Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1891 — Page 6

THE MASTER OF THE MINE.

B y Robert Buchanan.

CHAPTER XI, THE GREAE STORIL It is now lata in the year, and the trttttor storms were beginning. There were intervals of calm, 000 l weather, when the wind came from the east or Southeast, and still frosty days, when a breath as cold as steel crept from the red sunrise of the north; but ever and strain the trumpet of the tempesr sounded westward and southward, and the ocean rose up before it in mountains of furious storm, j To stand on the seashore, or on the .weather-worn cliffs, at such moments, an experience not to"be forgotten With a sound of crashing thunder, ;with 6heet-like flashes of flying foam, the mighty biUows came rolling in: while far away, in the eye of the wind, the clouds gathered and baleful -ways came and wont, as if from the underworld. Again and again during these storms, the men forsook their work in the mine and clustered on the wind-swept crags; for the so .nd beneath was too terrible, and at each crash of the water.- overhead the solid roofs of rock seemed about to topple in.

A new lifeboat had come round from Falmouth during the summer; it was manned chiefly by workers of-the-mine, and 1 was their captain. We 'had tried the boat again and again in light weather, and were proud of her as lifeboatsmeh could be; so that, when ineed came, we were ready to do all that human hands could do for the ‘succor of shipwrecked souls. Fortunately, few vessels came that way. to need our aid in time of peril, tor the great ships gave that lonely shore a wide berth, knowing its many peri Is. Sometimes, however, a coasting vessel. heavily laden, came ashore on the outlying reefs, but. thanks to our sturdy boat, without much loss of life.' On the afternoon of the 22 d of November, 18—. there occurred Bueh a 1 phenomenon as I have seen only once in my life, and scarcely expect to see again. The ocean was dead calm and black as ink: the sooty clouds, with sheets of windless vapor trailing right down to the earth and water, kept stationary in a sort of sinister twilight, and the air was full of an extraor 4inary stillness, in which the concussion of the .-l fehttst (sound—a cock (crowing, a goat bleating, a human rvoice crying—was heard for miles fcway. I had just been down the mine, where I found the men had ceased hrorking. and gathered in knots, whispering together. For all through the dar.? galle i s ar d patsigts there came from time to time, a curious tremor, like the shock of earthquake —sullen, sinister, terrihie, making the heart, for some unknown reason, st.ind still with fear. Nor was this sound to be accounted for by the dashing of waves above that subacqueous uarkness, since there was r.o a breath of wind, arid the si a lay in sullen, move less folds scarcely vibrating. “What is-ife my lads? ’ I had asked, accosting the first group of n en, who were el .storing on the central plat, form. As 1 spoke, the tremor came again, 60 that the walls seemed tumbling over, the hard ground rocking under j me, with a vibration which seemed to send a nameless terror into my very i blood. My uncle, who was there with the others, shook his head ominously. “V/e dawn't rightly knaw,” “hut we ha' hard ’uu again and again, I sounding like that. Stems threatening like, and I lia’ bidden the gang knock off wark for to-day, ” I knew that it was useless to remonstrate, for the men were evidently full : es superstitious dread, which, it the truth must be told, I could not he p sharing. They threw down their picktxes and shovels, and followed me up the shaft. \\ e found Johnson there, who seemed astonished at our appearance, • and, »'hen 1 told him what had taken i place, looked savage. I “You’re spoiling the men, Trelawnep 'lk said, “Guess such nervous fsnek--. a-e only fit for an old woman. Why, the sea's like a mill-pond, and Jhere ain't a breath of wind.” t “If jou think it’s only fancy,” I refillcd, “come down with me and try. ’ll give you a fire-pound note if you stop down there half an hour."' He shrank bade and shook his head j angrily, while the men, clustering ua. greeted my speech with a “1 shall report this, -1 ha cried' viciously. “A pack of cowards!” | And he walked off, amid an angry murmur from the men, who detested him cordially. j As the afternoon passed, and the dull leaden twilight increased, we saw, looking seawarJ, the phenomenon to which i have alluded; two suns, one round and purple, the other pink and ghostly, floating in the vapours to the west. Both were quite rayless, and they hung as it wen some fifty yards (rom each other. Both seemed so near to us that one would have thought It possible to reach them with a bullet from a gun.

I can not express in words the strangely depressing and vaguelyalarming effect of this phenorneupn on myself and all who witnessed it. Nor was the effect lessened when the dimmer of the two suns suddenly disappeared. and the other changed in a moment from purple to jet biack. A jet black bail in the midst of leaden grey. •‘Lawd save us!” cried Martin Treruddock. an old fisherman, and one of our lifeboat’s crew. “Lawd save us! Kt looks like judgement mates—like the Last Day.” i This, indeed, was the thought which was through aU our minds,

We stood looking In suspense ti l the black sun disappeared, and total darkness came; and then, with no little foreb.Hi.n_. we Scattered toour homes. But in the night, as we lay sleeping In our beds, we learned that what we had witnessed betoken, not any supernatural disturbance, but the gathering of such a tempest as has seldom been jseen. before or since on those shares It came with fearful lightning and close-following thunder, followed by drops of black and hideous bail; and then, with a crash and a scream and cry, the wind rushed from the sea. I lay in my bed in the cottage, thinking every moment that the house would come down, shaking as it did to its foundations, or the roof be blown away; and every minute the blasts grew more terrific, not coming in broken gusts, as during ordinary storms, but in concussions of solid air, which struck the walls with blows as of a battering ram, and made every stone in the structure clatter like a loose tooth. v -Presently. I saw my uncle, partially dressed and holding a light, enter my chamber. ••Hugh, my lad be you asleep?” •‘As if any one could on such a night.” I thought'yesterday’s portent meant something. The storm has come.

• Mother be frightened badly," he 1 returned. ‘ ‘She be praying’ lad,dawn inlhe kitchen. Lawd save us; hark to that! ’ ha added. as > a flash of fiery lightning tilled the the room,and wind and thunder mingled together in awful reverberation. There was no resting in bed, so I slippod on my-*olothes and went down to the kitchen where I found my aunt full of super-titious terror. She had got out the old Bible, and, having opened at random, was reading in a low voice from one of the Psdlms- I did my best to allay her feara.but succeeded very badly. For the greater part of the night we remained sitting up. The thunder and lightning lasted well on till.morning, and wh n they it became possible for the first time to realize the frightful violence of the gale. It was, as I afterwards learned, a well defined cyclone.

With the first peep of daylight I seized my hat and moved to the door. “Whnr be’st gawing,lad?” cried my aunt. —•" '"Z." “Down to the shore. It’s a high spring-tide and I want to se if the lifeboat’s snug.” “Na, na-” she cried, “stawp yar.” But I only smiled at her 'fears, aud hastened away. No sooner had I left the cottage than the wind caught me. and almost dashed roe from my feet; but I stooped my head, and plunged right on in the teeth of the gale. The day was now breaking, with lurid sullen rays, behind my back. Short as the distance was to the sea shore, I thought I should never reach it, so terrioie was--the fury of the blast! I had actually to lie down on the ground and let it trample over me! And with tbe blast came hail and heavy rain, blinding me smiting my cheek like whipcord, and drawing blood, so that 1 could scarcely see a yard before my face. At last I gained the cliff, and here I had much ado to prevent myself from being lifted up bodily and blown away. But i (threw myself on my face, and looked seaward Nothing was^visible, jonly driving m's s and vapors; but r ght below there was a blinding, whiteI ness of the line of breakers,and thence [there rose up to me, together with the • wild wisps of solid wind-swept wator, j the deafening .thunder-roar of the tumultuously surging sea. j Gaining courage presently, as the light in the east grew clearer, I crawled down the path leading to the shore. |As I went, I was sometimes flattened Tike a rag against the rocks, by the sheer force of the wind; but I persevered, and Jit last, with God’s help, reached tne bottom. were thundering up close to the cliff, and the shallow creek surrounding the boat house was a white as milk with the churning of the waters. I then perceived, to my consternation, that the gale had struck the boat house with such force as to sweep the wood en roof away and dash it into fragments against the cliffs, I crept on to the door, which was on the lee aud sheltered side, drew forth from my pocket the key of the padlock, opened it, and went in. The great 4>oat lay there unharmed, but was half full of water, fresh from the dark rain clouds salt from the angry sea. One of the oars had been lifted out nnd snapped ilike a rotten twig, but that was all. I Suddenly, as I stood here sheltering [from the gale, I heard a sound from I seaward, like the sound of a gun. I started, listening. In n minute the sound was repeated. Y es; it was a gun iat sea. and the sound could have only , one signification—a vessel in distress! | Quitting the boat house. I stood on. ; the shore, and strained my eyes against the drifting vapoi-s and blinding winds but I could distinguish nothing—ia- ; deed, so great was the rainy darkness, that my vision'could not penetrate bo- ! yond twenty or thirty yards from tbe storm swept shore. But if 1 needed any fresh assurance that a ship of some sort was struggling with the elements ' not far away, it came to me in another faint report of a gun. and finally, in the red light of a rocket, which shot up through the black vapours liko a shooting Star, and disappeared.

CHAPTER XII. THE SURVIVORS OF THE WRECK. Quitting the storm swept shore, I climbed half way up the crags, and endeavoured, with straining eyes to penetrate the darkness seaward; but although it was now broad day, the clouds of wind blown vapor still cov-e»-ed the troubled sea. Greatly agitated, I made my way up

the cliff, and re&chod the summit, where I found that an excited group, composed of fishermen and miners,had already, gathered. Among them was my uncle, who addressed me eagerly the moment I appeared. • Did you say the lights, lad? Sure as death, there be a ship on the roexs out thar.” “On the South Stack.” said nnn|q fisherman, naming an ugly reef which lay right across the mouth of the "Bay, three quarters of a mile from shore “Are you sure she's there?” I asked eagerly. •■Sure enough,” was the reply. “AYben the last light went oop, I saw ’un—leastwayß, summat black amang the mist and foam.” There was nothing for it but to wait and watch; for to go to the rescue in the teeth of such a storm was out of the question, even if we had been able to launch the lifeboat through the billows madly breaking on the shore. The wind still blew with extraordinary fury, though signs were not wanting that its strength was partially broken; and still, with thunderous roar, the waves came rolling in, sending up a cloud of white foam that reached to the summit of the cliff where we were crouching; and still, trailing as it were on the waves and belching hither and thijher, tike thick smoke from a furnace, the mist came driving shoreward, blotting the sea from sight.

From time to time the gun sounded again; then it ceased altogether; and no more rockets rose, to indicate the whereabouts of the hidden vessel. Was all over? Had the cruel seas devoured her, with the helpless souls on board? Sick with suspense we waited and watched, almost certain that the last appeal had been made, and that all was over. Suddenly, the storm smoke blew upward here and there, leaving visible wild patches of tossing water. Simultaneously, the wind lessened, coming not in solid phalanx, but in gusts, fitful though terrible—very cannon blasts of air. - A wild cry rose, and all hands were sudde. y pointed seaward. Then, straining my eyes through the blinding rain, I saw something tike a white wall of vapor rising right out to sea in the direction of the South Stack, and right in its center the black outline of a large vessel wedged firmly on the jagged rocks. For a moment she was visible, then the vapors! blotted her once more from sight. A minute afterwards, she was again visible, this time more distinctly, so that I could clearly discern a black funnel and two masts, a mainmast intact, a foremast broken off just above the decks. She was a large screw steamer, with her back broken right across, and only saved from sinking by the very rocks which had destroyed her. How she had got into that fatal position it was did!cult to tell. Possibly her propeller had snapped, as is not. uncommon with such vessels, or the water had swamped her engines and put them out: in either of which cases, seeing how tittle sail she would be able to carry at the best, it had been a vain task to attempt to beat off a lee shore in such a gale. She was so far away, and the mists were still so troublesome, that it was difficult to tell if there were any souls still left on board. More than once I fancied that I discerned shapes like human forms clinging to or lashed to the rigging of the mainmast, but it was impossible to distinguish them with any certainty. - However, my mind was now made up. The lifeboat must be launched and manned without delay. I turned t> the men and said as much, but they shranic back in unconcealed terror at the mere proposition. Aud, indeed, it sremed a hopeless affair! Although the wind had certainly fallen a little, its falling seemed to augment rather than to lessen the fury of the sea. The waters between us and the vessel were terrible even to look upon; and it seemed impossible that even a life boat could live among them. Even if she lived, how could the strength of men propel her right in the teeth of the tempest? (To be continued.) Science and Art, It appears that low lying valleys offers advantages as health resorts partially on account, perhaps, oftheeompression of the air, which increases rapidly with the descent below sea level.. Dr. Walter Itindley mentions ifinding in the-San Felipe Sink. orConehilla Valley, of Southern California, numerous asthmatics, rheumatics and eonsumptives, who recount marvelous recoveries as- a result of living in tho dry and dense atmosphere. This basin is about 130 miles in length by 30 miles in average width, and reaches a depth of about 360 feet below sea level Among other deep valleys in the Sink iof Amorgosa (Arroyodel Muerto,) in Eastern California, which is 225 feet below sea level. The Caspian Sea is So feet below sea level* Lake Assal, east of Abyssinia in the Afar country, eight miles long and four miles wide, is about 760 feet below eea level, and several other depressions in this vicinity reach about COO feet below sea level. The fertile oasis Siwan. in the Libyan desert. 300 miles west of Cairo, is 120 feet below sea level. In the same desert is the oasis Araj, 266 feet below sea level, and numerous other depressions exist in the desert portion of Algeria and in the Sahara elsewhere.

A Mod**! Farm. ••Mine is a model farm,” said Barrows. • T raise potatoes of ail kinds. In this field I plant onions and potatoes together. Result, 300 bushels of lyonnah-e potatoes to the acre. Over in that field I planted fifty bushels of potatoes. In the spring I tan a stonecrusher over the surface. Result 250 bushels of mashed potatoes to the acre.”

A TERRIBLE ORDEAL.

How President Harrison found Hlb Father’s Corpse In a Dissecting Room. • '• A well-known resident of southern Ohio, sphaking to a Washington correspondent of the past life of President. H irrison, realized probably the most tragic event in tho history of the Hurrison family, an event which fired the country with indignation and dishonored the name of the Queen city, a deed so foul and revolting that the. mind shrinks from its contemplation—the desecration of the tomb of John Scott Harrison, tho son of the president of tho United States and the father of the man who now occupies the White house- There is something horrible and repulsive in the robbing of a grove, the violation by human .ghouls when the gentlest hands are too rude to touch the dead face, the desecration of the sacred spot to which cling the memories of a lifetime, the ruthless exposure of the grief that shuns the public gaze after the last formalities are gone through with and tho. flowers and tears have been shed upon the narrow home. But horrible as is the rifling of the grave of the dead, how much more horrible, more tragic is the thought of the dead man's son climbing to the top story of a medical college in search of the stolen body of a young friend and removing •the cloth from the face of a corpse in oue of the dissecting rooms to discover beneath that horrid, mask the of his dead father? Does history afford 'a more dramatic scene? Marie Antoinette’s hair turned white as she viewed her husband’s head upon the block, of the guillotine. Could the shock and agony which she experi-. enced have been greater than that of ono who had the day before looked with grief burdened heart upon the form of a venerable and long loved; father, had seen it lowered into the grave, the features marked with a graceful smile, beautiful even in death, the next day to see it appear in that most dreadful of places, the dissecting room, robbed even of Its shroud, the peaceful smile displaced by distorted, features, the venerable snow white beard rudely cut away to disfigure the body, the head pressed forward, bleeding from the cruel rope by which it had been suspended in the shaft of the medical college!* Yet this is what the grandson of President William Honry Harrison endured. The death of Pros'dent Harrison’s father occurred suddenly at North Bend, 0., a sm ill town fifteen miles west of Cincinnati, in tho latter part of May, 1878. The residents of Cincinnati and vicinity, in fact of all Ohio, were - wrought up over repeated accounts of grave robbing. The very day before tho burial of President Harrison's father tho grave of the son of a widow named l)ovin had been rifled in the burial lot adjoining that of the Harrison family in th 9 North Bend cemetery. On account of these robberies extraordinary precautions were taken. A secure receptacle of solid masonry was built in which the iron casket was placed. Threo immense stono slabs were lowered with great difficulty and cemented before the earth was thrown in. As an additional precaution General Harrison (now president) paid a watchman S3O to keep guard over the grave for thirty nights. All precautions were futile. That night two grave robbers drove to the cemetery in a wagon, the felloes of which were wrapped to prevent noise, rifled the grave and took the body to the Ohio medical college at Cincinnati, where it was sold for $lO. On the following day John Scott Harrison, Jr., and Carter brothers of President Harrison, together with a nephew of Generali Harrison and) a detective, went to tho medical college to search for the body of young Devin, who was a distant relative of the family. The building was searched in vain. Every suspicious box and barrel was examined, the chute into which bodies were dropped by the resurrectionists was inspected, also the furnace in which the putrefying flesh was cremated. As a last resect the investigating party entered a small room on the top floor in which they found all sorts of rubbish incident to the dissecting room, but no body. In the further corner of the room was a windlass and rope which ran down through a square hole in the flocc, connecting with a shaft that descended five stories to the vat where the bodies were kept As the party were about leaving tho room the detective laid his hand on tbe rope. It was taut

“Hero is something,” he exclaimed, seizing the crank belonging to the windlass. Nearer and nearer it came to the surface. It was a naked body, except the head and shoulders. The cupidity of the ghouls, who had rifled the grave, had not been satisfied with the price they got for their prey. They hud even robbed the corpse of its grave clothes. The only covering was an old tattered shirt used for the purpose of avoiding detection should the body be seen. Slowly it was brought to the level of the floor and raised as far as the windlass would permit. “It is not the man." said Mr. Harrison. “Devin died of consumption and was more emaciated than this one ” He turned to give up the search when he was urged by the detective to look at the fuoe which was still covered.

# ' ' - ' " ‘ ‘ I “It is hardly necessary,” said Mr." I Harrison, hesitating and evidently desiring to retreat “Still, if you insist- ” The body was thereupon raised out of the well, the trap door dropped beneath it and the body lowered upon it The rope had been rudely tied about the body below one arm and as it drew upward had pressed the head forward. When the pressure was released the blood streamed from an incision in the neex. Loosening the rope the body 'ell to the floor. The light from the window above shown directly upon the lead and shoulders. Silently the little 1 group awaited until some" one should remove the cloth from the face of the dead. The more restive were preparing to depart, when Mr. Harrison, with a cane which he had in his hand, ! brushed the covering from the face of thq, hpdy. It revealed the face of an j old mats, with full white beard cut. squarely off below the chin, white hair xmt closely at the bank, sightless nr ha staring upward* a face discolored by the pressure of th 9 rope and the rough handling of those by whom the corpse had been dragged from the grave. “An old man.” remarked some one and Mr. Harrison stooped to take a closer look at the face. Suddenly his countenance changed color, the blood rushed to his heart. He reeled and grasped for support. “What’s the matter?” asked some one. • ■' ' ~ - ■ Mr. Harrison said nothng. He was dazed, his blanched face turned to [ ashy paleness and his eyes staring! trom their sockets were riveted upon the dead lace before him. At last he gasped on : “It is father!” and sank unconscious into the arms of the detective. An undertaker was sent for and the body was taken away and silently reinterred the next day. In the meantime the fact that the body had been stolen had been discovered at North Bend. The messengers sent to tho city were met with the circumstances of the discovery of the body by his own son. The excitement at Cincinnati and throughout the country was intense over the outrage. General Hat*- j rison himself personally took charge o(! the case and subsequently had the satisfaction of sending the perpetrators to the Ohio penitentiary.

HE IS A GENIUS.

He Invented a Wonderful Self* Waiting Table. “By Jove! I ve an idea!” said Mr. Bixby gleefully, while at the dinner table the other da,y. “Now here we’ve spent half our time while at the table passing things to each other ana it’e all nonsense. I know just how it can be done away with and I’ll have the thiug patented before a month and make a mint of money out of it. I’m going to put in all my spare'time on it and I’ll show you a model of ono of the cleverest inventions of the age.” Mrs. Bixby did not say anything. She was accustomed to outbursts of this kind on the part of Mr. Bixby, who was frequently seized with a mania for inventing and patenting something, .aud as he had always recovered without mortgaging tho house or injuring any of the family, aha hoped all would end well this time. Three days later, after he had worked most of the night before, he came to Mrs. Bixby with Ms latest “clever invention.” “You see, my dear, what it is,” he said calmly as he gave it a whirl. “It’s a (evolving dining-room table, to do away with this eternal passing of things to each other. When you see anything out of reach that you want, all you have to do is to give the table a gentle little whirl and there you hftve the dish you want right in front of you. Now wh.it do you think of that, my dear? Don’t, you think qur fortune is made, eh?” “It might work, Elijah,” replied Mrs; Bixby, calmly, “if you could make several little improvements.” “What improvements?” snapped out Bixby. “Well, tell me, please, where your own plate would be when the dish you wanted had been whirled around in front of vou?” “Why I—l—it—” “And where would the rest of our plates be. “Well, I never thought of that I — l-” “I suppose, my dear, there might be some sort of a signal given by which all the others could grab their plates and hold on to them when the table was about to be whirled, or we might- “ Take car®, Harriet Amanda Bixby; don’t you go too far now!” “Or we might—why, Elijah, what do you mean by throwing a valuable patent like that into the fire?” “What do 1 mean woman? 1 You’ll know what I mean when you’re left a despised grass widow with six young ones to look out for! And that is just what will happen, as sure as shoel if you open your mouth again! Laugh now! Giggle! Titter! Toe-hee some more, can’t youP Darn a woman, anyhow.”

May Be King of Italy.

The prince of Naples, the future king of Italy, if that country is destined to have another king, is described as a silent, cold and stoical young man. overburdened by a scientific and philosophical education. He is, moreover, a hard working soldier. He nevei smiles and salutes rarely. It is needless to say that ho is not popular. Il may be that he has simply undertaken to ape Von Moltke. Two stories arc already told of him, which are supposed to give an indication of hi' character. When he was about l* years old he had a somewhat yiolenl quarrel with his cousins and othei children belonging to the court “Yot are lucky,” said the youngster to then: white with rage, “that I am not yei king. If I was I would have the head* of every one of yotk"

A SINGER’S ROYAL GUEST.

Hctw Madame AI ban i Entertains the Queen at an Informal Tea. _‘__.Qnce every summer Queen Victoria drives over from her Balmoral castle to the Scottish Highlands home of Albani-Gye,the famous primadonna, where the latter entertains her at an informal tea. For years the Queen has made a practice of this, a compliment which Her Majesty bestows upon no other lady in the land. It is a return for MadamO Albani’s appearance each year at court to sing before the Queen, and to the prima-don-na it affords an exceptional glimpse of England’s soverign. • ‘ outsiders are ever present, and I see Victoria as a woman, never as a queen.” says Madame Albani. “How do you entertain your royal guest?” was asked of the prima-donna by a friend. _ And for more, than an hour the great singer held the uninterrupted interest of a private dinner party with the story of how she served tea for the Queen. So full of interest was the narrative that Madame Albani was induced to write out the account,* and it will shortly appear in the Ladies’ Home Journal, of Philadelphia, under the title of “Victoria at My Tea Table.” Of its freshness of interest the caption of the article is the best indication. A copy of the last portrait taken of Queen Victoria, and printed only for Her Majesty and the royal family, will accompany the article. *‘i t will be my last portrait,” wrote the Queen on i this presentation copy, which is the ! only copy possessed outside of tho royal household.

RELIGIOUS NOTES.

The receipts of tho American board for November were $24,179. against $39,800 for the same month last year. The receipts of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church for this month, ending the first of November, anount to 200,194, a gain of $66,786 over the receipts of the same period of the previous year, There are already 1,500 communicants in the migsion churches established along the Congo by English and American missionaries. Considering how short a time it is since this whole region was unexplored this is a remarkable record, Prof. William James, of Harvard, who is becoming almost as famous out of college as in because of his interest in psychology and in societies of pshchical research, Is a brother of Henry James, jr., the novelist. The father of these two famous sons is a preacher. , . According to the Living Church Almanac for 1891 the Protestant Episcopal Church has 4,163 clergy, 299 candidates for orders, 2,230 parishes and missions, and 508,292 communicants, The number of baptisms last year was 61,685, of which nearly 47,000 weld infants. The contributions for the year are $12,754,767. In PariJr-, a few months ago, there was formed a “national league against atheism.” Every member oi the league must engage to oppose, with tongue and pen, and by every legitimate means, all forms of atheism. The league is open to any person of either sex, of any religion and of any philosophical upinion, who affirms the existence of God. Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon, of New Haven, croateda sensation recently by indorsing from hia pulpit the new $lO,OOJ heater In that town. He alleged as his reason for his commendation the changes from former times in the theater Itself, its ways and its personnel, and concluded by a welcome to the new theater and a hope for its success. The Methodist Board of Education reports a large increase id collections during the past year. The amount received was $52,000 against $42,000 in the previous year, aßd $31,000 in the year before that. The income from all sources was $69,358, The beneficiaries aided last year numbered 935, of whom 814 were males. All but 155 of the 935 expect to become ministers or missionaries. A church is to be dedicated in Pittsburg this week which has, it is said, no pastor, no consistory, no congregation and no members. It is to be known as St. Mark’s Memorial Reformed Church. It has been erected in memory of Christian H. Wolf by his brother at a cost of $60,000. Tho church is to be open at all times to all comers. It is said tat a pastor and congregation may be acquired by and by. Mr. Spurgeon is severe on ministers who undertake tbe duties of this most sacred calling without proper qualifications. He uses this language in one of his lectures to his students: I heard one say the other day that a certain preacher bad no more gifts for the ministry than an oyster, and in my own judgment that was a Blander on the oyster, for that worlhy bivalve shows great discretion In ins openings and knows when to close.”

The Growth of London.

Ope of the most singular facts about the growth of London is its regularity. It may be roughly taken that every month about a thousand houses are udded to London. In August of this year 766,577 houses had to be sup* plied by the water companies with water: in September that number had increased to 766,797. In August of last year 754,464 houses had to be supplied, or 12,113 below the number in the same month of this year. Ia Sep. tember of this year the companies had to supply 10,976 houses more than in September of 1889. This extension is not confined to any one portion of the capital, hut a preference is still shown for the north and northwest suburbs. |