Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 16, Number 35, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 14 November 1894 — Page 2

/HOME AGAIN/' itev. Dr. Talmago Returns Prom His Tour Around the World. Parable of the Prodigal's Return Chosen as a Fitting Subject to Present to His Great Reading Congregation. i The following sermon was selected T)y Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, who has returned from his trip around the world, for publication this week. Its subject, “Home Again” is based upon the text: firing hither the fatted calf and kill it.—Luke *..>,43. ! In all ages of the world it has been customary to celebrate ieyffll events ,by festivity—the signing of treaties, the proclamation of \ peace, the Christmas, the marriage. However much on other days of the year our table may have stinted supply, on Thanksgiving day there must he something bounteous. And all the comfortable homes of Christendom have at some time celebrated joyful events by banquet and festivity. Something has happened in the old homestead greater than anything that has ever happened before. A favorite son, whom the world supposed would become a vagabond and outlaw forever, lias got tired of sightseeing and has returned to his father's house. The world said he never would come back. The old man aljvays said his Bon would come. lie had been looking for him day after day and year after year. He knew he would come back. Now, having returned to his father's house, the father proclaims celebration. There is a calf in the paddock that has been kept up and fed to utmost capacity, so as to be ready for some occasion of joy that might come along. Ah! there never will he a grander day on the old homestead than this day. bet the butchers do tlieir work, and the ■ housekeepers bring into the table the smoking meat. The musicians will take their places, and the gay groups ■will move up and down the door. All the friends and neighbors are gathered in. and extra supply out to the table of the servants. The father preeides at the table, and says grace, and thunks God that his long absent boy is home again. Oh! how they missed him; how glad they are to have him back One brother indeed stancs pouting at the hack door, and says: “This is a great ado about nothing; this had boy should have been chastened instead of greeted; veal is too good for him!" Hut the father says, “Nothing is too good; nothing is good enough.'’ There sits the young man, glad at the hearty reception, but a shadow of sorrow ditting across his brow at the remembrance of the trouble he had seen. All ready now. Let the cover lift. Music. He was dead and he is alive again! He was lost and he is found! Hy such hold imagery does the liihle set forth the merrymaking when a soul comes home to God. First of all, there is the new concert's joy. It is no tame thing to become a Christian. The most tremulous moment in a man’s life is when he surrenders himself to God. The grandest time on the father's homestead is when the hoy comes hack. Among the great throng who, in the parlors of my church, professed Christ one night was 8 young man, who next morning rang my doer hell and said: “Sir, I can not contain myself with the joy I feel; I came here this morning to express it. I have found more joy in dve minutes in serving God than in all the years of my prodigality, and I came to say so.” You have seen, perhaps, a man running for his physical liberty, and, the officers of the law after him; and you saw him escape, or afterward you heard the judge had pardoned him, and how great was the glee of that rescued man; hut it is a very tame thing that, compared with the running for one's everlasting life—the terrors of the law after him, and Christ coming in to pardon and bless and rescue and save. You remember John Bunyan, in his great story, tell how the pilgrim put liis fingers in his ears and ran, crying; “Life, life, eternal life!” A poor car driver, after having had to struggle to support his family for years, suddenly was informed that a large inheritance was his, and there was joy amounting to bewilderment; but that is a small thing compared with the experience of one when he has put in his hands the title deed to the joys, the raptures, the splendors of Heaven, and he can truly say; “its mansions are mine, its temples are mine, its songs are mine, its God is mine!” 0' Oh, it is no tamo thing to become a Christian. It is a merry-making. It is the killing of the fatted calf. It is Jubilee. You know the Hible never compares it to a funeral, hut always compares it to something bright. It is more apt to he compared to a banquet than anything else. It is compared in the Hible to the water—bright, flashing water; to the morning—roseate, flreworked, mountain-trans-figured morning. I wish I could to-day take all the Hible expressions about pardon and peace, and life and comfort, and hope and Heaven, and twist them into one garland, and put it on the brow of the humblest child of God in all this land, and cry: “Wear it, wear it now, wear it forever, eon of God, daughter of the Lord God Almighty.” Oh, the joy of the new convert! Oh, the gladness of the Christian service. You hare seen sometimes a man in a religious assembly get up and give his experience. Well, Haul gave his experience. He rose in the presence of two churches—the church on earth and the church in Heaven—and he said: “Now, this is my experience: ‘Sorrowful, .yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet possessing all things.’” If all the people who read this sermon knew the joys of the Christian religion, they would all pass over into the kingdom of God the .next moment. When Daniel San-1

deman was dying of cholera, his attendant jaid: “Have you much pain?” “Oh,” he replied, “since I found the Lord I have never had any pain except sin.” Then they said to him: “Would you like to send a message to your friends?” “Yes, I would —tell them that only last night the love of Jesns came rushing I 'into my soul like the surges of the sea, and I had to cry out, ‘Stop. Lord; it is enough! Stop, Lord —enough!’” Oh, the joysof this Christian religion! Just pass over those tame joys in which you are indulging—joys of this world—into the raptures of the Gospel. The world cannot satisfy you; you have found out—Alexander, longing for other worlds to conquer, and yet drowned in his own bottle; Byron, whipped by disquietudes around the world; Voltaire, cursing his own soul while all the streets of Paris were applauding him, Henry 11., consuming with hatred against poor Thomas a Becket—all illustrations of the fact that this world can not make a man happy. The very man who poisoned the pommel of the saddle on which Queen Elizabeth rode shouted in the street; “God save the Queen!” One moment the world applauds, and the next moment the world anathematizes. Oh, come over into this greater joy, this sublime solace, this magnificent beatitude. The night after the battle of Shiloh there were thousands of wounded on the field and the ambulances had not come. One Christian soldier, lying there a-dying under the starlight, began to sing: There is a land of pure delight, And when he came to the next line there were score of voices uniting— Where saints tmmortai reign. Tile song was caught up all over the field among the wounded; until, it was said, there were at least ten thousand wounded men uniting theif voices as they came to the verse: There overlasting spring abides, And never-withering flowers; Death like a narrow stream divides, That Heavenly land from ours. Oh, it is a great religion to live hy, and it is a great religion to die hy. There is only one heart throb between you and that religion this moment. Just i<Sok into the face.of your pardoning God. and surrender yourself for time and for eternity, and He is yours. Some of you, like the young man of the text, have gone far astray. I know not the history, hut you know it—you know it. When a young man went forth into life, the legend says, his guardian angel went forth with him, and getting him iDto a field, the guardian angel swept a circle clear around where the young man stood, it was a circle of virtue and honor, and he must not step beyond that circle. Armed foes came down, hut were obliged to halt at the circle—they could not pass. Hut one day a temptress with diamond hand stretched forth and crossed that circle with the hand, and the tempted soul took it, and by that one fell grip was brought beyond the circle, and died. Some of you have stepped beyond that circle. Would you not like this day, hy the grace of God, to step hack? This, I say to you, is your hour of salvation. There was in the closing hours of Queen Anne what is called the clock scene. Flat down on the pillow in helpless sickness, she could not move her head or move her hand. She was waiting for the hour when the ministers of state should gather in angry contest; and worried and worn out by the coming hour, and in momentary absence of the nurse, in the power—the strange power which delirium sometimes gives one—she arose and stood in front of the clock, and stood there watching the clock, when the nurse returned. The nurse said, “Do you sec anything peculiar about that clock?” She made no answer, hut soon died. There is a clock scene in every history. If .some of you would rise from the lied of lethargy and come out of your delirium of sin. and look on the clock of your destiny this moment, you would see and hear something you have not seen or heard before, and every tick of the minute, and every stroke of the hour, and every swing of the pendulum, would say: "Now, now, now, now!” Oh, come home to your father's house. Come home, 110, prodigal, from the wilderness. Come home, come home! Hut I notice that when the prodigal came there was the father's joy. lie did not greet him with any formal “How do you do?” He did not come out and say: “You are unfit'to enter; go out and wash in the trough by the well, and then you can come in; we have had enough trouble with you.” Ah, no! When the proprietor of that estate proclaimed festival it was an outburst of a father’s love and a father’s joy. God is your father. I have not much sympathy with that description of God I sometimes hear, as though He were a Turkish sultan—hard and unsympathetic, and listening not to the cry of his subjects. A man told me lie saw, in one of the eastern lands, a king riding along, and two men were in altercation, and one charged the other with having eaten his rice; and the king said, “Then slay the man, and by post-mortem examination find whether he has eaten the rice.” And ho was slain. Ah I the cruelty of a scene like that. Our God is not a sultan, not a despot, hut a father—kind, loving, forgiving, and he makes all heaven ring again when a prodigal comes hack. “I have no pleasure,” he says, “In the death of him that dieth. ” If a man does not get to Heaven, it is because lie will not go there, No difference the color, no difference the history, no difference the antecedents, no difference the surroundings, rib difference the sin. When the white 1 horses of Christ's victory are brought out to celebrate the eternal triumph, you may ride one of them, and as God is greater than all, His joy is greater; and when a dsoul comes hack there .is in his heart the surging of an infinite ocean of gladness; and to express that gladness it takes all the rivers of pleasure, and all the ages of eternity. It U

a joy deeper than all depth, and higher than all height, and wider than all width, and vaster than ail immensity. It overtops, itnndergirds, it outweighs ail the united splendor and joy of the universe. Who can tell what G(jd's joy is? You remember reading the story of a king, who on some great day of festivity scattered silver and gold among the petfple, who sent valuable presents to his courtiers; but methinks when a soul comes hack, God is so glad that to express His joy He flings out new worlds into place, kindles up new suns, and rolls among the white-robed anthems of the redeemed a greater hallelujah, while with a voice that reverberates among the mountains of franckincense and is echoed back from the everlasting gates. He cries; “This, my son, was dead, and is alive again!” At the opening of the exposition in New Orleans 1 saw a Mexican flutist, and he played the solo, and then afterward the eight or ten hands of music, accompanied by the great organ, came in; but the sound of that one flute, as compared with all the orchestra, was greater than all the combined joy of the universe, when compared with the resounding heart of Almighty God. For ten years a father went three times a day to the depot. His son went off in aggravating circumstances, hut the father said, “He will come hack.’* The strain was too much, and his mind parted; and three times a day the father went. In the early morning he watched the train—its arrival, the stepping out of the passengers and then the departure of the train At noon he was there again, watching the advance of the train, watching the departure. At night, there again, watching the coming, watching the going, for ten years. He was sure his son would come back. God lias hepn watching and waiting 'fpr some of you, my brothers, ten years, twenty years, thirty years, ■ forty years, perhaps fifty years—waiting, waiting, watching, watching; and if this morning the prodigal should come home, what a scene of gladness and festivity, and how the great Father's heart would rejoice at your coming home. Yon will come some of you, will you not? You will! you will! I notice also that when a prodigal comes home there is the joy of the ministers of Tel igion. Oh, it is a grand thing to preach this Gospel! I know there has been a great deal said about the trials and the hardships of the Christian ministry. I wish somebody would write a good, rousing hook about the joys of the Christian ministry. Since I entered the profession, I have seen more of the goodnes of God tlian®l will he able to celebrate in all eternity. I know some boast about their equilibrium, and they do not rise into enthusiasm, and they do not break down with emotion; hut I confess to you plainly that when I see a man coming to God and giving up his sin, I feel in body, mind and soul a transport. When i see a man, who is bound hand and foot in evil habit, emancipated, I rejoice over it as though it were my own emancipation. When, in our communion service, such throngs of young and old stood up' at the altars, and, in the presence of Heaven and earth and hell, attested their allegiance to Jerius Christ, I felt a joy something akin to that which the apostle describes when he says: "Whether in the body lean not tell, or out of the body I can not tell; God knoweth.” Life insurance inen will all tell you that ministers of religion as a class live longer than any other. It is confirmed by the statistics of all those who calculate upon human longevity. Why is it? There is more drait Upon the nervous system than any other profession, and their toil is most exhausting. I have seen ministers kept on miserable stipends hy parsimonious congregations who wondered at the dullness of the sermons, when the men of God were perplexed almost to death by questions of livelihood, and not enough nutritious food to keep any fire in their temperament. No fuel, no fire. I have sometimes seen the inside of the life of many of the American clergymen—never accepting their hospitality, because they can not afford it; hut I have seen them struggle on with salaries of five hundred and six hundred dollars a year—the average less than that—tlieir struggle well depicted hy the western missionary who says in a letter: “Thank you for your last remittance; until it came we had not any meat in our house for one year, and all last winter, although it was a severe winter, our children wore their summer clothes.” And these men of God I find in different parts of the land, struggling against annoyances and exasperations innumerahle; someof them week after week entertaining agents who have maps to sell, and submitting themselves to all styles of annoyance, und yet without complaint, and cheerful of soul. How do you account for the fact that these life insurance men tell us that ministers as a class live longer than any others? It is because of the joy of their work, the joy of the harvest field, the joy of greeting prodigals home to their Father's house. At the banquet of Lucullus sat Cicero the orator. At the Macedonian festival sat Phillip the conqueror. At the Grecian banquet sat Socrates the philospher; but but at our Father’s table sit all the returned prodidals, more than conquerors. The table is so wide its leaves reach across seas and across lands. Its guests are the redeemed of earth and the glorified of Heaven. The ring of God’s forgiveness on every hand, the robe of the Saviour's righteousness adroop from every shoulder. The wine that glows in the cups is from the bowls of ten thousand sacraments. Let all the redeemed of curth and all the glorified of Heaven rise, and with gleaming chalice drink to the return of a thousand prodigals. Sin&! sing! sing! “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive blessing and riches und honor and glory and power, world without eudl” —Hank and riches are chains of gold, but still chains.— Rufflnl.

SLAIN BY HIS PALS. Three Men Bald a Bank at Sylvan Grove, Kan. On© of Three Is Wounded by the Cashier While Escaping—Mis Comrades Kill Him Rather Than to Allow His Capture. Salina, Kan., Not. 13.—Three masked robbers attempted to hold up the bank at Sylvan Grove, Kan., 40 miles west of here, at noop Monday, and one of their number met dfeath in an unusually tragic manner. He was shot by the cashier of the bank, John Calene, and when in a dying condition was perforated with bullets by his own comrades to ‘save themselves from exposure. The men rode into town on fast horses. They pulled up with a jerk in front of the bank, and while one robber remained seated holding the bridles of the other two horses and guarding the entrance to the bank, his two companions entered. A citizen who was transacting business at the counter quickly complied with their command to throw up his hands. The cashier was ordered to turn over what money he had and relucantly complied. It was but a few minutes from the time the bandits turned their horse 9 into the business street before they were again mounted and away with all the ready cash the bank had. The moment the robbers were out of the building the cashier secured his gun, and, rushing to the door, opened fire on them. A bullet from the cashier’s weapon lodged in the back of one of the fleeing men. He staggered in his saddle for a moment, but kept his seat and galloped on. lie was too badly wounded, however, to continue, and before he hud gone a quarter of a mile his body fell heavily to the ground. Ilis comrades, who up to this time had kept right ahead, pulled their horses lip, and riding back to the prostrate man fired several shots into his body and rode away. When picked up the deserted outlaw was dead. Nobody knew him and nothing to identity him was on his person. It is believed the three were a scattered portion of the Cook gang working their way west after having been separated from the main body and driven from their haunts in Indian territory. The bank has offered a reward of S2OO each for the capture of the robbers, dead or alive. The sheriffs of three counties have organized forces which are now in search of the bandits. The bank officials are keeping the amount stolen secret STATE EXECUTIVES. A Complete List of the Governor* of All the State*. .*> Washington, Nov. 13. —Twenty-one states chose governors at the recent election. Eighteen of the successful candidates were republicans, two democrats and one a silverite. The states in which republicans take the place of democratic governors are Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin. A democrat displaces a republican as governor of California. Populists and fusionists give way to republicans iii Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota and Wyoming. The list is as follows:' Alabama—William C. Oates, democrat Arkansas—J. P. Clark, democrat. California—James H. Budd, democrat. Colorado—Albert W. Mclntyre, republican Connecticut—O. Vincent Coffin, republican. Delaware—Joshua H. Marvil, republican. Florida—Henry L. Mitchell, democrat. Georgia—W. Y. Atkinson, democrat. Idaho—William J. McConnell, democrat. Illinois—John P. Altgeld, democrat. Indiana—Claude Matthews, democrat. lowa—Frank D. Jackson, republican. Kansas—Edmund N. Morrill, republican. Kentucky—John Young Brown, democrats Louisiana—Murphy J. Foster, democrat, Maine—Henry B. Cleaves, republican. Maryland—Frank .Brown, democrat. Massachusetts—Frederick T. Greenhalge, republican. Michigan—John t V. Rich, republican. Minnesota—Knute Nelson, republican. Mississippi—John M. Stone, democrat. Missouri—William J. Stone, democrat. Montana—John F. Richards, republican. Nebraska—Thomas J. Majors, republican. Nevada—John F. Jones, silverite. New Hampshire—Charles A. Busiel, republican. v New Jersey—George T. Wert#, democrat. New York—Levi P. Morton, republican* North Carolina—Elias Carr,- democrat. North Dakota—Roger Allin, republican. Ohio—William McKinley, Jr., republican. Oregon—William P. Lord, republican. Pennsylvania—Daniel A. Hastings, repub* lican. Rhode Island—D Russell Brown, republican. South Carolina—John Gary Evans, democrat. South Dakota—Charms L. Sheldon, republican. Tennessee—H. Clay Evans, republican. Texas -Charles A. Culberson, democrat. Vermont—Urbana Woodbury, republican. Virginia—Charles T. O’Ferrall, democrat. Washington—John 11. McGraw, republican. West Virginia—William A. MacCorkJe, democrat. Wisconsin—William Henry Upham, republican. < Wyoming—William A. Richards, republican. • At the beginning of the present year twentyfour of the governors were democrats, sixteen republicans and four fusion and populist RQBBE& A TRAIN. Bandit* Secure a Very Small Sam Near Monett, Ho. Moxett, Mo., Nov. 13.—Train No. 1 on the St. Louis & San Francisco railway was held up at half past 3 o'clock Monday night at a small station naraedL Verona, S miles east of this city hy two masked men. The affair did not occupy over twenty minutes, but the amount secured by the robbers did not exceed 9400. Raced 304 Miles. Paris, Nov. 18.—The famous mares Merveilleuse, Pompone and Gazelle completed Monday afternoon a race from Paris to Havre and back. The distance of 204 miles was covered by Pompone, who won, in 68 hours 46 minutes. Despite the rains and heavy roads Pompone was comparatively fresh when she finished, Killed at a Jnlllttcatloti Meeting. Huntington, W. Va„ Nov. 18.—At a jollification meeting over the election near Cove Gap Alvin Dargln was killed by John Martin. The latter Was arrested-

FIVE PER CENTS. The President Abont to Order Another Issue of 850,000.000. Washington, Nov. 13.—President Cleveland has practically given instructions tq Secretary Carlisle to place 950,000,000 more United States bonds on the market to secure gold for the treasury and strengthen the government’s credit. When the news was first given out in Wall street Saturday morning there seemed to be no reason to donbt its authenticity. The story was confirmed Monday morning. Secretary Carlisle has been opposed to another bond issue. He does not consider it necessary, at least, for the present, to preserve the government's credit. The president, however, thinks it absolutely essential to add 960,000,000 to the gold supply in the treasury and in this as on several former occasions Secretary Carlisle has promptly acquiesced in the president’s policy. There is no personal difference between the president and Secretary Carlisle growing out of this disagreement on matters of party policy, it is said. There is some question as to the immediate necessity of issuing bonds, and the president and Secretary Carlisle hold different opinions. The president is not in favor of permitting the gold reserve to fall lower than it is at present. He believes the stability of the currency is already threatened by the limited gold basis upon which it is being circulated. Secretary Carlisle, on the other hand, while he acknowledges the advisability of increasing the gold reserve, if possible, does not think there is any immediate danger either to the credit of the government or to the standing of the treasury department from the depleted condition of the gold fund. While the reserve is lower now by nearly 97,000,000 than it was when the last bond issue was decided upon, the available cash in the treasury is about 930,000,000 more. The gold reserve has been steadily but slowing increasing since August 10. Upon that date there was but 852,499,787 in gold coin in the treasury, while now there is nearly $02,000,000, an increase of 9553,375 since October Si. At the same time the actual excess of expenditures over receipts for the fiscal year amounts to 918,940,042, and the deficit is constantly increasing. During the last ten days expenditures exceeded the receipts nearly 94,000,000. Now there is little probability that congress will be asked to enact any legislation to authorize the issuance of 8 per cent, bonds, because the experience of the administration has been that congress is too widely divided upon all questions of finance to pass nny bills likely to afford immediate relief. Secretary Carlisle will, therefore, be forced again to issue 5 per cent, bonds under the law of 1874, and sell them at a premium, so as to bring the actual rate of interest down to 8 per cent., or as low as possible. HEMMED IN. Forest Fires Raging on Three Sides of the City of Memphis. Memphis, Tenn., Nov. i3.—There is no relief from the forest fires over in Arkansas, but on the other hand fires have broken out in North Mississippi on an even more extensive scale than those in Arkansas, and now the entire Yazoo delta is threatened with the flames. Memphis is hemmed in on three sides by vast fires, and it is impossible to enter the city by any road without passing through mile after mile of heat and smoke. - The fire in Mississippi started 10 miles south of Memphis and extends through Desoto and Tunica counties to the town of Tunica. This fire closely skirts the Yazoo & Mississippi road, and its origin is credited to a recent visit of inspection paid by officials of the Illinois Central. The section foreman, anxious to make as good showing as possible, set fire to the grass along the roadside. All vegetation being dry and parched, the flames so started were soon fanned into a conflagration that spread through the forest. Plantations have been wiped away, with buildings, fences and ungathered crops. A great deal of cotton is still ungathered, and all this is in the line of the flames, and being destroyed. The fires in Arkansas are located along the line of the Little Rock & Memphis road from the river 81 miles inland. Jjarge forces of men are at work on this road, the Iron Mountain & Kansas City, and the Memphis & Birmingham removing all inflamahle material from along the tracks. The most destructive fire is in Lost Swamp, 27 miles from here. Many feet of the Little Rock & Memphis track were burned out one-half mile west from the river. The Are near Mound City, which is the nearest point to the river reached by the blaze, has burned itself out. This did much damage. The fences on the Green plantation near Mound <sity were burned, as also were great piles of staves and lumber. A 600acre tract belonging to J. C. Neely, of Memphis, was swept of everything in the shape of vegetation, dead or alive. Much valuable timber in the same neighborhood, belonging to Mr. Kennedy Jones, is also gone. A trestle on the Iron Mountain road near Elmonttook lire, but no other damage was done to the track in that vicinity. Near Edmondson two negroes, one a young girl, were burned to death in the swump. Many bones, said to be human, have been recovered. BROKE A BOTTLE. lira, Cleveland Takes Fnrt In a Launching at Cramp's, Philadelphia, Nov. 18.—-The big steamer St. Louis was launched at 1:02 o’clock p. m. on Monday. The launching of tlie magnificent steamship at Cramp's shipyards was a success. The affair was witnessed by fully 60,000 people. Mrs. Cleveland, wife of tlie president, broke the traditional bottle of champagne on the bow of the noble ship as it glided down the ways, at the same time uttering these words: “I christen thee St. Louis.”

THE POSTAL SERVICE. Information Furnished by tbe First Assistant Postmaster General. ! Washington, Nov. 18.—First Assistant Postmaster General Frank H. Jones, of Illinois, who has supervision of the divisions of salaries and allowances, free delivery, post office l supplies, money order system, dead letter office and correspondence, has submitted his annual report for the year ended Jnne 20 last to the postmaster general. The report is a very interesting one and covers the most important branches of the service. Mr. Jones reviews his recommendation of last 1 year as to the growing evil of boycotj tiDg of post offices. He says: ) “The compensation of postmasters at post | offices of the fonrth class consists mainly of j the caneellatlonof postage stamps upon mat- ! ter actually mailed at their offices. In many eases, owing to political differences, selfish motives of storekeepers, petty Jealousies or personal feeling from other causes, the compensation of postmasters Is serlons curtailed by collecting and mailing letters on the cure, or sending them to an adjoining post office for mailing, thereby depriving the fonrth-claas postmaster of hla cancellations, and consequently reducing hla salary and depriving first and second-class postmasters of their sale of stamps, thereby reducing the receipts and office allowances. This Is carried to a grievous extent in some communities, and Is such an interference with the usual and regular disposition of the mails as in my Judgment call* for legislation by oongress." The report shows the total allowance for clerks hire to have been 98,970,881, and 96,719,900 on account of salaries to postmasters at presidential offices, of which there were 3,402.- The gross receipts of those offices was 958,685,025 for the year. New York has the largest number of post offices of any state, leading with 286, and Pennsylvania second with 248. Sixteen million dollars were appropriated on account of the postmasters’ salaries this year, and Mr. Jones estimates that 916,500,000 will be sufficient for the next fiscal year. Mr. Jones suggests that the experimental free delivery in towns and villages be discontinued at the close of the current fiscal year. He says the proposed system of rural free delivery would result in an additional seost to the government of about 830,00J/Tor the first year, and he is not in favor of th# scheme. VETERANS PROMOTED, Brig. Gen. McCook Made Major' Genera] —Cot Forsyth a llrigadlor. Washington, Nov. 12.—Brig. Gen. Alexander McDowell McCook has been appointed major general of the United States army, vice Gen. Howard, retired, and Col. James W. Forsyth, of the Seventh cavalry, has been promoted to brigadier general to succeed McCook. Maj. Gen. McCook will continue in command of the department of Colorado, with headquarters at Denver, until his retirement next April. The president has made the following assignment of general officers of the army: MsJ. Gen. Miles, department of the east,with headquarters at New York. Brig. Gen. Thomas H. Ruger. department of tho Missouri, with headquarters at Chloago. Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt, to command of department of California. Brig. Gen. John R. Brnoko. department of Dakota, with headquarters at St. Paul. UNCLE SAM IS WILLING. To Undertake the Offices of Arbiter In th 4 Oriental Dispute. Tokio, Nov. 18.—United States Minister Dun has communicated to tho ministry the substance of an important cipher cable proposition received from Secretary Gresham at Washington. It suggests that if Japan will join China in requesting the president of the United States to act as mediator in settling the war ■he will exercise his good offices in that capacity. A similar proposition has been sent to China. The cable was received by Minister Dun on Friday, and was presented to a special meeting of the ministry. An answer has not yet been sent. It Is learned that four days ago France made a proposition to the United States to intervene. REPORTED MASSACRE OF 3,000. Armenian Women end Children Held to Be Slain In Turkish Armenia, London, Nov. 12.—A dispatch to the Daily News from Constantinople says that 8,000 Armenians, including women and children, are reported to have been massacred r in the Sassoun region near Moosh, Turkish Armenia, during a recent attack by Kurds Twenty-five villages were destroyed. The Turkish officials declare that the report Is not true and that it grew out of the suppression of a small rising in the region in qnetsion. The British ambassador is making inquiries into the matter. BELOW THE AVERAGE. V Rate of Field of Corn Per Acre K the Lowest Since 1881. Washington, Nov. 12.—The November returns to the department of agriculture of the rates of yield per aero make the average of Corn 19.7, which Is about IX bushels above the yield Indicated by the condition figures in October. This Is the lowest rate of yield that has occurred since 1881, when It stood at 18.6 bushels per acre. Last year the yield was 22.5 bushels upon a much larger harvested acreage. Indications of a Lake Disaster. Bast Tawas, Mich., Nov. 12.—N0 distinguishing marks could be found on a lot of wreckage which was washed on the beach near Flßh Point Saturday afternoon and the Identity of the ill-fated vessel is a mystery. The wreckage Indicates, however, that the steamer was of the largest size. The gale was the worst of the season, and If the crew of the wrecked steamer took to the lifeboats it is not possible they could have reached shore At Anarchy's Grave. OinoAGo, Nov. 18.—Fifteen hundred anarchists went out to Waldheim Sunday afternoon to attend a demonstration in memory of Spies, Parsons, Fischer, Llngg and Engel who were executed for the part which they took in the Haymarket riot. Herr Moet addressed tbe assemblage.