Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1895 — Page 3

TALMAGE’S SERMON.

THE PREACHER OPPOSES BIBLE RECONSTRUCTION. fie Shows How Futile Are the Assaults Made Upon the Scriptures—The Bible as Compared with Other Books—lts Divine Protection. Stands Dike a Bock. In his sermon last Sunday Rev. Dr. .Talinage dealt with a subject that is agitating the entire Christian church at the present moment—viz., “Expurgation of the Scriptures.” The text chosen was, “Let God be true, but every man a liar” <Romans iii., 4). The Bible needs reconstruction according to some inside and outside the pulpit. It is no surprise that the world bombards the Scriptures, but it is amazing to find Christian, ministers picking at this in the Bible and denying that until many good people are left in the fog about what parts of the Bible they ought to believe and what parts reject. The heinousness of finding fault with the Bible at this time is most evident. In our day the Bible is assailed by scurrility, by misrepresentation, by infidel scientists, all the vice of earth and all the venom of perdition, and at this particular time even preachers of the gospel fall iuto line of criticism of the word of God. Why, it makes me think of a ship in a September equinox, the waves dashing to the top of the smokestack, and the hatches fastened down, and many prophesying the foundering of the steamer, and at that time some of the crew with axes and saws go down into the hold of the ship,’and fhey ffy _ ib~sa'w off some of the planks and pry out some of the timbers because the timber did not come from the right forest. It does not seem-to me a commendable business for the crew to be helping the winds and storms outside with their axes and saws inside. Now, this old gospel ship, what with the roaring ."of earth and hell around the stem and stern and mutiny on deck, is having a very rQUgh voyage, but I have noticed that not one of the timbers has started, and the captain says he will see it through. And I have noticed that keelson and counter timber are built out of Lebanon cedar, “and she is going to weather the gale, but no credit to those who make mutiny on •deck. When I see professed Christians in this particular day finding fault with the Scriptures, it makes me think of a fortress terrifically bombarded, and the men on the ramparts, instead of swabbing out and loading the guns and helping fetch up the ammunition from the magazine, are trying with crowbars to pry out from the wall certain blocks of stone because they did not come from the right quarry. Oh, men on the ramparts, better fight back and fight down the common enemy instead of trying to make breaches in the wall! While I oppose this expurgation of the Scriptures I shall give you my reasons for such opposition. “What,” say some of the theological evolutionists, whose brains have been addled by too long brooding over Darwin and Spencer, “you don’t now really believe all the story of the Garden of Eden, do you?” Yes, as much, as I believe there were roses in my gafden last summer. “But,” they say, “you don’t really believe that the sun and moon stood still?” Yes, and if I had strength enough to create a sun and moon I could make them stand still or cause the refraction of the sun’s rays so it would appear to stand still. “But,”' they say, “you don’t really believe that the whale swallowed J onah?” Yes, and if I were strong enough to make a whale I could have made very easy ingress for the refractory prophet, leaving to evolution to eject him if be were an unworthy tenant. “But,” they say, “you don’t really believe that the water was turned into wine?” Yes, just as easily as water now is often turned into wine with an'admixture of strychnine and logwood. “But,” say they, “you don’t really believe that Samson slew a thousand with the jawbone of an ass ?” Yes, and L think tliat the man who in this day assaults the Bible is wielding the same weapon. There is nothing, in the Bible that staggers me. There are many things Ido not understand, I do not pretend to understand, never shall in this world understand. But that would be a very poor God who could be fully understood by the human. That would be a very small Infinite that can be measured by the finite. You must not expect to weigh the thunderbolts of Omnipotence in an apothecary’s balances. .Starting with the idea that God can do anything, and that he was present at the beginning, and that he is present now, there is nothing in the holy Scriptures to arouse skepticism in my heart. Here I stand, a fossil of the ages, dug up from the tertiary formation, fallen off the shelf of an antiquarian, a man in the latter part of the glorious nineteenth century, believing in a whole Bible from lid to lid.

I nm opposed to the expurgation of the Scriptures in the first place because the Bible in its present shape has been so miraculously preserved. Fifteen hundred years after Herodotus wrote his history there was only one manuscript copy of it. Twelve hundred years after Plato wrote his book there was only one manuscript copy of it. God was so careful to have us have the Bible in just the right shape that we have fifty manuscript copies of the New Testament 1,000 years old and some of them 1,500 years old. This'book handed down from the time of Christ or just after the time of Christ by the hand of such men as Origen in the second century and Tertullian in the third century and by men of different ages who died for their principles. The three best copies of the New Testament in manuscript are in the possession of the three great churches—the Protestant Church of England, the Greek Church of St. Petersburg nnd the ltomish Church of Italy. It is n plain matter of history thnt Tischendorf went to a convent in the peninsula of Sinai and was by ropes lifted over the wall into the convent, thnt being the only mode of admission, and that he saw there in the waste basket for kindling for the fires a manuscript of the holy Scriptures. That night he copied jnany of the passages of that Bible, but it was not until fifteen yenrs had passed of earnest entreaty and prayer and coaxing and purchase on his part that copy of the holy Scriptures was put into the hand of the Emperor of Russia—thnt one copy so marvelously protected. Do you not know that the catalogue of the books of the Old find New Testaments as we have it is the same catalogue that has been coming on down through the ages? Thirty-nine books of the Old Testament thousands of years ago. Thirty-nine

now. Twenty-seven books of the New Testament 1,000 years ago. Twenty-seven books of the New Testament now. Marcion, for wickedness, was turned out of the church in the secofid century and in his assault on the Bible and Christiafiity he incidentally gives a catalogue of the hooks of the Bible —that catalogue correspondingexactly w+thmura—testimony given by the enemy of the Bible and the enemy of Christianity. The catalogue now just like the catalogue then. Assaulted and «pit on and torn to pieces and burned, yet adhering. The book to-day, in 300 languages, confronting four-fifths of the human race in their own tongue. Four hundred million copies of jt in existence. Does not that look as if this book had been divinely protected, as if God had guarded it all through the centuries? Is it not an argument plain enough to pvery honest man and every honest woman that a book divinely protected and in this shape is in the very shape that God wants it? It pleases God and ought to please us. The epidemics which have swept thousands of other books into the sepulcher of forgetfulness have only brightened the fame of this. There is not one book out of a thousand that lives five years. Any publisher will tell you that. There will no| be more than one book out of 20,000 that w ill live a century. Yet here is a book much of it 1,600 years old, and much of it 4,000 years old, and with more rebound and resilience and strength in it than when the book was first put upon parchment or papyrus. This book saw the cradle of all other books, and it will see their graves. Would you not think that an old book like this, some of it forty centuries old, would come along hobbling with age and on crutches? Instead of that, more potent'than any other book of the time. More copies of it printed in the last ten years than of any other book, Walter Scott’s Waverley novels, Macaulay’s “History of England,” DisrasLi’s “Endymion,” the works of Tennyson and Longfellow and all the popular books of our time having no such, sale in the last ten years as this old Womout book. Do you know, what a struggle a book has in order to get through one century or two centuries? Some old books during a fire in a seraglio of Constantinople Were thrown info the street. A man without any education picked up one of those books, read it and did not see the value of it. A scholar looked over his shoulder and saw it was the first and secman a large reward if he would bring the books to his study, but in the excitement of the fire the two parted, and the first and second decades of Livy were forever lost. Pliny wrote twenty books of history. All lost. The most of Menander’s writings lost. Of 130 comedies of Plautus, all gone but twenty. Euripides wrote 10d dramas. All gone but nineteen. Aeschylus wrote 100 dramas. All gone but seven. Varro wrote the laborious biographies of 700 Romans. Not a fragment left. Quintilian wrote his favorite book on the corruption of eloquence. All lost. Thirty books of Tacitus lost. Dion Cassius wrote eighty books. Only twenty remain. Berosius’ history all lost.

Nearly all llie old books are mummified and are lying iu the tombs of old libraries, and perhaps once in twenty years some man comes along and picks up one of them and blows the dust and opens it and finds it the book he does not want. But this old book, much of it forty centuries old, stands to-day more discussed than any other book, and it challenges the admiration of all the good, and the spite, and the venom, and the animosity, and the hypercriticism of earth and hell. I appeal to your common sense if a book so divinely guarded and protected in its present shape must not be in just the way that God wants it to come to us, and if it pleases God, ought it not to please us? Not only have all the attempts to detract from the book failed, but all the attempts to add to it. Many attempts were made to add the apochryphal books to the Old Testament. The council of Trent, the synod of Jerusalem, the bishops of Hippo, all decided that the apochryphal books must be added to the Old Testament. “They must stay in,” said those learned men, but they staid out. There is not an intelligent Christian man that to-day will "nutTEeTtnuk of-Maccnhops nr tlipjwik nf Judith beside the book of Isaiah or Romans. Then a great many said, “We must have books added to the New Testament,” and there were epistles and gospels and apocalypses written and added to the New Testament, but they have all fallen out. You cannot add anything. You cannot subtract anything. Divinely protected book in the present shape. Let no man dare to lay his hands on it with the intention of detracting from the book or casting out any of these holy pages. Besides that, I am opposed to this expurgation of the Scriptures because if the attempt were successful it would be the annihilation of the Bible. Infidel geologists would say, “Out with the book of Genesis.” Infidel astronomers would say, “Out with the book of Joshua.” People who do not believe in the atoning sacrifice would say, “Out with the book of Leviticus.” People who do not believe in the miracles would say, “Out with all those wonderful stories in the Old and New Testaments,” and some would say, “Out with the book of Revelation,” and others Would say,, “Out with the entire Pentateuch,” and the work would go on until there would not be enough of the Bible left to be worth ns much as last year’s almanac. The expurgation of the Scriptheir annihilation. I am also opposed to this proposed expurgation of the Scriptures for the fact that in proportion ns people become selfsacrificing and good and holy and consecrated they like the book ns it is. I have yet to find a man or a woman distinguished for self-sacrifice, for consecration to God, for holiness of life, who wants the Bible changed. Many of us have inherited family Bibles. Those Bibles were in use twenty, forty, fifty, perhaps n hundred years in the generations. To-day take down those family Bibles, and find out if there are any chapters which have been erased by lead pencil or pen, and if in any margins you pan the words, “This chapter not tit to read.” There has been plenty of opportunity during the lust half century privately to expurgate the Bible. Do you know any case of such expurgation? Did not your grandfather give it to your father, and (lid not your father give it to you? - Besides that, lam opposed to the expurgation of the Scriptures because the socalled indelicacies and cruelties of the Bible have demonstrated no evil results. A cruel book will produce cruelty. An unclean book will produce uncleanliness. Fetch me a victim. Out of all Christendom and out of all the ages fetch a victim whose heart has been hardened to cruelty or whose life has been made impure hy this book. Show me one. One of the best families I ever knew of for thirty

or forty years, morning and evening, had all the members gathered together, and the servants of the household, and the strangers that happened to be within the agates. Twice a day without leaving out a chapter fir a verse they read this holy book, morning by morning, night by night. Not only the older children, but the little child who could just spell her way through the verse while her mother helped her, the father beginning and Tending one verse, %nd then all the members of the family in turn reading a verse. The fatber maintained his integrity, the mother maintained her integrity, the sons grew up and entered professions and commercial life, adorned spbere in the life in-which they lived, and the daughters went into families where Christ was honored, and all that was good and pure and righteous reigned perpetually. For thirty years that family endured the Scriptures. Not one of them ruined by them. Now, if you will tell me of a family where the Bible has been read twice a day for thirty years, and the children have been brought up in that habit, and the father went to ruin, and the mother went to ruin, and the sonsrfind daughters were destroyed by it—if you will tell me of one such incident, I will throw away my Bible, or I will doubt your veracity. I tell you if a man is shocked with what he calls the indelicacies of the word of God he is prurient in his taste and imagination. If a man cannot read Solomon’s Song without impure suggestion, he is either in his heart or in his life a libertine. The Old Testament description of wickedness, uncleanliness of all sorts, is purposely and righteously a disgusting account instead of the Byronic and the Parisian vernacular which makes sin attractive instead of appalling. When prophets point you to a lazaretto, you understand it is a lazaretto. When a man having begun to do right falls baek into wickedness and gives up his integrity, the Bible does not say he was overcome by the fascinations Of the festive board, or that he surrendered to convivialities, or that he became a little fast in his habits. I will tell you what the Bible says, “The dog is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” No gilding of iniquity. No garlands on a death’s head. No pounding away with a silver mallet at iniquity when it needs an iron sledge hammer.

I can easily understand how people, 1 brooding over the description of uncleannessln Thrrßible; inmind until they are as full of it as the wings, and the beak, and the nostril, and the cla# of a buzzard are full of the odors of a carcass, but what is wanted is not that the Bible be disinfected, but that you, the critic, have your mind and heart washed with carbolic acid! I tell you at this point in my discourse that a man who does not like this book, and who is critical as to its contents, and who is shocked and outraged with its descriptions has never been soundly converted. The laying on of the hands of presbytery or episcopacy does not always change a man’s heart, and men sometimes get into the pulpit as well as into the pew, never haying been changed radically by the sovereign grace of God. Get your heart right, and the Bible will be right. The trouble is men’s natures are not brought into harmony with the word of God. Ah, my friends, expurgation of the heart is what is wanted. You cannot make me believe that the Scriptures, which this moment lie on the table of the purest and best men and women of the age, and which were the dying solace of your kindred passed into the skies, have in them a taint which the strongest microscope of honest criticism could make visible. If men are uncontrollable in their indignation when the integrity of wife orehildfs assailed, and judges and jurors as far as possible excuse violence under such provocation, what ought to be tho overwhelming and long resounding thunders of condemnation for any man who will stand in a Christian pulpit and assail the more than virgin purity of inspiration, the well beloved daughter of God? Let those people who do not believe the Bible, and who are critical of this and that part of it, go clear over to the other side Let them stand behind the devil’s guns. There can be no compromise between infidelity and Christianity. Give us the out and out opposition of infidelity rather than the work of these hybrid theologians, these mongrel ecclesiastics, these half-evoluted people, who believe tho Bible and do not believe it, who accept the miracles and do not accept them, who believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures and do not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures—trimming their belief on one side to suit the skepticism of the world, trimming their belief on the other side to suit the pride of thefr own heart and feeling that in order to demonstrate their courage they must make the Bible a target and shoot at God. There is one thing that encourages me very much, and that is that the Lord made out to mannge the universe before they were born and will probably be able to make out to mannge the universe a little while after they are dead. While I demand that the antagonists of the Bible, and the critics of the Bible go clear over where they belong, on the devil’s side, I ask that all the friends of this good book come out openly and above board in behalf of it. That book, whieh was the best inheritance you ever received from your ancestry, and which will be the best legacy you will leave to your children when you bid them good-by as you cross the ferry to the golden city. Young man, do not be ashamed of your Bible. There is not a virtue but it commends, there is not a sorrow but it comforts, there is not a good law on the statute book of any country but it is founded on these Ten Commandments. There are no braver, grander people in all the earth than the heroes and the heroines which it biographizes.

The American Girl. Generally the American girb-has improved in strength and'become less frivolous. The hardest and the cleverest students in the public schools are girls. They are entering freely into every employment that does not demand muscular power and rugged endurance. They are better able to take care of themselves than formerly. They are getting over nonsensical notions that dwarfing restrictions are essential to feminine attractions. They are not nXrald that they can know too much orTO ty>o much. Meantime they are improving in their looks and increasing In their charms and their desirability as cotapanlons nnd comrades, and men are finding It out.—New York Sun. _ ; ' Hope la the half -brother to happiness.

AGRICULTURAL NEWS

THINGS PERTAINING TO THE FARM AND HOME. Drainage Will Drive Away Craw flab —-Howto T<flt the Comparative Food Value of Potatoes—The Cause of Bmall Eggs—Average Yields of Corn Crawfish Land. The only way to cure crawfish land Is to drain It With the water taken away, the crawfish will leave or die. The only way to do this is with underdrains. It is hard to keep tile drains, as ordinarily laid, in order in crawfish land, as the varmints will everlastingly choke them or throw them out of line. I have had fair success with tiles in crawfish land by laying the tile on a plank. But the best way Is to drain as well as possible with drains made from pine poles, and then as the land gets dryer aifd the crawfish scarcer, run in the tiles between.. Itt digging the ditches for tiles In such land, you will find that the water springs strongly out of the crawfish holes along the bottom of the-ditch, while between will be tight clay.- Now if you lay a tile on such a bottom It Is evident that it will not be good long, but the drain made with three poles will carry off, and lower the level of, the water In the soil, so as to bring about conditions destructive to the crawfish, which will not stay with dry soil above them. I once circumvented them hv wrapping the tiles with bagging at every joint and extralarge tile. But the fact is that there Is little crawfish land that Is worth the expense of the underdrains. I would underlay a little piece in a field to make all uniform, but a large tract of crawfish land I would move away from, rather than try to redeem it.—Practical Farmer.

A Test for Potatoes. Prof. Goff, of the Wisconsin experiment station, mentions a simple way to test the comparative food value of it is an old custom to put a potato in water and stir in salt until the potato floats. But if several potatoes are put in together some will come to the top sooner than others. Starch, the valuable portion of the potato is heavier than water, and the tubers that contain most starch are best for the table, being mealy when cooked. By putting a bushel of potatoes into a barrel nearly full of water and stirring in salt, the tubers poorest in starch will first come to the top, and may be p'icked off. By stirring In more salt, more po-, tatoes will rise. Those that remain at the bottom longest are worth the most. The difference in the table quality of the lightest and heaviest tubers is surprising. The former will be soggy and salvy, the later flaky and farinaceous. Prof. Goff thinks the market value of potatoes should be based on their specific gravity. There is no reason why potatoes containing but 12 per cent, of starch should sell for as much per bushel as those containing 20 per cent The latter are worth nearly double the former for food. "The salt test is a cheap and easy one, and a dozen tubers may be tested in any vessel. When the potatoes are sold on their merits as food rather than on the amount of bulk they fill, farmers will have some encouragement to produce tubers that contain starch, rather than those that contain water, because their food value, and palatability will be increased.

The Cause of Small Eggs. The steady improvement in the grade of poultry kept by farmers has resulted in tlif increased size of the eggs. This difference is so marked that the eggs produced in the North always command In the markets a higher price than those from the South, where the improved breeds have been more slowly introfiuced. In that section the undersize of poultry and eggs is doubtless due chiefly to the lack of new blood. The debilitating effect of the heat is some-, times given as the explanation, but the true one is rather the lack of care and proper breeding, the indirect result of the climate, which, by permitting the birds to forage all the year round, relieves the owner of much trouble, but at the same time checks his interest in their best development.

—Average Yields of Corn. The average yield of corn in some of the Western States where this is a main crop is only 25 bushels per acre. This is less than the English average for wheat, though as every farmer knows, It is far easier to get a large yield of Indian corn than of any other grain. A crop only 25 bushels per acre suggests many vacant spaces, or, what is nearly as bad, stalks that are destitute of ears. The large Dent corn grown at the West has yielded a pint of grain for a single ear when grown at its best If only one stalk is grown with such an ear in the hill It would amount to more than 55 bushels of grain with the Jiills three by four feet apart A hill of corn ought to average much more than a pint of grain. We know many fields of Flint corn with comparatively small ears, where two or more would grow on a stalk and give fully a pint of shelled grain. The largest crop of corn we ever grew was of an eight-rowed Flint corn that had small stalks and was very early. It was planted in hills 3x3 feet, and three grains in a hill. Every stalk had one or more ears, and the yield of corn in the ear was more than .100 bushels per acre on a field of six acres. —American Cultivator. Making tbie Soil Deeper. It is commonly said that plowing deep Is the direct means of making the soil deep. It is true that deep plowing opens a lower stratum to the action of air. but this only hastens the decomposition of vegetable matter in the soil, and if this is not replaced the soil becomes so defiefent in humus that deep plowing is useless. There is no better

way to deepen soil than to sow clove* and every third or fourth year use the subsoil plow as deeply as it can be run. This will enable the clover roots to penetrate the soil to a greater depth. Whenever a clover god Is, plowed a considerable part of Its lower roots are Jfift In the, soil ns- they grew.. These, roots rapidly decay, and they enable roots of grain and other crops to go down deeply in search of moisture. This is one reason why hoed crops on a clover ley withstand droughts better than If planted on timothy sod, whoso roots are all near the surface. To make the clover grow as large as possible Is all Important. The larger the growth the deeper the clover roots run and the more the subsoil is benefited. Farm and Dairy instruction. During the three months of January, February and March of the past four years the courses in agriculture «ud dairying have been given at the State College, and in spite of the inadequate equipment have been highly successful. The > number of students In these courses has increased from four in 1892 to fifty-one in 1895, and a still more rapid growth is foreshadowed for the future. As an evidence of tho widespread Interest in its work and of the great scope which It is destined, if properly encouraged, to eventually enjoy, it may be mentioned that in the class of 1895 there were represented twenty-one counties of Pennsylvania, besides fonr other States. Three courses are now offered—one in creamery management, one in private dairying and one In general agriculture. A Chautau-. qua course of home reading in agriculture Is also maintained, and now Includes nearly 340 members. The experiment station is engaged, too, in valuable investigations into agricultural problems. The State should foster this work as befits its resources, and tho farmers and dairymen of the State should avail themselves of the benefits of the college courses.—Philadelphia Record.

Phospate for Barter. The barley crop matures very quickly, and Its roots do not run through the soil so far as to do those of oats and wheat, which take a longer period to grow. For this reason the concentrated j commercial fertilizers are especially valuable for barley. A dressing of 150 pounds per acre drilled In with tha seed will add two to five pounds per bushel to the weight of the grain. On land long cropped it is often very bard to grow barley weighing 48 pounds per bushel without some mineral fertilizer. Only very little nitrogenous manure is needed for barley. It has naturally a broad leaf, and if foliage Is set to growing rapidly the straw will become too heavy and fall down, preventing heading and filling of the grain. The mineral manure makes the straw brighter and stronger. This secured, the broad leaves of the grain will take from the air the carbonic acid to form the starch which mainly constitutes the grain. Turnips for Ducks. On the large establishments whero hundreds of ducks are raised, the principal food for ducks is cooked turnips, with a small proportion of ground grain. Ducks and turnips are adjuncts to each other on the duck farms, for without turnips the ducks could not be made to lay so well. If the hens are confined in order to proteet the garden, they must have a daily supply of chopped grass. Too much grain will cause them to become overfat, and fewer eggs will be obtained. The best egg-produc-ing food is lean meat.

Fertilizers for Onions. “Years of experience in raising onions and other crops either with stable manure or fertilizer have thoroughly convinced me that a liberal amount of plant food must be applied in order to obtain satisfactory results, half-fed crops being unprofitable," writes W. Donaldson, of Topsfleld, Mass. Ho grew onions for eleven years successively on one-quarter acre, using phosphate, and raised at the rate of GSO to 1,012 bushels per acre, an average of 807 bushels per acre for the eleven years. For the past three years this land has given heavy yields. Notes. There is a field open for the introduction of a breed of rapid-walking horses. The horse that walks fast is useful in all departments of the farm, and is also excellent for service on the road. Sow peas and oats together, and when high enough the crop may be used for soiling. A high combination of the two provides a succulent mess for the cows, which will be highly relished by them. The Pennsylvania station finds that currants do well on their heavy clay soil and are little troubled with mildew. A single application of white hellebore afforded protection from the currant worm. Whitewashing can be done easily and rapidly with the sprayer. Use a thin whitewash and force it from the nozzle on to the walls. When dry repeat the application. It is excellent for purifying the stables and poultry houses. The great secret in fancy butter-mak-ing, says a dairy writer, is a studied purpose to keep all foreign substances and flavors out of the milk, cream, and butter, and have only original material from start to finish, and fancy butter results. Subsoil some of the corn or potato land and record results of the experiment. Plow say 0 djr 8 Inches deejp, and follow with'subsoil plow, or smaller plow, and go G or 8 Inches deepeT without throwing out subsoil. The experiment is worth trying. It is difficult to distribute a pound of turnip seed evenly over an acre of ground, and small roots will resalt if more is used. If the pound is mixed thoroughly with a peck of sand, a quantity is obtained which can be handled and distributed with a considerable degree of exactness

HOOSIER HAPPENINGS

NEWS OF THE WEEK CONCISELY CONDENSED. What Our Neighbors are Doing—Matters of General and Local Interest—Marriages and Deaths—Accidents and Crimes—Personal Pointers About Indianians. Minor State News. The neighborhood of Newborn is infested with chicken thieves. Owing to a barbers’ war at Goshen a hair cut costs but ten cents. The latest improvement talked of for Sonth Bend is a $100,000 hotel. Eli West of Fairlandj was sun struck while fishing. He is in a precarious condition. Mrs. John York,Pern, by mistake gave her two children kerosene to drink. May prove fatal. In the last few days a flood of counterfeit ten-eent-pieces have found their way into circulation at El wood. Jf.sse Croup, 10-year-cid son of A. J. Croup, feH iff the Elkhart River while fishing at Goshen and was drowned. Doi>e Cecil, young fanner near Farmland, was in his barn when it was struck by lightning, lie was instantly killed. □ lx is estimated that the wheat crop in Hamilton county will not average a bushel to the acre, and but little will be harvested; Met Kernat, of Rockportf aged 18, was accidentally shot and killed by Robert Meyers, aged 17. The boys were shooting birds. , 4 - • - . - - A number of heirs to Lord Antrim’s estate in Ireland, valued at $75,000,000, reside near Ei wood. They will push their claims. —Jimmy Hugos went into White River at Columbus, for the jiurjiose of drowning two cats. lie was seized with cramps and lost his life. —■ Louis Ashworth, a young farmer living near Alpine, was fatally kicked in the stomach by a horse which became frightened at a passing bicycle. Suit for SIO,OOO has been filed against tho Pan-handle railway at Kokomo by the administrator of the estate of Oscar Romick. Romick was killed while unloading goods from a car. . Moiioan Black rode up toGeorge Fisher’s house, near Mt. Vernon, and shot him dead. Fisher kept company with Black’s sister and Black suspected that something was wrong. William McDonald, a tailor, who had just returned from a three weeks’ unsuccessful hunt for work, committed suicide at Kokomo with laudanum, leaving a wife and two children. James Rumbaugji, farmer near Laporte, allowed a stranger tb make him believe that he was a cousin of his and then gave him $3 aird signed a paper. The latter turns out to be a note. Alvarado Hommeli,, Madison, has received a “white cap” notice, saying that he will suffer bodily harm unless he executes a deed for a graveyard plat. He owns the ground but refuses to sell. Fred Smock, a farm hand near Terre Haute, while returning from a call on Farmer Pennington’s daughter, was shot by some unknown person and dangerously wounded. The assailant is supposed to to a jealous rival. - John Cook, a colored barber, aged 30, attempted to crawl under a freight train at a street crossing on the Big Fonr road at Muncie, and both legs were mashed so badly that amputation at the hips was necessary. He died three hours later. Chris Meyer’s barn, near Jeffersonville, was struck by lightning and destroyed. His daughter, who was alone at home, succeeded in rescuing seven head of horses. The barn contained several fine buggies, surreys, etc., and the loss will reach $4,000. In a woods near J onesvilie, Sam Smalju wood, of that place, while squirrel hunting, was almost instantly killed by the accidental discharge of his gun. Smallwood is the third sou of the family to meet death in an unnatural w r ay. One son died from the effeotsTif eatihg a poisonous herb and another was killedln a railroad wreck. Charles Stout, a well known resident of Monroe Township, Howard County, who has been ill, left his room and went out on the second story veranda to get a breath of fresh air. While there he fainted and fell off the structure to the ground. In the fall his head struck a step, tearing his scalp off and inflicting other injuries from which he will probably die. A petition is being circulated at Brazil, and liberally signed, asking the Governor to pardon James Booth, aged 19, Robert liankin, aged 18, and William Wilson, aged 17, who are now serving twoyear sentences for the murder of Engineer William Barr of the Yandalia, on June 6, 1894. The prisoners were strikers, and stoned Barr, who was a non-union engineer, to death. Marion Siiideler, a farmer aged 70, residing three miles northwest of Cambridge City, was thrown from a load of straw and died from his injuries. He was crossing the Lake Erie and Western tracks, his horses became frightened by a Big Four train using the tracks, and the team ran away. Rounding a corner, Mr. Bhideler was thrown off the hay, against a tree and his skull fractured. On May 21, Mrs. Mary Day of Greencastle, a widow, placed S3O in paper money on a stove in an ordinary purse. She placed the top of the stove over the same for safe keeping. The next morning was a chilly one and she built a lire in the stove, which burned her pocketbook and money into an unrecognizable mass of ashes. The wreck was gathered up by a newspaper reporter, who, as an experiment, took the same to the Central National Bank to forward to Washington. This was done together with a statement of the' circumstances, and the other day Mrs. Day received a draft for her S3O. How the money was identified is a mystery to one unacquainted with the system employed by the government, as the bills were nothing but ashes when removed and could not be told from the other ashes of the burned book. A fast fruit train on the Wabash struck and killed William Kuyjah in the yards at Logansport. The victim was 53 years old, and was on his way to the home of Miss Minnie Goldsmith, to whom he was to be married. Kuyjah was employed at the Tan-handle shops. Otto Huff, a prominent young man of Livonia, ten miles east of Orleans, was instantly killed. He and Hersebel Kelly were hunting together and undertook to run a squirrel out of a tree. Kelley climbed the tree and Huff went to hand him his gun, when it w&s discharged, the entire load entering his abdomen. Huff was It yews old. *