Marshall County Independent, Volume 5, Number 19, Plymouth, Marshall County, 21 April 1899 — Page 3

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DICK RODNEY

; 4 n m m n m CHAPTER XV. The Water-Spout. As the sun increased in heat, notwithstanding: the season of the year, I was soon sensible of the comfort of white clothing, when contrasted with dark woolen or broadcloth, as the latter absorb-, and the former repels, the rays of the sun. Marc Hislop illustrated this to me by igniting paper with a burningglass: whenever the focus wa3 brought to bear upon dark places, such as printed letters, they were instantly consumed. We ran long the coast of Hispaniola, and ?aw the wavy ridges of its mountains ihat tower into the clouds; we sighted Tortuga. a rocky island covered with palm trees and sandalwood, but surrounded by reefs and shoals: and, rounding Capo St. Nicholas, stood to the southward between the great islands of .Jamaica and Cuba, but without seeing either of th?ni at that time. For thr (lays we had dark and cloud.1 weather. About 3 o'clock p. m. on the 21th of Januarj- a small speck, which appeared to the westward on our weather beam, grew rapidly into a gloomy cloud, and swiftly, as if on the wings of a destroying angel, it traversed the thickening air and the agitated sea. whi-h darkened beneath its shadow; and so this speck came on. until it grew an awful thunder-cloud. "Bear a hand fore and aft! Hurry, my lads! makf all snug before the tempest breaks!" were the cheering orders of Weston. Hislop and Lambourne as the brig was prepared to encounter a heavy squall. The rain soon foil in torrents, impeding the mn at their work of close reefing, furling and stowing away some of the heavier canvas, and in tightly belaying the running rigging, for when loose ropes are flying about in a tempest, and cracking in men's faces like coach-whips. the3' become sufficiently bewildering to impede the working of (he ship. Uder the lower ?dge of the approaching cloud, when about twelve miles distant, we beheld an object which filled us with wonder and awe. It was a tremendous spout, or column, of water, connected with the cloud above and the sea below (the sea, from which a circular wind had Bucked it upward), that was now visible. This column was like a solid mass ofwhite breakers, approaching with incredible speed over waves that began to rise ic short and pyramidal peaks. Hislop was too busy clewing up canvas, sending yards down from aloft, belaying and ordering, and so lost a famous opportunity for expatiatingas no doubt he would have done on the theory of these spouts, for this phenomenon tilled us with the greatest alarm, lest it might swoop down upon the Eugenie, dismast and destroy her like a child's toy ship. Atonio el Cubano, being the most powerful and muscular man on board, was ordered to the wheel. Across the sea this column seemed to pass with the cloud, boiling, foaming and with the sound of a mighty cascade pouring into a deep valley, but yet maintaining a position quite perpendicular. Around its base the waves teemed In dreadful commotion, rising and falling, seething and glittering in the lightning which shot at times from the gloomy bosom of the cloud that floated over them. As this terrible phenomenon approached from the westward. Captain Weston conceived that we might escape its influence by altering the brig's course, and so passing it. I have heard of water-spouts being dissipated by the effect of heavily shotted guns, but we had no such 'appliances at least we had no shot on board. The breeze, which was blowing fresh and had not as yet become a gale (to us at least), veered northwesterly; so we shook the reefs out of our topsails and trimmed sharp by the wind. "Luff, luff keep your luff keep her to." were the incessant orders of Weston, and the Eugenie flew through the water like a race horse; held by the powerful hands of Antonio, she never yawed an inch, and by especial Providence she got to the windward of that dreadful phenomenon, which passed us, cloud and all, about six miles astern, when, as it changed color from grayish green to white. It presented a scene so sublime and terrible that "the boldest held his breath for a time," and Antonio, who was blanched white with terror, though he had frequently seen such spouts as these in h!3 native seas, assured me, with chattering teeth, that he had never beheld one of such magnitude, and it was long before he could be certain of our safety, and ceased to mutter: "O mala Ventura mala Ventura!" (literally, bad luck.) From white the water-spout became dusky purple, when a gleam of the sun fell on it, and the waves at it3 base glittered in all the colors of the rainbow. "Thank heaven! that is past." said Weston. "Ay. sir," said old Roberts, the raan-o'-war's man; "It Is enough to make one's hair stand on end for a week." "Had we been twenty minutes' sail astern, we could not have escaped it!" eald Hislop; "but we have handled the

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Or. The Adventures of

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An Eton boy... 2 BY JAYVES GRANT.

brig beautifully. That ugly Spaniard at the wheel was worth his weight in gold just now!" For nearly an hour the sea was greatly agitated; but as the Eugenie, still braced sharp to the wind, flew from one long roller to another, we rapidly got into smooth water. The barometer rose quickly: the vapors dispersed; and when the setting sun gave us a parting smile from the far horizon the storm-cloud and its water-spout had disappeared together or melted away in the distant sea. The little eddies of wind which on a fine summer morning may be seen whirling up the dust and dry leaves in circles on a road are exactly on the same principle as those mighty phenomena which become tornadoes, cyclones, and water-spouts when they reach the ocean, where they may easily dismast and perhaps sink the largest line-of-battle ship. These spouts rise from the sea exactly like the moving pillars, of sand which tho whirlwinds sweep from the hot and arid deserts of Africa and Arabia. About six bells (i. e.. 7 o'clock p. ra.) this escape was followel by a dead calm, which lasted till midnight, and during that time we talked of nothing but tho skill with which we had got the weathergage of that column of foam. As the sun set, with a rapidity peculiar to these latitudes, the brilliant tints he shed on sea and sky changed with equal speed from gold to saffron, from that to vivid purple, and from thence to the hue of sapphire. The sensation of loneliness which the departure of the sun excites in the breast of a landsman at sea is peculiar; but this was soon changed from mine by the splendor of the rising moon, which changed the sapphire tints of sea and sky to liquid silver and the clearest blue. Above, no cloud nor even the tiniest shred of vapor wa visible. Sea blended with sky at the horizon, and seemed to melt into each other, so that no line was traceable. Save a planet or two, twinkling with less light than usual, there seemed to be no stars in heaven, for the glory of the full-orbed moon eclipsed them all; her light fell brightly on the white sails of the Eugenie, and in it the features of our faces were distinct as at noonday, and now it was the noon of night. About 12 o'clock a fresh breeze sprang up. and the ship's course was resumed. "Hy keeping the weathergage. and beyond the circle of the spout's attraction, we escaped without shipping a drop of water!" said Weston, for the twentieth time. "Let me see how you enter all this in the log. Hislop." "It is no uncommon thing for a craft at sea to be deluged by a spout of fresh water, which the whirlwind has torn up from an inland lake," said Hislop: "and houses, far in-shore. have in the same fashion been deluged by salt water absorbed from the sea and hence the showers of dried henings, of which we have heard so much at times. Now, Rodney, you will perhaps be surprised when I tell you that it is the winds which produce a calm like that we have had tonight." "The winds!" I reiterated, surprised at such a paradox from our theorist. "Yes. The opposition of tho winds will at times produce a perfect calm, and then when rain falls it is always gentle and equable; but when clouds seem to move against the lower winds, or when streams of air denote a variety of the aerial current, and consequently the approach of rain" -What strange sound is that ahead, or, at least, forward?" said Weston, interrupting Hislop. who would perhaps have theorized for an hour. "It is Antonio, groaning in his sleep in the forecastle' said Xed Carlton, who was at the wheel. "I wish the ship were rid of him and his dreams," added Hislop. testily. "Well, as I was saying, when the adverse movements of the clouds seem to denote " "Light ahead!" cried a voice from the bow. "Is that you. Roberts?" asked Weston, while Hislop stamped with vexation at the second interruption. "Yes. sir." "How does it bear?" "East-north-east." "Then it is Cape St. Antonio light, the most western point of Cuba," said Weston. "I thought I could smell the land with the first cat's paw, before the breeze freshened." The light, dim and distant, like a star, was now seen to twinkle among the waves at the horizon. For more than an hour I remained on deck, with my eyes fixed upon that feeble but Increasing beacon, which indicated a foreign shore; then I went below and turned in, with a sigh of pleasure that the voyage was nearly over, and a hope that when I traversed those waves again I should be on my return home home to my father and mother, to Sybil and Dot to the old rectory, with its shady oak grove. Its green lawn and the masses of ivy. woodbine and honeysuckle that shaded its time-worn walls. CHAPTER XVI. Cuba. When day dawned we had rounde l

Caybo San Antonio, and were running along the northern shore of Cuba. I was up early, by eight bells, or a little after 4 a. m., and with deep Interest I surveyed the coast of that beautiful island, the first and now the last portion of that vast empire beyond the seas which Columbus bequeathed to Castile and Leon. "Dat is my country, senor," said Antonio, who was at the wheel, and this remark, with the repulsive aspect of the Spaniard and his mysterious character, served to dissipate by momentary enthusiasm. "That is Caybo Buena Vista and the breakers on the weather-bow," he continued; "mark the Collorados, a long reef of rocks. The blue sharks are as thick there as the stars in the sky." We were now in the Gulf of Florida. The sky was cloudless and blue, and now it seemed as if the welkin above and the almost waveless sea below were endeavoring to outvie each other in calmness, in beauty and in the glory of their azure depths. The wind was off the land and rather ahead, but the sails were trimmed to perfection, and we ran through the gulf on a taut bowline. I have so much more to narrate than my limited spa -e permits me to give in full detail that I must compress into one chaptetr all that relates to my visit to Matanzas. Our ;un through th gulf was delightful, and on the 2lHh of January, just as a rosy tint was stealing over the sea and the rocky shore of Cuba, after the sun had set beyond the waters of the fJulf of Mexico, we saw Havana light, ben ring south by west, and distant about fourteen miles. So we passed in the night the wealthy capital of Cuba, so famed in the annals of our victories La Habana. or the harborof which, from our being so far to seaward, we could see nothing but the the great revolving light which burns so brightly on the high rock of the Morro, or Castello de los Santos Heyes; and before dawn we descried the light of Santa Cruz on our waterbow. Weston drew my attention to it. adding, "That is the beacon which so scared me when it shone through thi stern windows of the empty polacca brig." Next day. after encountering a head wind, against which we tacked frequently between the Pan de Matanzv.s and the wooded point of Sumberella, at 10 o'clock in the morning a Spanish mulatto pilot came on board and took the brig in charge. We ran safely into the harbor, and by 11 o'clock came to anchor at a place recommended by Antonio, half a cable's length from the castle of St. Severino. In half an hour after the sails were all unbent and stowed below, and preparations were made for "breaking bulk" to unload the vessel, whose cargo, I have stated consisted of steam machinery and coals for the sugar and coffee mills. Gangs of Spanish mulattoes. negro porters and jumpers, in red shirts and white drawers, with broad straw hats, and nearly all with rings in their ears, came on board in quest of employment, and then all was confusion, garlic, dirt, jabbering in Spanish and Congo, singing, swearing and smoking cigaritos. I was now at liberty to go ashore, and after the first bustle was over Weston left Hislop in charge of the brig and accompanied me. Matanzas presented nothing new to him. but I surveyed with interest, not unmixed with wonder, the new world in which I found myself. The city of Don Carlos de Matanzas occupies a gentle eminence between the Iiivers San Juan and Yurnurl, which roll into the bay from the mountainous ridge that traverses all Cuba. Its name, Matanzas, signifies the place of murder, because in that bay some of the Spaniards of Columbus were slais by the native Indians. (To be continued.)

A LUCKY ACCIDENT. How the Art of Printing from Stoue Vi OUrovered. One of the greatest discoveries ever made was the result of pure accident. It was in the year 17. The citizens of Munich had just witnessed the first performance of Mozart's opera. "Don Juan." The theater was deserted by all except one man. Alois Sennefelder, who, after making a round of inspection in the building to see that there was no danger of fire, went to his room to stamp the ticket. of admission for the following day. When he entered his room he had three things in his hand a polished whetstone, which he had bought for sharpening his razor; a ticket-stamp, still moistened with printing ink, and a check on the treasurer of the theater for his weekly salary. As he placed the latter on the table a gust of wind swept it high up in his room, and then deposited it in a basin of water. Sennefelder dried the paper as well as he could, and then weighted it down with the whetstone, upon which h had carelessly placed the printing stamp. When ho returned to his room the following morning, he was astonished at seeing the letters printed upon the dampened paper. A thought came to him. He wondered whether by some such means he could not simplify his work of continually copying the songs of the chorus. He went out and put chased a large stone, commenced making experiments, and. as we all know, finally discovered the art of printing from stone lithography. It is estimated that 40,000 tons o! cucumbers are raised and eaten within the limits of the United States every year.

CAPTAIN CHAS. BATH.

HE EXECUTED THE LINCOLN CONSPIRATORS. Recollections of to Event That Thrilled the Whole World lie la Now en Employe of the Railway Mall Service of the lotted State. Captain Charles Rath of Jackson. Mich., was saw more of the Lincolu conspirators during their confinement than any other man and who was detailed by the war departmet as the executioner of those who were condemned, to death, is now an employe of the postoffice department, being a clerk in the railway mail service. At the outbreak of the war he enlisted in the Seventeenth Michigan, with the rank of second lieutenant, and saw active service until the close of the war. He was given the position of aid on the staff of Gen. Hartranft, and was serving in this capacity when the general was hastily summoned, to Washington early in April. 1S63. Although the general and his staff started immediately for the capital, it was not until the news had spread throughout the army that the president had fallen under the bullet of an assassin. Then thoe on the staff understood the reason for their going. It was in some way connected with the punishment of the criminals. On his arrival at Washington, which took place after the killing of Booth and the imprisonment of some y , in CAPT. C. RATH. p? the conspirators, he was sent down to the arsenal to have charge of the prison. In this way Capt. Rath came to have a part in the execution. He is modest and rather shuns publicity, but the other day he told some of his impressions gained in the performance of his duty. It will be remembered that four of the conspirators were hanged. Booth himself having been shot and killed by the soldiers in their pursuit. The four were: Harold, Payne. Atzerot and Mrs. Surratt. Arnold, Mudd and McLaughlin were sentenced to life imprisonment and Spangler to feix years at the Dry Tortugas. Regarding the last nam d, Capt. Rath said: "Spangler was employed at the theater before Lincoln was shot, being the house carpenter. He was Booth's lackey, and although he had evidently beeu used by the conspirator, yet it is my firm belief that he was entirely Innocent of any intentional part in the crime. It was arranged that he should be at the rear door of the theater on the night of the assassination to let Booth out, and yet I know from his action and conversation afterward, as well as from the others, that be did not know what he was doing it for. Of course the whole city was under martial law and proceedings were not the same as they would have been if the civil authorities had been in sway. I remember the day of the execution Spangler was pretty nervous. He told me afterward how he had felt. He did not know that the military law required the reading of the sentence of death to the accused, and so when he heard the prisoners Payne, Harold, Atzerot and Mrs. Surratt being taken out he said to himself, 'That is the first batch. Am I in the second? And he listened to the sounds from the prison yard, the moving about and the commotion, then the deathly stillness and Anally the horrible lurching of the prisoners to death. Spangler told me that he lived a year in that one hour and a long year at that, for every minute he felt that the door of his cell might swing open and the guards appear to accompany him out to the scaffold. It was when 1 took him out of the prison to be sent to the Dry Tortugas that he looked up at the gallows and blenched terribly at the thought of what had gone through his mind, and then he told me all about It. The most acute agony could scarcely be worse than that dreadful waiting, waiting, with Just the half certainty that death would bo his lot before many minutes were gone. He was the only one of the lot that was not guilty. The others never denied their guilt, disputing sometimes little questions of dates and places. But their whole bearing and the conversation when they came together In the prison yard confirmed their guilt. The execution of the four was delayed considerably by the tardiness of (Jen. Hancock, secretary of the war department. It was to have taken place at 2 o'clock In the afternoon, but we had orders not to proceed without the general. Two o'clock came and went, then 2:15, and still Gen. Hancock did not appear. Finally he came, panting a little, and seeming to me to be a little excited. He vent with me Into the prison and eald: 'Go ahead. " 'Her, too all four of them, general?' I asked. " 'Yes. all four of them. "And so we went ahead. The reason I aaked that question and got that answer was that there had be?a scm?

effort made to save Mrs. Surratt, When Gen. Hancock told me to get ready for the execution of Mrs. Surra-ti he said that I could get ready to execute four of them, but I might not have to execute more than three. Of course I knew that meant that an effort was being made to save Mrs. Surratt. And so sure was I that this would be done that the very morning of the execution, when Mrs. Surratt's little daughter came to the door of the room where I was lying down and looked frightened at the sight of the nooses lying on the floor I longed to say to her: 'Annie, your mother will be saved; don't be afraid.' But of course I couldn't do so, for I might bo doing wrong. Payne had said to me. after having sent for me. that he had had something on his mind for a long time. 'If I had two lives.' he said. I would give one of them to save Mrs. Surratt.' He then told mo that she was not guilty and that it was only because he had been captured in her house that she was arrested. I told Assistant Secretary cf War Maj. Eckert of Payne's conversation, and I was requested to immediately write it out and send it up to the department. This I did. But all efforts were in vain. Mrs. Surratt's counsel, not knowing of the inclination to have his client, made a foolish move on the day of the execution. He swore out a warrant for the arrest of Gen. Hancock on the charge of having possession of Mrs. Surratt's body, and the secretary of war was detained by the justice before whom the warrant was brought. Of course, as martial lav.- prevailed, all that had to be done was to send down to the war department and a detachment cf soldiers was sent up. The secretary was released, but this was the cause of his delay in coming to the execution. "Payne was the pluckiest of all the prisoners. He was a great big fellow, and I liked him first rate. He was a man of wonderful fortitude. Right after his arrest he made an attempt to dash his brains out against the side of his cell. After that we put hoods on them all. great thick, quilt-like arrangements which covered their heads and came down over their faces below the shoulders. It was hot weather and the prisoners suffered a good deal, but Payne never uttered a complaint. He had been a confederate soldier, and it was found that his name was not Payne at all. This was ascertained when he was confronted with his old negro nurse who had brought him up. She threw her arms around him and called him by his name, but ha never flinched and pretended not to know her. He probably did not want to bring his family name into disrepute. When all was ready for the execution and the nooses were around the prisoners' necks I stepped up to Payne and tightened the knot on his a little, telling him that it would be over the more speedily. " 'You know best, captain. said he. These were the last words of a man who was worthy of a better cause. "It was two years later that Mrs. Surratt's son. who had made good his escape, was heard from In Italy. He had gone to Quebec and from there to Italy, where he enlisted in the pope's army. Thinking that all had blown over, he one day told his chum what part he had taken In the plot to kill Lincoln. The pope at once had him imprisoned and he was brought to this country. But he was tried by civil authority and was acquitted." A few days ago. when the Grand Army of the Republic had its meeting in Washington, some of the old soldiers from Capt. Rath's city noticed that all the buildings were decorated with flags except the one across from their hotel. On inquiry they found that this was a cigar store kept by Mrs. Surratt's sister, who had said time and again that one of these Michigan fellows hac hanged her sister.

WILL CHRISTEN THE MISSOURI. Miss Marion Cockrell, who has been selected by Secretary of the Navy Long to christen the new battleship MISS COCKRELL. Missouri, is the daughter of United States Senator Krancia Marion Cockrell of Missouri. The new man-of-war will be ready for launching In October, and the ceremonies will take place at the Newport News shipyard. The people of St. Louis and Missouri will endeavor to make the event a memorable one. The governor and thousands of eminent men and their families will go to the shipwards via Washington, where they will be joined by the presldeat and government officials. Mlaa Cockrel is a beautiful and accomplished young lady, and a representative daughter of Missouri. During her residence at the national capital she has become well acquainted with the secretary and Miss Long, his daughter, and It Is said that old acquaintance prompted the secretary to ask Mlaa Cockrell to christen the finest battle ship of the navy. Esteem It a great thing always to act as one and th? sam m.&. Seneca.

Society Directory.

MASONIC PLYMOUTH KILWINNING LODGE, No. 149, F. and A. M. ; meets first and third Friday evenings of each month. Wm, II. Conger, W. M. John Corbaley, Sec. PLYMOUTH CHAPTER, No. 49 R. A. M.; meets second Friday evening of each month. J. C. Jilson, II. P. H. 15. Reeve, Sec. PLYMOUTH COMMAND'RY, No. 26, K. T. ; meets fourth Friday of each month. John C. Gordon, E. C. L. Tanner, Ree. PLYMOUTH CHAPTER, No. 26, O. E. S.; meets first and third Tuesdays of each month. Mrs. Bertha "McDonald, W. M. Mrs. Lou Stansbury, Sec. ODD FELLOWS. AMERICUS LODGE, No. 91; meets everv Thursdav evening at their lodge rooms on Michigan street. C, F. Schearer, N. G. Chas. Bushman, Sec. SILYER STAR LODGE, Daughters of Rcbekah; meets every Fridav evening at I. O. O. F. hall. 'Mrs. J. E. Ellis, N. G. Miss Emma Zumbaugh, Y. G. Miss N. Berkhold, Sec. KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS. HYPERION LODGE, No. 117; meets every Monday night in Castle Hall. YYm. F. Young, C. C. Cal Switzer, K. of R. nnd S. HYPERION TEMPLE, Rathbone Sisters; meets tirt and third Fridays of each month. Mrs. Chas. McLaughlin, E. C. FORESTERS. PLYMOUTH COURT, X0.1499; meets the second and fourth Friday evenings of each month in K. of 'P . hall . C. M. Slay ter, C. R. Ed Reynolds, Sec. K. O. T. M. PLYMOUTH TENT, No. 27; meets every Tuesday evening at K. O. T. M. hall. D. V. Jacoby, Com. Frank Wheeler, Record Keeper. WIDE AWAKE IIIYE, No. 67, L. O. T. M.; meets every Monday night at K. O. T. M.'hall on Michigan street. Mrs. Cora Hahn, Com. Bessie Wilkinson, Record Keeper. HIVE No. 2S, L. O. T. M; meets every Wednesday evening in K. O. t. M. hall. Mrs. W. Burkett, Com. ROYAL ARCANUM. Meets first and third Wednesday evenings of each month in Simons hall. J. C. Jilson, Regent. B. J. Lauer, Sec. WOODMEN OF THE WORLD. Meets first and third Wednesday evenings of each month in K. of P. hall. J. (). Pomeroy, C. C, E. Rotzien, Clerk. WOODMEN CIRCLE. I PLYMOUTH GROYE, No. 6; meets everv Fridav evening at Woodmen hall. Mrs. Lena Ulrich, Worthy Guardian. Mrs. Chas. I lammerei, Clerk. MODERN WOODMEN. Meets second and fourth Thursdays m K. of P. hall. J. A. Shunk, Venerable Consul. C. L. Switzer, Clerk. BEN HUR. Meets every Tuesday. W. II. Gove, Chief. Chas. Tibbetts, Scribe. G. A. R. MILES H. TIBBETTS POST, G. A. R., meets every first and third Tuesday evenings in Simon hall. W. Kelley, Com. Charle Wilcox, Adjt. COLUMBIAN LEAGUE. Meets Thursday evening, every other week, 7.30 p. m., in Bissell hall. Wert A. Beldon, Commander. Alonzo Stevenson, Pro vost. MODERN SAMARITANS. Meets second and fourth Wednes day evening in W. O. W. hall. S. B. Fanning, Pies. J. AShunk, Sec. MARSHALL COUNTY PHYSICIANS ASSOCIATION. Meets first Tuesday in each month. Jacob Kaszer, M. D., President Novitas B. Aspinall, M. D.f Sec