SANS BY ENIET DIVAS GOSPEL MESSAGES. Martyrdom of Stephen the Theme For an Able Sermon — Glimpses of Heaven Through the Eyes of the Great Preacher — The Eternal Sleep. Text: “Behold I see the opened,” ete.—Acts vii., 56-60. Stephen had been preaching a rousing sermon, and the people could not stand it. They resolved to do as men sometimes would like to do in this day, if they dared, with some plain preacher of righteousness —kill him. The only way to silence this man was to knock the breath out of him. So they rushed Stephen out of the gates of the city, and with curse .and whoop and bellow they brought him to the cliff, as was the custom when they wanted totake away life by stoning. Having brought him to the edge of the cliff, they pushed him off. After he had fallen they came and looked down, and seeing that he was not yet dead they began to drop stones upon him, stone after stone. Amid this horrible rain of missiles Stephen clambers up on his knees and folds his hands, while the blood drips from his temples to his cheeks, from his cheeks to his garments, from his garments to the ground, and then, looking up, he mukes two prayers—one for himself and one for his murderers. “Lord Jesus, re- heavens the stones hurt his head nor what would become of his body. His first thought was about his spirit. ‘“‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” The murderer standing on the tray door, the black cap being drawn over his head before the execution, may grimace about the future, but you and I have no shame in confessing some anxiety about where we are going to come out. You are not all body. There is within you a soul. I see it gleam from your eyes, and I see it irradiating your countenance, Sometimes I am abashed before an audience, not be- cause I come under their physical eyesight, but because I realize the truth that I stand before so many immortal spirits. The probability is that your body avill at last find a sepulcher in some of the cemeteries that surround your town or city. There is no doubt that your obsequies will be decent and respectful, and you will be able to pillow your head under the maple or the Norway spruce or the eypress or the bloom- ing fir. But this spirit about which Stephen prayed—what direction will that take? What guide will escort it? What gate will open to receive it? What cloud will be cleft for its pathway? After it has got beyond the light of our sun will there be torches lighted for it the rest of the way? Will the soul have to travel through land? If we should lose our pathway, will there be a castle at whose gate we may ask the way to the city? Oh, this myste- rious spirit within us! It has two wings, but it is in a cage now. Itis locked fast to keep it. but let the. door of this eage opén the least and that soul is off. Eagle's wing could not cateh it. The lightnings are not swift enough to take up with it. When ceive my spirit;’” that was for - himself. “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge:” | that was for his assailants. Then from pain | and loss of blood he swooned away and fell | asleep. > I want to show you to-day five pictures— Stephen gazing into heaven, Stephen look- ing at’ Christ, Stephen stoned, Stephen in | his dying prayer and Stephen asleep. First look at Stephen gazing into heaven. Before you take a leap you want to know where you are going tc land. Before vou climb a ladder you want to know to what point the ladder reaches. And it was right thatStephen, within a few mements of heav- en, should be gazingjinto it. We would all do well to be found in the same posture. There is enough in heaven to keep us gazing. A man of large wealth may have statuary in the hall and paintings in the sitting room and works of art in all parts of the house, but he has the chief pictures in the art gal- lery, and there hour after hour you walk with catalogue and glass and ever increas- ing admiration, Well heaven is the gallery where God has gathered the chief treas- ures of his realm. The whole universe is his palace. Inthis lower room where we stop there are many adornments, tessella- ted floor of amethyst, and on the winding cloud stairs are stretched out canvases on which commingle azure and purple and saffron and gold. But heaven isthe gallery in which the chief glories are gathered. There are the brightest robes. There are the richest crowns. "There are the highest exhilarations. John says ofit, “The kings of the earth shall bring their honor and glory into it.” And I see the procession forming, and in the line come all empires, and the stars spring up into an arch for the hosts to march under. The hosts keep step to the sound of earthquake and the pitch of avalanche from the mountains, and the flag they bear is the flame of a con- suming world, and all heaven turns out with harps and trumpets and myriad voiced acclamation of angelic dominion to wel- come them in, and sothe kings of the earth bring their honor and glory into it. Do you wonder that good people often stand, like Stephen, looking into heaven? We have many friends there. 3 There is not a man in this house to- day so isolated in life but there is some one in heaven with whom heonce shook hands. As a man gets older the number of his celestial acquaintances very rapidly mul- tiplies. We have not had one glimpse of them since the night we kissed them good- by, and they went away, but still we stand gazing at heaven. And when some of our friends go across the sea, we stand on the dock or on the steam tug and watch them, and after awhile the hulk of the vessel disappears, and then there is only a patch of sail on the sky, and soon that is gone, and they are all out of sight, and yet we stand looking in the same direction, so when our friends go way from us into the future world we keep’ looking down through the narrows, and gazing and gaz- ing, as though we expected that they would come out and stand on some cloud and give us one glimpse of their blissful and transfigured faces. Pass on now and see Stephen looking upon Christ. My text says he saw the Son of Man at theright hand of God. Just how Christ looked in this world, just how He looks in heaven, we cannot say. A writer in the time of Christ says, describing the Saviour’s personal appearance,. that He had blue eyes and light complexion, and a very graceful structure, but I suppose it was all guesswork. The painters of the different ages have tried to imagine the features of Christ and put them upon can- vas, but we will have to wait until with ,our own eyes we-see Him and with our own ears we can hear Him. And; yet there is a way of seeing and hearing Him now. I have to tell you that unless you see and hear Christ on earth you will never see and hear Him in heaven. Look! There He is! Behold the Lamb of God! Can you not see Him? Then pray to God to takethe scales off your eyes. Look that way—try to look that way. His voice comes down to you this day—comes down to the blindest, to the deafest soul, saying, “‘Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God, and there is none else.” Proclamation of universal emancipation for all slaves! Proclamation of universal amnesty for all rebels! Belshazzar gath- ered the Babylonish nobles to his table; George I, entertained the lords of England at a banquet; Napoleon ITI, welcomed the Czar of Russia and the Sultan of Turkey to bis feast; the Emperor ‘of Germany was glad to have our minister, George Ban- croft, sit down with him at his table, “ut tell me, ye who know most of the world’s history, what other king ever asked the abandoned and the forlorn and the wretch- ed and outeast to come and sit beside him? Oh, wonderful invitation! You «an take it to-day and stand at the head of the darkest alley in any city and say: “Come! Clothes for your rags, salve for your sores, a throne for your eternal reigning.” A Christ that talks like that and acts like that and pardons like that—do you wonder that Stephen stood looking at Him? I hope to spend eternity doing the same thing. I must see Him. I ‘pass on now and look at Stephen stoned. The world has always wanted to get rid of good men. Their very life is an assault upon wickedness, Out with Stephen through the gates of the city. Down with him over the precipices. Let every mancomeup and drop a stone upon his head. But these men did not so much kill Stephen as they killed themselves. Every stonerebounded upon them. While these murderers were transfixed by the scorn of all good men, Stephen lives in the admiration of all Christendom. Stephen stoned, but Sfephen alive. So All good men must be pelted. All who "will live godly in Jesus Christ must suffer persecu- tion. It js no eulogy of a man to say that everybody likes him. Show me anyone who is doing all his duty tostate or church, and I will show you mem who utterly abhor him. 5 If all men speak well of you, it is because vou are either a laggard or a dolt. If a steamer makes rapid progress through the waves, the water wilk boil and foam all around it. Brave scldiers of Jesus Christ - will hear the carbines click. When I see a - man with voice and money and influence all on the right side, and some caricature him, and somesneer at him, and some de- nounce him, and men who pretend to be actuated by right motives conspire to erip- ple him, to east him out, to destroy him, I | say, “Stephen stoned.” a uss on now and see Stephen in hisdying prayer. His flrst thought was wusi how ¥ i though the soul leaves the body, it takes fifty worlds at a bound. And have I no anxiety about it? Have you no anxiety about it? I do not care what vou de with my body when my soul is gone, or whether you believe in cremation or inhumation. I shall sleep just a3 well in a wrapping of sackeloth as in satin lined with eagle’s down. Dut my soul —before this day passes I will find out where it will land. Thank God for the intimation of my text, that when we die Jesus takes us. That answers all questions for me. What though th re were massive bars between here and the city of light, What though there were great Saliaras of darkness, Jesus could illumne them. What I get weary on the way, Christ could lift me on His omnipotent shoulder. What though there were chasms to cross, His hand could transport me. Then le Stephen’s prayer be my dying litany, *‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” We may be too feeble to employ either of these familiar forms, but this prayer of Stephen is so short, is so coneise, is so earn- est, is so comprehensive, we surely will bs ablg to say that — ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Ob, if that prayer is answered, how sweet it will be to die! This world is clever enough to wus. Perhaps it has treated us a great deal better than we de- serve to be treated, but if onthe dying pil- low there should break the light of that better world we shail have no more regret about leaving a small, dark, damp houso for one large, beautiful and eapacious. That dying minister in Philadelphia, some years ago, beautifully depicted it when in the last moment he threw up his hands and cried out, “I move into the light.” Pass on now, and I will show you one more picture, and that is Stephen asleep. With a pathos and simplicity peculiar to the Scriptures the text says of Stephen, “He fell asleep.” place that was to sleep! A hard rock under him, stones falling down upon him, the blood streaming, the mob howling. What a place it was to sleap!” And yet my text takes that symbol of slumber to deseribe his departure, so sweet was it, so con- tented was it, so peaceful was it. Stephen had lived a very laborious life. His chief work had been to care for the poor. many loaves of bread he distributed, how manybare feet he had sandaled. how many cots of sickness and ‘distress he blessed with ministries of kindness and love, I do not know, but from the way he lived, and the way he preached, and the way he died I know he was a laborious Christian. But that is all over now. He has pressed the cup to the last fainting lip. He has taken the last insult from his enemies. The last stone to whose erushing weight he is susceptible has been hurled. Stephen is dead. Thedisciples come. They take him up. They wash away the blood from the wounds. They straighten out the bruised limbs. They brush back the tangled hair from the brow, and then they pass around to look upon the calm countenance of him who had lived for the poor and died for the truth. Stephen asleep! I saw such a one. He fought all his days against poverty and against abuse. Théy traduced his name. They rattled atthe doorknob while he was dying with duns for debts he could not pay, yet the peace of God brooded over his pil- low, and while the world faded heaven dawn®d, and the deepening twilight ot earth’s night was only theopening twilight of heaven’s morn. Not a sigh, not a tear; not a struggle. Hush! Staphen asleep! I have not the faculty to tell the weather. I can never tell by the setting sun whether there will be a drought or not. TIcannot tell by the blowing of the wind whether it will be fair weather or foul on the mor- row. But I can prophesy, and I will prophesy, what weather it will be when you, the Christian, come to die. You may have it very rough now. It may be this week one annoyance, the next another annoyance. It may be this year one bereavement, the next another bereavement. Before this year has passed you may have to beg for bread or ask for a scuttle of coal ora pair of shoes, but at the last Christ will come in and darkness will go out, and though there may be no hand to olose your eyes, and no breast on which to rest your dying head, and no candle to lift the night, the odors of God’s hanginz garden will regale your soul, and at ycur bedside will halt the chariots of the King. No morerents to pay, no mors agony because flour has gone up, no more struggle with *‘the world, the flesh and the devil,” but peace | Stephen | —long, deep, everlasting peace. asisen! You have seen enough for one morning. No one can successfully examine more than five pictures in a day. Therefore we stop, having seen this cluster of divine Raphaels—Stephen gazing into heaven, Stephen looking nt Christ, Stephen stoned, Stephen in his dying prayer, Stephen asleep! CREAT COAL PRODUCTION, All Records Were Broken, But the Price Per Ton Decrensed. The total output of coal in the United States in 1897-amounted anproximately to 198,250,000 short tons, with an acgragate value of $193,100,000, a fraction less than 21 per ton. : Compared with 1890, this shows an in- crease in tonnage of 6,270,030 tous, or about 8.3 per cent. The increase in the value of the product was only $1,700,000, little less than nine-teaths of one per cent. The amount of coal produced in 1897 was the largest on record. The average value per ton was the lowest ever knowa, con- tinuing the declininz tendency whish has been shown without any reaction for the last six years. NOVEL ARMOR FOR THE NEWARK. Inner Coating of Cement to Be Used With Cellulose Packing. The big protected United States crusier Newark, which has been at the Norfolk (Va.) Navy Yard for some months under- going extensive repairs, has been selected as the subject fora naval experiment. The efficacy of cellulose on warships it is be- lieved can be increased by the use of a heavy coating of cement all the way around the hull of the vessel. This will really form an additional belt of protection, which it is believed will i prove effective against rapid-fire guns. The i Newark is now being prepared for her novel , armor, Jesus could remove them. How | (B: SHBBMTR SEROL ESSE INTERNATIONAL LESSON COMMENTS : - FOR MAY | he Lesson Text: “The Triumphal ¥ntry,” Matthew xxi., 6-16—Golden Text: Mate thew xxi., 9=Commentary on the Les- son of the Day by Rev. D. M. Stearns. 6. “And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.” The time had come to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah, quoted in the previous verse from Zech. ix., 9, and, like all other fulfillments of prophecy, it shall be literally fulfilled, the King of Israel, the meek and lowly One, shall ride upon an ass colt into Jerusalem. Thera is a set time known to God for the fulfillment of every prediction and a sufficient reason for all seeming delays. It was when the fullness of the time was come that God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law (Gal. iv., 4, 5). Everything concerning Him and His great redemption shall take place at the appointed time. 7. “And brought the ass and the colt and put on them their clothes, and they set Him thereon.” Hehadtold them to go into the village, and as soon as they entered it they would find a colt tied, which they were to loose and bring to Him. It is written that they went their way and found even as He had said unto them (Mark xi., 2-4; Luke xix., 20-52), The disciples did not have to hire a eolt and have it at the ap- pointed place at the appointed time. He Himself arranged it all. When a king was to be provided for Israel, Samuel did not have to wonder what kind of a man would do and then scour the countryto find him, but the Lord said, “I will send thee a man, and thou shalt anoint him” (I Sam. ix., 16). 8. “And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in the way.” Not only their gar- ments on the colt, but also on the ground to honor Him. The whole event is#most suggestive in a very practical way for ihose who have eyes to see and ears to hear. In Job xi., 12, man is compared to a wild ass colt. This colt had never been subdued, was found tied where two ways met, wasloosed and brought to Jesus, an instrament to carry Him, itself hidden, but Jesus exalted. 9. “And the multitudes that went be- fore and that followed cried, saying: Ho- sanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Losd. Ho- sanna in the highest!’’ Their cry takes us to Ps. exviii., 25, 26, and verse 14 of that salm takes us to Isa. xii., 2, and back to X.Xv., 2, and all carry us on to the ful- filllment of our Lord’s words in Math. xxili., 39, whea they should indeed wel- come and receive Him in the words of Isa. xxv. 9 10. ‘“And when He was come into Je- rusalem all the city was moved, saying, Who {s this?” Dr. Weston says that it should be, “All the city was shaken,’ and he calls attention to the same word in Math. xxvii., 51; xxviil., 4; Heb. xii., 26. This last takes us back to Hag. ii., 6, 7, 21, and onward to the time when He will | eome in power and glory, not on an ass | colt, but as a man of war upon the white “Oh,” you say, ‘““‘what a | horse, followed by all the armies of heaven (Rev. xix., 11-16). 11. ‘““And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.” But there was doubtless more in the testi- mony of one Nathaniel than in a multitude of these voices when he said: ‘Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel” (John i., 49). What does your own heart say? What is He to you personally, for He expects from every one an answer to the question, What think ye of Christ? He does not leok for viords merely, but for a heart utterance. 12. “And Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves. Compare John ii., 13-16. It is very significant and con- tains a most heart searching lesson that He should do the same thing both at the beginning and end of His ministry. It re- minds us that in us, who are temples of the Holy Ghost, He desires truth in the inward parts; that He wants hone of the entangle- ments of this world in His people’s hearts, but that our lives should make it manifest that, though in the world, we are not of the world, but citizens of heaven and here for His service and pleasure only. 13. “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Speaking of Christ in Heb. iii., 6, the Spirit says, ‘Whose house are we?” and in Eph. ii., 21, 22, “An holy temple in the Lord, an habitation of God through the Spirit,” are the names given to the church, which is His body. The church collectively and every believer individually is a house in which the Spirit desires to make constant prayer on the lines of Math. ix., 88; Isa. Ixil., 6,-7, and Rev. xxii., 20, but if, instead of being wholly given up to Him for such prayer and corresponding service, we are given over to selfishness and worldliness and our own thoughts and ways, are we not more guilty than Israel, inasmuch as our privileges are greater, being His body? 14. “And the blind and the Jame came to | Him in the temple, end He healed them.” Not to make money and gather substance is the great thing in life, but to have to give to those who need (Eph. iv., 28). To be a means of bringing the grace of God and the riches of His grace to those who know it not and know him not—this is life indeed. To be a channel of blessing from the great and enly fountain (Jer. ii., 13), to the poor and the perishing—this is Christlike. 15. “And when the chief priests and goribes saw the wonderful things that Ho did and the children crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were sore displeased.” Truly they were the {lg tree with leaves only (verse 19), the troe that had been specially dealt with for three years (Luke xili., 6-9), the wicked husbandmen of Math. xxi., 38. Oh, how patiently He had borne with theml How He would have blessed them if they had only been willing! But they would not. They would have none of Him. 16. “And said unto Him, Hearest thou what these say? And .esus saith unto them, Yea, Have yo neve- read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” I have wondered if they were never ashamed as Ho repeatedly re- ferred them to their own Scriptures, which they prefessad to honor so, or were they past all shame and dead to all but their own thoughts and ways? They would not let Him makes them children of God, and yet they vainly thought that they were such. So He left them and went out of the city to Bethany and’ lodged there (verse 17).—Lesson Helper. The Japanese Government has under . consideration a plan for the establish- ment of banks with foreign capital. The plan, as outlined, is designed to encourage foreigners to become inter- ested in the support of industrial en- terprises in Japan. What struck a Fiume, Austria, ware- house and set it on fire turns out to have been a meteor. It was assumed to have been lightning till a four-ton met- eoric stone was found in a deep hole in the cellar. The largest proportion <Y¥ single per- sons is found in Ireland and Scotland, and the smallest in the United States. In Irelard 67 per cent, in Scotland 6&5 per cent, but in the United States only b9 per cent are in that condition. The Belgian government offers a prize of $10,000 to anyone who will dis- cover a chemical that will take place of white phosphorus in match- making. the. KEYSTONE STATE NEWS CONDENSED HEIRS DISSATISFIED. Salvation Army Receives a Large Bequest of Real Estate. Charles Eaton, of Hickory township, leaves in a few days for St. Paul, Minn., to settle up a vast estate left by his brother, who died about a year ago. The brother, in his will, left $60,000 in rcal estate to the Salvation army, which portion of the will’ has been hot- ly contested. An agreement has been made whereby the Salvation army will accept $10,000 and pay half the costs in the case, Jonathan Eaton, another brother, of Sharon, was cut off with $1,000. The following pensions were granted last week: . W. P. Levy, Scalp Level, $8; Peter Karleskind, Newville, Cum- berland, $8; Thomas Barnes, Hunting: don, 38; John T. Tarr, Hammondville, $8 to 312; Andrew Dean, Uniontown, $2; Samuel T. Reed, Tyrone, $8 to $12; David Polard, Rimersburg, $8 to $12; Christian Flannigan, Garland, $8 to $12; Albert Roberts, Beliefonte, $6 to $S: Charles B. Reddick, Allegheny, $12: Anna Hucker, Pittsburg, $8: Anna I. Glim, Hazelton, $8; Elizabeth ‘L.. Has- ley, Allegheny, 3S; Matthew 8S. Mec- Garvey, North Hope, Butler, $8: John Wilson Shields, Gilpin, Indiana, $8; Joseph L. Kerr, dead, Apollo, $6 to $12: G. M. Reeser, Mehaffey, $12 to $14: Adam Maize, Armstrong, Center, $6 tu 38; John P. Webb, Alexandria, Hun- tingdon, $6 to $8; Charles Bowers Bellefonte, $6 to $8; John A. Bruner Ford City, $6 to $10; Zachariah Bliler, Brookville, $8 to $10; Robert ¥. Law, Horatio, $6 to $10; John T. Warden Indiana, $8 to $10; Daniel” Hendricks. Heshbon, $10 to $12; Jacob Bernett Newry, $16 to $17; Christiana Bittner Meyersdale, $12; Sarah. Ann Turner, Julian, Center, $8; Susan Mitchell, Kossuth, Clarion, 88; Nancy Stroup Franklin, $8; Elizabeth Xerr, Apollo, $8; Mexican war widow, Apoclina Hoh- mann, Erie, $8; Robert M. Dunn, Rew, McKean, $6; William Reynolds- ville, $6; Abraham J. Riggle, Coyleville Butler, $6 to $8; W. Wagner, Pittsburg, $6 to $10; Money C. Zeigler, Shade Gap Huntingdon, $8 to $10; Franklin Crise Kecksburg, $8 to $10; William Mec- Haffey, McKeesport, $6 to Miers Powell, Smiths Ferry, $8 to 2; John T. McCandless, Euclid, Butler, $12; John Doty, Rochester Mills, Indiana. $10; Andrew J. Gosser, Irwin, $6 to $12; Mary G. Kruger, Renova, $8; Lucinda Mitchell, Nolo, Indiana, $12; Huldah Spricer, Confluence, $8; Hannah Adams Milledgeville, Mercer, $3; Rebecca L. Henderson, Black Gap, Franklin, $12; Barbara Teeter, Mother, New IEnter- prise, Bedford, $12; Margaret A. Fan- saught, Pittsburg, $8; Rosilla Mahoney, Carbondale, $12. Deputy Attorney General W. BF. Reeder, at the request of the Center county commissioners, handed down an opinion regarding the right of tax as- sessors to assess ore and other mineral rights to an individual or corporation when the land covered by the right is assessed to another party. General Reeder holds that the commissioners have the right to do so, and that it is obligatory on them to have all such rights assessed, and that such taxes san be collected the same as any other tax on real estate. John J. Laue, an cil man at Sample, in attempting to alight from a freight train the other day, was thrown be- neath the wheels in such a manner as to grind his entire left arm into a quivering mass. Laue was dragged in this mangled condition for some dis- tance and hurled into a stream. His desperate struggles in attempting tc keep his head above water attracted a passerby and he was rescued. Hopes are entertained cf his recovery. The northbound passenger train on the Pittsburg & Lake Irie road col- lided with the New Castle branch pas- senger at New Castle Junction the sther afterncon. The branch train was sn the siding and the wreck was due to an open switch. The main line train, due at 3:42, crashed into it, wrecking both engines. Several people were in- jured, but none seriously. The road was blocked for an hour. Both en- gineers and firemen jumped. A shooting affray betwen two colored men, which may result in murder, cc- curred the other night at Gallitzin. Robert Barber— was shot three times by George Clark, alias “Roving Jack,” and is at the hospital at Altoona in a bad condition. Clark escaped. Barber says Clark came to his room when he was asleep, aroused him and began shooting. The trouble was the result of an old feud. Secretary of Agriculture Edge has been conducting a quiet test of the milk supply of Pittsburg and Philadelphia and the report ¢f the former examina- tion has been filed. Samples were se- tected from the milk at farms, dairies, railroad depots, milk wagons, groceries and restaurants, and the conciusion reached. that Pittsburg has - furnished the poorest sample found anywhere in the Statue, Fire at the mineral spring resort of Saegertown Tuesday morning desiroy- ed Porter's carriage shop, loss $12,000; Appleby’s jewelry store, building: and stock, loss $5,000; Hornschenn &- By- ham’s undertaking and furniture store loss $500; Mrs. Miller's dwelling house, {oss $2,000. The total loss above insur- ance will be $20,000. The big hotels nar- rowly escaped the flames. Philip Brandt, 26 years old, a brake- nian on ‘the C. C. & Y., railroad, was run over by the caboose of his train at Pittsburg and cut entirely in two. The body was found: by fellow-workingmen jast Saturday. Brandt leaves a widow and one child. Mrs. Drandt’s first hus- band was killed in the same manner and almost in the same place some years ago. Harry, a 2-year-old son of Frank Truesdale, of. Shenango township, wkile playing about a horse the other morning, received injuries that will likely cause his death. The animal kicked him in the face. His jawbone was broken in a half dozen places, sev- eral teeth were knocked out and his lips and nose were frightfully cut. Miss Mary Solomecn, employed at the Hotel Simpson, at New Castle, was found in bed a few days ago suffer- ing intensely from poison. She was un- conscious. - There is no evidence that she took the poison with suicidal in- tent, and the case is wrapped in mys- tery. She cannot live. Near Webster, a few days ago, Ar- chie Keltz was shot in the neck by Dick Speer while shooting at a mark and may not recover. Thomas Robinson of Butler has re- signed, on account of ill-health, as su- perintendent of public printing Thomas M. Jones, a Harrisburg news- paper man, succeeds him. Griest & Graham suffered a $2,500 loss by fire at their lime works at Carbon, Lawrence county, following ~lozely on an incline wreck that caused $3.000 damage. Because her will was nct drawn thir- ty days prior to death the bequest of $1,000 made by Mrs. Rhue Hull to the Greenville Presbyterian church is said to be invalid. g A man named Irwin, a stranger, 30 years old, was found unconscious sad nearly drowned in a bathtub in a bar- har shon in Butlee tha athir dw. > ee, is | fully arranged ‘stars, are manufactured «by flag-making firms and by every sail MAKING THE $ SKK HOAX 9H HOGI It is an excellent time to talk about ags, particularly the American flag— the finest of them all. It takes an in- credible number of them to supply the annual demands of the nation. Nobody knows how many are made. There is one firm in Elizabeth street, says the New York World, that msnu- factures more than 150,000,000 each year, and there are scores of other makers in this country. From which it may be inferred that there are half a dozen flags made annually for each man, woman and child in the United States. Of course the majority of these flags are little affairs three inches long and two inches wide, which sell for twenty- seven cents a gross. They are printed: on muslin and are turned out by the million. Cheap muslin flags are made pix feet long and forty inches wide. The good flags, those made of bunt- oF) ing, sewed toggther, and with care- oie 3 m and awning maker in the country. ~ STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. HOW PRETTY MAIDS AND OLD SALT SEA DOGS WORK : UPON THE GLORIOUS EMBLEM. SS NEEL NN INS PL WNW SY The most interesting place where flags are made is Building No. 7 in the | Brooklyn Navy-Yard. There every! flag used in the United States navy is | made. There are the various United | States flags, signal flags, pennants, en- | signs, flags of high officials, from the | President of the United States down, ! and the flags of forty-three foreign | nations. Wherefore it will be seen that the flag outfitof a United States warship is pretty extensive. Just now the workers under James Crimmins, master flagmaker, are very busy. Nowhere are flags so carefully made. Every star, stripe, bar and device is measured to geometrical ac- curacy, and each flag must stand a strength test. They are being turned out at the rate of 100 a week. 4 NPN WN CII 4 OR 1046 OH IR ISIRIR IR IR IR IR IR IR IR IR IR IRIS IR IR IRIAN turesque workers. Theyare two old sailors, and expert sailmakers. It is their business to put on the finishing touches—the rings, the tape that adds strength, and many other things. They wear a white canvas uniform, use the queer sailmakers’ thimble and talk in a fascinating sea jargon. Directly the flags are finished they must be measured. Triangles, squares and stars of polished brass mark off the floor. If a flag is an inch or two out of the way it is re- jected. The width of an American ensign must be ten-nineteenths of its length. The largest flag made at the Navy Yard is thirty-six feet long and nineteen feet wide. The foreign flags give the greatest trouble. Some of the designs are ex- tremely intricate and the colors are us PRETTY GIRLS WHO MAKE THE STARS AND STRIPES. The bunting is made in Massachu- jetts. It is entirely of wool and of the best quality. It must have so many threads and a fixed tensile strength. The colors must be fast. The stripes are cut out just as cloth- ing is cut, in many layers at a time, by means of a circular knife that is kept as sharp as a razor. Then they nre sent to the sewing-room, where skillful young women sew the stripes ‘ogether and place the blue field in slace. The stars are cut out thirty at a Ame by means of a cold chisel and a big iron-bound mallet. Folds of goods, smoothly woven, of a standard grade, ave laid in yard lengths, thirty thicknesses together, on a large square block made of cubes of oak, put together with the grain running in different directions. A metal star, used as a model, is placed onthe mus- lin and carefully marked around with a lead pencil. Then the workman places his chisel on the pencil line AN OLD SALT MAKING THE NAVAL MILITIA FLAG. and drives it through. A few blows and a constellation of thirty snowy stars are released. The sewing of the stars upon the blue field is very exacting work. There are ninety stars on eack flag, forty-five on either side, and they are put on so evenly and carefully that when the flag is held up to the light there appears to be but one star. The stitching is -wonderfully even and dainty, The flagmakers are the most pic- Josepl’s coat. At one time these de: signs were painted, bu: they didn’t last. Now the color is cut out by it- self and sewed in place. It requires expert needlewomen-to do this work. One of the most difficult flags to make is that of China. It is triangular in shape, a brilliant yellow, with @ black, open-mouthed dragon crawling about. One of the most beautiful flags is that of the President of the United States. It has the coat-of- arms of the nation on g-blue field, sur- rounded with stars. The eagle is white, and the shield he holds is properly colored: There has been a deal of dispute over the evolution of the American flag. ‘When the Revolutionary War broke out the flags used by the colo- nists were English ensigns, bearing the Union Jack, upof which were written ‘‘Liberty and Union” or other similar expressions.. Then were de- veloped the Pine-Tree flag, the Rat- tlesnake flag and many others. The American ensign was adopted in 777 by the Continental Congress. There is a dispute as to the significance of the flag. The explanation accepted as the most probable is thAt the blue field is intended to represent the night of affliction that in 1777 sur- rounded the thirteen States, which were typified by the white stars ar- arranged in a circle, signifying the endless duration of the new Nation, "while the stripes were chosen out of compliment to New York and the Dutch Republic, and were a compli- ment to Republican principles. : The number of stripes symbolized the thirteen States, the first and thir- teenth, both red, representing New Hampshire and Georgia respectively. General Washington was a member of the committee appointed to design a flag. Mrs. John Ross, of Philadel- phia, made the first flag. She de- signed the five-pointed star. John Paul Jones put the new flag to the first public use. He ran it up to the masthead of the Ranger. The flag, strangely enough, had byt twelve stars, probably due to a blunder. Jones had the same flag ox the Bon Homme Richard. Of course everybody knows that each star in the flag represents a State, and that for two years the en- sign had fifteen stripes; the addi- tional one representing Vermont and Kentucky. The flag has been un- changed, save for the adding of stars, since 1818. -
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers