Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1896 — SOUTHERN. [ARTICLE]

SOUTHERN.

The much abused game of foot-ball and the dt-ajHy-eigaret- must -go,—That- is the purport of two bills introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives. Rev. M. B. Hill, formerly missionary to China, was stricken with paralysis while delivering a sermon at the Bentonville. Ark., Metholiist Episcopal Chutch South Sunday morning. The churoh was crowded, and when the sermon was about half through the . minister reeled and fell backward into the pulpit chair. Excitement ran high in the congregation. Dr. C. H. Cragile, a particular friend, with others, helped the afflicted minister, who is still alive but slowly dying. A natural gas explosion at Moundsville, W. Ya., Tuesday: night, followed by fire, destroyed the SIO,OOO dwelling of V. A. Weaver. The sensational (feature was the fact that five persons in the house when its, roof was lifted into the air and its four walls were blown all escaped with slight injuries. Mrs. Weaver,/ her-6-mcmth-old baby and 4-year-old sou were thrown from a seeond-story window into the front yard with no harm to the baby. The servant girl, at the back, kitchen door, was blown across a lot, and the plumber, whose carelessness caused the explosion, came off with a few scratches. A rich and extensive discovery of rock phosphate has been made in Tennessee. The deposits underlie four counties ip the vicinity of Nashville—Davidson, William-, son, Rutherford, and Maury. The rock lies in a vein averaging from* three to twelve feet in thickness, and is but ten feet below the surface. The commercial value of the discovery it is impossible to estimate, but the output will be very rich, Mr. Clark, of the firm of Pratt & Clark; chemists, of Atlanta, while in Nashville some four weeks ago on business, passed some pien digging a sewer. He picked op a piece of the soft, crumbling yellow rock. had it analyzed, and found it 82 per cent pure phosphate. George W. Scott, a capitalist of Atlanta, was informed. He. with a "crew of picked laborers, went Jto Rushville. All the property near the location of the sewer

was bought up, the vein fallowed, and farms bought wherever the rock was found. The fertilizing companies of Chicago managed to get a generous tslice. It is said Philip D. Armour has a chemist and representative in the field, who are looking for more land.