Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1891 — Page 3

PLAGUES.

THE MANY EVILS THAT CURSE THE GREAT CITIESMereileaii, Un»pr«-Bln< Grwd I Wtdow 1 * Mite—Dr. Talmage’s Hermon. ■ Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn and New York Sunday and Sunday {night, Text: Exoduß lx. 13-14. j A decided sensation was produced In (New York and in Brooklyn Sunday by ,'Dr. Talmage’s announcement cf a ser'ies of sermons which he proposes to ‘preach on “The Ten Plagues of The e (Three Great Cities:” In this sermon, which is the first of the series, he pays !his attention to the prevalent curse of (gambling. He said: ‘ Last winter in the Museum at Cairo (Egypt, I saw the mummy or embalmed .body of Pharaoh, the oppressor of the ancient Israelites. Visible are the ryery teeth that he gnashed against the Israelitlsh brick makers, the sockets jof the merciless eyes with which he (looked upon the overburdened people of God, and the hair thnt floated in hhe breeze of the Red Sea, the very lips with which he commanded them to make bricks without straw. Thousands of years after, when the wrappings of the mummy were unrolled, old Pharaoh lifted up his arm as if in imploration, but his skinny ■bones cannot again clutch his lest and shattered scepter. It was to compel ;that tyrant to let the oppressed go free that the memorable ten plagues .were sent. Sailing the Nile and walking amid the ruins of Egyptian cities. II saw no .remains of those plagues that smote the water or the air. None of the frogs cioaked in the one, none of .the locusts sounded their rattle in the other, and the cattle bore no sign of the murrain, and through the starry* nights hovering about the pyramids too destroying angel swept his wing, tout there are ten plagues still stinging and befouling and cursing our cities, and like angels of wrath smiting not only the first born but the last born. Brooklyn, New York and Jersey City, though called three, are practipally one. The bridge already fastening two of them together will be followed by other bridges and by tunnels from both New Jersey and Long Island pho res, until what is true now will, as the years go by, become more emphatically true. The average condition of Sublic morals in this cluster of cities i as good if not better than in any Other part of the world. Pride of city Is natural to men, in all times, if they live or have lived in a metropolis noted for dignity or prowess. Caesar (boasted of his native Rome; Lycurgus Of Sparta; Virgil of Andes; Demosthenes of Athens; Archimedes of Syra■cuse, and Paul of Tarsus. I should (Suspect a man of base heartedness who carried about with him do feeling of complacency in regard to the place of his residence; who gloried not in its arts, or arms, or behavior; who looked with no exultation upon its evidences of prosperity, its artistic embellishments, and its scientific attainments. Gambling is the risking of sotnething more or less valuable in the hope of winning more than you hazard. The instruments of gambling may differ, but the principle is the same. The shuffling and dealing of cards, however full of temptation, is not gambling unless stakes are put up, while on the other hand gambling may be carried on without cards or dice* or billiards or a ten pin alley. The man who bets on horses, on elections, on battles—the man who deals in ••fancy” stocks, or conducts a business which hazards extra capital., or goes into transactions without foundation, but dependent upon what men call “luck,” is a gambler. Whatever you expect to get from your neighbor without offering an equivalent in money or time or skill, is either the product of theft or gambling. Lottery tickets and lottery policies come into the same category. J* airs for the founding of hospitals, schools and churches, conducted on the raffling system, come under the same denomination. Do not, therefore, associate gambling necessarily with any instrument, or game, or time or place, or think the principle depends upon whether you play for a glass of wine, or 100 shares of railroad stock.

It is estimated that every day in Christendom 180,000,000 pass from hand to hand through gambling practices, and every year in Christendom 1123,100,000,000 change hands in that way. There are in this cluster of cities about 800 confessed gambling establishments. There are about 3,500 professional gamblers. Out of the 800 gambling establishments how many of them do you suppose profess to be honest? Ten. These ten profess to be honest because they are merely the ante-chamber to the 790 that are acknowledged fraudulent. There are first class gambling establishments. You go up the marble stairs. You ring the belL The liveried servant introduces you. The walls are lavendertinted. The mantels are of Vermont marble. The pictures are “Jephtha’s Paugher,” and Dore’s “Dante’s and Virgil’s Frozen Region of Hell.” A most appropriate selection, this last, ' for the place. There is the roulette table, the finest, the costliest, most ex- 1 quislte piece of furniture in the United States. There is the banqueting room, I where, free of charge to the guests, you may find the plate, the viands, and wines, and cigars, sumptuous beyond parallel. Then you come to the second-class establish rneut. To it you are introduced by a card through a •‘roper-in.” Paving entered, you must either gamble or fight. Sanded cards, dice loaded with quicksilver, poor drinks, will soon help you to get rid of all your money to a tune in short meter with staccato passages. You wanted Ito see. You saw. The low villans of

the place watch you as you come In. Does not the panther, squat in the grass, know a calf when he sees it? Wrangle not for your rights in that place, or your body will be thrown bloody into the street, or dead into the East River. You go along a little further and find the policy establishment- In that place you bet on numbers. Betting on two numbers is called a “saddle,” betting on three numbers is called a ••gig,” betting on four numbers is called a “horse.” and there are thousands of our young men leaping into that “saddle,” and mounting that “gig,” • and, behind that “horse,” riding to perdition. There is always . one kind of sign On the door—“ Exchange;” a most appropiate title for the door, for there in that room, a man exchanges health, peace and heaven, for loss of health, loss of home, loss of family, loss o' immortal soul. Exchange sure enough and infinite enough. A young man, having suddenly heired a large property, sits at a hazard table, and takes up a dice box, the estate won by a father’s lifetime sweat, and shakes it. end tosses it away. Intemperance soon stigmatizes its victim, kicking him out, a slavering fool into the ditch or sending him with the drunkard's hiccough staggering up the street where his family lives. ) But gambling does not in that way expose its victims. The gambler may be eaten up by the gambler’s passion, yet you only discover it by the greed in his eyes, the hardness of his features, the nervous restlessness, the threadbare coat and his embarrassed business. «Yet he is on the road to hell, and no preacher’s voice or startling warning, or wife’s entreaty can make him stay for a moment his headlong career. The infernal spell is upon him; a giant is aroused within him; and though you bind him w.th cables, they would part like thread; and though you fasten him seven times round with chains, they would snap like rusted wire; and though you piled up in his path heaven high Bibles, tracts and sermons and on the top should set the cross of the Son of God, over them all the gambler would leap like a roe over the rocks, on his way to perdition. Again, this sin works ruin by killing industry. A man used to reaping scares, or hundreds, or thousands of dollars from the gambling table will not be content with slow work. He will say, “What is the use of trying to make these SSO in my store when 1 can get five times that in half an hour down at Billy’s?” You never knew a confirmed gambler who was industrious. The men given to this vice spend their time, not actively employed in the game, in idleness, or intoxication, or sleep, or in corrupting new victims. This sin has dulled the carpenter's saw and cut the band of the factory wheel, sunk the cargo, broken the teeth of the farmer's harrow and sent a strange lightning to shatter the battery of the philosopher. The very first idea in gaming is at war with all the industries of society

Thia crime is getting Its lever under many a mercantile house in our great c.ties. and before long down will come the great establishment, crushing reputation, home, comfort and immortal souls. How it diverts and sinks capital may be inferred from some authentic statement before us. The ten gaming houses that once were authorized in Paris passed through the bank» yearly 325,000,000 of francs. Where does all the money come from? The whole world is robbed! What is most sad, there are no consolations for the loss and suffering entailed by gaming. If men fall in lawful business, God pities and society commiserates, but where in the Bible or in the society is there any consolation for the gambler? From what tree of the forest oozes there a balm that can soothe the gamesters heart? In that bottle where God keeps the tears of his children, are there any tears of the gambler? Do the winds that come to kiss the faded cheek of sickness and to cool the heated brow of the laborer, whisper hope and cheer to the emancipated? When an honest man is in trouble, he has sympathy. “Poor fellow!” they say. But do the gamblers come to weep at the

agonies of the gambler? In Northumberland was one of the finest estates in England. Mr. Porter owned it. and in a year gambled it all away. Having lost the last acre of tbe estate he came down from the saloon and got into his carriage, went back, put up his horses and carriage and town house and played. Ho threw and lost. He started home, and in a side alley met a friend, from whom he borrowed ten guineas; went back to the saloon, and before a great while had won £20,000. He died at last a beggar in St. Giles. How many gamblers felt sorry for Mr. Porter? Who consoled him to the loss of his estate? What gambler subscribed to put a stone over the poor man's grave? Not one! Futhermore, this tin is the cource of uncounted dishonesties. The game of hazard itself is often a cheat. How many tricks and deceptions in the dealing of cards! The opponment’s band is often found out by fraud. Cards are marked so that they may be designated from the back. Expert gamesters have their accomplices, and one wink may decide the game. The dice may be loaded with platina, so that the “doublets” come up every i time. These dice are introduced by the gamblers unobserved by honest men who have come into the play, and this accounts for the fact that ninetyI nine out of a hundred, at the end are found to be poor, miserable, ragged wretches, that would not now be allowed to sit on the door-step of the house that they once owned. In a gambling house in San Francisco a young man having just come from the mines deposited a large sum upon the ace and won |22,000, But the tide turns. Intense anxiety comes upon the countnancee of all.

Slowly the cards went forth. Every eye is fixed. Not a sound is heart untill tiie aoe is revealed favorable to the bank. There are shouts of “Foul!’ “Foul!” but the keepers of the table produce their pistols and the uproar is silenced and the bank has w0n595,000. Do you call this a game of chance? There is no chance about it Merciless, unappeasable, fiercer and wilder it blinds, it hardens, { t rends, it blasts, it crush s. it damns. It has peopled our lunitic asylums. How many railroad agents and cashiers ana trustees of funds it has driven to disgrace, incarceration and suicide! Witness years ago a cashier of a railroad who stole $103,000 to carry on his gaming practices. Witness S4O, 000 Stolen from a Brooklyn bank within the memory of many of you, and the SIBO,OOO taken from a Wail street insurance company for the same purpose. These are only illustrations on a large scale of the robberies every day committed for the purpose of carrying out the designs of gamblers. Hundreds of thousands of dollars every year leak out without observation from the merchant’s till into the gambling hell. A man in London keeping one of these gambling houses boasted that he had ruined a nobleman a day; but if all the saloons of this land were to • speak out they might utter a more infamous boast, for they have destroyed a thousand noble men a year. Notice, also, the effect of this crime upon domestic happiness. It has sent its ruthless plowshare through hundreds of families, until the wife eat in 1 rags and the daughters were disgraced and the sons took up the same infam- | ous pract oes or took a shortcut to destruction across the murderer’s scaffold. Home has lost all charms for the gambler. How tame are the children’s caresses and a wife’s devotion to the gambler! How drearily the tire burns on the domestic hearth! There must be louder laughter and something to win or iuse; and excitement to drive the heart faster and fillip the blood and fire the imagination. Sb home, however bright, can keep back the gamester. The sweet call of love bounds back from bis iron soul, and endearments are consumed in the flame of his passion. The family Bible will go after all other treasures are lost, and if the crown in heaven were put into his hand he would cry: •Here goes one more ganje, my boys! On this one throw I stake my crown f heaven.”

Shall I sketch the history of the gamblerF Lured by bad company, he finds his way into a place where honest men ought never to go. He sts down to his first game, but only for pastime and the desL e of being thought sodable. The players deal out the cards. They Unconsciously play into Satan’s hands, who takes all the tricks and both the player’s soul’s for trumps—he being a sh..rper at any game. A slight stake is put up, just to add ins terest to the play. Game after game is played. Larger stakes and still larger. They begin to move nervously on their chairs. Their brows lower and eyes flash, until now they who win and they who lose, fired alike with passion, sit with set jaws and com. pressed lips and clenched and eyes like fire balls that seem starting from their sockets, to see the final turn before it comes; if losing, pale with dnvy and tremulous with unuttered oaths cast back red hot upon the heart—or, winning, with hysteric laugh, “Ha! ha! I have it! I have it!” A few years have passed and, he is only the wreck of a mah. Seating himself at the game ere he throws the first card, he stakes the last relic oi his wife and the marriage ring which seals the solemn vows retween them. The game is lost, and staggering back inexhaustion he dreams. The bright hours of the past mock his agony, and eyerof-fire-and tongue of dame circle about him with joined hands to dance and sing their hellish chorus, chanting, “Hail, brother!” kissing his clammy forehead until their loathsome locks, flow ng with serpents, crawl into his bo om and sink their sharp fangs and suck up his life's blood, and coiling around his heart pinch it with chills and shudders unutterable. Take warning! You are no stronger than tens of thousands who have by this practice been overthrown. No young man in our cities can escape being tempted. Beware of the first beginnings! This road is a down grade, and every instant increases its momentum. Launch not upon this treacherous sea. Split hu;ks strew the beach. Everlasting storms howl up and down, tosdng unwary crafts into the Hellgate. 1 speak of what I have seen with my own eyes. L have looked off into the abyss, and I have seen the foaming and the hissing, and the whirling of the horrid deep in which the mangled victims writhed, one upon another, and struggled, strangled, bl ;sph< m <i and died—the ueath-stare of ettr.ial despair upon their countenances as the waters gurgled over them. Toagambler’s death-bed there comes no hope. He will probably die alone. His for mer associates come not nigh .bis dwelling. When the hour comes his miserable soul will go out of a miserable life into a miserable eternity. As his poor remains pass the house where he was ruined old companions may look out a moment and say: “There goes the old carcass—dead at last,’' but they will not get up from the table. Let him down now into the grave. Plant no tree to oast its shade there, for the long, deep, eternal gloom that settles there is shadow enough. Plant no “forget-me-no-s” or eglanilnes around the spot, for flowers were not made to grow on i such a blasted heath. Visit it not in the Sunshine, for that would be mockery, but in the dismal night when no stare are out and | the spirits of darkness come down horsed on the wind, then visit the 1 grave of the gambler.

HIS FUNERAL MARCH:

Bn»n ta the Bemnlni at G*n. Bhsrw Laying Him Dowa Rast. I 1 New York paid its final tribute to the hte Gen. Sherman on the 19th. About 12:25 o'clock the caisson, draped in ilaok and drawn by four horses, was drawn up In front of the Sherman -.ouse. The horses were mounted by regulars, and an army Officer was in charge. Behrndthecalsson was an orderly leading the black charger which bore the military trappings of the General. A black velvet covering almost hid the horse from view. But the boots and saddle were plainly conspicuous. The sergeant in charge was Sergeant Jordan, and the man whose honor it was to lead the black horse with the trappings was private A. T. Webb.of the Second Battery The services of prayer began promptly on the hour. At 11:55 Father Taylor left the General’s late residence and entered No. 77 Seventy-first street and summoned the boy choir of St Francis Xavier. The sen. vices were over at 12:30. The praters were said by Rev. Father Sherman. Close to the casket stood the other son, P. T. Sherman. In the front parlor were all the other members of the family and Secretary Blaine and wife and Mrs. Damrosch Father Sherman was assisted by Rev. Father Taylor and two others. Father Sherman conducting the simple services read from the scriptures the passage beginning: “I am the resurrection and the life." After this two selections were sung from the oratorio of Elijah. Father Sherman again read the scriptures and the Miserari from Mendelssohn was given. Prayer was then offered by the son, and tho concluding music was Piu Jesu. “O, Rest in the Lord,” was one of the selections. There were about 150 persons present at the services. The hour at which the funeral procession was to move from Seventy-first street was 2 o’clock, but long before that time spectators began to take up their places along the line of march. The decoration® along this route are not so numerous or elaborate as when General Grant was buried, but nevertheless they are strikingly handsome and in great profusion. Every house in the block where Genera: Sherman lived so long is tastefully decorated with draped flags. —Along Fiftyreventh street, from Broadway to Fifth avenue, nearly every house is draped, and up to hnrtri thn ivork of decoration continu ed. Eifth avenue, from the Plaza a 1 Central Park to tho arch at Washington Square, presents a bewildering array Of draped and half-masted flags. The club

house of the Seventh Regiment veterans was handsomely draped, and the Union League Club building presented an alabor ate display of drapery. The offices of the Adams Express Company throughout the c’ty are elaborately covered with mourning draperies and flags. The veterans formed in the boulevard on Seventy-first street. In front of the Sherman residence was the caisson for the remains, the military guard and the ens gineer corps. The Loyal Legion took up their position at the junction of Eighth avenue and Seventy-first street. On the cross streets between Eigtb and Ninth avenues, from Seventieth to Sixty-firs' l street, inclusive, were the G. A. R. posts The cadets formed on Sixtieth street and the soldiers of the National Guard bad positions on Eighth avenue, Broadway and Fifty-seventh strtet. The sidewalks were crowded with people. Ex-President Cleveland and Chauncy M. Depew arrived at the house together about 1:30 o'clock. Soon after came Governor Pattison, of Pennsylvania, and Ma-jor-General Snowden, with their staffs, and following them were Governor Bulkely and staff and Lieutenant-Governor Jones. Ex-President Hayes arrived, accompanied by Joseph H. Choate. The Senate committee arrived in a body, wearing the usual signs of mourning, and afte.them came the larger committee of th j House. It was close on to 2 o’clock when president Harrison with Lieutenant Ernst, his aide-de-camp, reached the house.

Fallowing were the remaining members of the Cabinet The first move toward he formation of the procession was 1:58, when General Howard came out on the front steps of the residence, and ordered the caisson which had been withdrawn to c-imeup. At that instant a troop of the Sixth cavalry formed to the left of the house in the middle of the street. The caisson came up in front of the house at exactly 2 o'clock and Generals Howard, Slocum, Johnson and other military dignitaries formed two lines on the walk and made a passage way to the caisson. As he pall-hearers left the house, an army band, out toward Central Park, began playing a funeral march. Six lieutenants, under the command of Lieut. Rodman appeared in the doorway, bearing on their shoulders the casket of the General. Slowly they bore their burden to the awaiting funeral carriage. All heads were then bared and silence reigned from one end of the street to the other.

Thi. was at 2:05. Atnarching order was given and the caisson moved up toward Eighteenth atreet. The private carriage of General Butterfield was then driven to the door and General Schofield, Howa-d and Slocum entered. The pall-bearers were then seated in their respective carriages in quick succession. When the coaches containing the pall-bearers bad been driven away from the door, Lafays •tte Post marched up to the caisson, onehalf of the Command taking a position on one side of the caisson, and the balance on 'theotherside.Thehead of the column was then moved up to make room for the carriages for the family and invited officials and friends. The route from Seventy-fifth street to tte Desbr'sses-street ferry was crowded with spectators, the male portion of whom, in almost every instance, bared their heads as the caisson with its escort passed by. All the ships in the riyer had their colors at half-mast. When the Jersey side was reached the remains were receiv ed by delegations from the Grand Army posts, and escorted to a special train in waiting. The departure was made shortly after three, o’clock. The funeral procession reached the ferry hou »e >t 4:57 o'clock. There was in waiting tbo.e a few of the California pioneers of Tenltorial days. Tho procession did

Mtaceeaspaay the remains out of the dty. Joseph H. Cteoate joined then! in their ooach after taking leave es ex-President Hayes, and the three were driven down Weststreet just as the ferry boat’s fastenings were cast off. At 5:42 o'clock the ferry boat started across the river, the masts carry ing flags at ha f mast and the ferry bells tolling. The outside of the boat had been painted black. The trip across occupied ten minutes. The special train which takes- the re mains to St Louis was drawn upon the no th side of the depot. It consisted of eight.cars, all heavily draped. The first was a composite car, and was intended solely for the conveyance of the remains. Next were the sleeping cars Liverpool and Danville. Then the dining car, No. 704. The sleeping cars Obyo and Cadi came next then President Roberts’s private car, which was for the use of the family of the dead General, and, last, Vice-pres dent Thomson’s private car, for the useof Presdent Harrison and the members of the Cabinet. All of the cars were drapedin mourning. The interior of the composite car was entirely covered with black cloth, and on the floor was a handsome carpet. In the center stood a catafalque, on which the casket, covered with a silk flag, was placed and rested. By the side of the casket, on a stand, was placed the saddle, bridle and other riding equipments of the dead soldier. At Mantua the train entered the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad and proceeded west as the first section of the Western express. The train did not enter the depot at Philadelphia, but went out un the “Y,” stopping only long enough to change engines. The funeral train was viewed by thirty' thousand people as it passed through Pitts burg at 7:20 Friday morning. All the Grand Army post turned out and presented and rest arms as the train passed. Minute guns were fired and all flags were half mast, while every bell in the city tolled a requiem. The funeral was a military one in every detail. The casket was placed lengthwise on the caisson and strapped in place. On it were placed the hat and sword of him who lay inside. The delivery of the remains to the St. Louis body guard relieved the six sergeants, who had accompanied it from New York, of all further care. When the fastening of tie casket was finished Col. Townsend gave the order to march, and the Twelfth Infantry wheeled into line and marched up Eleventh street to the corner of Clark street. Here they halted. The open carriage with the floral pieces followed directly . behind. Then the order was given by Lieutenant Wilson, and the caisson, with its sacred burden, moved slowly up E eventh street to a place next thecarriage containing the flowers. On each side-of the caission walked the four military body bearers. Directly the caission started the four hundred members of Ransom Post, who made up the guard of honor, marched up in two columns, one going to one side and the other on the opposite side of the caisson. The saddle horse bearing the riding equip, ments of General Sherman was led just behind the caisson and between the column o f Ransoms Post. Hundreds of thousands of spectation paid respect to the dead soldier as the long procession passed by, carrying tho remains to thecemeterv.

When the services began at the grave the battallion of infantry stood at presen arms facing the little group about the grave. In the midst of the services a hoarse, low voice gave the command: “Carry arms," “Order arms,” in quick succession, and the sharp click of the musket barrel and the ring of the butt as it struck the graveled road gave singularly impressive accentuation to the solemn words of the young priest. In the mids of the service the supports were removed from the casket and it was lowered into the big bra-s bound oaken box placed just above the grave to receive it. The service was the full service of the Catholic Church for the burial of a layifian. Father Sherman was assisted by two acolytes. He concluded with the invocation: “May his soul and the souls of all. the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost Amen."

As the last words were being uttered, the bearers removed from the cover of the casket the beautiful flag with which it was draped when it left New York, and covered the box in which it rested. Six of the undertaker’s assistants seized the straps, removed the supports from the oaken case, and quickly lowered it into the open grave. Then two of them sprang to the cop of the pile of earth, which stood at the side of the grave, while the other, attacked it from the bottom, and with long handled spades they quickly filled in t io earth above the coffin. Father Sherman had retired to remove his vestments. Returning, he placed his arm about his older sister, who was much overcome by her grief, and whispered words of comfort and encouragement to her. The members of the family stood by the grave until It' had been filled completely. Then ex-President Hayes and Gen. Schofield came over to Mr. Fitch and young Mr. Sherman, and at their suggestion the family retired to the carriagss which stood in waiting for them. “Clear that space beyond the grave!’ cried General Forsythe. The crowd cleared a space Just beyond the grave and directly opposite the line of infantry. Quick and sharp came the commands, as quickly obeyed! ‘ Loadl” “Fire by battalion: ready!” “Aim!’ “Fire!" There was a rattle of musketry, and as a a cloud of smoke rolled over the new-mad. grave again the commaad came: “Load!" Another volley was fired, and another. Sharp on the echoes of the last came the heavy explosion of eannon at a distance. A trippie cannon salute was fired. I Then a solitary bugler mounted the little mound, and standing at the foot of th< grave blew A mournful, solemn call: "Taps'.!’ “Lights out!" As the final note died slowly away the mourners turned their faces from the grave. The crowd began quickly to disperse A guard of infantry—six menwas detailed to watch toe grave, and then order- were given to tho troops to take up the march to the quarters. * Thus was la’d to rett by the side of his wife and his two sons, one of whom washis “soldier boy," Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman.

DAMAGED BY WATER.

The Laee tram Btab W .tar •* PUtabmrg IJ Goat, A Pittsburg anecial of the 19th says: The waters are now receding, but H hav been a frightful visitation of flood, fortunately unaccompanied by loss of life. Itj is estimated that the damage by the flood! will reach •1,500,000. At least 2,000 families in the lowerportions of Pittaburg ana Allegheny City have been confined to the upper stories of their houses. Between 25,000 and 50.000 men lose three days’ wages by the stoppage of the iron and steel mill*. Outsiders may form an intelligent idea of the awful waste of water when it in stated that the back waters of the Allea’ gheny cover Penn avenue in the vicinity of the Hotel Anderson and Mercantile Library Hall, where passengers are compelled to stand on the seats, and there is a foot and a half of water on the orchestra floor of the Duquesne Theater on Pennsylvania avenue, of which Messrs. Henderson, of Chicago, and Norton, of St Louis, are the Managers. The lessees will be compelled to remove the carpets and ora chestra chairs, and there was no matinee yesterday afternoon or performance at night. Tne Bijou theater, on Sixth street, is also closed because the main entranee can not be reached except by skiffs. The Ex- 1 position buildings in Pittsbnargare underj water, wbile the muddy stream is within one foot of the Exposition ball park fence in Allegheny. The Pittsburg & Lake Erid' Railroad Company was compelled to bus-, pend business entirely. Traffic ceased when the stream became so high that ig extinguished the fires in the locomotives. The Pittsburg district, bounded by Penn avenue, Duquesne way, First and Tenth, ten solid blocks, is under water, the flood reaching a foot higher than the first floor. The people are supplied with bread and canned goods by men in skiffs. Cooking is out of the question. 'Busses and rowboats are being used to transport people from Pennsylvania avenue, along Sixth and Seventh streets, to the bridges stretchy ing from those thoroughfares across tho Allegheny. Big lusty fellows in high gum 1 boots are also carrying people through the water for the sum of ten cents. The police* men in some portions of Alleghe y aredow ing duty in skiffs, and one of them wad hailed from a second story with the announcement that a child was dead. The family is poor and is being helped by charitable neighbirs. The undertaker must bring the coffin in a boat. The Pittsburg & Western and the West Pennsylvania division of the Pennsylvania railroad are completely crippled. In Allegheny the top of box care on the Pittsburg & Western trestle are barely visible, while the West Pennsylvania in some places is five feet under water. Bridges are being held down by trains loaded with stone, upon wuich has been heaped pigiron.

A remarkable exhibition of nerve on the part of both railroad employesand passengers was the pulling of a Pittsburg & Lake Erie passenger train through six feet of water into the Pittsburg station. It re 4 quired the combined efforts of six locomotives. There was a funeral of the South' Side in which coffin mourners and friends; were transported by boats to dry land' where cariages were entered. Some idea of the immense damage to' railroads may be had in a telegram from] Steubenville, which says it will be likebuilding a new line to put the Wheeling &i Lake Erie in shape for running. Up in! the mountain region, cast of Connellsville,' the Baltimore & Ohio west bound track is buried under immense land slides. In’West Moreland county two dams burst,one! at Mammoth mine, the scene of the recentdisaster, flooding the country for miles. Ati Waltz’s Mills abursted dam carried away] innumerable bay stacks and outbuildings,! besides fences. ,

LEGISLATURES.

A bill making prize-fighting a felony passed the Texas House. Before the House oommitte, Montana silver miners protested against free-coin age; A compromise bill is being talked of A. J. Streeter, of Illinois, on the 18th, declared that he would uphold bls party in all matters which it favors, and said that on outside questions he would vote with the Republicans. He favored free silver coinage. The F. M. B. A. men then pledged him their earnest support. In Joint assembly, later, the 114th ballot re suited: Palmer, 101; Streeter,94; Oglesby, 9. After the eleventh ballot, in which Streeter gained another vote st the expense of Oglesby, the Joint assembly adjourned. _________ If Mr. Eiffel should visit the world’s fair at Chicago in 1893, he Would be compelled to admit, predicts the Chicago Herald, that the famous tower which he designed and erected for the recent Paris exposition was a small and contemptible affair compared to the one which will there meet his astonished gaze. The Eiffel tower is to be completely outdone by ente£ prising Chicago capitalists. They intend to “see" Mr. Eiffel and go him 492 fqet better. They will erect a tower which, instead of stopping at the height of Eiffe-’s—looo feet—will be pushed skyward to the altitude of 1492 feet. Thus Chicago will obtain a tower that will surpass the celebrated one at Paris and furnish the highest testimonial of its regard for the memory of the late lamented discoverer.

Boomerang Advertisement.

Au Atchison man was carelessly constructing an advertisement the other day, so that it read “Correspondence solicited; uddress ‘Black Diamond’ Cole,” says the Champion, received several replies from certain Atchison ladies who did not quite understand its nature. One was from a maiden lady, who said if the writer meant business in a matrimonial way she was willing to correspond. Another was from a young girl just out of -chool. who said if he would not be rude she would Be delighted to receive letters from him. As the man in question has been married for a number of years, a new sensation in the divorce court may soon be expected.