Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1898 — Page 2

KINDLY JUDGS ANOTHER. Ah! pause and think, before you seek To harshly judge another. You cannot probe the inner life, You cannot note the soul’s dark strife, Temptations, nor its dangers rife. Then do not judge another. Ah! me, and who should seek to be The one to judge another? Perchance a woman’s fairest fame, May be her pure, unsullied name, Yet slander drapes her oft in shame, Thus cruelly we judge her. tt costs bo little, e’er to speak In kindness of another. gad you the same temptation seen, ad life withheld its golden sheen, Perhaps less stainless you had been. So do not judge another. \ . Ah! life is sad enough, ’twould seem, So kindly judge another. [God help us when His fac.e we’ll see, !And Death reveals its mystery, If He shall judge as cruelly As oft we judge another.

BONNIE BESSIE.

ONNIE BESSIE evW ery one called her, K (■ I and rightly enough, for of all the Highland lassies w t h o jMijiT ■ gathered at the little M kirk Sabbath rnornone was half so prWty and winning Squire Renfrew of the Red Pass was •desperately in love with Bessie, and sought to make her his wife in spite •of difference In rank. The herds at the Red Pass were the finest and largest la the neighborhood; the barn, and storehouses were always well filled. He was a bachelor, something over two score years old. And he wanted “Bonnie Bessie” for his wife. “If the lassie thinks she can fancy •me," he said, addressing Bessie’s grandmother, as'" he stood under the low, brown rafters of the little Black Lynn cottage, a hot flush mounting to the shining crown of Ills bald head, “if the lassie thinks she can fancy me, •the bargain’s made. I’m ready* and willing to lead her to the kirk to-mor-rrow; and if a good, true husband aud some gold and silver will make her •happy, Bhe’ll be as happy as a queen At the Red Pass.”

Bessie listened, with wide, startled • eyes, burning cheeks, and quivering •lips. She held her peace, standing, tall -and slim, in a sort of stunned silence, until her gray-haired lover had taken his leave. Then she burst forth into vehement, passionate protest. The old grandmother suffered her to •storm until her passion was spent. “Well, ’tis o'er now, and ye’ll simmer down and keep quiet, mebbe. I’ve let ye have your say, and now I’ll have .mine. We’re poor folk, me and you. J found It hard to get bread when 1 had but my own mouth to feed, and since I’ve been burdened wl’ you I’ve gone to bed many a night fit to cry wi’ hunger. But I’ve borne It all an’ done my best, an’ always been willing to gl’ you a share o’ my Inst, crust.” “But, dearest grandma ” “Now, lookee here, my lass,” interrupted the old woman, lifting her bony finger and glowering fiercely upon Bessie, “if ye’re fule enou’ to refuse this good fortln’, that ends It ’twixt us two. You pack out o’ my house, and ne’er cross the threshold again.” ' Bessie was silent. The great world ?beyond the Highland peaks seemed so ■dim and far away, and the old home .-scenes were so familiar. The autumn days drifted on and In ;the spring time she was going to kirk with (Squire Renfrew and be made his Wife.

The springtime came and the wedding day was close at hnpd, when, one evening just before the gloaming, Bessie went to fill her pitcher, as usual, a.! the rocky spring near by. She had Accomplished her task aud lifted the ;pltcher to her shoulder and had started for the cottage, her white, shapely feet -twinkling prettily below the short petticoat as she stepped from stone to stone in crossing the little brawling stream, when suddenly she uttered n stifled cry and staggered to a mossgrown bowlder, sat down, nnd put the pitcher hastily on the ground, pressing ber hand on her heart and trembling .all over. “It’s his glmist, It’s ids ghalst,” she -cried, ‘and O, how sair he looked at . me!” Whatever she had seen, or fancied she had seen, there was nothing in sight when she next looked up; nothing except the overhanging rocks of the glen, the brook shimmering In the • evening light, and the yvhite birch trees swaying spectrally agalust the sky. ‘‘He lias come from his grave,” she . cried, glancing fearfully around. * *‘l ■ dare mi, dare na do It. O! forgive me, -Jamie, that I ever thought o’ It.” . She drew a silken cord which cncirher throat from her Ikmoiu as she spoke and kissed the slender hoop of silver which depended from It. “I'll never ha' peace if I marry the Squire,” she said, “and I ought no to hu' it; I shall feel 1 am a traitor. And, O! Jamie, Jamie, after all. I love no one *but you, and never cnn." Suddenly sire rose, with resolution stamped on every feature. “I must give the Squire his ring back,” she snid, brushing, the last tears from her eye. “It Is hard on him, but there is no other way. Then, Jamie, then perhaps you’ll forgive me, dear.” Leaving her pitcher there blh* tossed 'back her abundant locks as she finished this adjuration, and went si&edlng •way through the falling darkness with the light foot of a chamois. When she reached the Red Pnss the bright glow of the warm lngleside 111 the windows. She approached th< neatest one and pressed her Had, tired _jet resolute, face against the glass. A minute and she tapped llghtlj

against the glass. The Squire turned quickly, stared, and then started to bis feet. “Well, now, well, now, what’s the meaning o’ this?” he cried, rushing across the room and throwing Up the window. “Bessie, my lassie, what’s happened?” • “Somethlng«that never should ha’ happened,” she answered, looking at him with a sort of desperate defiance, and drawing the gold ring from her finger as she spoke. “I’ve come to give this back to you, Squire Renfrew. I was wrong ever to to let you put it on.” “Why, child, what do you mean?” “Take your ring,” she said. “You’ve heard of *Auld Robin Grey,’ maybe, haven’t you?” ’“Yes, I have. But w r hat then?” “Well, I had a Jamie once,” she went on, clutching at the little sliver ring suspended from her neck, a great throb of pain shaking her; “he gave me this, and 1 can’t ever wear any other ring. He—he—went off to seek his fortune,” with another repressed sob, “and he was lost at sea. I tried to forget him, but I cannot. I can’t keep my promise to you, Squire Renfrew —I—l couldn’t feel like she did to ‘Auld Robin Grey’ —I should hate you—l should —Aud here she broke down completely. He took the ring she offered and paused for a moment. A look of unutterable pain and regret came into his eyes. “So,” he said, slowly, “you have come to tell me this, and to ask for your freedom? Aud you really think, too, you have seen Jamie’s ghost?” “Yes. And I shall never return to grandmother again. I dare not. So I am going away.” “Bessie, my darling,” cried a voice, as his strong arm her. The next moment she was on the breast of her lover, who had come back alive and safe. A few days after there was a happy marriage at the kirk, Squire Renfrew himself giving away the bride, our “Bonnie Bessie.”—New York News, /

QUEER STORIES

Under a rule by which parcels weighing twenty pounds aud of the value of SIOO may be sent by mail between England and France it Is said that the postal authorities have had to handle bicycles. A shepherd at Chambery, Savoy, employs a horse instead of a dog to keep the herd together. The horse understands the orders given him and enrries them out as Intelligently as the besttrained dog. St. Louis boasts of a baboon that recently went on a lark, ate sulphur matches, red fire, gold paint and raw eggs, drank bottled beer and ended by throwing eggs at the reflection of himself in a mirror. According to an Indiana reporter, a woman leaned from a car window and asked a man to pick up a ring she dropped. He did so and discovered from the inscription on the ring that she was his long-lost wife. This is one of the stories that you have to take at one gulp to avoid strangling. After having been twice shot without being hurt, in the very act of stealing chickens, a Maltese cat of Pikesvllle, Md., was flnully dispatched by a citizen who had lain in wait all night for it in the henhouse. According to the neighbors’ records, the cat had carried off 100 chickens in a few weeks.

New York gypsies have been offering to exchange a woman for a horse. The woman is described as 20 years of age and pretty, with dark brown hair, fine teeth and blue eyes. She seemed much interested, watched each person who approached with a keen interest, and said if anyone cared to buy she would undertake to demonstrate that she was a lot better than a horse. There was a collision in the Danish State Railroad near Copenhagen some time ago in which forty persons were killed seventy wounded. The railroad at once admitted that it was to blame, and, Instead of lighting claims for damages, appointed n committee to settle with the claimants what will be fair compensation, so as to avoid having the claims brought into the courts. Howard Reed, of Milford, Pa., started out hunting for partridge and woodcock, and was followed by the house cat. All efforts on the part of the young hunter to drive the cat back .home were futile; it was bound to go with him, and It illustrated Its ability ns a hunter by Its “pointing” a woodcock, which young Reed shot. Then it “flushed’ a partridge, which was also baggt'd by the hunter. Reed says he would not part with the cat for the best bird dog in the country.

Tongue Tangiers.

If your tongues be in good condition for doing a little acrobatic work, try reading the following word-curiosity aloud. It may be familiar to some of you. for It is one of the treasures that the Boston Journal dug up out of an old scrap-book: If you stick a stick across a stick Or stick a cross across a stick Or cross a stick across a stick * Or stick a cross across a cross Or cross a cross across a stick Or cross a cross across a cross Or stick a cross stick across a stick Or stick a crossed stick across a crossed ■\ 'stick Or cross a crossed stick across a cross Or cross a crossed stick across a stick Or cross n crossed stick across a crossed stick. Would that-bo an abrostie?

Many Triplets.

Since the Queen ascended to the throne It has l>een reckoned that over 000 grants have been made to the chat' ltable donation of fts, wliich her majesty usually Iwstows on mothers of living triplets who are in poor or la* dlgent circumstances.

TALMAGES SERMON

DR. TALMAGE here shows the style of Christian character required for thfe times in which we live and pleuds for more heroics. The tekt is Esther iv., 14, “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” * Esther the beautiful was I,he wife of Ahasuerus the übominable. The time had come for her to present a petition to her Infamous husband in behalf of the Jewish nation, to which she had once belonged. She was afraid to undertake the work lest she should lose her own life, but her cousin, Mordecai, who had brought her Up, encouraged her with the suggestion that probably she had been raised up of God for that peculiar mission. “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther had her God appointed work. You and I have ours. It is my business to tell you what style of men and women you ought to be iu order that you meet the demand of the age in which God has cast your lot. So this discourse will not deal with the technicalities, but only with the practicabilities. When two armies have rushed into battle, the officers of either army do not want a philosophical discussion about the chemical properties of human blood or the nature of gunpowder. T-tiey want to man the batteries and take out the jcuns. And now, when all the forces of light and darkness of heaven and hell have plunged into the fight, it is no time to give ourselves to the definitions and formulas and technicalities and conventionalities of religion. What we want is practical, earnest, concentrated, enthusiastic and triumphant help. •

Aggressive Christians. In the first place, in order to meet the special demand of this age, you need to be an unmistakable, aggressive Christian. Of half and half Christians we do not want any more. The church of Jesus Christ will be better without them. They are the chief obstacle to the church’s advancement. I am speaking of another kind of Christian. All the applances for your becoming an earnest Christian are at your hand, and there is a straight path for you into the broad daylight of God’s forgiveness. You may this moment be The bondmen of tl»e world, and the next moment yon may be princes of the Lord God Almighty. You remember what excitement there was in this country, years r.go, when the Prince of Wales came here U-how the people rushed out by nt thousands to see him. Why? Because they expected that some day he would sit upon the throne of England. But what yens all that houOr compared with the honor to which God calls you—to be sons and daughters of the Lord Almightyyea, to be queens and kings unto God. “They shall reign with him forever and forever.” But you need to be aggressive Christians, and not like those persons who spend their lives in hugging their Christian graces and wondering why they do not make progress. How much robustness of health would a man have if he hid himself iu a dark eloset? A great deal of the piety of to-day is too exclusive. It hides itself. It needs more fresh air, more outdoor exercise. There are many Christians who are giving their entire life to self-examination. They are feeling their pulses to see what is the condition of their spiritual henlth. llow long would a man have robust physical health if he kept all the day feeling his pulse instead of going out into active, earnest everyday work?

Strong Character* Needed. I was once amid the wonderful, bewitching cactus growths of North Calolina. I never was more bewildered with the beauty of flowers, and yet when I would take up one of these cactuses nnd pull the leaves apart the beauty was all gone. You could hardly tell that it had ever beeu a flower. And there are a great many Christian people in this day just pulling apart their Christian experiences to see what there is in them, and there is nothing left in them. This style of self-examination is a damage instead of an advantage to their Christian character. 1 remember when I was a boy 1 used to have a small piece In the garden that I called my own, and I planted corn there, and every few days 1 would pull it up to sec how fast it was growing. Now. there arc a groat many Christian people in this dny whose selfexamination merely amounts to the pulling up of that which they only yesterday or the day before planted. Oh, my friends, if you want to have a stalwart Christian character, plant it right out of doors in the great field of Christian usefulness, nnd though storms may come upon it, and though the hot sun of triul may try to consume it, it will thrive until it becomes a great tree, in which the fowls.of heaven may have their habitation. T have no patience with these tloweypot Christians. They keep themselves urnlcr shelter, and all their Christian experience In a small, exclusive circle, when they ought to plant it in the.great garden of the Lord, so that the whole atmosphere could be aromatic with their Christian usefulness. What we want in the church of Cod is more strength of piety. The century plant is wonderfully suggestive and wonderfully beautiful, but I never look at it without thinking of its parsimony. It lets whole generations go by before it puts forth one blossom. So I have really more admiration when I see the dewy tears In the blue eyes of the violets, for they come every spring. My Christiun friends, time is going by so rapidly that we cannot afford to be .idle. *

No Time for Inertia. A recent statistician says that human life now has an average of only 32 years. From these 32 years you must subtract all

the time you take for sleep and the taking of food anc recreation; that will leave you about 16 years. From these 16 you must subtract all the time that you are necessarily engaged in the earning of a livelb hood. That will leave you about eighty years. .these eight years you must take all the days and weeks and months—all the length of time that is passed in siekness-rleaving you about one y£ar in which to work for God. Omy soul, wake up! How darest thou sleep in harvest time and with so few hours in which to reap? So .that I state it as a simple factthat all the time that the vast majority of you will huve for the exclusive service of God will be less than one year. “But,” says some man, “I liberally support the gospel, and the church is open, and the gospel is preached; all the spiritual advantages are spread before men, and if they want to be saved let them come and be saved—l have discharged all my responsibility.” Ah, is that my Master’s spirit? Is there not {in old book somewhere that commands us to go out into the highways and hedges and compel the people to come in? What would become of you and me if Christ had not come down off the hills of heaven, and If he had not come through the door of the Bethlehem caravansary, and if he had not with the crushed hand of the crucifixion knocked at the iron gate of the sepulcher of our spiritual death, crying. “Lazarus, come forth?” Oh, my Christian friend, this is no time for inertia when all the forces of darkness seem to be in full blast —When steam printing presses are publishing infidel tracts, when express trains s are carrying messengers of sin, when fast

clippers are laden with opium and strong drink, when the night air of our cities is polluted with the laughter that breaks up from the 10,000 saloons of dissipation and abandonment, when the fires of the second death already are kindled in the cheeks of some who, only a! little while ago, were incorrupt! Oh, never since the Curse fell upon the earth has there been a time when it was such an unwise, such a cruel, such an awful thing for the church to sleep! The grent audiences are not gathered in Christian churches. The great audiences are gathered in temples of sin —tears of unutterable woe their baptism, the blood of crushed hearts the awful wine of their sacrament, blasphemies their litany, and the gronns of the lost world the organ dirge of their worship. Get Out of Old Kuts. Again, if you want to be qualified to meet the duties which this age demands of you, you must on the one hand avoid reckless iconoclasm and on the other hand not stick too. much to things because they are old. The air is full of new plans, new projects, new theories of government, new theologies, and I am amazed to see how so many Christians want only novelty in order to recommend a thing to their confidence, and so they vacillate and swing to and fro, and they are useless and they are unhappy. New plans—secular, ethiical, philosophical, religious, cisatlantic, transatlantic —long enough to make a line reaching from the German universities to Great Salt Lake City. Ah, my brother, do not take hold of a thing merely because it is new! Try it by the realities of the judgment day. But, on the other hand, do not adhere to anything merely' because it is old. 1

There is not n single enterprise of the church or the world but has some time been scoffed at. There was a time when men derided even Bible societies, and when a few young men met in Massachusetts and organized the first missionary society ever organized in this country there went laughter and ridicule all around the Christian church. They said the undertaking wns preposterous. And so also the work of Jesus Christ was assailed. People cried out: “Whoever heard of such theories of ethics and government? Whoever noticed such a style of preaching as Jesus has?" Ezekiel had talked of mysterious wings nnd wheels. Here came a man from Capernaum nnd Gennesaret, nnd he drew his illustrations from the lakes, from the sand, from the mountain, from the lilies, from the cornstalks. How the Pharisees scoffed! How Herod derided! And this Jesus they plucked by the beard, nnd they spat in his face, and they called him “this fellow." Anil the great enterprises in and out of the church have at times been scoffed at, and there have been a great multitude who have thought that the chariot of God’s truth would fall to pieces if it once got out of the old rut. And so there are these who have no patience with anything like improvement in church architecture, or with anything like good, hearty, earnest church singing, and they deride any form of religious discussion which goes down walking among everyday men rnther than that which makes an excursion on rhetorical stilts. Oh, tlint the church of God would wake up to nn adaptability of work! We must admit the simple fact that the churches of Jesus Christ in this day do not reach the great masses. There are 50,000 people in Edinburgh who never hear the gospel. There are 1,000,IKK) people in London who never hear the gospel* The great majority of the inhabitants of this capital come not under the immediate ministrations of Christ’s truth, and the church of God in this day, instead of being a place full of living epistles, known and read of nil men, is more like a dead letter postotllce. Work to He Done. “But,” say the (ample, “the world is going to bo converted: you must Is* patient; tin* kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of Christ." Never, unless the church of Jesus Christ puts on more speed and energy. .Instead of the church converting the world, the world is converting the church. Here is a great fortress. How shall it l>o taken? An army comes and sits around about it, cuts off tin* supplies and says, "Now we will just wait until from exhaustion and starvation they will have to give up.” Weeks nnd months nnd i*erhnps a year pnss along nnd finally the fortress surrenders through that starvation and exhaustion. But, my friends, the fortresses of sin are never to be taken in that Way. If they are taken for God, it will Ik* by storm; yon will have to bring up the great siege guns of the gospel to the very wall and wheel the Hying artillery into line, and when the armed infantry of heaven shall confront the battlements you will have to give the quick command, "Forward! Charge!" . Ah, my friends, there is work for you to do and for me to do in order to this

grand accomplishment. I have a pulpit. I preach in it. Your pulpit is the bank. Y'our pulpit is the store. Your pulpit-is the editorial chair. Your pulpit is the anvil. Your pulpit is tne house scaffolding. Your pulpit'is the-mechanics’ shop. I may stand in my place and, through cowardice or through self seeking, may keep back thfc word I ought to utter, while you, with sleeve rolled up and brow bes wen ted with toil, may Utter the word that will jar the foundations of heaVen with the shout of a great victory. Oh, that we might all feel that the Lord Almighty is putting upon us the hands of ordination! I tell you, every one, go forth and preach this gospel. You have as much right to preach as I have or any man Ijving.

Exomples of Courage. Hedley Vicars was a wicked man in the English army. The grace of God came' to him. He became an earnest and eminent Christian. They scoffed at him and said: “You are a hypocrite. You are as bad as ever you were.” Still he kept his faith in Christ, and after awhile, finding that they could not turn him aside by calling him a hypocrite, they said to him, “Ob, you Jire nothing but a Methodist!" This did not disturb him. He went on performing his Christian duty until he had formed all his troops into a Bible class, and the whole encumpment was shaken with the presence of God. So Havelock went into the heathen temple, in India while the English army was there and put a candle into the hand of each of the heathen gods that stood around in the heathen temple, and by the light of those candles held up by the idols General Havelock preached righteousness, temperance and judgment to come. And who will say on earth or in heaven that Havelock had not theyight to preach? In the minister’s house where I prepared for college there worked a man by the name of Peter Croy. He could neither read nor white, but he was a man of God. Often theologians would stop in the house —grave theologians—and at family prayer Peter Croy would be called ppon to lead, and a!l those wise men sat around, wonder struck at his religious efficiency. When he prayed, he reached up and seemed to take hold of the very throne of the Almighty, and he talked with God until the very heavens were bowed down into the sitting room. Oh. if I were dying I would rather have plain Peter Croy kneel by my bedside and commend my immortal spirit to God than the greatesr archbishop arrayed in costly canonicals. Go preach thus gospel. You say you are not licensed. In the name of the Lord Almighty, I license you. Go preach, this gospel, preach it in the Sabbath schools, in the prayer meetings, in the highways, in the hedges. Woe be unto you if you preach it not! Triumph of Truth.

I remark again, that in order to be qualfied to meet your duty in this particular age you want unbounded faith in the triumph of the truth and the overthrow of wickedness. How dare the Christian church ever get discouraged? Have we not the Lord Almighty on our side? How long did it take God to slay the hosts of Sennacherib or burn Sodom ,or shake down Jericho? How long will it take God, when he once arises in his strength, to overthrow all the forces of iniquity'? Between this time and that there may be long seasons of darkness, and the chariot wheels of God’s gospel, may seem to drag heavily, but here is the promise and yonder is the throne, and when omniscience has lost its eyesight and omnipotence falls back impotent and Jehovah is driven from his throne, then the church of Jesus Christ can afford to be despondent, but never until then.

Despots may plan and arrtiies may march and the congresses of the nations may seem to think they are adjusting all the affairs of the world, but the mighty men of the earth are only the dust of the chariot wheels of God’s providence. And I think before the sun of the next century shall set the last tyranny will fall, and with a splendor of demonstration that shall be the astonishment of the universe God will Set forth the brightness and pomp and glory and perpetuity of his eternal government. Out of the starry flags and the emblazoned insignia of this world God will make a path for his own triumph nnd returning from universal conquest he will sit down, the grandest, the strongest, highest throne of earth his footstool. I prepare this sermon because I want to encourage all Christian workers in every possible department. Hosts of the living God, march on, march on! His spirit will bless you. His shield will defend yon. His sword will strike for you. March on, march on! The despotisms will fail and paganism will burn its idols nnd Mohammedanism will give up its false prophet and the great walls of superstition will come down in thunder and wreck at thq long, loud blast of the gospel trumpet. March on, mnrch on! The besiegement will soon be ended. Only a few more steps on the long way; only a few more sturdy blows; only a few more battle cries; then God will put the laurels upon your brow, and from the living fountains of heaven will bathe off the sweat and the heat and the dust of the conflict. March on, march on! For you the time for work will soon be passed, and amid the outtlashings of the judgment throne and the trumpeting of resurrection angels and the upheaving of a world of grtives and the hosnunn and the groaning of the saved and the lost we shall be rewarded for our faithfulness or punished fori our stupidity. Blessed be the Lvd God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let the whole earth Ik* filled with his glory. Amen and amen. Copyright, 1898.

Short Sermons.

Falth.-rThe truly religious will approach the holy of holies of his fellow with respect and reverence. The primary purpose of every form of faith Is to uplift man. Every religion has a high duty and destiny. It Is the misfortune that there is not a better understanding between Judaism and Christianity.—Habld Friedman, Hebrew. Denver, Colo. Backsliders.—Cities are filled with backsliders. They are those Jieople who once led a good lift* and now they art* serving Satan. Thousands of church members move from the country and the smaller towns nnd do not bring their church letters. They have no church-home In the city, and they soon lose their spiritual r.oal. They Join the religious tramps and drift from church to church. Thousands of backsliders walk our city streets who once, In some other town, were zealous workers.— Rev. W. G. Tartridge, Baptist, Cincinnati, O.

COVERED WITH SNOW.

GREATi STORM IN THE MIDDLE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. Reports Tell of Dire Effects of the Blizzard—Wires Down, Trains Abandoned, tf-ehools Closed.) and Business Suspended—Several Lives Lost. ■ Winter Is King. The wind and snow storms of Tuesday taged all over the middle Mississippi valley, caused the loss of several lives, much damage to property, and great hindrance to traffic. In the Southwestern region the gale was preceded by violent thunder storms, and the wind in some places reached a velocity exceeding all previous records for this season of the year. The most considerable direct loss of life was at St. Louis. The wind there reached a velocity of sixty-three miles an hour, the highest since the tornado of May 27, 1896. August Weymeyer, a eorpenter, was blown from, the Shields school roof and killed. Thomas J. Peterson, 4 years old, was blown from a porch roof at his borne and killed. Mi's. Sarah Lorin was caught under a falling fence and will probably die. Many minor injuries are reported. A street ear narrowly escaped being crushed by the falling walls of the Ravenswood distillery ruins. The roof of a store next the St. Nicholas hotel was blown across the street. A frame building on Twelfth street, between Locust and Washington, was wrecked. Several other buildings lost their roofs, and there was much damage to fences, signs, outhouses and window glass. The gale reached its height about 11 o’clock, and was preceded by a violent thunder storm, beginning shortly after 3a. in. The stoirm caused great alarm, the people fearing a repetition of the great tornado. In East St. Louis the baseball park w r as demolished, signs scattered over the streets, and sections of wooden sidewalk blown across the commons, but no casualties are reported. A wet snow fell throughout the Southwest Monday night, followed by a freezing wind, which broke many telegraph and telephone wires and poles. Kansas City was cut off from communication for several hours and many trains were delayed. Houses were demolished near El. Reno, Ok.; but no serious injury to inmates is rep'orted. At Guthrie, Ok., the w'ind was so violent that many peoplq took refuge in cyclone cellars. The same conditions prevailed through south and central Kansas. In Kansas City itself many wires were broken and street cars delayed, but no great damage to buildings occurred. St. Joseph, Mo., reports considerable damage by wind, rain turning to snow, with railway trains delayed, street car traffic demoralized and wires dow'n. Omaha seems to have been out of the direct path of the storm, and reports only two inches of snow', little w'ind and no great cold. >«.

Dubuque, lowa, reports the worst storm in several years. A passenger and freight train on the Manchester branch of the Illinois Central collided in the storm. Fireman Ellis Sweet was killed and Engineer Harvey and Postal Clerk McDuff were probably fatally injured. Over a foot of snow fell at Clinton, lowa, partly suspending street car traffic and breaking down wires. low'a City reports the worst storm in six years, with passenger trains delayed and freight trains abandoned, owing to snow blockades. All the schools at Ottumwa, low'a, were closed, street ears abandoned, trains delayed, aud business suspended. All traffic was stopped at Cedar Rapids, lowa, and even the letter carriers were forced to quit. High winds drifted the snow badly, and stock suffers from the increasing cold. Galesburg, 111., reports schools closed, street ears blockaded, business practically suspended, and traveling almost impossible. A Chicago, Burlington and Quincy passenger train stuck in a snowdrift near Oneida. Rockford, 111., reports over a foot of snow, schools closed, street cars stalled, railroad trains delayed and the W'orst storm in fifteen years. In some localities the country roads are impassable on account of snowdrifts, and in many of the smaller towns of northern Illinois and eastern lowa the schools were closed and business almost entirely suspended.

GRAIN BURNED IN ST. LOUIS.

Over 1,000,000 Bushels of Wheat, Corn, and Barley Destroyed. Flames that did $1,500,000 durnage at East St. Louis destroyed the Union grain elevator, the Burlington freight houses, forty adjacent dwellings, the stables of the St. Louis Transfer Company nnd 100 freight cars loaded with wheat. The elevator contained 500,000 bushels of wheat, 480,000 bushels of corn and 20,000 bushels of rye. Between 80,000 and 100,000 bushels of wheat was on the cars that were burned, thus making the total loss of wheat in the neighborhood of 000,000 bushels. The fire originated from some cause not known, in the elevator, and was discovered about 10 o’clock. A few minutes later the huge structure was a mass of flames, which lighted Up the country for miles around. A strong wind was blowing from the northwest and carried showers of embers for miles, endangering the whole of East St. Lonis. The loss on the elevator, its contents and on the freight houses and contents nnd cars burned is fully covered by insurance. The risk is distributed among twen-ty-five or thirty companies.

Plan an Immense Waterway.

Application will In* made to the Dominion Parliament at its next session by a number of Canadian and United States capitalists who have a project for constructing a new waterway, for nn act incorporating the Montreal ami Lake Chainplain Canal Company. Capitalists look upon this enterprise with great favor, especially since the route has been heartily endorsed by the international deep waterways commission. . The movement against the high hat has reached Defiance, Ohio, with full force. Rev. A. E. Smith, jmstor of the Methodist Church, has prououuced against it from the pulpit and promulgated a decree that the women In his congregation must wear no more high hats when they are listening to his sermons. Judge Van Dyke of Los Angeles has v&vated a decree in the Young case, the husband dying before the decree was signed, nnd the widow is thus entitled to share in Joseph McCullagh's estate of which' her husband tvas heir.