not fit to be cast, arise
now in the might of the eternal God and
wield the power of a sanctified wifely
ambition for a good approximating the in
finite.
No one can so inspire a man to noble
purposes as a noble woman, and no one so
thoroughly degrade a man as a wife of un
worthy tendencies. While in my text we
have illustrations of wifely ambition em
ployed in the wrong direction, society and
history are full of instances of wifely am
bition gloriously triumphant in right di
rections. All that was worth admiration
in the character of Henry VI. was a reflec
tion of the heroics of his wife Margaret.
William, Prince of Orange, was restored
to the right path by the grand qualities of
his wife Mary. Justinian, the Roman
Emperor, confesses that bis wise laws
were the suggestion of his wife Theodora.
Andrew Jackson, the warrior and Presi
dent, had his mightiest reinforcement in
his plain wife, whose inartistic attire was
the amusement of the elegant circles in
which she was invited. Washington, who
broke the chain that held America in for
eign vassalage, wore for forty years a
chain around his own neck, that chain
holding the miniature likeness of her
who had been his greatest inspiration,
whether among the snows at Valley Forge
or amid the honors of the Presidential
chair.
Pliny's pen was driven through all its
poetic and historical dominions by his w’fe
Calpurnia, who sang his stanzas to the
sqund of flute, and sat among audiences
enraptured at her husband’s genius, her
self the most enraptured. Pericles said
he got all hiseloqnence and statesmanship
from his wife. When the wife of Grot-ius
rescued him from long imprisonment at
Lovestein, by means of a bookcase that
went in and out, carrying his books
to and fro, he one day transported,
hidden amid" the folios, and the women of
beseiged Weinsburg, getting permission
from the victorious army to take with them
so much of their valuables as they could
carry, under cover of the promise, shoul
dered and took with them, as the most im
portant valuable, their husbands. Both
achievements in a literal wav illustrated
what thousands of times has been done in
a figurative way, that w ifely ambition has
been the salvation of men.
k De Tocqueville, whose writings will bo
potential and quoted while the world lasts,
ascribes his successes to his w i fe, and says:
“Of all the blessings which God has given
to me, the greatest of all in my eyes is to
have alighted on Maria Motley.” Martin
Luther says of his wife: “I would not ex
change my poverty with her tor all the
riches of Croesus without her.” Isabella
of Spain, by her superior faith in Colum
bus, put into the hand of Ferdinand, her
husband, America. John Adams, Presi
dent of the United States, said of bis wife:
“She never by word or look discour
aged me from running all hazards for
the salvation of my country’s liberties.”
Thomas Carlyle spent the last twenty
years of his life in trying by his pen to
atone for the fact that during his wife's
life he never appreciated her influence on
his career and destiny. Alas! that, having
taken her from a beautiful home and a
brilliant career, he should have buried her
in tho home of a recluse and scolded her
in such language as only a dvspcptic go-
TRENTON, DADE COUNTY. GA., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17. 1888.
nins could manage, until one day while in
invalidism riding in Hyde Park her pet
dog got run over and under the excite
ment the coachman found her dead.
Then the literary giant woke from his
conjugal injustice and wrote the lamenta
tions of Craigen-Puttock and Cheyne Row.
The elegant and fulsome epitaphs that
husbands put upon their wives’ tomb
stones are often an attempt to make up
for lack of appreciative words that should
have been uttered in the ears of the living.
A whole Greenwood of monumental in
scriptions will not do a wife so much good
after she has quit the world as one plain
sentence like that which Tom Hood wrote
to his living wife when he said: “I never
was any thing till l knew you.”
O. woman, what is your wifely ambition,
noble or ignoble? Is it high social posi
tion? That will then probably direct your
husband, and he will climb, and scramble,
and slip, and fall, and rise, and tumble,
and on what level or in what depth or on
what height he will after a while be found
I can not even guess. The contest for so-
I eial position is the most unsatisfactory
j contest in all the world, because it is so
; uncertain about your getting it, and so in
! secure a possession after you have obtain
| eel it. The whisk of a lady’s fan may blow
it out. The growl of one bear or the bel
lowing of one bull on Wall street may
scatter it.
Is the wife’s ambition the political pre
ferment of her husband ? Then that will
probably direct him. What a God-forsaken
realm is American politics those best
know who have dabbled in it. After they
have assessed a man who is a candidate
\ for office which he does not get, or assessed
him for some office attained,and he has been
whirled round and roundand round among
the drinking, smoking, swearing crowd
who often get control of public affairs, all
that is left of his self-respect or moral
stamina would find plenty of room on a
geometrical point which is said to have
neither length, breadth nor thickness.
Many a wife has not been satisfied till her
husband went into politics but would af
terward have given all she possessed to
get him out.
I knew a highly moral man, useful in the
church and possessor of a bright home.
He hacl a useful and prosperous business,
but his wife did not think it genteel
enough. There were odors about the busi
ness and some times thqy .would adhere
to his garments when he returned at night.
She insisted on his doing something more
elegant although lie was qualified for no
business except that in which he was en
gaged. To please her he changed his busi
ness, and in order to get on faster abandon
ed church attendance, saying after he
had made a certain number of hundreds
of thousands of dollars he would return
to the church and its services. Where
is that family to-day? Obliterated. Al
though succeeding in business for which
he was qualified, he undertook a style of
merchandise for which he had no qualifica
cation, and he soon went into bankruptcy.
His new stylo of business put him into
evil association. He lost his morals as
well as his money. He broke up not only
his own home, but broke up another man’s
home, and from being a kind, pure, gener
ous, moral man as any of you wlio sit here
to-day, has become a homeless, penniless
libertine. His wife’s ambition for a more
genteel business destroyed him and dis
graced her and blighted their only child.
Bat suppose now there be in our homes,
as thank God there are in hundreds of
homes here represented, on the wifely
i threne one who says not only by her
i words but more powerfully hy her ac
tions: “My husband, our destinies are
united, let us see where industry, honesty,
common sense and faith in God will put
| us. lam with you in all your enterprises.
1 can not bo with you in person as you go
to your daily business, but I will be with
you in my prayers. Lot us see what we
can achieve by having Gxi in our hearts,
and God in our lives, and God in our
homes. Be on the side of every thing good.
Go ahead and do your best, and though
every thing should turn out different from
what we have calculated, you may always
count on two who are going to help you,
and God is one and lam the other.” That
man may have feeble health, and may
meet with many obstacles and business
trials, bvtt he is coming gloriously through,
for he is reinforced and inspired and spur
red on by a woman's voice, as much as was
Barak by Deborah when Sisera with nine
hundred iron chariots came on to crush
him and his army, and Deborah shouted
into the ear of Barak: “Up! for this is the
day in which the Lord hath delivered
Bisera into thy hands.” And the enemy
fell back, and Bisera’s chariot not getting
along fast enough in the retreat, tho Gen
eral jumped out and took it afoot, and ran
till he curne to a place where a woman
first gave‘him a drink of milk and then
sent a spike through his skull, nailing him
to the floor.
Borne of us could tell of what influence
upon us has been a wilely ambition conse
crated to righteousness. As my wife is out
of town and will not shake her head be
cause 1 say it in public, 1 will state that in
my own professional life I have often been
called of God, as I thought, to run into the
very teeth of public opinion, and ail out
siders with whom 1 advised told me I had
better not; it would ruin me and ruin
my church, and at the same time I was
receiving nice little letters threatening me
with dirk and pistol and poison if I per
sisted in attacking certain evils of the
day, until the commissioner of police con
sidered it his duty to take his place in our
Sabbath services with forty officers scat
tered through the house for the preserva
tion of order; but in my home there has
always been one voice to sav: “Go ahead
and diverge not an inch from the straight
line. Who cares, if only God is on our
side?” And though sometimes iteecmed
as if 1 was going out against nine hundred
iron chariots. I went ahead.cheered by tho
domestic voice:. “Up! for this is the day in
which the Lord hath delivered Bisera into
thine hands.”
A man is no better than his wife will let
him be. Oil! wives of America, swing
your scepters of wifely influence for God
and good homes! Do not urge your hus
bands to annex Nal»oth's vineyard to your
palace of success, whether right or wrong,
lest the dogs that come out to destroy Na-
both come out also to devour you Right
eousness will pay best in life, will pay
best in death, will pay best in the judg
ment, will pay best through all eternity.
In our effort to have the mother of every
household appreciate her influence over
her children, we are apt to forget the wife’*
influence over the husband.
While the French warriors on their way
to Rheims had about concluded to give up
attacking the castle at Troyes because it
was so heavily garrisoned, Joan of Arc en
tered the room and told them they would
!>e inside the castle in three days. “We
would willingly wait six days,” said one
of the leaders. “Six!” she cried, “you
shall be in to-morrow,” and under her
leadership on the morrow they entered.
Or a smaller scale every man has garri
sons to subdue and obstacles to level, and
every wife may be an inspired Joan of
Arc to her husband.
What a noble, wifely ambition, the de
termination. God helping, to accompany
her eompaion across the stormy sea of this
life and together gain the wharf of the
Celestial City! Coax him along with you !
You can not drive him there; you can not
drag him there; but you can coax him
thore. That is God’s plan. He coaxes us
all the way—coaxes us out of our sins,
coaxes us to accept pardon, coaxes us to
Heaven. If we reach that blessed place it
will be through a prolonged and di
vine coaxing. By the same process
take your companion, and then you
will get there as well, and all your
household. Do just the opposite to your
neighbor. Her wifely ambition is all for
this world, and a disappointed and vexed
and unhappy creature she will bo all the
way. Her residence may be better than
yours for the few years of earthly stay,
but she will move out of it as to her body
into a house about five and a half feet long
and about three feet wide and two feet high,
and concerning her soul’s destiny you can
make your own prognostication. Her bus
band and her sons and her daughters, who
all, like her, live for this world,
will have about the same destiny for
the body and the soul. You having had a
sanctified and divinely ennobled wifely
ambition, will pass up into palaces, and
what becomes of your body is of no im
portance, for it is only a scaffolding,
pulled down now that your temple is done.
You will stand in the everlasting rest and
see your husband come in, and see your j
children come in, if they have not pre
ceded you. Glorified Christian wife! Pick
up any crown you choose from off the
King’s footstool and wear it; it was prom
ised you long ago, and with it cover up all
the scars of your earthly conflict.
SAVE YOUR HANDS.
Precautions Which Should He Adopted
by All Housekeepers.
Women who have done housework a long
time are in some instances troubled hy en
largement of the joints of the fingers and
hands. This trouble is brought on by the
exposure of the hands to the extremes of
temperature, and especially by putting
them in hot and cold water, and letting
cold air come in contact with them after
having bad them in '!\ter. This may be
avoided in several ways which I will men
tion.
A handled disli-mop can be used for all
but the very worst dishes, and the hands
hardiy be wet Another of these mops Ran
be profitably utilized in cleaning lamp
chimneys. With a self-wringing mop a
floor can be wesfied without wetting the
hands; a model housekeeper of my ac
quaintance uses one, and says that with
but half the labor it is as effective us a com
mon mop
A pair of mittens should be kept express
ly for wear when hanging out clothes; they
are best knit, but two thicknesses of old
flannel make quite serviceable ones
Another pair of mittens should be kept for
out-door w ear, for making beds in cold
rooms, or any work which chills the hands
and can be done in mittens.
Wearing an old pair of thick gloves, or
better yet, loose mittens made from an old
rubber blanket, when blacking stoves, does
away with the necessity of washing lhe
hands after the operation. A little whisk
broom is useful in^cleaning windows; the
glass can be washed and rinsed with it, and
for the corners it is especially nice
In rinsing clo hes a stick can be used to
press the suds from the articles in the tub
and lift them to the surface, where only the
tips of the fingers need be used in feeding
them to the wringer.
Apples or vegetables to be pared in win
ter should be brought from tho cellar in
season to allow of their surfaces being
warmed before being handled.
Clothes taken from the line in cold
weather should either be handled in mit
tens or allowed to s’and awhile in a warm
room before being folded or sprinkled; for
the latter op irution warm wa er should be
used. A tin box with a perforated cover,
such as pepper and spice are sold in, makes
a good sprinkler.
It may be thought too much trouble to do
work in this way, and doubtless it will take
more time at first; but it will be found after
a fair trial to be in reality superior to the
old methoi. At al! events it will pay in the
end. “An ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure. ”
If any one is already afflicted with en
larged joints, such precaution.-) will greatly
retard the progres - f the d sense—in some
cases arrest It, and one inst nee is known
to m- of a partial cure being effected.—
Cor. Farm and Home.
■Real Value of Money.
It requires some ability to get money in
this world; but, after all, it requires less
ability to get money than it does to use it •
More wisdom and skill are shown in ths
using of money than in its accumulating.
There are men of large wealth who do not
know how to use their money, either for
their own happiness or for the good of their
fellows. There are other men who show
no accumulation of riches, simply because
th£y have used their money wisely all t.be
way along in life instead of hoarding it
There are yet other men who have wealth,
and Who know how to use It; and there are
still others who are always without money
because they have never yet known what to
do with money when they had it Money is
valuable only for its using. He who doei
not give the wise use of money the first
place in all his thoughts of money-getting
vi* of money-having does not know the
worth of money; and it matters not
whether lie has much or Luie of it —A- i>.
Times,
.FIFTIETH CONGRESS.
First Session.
Washington Feb. s.—Senate—A numtift
i of Executive communications were presented
and referred. The Senate bill to authorize
the sale of certain mineral lands to aliens was
discussed and laid over. A bill was passed
appropriating M.ano.COi for a public building in
Kansas City. Mr. Riddlebcrger objected to
the discussion of any matters during the morn
ing hour until he could have action on his
resolution to consider Ihe British extradi
tion treaty in open session. The chair ruled
him out of order. A bill was passed for the
relief of importers of animals for breeding
purposes in certain cases. It directs the Sec
retary of the Treasury to remit all such duties.
At two o'clock the Blair bill was taken up, Mr.
Call speaking. A vote will be taken Wednes
day at Bp. ni. On a motion to go into executive
session. Mr. Riddlebcrger demanded the yeas
and nays. The vote was 48 to !>. Mr. Riddleber
ger voting yea. When the Vice-President pro
tern, ordered the galleries cleared Riddleberger
made a motion to reconsider, and while trying
to make his point the doors were closed on him.
House.— in the House a memorial of sewer
pipe manufacturers was presented, asking for
more just and equitable protection. Also a
memorial of furniture manufacturers for a re
duction on French plate glass. Mr. Grosvcnor
presented a petition of citizens of Ohio asking
that all honorably discharged soldiers and
sailors of the late war be placed on
the pension roils. The bill making
bills of lulling conclusive evidence in certain
cases was passed. A bill was reported to pre
vent frauds upon American manufacturers. A
petition was presented from the Board of Trade
of Indianapolis asking that the bill approprating
830,C00 for a monument to William Henry Har
rison be passed. The special committee to in
vestigate the Reading strike was announced.
Washington, Feb. o.— Senate. a bill was
reported to incorporate the Maraiime Canal
Company of Nicaragua. A number of bills were
reported. A joint resolution was reported and
adopted for the distribution of various public
documents. A resolution was offered directing
the Secretary of War to furnish to Senators who
might ask it certain information as to tho dis
tribution of copies of the records of the rebel
lion by order of members of the Forty-seventh
Congress, which, it was explained, tin' Secre
tary had refused. Mr. Riddleberger explained
Unjt. the British extradition treaty having been
temporarily defeated in executive session by a
vote of 28 to 21. his resolution for its consider
ation in public was no longer necessary. He
was called to order by several Senators for re
vealing executive session secrets. The Blair
bill was taken up, but went over. A bill ap
propriating fcVl.OOt) to finish the public build
ing at Pensacola was taken up, and a debate
ensued on the general subject of public build
ings. At 4:40 p. m. the Senate v ent into execu
tive session, and at 5:4 i adjourned until Mon
day.
House.—A number of bills were reported. A
resolution was offered by Mr. Nutting, of New
York, reciting the resolutions adopted at a con
vention of seamen in Toledo. 0., in January
last, denouncing the overloading of vessels,
and calling on the Secretary of the Treasury
for information. A bill was also introduced to
prevent the overloading of vessels. A supnle
ment'rtv urgency deficiency bill was
reported. A bill was passed discontinuing
the coinage of three-cent pieces. Petitions
were presented favoring the classification ol
worsted cloth as woolen cloth, and favoring
speedy action on the subject of protection to
wool Rovers anil manufacturers. The bill re
quiring Pa.otie railroads to maintain and oper
ate telegraph lines was reached on the calen
dar. and was diseussed without action. At 4:40
p. m. t-lie House adjourned.
Washington, Feb. 10.— Senate —No session.
House.—Bill passed: Granting right of way
through Indian Territory to a railway company.
A resolution was adopted calling on the Post
master General for information regarding the
cause for the grievances complained of in the
Western mail service, and whether any improve
ments or extentions have been made in the last
two years. Four bills relating to alcoholic
liquor traffic were referred to Mr. Campbell’s
committee instead of the District of Columbia
Committee, where they hud been previously re
ferred. A number of reports on private bills
were presented, and the House 1 eg an the con
sideration of bills on the private calendar. A
bill for the relief of Donald McKay was oppos
ed successfully hy Mr. Springer demanding the
reading of the engrossed bill. Adjourned until
Monday.
Washington, Feb. I! —Senate.—Petitions
ind memorials were presented. A bill was
passed appropriating 815,000 for the poor of the
District, one-half to come out of the Distrie
revenues. A number of bills reported, one ap
propriating 8330,000 for the erection of a hall of
record* in Washington. Several bills were in
troduced and referred. Mr. Voorhees defended
the Congressional Library Building Commis
sion against the charges of extravagance. Mr.
Plumb spoke against the Blair educational bill.
Mr. Reagan defended the administration of the
Post-office Department. Bills were passed ap
propriating 8864.1100 for the enlargement of the
public building at Newark and $500,00!) for a
public building at Portland- Ore. The Senate
at 5 p. m. adjourned.
House.—Under the call of States bills and
resolutions were introduced and referred. Dis
trict of Columbia business was then considered.
Tlte first bill called was one prohibiting lottery
advertisements in the District ol Columbia. It
-was finally referred to tho Judiciary Committee
—yeas 117, nays 115. A bill was passed pro
hibiting pool-selling or bookmaking in Wash
ington and Georgetown on races and base ball.
A bill to appropriate 885 oju for a bridge across
Rock creek at the Woodley lane came up. bul
was not aeted upon. At sp. in the House ad
journed.
Washington. Feb. 14 —Senate.— Bills were
reported and placed on the calendar, and other
were introduced and referred; one to eompen
sate female nurses for services during the re
hellion, and another to prohibit the sale or gift
of tobacco to persons under sixteen in the Dis
tvißt. The Plumb resolution for an itUestiga
tlon of complaints about inefficient mail service
was discussed. The Blair educational hill wa:
taken up. Mr. Hawley speaking in opposition
The bill for compulsory education of lndiiu
children was taken up, and w ithout action tht
Senate at 4: 0 p. m. adjourned after a short ex
eoutive session.
HOUSE.—A resolution was adopted ass<gnint
the second and fourth Mondays m each rnontf
to District business. Unimportant resolution*
amending the rules wore adopted The Secre
tary of War replied to the House r* solutior
ealliugfor information regarding > flanges n the
plan and scope- of the rebellion records. A
joint resolution was passed appropriating
163.500 for printing copie-s of the report ot
cattle and dairy products. A bill was re
ported from Ways and Means to provide
for the purchase of U. S. bernds by thf
Secretary of the Treasury. A trill appropria
ting 885.000 for the Rock Creek bridge on the
road to the President's house, was passed. A
number of favorable reports were made on
pension bills and public buildings and bridges.
The urgent deficiency bill was taker* up and
considered bv sections A bill was introduced
to pav to New York City K.393.67>? for bonds is
sued ‘to the Union Defense Committee in 1861
and 18t>7.
VOL. IV.—NO. 51.
OUR CALIFORNIA LETTER
Sacramento City. Jaauary 31. 1888.
[Special Correspondence.!
California, the largest State in the Union
except Texas, is 700 miles long with an
average width of 230 miles. The Sierra
Nevada and Coast Range of mountains run
parallel, northeast and southwest, the Sier
ras having nn altitude of from *4,000 to
1-1,000 feat; the Coast Range from 2,300
to 4,000 feet, and they art) divided by a
number of valleys and rivers, the principal
one being the Sacramento valley, 200
miles in length and 45 miles average
width, through which runs the Sacramen
to river, a navigable stream for about 150
miles from its entrance into Suisun bay, a
small bay at the head of the bay of San
Francisco.
Sacramento valley proper includes the
counties of Sacramento, Yuba, Butte, Te
hama, Colusa, Sutter, Yolo and Solane,
these being bordered by the mountain
counties of Amador, El Dorado, l’lacer,
Nevada Sierra, Plumas, Shasta, Trinity,
Mendocino, Lake and Napa, affording a
great variety of soil and* climate, owing to
the difference in elevation.
The soil of the valley counties bordering
upon the Sacramento river is principally a
dark, rich adobe and alluvial soil, and well
adapted to the growth of cereals. Along
the foot hills varieties of soil from black
adobe to light sandy soil appears. The
lower slopes of the mountains contain dif
ferent soil, somo being sands, of light color,
others light clay, and much a deep red clay.
The summits arc more rooky and volcanic,
and the 6oils vary, some being clay hills,
sandy ridges, loamy meadows and deep,
rich valleys in the very tops of the mount
ains, being the favorite resort of large
herds of sheep and cattle during the sum
mer months.
Rlretching along the foot-hills and up the
mountain sides to the altitude of 2,500 feet
is what is known as the “ thermal belt.”' It is
in this belt where the warm air lingers when
the sun goes down, and to which the warm
air rises when the first rays of the morning
sun are thro ,vn upon the valley. Tender
plants and semi-tropical fruits are grown
In profusion, as was fully demonstrated at
the Citrus fair held in Oroville, Butte Coun
ty, in December last. This “thermal belt” is
also noted for itswonderful curative qualities
in lung and asthmatic oo inplaints. But very
little good Government or railroad lan l
near the railroads or rivers remain. Land
is worth from $5 to SSOO per acre according
to location and improvements. In the foot
hill region land is selling from $5 to SSO
per acre. In the valley bordering on the
Sacramento river large ranches of from
1,000 to 00,000 acres have been the pre
vailing feature. As population comes in
these will be subdivided and on their rich
alluvial soil thousands of small furms, tho
homes of thrifty families, will be estab
lished, but this can not be accomplished
until the popuhUaQa_jncreases and there is
a demand The popuiaYTou »# this great
State is about 1,500.000, blit it is cnpt<u,e
of supporting 10,000,000 people.
Ail this vast region of soil, water and
climate, unsurpassed hy any other, now in
vites population—not lazy, shiftless, im
pecunious persons, such would soon starve
or be found begging—but men with brain
and muscle, and enough money to give
them a fair start, enough to sustain them
while improving the lands, to make them
produce that for which nature intended
them—such men, if with families so much
the better, can find abundant opportunities
to secure at moderate cost such a home as
will he pleasant and profitable. A man
with a family willing to help him, if he has
from SI,OOO to $2,000 in hand, is safe to
make a beginning which, if he is judicious,
should lead him to prosperity.
Two branches of the Central Pacific rail
road leaves S:.cramento—one on the east
side of the valley, via Marysville and Uhico
and the intermediate towns, the other on
the west side, via Woodland Willows ami
Williams and intermediate towns uniting
at Tehama, the now head of navigation on
Sacramento river. From thence the road
is continued to Portland, Ore, this road
having been completed within the last
s xtv days, opening up country wonderfully
rich iu farming timber and mineral prod
ucts.
Until the past five years the raising of
wheat and barley was the principal occu
pation of the farmers of the Sacramento
valley, the grain being transported to
Europe on ships, but the completion ot three
trans-contincntal railroads—the Central
Pacific, Southern Pacific and the Atchison,
Topeka A- Santa Fe, with the prospect of
other roads soon coming, affording in
creased facilities and reduced rates of
transportation, has given a wonderful im
petus toward raising fruit, and California
will soou be considered the garden spot of
the world. Tile Sacramento valley has sup
plied nine-tenths of the fruit sent East, and
the “ Fruit Growers’ Union,” an association
of farmers, m the year ISM 7 sold their fruit
iu New York and Boston on the auction
plan, and with gratifying succor It will
be tried in other cities this coming season,
with reduced rates of transportation, so
tint sixty million of people in the Uv'led
Sta es can afford to purchase these Ua jr
nia frn'ts and the progress and develop
ment of the fruit business will be something
wouderfuL
The largest grain-growers in the valleys
do their plowing with gang plows and
th ir harves.ing with the latest improved
machinery. Consequently farm hands in
the p: st hi d employment only during a
portion of the year, but since the fruit and
vine business is coming to the front, more
and continuous labor is required, and in
some of the more advanced fruit districts
during the fruit picking season the school
vacations are extended in order to allow
the children 1o assist in securing the croi*.
Dry-goods, clothing, and, in fact, all the
lighter class of goods can be purchasjd as
cheaply as in the Western States Heavy
goods, where freight is an important item
of i ost, are more expensive.
Banks, both commercial and are
plenty, the current rate of interest at this
time be ng seven to nine per cent per an
num. Hotel accommodation Ix-th good
and reasonable, fair bo .rd being ol Gained at
twenty-five cents per meal and tour dollars
per week. First-class hotels charge from
two to four dollars per day for room and
board.
There me plenty of good newspapers,
churches ami ecbzoi* The writer, in his
wanderings over the mountains and through
the valleys of the central portion of this
wonderful State, could not help noticing
the cosmopolitan tharactef, free and easy,
hosp.tab.e km l-Lqivrtod character of the
people.