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PENSION MACHINE. A Talk With Messrs, Smith, and Company About It. ee ITS RANAGEMENT AND COTPU?. The Sccretary of the Interior as a) Hard Worker. ——_s—____. JUDGE LOCHREN ON PENSIONS HE SECHETARY of the Interior is more talked about! and less known than any other member of the cabinet. He must be a very vague and nebulous personality, indeed, to those | newspapers who al- jude to him as a) “rebel brigadier” and | denounce his parsi- mony in regard to pensions for Union é the other day. He was I called on him busy with a lot of callers, but I was turned loose in his room, where I had a chance to observe how he managed to dispose of his petitioners and io unbusy himself for the day. There were three men and a woman waiting audience and one of them was a Senator, who, of course, had the right of way. Him the Secretary led into an inner room, where they talked about four minutes privately and then the Sena- tor vanished, carrying with him an imper- turbable face that would make a fortune at poker. The Secretary immediately bowed to the next visitor and said: “Well, what ean I do for you?” They talked a minute or two and separated. Callers three and four were similarly turned off with neat- mess and dispatch, and I had the Secre- tary alone, for it was 2 o'clock and no other strangers could get into the building. Alone With the Seeretary. I wes not surprised that he had asked nobody to be seated while conversing with | him, for the first thing a cabinet officer learns is that he must not allow a caller to get into a chair. The only way in which he can ever hope to clear his room is to remain standing himself and compel every- body else to. So I cast a sidelong glance at the sofa when I entered the room with- out making any motion to occupy it and waited. The Secretary is a little over six feet high, straight as an arrow, weighs 2@ pounds and looks sinewy and athletic. He has a pleasant eye and a firm mouth, wears no hair on his face and as much as he ever had on his head. He is a fine looking man and because he is tall, strong and symmetrical, some women would per- haps call him haadsome. He has a master- ful manner and does not look a bit worn out with the labors of this tremendous de- | ot marge His desk is without doubt the dest one in Washington. The Interior Department is, I believe, larger than all others in the city combined, and a man to be well equipped to manage it ought to Secretary Smith. have at least six heads and twelve hands. He is in cl of patents, pensions, pub- Ne lands, bounty lands, Indians, educa- tion, railroads, the printing office, the geo- logical survey, the census, the public build- ings, the hot springs, Yellowstone Park, Sequoia Park in California and agricul- tural colleges of all the states and terri- tories; he has custody of public documents and care of the hospitals of the District. ® congeries and jumble of all the duties that have matured during the last fifty years and did not before that time exist. Why Not a Rebel Brigadier. I remarked that he didn’t look much like the “rebel brigadier,” having in mind his obvious youth. “Perhaps not,” he said, “I didn’t get to the front. I was only six years old when the war broke out and didn’t take a very lively interest in it. If I had been eighteen and had lived in Georgia, I probably should have been in the southern army, as my friends were; if I had been eighteen and lived in New Hampstire, I protably should have been in the northern army as my father's friends were. Most of his relatives were in the Union army, as were my grand- father Hoxe’s relatives up in Pennsylvania. Lut the w a very dead issue in Geor-| sia. I venture to say that a citizen of At- Janta, who was in the northern army and had conducted himseif as a good soldier | sould, could run for office there on his | rmy record. They cheer the names of neridan or Thomas there just as of southern generals.” ~ ft suai An¢ “Well, verhaps ." he said, “They think, a bserved, that he was te A , words more upon other mat-| ters he added, “Now you must excuse me | from talking about elf In_ connection | with my adminisiraticn of this office. 1} have no ut it. | Beat F At th ve up the interview as and withdrew, but ought and found con- 's best friend, who re about him than he knows him- something in particu- asked. | ‘something in general.” } Smiths were Yankees. | H. D., i h aid, Ty well father, Hild: highly educated jake college in | principal of ner branches H2 entered ly acquired BS w until the iaw firm, of three or four | as Secretary than a side 7 ! is now a fine proverty worlty me A tard W I asked what was the ef work. “He is a hustler. He fs chuck full of days’ | works, and i everybody } nd h jon rather mf a t 1 of the -moribund 2 opportune moment and wrote | tae riff question which at on of the Prest PB on their fee rier cretary’s methed always outwor nh He is He works everybody | that is near him. And I % private secretary for $25,000 | He breakfasts at seven every morn- wenerally after having taken a horse- back ride with his little boy through the suburbs, and usually gets to the office from «ght to half-past eight, before any of the There he stays all day, getting at six to seven im the evening. He unehes in his office, taking a sandwich or 2 cup of soup fram the patent office res- taurant. He eats dinner whenever he gets mn. | Hberal to the claimants than my own. , tempted and the “HE EVENING STAR: horseback ride after- work till ten or o’ciock. He has an iron constitution, his father trained him in athletic sports, woxing, rowing, swimming, é&c. His work at home and at the office, besides of land office, pension office, patent office, &c. He answers letters by the bucketful. His private secretary, Claude N. Bennet, fommeriy correspondent of the Atlanta Jour- mai here, certainly never worked so hard fn his life as now, and the confidential cleric «md stenographer, Allen R. Boyd, works from eight in the morning till ten at night, the eight-hour law to the contrary notwith- standing. Mrs. Smith came here to see Hoke during the summer, but what she saw of him was very little, except at meals. He goes to sleep as soon as he strikes the bed and sleeps like a log; he averages five or six hours of a night and finds it enough, confirming Franklin's maxim, ‘Six hours of sleep for a man, seven for a woman, eight for a child, nine for a fool. With the Penston Commiastoner. I next called on Judge William Lochren, commissioner of pensions, at the mammoth brick building in the park, and found him, as usual, disengaged. He must turn out a large grist every day, but he has the air and gives the impression of having nothing whatever to do. Serene—that ts the word that fits Lochren. I cannot imagine any- thing that could seriously disturb his tran- quitity and equanimity. Judge Lochren is a man of fifty-five, may- be, and he weighs pretty nearly as much as the Secretary, without ing es tall into four inches. He is slightly chubby, with- Commissioner Lochren. out being fat, and he has lost ten or fifteen pounds since he came to Washington. His chestnut hair is slightly thin on top, and he wears a full brown mustache, contrasted with an ample imperial almost white, giv- ing his face the contour of those of Sena- tors Hawley and Gibson. He has a good, healthy color and no physical infirmities, except as spectacies imply a flattening of the cornea. Whenever he is sufficiently un- occupied he vigorously smokes a briarwood Pipe, about as large as a teacup. Ris War Record. Lochren was in the war—right in the middle ‘of it and the whole length of it. I have known him intimately since long before that time. When Sumter was fired on, he fell into company E of the first Minnesota, and he stayed right there till the trouble was over. It was the banner regiment of the war. At Gettysburg it lost more men in killed and wounded than any other military organization within human history—twice as many as the light brigade in its reckless, fatuous charge at HBalak- lava. After Sickles’ ccrps had been driv- en back by Lougstreet’s column, the first Minnesota, then weakened to 262’men, was standing considerably in advance of our line, with no perceptible support, and was expecting the order fall back, when Hancock rode up and urdered the cummand- ing officer to charge at double quick two brigades of confederates ad-encing across the swale. They went in on a run, reached the foremost ranks, used their bayonets after the last discharge, and stopped the whole advance for fifteen minutes,when re- inforcements arrived and held the ground. The loss of the Minnesota men was terri ble: Out of the 26! mea engaged 213 were Killed and wounded, and not another man was missing! Loehren'’s company lost its principal officers, and twenty-seven of its thirty-four men, and at the end of a quar- ter of an hour he found himself in com- mand of his company of seven survivors. The very next day the regiment, reinforced by two weak companies that had been on detached service, was again in the front Mne withstanding Pickett's charge, and lost seventeea ‘nore men. | have heard lochren tell of this. “Here,” he said," for the oniy time in my life, I saw stones thrown in battle. The rear ranks gave such help as they could by Ainsi stones, with which the field abounded, over the heads of their file leaders at the enemy in front. A good many were brought down in The rebels did the same thinz, not. per- haps, in imitation, but because the field was thick with stones, and this method of oftense orcurtel simultaneously.” It need only be added that the charge of the first, which was so destructive of life, was not futile, like that at Balaklava, but did th very thing that was needed. Hancock af- terward said, “I should have sent in the first Minnesota at that moment if I had known every man was to be killed. Not Down on Pensioners. “And yet they say you are ‘down on the pensioners,’ judge,” I said. “Me?” he answered. “{ ain with the boys every time, but the law must be strictly enforced. and shall Le as far as I am con- cerned. Perhaps you will think it strange when I tell you that the Secretary's ideas of strict enforcement are generally more It is a difference of interpretation, of course. But I know that the pension system, when equitably enforced, is a wise, just and beneficent provision for the nation’s detend- ers. You are actually reducing the output of the pension office, judg “On, yes,” he replied about a thousand pensions lowed; during the last mon certificates at the rate of a day. “J see in the paper that high tide has been reached; that the number of pensioners will henceforth diminish.” “| am noc so sure of that,” he answered. “It may be so, but we cannot be certain. But we may bé sure are net far from the turning point. General Raum’s issue of a thousand a day resulted mainly from pensioners under the dependent pension act of 1390."" under Gen. Raum ve issued ‘The Saspension Lixi. You had to suspend the pensioners under thet?" “Oh, no; we suspended only a fraction of | when | them—oniy those whose reached in re-examination, failed to show Inability to perform manual labor. ‘The law was explicitly based on that inability m had been ignored.” Sspension of those cases legal, papers, according to the rules of this de ! h my predecessors have enforced. as the old practice of the bureau. how came you to withdr. these cases?” ‘The be should 2 where there was prim. claimant being enutled to some pension.” not sus) facie evidence of the the commissioner if there were developments. he said, “unless it is a dishonest that has just come to light, appir- concerted to frighten all pensioners. Bogus notices are beiny sent to pensioners I asked ne in different states announcing that their Pensions have been stopped. I have re- ceived several of these and don't know how extensive the plot is. One was a written notice signed with my name; one was a notice on a posta! card. With whom such s originate anybody is at liberty to mpilation is being made of the frauds against the government perpetrated and at- fice seems nearly ready to make a sys xposure of them. They are ten times more numerous than has been generally supposed, and they comprise so much that is ingenious, mendacious, gro- tesque and bizarre—they include such fan- tastic and complicat:d plots, they are so audacious in their forgeries and _perjuries, that they might well supply a Washington correspondent with an entertaining letter for every week in a year. The temptation has been so great, the opportunities so numer- ous, and the miscreants so versatile, that the records of the pension office for the last five years furnish amazing instances of con- spiracy and false personation that are hard- ly paralleled in the criminal calendars of the world. To unravel the meshes of this rascality would tax the cunning of a Lecoq: in recording their exploits a Gaboriau might revel. W. A. CROFFUT. this way. j x day were al-| s| Will be no “right of way’ to be purchased; WASHINGTON, D. C, SATURDAY. OCTOBER 28, 1893—TWENTY PAGES. AERIAL NAVIGATION. | A Proposed Combination of Effort to Make an Air Ship. 1A PROMOTION SOCIETY SUGGESTED. | Regions of the Air Beyond Monopo- ly’s Reach. — + WHERE, WINDS WILL HELP. Written for The Eve Star, ND YOU NO- tice the size of this “if’—if aerial navi- gation were a proved possibility —a tried certainty—at eighty miles an hour for| long distances, it | would not take many ! words to point ou! such advanteges in its favor as to ap- peal to “all sorts and conditions of men.” _ What light it would shed on geography! on meteorology! | on anthropology! How soon would those | hidden mysteries, held so deflantly in the | stip of the tlerce north pole, be wrenched from his icy fingers, If a jou-ney could be | made there and back from New York in| fcur days, without touching foot to ea:th! How we could then defy the grim old mon- ster's outworks and carry his fort by storin How would darkest Africa and {is teem- ing primitive life be lighted up for scientific study, If we could reach it f7om France in @ day, regardless of its lack of traveling | factlities!’ How close the world would be, brought together—how it would become ac- | auainted, when the universal air was the universal highway! And what an impulse would be given to Christian missions and all the agencies by which the more enfight- ened nations seek to elevate those less for- tunate! ‘Phen conside: the poetic side of it—the beauty and poetry of svaring above the! clouds; of being free as a bird to go where | | you will, unlimited by land cr sea, moun- | tain or river, tolis or customs dues, civili- zation or cannibailsm; of being mightier than Wellington and adding two hours to the day whenever you choose to sail west- ward; of making the sun stand still, like Joshua, or beholding it rise in the west, after you have just seen it set! Think of watching the earth pass rapidly before you jim @ grand panarama. What could beiter evoke idyis—or idleness! Where could an ove-worked brain find such quietude, such | rest, such immunity from work or interrup- tion or annoyance? Or how could one more quickly escape the summer’s heat than by mounting to the clouds? For the Sammer Excursions. And as to outings, what could be more ideal! Think of leaving New York at 9 in the morning and at noon being let down on Cape Cod, or the White mountains, the Adirondacks, or the Tuousand Islands, the wilds of West Virginia, or the White Sul- phur Springs; in sixteen hours reaching New Foundland, or Texas, Manitoba, or Cuba; in twenty-four hours landing in Greenland, or on Fremont’s Peak, or in| Central America; or in forty-eight hours | reaching London, or Bering Sea, the equa- tor, or the pole; of flying around the worid in a@ fortnight! And imagine the pleasure of taking a fly in your own “Aero,” after din- ner, of fifty miles and back over “green felds and pastures now,” in place of the stereotyped drive in the park! Think, too, of its advantages for local and suburban rapid transit; how greatly it would enlarge the suburban area of cities within practicable limits. Draw a circle with an eighty mile radius around New York, or Chicago, or London, and see how much more breathing space there would be within an hour's distance for their crowded millions. You will notice that around New York thi: all the Delaware from Philadelphia to AT. ford and Port Jervis, and all Pennsylvania within twenty miles of it; all New Jersey north of Camden and Atlantic City; nearly all Long Island, and a third of Connecticut. Around Chicago it reaches nearly to Mil- waukee, W Rockford and La Salle, Il. Logansport, Ind., and Kalamazoo, Mich. Around London it takes in Cambridge, Ox- ford, Southampton, Isle of Wight, Brighton, Dover and Margate, while an hour and a quarter would bring you to Birmingham or | Bristol, Boulogne or Calais! And not only the eities but the whole world would be enlarged in space, while diminished in distance. For the tops of mountains, the uncleared wilds, the places remote from water navigation, or railroads, would all be made accessible. What lovely summer residence sites “waste their beauty on the desert air,” because it is now imprac- ticable or tedious to climb to them! But if a few minutes would take you to or from the loftiest mountain top, whatever the na- | ture of the ground between, thousands of such desert spots would “blossom as the wee” The Suppression of War. Another result of practical aerial naviga- tion is worth great effort to accomplish. It seems to me that it would be the most powerful agency for the suppression of war, the equalizing of the power of the nations, and the shifting of the settlemen?| of national disputes from brute force to diplomacy and international law t%at can | | be imagined this side of the millennium. Of | what use would be the standing army o1 | Germany, if a few air ships could cripple it and demolish beriin, by circling above ana | dropping dynamite or inflammable torpedoes \or bombs, while themselves beyond the | reach of the most powerful gun! How help- | less would be Great Britain's navy! Whik ‘patties in the clouds would be certain de- | struction to both sides, and every combat- ant, and would soon be seen an itmpracti- cable thing and useless waste of life, though as nothing compared with the havoc | made on land by one air-ship and half a | dozen men. And as any air-ship could be used for torpedo dropping ssary, with no especial fitments for de- there would be no need to maintain ven a large air-navy. The very possession of ch immense power by all civilized na- tions alike would compel a readjustmen. of international polity. It is the argument that peace is best insured by the main- tenance of large force, carried to its logi- {cal conclusion in giving all nations the greatest force known—but without the | frightful cost that now impoverishes them. | | Thus would the air-ship lift with its airy fight the heaviest burden that weighs down the civilized worid! \ Ne Monopoly of the Air. And even from a commercial and financia: | standpoint there are some phases of the | question worthy consideration. That there no track to be laid and maintained; no losses from collisions—since not only dif- | ferent courses but different elevations can be used; and that places inaccessible by rail or water can be reached by air-transit are powerful arguments in its favor. Sv also are its greatly increased speed; its light and comparatively inexpensive con- struction— hanging instead of supporting gaining all the advantage of tensile strength of steel and textile fabrics over rigidity, and aiso its freedom from dust and smoke, and from any necessity for forced draft or ventilation. There is also another very material a4- vantage in the winds, which Providence has arranged as if for this very purpose. The average force of the winds is sixteen miles an hour; and nearly all over the globe there are currents already known that can be taken advantage of: terly, from New York to England, southerly thence to Gibraltar, westerly thence to Florida, and | northeasterly thence back to New York. And so with the Pacific and Indian Oceans. But remember that the air-ship need not always keep the same altitude; and at different altitudes the currents usually set in different directions. As observed near the equator these changes are as follows: ‘The direction of the currents is indicated. You have perhaps observed such changes in the drift of clouds at different heights in your own locality. After aerial navigation becomes @ fact, this subject will doubtless be carefully studied, and it is probable that strong head winds may always be avoided by change of altitude, while, in the vast majority of cases, it will be possible to take advantage of a favoring wind at some prac- ticable height, as Dr. Van Hecke argued. (Manstield’s Aerial Navigation, page 7%). So that if able to steam eighty miles an hour, you will actually make an average cf about ninety-six miles, including the drift of the current. When it is remembered that over 50 per cent of the power of a railroad train at sixty miles an hour is consumed in overcoming the resistance of the a'r, a great advantage is apparent in aerial ravi- gation under this head alone. A Promotion Society. And now let me indulge a foniness fur making suggestions: First, that some sort of association cr other intelligent co-operation shou!d be formed among those interested in uerial navigation, on the principle of aeroplane support, and willing to work for it—so that phases and problems of the subject couli be assigned to different members for experi- ment, invention, computation or research; and that the omissions or fallacies, or im- provements, unobserved by one, might be pointed out by others. It would be a griev- ous pity if, after this hundred years of mere ballooning, and now that a principiz has been tested with results that seem to us- sure suecess beyond all former dreams, the first actual trials with a complete should prove disastrous and discouraging, from the oversight of a principle ur deus already well known by some one whce light could have been shed upon {t hefore. Second, that the American Assocltion for the Advancement of Science devote » sec- tion to this special study and relured euv- jects. If the encouragement of the study of geology or biology or any other “clogy” demands the formation of a scientific eo- clety, does not this subject also, skicn is so fraught with blessings to humanity and | so challenges man's mastery of nator laws! FRANK HAMi‘TON see English as She is Spoke. From the New York Sun. “Please, mum, me giblets is bilin’,” was | the startling announcement of a cook, | whose mistress, a Brooklyn housekeeper, | had bidden her prepare what people down | south called chicken fixin’s. The interest- | ing use of the ethical dative is common | in the intercourse between mistress and | maid and is occasionally met with else-| where. It was a 5th avenue stage driver who responded to a sympathetic inquiry | as to the ailment of his horse: “It’s stag- gers, sir; the blood rushes to his head an’ | then he’s Mable to fall on yez.” ---200 Interesting Gon dn five pictures). From the Fliege 4 | \ ‘diferent in jheir nature and results. | use some of them in attacking me. DIFFERENT MEETING. Heroes of Fort Fisher Visit the Scenes of Their Conflict. A UNION AND A REBEL OFFICER. Changes That Have Taken Place in Thirty Years. HOW THEY WERE WOUNDED, —_—_+——_—_ EN. N. M. CURTIS, “the giant of the House,” who repre- sents the twenty-sec- ond New York con- gressional district, has just returned to vashington from a visit to the southern battlefield on which he won his fame as the “Hero of Fort Fisher. He left Washing- ton on the 18th in- stant, on his arrival at Norfolk met Col. Lamb, his one time antagonist, who com- manded the confederate garrison of Fort Fisher in 1864. ‘Together they left Nor- folk: the morning of the 19th, by raf! for Wilmingte N. ©, and Friday morning went down Cape Fear river to the New In- let breakwater, and landing by the steam- er’s small boat, proceeded to the battle- field. Gen, Curtis had met Col. Lamb on this same field on two former occasions, and on both had been as warmly received by him as now. But the greetings, though warm in each instance, were somewhat On the former occasions they were greetings of powder, shot and shell, and the gallant confederate commander and his garrison, after a hard fight, at last capitulated to the Union forces. At their last meeting the greeting was not less warm, but this time Gen. Curtis was forced to capitulate to the n southern hospitality of the man with he had tried conclusions on that metsrable field neariy thirty years before. The object of our visit to the battle- field of Fort Fisher,” said the general to a writer for The Star, “was to examine }e ground and agree upon certain features of the operations upon which we slightly differed. We found no difficulty in arriv- ing at a mutual understanding.” The Battleficid Changed. “Did you find the battiefield much changed, general?” was asked. “Yes, its general features are very much changed. After landing we proceeded to Battery Buchanan and thence to the Mound Battery, and after that to the southern end of the sea face of Fort Fis! er. to the northeast angle and thence across the land face to the northwest angie, at which point the army assault of January 15, 1865, was made. We then went to Bat- tery Holland, three quarters of a mile north and near the Cape Fear river. We walked from the south end of the fortifi- cations on Federal Point to the north face of Fort Fisher, a distance of five miles, and along the id face of Fort Fisher proper, a distance of nearly one-half a mile. The filling up of New Inlet by the government has resulted in raising the N. Martin © sandbar in front of Fort Fisher, over which the blockade runners crossed to Cape Fear river to a bar several feet above the tide, and the sea has receded about half a mile further from the fort than when it was captured. The Mound Battery, on which two long range guns were mounted at that time, and on which the government has since erected a sema- phore signal, has been reduced from sixty feet elevation to a mound of less than twenty feet. Much of the parapet of Fort Fisher has’ been washed away by the waves, it being nearest its original form at the northeast and northwest salients. The battery known as The Pulpit, next south of the northeast angle, was higher at the time of construction than other parts of the parapet, and still maintains its relative elevation. About half the cur- tain westward of the northeast salient run- ning toward the Cape Fear river has been entirely washed away, and much of the sand of which it was constructed has ac-| cumulated in rear of the west portion of the parapet and northwest salient. Frag- ments of the sand begs used in making embrasures are to be found at different portions of the work, but the magazines and = bomb- ft: scarcely visible. y the ac- Cacti and and trees are growing on The whole beach small shrubs portions of the parapet. near the fort between the Atlantic coast and the Cape Fear river has been greatly changed by the action of the elements, and the western portion north of the fort has grown up thickly with small scrub timber indigenous to that region.” First Visit Since the War. “Was this your first visit since the war, genera “Yes, it was my first visit since the bat- tle. I regret that I did not have time to go further north, to the portion which three- fourths of the U, troops occupied pre- vious to the assault; that is, the position which was occupied by the colored troops and Abbott's brigade of white troops, from the landing, January 13, 1885, until after sundown of the 15th of January, when Ab- bott’s brigade was withdrawn’ and sent into Fort Fisher. “The portion of the work attacked by the navy and marines was the northeast sa- lient, which they failed to occupy. The occupation of the fort resulted from the successful assault upon the northwest sa- fent, and the unchecked progress made along the parapet in the capture of the traverses, until about one-half was carried by sundown. Col. Lamb's Criticism. “An examination of the ground,’ con- tinued the general, “seems to give strong support to the criticism made by Col. Lamb upon the non-action of the depart ment commander of the confederate forces | (Gen. Braxton Bragg) in not giving aid to him, even to the extent of annoying me when I remained, with about 700 of my brigade and 30 prisoners, from midnight Sunday, the 25th of December, :mtil Tues- day evening, the 27th of December, at a point between three and four tiles’ above | the fort, virtually without protection from the navy because of the fearful storm rac- ing during the whole of that time. My troops on the beach were without shelter, food or fresh water, from brea‘fast Sun day morning until late Friday evening, in a sleet storm. Gen. Bragg had, within ten miles of me, five or six times as many men. Col. Lamb complained that Bragg did not While \I had no cause of complaint for Gen. Brags’s failure to attack me, I can well ap- preciate Col. Lamb's disappointment ut Gen. Brage’s refusal to respond, as in Mexico, to the command, ‘a little more rrape, Capt. Bragg!” The importance of the battle of Fort Fisher is somewhat dwarfed in popular estimation by the momentous cvents which so closely followed it. Had it occurred at j almost any other period of the war than that immediately preceding the final disso- lution of the confederacy it no oubt would heve attracted much more attention. Fort | two and a half years previously. We then proceeded along the sea face | Fisher was the last gateway b-tween the confederate states and the outside world. The Assault on Fort Fisher. In December, 1864, Col. Curtis, one hun- dred and forty-second New York, com- manding first brigade, second division, twenty-fourth army corps, sailed witt Gen. Butler on the first and unsuccessful exy-e- dition against Fort Fisher. When the troops were recalled from the ajvance they occupied a small work (Battery Holland) near Craig's Landing, on the Cape Fear river, three-quarters of a mile north of Fort Fisher. Lievt. W. H. Walling, one hundred and forty-second New York. had captured the garrison flag. The flag staff had been shot down and the flag had fallen on the parapet. A battalion of the enemy under Maj. J. M. Was captured by Capt. A. R. Stevens, one hundred and seventeenth New York, serving on brigade staff. Gen. Curtis is still of opinion that he could have taken Fort Fisher December 23, 1864, had he been allowed to carry out his plans instead of being called back. Gen. Grant was largely influenced by Gen. Curtis’ posi- tive assurance that he could have captured it, to order the second attempt under Gen. Terry to be made. On this second expedi- tion, having been promoted and assigned to duty as brigadier general by brevet, Gen. Curtis commanded, as before, the first bri- gade, second division, twenty-fourth army corps, and Col. Lamb, C. 8. army, com- manded Fort Fisher, the Mound battery and Battery Buchanan, as he had done for The as- sault was led by Gen. Curtis in person. How Both Officers Were Wo ed. Both Gen. Curtis and Col. Lamb were severely wounded. Gen. Curtis in leading the advance from traverse to traverse,cach of which was captured by hard fighting, and a separate assault, received four slight wounds, and at one time a shell killed or wounded all of the men with him but four. To maintain the volume of fire until rein- rorcements could be brought up, or a coun- ter movement could be made by the enemy, he fired the guns of the dead and seriously wounded fast as he could take them from their hands. When reinforcements came up he again led them, his giant form doing the deeds of a giant until sundown, when he received a wound in the left cye which destroyed that organ, while a frag- ment of a shell struck the base of his skull above it. He was reported killed. but recovered consciousness six hours later. For his gallantry he was appointed, on the field, the next day, January 16, 18%. a pro- visional brigadier general, and was after ward brevetted major general and awarded a medal of honor. . Lamb, while leading his men in a charge, was sevirely wounded in his left 8 His wound was supposed to be mor- tal, but he refused to leave Federal Point, as he wished to share the fate of his gar- rison. Col. Lamb was wounded at about 4 o'clock, in rear of the center of the land curtain. Gen. Curtis was wounded an hour’ and a half later, about 300 feet west from where Col. Lamb was disabled. Although Gen. Curtis was a hard fighter during the war, he has a kindly disposition, and has a warm place in the southern heart, ving won their regard by many acts of kindness at Richmond, er the fall of the confederacy, where he 3 chief of staff to Gen. Ord. Col. Lamb is one of the most successful and prominent business men of Virginia. He belongs to one of the old Virginia families, and has been mayor of Norfolk. From an historical point. of view these visits of participants in the battles to the scenes of their conflicts are very import- ant. That the government has come to recognize the necessity of locating definit: ly the positions of troops on the variou: battlefields, ere the passing away of all those whose personal knowledge enables them to assist in the work, and before the obliterat! of lines of works by the action of the elements, is shown by the creation of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battle- field commission, the Antietam board and the Gettysburg battlefield commission. ————__ Combust} ithout Smoke. From the Newcastle Chronicle. Wherever there’s smoke there’s fire is an adage based on observation of unvarying physical laws, but the reverse does not al- ways hold good, for there may be fire with- out smoke, or at all events without appar- ent smoke. In Berlin an inventor has succeeded in devising a means for insuring complete combustion without the emission of smoke and his method has, on repeated tests, proved so satisfactory that two of the most important steam shipping companies in Germany have decided on adapting it to their steamers. In this system coal, reduced to powder in centrifugal disintegraters, is introduced into a pear-shaped combustion chamber lined with firebrick, and fitted with an induction apparatus like those used in petroleuni-dired furnaces, the coal dust be- ing drawn along by a jet of steam or com- pressed air. ‘The combustion chamber, which takes the place of a furnace, is provided with two apertures, one in the center line of the boiler, occupying the position of the usual fire hole door, while the other, on the oppo- site side of the combustion chamber, serves for introducing the coal dust through a pipe, so placed that the dust is evenly dis- persed over the whole surface of the cham- ber. After the first ignition, which may be effected by any source of heat, the com- bustion continues regularly and intensely under the action of the air current, which is regulated in accordance with the quan tity of dust required to produce the neces- | sary heat. The air or steam and dust are intimately mingled in the zone of combus- tion, while the speed of the current, which has served as a vehicle for the dust, is much reduced. Each particle of fuel heid in suspension ts by this method brought into such close cortact with the oxygen necessary for Its combustion that this com- bustion is so complete as to allow of prac- tically no smoke being generated. Iss SESS One Arm and No Legs, but Lively. From the Florida Times-Union. City Jailer Tola Canova says that if they ever send him out again to arrest a one- armed, no-legged man he ain't going to go. Tola’s resolution is on account of an expen- ence he had with an individual of that de- scription a day or two ago. Tola was kicked in his dinner by a no-legged man, and feit so bad about it that he was almost tempied to send in his resignation. It seems that Peter Moody, a colore. who lost both legs and one arm road accident, filled up on pure 8 ated cussedness at a cost of five cents a drink, and proceeded to paint Mast Jackson- ville in bright vermillion. The first thing he did was to fire his pistol at a boy wno drives an ice wagon for Martin Ferguson. The be outran the bullet and his cries brought (1- | cer Moore to the scene, but Moody stood on the stumps of his legs in the middle of the road and defied the officer to come near him, at the same time waving in the air, in a reckless manner, a formidable-look!ng revol- ver, Officer Moore telephoned for assistance, and Sergeant Thames and Tola Canova went to the scene. They had the hardest kind of @ struggle with the disorderly inéividval, who inflicted upon each of them some very Painful blows with the stumps of legs and arm. Finally, however, chey got him ia a cart, and by choking him, succeeied in keeping him quiet. The blow of the stump that caught Tola in the stomach lifted him in the air somewhere in the neigaborhood of three feet. Moody is now in the city jail. Ie will be turned over to the county authorities on a charge of assault with intent to kiil. ——__+e+______ Practical Lesson in Politeness. From Good News. Little Ethel— for things.” Little Johnny—“Course it is. What of it?” Little Ethel—“Nothing, only I'm gettin’ hungry for some candy I've got in my pocket, and there isn’t enough for two.” it’s awful impolite to ask | i i ; i i j i i ' must be cause the edition is svies. The album amount of patient work. itable to the ‘National ‘Pubite pany, of which Mr. manager. j hi PRINCE. Life 4 MERCHANT EI By Rev, Briggs. EN by one of Canada’s most now pastor of Metropolitan M. E. of this city. People who have understand how active religion lucrative mercantile endeavor can een: should read the sented. th the, Ife ot a bey eae man. New York: Tt would be difficult—extremely for Erastus Wiman to be prosy. Wi and energetic in all that he has imprinted some of his acteristics on the pages some of the vigor there delinea! contagious the world would ~y thereby. ESSAYS i tH : i | f i s | i ei i IN LONDON AND James. New York: Rus- | sell Lowell, Frances Anne Kemble, Gustave Flaubert, Pierre Loti, the Journal of the Brothers de Goncourt, Browning » | minster Abbey, Henrik Ibsen, Mrs. Won iticism. phrey Ward and of cri! ‘at A NORSE ROMANCE. By Mt New York: G- P. Puteamy tose, Robert Beall. maker. The story of a charms availed not and whose fell short of its mark. ‘THE WATCHMAKER’S WIFE AND RIES. By Frank BR. Charies Scribner's Sons. tano’s. Frank Stockton’s well known and too need even a word of i highly praise. of this volume, in addition This book, like its nearly related prede- cessors, “The Making of New England” and “The Making of the Great West,” DICCON THE BOLD. A SLIME MOD tue” St est “Diego Pinzon.” Tlustrated. New York: G@. P. ‘s Sous. Washington: Robert Beall. A book for big boys, and a good book. Combines history and fancy in a delightfully realistic manner and teaches more than one AMY LESLIE AT THE FAIR. Chicago: W. ‘Conkey Co. betdriad Brightly descriptive and enjoyably discur- sive sketches, originally published in the Chicago News, carefully selected and intelli- gently illustrated. 4 ‘1HE RELIGIONS THE WORLD. Cutcago: Latin Historical Bectety. A condensed report of the important Speeches made and papers read at the world’s fair parliament of religions. NOWADAYS AND OTHER A. Hibberd, author of “1 than average merit. THE EASIEST WAY IN HOUSEKEEPING 4XD COOKING. wd to domestic use or Wage-Earners,”” &c. Boston: Roberts Brothers. Washington: Woodward & Lothrop. . Ads * New York: G. P. Putnam's Sans, Washington: Brentano's. THE CLIFF-DWELLERS. B. Fuller. Mlustrated New York: Harper & Woodward & Lothrop. BRIGITTA. By Berthold eh, With tmtro- duction and notes by J. Howard Gore, Ph. D. professor of German, Columbian University. Boston: Ginn & Co. The Story of # Child. Ry thor of “Captain os & Lauriat. A novel. By Heary by T. De Brothers, Washington: law E . By Sidney Webster, oa. | CAR NO. - A romance of the Ferris wheel, ‘The narrative of James Black. UNIVERSE OR CREATION. By Theophilas Fist Mills. o- e THE }One Section of the Financial Fierry Gave Way to the Humble Dime. “You—you couldn't tide a fellow over this little flurry in the money market, could you?” he asked at midnight the other night, as he stepped out of a doorway on Wood- ard avenue and confronted a Detroit Free Press reporter. “What has this flurry got to do with | you?” demanded the belated as he came to | a sudden halt. “Why, it's smashed more'n a dozen bril- liant enterprises for me. If it hadn’t have | been for this flurry I should be handling my jtens of thousands tonight. It isn't a real | panic, you know, but simply & want of con- |fidence on the part of the public, I think | we've reached hard-pan, and if you can tide ‘me over for the next few days I'l be all right “I've no money to spare.” “There she goes, you sce. That's the | want of confidence 1 spoke of, and that's what's led to this flurry, We might as well | begin right here. You have confidence in |me, and I will in you, and she'll gradually spread over the whole country. “Durn your confidence! Look at the cheek of stopping a man on the street at meng god — do I know you are deserv- of cl y? | "Shere she goes agate! ‘During the Sarey | capital is timid and won’t take no chances. That's what keeps up the stringency. You might as well begin right here to take chances.” “What do you want?” growled the pedes- trFirst, have confidence in the stability of this glorious old country. Secondly, get over being timid and invest « dollar tn something. Thirdly, if you can rake me out a dime to pay for a bed I'll be yours truly for a year to come. Thanks. I've got a pard in on the stairs, and I'll divide with him, and we'll put this money into - tion around the corner, and you'll wake up ——— Noyes to oa the times 4 the stringen , 2 Coutaenre is the main thing. Can't be ne run on the banks here when an old cit. dis plays the confidence you have!” ces The Summer Girl’s Heart. From Life. VELY June. July. August. September. i CONFIDENC MAIN THING.