Pike County Democrat, Volume 29, Number 10, Petersburg, Pike County, 15 July 1898 — Page 7

WOBST CHIME OP ALL Rev. Dr. Talmage Discourses on on the Crime of Suicide. ST* BMm* Mental Irresponsibility or tolafideUty, Is Dm lr*rjr Gaam of SelfImmolation True Goto for Sorrow. The following sermon by Rev. T. De Witt Taltnagc is directed against the ■crime •£. suicide. It is Jiased on the texU Do thfoetf ao harm.—Acts xvi., 28. Here is a would-be suicide arrested in Lis deadly attempt. He was a sheriff, and, according to the Roman law, a bailiff himself must suffer the punishment due an escaped prisoner; and if the prisoner breaking jail was sentenced to be endupgeoned for three or four years, then the sheriff must be eDdungeoned for three or four years, and if the prisoner breaking jail was to hare suffered capital punishment, then the sheriff must suffer capital punishment. The sheriff bad received •pecial charge to keep a sharp lookout for Paul and Silas. The government had nut much confidence in bolts and bars to keep safe these two clergymen, about whom there seemed to be something strange and supernatural. Sore enough, by miraculous power. they are free, and the sheriff, waking out of a sound sleep, and supposing these ministers have run away, and knowning that they were ,_to die for preaching Christ, and realizing that he must therefore die, rather than go under the executioner's ax on the morrow and suffer public disgrace, resolves to precipitate his own disease. But before the sharp, keen, glittering dagger of ihc sheriff could strike his. ! heart, one of the unloosened prisoners arrest the blade by the comment: “Do { thyself no harm. *’ In old, t> times, and where Chris-, tiunity had not interfered with it, sui- I -cidc was considered honorable and a i signal courage. Demosthenes poisoned ! himself when told that Alexander’s j ambassador had demanded the surren-i dor of the Athenian orators. Isocrates J killed himself rather than surrender td Philip af Maeodon. Cato, rather than submit to Julius Caesar, took his own life, and three times after his wounds had been dressed tore them open, and perished. Mithridates killed himself rather than submit to Pompey, the conqueror. Hannibal destroyed his life by poison from his ring, considering life unbearable. Lycurgus a suicide, j Brutus u suicide. After the disaster of j .Moscow Napoleon always carrietTwith j him a preparation of poison, and one j night his servant heard the ex-emperor arise, and put something in a glass and drink it, and soon after the groans aroused alt the attendants, and it was only through utmost medical skill that he was resuscitated. Times have changed, and yet the American conscience needs to be toned up on the subject of suicide. Have you : seen a paper in the last month that did pot announce the passage out of life by one's own behest? Defaulters, alarmed at the idea of exposure, quit life precipitately. Men losing large | fortunes go out of the world because they cun not endure earthly existence. Frustrated affection, domestic infelicity, dyspeptic impatience, anger, remorse. envy, jealousy, destitution, misanthropy, are considered sullicjent causes for absconding from ibis life by park green, by laudanum, by belladonna, by Othello's dagger, by halter, by’leap from the abutment of a bridge, by tire arms. More cases of felo de se in the lost two years than any two* years of the world's existence, and more in the last month than in any twelve months. The evil is more and more spreading. v

A puipjt not lung ago expressed some 'doubt as to whether there was really anything wrong about quitting this life when it became disagreeable, and there are found in respectable circles people apologetic for the crime which Paul in the text arrest--ed. I shall show you before. 1 get through that suicide is the worst of all crimes, ami I shall lift a warning unmistakable. But in the •early part of this sermon 1 wish to ad* mil that some of the best Christians that hare ever lived have committed self-destruction, but always in dementia and uot responsible. I have no more doubt about their eternal felicity than 1 have of the Christian who dies in his bed In the delirium of typhoid fever. While the shock of the catastrophe is veiry great, 1 charge ail those who have had Christian friends nnder ■cerebral aberration step off the boundaries of this life to have no doubt about their happiness. The dear Lord ! took them right out of their dazed and ! frenzied state into perfect safety, j Row Christ feels toward the insane ] you may know from the way lie treat- j ed the demoniac of Gadara and the! child lunatic, and the potency with j which Re hushed tempests either of j aea or brain. Scotland, the land prolific of in- : tellectual giants, has none greater than.Hugh Miller. Great for science and great for Chid. He was an elder in ■ St. John's Presbyterian church. He •came of the beat Highland blood and waa a descendant of Donald Ray, a man eminent for piety and the rare j gift of second sight, liis attainments, climbing up as he did from the quarry I and the wadi of the stone-mason, drew forth the astonished admiration of Buck land and Murchison, the scientists, and Dr. Chalihers, the theologian, and held universltiea spellbound while he told them the story of what he ha 1 seen of God in the Old Red Sandstone. That man did more than any other being that ever lived to show that the God of the hills is the God of the Bible, and he struck his tuning-fork on the rocks of Cromarty until he brought geology and theology accordant in divine worship. His two hooks, entitled “Footprints of the Oeafeor" and “The Testimony of the Rocks,’1’ proclaimed the banns of an everlasting marriage between eeanine v

science and revelation. On this latter 1 book he toiled day and night, through lore of nature and love of God, until he could ' not sleep and his brain gave way, and he was found dead with a revolver by his side, the cruel instrument having had two bullets—one for him and the other for the gunsmith, who at the coroner's inquest Was examining it and fell dead. Have you any doubt of the beatific*tionof Hugh Miller after his hot brain Hadceased throbbing that winter night in his study at Portobello? Among the mightiest of the earth, among the mightiest of Heaven. No one doubted the piety of William Cowper, the author of, those three great hymns: “Oh, for a Closer Walk with God,” “What Various Hindrances We Meet,” “There Is a Fountain Filled with Bloold”—William Cowper. Jwho shares with Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley the chief honors of Christian hymnology. In hypochondria he resolved to take his own life and rode to the River Thames, but found a man seated on some goods at the very point from which he expected to spring, and rode back to his home, and that night threw himself upon his own knife, but the blade broke; and then he hanged himself to the ceiling, but the rope broke. No wonder that when God mercifully delivered him from that awful dementia he sat down and wrote that other hymn just as memorable: God moves in » mysterious way. His wonders to perform: He plants his footsteps In the sea. And rides upon the storm Blind unbelief is sure to err. And scan his work in vain: God is Uls own interpreter. And He will make It plain. Wliile we make this merciful and righteous allowance in regard to those who were plunged into mental incoherence, 1 declare that the man who, in the use of his reason, by his own act, snaps the string betwecu his body and his soul, goes straight into perdition. Shall I prove it? Revelations xxi., 8: “Murderers shall have their part iu tlie' lake which buraeth with tire and brimstone.” Revelations xxii., 15: “Without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers.”! Vim do not believe the New Testament? Then, perhaps, you believe the ten commaudinents: “Thou shalt not kill.” Do you say that all these passages refer to the taking of the life of others? Then 1 ask you if you are novas responsible for your own life as for the life of others? God gave you a special trust iu life, aud made you the custodian of your life, and lie made you the custodian of no other life. He gave you as weapons with which to defend it two arms to strike back assailants. two eyes to watch for invasion and a natural love of life which ought ever to be on the alert. Assassiuation of others is a mild crime compared with the assassination of yourself, because iu the latter case it is treachery to an especial trust; it is the surrender of a castle you were especially appointed to keep; it is treason to a natural law, aud it is treason to God added to ordinary •murder. To show how God in the Bible looked upon this crime, 1 point you to the rogues's picture gallery in some parts of the Bible, the pictures of the people I who have committed this unnatural crime. Here is the headless trunk of haul on the walls of Bathshan. Here is the man who chased little David—ten feet in stature chasing four. Here is the man who consulted a clairvoyant, Witch of Eudor. Here is a man who, whipped iu battle, instead of surrendering his sword with dignity, as many a man has done, asks his servant to slay him, and when that servant declined, then the giant plants the hilt of his - sword in the earth, the sharp point sticking upward, and he throws his body on it and expires—the coward, the suicide! Here is Abitophcl, the M achieve Hi of olden times, betraying his best friend, David, in order thut he may become prime minister of Absalom, and joining that fellow in his attempt at parricide. Not getting what he wanted by change of politics, he takes a short cut out of a disgraceful life into the suicide's eternity. There he is, the ingrate! Here is Abimelech, practically a suicide. He is with an uinr; bombarding a tower, when a woman in the tower takes a grindstone from its place aud | drops it upon his head, and with what life he has left in his cracked skull he commands his armor-beurer: “Draw I thy sword and slay me, lest men say a j woman slew me.” There is his post mortem photograph in the book of SamucL

Iscariot- Dr. Dctane says he was * martyr, and we have in oar day apologist lor him. And what wonder, in this day when we have a hook reveal* ing Aaron Durr as a pattern of virtue, and this day when we uncover a statue of George Sand as the benefactress of literature, and in this day when there are betrayals of Christ on the part of some of His pretended apostles—a be* trayal so black it makes the infamy of Judas Iscariot white! Yet this man by his own hand hung up for the execration of all ages, Judas Iscariot. All the good men and women of the Bible &ft to God the decision of their earthly terminus, and they could have said w|th Job, who had a right to coat* mi l suicide if any man ever had, what with his destroyed property and his! body all aflame with insufferable car- ] buncles and everything gone from his home except the chief curie of it, a pestiferous wife and four garrulous people pelting him with comfortless talk while he sits on a heap of ashes scratching his scabs with a piece of broken pottery, yet crying out in triumph: "All the days of my appointed time will l wait till my change cornea Notwithstanding the Bible is against this evil, and the aversion which it creates by the loathsome and ghastly spectacle of those who have hurled themselves out of life, and notwithstanding C'«* istianity is against it and the arguments and the naeful lives and the illustrious deaths of its disciples, it is a fact alarmingly patent that anieida is on the increase. What is the

cause? I charge upon infidelity and agnosticism this whole thing. If there be no hereafter, or if this hereafter be blissful without reference to how we live and how we die, why not more back the folding doors between this world and the next? And when our existence here becomes troublesome why not pass right over into Elysium? Put this down among your most solemn reflections. There has never been a case of suicide where the operator was not either demented, and therefore irresponsible, or an infidel. 1 challenge all the ages, and I challenge the universe. There never has been a case of self-destruc tion while in full appreciation of his immortality and of the fact that that immortality would be glorious or wretched according as he aocepted Jesus Christ or rejected Aim. You say it is a business trouble, or you say it is electrical current, or it is this or it is that, or it is the other thing. Why not go clear hack, my friend, and acknowledge that in every case it is the abdicat&n of reason or the teaching of infidelity, Which pra> tically says: “If you don’t like this life get out of it, and you will land either in annihilation, where there are no notes to pay, no persecutions to suffer, no gout to torment, or you will land where there will be everything glorious and nothing to pay for It,” Infidelity has always been apologetic for self-immolation. After Tom Paine’a “Age of Reason” was published and widely read there was a marked increase of self-slaughter. Have nothing to do with an infidelity so cruel, so debasing. Come out of that bad company into the company of those who believe the Bible. Benjamin Franklin wrote: “Of this Jesus of Nazareth I have to say that the system of morals He left and the religion He has given us are the best things the world has ever seen or likely to see.” Patrick Henry, the electric champion of liberty, says: “The book worth all other books put together is the B ible.” Benjamin Kush, the leading physiologist and nuatomist of his day, the great medical scientist—what did he say?” “The only true and perfect religion is Christianity.” Isaad Newton, the leading philosopher of his time—what did he say? “The sublirnest philosophy on earth is the philosophy of the Gospel.” David Brewster, at the pronunciation of whose name every scientist the world over bows his head; David Brewster, saying: “Oh, this religion has been a great light to me, a very great light all my days.” President Thiers, the great French statesman, acknowledging that he prayed when he said: “I invoke the Lord God, in whom l am glad to believe.” David Livingstone, able to conquer the lion, able to conquer the panther, able to conquer the savage, yet conquered by this religion, so when . they find him dead they find him on his keees. Salmon P. Chase, chief justice of the supreme coujt of the United States, appointed by President Lincoln, will take the witness stand. “Chief Justice Chase, please to state what you have to say about the bbok commonly called the Bible-” The witness replies: “There came a time in my life when I doubted the divinity of the Scriptures, and I resolved, as a lawyer and judge, 1 would try the book as I would try anything in the eourt-room, taking evidence for and against. I was a long and serious and profound study, aud using the same principles of evidence iu this religions matter as I always do in secular matters, I have come to the decision that the Bible is a supernatural book, that it has come from God, and that the only safety for the human race is to follow its teachings.” “Judge, that will do. Go back again to your pillow of dust on the banks of the Ohio.” Next I put upon the witness stand a president of the United States—John Quincy Adams. “President Adams what have you to say about the Bible and Christianity?” The president replies: “I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once a year. My custom is to read four or five chapters every morning . immediately after rising from my bed. It employs about an hour of my time, and seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day. In what light soever we regard the Bible whether with reference to revelation, to history or to morality, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.” “Chancellor Kent, what do you think of the Bible?” -Answer: “No other book ever addressed itself so authoritatively and so pathetically to the judgment and moral sense of mankind.” “Edmund Burke, what do you think of the Bible?” Answer: “I have read the Bible, morning, noon and night, and have ever since been happier and the better man for such reading.” There is a sorrowless world, and it is so radiant that the noonday aun is only the lowest doorstep, and the aurora that lights up our northers heavens, confounding astronomers as to %vhat it can be, is the waving of the banners of the procession come to take the conquerors home fromchurc.i militant tochurch triumphant, and you and I have 10.000 reasons for wanting to go there, but we will never get there either by self-immolation or impenitent*?. All our sins slain by Christ who came to do that thing, we want to go in at just the time divinely arranged, and from a couch tdivinely spread, and then the clang of the sepulchral gates behind us, will be overpowered by the dang of the opening of the solid pearl before us. O, God! Whatever others may choose, give me a Christian's life, a Christian's death, a Christian’s burial, a Christian's immortal tty!

Light. A universal looking for light is characteristic of all ages. It is on account of this sentiment in the human breast that the sun has been worshipped b y millions of adorers. The cry of the sanctuaries through alt the ages haa been “mdre light.”—Her. John He* Onoid. Methodist, Omaha. Neb.

The Session Just Closed One of the Most Notable in American History. * WAR LEGISLATION THE NAIM FEATURE. Vast Sams Appropriated and Important Measures Adopted for the Prosecution of the Conflict with Spain—Hawaiian Annexation Accomplished—Other Laws Enacted—Measures that Failed. Washington, July 8.—The passing of the second session of the Fifty-fifth I congress marks the close of the first i | war congress in a quarter of a century. Associated with the first hostile conflict with a nation of another continent tince 1813, the annexation of llawaii and contemporaneous with a further movement for territorial expansion, though with few important changes in the domestic scheme, the present congress outranks almost any other that has ever assembled. It began with a widespread clamor for sympathetic action for suffering Cuba, but there was apparently then no expectation of armed bonfllet. But wh“n the trend of events culminated the emergency was quickly met and necessary legislation enacted. The first few but significant measures., suddenly needed, were framed and made law. but with the issue made clear there »as a flood of bills and resolutions that fairly submerged the two branches of congress. Hawaiian annexation. Spain and Cuba, war appropriations and war revenue legislation, organization of the vast volunteer army and ex- ; pension of the navy, a new bankruptcy law-ail , these were features of the session. Notable speeches and dramatic scenes over foreign Is sues were comparatively frequent in both legteiatiye chambers. Urgent deficiency toil s carrying millions or dollars were rushed through with far less delay than marked the course of an ordinary measure of little Importance. The total appropriations footed almost 1900,000,000. and upwards of Id iO.OOO.OAI of this was for purely war purposes. It was the largest aggregate by any session since the civil war, and the general deficiency was the largest separate mea-tire since the #750.0 0,00 > sngle ( appropriation in I860. The naval appropria- j tion bill provided for three new batttesaips, four monitors, 10 torpedo-boat destroyers. 12 torpedo beats and on ■ gunboat The urgent deficiency bills ail carried provisions for aggressive work in the prosecution of the war. The general deficiency, euaeted in the last days, carried a provision for refun ling the indebtedness of the Central and Western Pacific railroads to the government. Cuba aud Hawaii. Cuba and Hawai were the important matters ! of debate and provoked the most widespread inter&A. Hawaiian annexation, finally passed ; at the close, was agitated throughout the ses- j sion. first in treaty form, in executive session, j and last in open session by resoultlons accept- j ing the Hawaiian government’s cession of the i islands. There were a number of messages from Pres- | • Went McKinley bearing on the Cuban situa- i tiqh. ranging from the submission of a report I upon the Maine disaster and the consular reports, to the call for a declaration of war. The first real war legislation was when congress placed, without limitations. 130.00 i,u00 in the president's hands as an emergency fund for naiional defense. Party lines were swept away, and both houses unanimously voted its confidence in the administration. Soon after- | ward a bill reimbursing the survivors of the Maine disaster for their losses, not to exceed a ; year’s pay, with a similar amount to those who j perished, became law. On April 1*. the president in a message left the Cuban issue in the J hands of congress. Kesolutions were soon en- i acted and became a law. April 19, declaring that the people of Cuba ought to ue and j are free and independent, and demanding that, Spain relinquish its authority and withdraw . its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters, and directing the use of odr land and naval forges to enforce the resolutions. The declaration of war was passed by con- j gress and approved on April 23. Subsequent legislation gave free admission to ail military and naval supplies purchased abroad by this j government, allowed temporary fortifications to ; be constructed on the written c -nsentof owners of land so taken, and prohibited under ex ecu- ! tlve discretion the export of coal or other war 1 material. Three days before the declaration j of war President M Kin lee had approved the j vo unteer act. Under it all the soldiers massed against Spain mustered in the entire volunteer ' army have been raised, embracing 125,00 men 1 under the first and 75.U00 under the second call, j A month previous legislation had been enacted reorganizing the line of the army, effecting | the modern three-battaliion war formation. It designated the peace organization of these j regiments with two battalions of four i companies each or two skeletons or un- ; manned companies, and supplied the third j bat tallon in war time by manning the j skeleton companies in organizing two additional ones, and made other important re- i qulrenfbnts. Another law amended the pres- j ent administration of justice in the urmv, accomplishing reforms In court-martial methods.

One feature of ths session was the enactment of the war revenue law. Its framers expect it to produce #150.00 \00u per year. Other revenue legislation included a bill enlarging in favor of importers the provisions as j to disposition of abandoned imported merchan- ; disc, and extending the outage allowance on j distilled spirits in bonds from four to six years. | Minor war legislation included the ] following: Allowing a maximum increase of 100 army hospitals: toward providing for the maintenance of volunteers between their enrollment and mustering into United States service: add* *ng two assistant adjutant generals; organizing a volunteer army signal corps: organizing a volunteer bri jade of engineers: creating two ! additional artillery regiments, adding 1.010 men : and 15 assistant surgeons to the army perma- . neatly and In Emergencies as many coni tract surgeons as necessary; creating a. United Slates aux.liary naval force, not exceeding S.UUJ enlisted men. and appropriating . #3.<x>-.u0u therefor: organizing a naval hospital I corps of 3d pharmacists and as many hospital , stewards and apprentices as necessary; organizing a naval battalion of the District of ! Columbia; keeping life-saving stations on the | j Atlantic and gulf coasts open during June and ; July for patrol purposes; ratifying all temporary i | appointments of naval oittcers on and after i ! April 31; authorizing assistance to Cubans and , I providing them with anus and supplies: allowI ing homestead settlers who voluateer to count ! ! their service In homestead requirements; reso- | i lutions of thanks to Dawey and his men; the i presentation of a sword to him and medals to i his o(Beers; and providing for increase In the j force of iospectors-geoeral. ordnance and other j army departments. , Civil Measures. Other important legislation, aside from war, included: Prohibiting the killing of fur seals In the North Pacific and importation at sealskins into this country: prohibiting* foreign freight vessels from carrying merenandise. directly or Indirectly, between United States ports; an Alaskan homestead and right of way act. encouraging railway construction; appropriating taai/MO for the relief of the Yuxon miners suffering from the fierce winter there; creating a non-partisan industrial commission to investigate immigration, labor, manufacture and business appropriating Ht ,151 to pay the Behring sea awards; trusting a commission to allot lands on the Uaitab Indian reservation la Utah; adjusting

the old lead dispute between the United Staten and the state of Arkansas, the compromise calling for a payment from the latter of *t60,< 673; dispensing with proof of loyalty daring the late war as a prerequisite in bounty land application where proof otherwise shows title; abolishing the distinction between offered and unoffered, the reclassification of the patent system ; creating a commission to revise the statutes relating to patents and trade-marks; removing the disability imposed by section 3 of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution here of ore incurred; allowing 388,000 for the relief of the book agents of the Methodist Epi-oopal church south for damages during the war: <330,161 for the heirs of John Roaoh, the Philadelphia shipbuilder, for work on the cruisers Chicago, Boston and Atlanta; 338,111 likewise for the dispatch boat Dolphin; i4MH to the Richmond Locomotive and Machine works for damages and losses in the construction of the battleship Texas. Late in the session a general bankruptcy law was enacted providing for voluntary and involuntary bankruptcy. BUla That Failed. Many Important measures were agitated which never passed. These included the movement to either modify or overthrow j the civil-service system, which brought out investigations, numerous conferences and committee sessions, and acrimonious debate on the floor of both houses, but Anally was lost in the war excitement. The Loud bill to cr* ate a basis of second-class mail matter was killed In the house in March. The personnel of the navy bill, reorganizing the entire naval service, was reported to the house, but went over until tbe next session. Banking and currency legislation proposing a general reform in the existing scheme was reported from committee, but never reached consideration in the house. The Teller resolution declaring for payment of the national bonds in silver as well as gold was passed by the senate by a vote of 47 to 32, bat was defeated in the house. Statehood bills for New Mexico. Arizona and Oklahoma were killed In committee. An .immigration bill re- , guiring ability to read and write on the part of j those >6 years old, passed the senate, but did not ! reach a vote in the house. The anti-scalping bill, prohibiting ticket brokerage, was reported in both houses, but went over to the next session. The free homes amendment to the Indian appropriation bill, giving over 20,000,00c acres of public lands as free homes for settles, was Anally compromised on a two years' extension of payment for such lands. COULDN’T CONFUSE HER. How a Deeply-Enamored, But Backward. < Suitor Proposed. A certain young man, who, as every- I one knew, was deeply enamored of a certain young lady, whom he would gladly have made his wife, but could not screw up his courage to the sticking point, resolved at last to take the first opportunity which presented itself of learning his fate. No sooner, however, had he formed this resolution than fortune seemed to desert him. He often met the fair one, but never I could get the chance of speaking to her alone. Driven to desperation, he succeeded in accomplishing his purpose at a dinner party. Nothing is easier than to hold converse with the person who sits next to yon at a large dinner party, provided always that yon do not look at that person, speak in an even . tone, and abstain from mentioning! names; but, in this case, the lady was seated on the opposide side of the table. He was, however, equal to the occasion, and tearing out a leaf from \ his pocketbook, wrote on it under cover of the table: “Will you be my wife? Write ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ at the foot of this.” Calling a footman, he whispered to him to take the note, which, of course, was folded up, to the “lady in blue opposite.” The servant did as he was requested, and our Romeo, in an agony of suspense. watched him give it to the lady, and fixing his eyes upon her with bad-ly-disguised eagerness, tried to judge from her expression how the strangely- j made offer was received. He had forgotten one thing—namely, that ladies rarely carry pencils with them to a 1 dinner party. Miss X., not to be baffled by so trifl- ! ing an obstacle, after reading the note, calmly turned to the messenger and said: “Tell the gentleman ’Yes.’”— j N. O. Times-Democrat.

The last joke at the expense of the French Society for the Protection of Animals is to the following' effect: A countryman, armed with an im» mense ciub, presented himself before the presidentof the society and claimed the first prize. He was asked to de- 1 scribe the act of humanity on which he founded his claim. “1 have saved the life of a wolf,” re* ; plied the countryman. “I might easily have killed him with this bludgeon.” { And he sivung the weapon m the ! air, to the intense discomfort of the president. “But where was this wolf?” inquired the latter. “What had he done to you?” “He had just’devoured my wife,’’ was the reply. The president reflected an instant, and then said: “My friend, I am of the opinion that you have been sufficiently rewarded.”— Golden Days. The Swan and tbe Pike. The following accident was de* scribed to me by a friend who heard it from the lips of the man who saw it. My friend's informant, a laboring man, passed on his wav to work every morn* ing a pond on which were swans. Ope morning he saw a swan with its head under water—no unusual thing, so he thought nothing of it. The next morn* ing it was in exactly the same place and position. Still, that was not re* markabla, and he passed on. On the third morning, seeing the swan in precisely the same position, ne called the attention of the keeper to it. The keeper proceeded to examine, and found that the swan's head had been swallowed by a large pike. Both, of course, were dead.—Letter in London Spectator._ Everyday Philosophy. Every man thinks of himself as a boy longer than he should. After a man is 30 in thinking of coasting he considers the walk back. An alimony of a month ia worth more to a woman than the average husband. A man who is single at 45 ia no smarter than other men, bnt he is luckier th j most of them. Yon hear a good' deal about tbs awakening of Love. Well, every time Love is awakened Suspicion also tarns over and rubs it eyes open.—Atchison

Turning Back of Camara's Squadron Connected with Rumors of Peace Overtures by Spain. CONDITIONS AT SANTIA60 OE CUB,, Every Preparation Made for the Pinal It • Casement Falling Capitulation—Th ■ Prevailing Hurricanes Cause DlfBenl ties—The Disposition of Admiral Cer vera and Hts Fellow Prisoners, Etc. WA8H1NOTON, July 9.—There wasi continuation of peace talk yesterday, and other evidences in this line than those of Thursday are coming to th< surface. Such, for instance, as the confirmation, by the state department of the report that the Cadis fleet was returning to Spain, since it is scarcely conceivable that the Spanish government would doom this last remnant of their fleet to destruction at the hands af Watson's squadron, which, in all probability could head it off before It reached Cadiz, its home port. Therefore the assumption is that the Span- ■ ish government calculates that at least an armistice precedent to peace will be obtained before the ships rehch Spain. An Explicit Denial. An unusually definite report was in circulation that the United States had been sounded in the interest of peace by the British ambassador, but* when it was brought to Sir ^Julian Paunce • fote's attention, he made an explicit denial, aud said he had not commuuicated with the government in any way regarding the termination of the war. Conditions Regarded us Favorable. Conditions at Santiago also are regarded as favorable just now, according to Gen. Shatter's dispatch, received during the forenoon. Nothing* more came from, him during the day, but the impiession prevails that the Spaniards are in a desperate plight within the lines of the city, and Gen. Shafter’s action in allowing Linares to communicate freely with Madrid is an implication that there is at least a reasonable hope that the Spanish general contemplates a surrender.Freparing for a Great Battle. However that may be, every preparation is making for a great engagement, the final one at Santiago, it is hoped, which may begin even to-day if Shafter's reinforcements are on hand. The department has not heard sp far of the arrival of these soldiers, but believes they have reached Shatter. The greatest difficulty that has been encountered is in the landing of troops and supplies. Masters of Transports Becoming Alarmed. This being the hurricane season, and the wind setting straight on the southern coast, the masters of the transports have become alarmed and taken their ships many miles out to sea, necessitating long journeys by the ships' boats, which make their landings through the surf with the greatest difficulty and danger. So slow and tedious has been the service under these conditions that Secretly Alger_ has ordered Gen. Shatter to seize the transports, one and all, and place them as near the coast as he chooses, without regard to the fears of their man

ters. Only One Lighter. Ten days ago lighters were started down from Mobile and Tampa, but so lar Uen. Sbafter has received only one. These lighters have been a nightmare to the department ever since. The captains tied up in creeks at the slight* est sign of bad weather, while the charter rate of $100 a day runs on. Orders have been sent forward to terminate this state of things^eveu if it in necessary to lose a few lighters in the effort to reach Shafter. The Disposition of Admiral Cerveru. The government has not yet determined how to dispose of Admiral Cervera. A feeling oUthe highest admiration prevails here at the gallantry dieplayed by the old warrior and the noble spiiit exhibited by him under misfortune. The disposition is to treat him with as great a liberality as conditions will permit. It has been proposed that he be released on parole not to engage in hostilities against the United States until the end of the war. but it has not yet been decided whether to do this or to confine the admiral technically within the limits of the naval academy reservation at Annapolis. Other Captured Officer*. All the other captured Spanish naval officers will be confined there save the surgeons, who will be allowed to remain with the enlisted men at the prison station at Seavey’s island, Portsmouth harbor. N. H. The St. Louis is due there with the first lot of prisoners, while the Harvard is just about to start from off Santiago with the remainder. That Alleged Privateer. The report of the appearance of a . Spanish privateer off the coast of British Columbia«gfvhich appears to have created such a commotion on the northwestern coast, came from one of the government agents in that part of the world. Moreover, the same person said that two vessels were taking on coal at a British Columbia port, which, it was presumed, was intended for the Spanish fleet should it have made ita way into the Pacific ocean through the fines canaL Tbe Suoute was Deceived. Washixoto5, July ft—The senafto commit tec on claims made its report upon the investigation made hy the committee into the payment of the claim of the Methodist book concern and the payment tottaj. E. B. Stahl man of $100,800, as an agent in getting the claim through. The committee finds that the senate waa deceived by the representations of Mr. Stahl man and Messrs. Bap* bee and Smith. the boor agents, hut rimed Tea the Methodise church, south, such >o*u blame ia the matter._^ jfLLj.it, Vi