Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, May 3, 1887, Page 4

4 THE OMAHA DAILY BEE: TUESDAY. MAY 3. 1887, 4 ——————————— T < S e . A R P e R . e T e e .. e, e T S ——— T —— < THE DAILY BEE. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TTRMS OF SURSCHIPTION ! Daily Morniag Edition) incliding SBunday Bie, One Year £ For 8ix Months For Three Month fhe Omaha Sunday B address, One Yonr. .. EJH!A OFFICE, No. 014 AND TARYAY STREFY. EER A A kR Tt A NGAON OPPiCK, No. 01} FOURTRENTH STREET, ONRRESIONDENCR ! All communicationa reluting to news and edic torinl matter should be wddressed to the Kot PO OF THE BRP, BUSINESS LETTERS! All Husinees Mdressed to OMAHA. Drafts, checks and postofice orders 1o be made payable to the order of the eompany, THE BEE PUBLISKING COMPANY, PROPRILTORS: E. ROSEWATER, EmToR, THE DAILY BEE, Sworn Statement of Circulation, Btate of Nebraska, la. 8 County of Douzlas, |5 % Geor B, Tzschuck, secretary of The Tiea Publishing company, does solemnly swear that the actual circulation of the Daily Bee for the week ending April 20, 187, was us 14,420 Sunday, 14,000 Mond: Tues w Th Fri Average. 20, 18, T75¢ Subseribed and sworn to before 80th day of April, 1557, [SEAL.) Notary Public. Geo. B, Tzschuek, being first diily sworn, deposes and says that he is secretary of T Bee Publishing company, that the actual N, P, Feir, 12208 coples; for August, ber, 185, 12,08 copies: ; for Decembe 314 coples: sy for Septem- ch, 1857, 14,400 Gro, B, Tzsenvek. ibed and sworn to before me this 15th 1857, o I 3 N. I Fir, Notary Public, _—— REMEMBER that the polls close at 6 p. m,. and not at 7 as at former city elec- tions. Keee the boodlers and corporation cappers out of the city eouncil by all means. RaIN or shine republicans should do their duty, not only to the party, but to the city. Tk principal topies in the London papers just now are Coercion Bill and Buftulo Bill. Keer a sharp look out for repeaters, and let no man be allowed to swear in his vote who 18 not cléarly entitled to it. Mg. Apams, of the Union Pacific, 1s being pumped dry by the national com- mission. Let the good work go on unmo- lested, SCIHNA , a dispatch informs us, will at the end of two months retire. It is to be regretted that he did not retire two weeks ago, before he brought on the war clouds. Tue republican city committee have employed a number of d tives to ar- rest ropeaters and non-residents who at- tempt to vote fraudulently, This is a step 1n the right direction, WORKINGMEN are cautioned to look out for spurious tickets. Garneau's name has been printed on ‘‘working- men’s" and ‘“‘citizens" tickets. Vote for Broatch. See that his name heads your ticket. Tue Illinois legislature has passed a law prombiting base ball playing on Sunday, This new feature, together with the Sucker state’s gallon law, shows how rapidly the *‘great west” is becom- ing civilized. CoriEs of the letter known asthe ‘Par- nell Forgery™ have been brought across the Atlantic and New York papers have printed fac-similes of the epistle which caused such furor in England. Com- pared with the genuine signature of Par- nell, it is a bungling picoe of work. Tur workingmen of Omaha hold the balance of power, and it is with them to say who shall be mayor of Omahu and who shall vepresent them in the city council, If the laboring men act intel- ligently in their own interest, Omaha will have good government for the next three years. SAM SMALL was criticised by the editor of the Minneapolis 77ib une for slinging slang. Mr. Small remarked that he would rather be the poorest revivalist thag ever spoke the word of God than the best newspaper man that ever sat on & three-legged stool in a Minneapolis newspaper office. ON general principles, the voting of franchises promiscuously to cable roads, horse railroads and motors, 18 not to be commended unless there are proper guarantees of good faith which assure the construction of the roads within rea- sonable time. But if any onc of the halt dozen franchise propositions are to be supported, they should all have the same privilege. ¢ Tur Omaha Cable railway company, of which 8. R. Johnson is president, pre- sents its statement to the voters of Omaha 1n this 1ssue of the Ber. This corporation has given substantial evi- dence of its good faith by having done ® large amount of work, and if any proposition is to be voted that of the Omaha cable company is as much entitled %0 endorsement as any other, —_— Tue Omaha Southwestern street rail- way company publishes in to-day's Bke & statement in regard to the franchise it asks at the hands of the voters. It 1s worthy of careful perusal as it shows what the company proposes to do, and will convince any one that the enterprise is a substantial project, and that its promoters mean business. The company is under bond of $10,000 with the county to build and operate the road for ten years. The or- dinance provides that one mile must be built this year and two miles within twenty months. The members of the sowmpany are old and well-known resi- dents of Omaha, ‘who nave the capital to farry out £ enterprise, Reglstration Still Required, The question having been raised as to whather any law was pasged by the last legislature authorizing the registration of voters in cities of the metropolitan class, a telegram was sent to the secre- tary of state, acking information. A | reply was received to the effect that the amendments to the registration law had no application to Omaha, but related only to cities of first and second class. Such being the law, the question remains whether any ordinances are in foree, ap- plicable to city elections, which would be authorized by the charter providing for the registration of voters. There scems (o be no doubt but what the new charter and the ordinances now 1n force fully cover the requirements and author- ize and require such registration, The charter expressly grants to the mayor and council the power to provide by ordinance for the election of city of- ficers and prescribes the manner of con- ducting the same, and the returns and registration thercof.. It also provides that all city ordinances now 1 force shall remain and continue in force until altered or repealed. he ordinances now in force, and which have been in existence for several years past, provide for the appointment of registrars,‘and the registration of vot- and the anner of condueting eity elections. Under these ordinances, after the ex- tension of the city limits and redistriet- ing of the city, Mayor Boyd appointed registrars for the several voting districts, who qualified and have made registra- tion lists as required by the ordinances. So far as municipal elections are con- cerned, there can be a0 question as to the fact that such registration is author- ized and required by la: er; A Last Word With Workingmen. The wage-workers of Omaha constitute v arge majority of her citizenship. ie-tenths of them have invested their scanty savings in little homes or lots which they intend to improve as soon as they can save up money enough to bwld a home. For them the prosperity of Omaha and her continued growth are more essential than for the miliionaires who own the mort- gages that cover their property. They have a vital interest in keeping up public improvements and keeping down taxes. In common with all classes they want our city affairs administered honestly and economically. ‘There never was an election held in Omaha in which the wage-worker had more at stake than in the contest to be fought out to-day. Will they march to the polls like voting cattle or will they go there like freemen exercising their sovereign will regardless of the lash of the party bosses or the dictation of cor- porate employers? Will they vote to make a man mayor of Omaha who imported brick layers from St. Louis to build his factory? Will they vote for an aristocrat who prides himself above the common mechanic? Will they vote for any candidate who wears the A collar of a corporate mon- opoly? Will they support for any position men who have heretofore been elected by workingmen to positions of profit and trust merely to enrich them- selves at the expense of the taxvayers. The workingmen of Omaha have too much self-respect and intelligence to bar- ter away their privileges as American citizens or turn traitors to the principles by which their liberties and rights can be upheld and maintained City Hall Bon The proposition to authorize the city to issue $75,000 in bonds this year and ,000 in 1888 for the completion of the city hall building should receive universal support. A contract for the basement of the city hall building was made last fall and that part of the structure is to be completed by the first of July, Unless the bouds are voted at this clection the construction of the bullding will be de- layed fully one year. The city is now paying over five thousand dollars a year for offices, exclusive of the rent paid for board of education oftices, and the public library., Unless the contract with the county comMissioners is extended the city will have to vacate the basement of the court house, now occupied by the city treasurer, clerk and engineer, next year, As a matter of economy if not of absolute necessity, the city hall build- ing should be completed within the next elghteen months, There are other rcasons why the city halls bonds should be voted without op- ‘position. Contracts for half a dozen business blocks on Upper Farnam, ranging from $50,000 to $300,000, are held back until after the city hall building bonds have carried. At avery low estimate these pro- jected buildings will cost over one mi lion dollars, and two-thirds of them will be erected with foreign capital. The increased receipts of taxes on these buildings alone will pay the interest on the city hall bonds and a sinking fund to redeem the bonds at maturity., A million dollars planted permanently on our soil in stone, brick and mortar, enhances the value of every foot of real estate in Omaha even in the remotest parts of the city. Every propertyowner in Omaha 18 therefore interested in expediting the con- struction of the city hall building. Our builders and workingmen are manifestly interested even if they do not own a toot of ground in Omaha. The very important part that natural gas is playing in the manufacturing - dustries of the country, with immediate and prospective results of the greatest significance, gives great interest to in- quiries relating to the future of this new source of heat and light, the area beneath which gas in considerable quantities may be found, and the probable duration of the supply may be found, and the proba- ble duration of the supply 1n the known fields and in those yet to be explored. Trustworthy and valuable information upon these several heads may be expected from the report of the United States geo- logical survey of the investigations it is now making. Meantime, scientiic in- quiry and study are being given to this new factor in the industrial problem in other quarters whose opinions are en- titled to high consideration, Professor N. 8. Shaler is among those who have devoted carcful attention to this yery’ with conclusions not entirely able to the theory of & per: manent supply of the natural fuel. While the gascous rocks are undonbtedly of wide extent, it 1s only in limited area that the retention of the gas has been suflicient to yield valuable results, Thus the Appalachion section, on the eastern shore, and the Cordilleran division of the continent from the Rocky mountains westward, and to a great extent excluded from the possible field of supply by the extensive disturbance to which their rocks have been subjected, as well as by their meta- morphosed condition, The Mississippi valley is believed to be a scetion from which natural gas may be obtained in large quantities, but within that region probably only a small portion of the total area contains rock gases in quanti- tities economically important. The quantity of rock gas seems steadily to diminish as progress 13 made westward from the fields where petroleum is found in abundance, still it is probable that throughout the Mississippi valley and per- haps in oceasional small areas of undis- turbed and unmetamorphosed rocks within the limit of the mountain systems on the east and west of that valley, a supply may be found considerable enough to have some economic import- ance, The evidence in hand, in the opinion of Professor Shaler, does not warrant the expectation of a long continuance of a large supply from any one field, except, verhaps, in the case of certain wells in the oil district of Pennsylvania, On this point, however, it is obvious that any opinion must ve largely assumption. The extent of the earth’s stor: of gaseous matter, and the rapidity ot the produc tion of gas, are problems which the wis- dom and research of man cannot solve. There are n facts which the scien- tific observer relies upon for his conclu- sions, ag, for example, that the greater part of the borings which have yielded gas steadily diminish in their outtlow from the time when they are firstopened, but expericnce has shown that some of these are not infallible indi- cations of assumed conditions. It certainly does seem even to the unscientific judgment that the multiplication of wells in certain dis- tricts, every one of which is supposed to drain a wide territory, and the conse- quent vast production of gas would speedily exhaust the supply, bnt boti scicentific and unscientific opinion must be equally at sea in this matter, But whether the supply shall be of longer or shorter duration, there is en- couragement in the assurance that America is the country most fully favored by the possession of this gres economic resource, and that while we continue to enjoy the monopoly of it we ought to be able to very greatly extend our commercial power in every quarter of the glob interesting subject, tavor- In the Michigan legi corrupt members are expelled. Milo H. Dakin was charged with attempting to procure moncy for the purpose of influencing members, and, to the credit of the imves- tigating committee, let it be said the charges were sustained and the bribe so- licitor, by a vote of 83 to 11, was imme- diately expelled. In the case of Dakin it was proven that he solicited and re- cewved money ostensibly for the purpose of “influencing” members, but really for his own use. His testimony was that he expected to get about $125 from the city of Saginaw or some of its lobbyists for the purpose of giving a feast and a dance for fiftcen influential members of the house and their wives or lady friends. These festivities were to influence the votcs of these members in the matter of the Saginaw charter. If this pre- cedent established by the Michi- gan legislature is not forgotten in Nebraska, if in our next body of law- makers there is a majority of honest men there will no doubt be several Dakans expelled. It will be remembered that in the Nebraska legislature when almost conclusive proof was offered that members of the judiciary com- mittee of the house had solicited bribes, so corrupt was the majority of the body that the proposition to investi- gate was promptly and emphatically voted down. It would be an interesting list if the namesof all the boodling members of the last Nebraska legislature was published. And while it would be interesting it would also be lengthy. While Mr. Dakan proposed to entertain members with a feast and dance—it was a weak- ness of the Nebraska legislators toignore dancing altogether. However, the din- ners given the members were numerous and expensive. A MEMOIR of her distinguished father from the pen of Mrs. Kate Chase would undoubtedly be a meritorious work. She cannot lack the attainments necessary to 1ts accomplishment, and there is reason to believe that she would give such a work special attributes that would render it particularly attractive and interesting. To the lady herself it would be an emin- ently creditable task, giving her a claim to the popular regard in a direction from which she has been estranged by the misfortunes and mistakes of her married and social life. No life of Salmon P. Chase that is a worthy record of the car- eer of that great man has yet been writ- ten, though two attempts have been made by incompotent biographers. His pablic services, thought by some to have been more valuable to the nation than that of any other man of his time, deserve to have the best literary monument that canbe given them. His accomplished duughter, now in the mature years of life, is said to be engaged upon the pre- liminary work to such a biography, which will be a labor of years. — ‘THE decline of population and mate- ral prosperity of many eastern towns is a fact which carries with 1t some curious and interesting suggestions, The census report of Massachusetts, just i makes some remarkable disclosure: 15 found that during the last decade 148 towns out of 348 show a loss of popula- tion, with of course a decadence in all other respects. What were once thriving communities, full of hopeful promise, are now given over to dilapidation, hav- ing scarcely a vestige of the character- istics of thrift and comfort they formerly possessed. The people whose energy and enterprise gave them industrial life and activity have transferred these qualitics to localities where they could eciamlay them to better advantage—to tha large and better favored eities and to the west, and none having taken their places, the old towns are tumbling into rain. What is true in this respect of the towns of | Massachuset's finds its complement in most of the other New England states, and of coursa for sinular reasons. One of these, it may be remarked, has in certain states becn an adverse railrond poliey, which has fa- | vored the competing points and squeezed | the non-competi Many towns in New York and Pennsylvania, also, have suf- tered decline from this course. There is a probability that some of these may re- cover under the new order of things, but for a great many of the towns of New England that have gone to decay there will be no recovery. ‘Chey are not needed, and if the lands they occupy were re- stored to farms and cultivated it would be better for the weltare of the states in which they e: —— THERE appears to be a remarkable growth of protection ideas in Europe, and it is noteworthy that they are chief! directed against the United States. Our foreign dispatches recently recorded the action of the Italian parliament in pass- a law raising duties on certain American products, und also the fact that the hig tariff advocates of the Belgium parl ment referred as a part of their argu- ment to the damaging eflects of the im- portation of American cattle upon the home industry. The flour merchants of Dublin have recently petitioned the government for a duty on American flour, and the chamber of commerce of Glasgow a little while ago adopted a res- olution, evidently aimed at A importations, in favor of a re al relations of Great Britain in protection adopted by other countrie: This striking evidence of the be- fogged intellgence of American protec- tionists that they should find in these evidences of hostility to the trade policy of this country somsthing to commend, but such is the remarkable fact. Only a very blind and narrow prejudica could lead people to welcome the efforts of other uations to erect fiscal barriers against the commerce of their own country, Tue reported conflict of authority be- tween the seeretary of war and the lieu- tenant general appears to hnd warrant in a decision of the power, which ap- peared in the March circular of the war department, relative to the privilege of a regimental coinmander in his choice of staff oflicers, whicli the seeretary says is restricted to those lieutenants of the regi- ment who are on duty with it and who are not at a school of instruction or with the light batteries. This 13 understood to directly contravene an order approved by the lieutenant general for the detail of an oflicer serving with a Jight battery for stall duty. It is very much to the credit of General Shieridan that the re- peated efforts of the aeccretary of war to eutly aggravate a conflict have been permitted to pass without serious notice. Undoubtedly in such cases a dignified silence is the wiser course. It is observed that whenever the secretary of war leaves Washington the lieutenant general also goes away, the object being to avoid taking orders from a subordinute officer who is always designated as acting secre- tary. This must greatly annoy the gen- eral, but he may find comfort in the re- flection that it will continue less than two years mor STATE AND TERRKRITORY, Nebraska Jottings, A canning factory in Bloomington is a settled fact. Chadron has voted bonds for a $20,000 school house. vs there are 5,400 school children in Custer county. The North Nebraska sports will shoot for a prize modal in Norfolk this week. With the proposed railroads completed Adams county would have 300 miles of trac ‘The Hon. Richard Thompson, Duke of Adams, proposes to launch a Daily Dem- Hastings on or about the 23d. awford complains that trains on the Elkhorn Valley road in that vicinity are runoun the don't-care-a-continental-when- we-get-there plan. Beatrice capitalists have subscribed $50,000 to start a coffin and woodenware factory. Rival towns will be supplied with jeweled mortuary caskets free of cost. The Fremont Tribune is shouting itself hoarse” against Omaha and urging’ the residents to boycott this city. Sublime folly, The “prettiest’’ is fashionable and Omaha is the fashion. The valuation of the property of Has- tings, exclusive of railroads, is $1,200,539. That of the entire county, including railroads, is $3,220,821.85. “The railroad valuation in the county is over $400,000. The Bachelors club of Nebraska City 1s suffering with ‘“speing” fever. The members display such agility in spring- ing at an offer that eligible young ladies dare not *'shoot a glance” "at the club roowms. The Grand Island Tndependent is now snugly quartered in a building of its own, one of the finest printing oflices in the state. Mr. Hedde deserves eongratula- tions on his new move. His success as a publisher is the monument of a grateful people of whose cause he has b een an un- flinching advocate. The Rushville tar and feather party, which treated C. C. AKin to a check suit last fall, will be called into court in Chad- ron this month to show cause why they should not pay $35,000 for their verdancy. Akin has first-class counsel and promises to roast the mobers’in good shape. It may be fortunate for them that they had their laugh first. Senator Casper, of Butler county, is of the opinion that feniale beauty and blun- ders are inseparable in public office. Hear him: **Connciseurs of female beauty remarked concerning the number of pretty girls to be found on the pay-roll of the enrollea and enfl'nsniug committees of the last legislature’ It now appears that many of the mast.important bills are in danger of being set aside by the su- preme court on account of blunders made in bills that are to become laws." lowa Items, A boot and shoe factory is to be started at Fort Dodge. A Des Moines county woman went to jail toserve out a' $10 fine for trespass rather than pay the cash. Fruit trees, fences and outbuildings suffered fi“‘ damage from the wind storm st New London, Henry county. The captain of the Salvation army at Atlantic says he is in love with the place. ‘The people of the rlnue are considering what to do about it. Petty thieves are reported to be terror- 1zing hen roosts and smoke houses over in Hancock county. A detective has been summoned from Keokuk. ‘The Ottumwa walerworks and water power has been sold to the Iowa water conpany, which has been organized by enstern capitalists: to buy and build waterworks in this state and the west, A Centerville young lady, in an in- quisitive mood, watched some boys ver- form tne difticult feat of placing their beels around their neck, Then, with a look of suppressed knowledge, she sneaked off into her bedroom. The hours roiled by until the sun began to blink and the chickens were climbing in the treo tops for the night, when her absence was noted, Going’ to her chamber a human-shaped lmfi“ s found upon the ftoor, rolling and gro: She had not earried her observations quite far enough. Her No. 2's locked around her neck all right, but the experiment of getting out of the feut was an incident quite im- portant Mrs, Harm Frerichs, supposed to have died at Lincoln Center, near fGrundy Center, on the 24th uit., is still held above ground for more positive evidence of death. She was about twenty-three years old, had never known sickness, and weighel about 175 pounds, Her present appearance is that of a sleeping woman. On the coffin being opened at the grave the cars and cheeks were red and lifelike, Through the nostrils came a flow of light colored blood and the body was perfectly limber. After five days of supposed death the warin weather made no mortifying impression on the body. Friends are confident she is not dead, although meaical experts pro- nounce otherwise. Meantime the sup- posed corpse is again at home and at- tended b, chers, Dakota. The Indian school at Flandrau has forty pupils, It is cheaper to buy a horse than horse feed at Deadwood. Miner county crop reports are on tep of all former records in advancement and prospect. Sing Lee, a Deadwood Chinaman, fakedy®s from a till and paid $100 and costs for turning the trick. Deadwood thie re no respectors of power or persons. A court oflicial there was defuly relieved of $100 while watch- ing the manipulations of justice. “‘h at in Dakoto this spring is, gen- erally speaking, in fine condition and the crop prospects are excellent. Of over twenty counties from which reports have been reccived twelve show an in- creased acreage over 1886, In € county from 5 to 10 per cent more will be sown than in 1886, The five Black Hills coun- ties also_show an inere Only one county (Beadle) reports crease, and her rley, rye and oats have been largely increased, the latter by 50 per cent. Grant is the only Dakota county re- ported to be as much as ten days late in sceding. The others have been rather earlier than usual. P T o BILL NYE ON NEWSPAPER MEN. He Relates Some of the Romance of a Journalistic Life. New York World: I know that there are men who have been connected with journalism for years, who maintain that it is not a habit, but that with them it is absolutely nece: consulted M s Miggleson, of Ash ville, who edited the Daily Jimple morning paper of this place, and le from him that it is not neccssary to set up nights in order to run a morning aper. L So the wives and mothers of morni journalists and printers should not lon be decei is ti honored fraud upon tieir trus Mr. Miggleson A rattling good morning paper can be worked off th press hy supper time, and the evening re served for social intercourse. And yet 1 know a pale, studious news- paper inan,with silver in his hair, a man in whose mouth butter would scarcely melt, who for twenty rs and more, bamboozled his trusting wife and grown-up son with this transparent raud. He told me only a short time ago, with genuine pathos, that the first time he had Seen his own son by dayhght was last fall. He said that his son came of age last October, and through the courtesy of a mutual friend (the young man’s mother) he had the pleasure of meeting him on election day and forming an acquaintance, which he "says may ripen into a strong friendship. I have another acquaintance who as- sists in editing a morning paper, but he does not believe in allowing his children to utterly forget him, He does not want his boys to think they are orphans just because he is not always at home. He 1s a man of very strong will and a strict dis- ciplinarian. "So he gets a holiday every two weeks in order to go home and do up his punishing. One time he found that his eldest or oldest sun—I do not know which, because L am away from home without my library —hud violated the rules of the house in a sad manner. As near as I am able to come at the facts, the boy had taken a quart of corn and sewed a long thread through each kernel, showing great patience and per- severance in so doing, -~ He had then tied the ends of the thread together into one knot and scattered the corn where a large flock of geese had been in the habit of associating and pooling for mutual protit and improvement. A man who came along that way about dusk, said that he saw about thirty geese standing around in a circle looking re- proachfully at each other and ryin{fi to agree on some iethod by which they could all go home together without tarn- inzz a part of their crowd wrong side out, while behind a high board fence there was a boy who scemed to be enjoying himself in a small way, The mcident was reported to the hoy’ father, who came home and placed his son under a large dry goods box in the cellar, after which he piled three or four hundred pounds of coal on top of the inverted box. He then made a few re- marks for the boy's good, which were followed by the smothered remark, “Rats!" from the inside of the box. After ordering that the box should not be disturbed till his return, my friend put on his coat and went back to his work. This was just as the returns began to return in the autumn of 1884, My friend did not go home for two weeks; and for- ot all about the boy till 1t came time to o up his pumshing for the fortnight. When the trath flashed over him he was filled with the keenest remorse and went home as soon as he had sent in the last proof, but when he went down into the cellar he found the box empty and the following note written on it with a vencil: “Dear Paw do not weap for me 1 have went away from my happy home whare i was onct so gay and free do Not assas- inate maw becuz she Pride up the box with a stick Of cord-wood yesterday ana fed Me she left the box So'i could Bust 4th i am gone Far Far Away donot weap for me 1t is better for you and me to be Apart, ennyhow it is Detter for Me to be apart i like being Apart a Good deal bet- tor i think 1 will take a ham and a gar of Preserves of which iam passionately fond buti will Remunerate you some Day as heaven is my jugz so No moar at Present from your proddigie Son Henry.," BiLL NYE, March 8th. e Mrs. Mary Savage, of Greenwood, Mass, is eighty-four years old, and has a daughter aged fifty-six, a granddaughter aged thirty-six, a great-granddaughter ed seventeen, and a great-great-grand- daughter aged eight months. It is an unbroken line of females of five genera- tions. AR B * = » * Confident vice,to either sex, on delicate diseases. HBook 10 cents in stampa. Address, World's Dispensar Maedical Association, 663 Main St., Buf- falo, N. Y. iou: TAE L0SS OF_THE SULTAYA, fixteen Hundred Lives Lost in the Ex- plosion and Fire, THE CHIEF HORROR OF ThHE WAR. A Thrilling Story Told by One of the Aletter to the Chic Nows from Brazil, Ind., sa, Perry Summerville, late private company K, Forty-fiest Indi- ana cavalry yolunteers, now an unobiru- sive farmer residing near this city, is one of the 786 survivors of the Sultana, the ill-starred steamer whose tragic fate forms one of the saddost chapters in the history of the late war., Mr.Summerville has been granted a vension of $1 per month and $1,046 arrearages, On the morning of April 21, 1865, the Sultana, whose capacity, according to the Hon. John Covode, chairman of the war committee was 876 passengors, ar- rived at Vicksburg from New Orleans, haying on board passenger and crew to the number of 110, Her boiler was leak- mg badly, although examined at St. Louis on her last trip and pronounced all right, and theengineer refused to proceed further without repairs. The repairing done by competent mechanics, whose workmanship was praised by the engi- neer. The steamer remained at Vieks- rty-three hours, While there she ded by 1,596 federal soldiers and ofliy 15t released from An- lle and Chahawba prisons, mak- ing n total of 2,141—six times her capac- y.* The soldiers were mostly from Ohio id Indiana regiments. 1t 18 needless to say that they were huddled together like shoep in the shambles. Many of the sol- diers were yet sutfering from wounds re- ved in battle, and most of them were sactly emaerated from starvation in prison pens, as all conversant with Anderson- ville can testify. But now they were en route home, the cruel war being over, vl their cause triumphant, and the sion of loved ones greeting their return, and of dear, familiar's nd the quiet, peaceful life they were again to pursue— all this filled their hearts with joy. Memphis was shed on” April 26, After couling the steamer proceeded northward, At 2:30 a. m., just opposite Tagleman's Landing, and “without any warning, the steamer’s hoilers exploded with terrific force, and in a few mirutes the vessel had burned to the water's edge. No adequate cause has ever been assigned for the explosion. he steamer carried proper certilicates of worthiness and was running at the usual rate of sy nine or ten miles an hour. Lhe scene that followed was herrible beyond the pow er ofwords to depict; but it was of short duration, as the re of tke burning steamer thut illuminated the sky and made visible the despair of the hour soon died away, while darkness, more intense than ever, settled down on che tloating hulk, and 2,141 victims of the disaster. who, maimed or sealded, in ad- dition to battle wounds,were borne down by the unpitying flood, whose rapid cur- rent was strewn with the bodies of the dead and dying and of but a few appar- ently uninjured, Mr. Summerville tells his experience in these words. “My quarters were on the cabin deck on the guard to the left over and opposite the boiler: We got to Memphis on the evening of the 26th of April. There the steamer unloaded a large amount of sugar, after which she ran up to a conl barge and was taking on coal, and that was the 1 knew uh I found myself in the wal In the ex- plosion I must have been thrown 100 feet. Isank only once. My first thought was that the steamer was running close to shore and that I had been dragged off by a limb, I was very much excited for a few moments, not knowing what to do; then I struck out for the steamier. I had no sooner done so than I found some- thing was wrong on boarll. 1 could see steam and fire and hear screams and izro:ms proceeding from the steamer and her passengers, so I began to swim down strenm. I had not gone far till the steamer was wrapped in flames. The scene that follows beggars description, Scores of passengers, suddenly roused fromjslcep, were Killed outright: others bruised or sealded from the explosion, or scarcely able to crawl from wounds or starvation in prison, were throwing or dragging themselves into the river,many of them to find watery graves. “In swimming down the river, holding on to arail, I could see the timber on either bunk, but 1 could not make 1t into shore. About two miles above Memphis I succeeded in adding a large plank to my rail, which I drew across the front end, holding to the rail with my feet and the plank with my hands. [ lay so near the surface 1 suffered extremely from the cold. I was picked up at Memphus, my rescuer being a colored man, and placed on board a vessel. I had been in the water two hours, and was so chilled and numbed when taken out that I could not stand. Besides 1 had been scalded on the back and bruised on the breast in the ex- plosion. *‘1 have never loarned what became of Isaiah Brown, the man who occupied the berth with me on that fearful night. I have never heard of him, though ho was from the same county as myself, and it seems nobody else has. I had not been in the vessel where I was taken when picked up but a short time till a man was brought in who was 50 badly scalded that the skin slipped from his shoulders and arms, He was wrapped up in oii, but walked the floor in agony a short time only, and was dead. A mother who had floated the en- tire distance with a babe in her arms was picked up, but the babe was dead. ““The explosion was heardin Memphis, and the light of the burning steamer, re- flected on the sky, plainly discerned. The cause was apprehended. At yarious points above, and especially at Memphi the river was full of skiffs and canoe: and occasionally larger vessels, to rende: ssistance, if possible, to any of the vic- tims of the disaster who might be alive, and to pick up the charred and scalded and maimed remains of the dead, all s0 plentifully scatte ong the surface of the river.” At Bostona a soldier was over- taken who, with the aid of a plank, was endeavoring to save two little girls, rope was thrown him,in attempting to catch which the children slipped from his exhausted arms. Allthought of the rope seemed to escape him, and he beat about wildly to rogain his holpless chargzes, which were borne from him in the darkness by the current, He was finally rescued, but was nearly dead from exhaustion. A newly married couple,whose names I huve since learncd as Mr. and Mrs. S, W. Hardin, of Chicago, were passengers on the steamer. They were en route home on their honeymoon trip. They lingered on the wreck till compelled to jump overboard. At the same instant the cabin fell in with a crash, and all who had lingered thus late, wildly jumped into the river. The husband” was res- cued, but the wife was drawned. Nearly fourteen hundred were cither killed by the explosion or drowned, while of those rescued 300 died in hospitals in Memphis alone, “J well remember my experience in the water, Two miles below th ] the oxplosion n gunboat passed us going up the river, but 1t did not stop to pick up uny of the vietims. A little later on | hoard a horse coming down the river When he came near enough I could dis- tinguish a dozen men chnging to him. | kept clear of him, or rather the m.en, for fear of losing m, il. I have no means 2o t the Second Michigan cavalry, who fot quite a distance swam by ‘“X side; o1 rather floated, for he was asiride a bar All know Jerry, for ho was & grea ite, Mo strode his barrel as good od as ever, the circurustunces con- sidered. We would have cheered hime his presence and hopeful, buoyant dispo- sition so inspired us, had it not been that checring was altogether impractical, At times our company inereased (o quite a number, Je told us all t6 beo good cheer; that 'we would be rescued. am giad to say he was among the numver picked “up. A man named Kibbe floated near me for quite a dis tance, “After the rescue we spent a short time in the hospital at Memplis, when we were started for Camp Chase, O, At Iudianapolis we were stopped as Indiana soldiers by the great war governor, Morton. Their Kind treatment, and the ‘\rn'wnm‘ of loved ones soon nursed us pack to health and cansed us, in a meas: ure, to forget one of the darkest and most terrible disasters of war times i which, unfortunately, we were partiol- pants.” Notes About Old Folk: Mrs. Susan H. Hussey, of Great Falls, N. H,, died a few days ago aged nincty- four. Henry A. Breed, the oldest Free Mason in Lynn, Mass,, died, a few days ago, in the ninetieth year of his age. Joseph Gegan, & well known music teacher of Baltimore, Md., is dead at the age of cighty-two y native of [reland. The death of one Joseph Rieder, 107 years old, is reported from Ischberg, in the Tyrol. He entered the Austrian army in 1797, Robert Simpson, one of ¢he oldest drap- ors of Glasgow, Scotland, died recently aged eighty years® He had been in busi- ness fifty-nine years, “‘Uncle Sam’' Rogers, one of the oldest inhabitauts of Monmouth county, N. J., dicd of paralysis at his home in Red Bank yesterday, nged mincty. Captain Seth Nickerson, of Chatham, Ma the founder of the rehigious sect known as the “Come-outers,” is dead, at the age of cighty and six month: Mrs. Marie Laughlin died recently at Akron, N. Y,, at the age of 101 years. She en, 1 good health until within a few weeks of her demise. Martha Rease, for seventy-two years in the Shaker family at Enficld Conn., and fifty-two years in an oflicial capacity among them, died a few days ago at the age of eighty-two years. Mrs. Susan B, widow of the late Hon, Willinm Pickering, who was state treas- urer for New Hampshire a number of years, died in Portsmouth, N. H., April 17, aged eighty rs. Mrs. Sallic F. Baldwin, of Effiingham, ., visited the namli-liro at that city, re: cently. She walked about two miles,and said she folt very little fatigued. Baldwin is eighty-three years old. Joseph W. Hall, who was postmaster of the old District of Kensington, Phila- delphia, from 1844 to 1852, died April 15, at his residence, 1309 Germantown uave: nue, at the age of nincty-two years. Mr. Homer Morgan, a native of West- field, M , but since 1830 a prominent resident of New York, died recently,over eighty-six years of age. He was i tho dry goods and afterwards the real estate business. Henry Ihmer, the olddst locomotive engineer in the United States, died a few days ago in Whistler, Ala. He ran the first engine over the ‘Churleston & Ham- burg road, the third railrond built in thig The driversof the engine were d wood. rah Headley,Bucks county's (Pa.) en. ergetic octogenarian farmer is dend. She He was a of knowing whether the poor horse sayed the poorer men clinging to him or not. 1 was finally overtaken by Jerry Perker, of had for more than sixty 1 ars 4 farm of nearly one hundred acres in Bristol town- ship, d at the advanced age of eighty-six years, In her long term of widowhood she acquired a great reputa- tion throughout the lower portion of Bucks county for the enterprising man- agement of her farm. sainesville (Ga,) Eagle: A friend forms us that he attended church at Laurel Hill, two miles west of town, last Sunday,and met there old Granny Scrog- ins, as she is called, 107 years oid, who ad walked a mile with her daughter, Mrs. Mabry, who is seventy-seven, from home about a mile away, tothe meeting. Inthe congregation of thirty or forty persons, there were some nine or ten octogenarians,most of whom had walked a considerablo distance to the church, 1 appeared in good health and sur- prising vigor. Thisspeaks well for the he althfulness of our Piedmont region. a v who s Washington countv, Pa., has n of three wars in Isham White, ?‘M that he born in southern Georgia in 1776. He was one of those who fought behind the cotton bales under General and thinks it was a bullet frgm his musket, that killed * General Packenham, the commander. of the British forces on that occasion, He Florida in 1836, and was a volunteer under General Winfield Scott in Mexico His love for *0ld Hickory' amounts almost to rever- ence, and he says that he votes for himat eve ry presidential election, There w ere interred in Didsbury, Epg- land, recently a mother and her daugh- ter, whose united ages totalled 158 years. ‘The old lady, Mrs.%h\ry Bihell, a widow having attained to the patriarchal age of ninety-two, and her daughter Hannah to sixty-one. For many years past the two have lived together, oceupying ome cot- tage for over half a century, and Mrs. Bithell was Iy"rmr the oldest rosident in the village. They were united in their lives, their deaths having occurred within twenty-four hours of each other, on Friday and Saturd ast, The de- ceased husband of M Bithell -formerly occupied the Didsbury hotel In the lower part of Coffee county, Ga. ives Mr. Stafford Davis, a relative of the ident of the Southern Confederacy, now 106 years old. He served through the war of 1812 and the Mexican war, but has never received a pension for his services and has never asked for one. When twenty-nine years of age he married a Miss Lot, and now dren, grandcehildren and children tothe number of his wife died e sixty years of married life, and recently he led to the altar a blushing bride of fifty summers. Mr. Davis hus been strong and hearty until this year, but is now quite fechl Mrs. Anne Penalope Hoare died re- cently in London at the age of 101 years, e was the daughter of Genera] Sir George Ainslie; was born in the year of Warren Hastings' impeachment,” seven years before the French revolution and twelve before the battle of the Nile. S was already a widow and thirty- s old when, in the first married Mr. Henry € Houre, of Fleot strect. She was twenty- nine when Waterloo was fought, and already *“‘ont’” when Nelson fell at Tra- falgar. Mrs. Hoare was probably the oldest woman in the whole metropolis. Mrs. Christana Knabe, w'dow of Mr. Wm. Knabe, and mother of Ernest and William Knabe, the piano manufacturers, died 1n Baltimore,Md., April 21, where she resided with her sons. She had arrived at the age of eighty-two years, fifty-fout of which sho had passed i Baltimore, ta he came with her husband in 1833, » Mciningen, Gormany, her na: Mrs. Knabe's kindly and Y arted disposition, and the’ inter- which she continued to the last to show in the workmen attached to the pinno factory under the direction of her husbands and sons, won for her a large irele of devoted friends. Her health began to fail a year ago. Her appear- ance at the snnual picnic of the factory workmen was always an interesting event. is served :&;:uinsl the Indians in