Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1901 — Page 2

Fourth of July

DAME JULY'S NOISY CHILD. 4&e rose In the morn, good Dame July, .And looked at the clock, with a smile and a sigh. As she stood In her spotless gown, "**He never was known to be late,” she said; "It surely is time he was out of his bed. I hope he is hearty and well, the dear! Such a beautiful nap he has had! A year ts none too long for him. Hark! what s that?” She gave her ribbons a hasty pat, And smoothed her apron down. S. thnmp, a bang, on the floor above •"He’s up!” she cried, with a look of love. A bang and a thump—and then ©own over the stairs with a bound he came. And shouted and hugged the dear old dame TUI her cap fell off and her breath was goift. He called for his drum and he called for his horn. He danced and whistled and laughed and And raised such a breeze that the flags he flung aTrom the windows flapped again. •"It’s only my Fourth!” good Dame July To the wondering neighbors that hurried by With motherly pride explained; "He Is Just a little bit noisy and wild, X must confess, but the dearest child! My others are all of them gentle and mild. But children alwuys so—boys will be boys, of course, you know! And down on her motherly knees she went, And helped him to Are off his gun, content. Though her fingers were burned and her apron rent, And her ribbons all spotted and stained. ft was early dawn when his fun began; From garret to cellar he romped and ran Through the neat little, sweet little house. ?e strewed the parlor with taugle of toys, he walls re-echoed with riot and noise; He broke her china and rumpled her hair, And wore all her pretty new carpets bare: And the sun went down and the stars came out To see what the racket was all about; And at twelve clock with a final shout He frightened the midnight mouse. “The dearest child!” said Dame July, And she looked at the clock with a heartfelt sigh. As she righted her cap with care. "I hope he has had a good time, the dear. And—will stay asleep for at least a year! The sweetest children sometimes, I find. Are a trifle wearing to body and mind. For boys will be boys, and I’m rather glad My Fourth was the—only—boy—I—had. And sleepily nodding her dear old head, "I guess I had better be going to bed—• f’m a little bit tired—myself!” she said. And went to sleep In her chair! —Woman's Home Companion.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

HE was a blue-eyed, fair-skinned V2\ and undeniably red-haired little fez/ girl, who ran furiously home from the country school house on the afternoon of the 3d of July, not quite thirty .years ago. Her face showed the mingling of Scotch and English characteristics. Just now it was angry and tearful •besides. ‘‘Why can’t they let me alone? Why did mother give me such a name?” "That was the sum of her vpxed thoughts. Well, it was funny. One could not exactly blame the boys for laughing when at roll call every morning they heard the ms me ‘‘lndependence Day.” If the red blood surged back to her ears once, it had a hundred times as she answered, “Pres■ant.” That roll call was her greatest trial. Her mother always called her “Pen” and -t» casual listeners that might mean Penelope. The girls often said “Indie,” for it was in the days when tl)e i e’s had it all to themselves and she sidid not mind Chat so much, but boys era merciless, and to hear them giggle and, .whisper, “Regular Fourth of July, isn’t she?” was an almost daily martyrdom; while there would ait If Us Thompson, the tteacher, with •psctaclos on her nose and mer short sight Intent on the list of names, Checking them

off oblivious of what was passing behind the desks. This day a fresh grievance had come, through the suggestion of, a youngster at recess that they “beg a lock of Miss Independence Day’s hair to light firecrackers with to-morrow.” Well, to have such a name and red hair in th#hargain, was too much, and she grew more and more raging. She had one of those strong, intense natures, which bear long in silence but once giving up, give up utterly for the time. Bursting into the house, she threw herself into her mother’s arms in a passion of tears, sobbing: “Why did you give me such a dreadful name?” Mrs. Day petted and soothed and drew from her by degrees the story of accumu-' lated woes. When she was somewhat quieted, she said: “I always meant to talk to you about your name, Pen, dear, but was waiting until you were a little older. I regret I did not do it sooner, but I had no idea what my little daughter was bearing. “You know your father and I lived in England years before you were born. Your brother, whom you never saw, lies in a green church yard there. We were poor, and life was pretty hard for us, so we decided to try our fortune in the United States. Everything prospered with us after we came here. Your father found constant work, and we were very happy. I suppose that is the reason why he became so devoted to his adopted country. He used to say he was the best kind of an American citizen; others were bom so, but he was one from choice. Then the Civil War broke out and I could see he was uneasy thinking he ought to enlist, but he would not do so until he hnd saved enough money to keep me comfortably, and so matters went on until the second year of the war. I remember it was the 20th of March previous to your birthday. The last think he whispered to me was; ‘lf a baby comes call it Independence. That name will answer for a boy or girl, and it fits so well on ‘Day.’ ’’ “I partly believe he meant it for a joke to make me smile instead of cry, but there was no time to explain, for the next minute he had kissed me and was gone. I need not tell you how lonely and anxious I was. The time went on to those dreadful days in the first week of July, 18»33. Yes, your father was at Gettysburg. How anxiously I watched the papers and on the third —that's nine years ago to-day—the evening paper brought the terrible news to me, as to many another woman. There was the list of the dead, and there was his regiment; there was his company and there was his name —James Day. No other man named Day in that company; there could be no mistake. He had been killed in the first of the fighting. I can see those fearful letters now when I shut my eyes.” Here Mrs. Day broke down, and little Pen could not say a word, only stroked her mother's hand silently. After a minute Mrs. Day controlled herself. “Next morning, the morning of July 4, you came, my darling, my comforter, and this is the reason you are ‘lndependence Day.' I could not give you any other name. You are your father’s own child —his hair, his eyes, even his intense nature, are yours. Now that ehe knows, I am sure my little daughter’will be as brave as he was, and proud of her name because of him. Remember always, dear, not a boy of them would laugh if they knew the real story.” So it happened that when Miss Independence Day went to school on the morning of July 5, there was a certain new dignity in the child’s bearing; when roll call came her voice had lost its petulance and had gained an unknown sweet-

ness, withal a ring that reminded one of a clear toned bell. Something in her alt said, “You may tease me as much as you like, I shan’t mind, for I’ve got a secret,” and we all know that when boys find teasing does not tease they stop. This is not all, however, nor even the best part of the story. One day before her tormentors had grown tired of stirring her up as they called it she chanced to wear a string of coral beads. Jack Lyman, the would-be wit of the school, snaSched at it rudely, calling out, "Here’s Indie’s coral strand.” Seeing her look erf perplexity he added mockingly: “If yer don’t know what that means, better jine a girl’s missionary s’ciety.” Stung by the contempt in his voice, resolute little Independence made up her mind she would know what it meant. Of course she asked her mother, and, though Mrs. Day was not over wise on missionary topics, she had heard Bishop Heber's grand old hymn and explained its meaning as best she could. The story took hold of the child with a strong fascination. She never would put on those beads again, but she often took them out of their box and looked at them with something like affection, repeating softly to herself, “Indie’s coral strand.” She always said Indie’s, not India’s, as if it were a personal possession. God sometimes uses small means to accomplish great purposes. By such little things the girl’s interest in missions was awakened. It grew as she grew to womanhood, and India became the country of her dreams. Her twentieth birthday found her motherless, with no duty to bind her to this side of the world; it found her also strong in purpose to live her life in that far-off land, working for its people. If, mingling with this devotion, was a lurking thought that no heathen would ever learn to call her by her Christian name, who will blame her? Thus it was that little Independence Day grew up to be a self-reliant woman, and on this 4th of July she is too far away for mischievous boys to twit her about her red hair or her name and too happy in her work to care if they did.— Indianapolis News.

How It Struck Him.

“Say, pop, what’s th’ best thing ’bout Fourth of July?” “It only comes once a year.”

As Usual.

Client— How much can I possibly get out of the case If I win? Lawyer—Two hundred dollars. Client—What will your charges be? Lawyer—That depends; If you lose, only $150; If you win, s2so.—Ohio State Journal.

DEATH IN A FLOOD

Mining Towns in West Virginia Are Swept Away. - n-; KEYSTONE WIPED OUT Elkhorn Creek in Pocahontas Field Rages High Over Its Banks. Cloudburst Sweeps, Valley Along the Norfolk and Western Railroad—Coaldale, Elkhorn and Many Other Place* Are Washed Away Completely—Loss of Life Placed at 200 to 300 and Property Damage Is Vast—A Horrible Disaster. From 200 to 300 lives were lost and property estimated at several millions of dollars was destroyed by a flood which swept down the Elkhorn valley from Ennis to Vivian in West Virginia Sunday morning. The mining towns of Keystone and Vivian are practically destroyed and a number of smaller towns have suffered heavily. About thirty miles of track of the Norfolk and Western Uailroad are swept away, with scores of freight and box cars and a number of passenger coaches. Some of the finest houses in the valley and hundreds of miners' cabins are gone. In the valley is located the celebrated Pocahontas coal fields. Nearly all the machinery and buildings vj’ere wrecked. Millions in -Property Los*. The property loss will run into the tens of millions, but it will be many days before the real extent of the loss to life and property can be ascertained. The

entire valley has been devastated, and the loss to the Pocahontas coal region is enormous. The railway loss is also heavy, for the track and roadbed washed away was probably tho most expensive piece of engineering work in the country for its length. The roadbed was almost carved out of solid rock, and only last year $1,000,000 was spent in betterments. It had been raining hard for several days in the Elkhoru region, and the hundreds of small mountain creeks were swollen to their®full capacity and pouring their waters into the Elkhorn river. Early Saturday morning the heavy downpour of rain became more noticeable, and it was accompanied by a severe electric storm, which violently increased in volume and continued for several hours. The storm continued throughout the entire day and night. Saturday toward noon the rain ceased, but the heavy storm clouds hung over the valley, threatening every moment another downfall. The clouds held back, however, until about midnight, when the rain again began to fall. Cloudburst Adds to Terror. The storm increased in violence every minute and finally culminated in a cloudburst which preeipitnted a great volume of water into the Elkhorn valley, already flooded to the danger point by the rains of the preceding forty-eight hours. The great mass of water started down the valley with a roar' that was heard above the storm. It swept everything before it —trees, telegraph poles, huge bowlders, whole buildings, railroad ties, steel rails, box cars, and coal sheds. Into the mass of tangled wreckage of the flood were swept helpless men, women and children, caught in its path, and as all were swept along in the fury of the storm they went to their death with none to hear their last cries for help. Buildings Float Away. The valley was peopled almost entirely with miners and their families. Their frail cabins and cottages offered no resistance to the impact of the flood and the buildings were tossed upon the front of the great wave which was rushing down the valley. There was no chance for escape for the unfortunate people, caught without warning. The flood began to make lt*N terrible force felt at Ennis, and it extended the entire length of the valley to Vivian. As the crow flies the distance is fifteen or sixtfeen miles, but by the tortuous path of the river it is thirty-five. Thqse bituminous coal fields are in the southeastern part of West Virginia, and the western part of A’irginia, on either side of the dividing line between the States. The Norfolk and Western Railroad taps the coal fields and carries their products to Norfolk, Va. Everywhere ridges of mountains—spurs of the Cumberlands—cross this country. Towns, whose prosperity is due to the coal industry, line the railroad, with collieries, “tipples” (great structures for loading coal cars), coke ovens and miners’ cottage*. , ..

Law Officers Ordered to Shoot Pillager* in Pocahontas Valley. Human ghouls inf the form of desperate negroes and foreigners hovered over the stricken Pocahontas coal regiop ready to strip the (lead and injured of any valuables. The law officers and the militia had orders to shoot down any one found robbing a body or idlhiging a house. The dead,were buried in the best manner possible. No coffins being available many were put away in rude boxes made from , the debris lodged along the banks of the Elkhorn creek. Reports from the Clinch valley district, in Tazewell County, Virginia, say that the little town of Cedar Bluff, located at the junction of Clinch river and Indian creek, was almost entirely destroyed, seventeen houses being washed away, but no lives were lost. Tazewell and Giles counties, Virginia, have suffered equally with their sister counties in the dominion g but the number of deaths is small compared with those over the divide. Like Jolinstown. In many ways the crash came like it did at Johnstown. The pent-up waters suddenly descended down a channel whence they could not escape save by tearing everything before them in the rush to the rivers beyond. The basin, in which lies the Pocahontas coal fields, became a fierce ocean in which every billow was a maelstrom and every eddy a chapter of destruction. Two spurs of Indian Ridge inclosed this swirling host of Hoods. Elkhorn creek, which winds its way down this inclesure, liad lost itself among the seething seas that poured into the valley from half a hundred streams’. A series of electrical storms and cloudbursts preceded the deluge. To add to their horror, they attained their greatest violence between midnight and 3 o’clock Sunday morning. Darkness intensified the suddeu terrors of the valley from which, hundreds of the victims fled in vain. Finally, the Elkhorn, fed simultaneously by its mountain brunches, leaped over its banks and rushed down the valley, the crest of its flood waters spreading out until they touched the mountain walls on both sides. Dams collapsed with reports like thun

BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF SCENE OF THE WEST VIRGINIA FLOODS.

GHOULS STRIP FLOOD VICTIMS

derclaps. Houses were engulfed and rolled into the torrent like so many pebbles. The rush of debris sped along the valley until the spreading mountain walls permitted the flood to drop its burden along the fringes of adjacent lowlands. Thousands of drenched men, women and children succeeded in making their way out of the watery jumble and fled into the mountains for safety.

BARKER FOUND GUILTY.

New Jersey Man Convicted of Attempting to Kill a Preacher. The jury before which Thomas G. Barker of Arlington, N. J., was tried for shooting, with intent to kill, the Rev. John Keller of the same town, took one ballot and returned with 1 a verdict of guilty. Under the charge of the court they could do little else. The jurors were told they must set aside all else and decide only if Barker, with intent, fired

PRINCIPALS IN THE TRIAL.

at Keller. That was the law and they must obey it. Notice of appeal was given by Barker’s counsel. Mrs. Barker was not in the court room to hear the verdict. When told of the verdict she sobbed bitterly. Keller was also absent, and showed no emotion when told of the verdict. Barker had expected an He based his hopes upon the strong plea of his counsel when he dwelt upon the unwritten law that a man has a right to kill where the sanctity of his home is assailed. Whatever the effect of this line of pleading upon the jury, it was swept away by the cold charge of Judge Blair that “the story of the alleged outrage, or the assault itself, if true, was no justification of the defendant’s assault.” In his closing Prosecutor Erwin asked the. jurors if the woman’s course was the natural one. He said her story was improbable because Mrs. Barker would in the natural course have told her husband of the assault at once, and failing that, would have made a confidant of u woman and not of another man. The jury’s only ballot was unanimous for guilty and a unit for the highest degree charged. Keller as soon as the trial was completed issued a brief statement in which, he absolutely denied the truth of the allegations that have been made and published by Mrs. Barker.

ADELBERT HAY DEAD.

S»n of Secretary of State Falls front* New Haven Hotel l^iadow. Adelbert Hay, son of the Secretary of State, and ex-consul to the South African Republic, was found dead on the sidewalk in front of the New Haven Hotel in New Haven, Conn., early Sunday morning. He retired to his room at 1 o’clock, and an hour and a half later his body was found. It is supposed that he was taken ill and, accidentally fell from the window of his room to the sidewalk. Secretary of State Hay, who arrived from Washington in the afternoon, collapsed when he gazed upon the body of his son. He had to be assisted to bed and a physician was summoned. Adelbert S. Hay was 2ti years old and was born in Washington, D. C. He succeeded United States Consul Macrum as

ADELBERT S. HAY-

the American representative at Pretoria. He returned from South Africa about four months ago and resigned his position as United States consul. Hay was appointed consul to Pretoria in December, 1899. Adelbert Hay remained in Pretoria until after the capture of the city by Lord Roberts, and acted in behalf of the English soldiers who had been captured by the Boers as well as looking after British interests generally. His policy was much criticised by the friends

of the Boers in this country. Young Hay had a diplomatic education, having been with his father when the latter was in London as ambassador to Great Britain. When Hay returned to America from South Africa Lord Robertß thought he had completed the conquest of the Transvaal republics. No successor to Hay has yet been appointed nnd the consulate is in charge of Emile A. B. Van Ameringen, the vice-consul.

WON BY WADDELL.

Fourteenth American Derby Captured by Virginia Gelding. The great American Derby for 3-year-olds, a mile and a half, was won by Robert Waddell, Mrs. Bradley’s gelding, by two lengths before a vast crowd at Chicago Saturday afternoon. Terminus wnß second, half a length before The Parader. Bonnibert was fourth, half a length away. This was the fourteenth American Derby run at Washington Park, and was valued at more than $2">,000. One of the largest fields that ever started in the race went to the post, and it was a very open affair, every horse on the card having a chance to win the rich prize. A number of Eastern horses hnd been sent West to try for the honor of winning this Western classic, and much rivalry was manifested between the East and West in capturing it. But neither the East nor the West won the valuable stake, as it went to the Virginian, Mrs. Bradley’s Robert Waddell. The track was fa»t and the weather delightful, just the kind of weather to bring out the holiday crowd, and it attended to the number of perhaps 30,000. Society was well represented at the park and the bright costumes of the ladies in the grand stand made a magnificent background for the splendid scene.

WOULD WIPE OUT TRUSTS.

Many Combinations Being Secretly Investigated by the Government. A Washington dispatch says that the Department of Justice is secretly at work investigating the trusts. The line upon which the investigation is being mad# is the Sherman anti-trust law. If violations are found the trust question then would resolve itself into a paramount legal issue and be fought to a finish. Against the federal government would be arrayed # vast aggregations of capital which go to make up the so-called octopuses. Secrecy is maintained by the department in the conduct of its investigation. Just what trusts are being looked into is known only to the investigators. This, too, is not at all improper, inasmuch as obstacles would be placed in their way by the combinations. concerned, to, perhaps, the fatal disadvantage of the government. the officials of the Attorney General's office are doing their utmost to obtain such information as will enable them to make a strong case. The work is necessarily of an arduous character. Every precaution must be exercised.