Indiana State Sentinel, Volume 34, Number 49, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 January 1889 — Page 1

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VOL. XXXIV XO. 49. INDIANAPOLIS, WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 0, 1889. ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR.

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GU1LDER0Y

UY4FOUIDÄ Author of "Under Two Flag," "Two Littie Woodea Shoes," "Chandos," "Den Gesualdo," Etc. ow first published- All rights rescrrsd. CHAPTER XXXIV. John Vernon, having accompanied his isitor to her carriage, had walked slowly back to his little house. He had felt infinitely more emotion than he had shown !o her, for although not unexpected, the tidings ehe brought to him had been none the lees cruel. And he felt, as he had said to her, that all intervention would be useless, worse than useless. "When two lives are drifting apart, their own regrets or relentings can yet unite them, but the interference of any other can only fend them wider asunder. He sat down again in his willow chair, with the sunshine about him and the bees buzzing in the honeysuckles. His left hand was still closed unconsciously on the tetter from his dead cousin's lawyers. The emotions of pleasure and pain had exhausted him; they were the perils against which he had always been warned. His tranquil life amongbt his books had lone preserved so long his fragile cord of life. As he looked at the gay sunshine with the gnats and the flies dancing in it, the tangle of green boughs through which the blue of the sea was shining, the fragrant weetbrier and Bouthern-wood where two little blue tomtits were flitting, to him there seemed so much ah, so much ! that was unutterably beautiful in existence. Why would youth and manhood tret themselves away in the fierce and heated furnace of passions, which were no sooner attained and enjoved than they lost all pc wer to charm? If youth would only believe how much el?e there is to enjoy I If age. which does know, had not lost the power to enjoy all ! "Si jeunesse savait ! si vieiles? e pouvait !" he murmured, in the old trite, true. Kid words of human existence which has no sooner time to learn its secret than it ha3 s pa8 away where there is no more use for its hardly acquired knowledge. What cruelty and mockery there were in this brief paying! If lie could only put his own knowledge, his own patience, his nwn experience into the heart of h:3 child! He felt tired and sad, and the pleasantness of the little gift of Fortune which had cmne to him was forgotten in an aching anxiety for tho fate of one dearer than himself. "If she be ever forced to leave him," he thought, "she will be too proud to keep her dowry and she will have this to live on ; it is well bo far." The afternoon was very warm and sultry ; there was no ' Bound but the buzzing of the bees and the murmur of the sea on the shore, tie listened to that pound which seemed like the heating; of the heart of ature. "If we could listen more to that and less to our own, we should be happier while we live and readier for death, he thought, as he leaned his head back in tho t hair and clo.-ed his eyes. He felt very weary. He rested there very quietly. The hours passed and tho sun sank down, and the little birds in the sweetbrier and southernwood began to think of their bedtime, pafe undei their abode of leaves. The dog at his feet looked anxiously up at him from time to time. The retlection from the setting sun shone on his face, which was very white and very calm, and there, when the shadows of the evening rame about him, his old servant found him sleeping. He died in his sleep without a pang. There was the shadow of a smile on his pale lips. He had gone in peace to the great majority, whither haa gone before him the great souls whom ho had loved in life. CHAPTER XXXV. At Ladysrood the long dinner was over by half an hour; the drawing-rooms were rilled with gay groups; there was the sound of pleasant laughter and of sweet voices, and of the beautiful melody of Wagner's spinning chorus, which was scarcely listened to or heeded by anyone. In the midst of that soft animation of polished mirth, the groom of the chambers, bending low tohia master, murmured an almost inaudible word ; Guilderoy grew very pale, and with a hurried phrase of apology, left his guests. In the library he found tho old gardener of Christsle3, who had come thither to tell him that John Vernon was dead. "(tod forgive me!" was his first thought. "Will he ever forgive me if he has gone where he can know all?'' CHAPTER XXXVI. "My child, you and I have lost the best friend we had on earth. Let us endeavor to live together as he would most have wished us todo,"eaid Guilderoy, with sincere emotion, when he had left all that was mortal of John Vernon in the little graveyard by the sea at Christ.slea. She sighed ; she did not respoad. The party at Ladysrood had, of course, bten broken up immediately, and there was no question for the moment of the arrival of the Duchess Soria. Of the personal impatience w hich he felt at this disappointment to himself, (iuilderoy gave no sign to his wife. Ho was sincerely sorry for her, and he forebore from any kind of word or hint which could have added to her sorrow. He was, for tho first time in his life, wholly unselfish. But the consciousness that he was doing his duty, did not prevent the tedium of those solitary rfays of mourning from weighing heavily on his spirits, and taxing his patience cruelly. He was wholly unused to either the sensation or the spectacle of pain. In the overwhelming shock and grief to her of her father a death, all other memories and feelings had been for the time forgotten or thrust aside. Guilderoy had shown to her in her suffering a pennine tenderness and sympathy, which had been wholly unaffected, as he himself bitterly retrretted the loss of one whom he had regarded with affection, and whose loss waa irreparable he knew to her, perhaps to them both. The cottage at Christslea bad been the one temple of peace in which neither of them would ever have been ashamed to confess error and seek reconciliation. But John Vernon was dead, and all that remained to them of him were his books and papers his written and printed thoughts and the letter which had been found in his dead band. He was moved to greater regret when he read and arranged the innumerable papers which ernon bad left behind him, and felt conscious at every line, of iow much nobility of mind and rich tnv turity ci iattliect were quenched forevvr

under the wild tbymo and moss which covered the little burial-place where ho lay. Guilderoy did not share that hope which sustained the souls of Socrates and Plato, and which the soul of John Vernon had drunk in from theirs. To him it seemed that quand on est mort, e'est pour longtemr8 ; a time so long that it stretches on to all which mortals can conceive as forever. And his eyes were often wet with tears as he turned over the manuscripts of his dead friend. The sincerity of his own sorrow did not di minish the intolerable sense of dreariness with which these last summer weeks at' ladysrood filled him. On the contrary, he became impatient, even of his own regrets: he was so wholly unused to harbor as a guest any thought or emotion which was not pleasurable that he resented his own pain. These long 6ilent summer hours in this houso of ruournine, with the figure of Gladys in its long black robes always before him, and no other distraction possible, tried almost beyond endurance the good resolutions which he had silently formed as he looked on the pale serene countenance of Vernon lying in his last sleep on his narrow bed, with the lattice of his chamber open to the blue sky. the twittering birds, the quivering leaves, tho murmurous sea. A man of his temperament is quickly touched to fine issues, to honest regrets, to tender resolves; but there is no power on earth which can secure his adhesion to them. He showed her the most sincere sympathy in her grief, and was even perfectly patient with Us intensity and long duration. He had felt the truest admiration and attachment on his own part for her father, and had always felt that Vernon would do much to smooth and dissipate any difheuhy which might arise between himself and her. The philosophical, indulgent aud temperate influence of such a mind had had a sway over himself which he knew to be the" most beneficial he had ever felt. It left a painful void even in his own life to feel that that wise and serene friend had forever passed out of sight and hearing. .Earlier, ever so little earlier, 6he would have responded to his efforts, the frost of her heart would have melted under the first sunbeam of a kind word ; but now the remembrance of what his sister had told her was ever dominant. It haunted her night and day; guided by its cruel indication she realized a thousand words and Mgns whic h were confirmation true. She recollected that her husband's abandonment of thj colonial adventuress had been contemporary with the arrival of the Duchess i?oria in England. His desire that she should be invited to Ladysrood ; his tone in speaking of her; his preoccupation and visible anxiety for her pleasure and her presence all these recurred to her memory with overwhelming and indisputable testimony to the truth of Hilda Sunburv's words. Hilda Sunbury herself had felt a pang very kindred to remorse when she heard, where she stood in the brilliant drawingroom of Ladysrood, that Vernon had been found dead after sunset. Perhaps she had hastened his end; she knew that she had distressed him and there was constantly sounding in her ear his bidding, "Be kind to her." Had it been kind to have said what she had said to her brother's wife? Would it not have been well if she had obeyed the dead man's caution and counsel? Her conscience told her that it would; and ehe was glad to excuse herself to Guilderoy, and hasten from his house on a plea of urgent matters needing her presence at her own home. She was uneasy at what she had herself done; she was sensible that it had been neither wiso nor laudable : that whatever she knew or thought she knew should have been kept in her own breast But she had been unable to help a restless desire to have her share of influence in the life at Ladysrood, and though she was not conscious of it, unity between her brother and his wife would have been intolerable to her. She had never been able to pardon the manner in which, from tho very first hour, so very young a woman as Gladys had passively avoided her efforts at direction and tacitly rejected her suggestions. From the moment she had presented her at court she had felt that her brother's wife would 3'ield to her in nothing. "Then she is all alone in tho world henceforward!" said Aubrey, when he heard of John Vernon's death.

"Alone! How can you talk in such a manner?" said tally Sunbury, greatly annoyed. In herself she blamed her brother endlessly and pitilessly; but she would have resented as the greatest of personal insults a hint from anyone else that he was ever so slightly blamable. "I know no one more entirely alone." eaid Aubrey, very gravely. "Will you console her solitude?" it was on Lady Sunbnry's lips toa.k; but the respect she had for her cousin, both as a man and as a statesman, restrained her for once from an unpleasant and imprudent utterance. "Her father might possibly have restrained her from follies!" she observed instead. "Is ehe disposed toward folly?" asked Aubrey. "I have seen few women so young so wise." "You admire all she does!" "I confess I think she conduct? herself in what are frequently very ditlieult circumstances, with great tact and forbearance, very unusual in anyone of her years. 1 'think she is far from blind to Evelyn's caprices, but ehe has the good sense to affect to be so." "It is the least she can do in return for all he has done for her." "My dear Hilda, what a vulgar sentiment! If ho had not married her, men quite as irood as he would have done so." "Would you?" asked Lady Sunbury with her most unpleasant expression and accent. Aubrey raised his languid eyelids and looked her full in the face. "If I had happened to meet her yes," he replied coldly. "He is in love with her I" thought his cousin, outraged and disgusted; and she began to meditate as . to how far it was possible to give any hint of it to Guilderoy. In a few weeks tho solitude grew unendurable to him. He was wholly unused not to have the voices of the world around him, and the constant sight of a sorrow which he could do nothing to relieve depressed and distressed him beyond endurance. A heartless man would have felt it much less ; but Guilderoy was never heartless, though he frequently made the hearts of others ache. Even a great passion, if he had been capable of it, would have found him after its first ecstasies easily diverted from it by the attractions of minor emotiocs and of passing interests. Life had been full of pleasant temptations to him, and he haa never acquired the habi t of avoiding these er of keeping steadfastly to any path. He could do nothing to console her. She abandoned herself to her grief with a "orgetfulness of all else, which was in ita way as selfish as was his desire to get away from the eight of hex griei Her

father had been the c:ater and support of her whole life. She reproached herself passionately with having ever believed that she was unhappy so long as the sweetness and wisdom of his life were with her. He grew impatient of seclusion and the sight of sorrow. She was too young to be lelt by herself, and she had no relatives who could be invited to remain with her. Between his sister and herself he knew that little harmony or sympathy existed. "If you would come away somewhere it would distract you ; there a're many countries you have never Eccn. I will take you where you choose ; a voyage might do much to calm you," he said to her one morning, in the seventh week after Vernon's death. But she- could not be persuaded to leave Ladysrood, and made her daily pilgrimaco to the grave at Christslea. "I cannot go into the world ; do not ask me," she said again and again to him. "Go you, it you wish." "Remember that you are the first to suggest it," he replied. .Not pleased at the permission given him, though longing for the liberty which it awarded, he added with hesitation: "The world will . think it strange if I leave vou so soon." "What does that matter!" she said, unconsciously repeating Socrates' question: "Is it worth w hile to think so much of the opinion of others?" "I have no wi&h for my friends to suppose that I am unkind or that you are deserted," said Guilderoy, impatiently. "You have already, my dear, had a certain manner, a certain air, which have suggested as much to 6ome people. I quite understand how wretched you feel under this irreparables loss, but have never understood why you always looked so little happy before it. Very few women would quarrel with the life you lead; and if you have any wishes of which I am unaware, you have only to name them. They 6hall be gratified." "You are very good." "That is not the language which you should use to me. It is language ridiculous in the relations we bear to one another. There is no question of goodness. You are my wife, and it is my pleasure as well as my right to give you whatever it may be in my power to give." "Is fidelity in your power?" She looked him full in the eyes as she spoke. She was standing before him in the sunshine; her black gown fell about her iu long, slim, severo folds, her face was pale with long weeping, and there were dark circles under her eyes. There was a look on her facti w istful and yet resolate, pathetic and vet stern." "Fidelity!" repeated Guilderoy. It was a strange inquiry, and one which lett him at a loss to answer it. "Who has been talking to her?" he wondered. She looked at him with the same unchanging gaze, and her eyes tried to read his very soul. "Have you been faithful to me?" she asked. "I will believe you if you 6ay that you have." "My dear!" he was embarrassed and unnerved. He felt his face grow warm; a hot flush rose in his cheeks, his eyes avoided hers, and he hesitated to reply. "Why do you ask such questions?'' he said with petulance. "Xo man ever tells the truth in reply to them.v "You have told it to mo now," said Gladys coldly; and she said nothing more. Sho stood quite still, and looked at him, and ho avoided her gaze. "And the Duchess Soria?" she asked. "Is it true that you wished mo to invite her here, because " He interrupted her passionately. "Hush! I forbid you to speak her name to me!" "Why? Because you have loved her?" "Because she is the only woman I have reullv loved iu all my life.' God help me!" There was that sound of true and passionate feeling in his voice which she had never heard from him for herself ; such a tone is unmistakable, is irresistible; it carries its own truth and its ow n secret with it in overwhelming witness to the most unwilling ear. "I'ous Varrz rottla?' he said with violence. "It is always so with women. One spares them one would screen them would keep them in peace and they will not be content w ith that. They will ask and suspect, and prate aud irritate, until they are wounded by the very thing they

need have never known, but for their own insatiate curiosity, their own restless and unpitying jealousy ! It is always so!" He was passionately angered; angered with himself because he had betraved a secret which not only concerned himself, and angered with her because she had driven him into one of those positions in which roan must dishonor himself in Kb own sight, either by falsehood or confession. "If you loved her, " hy did vou afl'ect to love me?" bho asked. Her voice and her attitude were unnaturally calm, but her eyes had a look in them which he did not care to meet. "1 affected nothing!" ho answered with entire sincerity. "1 thought I loved you ; I thought at least that I loved you enough to be happy with you. They always say tho happiest marriages are passionless. I was entirely honest in all I said to you and in all I 6aid to your father. I never told you I had not loved other women; I never told you that I should not love others. Xo man can give those pledges if he is sincere in what he says." Ho spoke with force and warmth and perfect truth; whether he were wrong or right in what lie said, lie believed in his own words, and he intended neither subterfuge nor apology. He honestly regretted the pain whiciyhe inflicted, and he was wholly candid in the expressions of his own emotions. They were things which he had long thought, long felt, but which he would never have said to her unless she had forced him to it by judicious interrogation. He had been willing to keep her in the calm outer courts of courteous intercourse and social conventionalities. If she had forced her way, despite- him, into the hidden recesses of his soul, she could not blame him if she found another name the talisman there and not her own. "I have never intentionally spoken an unkind word to you," he went on after & moment's silence. I have been delighted to gratify all fancies and wishes that you ever expressed, or that I could ever divine. You have not had that pliability and amiability which one looked for from one so young; but I have never uttered a word to any living being which could allow thein. to imagine that I blamed you. I have given you every outward respect, every possible consideration; if you have not known how, or have not cared, to win my affections and my confidence, I think I am justified in saying that it is not more my fault than it is yours. Love cannot be stoned, or bullied, or worried into existence or duration. All women forget that too often. He rose and walked impatiently to and Iro lor a lew moments. Bho stood quite still in the same atti tude. She was very pale, otherwise she betrayed no emotion. "I regret that you have forced me to eay those thici,'" he said, After a mo

ment's silence. "They are always painful to the speaker and the hearer "alike, and

no possible good can ever come from agitatiug and embittering cenesi. Such scenes are the abhorrence of my lite. Every man loathes them, and I most of all. In our position no possible good can come Ironi mutual recrimination. Between lovers such disputes may be the resurrection of a buried love. But between peoEle who are bound together merely by onor, interest and society, they can only Eroduce tho most fatal estrangement. I ave wished honestly that you should be happy, and if you are not so, it is as much my misfortune as it is yours. It may be also my fault. I do not say that it is not. But it is the fault of temperament, and not of will." Ho waited for some answer from her, but she said nothing. She stood with one hand resting on the marble column, and she might have been made herself of marble, so still and so cold 6he seemed. He waited a momeut more, looked at her in hesitation, then with a bow passed and left her. Ho knew that he had said what could not be effaced from her memory, and what must forever be like a barrier of ice between them. Yet if even at that moment she had touched his heart or his conscience in any way, if she had shown anything of the warmth and tenderness wluch are the very life-blood of a woman's love, he would have been ready to meet it so far as his feelings could have been controlled to meet it. IIo would have been ready to say to her : "We are both sacrificed to the mistaken laws of the world; let us pity each other and bear with each other, and be friends if we can be nothing more." But she had said nothing; and the had kept that attitude of coldness, of disdain, of offense, which had in it neither invitation nor indulgence. She had no compassion because 6he had no comprehension ;and she had been so wholly absorbed in the intensi'y of her own pain "that she had had no knowledge that it might still have been possible to save something from this wreck of all her hopes. When women see the treasure of their lives founder they drown with it. They do not try to save what they might. Guilderoy did not seek to explain or to apologize. His conscience was stung, and he was angered with himself for having been betrayed into such embarrassment. What idiots worae:i were! always seeking to know things which made their misery when known, never letting well alone, never accepting tho conventional untruths with which any well-bred man is careful to cover bis errors, always breaking with rash steps the thin ice which alone separates them from the bottomlcss waters of suspicion and jealousy! He paced to and fro the west terrace with anger and a kind ot contrition in his thoughts. Whv would she ask those home questions? Why would she try to penetrate his very soul with the gaze of her great luminous, serious eyes? Why could she not take all he gave licr his kindliness, his respect, his courtesy, his outward observance, his occasional embraces, and not endeavor to probe further into the secrets of his inner life, and the mysteries of the male passions? Good heavens ! Hal she not a life full enough, brilliant enough, envied enough, to occupy and consent nor without her requiring his erotic fidelity as thouzh he were souie sighing SirrpJum to her maiden ( 'Woris? Why would women always make themselves wretched by demanding the impossible, and trying to enter the closed chambers of men's follies? "And I was really willing to endeavor to be to her what Vernon would have wished," he thought w ith a sense of injustice done to himself. Why were women always like that? Always rejecting the pearls you brought them because you would not, or could not, give them a roe's egg! "Marriage is such a totally different thing to what she thinks it," ho said to himself. "It is a cortm inity of interests; a union of externals; a method of continuing the race and of consolidating property ; it is not a lifelong worship of Eros, with an eternal song of 'Evoe Hymen!' " He was incensed, and nursed his fiction of injustice to himself, not to look closer at the injustice to her of which his conscience whispered. It was the same season of the year, almost the same day of the month as that on which he had first spoken to his sister of his intention to marry John Vernon's daughter. Good heavens! Why had he given away liberty and peace and independence of action only because ä child had a lovely face, like a picture by Romney, and because, ho had had vague impressions that he wished his own son to reign after him at Ladysrood ! Into what irrevocable imprisonment had not his senses and his sentimentality hurried him! But w ho could ever have supposed that a woman 60 young, and reared in such rural seclusion, would have had so much penetration, so much prescience, so much worldly wisdom, and such an obstinate refusal to be deceived. "I have always been most careful to Ehow her every outward respect," he thought; and it seemed to him that she was unreasonable, and he himself harshly treated. He would always have liked her, always have felt affection for her, if she had only been more facile, more pliant, more easily molded to what he required. What could it matter to her if his fancies went elsewhere! He coutd not see that it really mattered anything. If there were any very great scandal, if he left her openly for any one, if he insulted her in public by "admiration for some actress or some adventuress, then he could have understood that she would have felt wronged, and tho world would have been with her. But as it was, as he had always been careful to do none of these things, he could not admit to himself that she had any injury at all. He hail remained beside her entirely out of sympathy and good feeling; he had honestly desired to regulate their future lives to be in accord and outward harmony, if in no deeper tenderness, and his only reward had been that she had asked him a direct and intolerable question which he had been too honest a gentleman to answer with a lie. He was profoundly angered; the more profoundly because his inner consciousness was not blameless. If he had loved her, most probably he would have sought her, have thrown himself at her feet, and confessed his infidelities; but it is only men who love very tenderly who are thus repentant, and he had no kind of love for her. The little he had ever had had died out after sir months' possession. As it was he went into his library, wrote her a brief note, and giving a few orders to his body-f-ervant to follow him, he had his horse brought round and rode over the moors to the nearest railway. Ilia note merely said: My Peaii Gladv6 It will be as well for us not to see one another for a little while. You are mistress of your yourself and of.Ladysrood. I hall probably go to Alx-les-Iiainen If you will address me at the Kmbassy in l'aris, I will tell them to forward ruy letters, as I am not I quite iure whither I may turn toy steps, I

hope to find you in better health on my return. You cannot aoubt my profound sympathy, in the loss you have sustained. Ever yours, Evelyn. The note, when he wrote it, seemed to him a masterpiece of courtesy, kindliners, dignity, and implied rebuke." It seemed to her, when she received it, the acme of indifference, negligent, heartlessness, and insult. It was in real truth neither the one nor the other, being the mere announcement of the fact of his departure, with the other fact of his annoyance and offense conveyed through its conventional words. ( To be continued next icefk.) THEY VOTED FOR JACKSON And Propone To Celebrate the Approaching Anniversary of Ilia IS rtU. To THE Editor Sir: Since sending a note to Tup: Sentinel, some days ago, favoring the proposed idea of holding an old-fashioued 8th of January convention, as suggested by a Boone county correspondent, I have received a number of letters from those who voted for Gen. Jackson inquiring if the convention would be held as proposed. I have uniformly answered that I thought not; that there was not time to give the necessary notice, aud there being no regular organization there was practically no head to set the ball in motion. But it does not seem to be understood that the idea is abandoned I find, &s I am receiving letters of inquiry nearly every day. In the meantime a new feature of a rally of the Jdcksonians is presented by that veteran Jacksonian of Clinton county, Mr. John Earner, who was postmaster under Gen. Jackson, many years clerk of the circuit court, and a delegate to the national convention that nominated Pierce and King for president and vice-president, who seems to have lost none .of his enthusiasm of early days. He suggests that a convention might be held with propriety on Gen. Jackson's birthday, the l-3th of March, which suggestion will attract, as it deserves, not only those who revere the name of Jackson, but all others who dislike monopolies and oppressive taxation as well. I have the consent of Mr. liarner to publish the letter. I. D. G. NELSON. Indianapolis, Jan. 2. Mr. Earner's letter to Mr." Nelson is as follows: The lion. I. I. G. Nelson: Dear Sir I have read your note in TnE SENTINEL of the löth, in relation to the proposed meeting of the Jackson voters on the 8th of January next. Mr. Isaac D. Armstrong and myself voted for Jackson in this county iu 13M2, and we counted about fourother residents of the county who did. Now, if we could have one or two from each county in the state, it would make an interesting meeting, and we could probably call in the Hons of Jackson veterans to enlarge the gathering, nnd if it is thought to be too early, the meeting could be called lor the old hero's birthday, the 15th of March next, and I would Rugcest that you or some other competent party prepare an address on the life and services of one of the "greatest captains of the age," and let that be one of the principal features of the gathering. I had the pleasure of meeting you once a few years since, when thetate-bouse was in course of erection. Excuse m for the liberty I have taken in writing you. Very respectfully, JoiisBaexer. Frankfort, Ind., Dec. 24.

ELECTION FRAUDS. Heroic Measure Kequired to Suppress the KtiI of Bribery. To THE Editoi: Sir: The public mind at the present time is intenstiy interested in the subject of election frauds and the remedy therefor. If j'on will allow an outsider to express an opinion, I would be please J to present a few thoughts on these subjects. 1 Every honest man condemns the practice of buying votes for a money consideration either singly or in "blocks of five;" but if a vote i3 controlled by personal consideration other than a cash payment, it is of the nature of a purchase. The greatest good of the country is the only motive that controls the vote of a EatrioL I fail to see the difference, morally, eiween voting a certain ticket under the promise of a ten-dollar greenback and voting it under promise of a postoffiee or any other political favor. It is this system of office compensation for political work that has debauched the public conscience and rendered vote-buying possible; and until the fountain can be purified the streams will be corrupt. We may palliate the evil hy more stringent election laws, but cannot eradicate it by such measures. 'J. 1 have seen no remedy proposed for what is at present the chief defect in our political jurisprudence that is the impossibility of convicting a political criminal if he is a man of prominence in his party. Having expelled every moral element from our political code, as well as from our political platforms, and taught the partisan that success is the chief end of very political canvass, we need not be surprised if he carries this code of ethics and his prostituted conscience into the jury room, and should there refuse to convict a prominent politician of his party whatever the evidence may be. 3. Looking toward the remedy of this sad condition, I have no doubt that a 6ecret ballot will do much to render the traffic in votes more diilicult; but trained politicians are very cunmnc, and will be ipt to devise some way to mauage the "tloaters," if not in "blocks of five," yet ia 6ome other way; while his honest, conscientious brother in polities will shut his eves on the crime and poultice his conscience with the pernicious maxim, that in politics "all is fair that wins." The Englif-h method would prove as effectual here as it has in the mother country, though the treatment is heroic. If a brihed vote is cast or a lesal vote is counted out when proof is made, the vote of the whole precint is rejected. This makes every voter a watcher, as he values his own vote, and policians will seldom risk the loss of a whole precinct. But even this must not condone the crimes of vote-buying and selling if we caa devise anyway to convict the criminal. Indianapolis, Jan. 1. 1LT. Browx. LITERALLY BLOWN TO ATOMS. Horrible Death of Two Young' Men IJy Ad Explosion of Dynamite. Norkistown, Pa., Jan. 2. A horrible accicident occurred yesterday two miles from Summertown, this county, two young men, named F.rb and Schocker, being literally blown to atoms by an explosion of a bucket of dynamite. The young men were employed at James Miller's dynamite factory, and at the time were at work in Swamp creek, near the factory, mixing the ingredients of dynamite. It is supposed that in mixing the stuft the proper proportions were not placed therein, and, as a result, the explosion ensued. The men were blown to pieces, and fragments of flesh were scattered over a wide area. None of the fragments of rlesh picked up were of sufficient size to show to which body they belonged. None of the factory buildings were injured, though the shock was felt in houses two miles from the scene. Ill-Weekly rayments. To the Editor Sir: I do not know whether Mr. J. II. C. Smith's letter is intended as a reply to me, or is an apology for the corporations that, for the time being, duped labor ing men with a law for seeming relief, for seem- , ing relief is all there is of it Mr. Smith comes ' to the front with a quotation from the apparent j penal section, and claims that it afford i ample relief, and closes with: "Probably Mr. Uroll . has overlooked this section." 1 beg pardon, Mr. Smith; I have overlooked ', nothing of the kind. It is altogether likely that you are not a wage-worker, and may be the party that does the overlooking part of the business. Now, if Mr. Smith wants to learn how that law for bi-weekly payments, which he calls ample, really does work, let hho start out to find work and give notice that he will have his pay at the end of two weeks, and see how booh he will get the "grand bounce." There is, in my opinion, no remedy in any law short , of making it a crime on the part of the ern- , ployer to fail to comply without any Jemand upon them. A. CiKuJ.L. "Waldrvu, Inch, Jan. U

THE SÜX WAS OBSCURED.

A PARTIAL ECLIPSE SEEN YESTERDAY. The Conditions Were Kxtreruely l avorable For it Good Observation and Science Made the Most of the Occasion som of the More Common Phenomena. fPaily S3tinel Jan. 2.1 In the days of astrologers and necromancers yesterday's eclipse of the sut would have been regarded as a very unfavorable omen for the beginning of a new year. For the sun to put on a veil on the very first day of a new year is quite an unusual thing. Can it be possible that the happenings of 18t? are going to. be of such an immoral nature that tho sun blushes beforehand? Let us hone not. However that may be, smoked g!ass and Mue goggles were ia active demand yesterday afternoon between 4 and 6 o'clock, and observers were favored with a three-fourths eclipse, the line of totality not extending eat of Yellowstone Fark. Two enterprising reporters climbed to the top of the court-house tower, and there secured an excellent view of the eclipse. The moon first entered as a big brown ball on the northwestern line of the sun's disc, aJitile before 4 o'clock. The tky wa3 beautifully clear, and the obstruction of the sun's rays caused a soft, meliow glamour to be 6hed over the earth. The light thus furnished was truly" of the tomb-like kind, gently though sadly softened. A total eclipse of the ua is one of the grandest sights it u possible for man to witness. As the eclipse advances, but bdo-o i- totalltv At 3:lö p. di. At o.M p. in. is complete, the sky grows of a dusky, livid, or purple, or yellowish crimson color, which gradually grows darker, the color appearing to run over large portions of the eky irrespective of the clouds. This peculiar darkeuiu of the landscape and weird coloring of the sky is quite unlike the approach of night and gives rise to eeiiugs of awe even in the coldly scientific mind, and to apprehension in nervous or ignorant people. Tho moon's shadow is seen to sweep rapidly across the earth and is sen even in the air. All sense of distance is lost, the faces of men assume a livid hue, fowls hasten to roosU dogs howl and the heathen, hy prayers and sacrifices, attempt to appease their augry gods. A few seconds before the commencement of totality the stars anil planets burst out into view and eurroundine the dark moon on ail sides is seen a glorious halo, generally of a silver, white lighL This is the corona, and is what astronomers watch with intense interest all along the contact line during the movements of totality. The importance of the eclipse from an astronomical and scientific standpoint can be be judged from the extensive preparations mailc rjy astronomers for its observance. Scientific men from prominent universities viewed the eclipse from the mountains north of San Fraucisco and the results obtained will be of great value. Almost all that has ever been discovered about the suu has been during eclipses, hast of the Mississippi no scientiDc work was possible b?yond recording the time of contact and there are certain conditions At 1 p. in. At I p. m. which teud to disrouratre the idea that, such work would aid in perfecting the tables of the moon's motion. However, observers noted with all possible precision the time when the total eclipse bgan and ended, making sketches cf the corona, the latter beimr invisi ble so long as a single thread of direct sunlight peeped around the dark body ot the moon. MflrWVfr .t l'Ii1!U"vrtfli vram muln fnr "li iUr'. beads," a hasty study of the red protuberances which are usually seen darting out from around the moon at the instant of complete obscuration, and another search was made for the planet or planets which arc supposd.to be revolving in orbits inside thitot mercury, a number of new phenomena may be discovered. The appearanre of the corona may furnish reasons for important modifications or even abandonment of accepted theories in regard to its character. The detection of one or more hair lines iu the red protuberances may much increase the study of solar chemistry, while the observations of contact may perhaps conduce to a solution of the vexed problem whether or not the moon's mean rate of motion was altered by passing through the November meteors early in the present century. The solar eclipse was the forty-fourth that has occurred since the great one of l;?, the middle belt of which ran through southern Iowa and central Illinois. As accessible solar eclipses come around on-e in about two years, and as under the most favorable conditions the time of totality is limited to less than eight minutes, it can be seer, that the total time allowed for observing the phenomena is but one hour Kiy in forty years. OBSERVATIONS ELSEWHERE. Those at eIon, California, a I'ailure on Account of Clouds and lia.e. Sax Francisco, Cah, Jan. l. Prof. Louis Smith, director of the Warner observatory of Rochester, N. Y., was stationed at Nelson, Cal., and telegraphed the following as the result of his observation of the eclipse: "As far as affording opportunity to search for intramercuiial planets, it was a failure from clouds and haze. All four contacts were well made, a chronometer watch previously set to Lick observatory time being used. Five very small colorless protuberances were seen, all having pointed apexes. Near the point of one was another detached from the sun. IJailey's beads were seen at the second aud third contacts, but entirely unlike those etn at Denver in 1873. No chronosphere was visible, though looked for. Mercury, Venn, Vesra and Alpho Cygni were seen. The corna could not be drawn, but as seen through the telescopes was not very extensive." The conditions were generally favorable today both in California and Nevada for a clear observation of the total eclipse of the sun. In the city the eclipse was only partial, but eleven-twelfths of the sun's surface being obscured. The weather was perfectly clear and the eclipse was witnessed by a great number of persons. During the period of the greatest obscurity it became quite dark and one star was plainly seen. No scientific observations were made in this city. Half of the totality in California was from 50 to 100 miles north of San Francisco and trains from this city this morning conveyed a large number of people to various points favorable for the observation. The weather at Marvsville was very clear. The first contact was about 12:30.. During the proarress of the eclipse the weather became quite cool. Several streaks of lightning were observed during the totality. Several exposures of wet and dry plates were made during the totality, and views will be sent to Ampher's college. l'rof. E. S. Holden of Lick observatory telegraphs that the beginning of the eclipse was nuccessfully observed at that point and also the last contact. Photographs were taken at Oroville; the clouds obscured the view of the totality, but a pcod view was had tip to within a few minutes of that period. Ihe conditions were all favorable at St. Helena, The nearest approach to totality was at 1, when observers uoticed plainly with the naked eye a narrow circle of light ia the northeasterly aid of the

sun's disc and in an instanl the bright spot was transferred to the other side. The appearanco of the entire valley in a slaiowy light wai weird. The party from the Lick observatory ia charge of Prof. .1. E. KeeK r, made a successful observation at Bartlett Springs. Prof. Keeler telegraphs that the corona was beautifully distinctandth.it he saw remarkable change in the length of the coronal lines. Pr A. Iarnato obtained cine photographs. Prof. Hill photographed all the contacts and studied the structure of the inner corona. Prof. Sensohre made seven measures of light during the totality. At Kra-s Valley there were white clouds ob scuring the sun a little, but during the period of totality the stars and large planets were seen with the naked eye. The corona and protuberances were a grand sibt. The thermometer fell seven degrees between the first contact and totality. At Virginia City, Nov., the thermometer was thirty decrees at the time cf the first contact and dropped to tventy degrees during the, progress of the ciipv. The weather was perfectly clear. A heavy foj prevailed at Truekee, Cal., in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and dunncr the eclispe it .is necessary to use electric lights in the streets. At liealdsburg the. totality was eighty seconds. Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, and stars near the sun were visible. Corona appeared with long rays of liul t parallel to th equator of the sun. Prof. li.'F. Hall succeeded in set-urine a number of nnephotographsof the corona whicn snow rays ten or twelve degrees from tho sua; only rose-colored protuberances were visible. At Orlando the totality lasted cne hundred and ten second1?. Venus :iiid two stars wer visible. Three photographs Mere successful! taken. SUPREME COURT RELIEF.

The Objections toAu Intermediate Appel late Court Cogently Stated. ToTthe Lditok Sir: I am pleased to notice in the columns of The Sentinel that the objections I made soon atier this subject was first discussed have been so generally adopted. They were (1) the appointment of another com mission for three , or four years, and (2) iu the interim amend the constitution, by increasing the number of supreme judges to not less thaa five and not more than eleven judges. Al?o, as it is not likely that a democratic assembly would create live such oulces to lie filled with, or by republicans, have the legislature select the commissioners. There have been some objections made to this plan, but 1 think all such can be readily answered. It is thought that most of the objections arise from the desire of many to obtain place, or of some locality which may have, or desire to have, a supri nie court established iu its midst. Of course many of the large cities out of Indianapolis would iV.vor such a p!na that is of having several appellate courts boldiug their sessions in their particular locality. To have such appellate courts thus sitting ia different parts of the M-iie would certainly necessitate the enaction öftrem nine to fifteen more judicial ofiicer. a place to bold eticbi courts, and a clerk, sberiti", reporter and other officers and paraphernalia of ruch courts. Thin we would have either four or six courts wit'v more than double the expene, and which not only would produce confusion with conflicting decision? on the Mine questions, with a chance in onr judiciary system which weall aret accustomed Vo, it would become unpopular with the litigants and attorneys who would bec ither compelled to submit to the judgment of such appellate court as nnal, or at greater expense in fome cases as suggested to again appeal thicHse to the supreme court. With J he supreme, court docket cleaned nj for the reception of a court composed of oüly seven members and the amendment hereinafter mentioned adopted, many attorneys believe it would l several years before it would acain bo be clogged as it now ip. Kvcn with four extra, judges the additional expense would be flö,CV but with any appellate system sui.'cested, even with the smallest of three courts, with only three judges to each, with like salary as tha present supreme judges, which is certainly small enough, would make the salaries alon $."k,(X'i0, to say nothing of the other officers ani incidents of such courts as stated above. I'.y makinff the amendment, as stated, to b not less than five and not more than eleven judges, no legislation would be necessary until Is"1;;, and by continuing the commission utitil then, the general assembly at that lime could well determine the extra number of judges needed. Whiie it is true that two courts of five judges each would and could decide mor cases than a court composed of ten indses. yes it is cot believed that the work would be done as well, nor would the decisions of cither hate such influence and respect as the court with the greater number of judges. Many causes of action, although not cf mncli importance to the public or others, involve thn eutire estate of a liticant, and to such is of mora importance than many case involving thousands ot dollars to others. To such it is hess and right and far more satisfying that th: have the benefit of the judgment of the highest court in the state, and that they be not d?ni'I that judgment beeau-c their suit may be insignificant as compared, in dollars and cents, to other cases. It is looking too much like giving the rich, ith their large moneyed interests, the benefit of the highest court, and o denyii.5 that court to the poor with their smaller cases, involving their entire property. The principU involved in this plan is equal and exaet justic to all, and meted out by the same court to all. Another suggestion has tor years been ditcussed more" or lesi, which would be a great saviug of labor to our supreme judges, n 1 would be a great saving to the tax payers ani lawyers, in amending sec. of art. 7, o as t; leave it to the discretion of the court to give a written statement 01 the important aud controlling oucstions involved ia each case, with their decision thereon, avoiding a repetition of decisions as well p.s all frivolous points. This would certainly greatly lessen the labor of th-i .iudges, and would be readily aeouiesced in by the legal protession. V.'. 11. Lulls. Auburn, Dec. 31. FOR THE THIRD TIME. lATid It. Hilt Inaugurated Governor e w York Ills Annual Message. Albany, Jan. 1. The state senate to-day was organized by the election of J. Sioat F sett, secretary of the republican national committee, to the presidency pro tern. Freemoni Cole was elected speaker of the assembly. The inauguration of Gov. Hdl as conduct ! with much circumstance and display. While readini his annual message the coventor created some sensation w hen he employed theo words: The nci-ssity of ouie chaiite- in our -I'tion la thereby the increasing corruption ha becom i'irident to our elections may be prevented, is imperative. It it believed iliui the recent presidential election was the nj"?t corrupt of anv in the histovr of the country, so far a the direct ns- of money ji concerned in influeticins the electors, and puMm Fcntimetit i tiamrallv amakened to the desirability of some relief. The pec"1 iar caii which induced, this immense corruption are apparent. The anxiety to subserve selfish and private advantage, rather thai the trwral Interests of the public, naturally IM is . the eaniaicn beitifr. conducts upon allrsred 'bsities" principle-, hereby, it is a-serted, that elector were bought and sold like poo ls and chattels in tb opeu market. It is claimed that at leaat f!00,0Q wer-? expended In tho Twentieth and Twenty-fourth congreional districts in this Hate in the etfitta. made therein to elect congressmen and to he favorable to the policy of fostering private interest. Gov. Hill recommended that by joint resolution the legislature urge congres to adopt constitutional amendments regarding the presidential term and a provision for ex-preaidenti. The recommendations are: 1. That the term of otüce of president nai vice-president shall be six years. 2. That the president hall be ineligible foi re-election. 3. That the president shall, immediately upon the expiration of his term, become member of the U. .S. enate for life, and reeeiv an appropriate salary. This amendment shall apply to all living ex-presidents. IJad For the IJahy und the Old Man. IN Y. Sun.J Caller (to hostess) "So that is yonr dear lit tle four-year-old. girl, is iU Mrs. Hendricksf . What a lovely child; and she so resemble! you." Mrs. Hendricks "Yes, pome people say th.tf she is like ma iu every. Mabel, ilcp pullia your little brother's hair at o&ce.