Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1892 — Page 6

WORK FOR FARMERS.

What Harrison’s Aministration Has Accomplished. A BOOM FOR AGRICULTURE. The President’s Relations to Secretary Rusk. Success of Efforts to Introduce American Products to New Markets. Washington Correspondence N. Y. Tribune. To any one impartially -reviewing President Harrison's administration no one feature will seem to stand out more prominently among the many excellent ones that characterize it than the earnest work done on behalf of the American fafcnj&r. At tbe time that the present administration came into power profound depression seemed to be the prevailing sentiment among A slight but steady diminution in the prices of most of the staple Agricultural products had been going on for some years, amounting in the aggregate to a considerable per centage of she average crop values, and this resulted in a depression necessarily severely felt by a class accustomed to measure even their prosperity by a moderate standard of prqtit. During the very first year of Mr. Harrison’s administration, the adverse current which seemed to threaten the- country’s agricultural prosperity was arrested and then turned back, so that to-day—to change the figure-—the cloud which a few years ago seemed to rest so gloomily upon American agriculture has beenlight-i ened, and the future once more holds ouf bright promises to the American farmer. The first good stroke of work done bv the present administration on behalf of the farmers was the selection of J. M. Husk soy Secretary of Agri culture. -Many people were disposed to regard the Department of Agriculture with the indifference, or, what was worse, with the good natured contempt-with which it had been regarded in years gone by by many citizens and not a few public men. Many persons Tailed "to ~ realize that the change effected in the condition of the department by the legislation which made it an executive department of the government and placed its head among the official advisors of the President, was one Of grave importance and called for the exercise o t the utmost wisdom in tbe selection of a suitable person to fill the new Cabinet office.

Not so the President. Realizing that his nominee would be practically the first Secretary of Agriculture, of the United States; that upon hrai would devolve the responsibility of showing to the country whether the elevation of the department to its present rank was a wise or unwise measure; that his administraten, in fact, of this important department would be the test of its future value to the farmer, and consequently to the whole country, Pressident Harrison wise determined that new Secretary must be not only a man of affairs, but a man endowed with exceptional good sense, with energy and persevetence, and, above all, thoroughly familiar with the conditions of agriculture, thoroughly in sympathy with, the farmers, aud -enjoying to the full their confidence. Such were the conditions that led to the selection of General Rusk. , THE RIGHT MAN. v .Having selected a Secretary whom he believed to be the right Ttfan in tlie\right place, the President extended to him the fullest confidence, lending him all possible influence in carrying out such measures as seemed necessary to enlarge the scops and sphere of the Department and to entend its power for the' benefit and advantage of agriculture. In no department of the government have the tangible results obtained been more important or more gratifying than those secured by the adminis- j tration in the Agricultural Depart-ment-results affecting directly the happiness, and" well being of theft. 000,000 farmers of the United States, with their families and their hired laborers, nearly one-half of the population of the Union —and indirectly the prosperity of every branch of industry and of every class of people in the country. When the administration came into power, the live stock interests of the country were at a low ebb. Vexatious regulations and restrictions, and in some countries prolonged quarantine, discouraged and hampered Ijhe shippers of live stock for export, while the meat tyade, especially that id pork, which is of the most importance to the greatest number of farm*, ers, was practically strangled by oppressive restrictions and costly inspections, and in the case of the last named product by absolute phohibition in most of the countries of Europe. The growth of the pork trade so thriving and rapid during the seventies, was not only checked but greatly reduced during the follopspg decade, resulting in a disastrous glut of the home market, a corresponding depreciation in prices and( general depression among,,pork producers. An admirable system of inspection bas been devised and carried out in the teeth of much opposition, based mainly on allegations of impracticability and costliness, with the result not only that both these allegations have been triumphantly refuted, but that prohibitions against American pork have been removed by Germany, Denmark, Austriaf'France, Italy and Spain, and this important product now goes .to nearly every portion of the globe without discrimination pb restrictions. From fe >tember, 1891, to April, 1,892. infit sive f imore than 20,000,000 pounds of inspected pork h»ve b;en exported, •gjpefrv’H*"

and such pork now brings about One cent a pound more in American jnarkqjfcs than the uninspected. v TWO EVILS. - ’ In case of cattle two evils had to be contended with: First, the eon- ‘ tinued allegations, many of them unfounded, of the existence of disease among American cattle —allegations made ip foreign countries largely for the purpose of justifying the restrictions which tended to make the trade unprofitable; and, secondly, the existence in one or two comparatively insignificant sections of the country of pleuro pneumonia, a disease which, however restricted, was a constant menace to the cattle interests and a perpetual argument in the mouths of foreign competitors against the American cattle trade. —To bpeffect-£ ual. measures to remove these difficulties had to be simultaneously carried out, and a consideration of the work to be undertaken was almost staggering, involving, as it did, coinspection by representatives of the“* department in Great Britain of all animals inspected by the British authorities, inspection on this side of all cattle shipped abroad, and more, than that a system of numbering and identifying each individual animal so that any alleged case of disease could • be traced from the source whence it originally came. It meant a thorough investigation of the condition of Uxe cattle throughout t he country, the maintenance of strictest quarantine in those few sections in which pleuro-pneumonia was found, and the enforcement throughout the entire breadth of the country of rigid regulations controlling the transportation of cattle by rail or otherwise from south to north of what is known as the Texas fever line. Under the present administration all this vast amount of work has been undertaken and carried out, so indeed, that on the .single item of insurance of cattle in transit shippers are saving annually $2,000,000 on the prices paid three or four years ago. The dreaded pleuro-pneumonia has been effect-ually-stamped out of every section whereitexisteJthree _ year3-ago r : with but one exception, a single county in New Jersey. With that exception, not a case of the disease has been found in any part of the coil ntry where it previously existed during'the last twelve months, and in the jingle exception noted over two months have elapsed without a hew case' being discovered, whi;le the rigid quarantine ana vigorous measures which have so successfully rid other sections of the country are being there most, thoroughly enforced. Yet this is a disease with which great Britain and many other countries have been unsluceessfully coping for forty or fifty years, with the result that many authorities declare that its thorough extirpation is impossible. It is not too much to say that as the result of the work of the administration Americau cattle and other live stock are in a more healthy dition than the live stock of any othiff- country, and in a more healthy condition than they have been in this country in the last twenty years. '

During the same period the forplus crops have been enlarged by the introduction of products in places where they have been* comparatively unknown hitherto, or at least unused; and the resources and conditions of other countries which might be made available as a .market for surplus crops have been investigated, in order that all dealers in agricultural products might be furnished with information to guide them in seeking new outlets. This has notably been the case as regards the Cen - tral and South American republics and West Indies, with which, as the result of such information aud of judicious treaties, the trade for agricultural products has already been greatly enlarged, and. what is even more a strong foothold has been obtained for American farm products in regions where this trade had been heretofore completely monopolized by British and German producers. -—— ~' -

As an instance of the introduction into certain regions b'f American products hitherto comparatively unused. one attempt may be cited with which the American public is now thoroughly familiar, although for two years the work went on intelligently and indefatigably with barely a worel of recognition or encouragement, namely, the introduction of our American Indian corn into Europe for use as human food. The persistence and intelligence with which this work has been carried on are now beginning to reap their reward: and enlarged demand has been created for corn meal in Great Britain and{-Germany especially, with every prospect that before the present administration closes an American product hardly known in European markets, save as a cheap substitute for cattle feed, will be known in every country in Europe depending upon foreign sources for any part of its cereal food supply, as a cheap and nutritious substitute for other cereal foods. The importance of this work can hardly be overestimated, representing as it does a crop fpr the increase of the resources of the United States* are almost unlimited;and which with every good crop suffers a depreciation in price which frequently has made a smaller crop bring more actual money to the producer than-a larger, for the reason that its value tpid uses are unknown abroad. No demand for the American surplus, save as a cheap substitute for cattle feed, has existed heretofore, only 4 per cent of tjbe crop having been exported during the last decade. *

THE M’KINLEY BILL AND THE AMERICAN FARMER 3.

American Economist. ; _ • " No schedule in the McKinley bill was frained with greater care than the!schedule of duties on agricultural products and provisions. Not only did farmers and agricultural societies have hearings before the committee, but the members of that committee spent bo little £ime' in the Construction of a schedule that would give the American farnjer more thorough protection and a better ,hold onjthe home market. Tlsat their efforts did not result in failure is shown by the following ing the imports .of various competing farm products (or finished'prpducts of wlficb the raw material competes) in the years'!Bß9 and 189.1—the years immediately preceding and following the enactment of the McKinley billtogether with changes in rates of duty made by the new-law : V-‘ ■

Projection fob Farmebs in the McKinley 8i1i... | ■■ ■. 1 $ > Articles.; Late Duty,. McKinley Imports, Imports, j .\\'\ i f Duty. 1889. • 1891. | Horses .1..... 20 per oent *30 per head.... *8.059.34< $1,073,879 Cattle, . .. ..U 20 per cent.... llOner head... 318.9:9 113,157 Barley. I. J.. 10c. per bus#.. !»c. per bushel ■ t,2ilW 1,031,543 Oats , lOc. per bush.. 15c.®oc bushel 8 53 • 7,81# 0atmea1...... U.J.. 143. per'lb.'..*., ic. per lb 59,010 28,588 ***•••» |.:..L|..|.. Free. f.S.. Bc. per d0z....‘ 2,071,614 533.497 Hay..lf.. ~ .;. f 3 per t0n.;.... $4 per ton 1.183,192 451.883 Hops . j.j....... L j.... |Bc. per lb :.... 15c. per 1b.... 1,1C5,«0I j I,fB>.KB Flaxseed & linseed 10c. per bush.. 30c. per bushel 4,136,730 835,409 4; 5 I f 75c. per twfc. 43 pjrt* Jbj... 1 •« j | Leaf tobacco. \ 13,773,710 8,398,619 * . UO - . per lb .ISOc. per 1b... J. . » cigarette* & t !9.50_ per lb §l.'sQs per lb V »0,7 034 3740915 •bheroots .... i. . .1. | and 2,» per ct and 15 per ct / ..,917,0.44 8,74~,3f0 /4ot»lS ~ 1...1 ■ 83.1.875.057 j 816.780 835. Larger markets for American j \ tl 4,054.223

Although the articles given in this table are but a few of the many that compete with the products of American farms, they are enough-.’to show that the effect of the McKinley Tariff has been to greatly decrease agricultural imports, and, by theataount of that decrease, to put money into the pockets of our farmers. 1 The Democratic House votes to tax sugar, which cannot be produced in this country in sufficient quantities to suit the demand, and votes to free tin, which can be produced in this country under adequate protectiwa. The tax on sugar is added to the cost of the commodity bfecause of a lack of competition in this country to keep the price down. tax on tin is not added to the commodity, for tbereasonthat tiu ean be produced in this country, thereby giving employment to all men who engage in its production or manufacture. If the tax on imported tin is remoyed foreign producers will at once reduce the price so long as they are threatened with competition on this side of the ocean, and increase the price the moment possibility of competition is removed. If protected until their business is established here, competition will reduce...Jthflu prl'CSTn Wd ffiahufactufed'article until it would be lower than we could ever hope to have it under British and foreign -monopoly. Home production of tin will give employment to thousands of American laborers. Thus it will be readily seen that the Democracy favors foreign labor and capital as against American labor and capital. The Republican party favors free sugar and home produced tin, and the Republican party is true to its purposes and promises.

STILL DOING ITS OWN TALKING. The McKinley bill is doing its own talking concerning its effect on the production aud prices of carpets and linens, which are two of the articles that the free traders judged to be peculiarly open to attack. The new tariff has increased the number of American mills employed in the production of these things,and by increasing tbeir production has decreased their price. American made carpets are now as cheap in America as English made ones are in England. But there is more profit in carpet here than there, because the American people buy more car pet than the English people, and because a home market always is more profitable than a foreign one. This condition is attracting the attention of English and makers. A telegram in yesterday’s Inter Ocean announced the pturpose of one Irish firm to establish a linen factory ia New York. The cost of machinery used by it will be $90,000; and this will be spent in American shops. A few weeks ago a firm that has been making carpets in England for two centuries moved its plant to the 'United States. The McKinley bill is doing its own talking. The effect of the establishment of new linen and carpet industries In the United States, or the enlarging of the old ones, cannot fail to benefit the fariolßrs, for while we have been importing flax products to the extent of $?0,000,000 a year we have been destroying 1,070,090 tons of flax straw every year. Now flax straw is used as body for many kinds of carpet, and the English firm whose removal to this country we have hoted declares American flax straw to bo superior to that of any other country for carpet manufacture. But while creating an increased demand for certain farm products as raw materia! of it also enlarges the .demand for these farm products that are used as food for operatives. The bill is doing its own talking. ,*

PRE-EMINENT JESUS.

Christ is the Over-Topping Figure of All Time. Brighter Than the Light, Fresher than the Fountains and Deeper Than tbe Seas J. are Bible Themes. The. sermon selected for this week is entitled “ Pre-ettwnent, ” the text . r" being John iii, 31, He that Cometh from above is above all. ” He said : The most conspicuous character of history steps put upon the platform. The finger which, diamonded with light, pointed down to him from the Bethlehem sky, was only a ratification ofthe finger of prophecy, the finger of genealogy, the finger of chronology, the finger of events —all five fingers pointing in one direction. Christ is the overtopping figure of all time. He is the vox humana in all musiq, the gracefulest line in all sculpture, the most exquisite mingling of lights and shades m all painting. the acme of all climaxes, the dome of all cathedraled grandeur and the peroration of all splendid language. V? The Greek alphabet js made up of twenty-four letters, arid when Christ comparedTiimself to the first letter and the last letter*? the plpba and the omega, he appropriated to himself all the splendors that yon can spell out either' with those two letters and all letters between them. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. ** Or, if you prefer the words of the text, “ above all. ” First, Christ must be above all else in our preaching. There are so many books on homiletics scattered world that all laymen, ~as“wett ~Ss~all clefgymen7Tiav~emade up theirminds what sermons ought to be. That sermon is most effectual which most pointedly, puts forth Christ as the pardon of all sin and the correction of all evil, individual social, political, national. There is no reason why we should ring the endless changes 011 -a few phrases. There are those who think that if an exhortation or a discourse have frequent mention of justification, Sanctification, covenant, of .words and covenant of grace, that, Therefore it must be profoundly evangelical, while they are suspicious of a discourse which presents the same truth, but under different phraseology.

Now, I say there is nothing in all the opulent realm of Anglo-Saxon-ism or all the word treasures that we inherited from the Latin and the Greek and the Indo Luropean but we have a right to marshal it in religious discussion. Christ sets the example. His illustrations were from the grass, the flowers, the spittle, the salve, the barnyard fowl, the crystals of salt, as well as from the seas and* the stars, and we do not propose in our Sabiyith school teaching and in our pulpit address to be put on the limits. Jonathan preached Christ in the severest argument ever penned and John Bunyan preached Christ in the sublimest allegory ever composed. Edward Payson, sick and exhausted, leaned up against the side of..the..pulpit. aJLCL jKept.,.o.ut his discourse, while George Wjhitefield, with the manner and the vdice and the start of au actor, overwhelmed his audience,/ It would hjttve been a different ‘thing if Jonathan Edwards had tried to write and dream about the pilgrim’s progress to the celestial city or John Bunyan had attempted an essay on the human will. Brighter than the light, fres lifer than the fountains, deeper than the seas are all these gospel themes. Song has no melody, flowers have no sweetness, sunset sky has no color compared with these glorious themes. These harvests of grace spring up quicker than we can sickle them. Kindling pulpits with their fire, and producing involutions with their power, lighting up dying beds with their- glory, they are the sweetest thought for the poet, and they are the most brilliant illustration for the orator, and they offer the most intense scene for the artist, and they are to the ambassador of the sky ail enthusiasm. “Complete pardon for direst guilt. Sweetest comfort for ghastliest asrony. Brightest hope for grimmest death. Grandest resurrection for darkest sepulcher. Oh, what a Gospel to preach! Christ over all in it. His birth, His suffering, His miracles. His para bles, His sweat. His tears, His blood, His atonement, His intercession—what glorious themes! And how much we need Him in our sorrows! We are independent of circumstances if we have His grace. Why, He made Paul sing in his dungeon, and under that grace St. John from desolatj&Patmos heard the blast of the apocalyptic trumpets. After all other candles have been snuffed out. this is the light that gets brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. A thousand feet underground, by light of torclj, toiling in a miner’s shaft, a ledge of rock may fall upon us and we may die a miner's death. Far out at sea, falling from the slippery ratlines and broken on the halyards, we may die a sailor’s death. On mission of mercy in hospital, amid broken bones and reeking leprosies and raging fevers we may die a philanthropist’s death. On the field of battle. serving God acid our country,, the gun carriage may roll over us and we may die a patriot’s death. But after all there are only two styles of departure—the death of the righteous and the death of the wicked, and we all want tb die the former. * God grant that when that hour comes you may be at home! You want the hand of your kindred la

your hand. Yog want your children to surround you. You want the light on your pillow from eves that have long reflected your love. You want tbe room still. You do riot want any curious strangers standing around watching vbu. Yqil want your kindred from afar to hear your last prayer. I/think that is the wish of all of us. But is that all? Can learthly frieriils hold us when the billows of death come up to the girdle? Can huynan voice charm open heaven’s gate? Can human hands pilot us through the narrows o! death into heaven’s harbbr? Can an earthly frit/ndsbip* shield Us from the arrows of death and iu the hour

whensatan shall practice upon u* his infernal archery? No, no, no, no! Alas! poor soul, if that is all. Better die in the wilderness, far from tree shadow and from fountain, alone, vultures circling through the air waiting body, unknown to men, and to have no burial, if only Christ could say through the solitudes, “I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee. From that pillow of stone 1 a ladder would soar heaven-ward angels coming and going; and across the solitude and tbe barrenness would come the sweet notes of heavenly minstrelsy. There is a place for us, whether marked or not, where you and I will sleep Our last sleep, and the men are now living who will, with solemn tread, carry us to our resting place. Aye, it is known in heaven whether our departure will he a coronation or a banishment. Brighter than a banqueting hall through which the light feet of the dancers go up and down to the sound of the trumpeters will be the sepulcher through whose rifts the holy light of heaven streameth. God wilt watofi you. He will send his angels to guard your -ground until-—at- UhrtsTx-behestp they shall roll away the stone. So also Christ is above all in heaven. The bible di.st|nctlv says that Christ is chief theme of the celestial ascription,- all the thrones facing his throne, all the palms waved before his face, all the crowns down rit his feet. Cherubim to cherubim, seraphim to seraphim, redeemed spirit to redeemed spirit shall recite the Savior’s eatthly sacrifice. Stand on some high hill of heaven, and in all the radiant sweep the most glorious object will be Jesus. Myriads gazing on the scars of (ns suffering, in silence first, afterward breaking forth into acclamation. The martyrs, all the, purer for the flame through which they passed, will say, “This is Jesus, for whom we died.” The apostles, all the happier for the shipwreck and the scourging through which they went, will sayj~**This is the Jesus "whom we preached at Corinth, and at "Cappadocia, and at Antioch, and at Jerusalem." Little children clad in white will say, ‘ This is the Jesus who took .us in his arms and blessed us, and when the storms of the world were too cold and loud brought us int& this beautiful place.” The multitudes .of the bereft will say, “This is the Jesus who cpimforted us when our heart broke.” Many who had wandered clear off from God and plunged into vagabondism,but were saved by grace will say: “This !s ; the Jesus who pardoned us. We wiere lost on the

mountains, and be brought us home. We were guilty,and he made us white as snow.” Mercy boundffess* gfice unparalleled. And then, after each one has recited his peculiar deliverances and peculiar mercies, recited them as by solo, all the voices \v“ill eotiie together in a great chorus, which shall make the archer echo and re-echo with the eternal reverberation of gladness aud peace and triumph. -i Edward I was so anxious to go to “the Holy Land that when he was about toexpii-e he bequeathed $160,000 to have his heart after,his decease taken to the Holy Land in Asia Minor, and hi's request was complied with. But there are hundreds to-day whose hearts are already in the holy land of heaven. Where vour treasures arc there are,,your hearts also. John Bunyan, of whorif 1 I spoke at the opeUing of the discourse, caught a glimpse of that place, find in his quaint way lie said; •‘And I heard in my dream, and lo! the bells of the city rang again for joy; and as they spened the gates to let jn the men i looked in after them, analo! the city shone like the sun, and .there were streets of gold, and men walked on them, harps in their hands, to sing praises wij;h all; and after that they shut up - the gates whiqh when 1 had seen I wished myself among them!”

PEOPLE.

Senator Sawyer, though one of the richest, is ooft-oLthe least ostentatious men in Congress. A niece of the late James Russell Lowell; Miss Ruth Burnett, is soon to become a sister of charity. Maj.-Gen. George R, . Snowden, who is now in command of the Pennsylvania troons at. Homestead, saw service during the great strike of 1887. Minister Lincoln announces the resumption of his periodical “at homes,” open to all Americans visiting London and presenting tljgir cards, / The Salvation Army publishes sixty-one weekly newspapers and five monthly magazines, with a total annual circulation of 45,000,000 copies. | Bernhardt is making her plans to stay in London for several months more. Next winter! she will give an xhibition of paintings and sculpture executed by her own fahnd and bor rawed from their present owners iv Paris.

AN AWFUL EARTHQUAKE.

Fttlly Ten. Thousand People' Were Killed by lt. - > Foil Detail* of the Recent Great Dlsastei j on Sang- Island. The steamer Empress, of India, arrived at \ icCbria, B, C., Aug. 1, from Japan,anc brings additional details of tbe disastrous 1 volcanic eruption on great Sang Island. ■ Without any warning signal, without anj* sign whateyfer of impending disturbance, the Gunong Aroo volcano blazed forth os June 7, and within twenty-four hours th< whole of . the prospegPFn surrounding country was devastated. The loss of lift is something frightful, but no estimate can be made. Some place it as high at ten thousand. The captain of the shig which took assistance to the sufferers says that ten thousand is not too high a figure as an estimate of the number of the dead. A thousand bodies were picked up on the shore, and many were found floating in the sea. The whole island is completely devastated, and although the violent eruption has ceased, volumes ol smoke are arising, accompanied by steam and ashes. Inhabitants of Sang Island. -Hying withiu the shadows of a dormant crater, had tillod the soil and prospered, their chiof industry being the growing of nutmegs, qqcqauuts and grapes, tho product bring regularly ahipped abroad. The , ylllages and towns were welt built, and had schools and churches.' - : - The awful devastation began about 8, o’clock 011 the morning of June 7. There was a terrible rumble, a column of ruddy flame shot up from the crater as liigli iu the heavens as tho eye could reach, and immediately afterward hot ashes were fulling like snowflakes over the whole country. Dust was flying in all directions aud from the time of tho first explosion until ft o’clock that evohTrig "fiiTreo voluraes of flame and smoke and showeisof large stones belched forth, followed by rain, which fell in torrents! bringing down "wTOTTt Che clciudsof ashes tliat were*flying through the air. This contiuued all night and the whole of ndxt day. Tho barlli:iualce began Juno 9. Village after village 'vas engiflfed, hundreds of people dropped inta the great, cracks in the earth. The whole country is under a layer of mud, ashes and stones All vegetation is -either burned up by the awful heat ofthe volcanic fires or lias been deStroyod by dense showers of ashes and dust The ;ountry around Gunong Aroo and tho hills wtis still steaming and smoking on June 15, numerous volcanic jets throwing columns of mud and stones, which fell over tho district forming into hot streams which in their downward course, carried everything jbefore them. Tho district on the north side of the island is'utterly destroyed, nutmegs and cocha plantations beirig laid in ruins, arid ip many, cascsr eompletely huided under the ashes, mud Mid ava from the grater. Among others who saw tho island after ;he outbreak was Capt. J. Gray, of the iteamship Norway, which had baeu sent vith a cargo of rice from Meudane to relieve tho sufferers. lie says tho whole* island viewed from the westward, presented i most forlorn appearance. There was n 4 rign of life anywhere. Volumes of smoke sould be seen issuing from the volcanot iQcqmpanied by ashes arid fife, which ipread like a cloud over the island and !ejl thickly everywhere. Small jets of ite4m, smoke and stones were pouring out :rom the mountain sides, completely coviriug the lower valleys and lands. On the light of tho Outbreak two Norwegian barks, the Primera and tho Fashion, were in Torona hay, but got to sea withoudamage. lu-.a pretty harbor on tho north last side of the island the Dutch strips, Terbklc and Griapa, were loading nutmegs. They, too, sustained little injury, fortunately, because there was no tidal ivave. i

Tho report of the first explosion was icard at Termite, Gorntale and ‘Mandate, which are.-respectively, 210, 240 aud 216 niltjs distant. The lava streams were :onfined to the northern slopes of tho mountain. In theTobeakan district not i single village remains,, while thousands? if the ihhabitants were killed fn the ovejgv low. The village of l.orena, on the south' ( lido of tho mountain, protected by a ridgo if hills, sorno of them 1,3J0 feet high, is covered with ashes. Many of the houses were crushed by the accumulated weight ir asides, dust and stones. Cocoauut plants on both sides of the bay are destroyed. but ip the town itself thero was loraparatively little loss of life. To tho westward, after passing tho foot of the ridgo, the scene is one of complete desolation and devastation. The suffering by those who escaped with their lives has been most acute. “All tho food on the iiiand was destroyed, and but for the prompt assistance of the neighboring islands they -would haye starved,” says one writer, "It is a mass of smouldering ruins. The peofilo who lived and prospered tliero have lost all they ever had, and now the only thing for them to do is to leavo for another and more favored spot or stay thero and die."

FLEEING FROM THE CHOLERA.

Th» emigration from Astrakan, Russia, on account of the cholera, continue. Every one is leaving the doomed city wjio * can get away. The panic is universal. In many localities oh the Volga barges laden with goods can not be discharged through want of laborers. Business is thoroughly demoralized.

DECIDED AGAINST CATHOLICS.

A test caso In the highest court In the British Empire over rules the judgment of the Dominion Supreme Court and main* Uins the constitutionality of the act passed by the Manitoba-Legislature, abolishing Catholic separate schools in that province. Aftest case resulted in the refusal 'if the Winnipeg Catholics to p*y taxes to supi>ort of the public schools The Catholics won in all the inferior courts until they reached the privy .council. There Is * much excitement among Catholics over tho outcome of the suit, /V