iy 1, AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE. Subject: “Different Modes of Measuring the Flight of Time’'—Life Should Not Be Wholly a Span of Years-—The Carse of Wealth—The True Gauge. TExT: “How old art thou?’—Genesis xlvii., 8. The Egvptian capital was the focus of the world’s wealth: In ships and barges thers had been.brought to it from India frankincensplnd cinnamon and ivory and diamonds; ffom the north, marble and iron; from Syria, purple and silk; from Greece, some of the finest horses of the world and some of the most brilliant char- jots, and from all the earth that which could best please the eye and charm the ear and gratify the taste. There were tem- ples aflame with red sandstone, entered by Msthe gateways that were guarded by pillars ~ Ly bewildering with hieroglyphics.and wound with brazen serpents and adorned with winged oreatures, their eyes and beaks and pinions glittering with precious stones; there were marble columns blooming into white flower beds; there were stone pillars, at the top bursting into the shape of the lotus when in full bloom. Along the avenues, lined with sphinx and fane and obelisk, there were princes who came in gorgeously . upholstered palanquins, carried by servants in scar- let or elsewhere drawn by vehicles, the snow-white horses, golden-bitted and six abreast, dashing at full run. On foors of mosaic the glories of Pharaoh were spelled out in letters of porphyry and beryl and flame. There were ornaments twisted from the wood of tamarisk, em- bossed with silver breaking into foam. here were footstools made out of a single precious stone. There were beds fashioned out of a crouched lion in bronze. There were chairs spotted with the sleek hides of leopards. There were sofas footed with the claws of wild beasts and armed with the beaks of birds. As you stand on the level beach of the sea on a summer day and look either way, and there are miles of breakers, white with the ocean foam, dashing shoreward, so it seemed as if the sea of the world’s pomp and wealth in the Egyptian capital for miles and miles flung itself up into white breakers of marble temple, mausoleum and obelisk. It was to this capital and the palace of Pharaoh that Jacob, the plain shepherd, came to meet his son Joseph, who had be- come prime minister in the royal apart- ment. Pharaoh and Jacob met, dignity and rusticity, the gracefnlness of the court and the plain manners of the fleld. The king, wanting to make the old country man at ease and seeing how white his beard is and how feeble his step, looks familiarly into his face and .says to the aged man, “‘How old art thou?” On New Year’s night the gate of eternity opened to let in amid the great throng of departed centuries the soul of the dying year. Under the tweifth stroke of the brazen hammer of the city clock the patriarch fell dead, and the stars of the night were the funeral torches. It is most fortunate that on this road of life there are so many milestones, on which we can read just how fast we are going toward the Jjourney’s end. I feel that it is not an in- appropriate question that I ask to-day when I look into your faces and say, as Pharaoh did to Jacob, the patriarch, “How old art thou?” People who are truthful on every other subject lie about their ages, so that I do not solicit from you any literal response to tke question I have asked. I would put no one under temptation, but I simply want this morning to see by what rod it is we are measuring our earthly existence. There is a right way and a wrong way of measur- ing a door, ora wall, or an arch, ora tower, and so there is a right way and a wrong way of measuring our earthly existence. It is with reference to this higher meaning that I confront you this morning with the stupendous question of the text and ask, “How old art thou?” There are many who estimate their life by mere worldly gratification. When Lord Dundas was wished a Happy New Year, he : sald, “‘It willhave to be a happier year than .and the smoothest path its thorns, the past, for I hadn't one happy moment in all the twelve months that have gone.” But that has not been the experience of most of us. We have found that though the world is blasted with sin itisa very bright and beautiful place to reside in. We have had joys innumerable. There is no hostility between the gospel and the merriments and the festivities of life. I do not think that we fully enough appreciate the worldly pleasures God gives us. When you recount your enjoyments you do not go back to the time when you were an in- fant in your mother’s arms, looking up into the heaven of her smile; tothose days when you filled the house with the uproar of bois- terous merriment; when yow shouted as you pitched the ball on the playground; when on the cold, sharp <rinter night, muffled up, on skates you shot out over the resounding ice of the pond? Have you for- gotten all those good days that the Lord gave you? Were.you never a bov? Were you never a girl? Between those times and this how many mercies the Lord has be- stowed upon you! How many joys have breathed up to you from the flowers and shone down to you from the stars and «chanted to you with the voice of soaring bird and tumbling cascade and booming sea and thunders that with bayonets of fire charged down the mountainside! Joy! Joy! Joy! If there is any one who Las a right to the enjoyments of the world, it is the Christian, for God has given him a lease of everything in the promise, ‘“All are yours.” But I have to tell you that a man who esti- mates his life on earth by mere worldly gratification is a most unwise man. Our ite is not to be a game of chess. Itis not dance in lighted hall, to quick musie. It is not the froth of an ale pitcher. It is not the settlings of a wine cup. Itisnota ban- quet, with intoxication and roistering. It is the first step on a ladder that mounts in- to the skies or the first step on a road that plunges into a horrible abyss. “How old art thou?” Toward what destiny are you tending and howr fast are you getting on towsrd it? Again, I remark that there are many who estimate their life on earth by their sor- rows and misfortunes. Through a great many of your lives the plow-share hath gone very deep, turning up a terrible fur- row. You have been betrayed and mis- represented, and set upon, and slapped of impertinence, and pounded of misfortune. The brightest life must have its shadows On the happiest brood the hawk pounces. No es- cape from trouble of some kind. While glorious John Milton was losing his eye- :sight he heard that Salmasius was glad of it. While Sheridan’s comedy was being en- acted in Drury Lane theater, London, his enemy sat growling at it in the stage box. While Bishop Cooper was surrounded by the favor of learned men his wife took his lexicon man- useript, the result of a long life of anxiety .and toil, and threw it into the fire. Mis- fortune, trial, vexation for almost every- -one! Pope, applauded of all the world, has a stoop in the shoulder that annoys him so much that he has a tunnel dug, so that-he may go unobserved from garden to grotto and from grotto to garden. Cane, the famous Spanish artist, is disgusted with the crucifix that the priest holds be- fore him because it is such a poor speci- men of sculpture, and so, sometimes through taste, and sometimes through learned menace, and sometimes through physical distresses—aye in 10,000 ways— troubles come to harass and annoy. Again, Iremark that thereare many peo- ple who estimate their life on edrth by the amount of money they have accumulated. “They say, “The year 1866 or 1870 or 1898 was wasted.” Why? ‘Made no money.” Now, it is all cant and insincerity to talk . against money, as though it had no value. It may represent refinement and education a nd ten Hioisand blessed surroundings. It ! of children’s hunger. It is the lighting of the furnace that keeps you warm. It is the making of the bed on which you rest from oare and anxiety, It is the carryingof you out at last to decent sepulcher, and the putting up of the slab on which is chiseled the story of your Christian hope. It is simply hypocrisy, this tirade in pulpit and lecture hall against money. But while all this is so, he who uses money or thinks of money as anything but a means to anend, will find out his mis- take when the glittering treasures slip out of his nerveless grasp, and he goes out of this world without a shilling of money or a certificate of stock, He might bet:er have been the Christian porter that opened his gate or the begrimed workman who last night heaved the coal into ‘his cellar. Bonds and mortgages and leases have their use, but they make a poor yardstick with which to measure life. ‘They that boast themselves in their wealth and trust in the multitude of their riches, none of them can, by any means, redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him that he should not see corruption.” But I remark, there are many —I wish there were more—who estimate their life by their moral and spiritual development. It is not sinful egotism for a Christian man to say: ‘I am purer than I used to be. I am more consecrated to Christ than I used to be. I have got over a great many of the bad habits in which I used to indulge. I am a great deal better man than I used to be.” There is no sinful egotism in that. It is not base egotism for a soldier to say, “I know more about mili- tary tactics than I used to before I took a musket in my hand and learned to ‘present arms’ and was a pest to the drill officer.” It is not base egotism for a sailor to say.‘‘I know better how to clew down the mizzen topsail than I used to before I had ever seen a ship.” And there is no sinful egotism when a Christian man, fighting the battles of the Lord, or if you will have it, voyaging toward a haven of eternal rest, says, “I know more about spiritual tactics and voyaging toward heaven than I used 0. Now, I do not know what your advan- tages or disadvantages are. ,I do not know what your tact or talent is. I do not know what may be the fascination of your man- ners or the repulsiveness of them, put I know this: There is for you, my hearer, a | fleld to cultivate, a harvest to reap, a tear to wipeaway, a soul to save. If you have worldly means, consecrate them to Christ. If you have eloquence, use it on the side that Paul and Wilberforce used theirs. If you have learning, put it all into the poor box ot the world’s suffering. But if you have none of these—neither wealth nor elo- quence nor learning—you at any rate have a smile with which you can encourage the disheartened, a frown with which you may blast Injustice, a voice with which you may call the wanderer back to God. Oh,” you say, “‘that is a very sanctimonious view of lite!” 1t is not. It is the onlysbright view of life, and it is the only bright view of death. Contrast the death scene of a man who has measured life by the worldly standard with the death scene of a man who bas measured life by the Christian standard. Quin, the actor, in his last moments said, ‘I hope this tragic scene will soon be over, and I hope to keep my dignity to the last.”” Malesherbes caid in his last moments to the confessor: ‘“Hold your tongue! Your miserable style puts me out of conceit with heaven.” Lord Chesterfield in his last moments, when he ought to have been praying for his soul, bothered himself about the proprieties of the sick room and said; “Give Dayboles a chair.” Godfrey Kneller spent his last hours on earth in drawing a diagram of his own monument. Compare the silly and horrible depar- ture of such men with the seraphic glow on the face of Edward Payson as he said in his last moment: “The breezes of heaven fan me. I float in a sea of glory.” Or with Paul the apostle, who said in his last hour: “I am now ready to be offered up, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me.” Or compare dt with the Christian deathbed that you witnessed in your own household. Oh, my friends, this world is a false god. It will consume you with the blaze in which it accepts your sacrifice, while the rignteous shall be held in everlasting re- membrance, and when the thrones have fallen and the monuments have crumbled and the world has perished they shall ban- quet with the conquerors of earth and the hierarchs of heaven. This is a good day in which to begin a new style of measurement. How old art thou? You see the Christian way of measuring life and the worldly way of measuring it. I leave it to you to say which is the wisest and best way. The wheel of time has turned very swiftly, and it has hurled us on. The old year has gone. The new year has come. For what you and I have been launched up- on it God only knows, Now let me ask you all, have you made any preparation forthe future? You have made prepara- tion for time, my dear brother. Have you made any preparation for eternity? Do you wonder that when that man on the Hudson River in indignation tore up the tract which was handed to him and just one word landed on his coat sleeve, the rest of the tract being pitched into the river, that one word aroused his soul? It was that one word. so long, so broad, so high, so deep—‘‘Eternity.”” A dying wom- an, in her last moments, said, “Call it back.” They said, ‘What do you want?” “Time,”” she said, ‘‘call it back.” Oh, it cannot be called back, We might lose our fortunes and call them back; we might lose our health, and perhaps recover it;*we might lose our good name and get that back, but time gone is gone forever. Now, when one can sooner get to the cen- ter of things is he not to be congratulated? Does not our common sense teach us that it is better to be at the center than to be clear out on the rim of the wheel, hold- ing nervously fast to the tire lest we be suddenly hurled into light and eternal felicity? Through all kinds of optical in- struments trying to peer in through the cr:cks and the keyholes of henven—afraid that both doors of the celestial mansion will be swung wide open before our en- tranced vision—rushing about among the apothecary shops of this world wondering if this is good for rheumatism and that is good for neuralgia and something else is good for a bad cough, lest we be suddenly ushered into a land of everlasting health wherethe inhabitant neversays, I am sick! What fools we all are to prefer the cir- cumference to the center! What a dread- ful thing it would be if we should be sud- denly ushered from this wintry world into the May time orchards of heaven, and if our pauperism of sin and sorrow should be suddenly broken up by a presentation of an emperor’s castle surrounded by parks with springing fountains and paths, up and down which angels of God walk two and two! : In 1835 the French resolved that at Ghent they would have a kind of mu- sical demonstration that had never’ been heard of. It would be made up of thechimes of bells and the discharge of cannon. The experiment was a perfect success. What with the ringing of the bells and the report of the ordnance the city trembled and the hills shook with the triumphal march that was as strange as it was overwhelming. With a most glorious accompaniment will God’s dear children go into their high residence when the.trumpets shall sound and the last day has come. At the sig- nal given the bells of the towers, and of the lighthouses, and of the cities will strike their sweetness into a last chime that shall ring into the heavens and float off upon the sea, joined by the boom of bursting mine and magazine, augmented by all the cathedral towers of heaven—the harmonies of earth and the symphonies of the celestial realm making up One great triumphal march, fit to celebrate the as- cent of the redeemed to where they shall shine as the stars forever and ever. table that feeds the |! { he PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE. Er House. rT ny The Senate organized last Tuesday by electing Senator Snyder, of Ches- ter, president pro tem, He commend- ed the administration of President McKinley during the recent war, and he praised the work of the charitable institutions, saying they should re- ceive appropriations from the Legis- lature as large as the revenues of the government will permit. Snyder said it was not within his province to make ‘suggestions to the Senate, but he de- sired to call the attention of the Sen- ators to several questions of import- ance. He recommended the increase, if possible, of the public school appro- priation; the enaction of the ballot law so simple that the uneducated voter can exercise his franchise with- out fear of making mistakes; the building of good roads, so much to the benefit of the agricultural districts; the revocation of the patent land lien act; the carrying out of which, he de- clared, would entail more cost than the claims are worth, and the holding of a brief session of the Legislature. Chief Clerk Smiley, of Venango, and John M. Rhey, of Carlisle, were re- elected. J. Allen Leeds, of Philadel- phia, was appointed Reading Clerk; Captain J. S. Crago, of Waynesboro, Message Clerk; R. M. Range, of Craw- ford, Executive Clerk, and Dr. B. F. Dimmick, of Harrisburg, Chaplain. Herman Miller will be re-appointed Senate Librarian. In the House last Wednesday Mr. Fow, of Philadelphia, moved to re- consider the vote by which the House non-conecurred in the Senate resolu- tion fixing April 20 for final adjourn ment. The motion was ruled out on a point of order made by Mr. Bliss, of Delaware. No bills will be introduced until after the appointment of the standing committees. Speaker Farr appointed the follow- ing committee on the part of the House to arrange for the inaugura- tion. of Governor Stone on January 17: Messrs. Stewart and Fow, of Phi- ladelphia, Kreps, of Franklin, Harris, of Clearfield, and McClain, of Lancas- ter. Speaker Farr is working on the committees, but will probably not be ready to announce them until after the inauguration. The House followed the example of the Senate and ad- journed until the 12th. SOR Senate, The House was called to order by Chief Clerk Rex last Tuesday. Prayer was offered by Chaplain Sangree, af- ter which Secretary of the Common- wealth Martin delivered the certifi- cates of the members. These were read, the roll called and the solons ar- rayed themselves before the bar of the House, where they took the oath of office administered by Judge Biddle, of Carlisle. John R. Farr, of Lacka- wanna, was nominated Speaker by William T. Marshall, of Allegheny, and William T..Creasy, of Columbia, by George R. Dixon, of Elk. Farr was elected by the full Republican vote of 127 and escorted to the chair by Messrs. Bliss, of Delaware; Ho- sack, of Allegheny, and Mr. Creasy. Owing totheabsence of a judge there was nobody to administer the oath to the Speaker. John Fow suggested that this could be done by a member. Chief Clerk Rex read the Constitution to show that Fow was wrong, and arter a long wait Judge Simonton, of Har- risburg, was summoned and the new Speaker took the oath. Farr made a short speech of thanks, promising to be fair and courteous to his members. Jere B. Rex, of Huntingdon, was re- elected chief clerk, and A. D. Fetter- oll, of Montgomery, takes his old place of resident clerk. The usual commit- tees were appointed to wait on the Governor and Senate to notify them that the House had organized and was ready to proceed to business. Clar- ency, of Philadelphia, was appointed a teller on the part of the House to compute the vote on the 13th inst. Senator Magee’'s resolution, fixing April 20 for the final adjournment, was concurred in. Senator McCarrell, last Wednesday rising to a question of personal privi- lege, defended the capitol building commission, of which he is a member, against what he termed the unjust criticism by the governor in his mes- sage of the action of the commission in connection with the construction of the new capitol. He characterized the governor's statements as = ‘‘without foundation in fact and unjust.” The commission has acted strictly under the terms of the act creating it, which was passed on the recommendation of the governor. He defended the plan of the present building which provides for addition- al buildings to be joined thereto. He pointed to the fact that the commis- sion had acted strictly under the law, and has been sustained by the sup- reme court in the litigation instigated by certain disappointed bidders. The commission carried out both the letter and spirit of the promise made to the court not to ccnstruct a building ex- ceeding the limit of appropriation. Senator McCarrell said that in view of the circumstances it would be quite fitting for governor Hastings to re- main quiet, and he declared that in absenting himself willfully from the meetings of the commission, and then criticising unjustly the acts of his fel- low members of that body, the exe- cutive has ‘acted with a pettiness and childishness which would disgrace a boy in Kknickerbockers.” He dis- puted the governor's claim that the building as it stands could have been constructed for $225,000 instead of the 350,000 it has cost, and said that if the builder quoted by the governor could have done the work so econom- ically he should have come forward at the time bids were advertised for, The senator closed by giving a pledge to the General Assembly and to the people of the State that when the work of the contractor has been fully completed the commission will justify its acts and purge itself of the prepos- terous and wholly unfounded charges of the governor. The Senate then ad- journed until Thursday, the 12th. Lora Kelvin's Reprimand. The eminent English scientist, Lord Kelvin, who for many years has held the chair of natural philosophy at Glasgow University, is the subject of an amusing story illustrative of the singular force of habit. As a professor of science, Lord Kelvin can use long words in such formidable array as to paralyze the average layman, but the Glasgow student is made of sterner stuff. During a course of lectures on magnetism, he once defined an ideal magnet as “an infinitely long, in- fAnitely thin, uniform and uniformly and longitudinally magnetized bar,” and the misguided students vocifer- ously cheered, which caused the ven- erable professor to say: “Silence!” The definition was made and cheered, with the usual reprimand, frequently during the lectures. Once, near the conclusion, however, the students did not cheer, but Lord Kelvin promptly’ rapped out “Silence!” as before. There are now 20,000 Indians In school outside the five civilized tribes. t 1 REFSTONE STAT MENS CONDERSD FIRE AT WASHINGTON. The Hotel Main, Burned— Other Buildings Destroye~ a Well-Known Hostelry Property Valued at $140,0co. Fire which broke out Saturday morn- ing at Washington destroyed proparty valued at $140,000, on which there was about $115,000 of insurance. The build- ings destroyed were the Hotel Main, a four-story brick structure, and the Le- vino building, a three-story brick. The hotel, the oldest hostelry in the town, formerly the Fulton rouse, was owned by Dr. G. W. Roberts, who paid $41,0.0 for it several years ago. His insurance is $23,500. D. H. Goodwin, proprietor, loses a large amount of furniture, Near Dunmore, Lackawanna Coun=- ty, che body of Patrick Grady, an old hermit. was found frozen in the snow close to his hut. The following pensions were grant- ed last week: John C. Miller, Spring- dale, $6; Thomas Murphy, Sewickley, $10; Thomas Honiter, Clearfield Bridge, Clearfield, $12; George 5 Rock, Schellsburg, Bedford, $16 to $30; Jacob Neely, dead, Prospect, Butler, $2 to $8; John Weaver, dead, Grant- ville, Mifflin, $6 to $8; Joseph Rocken- stein, Butler, $8 to $10; Thomas Ram- age, Hopewell, Bedford, $8 to $10; James W. Goodwin, East Charleston, Tioga, $16 to $17; Cornelius Wright, Grand Valley, Warren, $6 to $8; Solo- mon Lucas, Flotz, Franklin, $8 to $10; Jonathan Rice, Pine Ridge, Bedford, $S to $10; Anne E. Cahill, Allegheny, 38; -Sarah J. Cole, Lincolnville, Craw- ford, $12; Amanda Schaefnocker, New Castle, 38; Maggie McBride, Williams- port, $8; Ruth Guffey, Leechburg, $8; Matilda Weaver, Granville, Mifflin, $8; Eliza A. Neely, Prospect, Butler, $8; Martha M. Rock, Schellsburg, Bed- ford, $8; Elizabeth Strausbaugh, Bel- sano, Cambria, $8; George Gray, West Finley, Washington, $6; John Shank, Pennsville, Fayette, $8; Philip Thom- as, Brownsville, $6: Albert W. Tucker, dead, Titusville, $12; Robert M. Black, Fredericktown, Washington, $6 to $8; Alfred Graham, Boston, Allegheny, $6 to $8; John: Mconey, Curllsville, Clar- ion, $11.25 to $15; Josiah Lingerfelter, Gallatin, $14 to $24; James Swinehart, Dysart, Cambria, $12 to-$14; Charles Tuxford, Freeport, $6 to $8; Charles P. DeCorde, Confluence, $24; Elizabeth H. Snyder, Glade, Somerset, $8; Mary Miller, Lewisburg, $8; Jennie E. Ag- new, Tionesta, $8; Mary Mosteller, Friedens, Somerset, $8; Hattie M. Tucker, Titusville, $12; Marcellius Noss, Coraopolis, $6; Thomas Potts, Johnstown, $8; John G. Spidle, Hum- melstown, $8; John Allen, Fortune, $8; John White, Meyersdale, $6; Michael Roach, Girardville, $10; Elizabeth A. ‘Warren, East Charleston, ' Tioga, $8; Cynthia Cornelius, Lewisburg, $8. About a year ago Thomas Sherwood, brother of Mrs. A. F. Groves, of Har- lansburg, near New Castle, died in South America, leaving a fortune of over $1,000,000. Mrs. Groves was the only heir, and took steps to obtain possession of the estate. The war broke out, and because of the sympathies of the authorities of Argentine Republic, where the estate exists, for the Span- iards, progress in the matter was re- tarded, but since peace was declared, things have looked brighter. Mrs. droves, who has been in Washington for the past few days, has received werd from her Baltimore attorney, who is in the Argentine Republic look- ing after her interests, assuring her that arrangements have been made whereby she will get the estate soon. Mr. Sherwood left Baltimore whan quite young, in 1855, for South America. The boiler of an engine on the Phil- adelphia & Reading railway blew up near Bowers Station the other morn- ing, killing Engineer William Weaver instantly and probably fatally injur- ing Conductor Joshua Robeson. The engine was drawing an extra freight at the time, and the unfortunate men, together with two others, were on the locomotive. None of the cars were wrecked. Mrs. Elizabeth Hare, of Johnstown, died Sunday and it was arranged that the funeral should be held Wednes- day. When the mourners and the un- dertaker arrived the husband forbade the interment of the body. His wife had been subject to fits and he does not believe her dead. The efforts of half a dozen physicians. to convince him of the fact have been unsuccess- ful. After enduring horrible agonies for weeks, Miss Alice V. Hager, a young school teacher of Clay Hill, near Cham- bersburg, died Wednesday night, slow- ly strangling to death. In drawing Miss Hager’s tooth last August the dentist broke the soft palate, and a bone formation scon grew in the young woman's mouth. Leading specialists could do nothing for her. William P. Wolfe, a painter in the employ of the Cumberland Valley Railroad Company, fell 50 feet to the floor of the round house at Chambers- burg, where he was repainting the in- side of the roof. His neck was brok- en and he died instantly. He was the son of Zadoc Wolfe, of Altoona, a well known miller, and leaves a wife and two children. Aged Henry Miller, of Westville, was brought to the Lancaster Hospital a few days ago to be treated for a broken neck, the result of a fall from a porch on December 24. When he was picked up after the accident his head fell back loosely, but the nature of the injury was not known for some time after- ward. His case is considered by medi- cal men as remarkable. While Charles Freshcorn, .a black- smith, employed at the stone quarries north of Beaver Falls, was at work at his forge a spark flew out and ignited a keg of powder standing near. A ter- rific_ explosion followed, almost demol- ishing the shop and blowing Freshcorn out into the road. He was seriously burned about the head, face and hands, but will recover. It is authoritatively stated that the life of O. Perry Jones, the cashler of the Philipsburg First National Bank, who committed suicide one week ago, was insured for $106,000 for his wife's benefit. Most of it has been carried at least ten years, and all of it so long that there can be no contest. So far as has been developed his estate is en- tirely solvent. - Bert McManus, an Erie conductor, was arrested recently at Sharon, on a charge of breach ot promise preferred by Harriet Thomas, of Orangeville. McManus was married recently to another young woman. He was bound over to court. The winter term of the Normal school at Slippery Rock opened this week with 400 students enrolled. This is the largest attendance of any win- ter term in the history of the school. The Northampton County Court yes- terday appointed Dr. Noah W. Reich- ard, ‘Chief Burgess of Bangor, in place of ‘B. ‘Frank Miller, who was elected to the Legislature. Mine Inspecter William Stein, of ths Sixth anthracite district, residing at Shenandoah, reports that there were 54 fatal accidents in the disirict during the year 1898. For the first time in the history of Clearfield county the Court House is railroad filled with Republican officials. .made FIFTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. : House. THIRTY-FIRST DAY. The House spent Wednesday cone sidering the bill to define and punish crimes in Alaska and provide a code of criminal procedure for the terri- tory. Mr. Moody (Rep., Mass.) made a bitter attack upon that section of the bill which repealed all existing laws relating to the sale of liquor in the district of Alaska, and made it only unlawful to sell liquor to Indians. An amendment was adopted giving a jury, in case a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree was re- turned, discretionary power to inflict capital punishment. Chairman Loud of the House post- office committee submitted to a favor- able report on his bill to amend the laws relating to second-class mail matter. It provides that books or re- prints of books in serial form shall pay 1 cent for two ounces instead of 1 cent per pound. Publications of in- stitutions of ‘learning are placed on the same footing as other periodicals instead of being privileged. THIRTY-SECOND DAY. The first bill called up was that to create an additional circuit judge in the Sixth judieial circuit. It is this judgeship with which rumor has con- nected the name of ex-secretary of State William R. Day. Mr. Henderson (Rep. Ia.),. chairman of the judiciary committee, said that there were 7,108 cases pending in this district. It was passed. 3 THIRTY-THIRD DAY. The anti-civil service scored a viec- tory in the House. The legislative, ex- ecutive and judicial appropriation bill was taken up, and when the appropri- ation for the civil service ccmmission was reached Mr. Evans (Rep. Ky.) made a motion to strike it out. This motion has been made annually for a dozen years or more, but has invari- ably failed. It carried by a narrow majority, .67 to 61. This was in com- mittee of the whole, where no record is made of the vote. Mr. Grosvenor (Rep., O.) the head of the anti-civil service movement during the last session, said that no one could deny the civil service law had overreached itself. It had throt- tled the appointing power of the gov- ernment. Men who supported it when would be carried to the extent tc itgbecame a law never dreamed it which it has been carried. Mr. Hepburn (Rep. Ia.) said when the law was originally passed 10,000 offices covered the largest estimate any of its supporters dreamed could be brought under its operation. To- day 72,000 clerks were within the classified service. For 16 years, he said, the friends cof the law had pre- vented action in the House on a bill to modify or repeal it. Mr. Henderson (Rep., Ia.) said if the Republican par- ty took up the cry of spoilsmen in- stead of building up and strengthen- ing civil service reform it would scal its own death warrant. A bill was: passed to grant volun- teers, upon their muster out, two months’ extra pay if they have served beyond the limits of the United States, and one month extra pay if they have only served within the limits of the United States. Be Senate. THIRTY-FIRST DAY. The first session of the senate after the holiday recess occupied only 14 minutes, last Wednesday, although in that brief time two open sessions and an executive session were held. The peace treaty was presented and re- ferred to the foreign relations com- mittee, Maj. Pruden, assistant sec- retary to the president, presented the message from the president, contain- ing the treaty of Paris. The senate then went into executive session in order that the treaty might be re- ferred to the committee on foreign re- lations. It was not read, but the pres- ident’s message accompanying it. This was a simple letter of transmis- sion, without any word of recom- mendation or suggestion, and was on- ly a few lines in length. On recon- vening .n open session the death of Senator Morrill was announced. The usual resolutions were adopted, and as a remark of respect the senate ad- journed at 12,15 until to-morrow, THIRTY-SECOND DAY. In the senate a resolution, offered by Mr. Hoar, directing the committee on foreign relations to report to the sen- ate whether the treaty of Paris makes any provision for the claims of citizens of the United States against Spain which were in existence before th: present war and the status of such claims after . the ratification of the treaty, was adopted. Mr. Hoar introduced a resolution re- questing the president, if in his judg- ment not incompatible with public in- terest, to communicate to the s“nat: all instructicns given by him to the com- missioners who negotiated the treaty of Paris; all correspondence between the executive and the state department and the commissioners; and all reports by the commissioners, made either to the president or to the stat department. At the request of Mr. Davis, cne of the peace commissioners, the resslu- tion went over. THIRTY-THIRD DAY. Immediately after the Senate con- vened the resolution offered by Mr. Hoar, calling on the President for in- formation as to the instructions of the Commissioners who negotiated the treaty of Paris, together with all correspondence and reports relating to their work, was laid before the Sen- ate. In the secret session the proceedings continued on the same lines as in the open session, Mr. Hoar making a brie. speech on the subject. He was not in- terrupted, and when he had finished the Senate agreed to the resolution calling for the instructions to the Commissioners without a division. Mr. Caffery then addressed the Sen- ate on the joint resolution offered by Mr. Vest declaring ‘that under the Constitution of the United States no power is given to acquire territory to be held and governed permanently as colonies. Mr. Caffrey’'s spezch was a constitutional argument in support of the declarations of the resolution. “The history of the world,” said he, “shows that God has set the bounds where the different peoples of the earth shall abide. When I look at the conditions of the world, I am unalter- ably convinced that no permanent sway can be held by the white man over the black man in the sub-tropics, except by a strong, military and cruel despotism.” The One Bored. A good story is told by Rudyard Kipling at his own expense. During his stay in Wiltshire one summer he met little Dorothy Drew, Mr. Glad- stone's granddaughter, and being very fond of children, took her in the grounds and told her stories. After a time Mrs. Drew, fearing that Mr. Kip- ling must be tired of the child, called her and said, “Now, I hope, Dorothy, you have not been wearying Mr. Kip- ling.” “Oh, not a bit, mother,” re- plied the small celebrity, ‘but he has been wearying me.” The average height of rather over a mile. clouds is THE MARKETS. PITTSBURG. Grain, Flour and Feed. WHEAT—No. 1red......... vo r® No. 2 red CORN—No. 2 yellow, ear. No. 2 yellow, shelled Mixed ear......c. is vueese OATS8-—No. 2 white No. 3 white RYE—No, 1 FLOUR-—Winter patents. ...... Fancy straight winter Rye flour HAY—No. 1 timothy......... tH Clover, No. 1 FEED—No. 1 white mid., ton.. Brown middlings Timothy. prime. :............ Dairy Products BUTTER—EIgin creamery..... 3 Ohio creamery Fancy country roll CHEESE—Ohio, new New York, new Fruits and Vegetables, BEANS—Lima ? qt POTATOES—Funcy White, 8 bu CABBAGE—Per 100 heads .... ONIONS—Choice yellow, @ bu Poultry, Etc, CHICKENS—Per pair, smail..3 TURKEYS—Per It EGGS—Pa. and Ohio, fresh.... CINCINNATI, PHILADELPHIA. $ 350@ 3 75 76 OATS--No. 2 white BUTTER—Creamery, extra.... EGGS—Pennsylvania firsts.... NEW YORK, FLOUR—Patents............. .3360@ 38 WHEAT-—No. 2 red 80 OATS-—-White Western. . BUTTER Creamery. EGGS—State of Penn # LIVE STOCK, Central Stock Yards, East Liberty, Pa. CATTLE. Prime, 1300 to 1400 Ibs........8 5 00@ 5 Good, 1200 to 1300 ibs 470 00 Tidy, 1000 to 1150 tbs 4 50 Fair light steers, 200 to 1000 3 80 3 tbs Common, 700 to 900 ths.... ... 40 Prime, 95 to 105 Ibs Good, 85t0 90 ths. ..... Fair, 70 to 80 Ibs . Springer, extra Springer, good to choice Common to fair Extra yearlings, light. ........ Good to choice yearlings Medium Advance in the Price of Iron and Stee! Products. Businsss Increasing. R. G. Dun & Co.'s weekly review of trade reports as follows for last week: The year begins with the kind of busi- ness demand that counts. For months there has been a rising demand for materials, but now the crowding de- mand for finished products begins to advance prices in the iron and steel industry about 1 per cent., without quotable changes in pig except at the East. Beams have advanced $2 per ton, angles $1, bars $1 and plates are strong, with an Australian order for 32,000 tons refused at Chicago because the works are already overcrowded. Many thousand cars are covered by orders at Pittsburg; 10,000 tong bars ~ are taken for agricultural works at Chicago; 105,000 tons rails are taken by the Pennsylvania Company; the Midland Railway Company of Eng- land has ordered 20 locomotives from the Baldwin works, and many other home and foreign orders are reported. The demand has never been greater at the beginning of the year than it iS. now. = Bp The woolen manufacture has a sim- ilar embarrassment. While 100 quota- tions of wdol by Coates Bras. of Phila- delphia average ¥S G3 12a 20.71 cents a year ago gradually yieldin preciate the ma; hand, which the Bulletin reports market is ap- oll the ause people tude of stocks Boston Commercial at 291,000,000 pounds, an increase in its account of 114,000, 000 pounds for the year. Obviously this means a great movement from the farms to millers’ stocks and east- ern markets, but prices are not yet low enough to encourage large buying or consumption by the manufacturers. The only heavyweight goods yet opened are at reduced prices, as had been expected, and it is still uncertain how far the trade for the coming sea- son may prove satisfactory. The movement of cotton thus far indicates a crop of over 300,000 bales larger than that of last year in spite of all natural disposition dnd concert- ed efforts to hold it back. As produc ers are not this year in unusual need a movement sa heavy hinders any ‘ad- vance in price, although takings of spinners have been as large in 1898 as in any other year, and exports larger than before. The wheat movement has to sustain the largest foreign demand movement ever known for wheat and corn to- gether and Atlantic exports of 5,214,- 420 bushels, flour included, against 2,- $40,318 last year, with Pacific exports of 814,833 against 872,446 last year, would give some reason to anticipate higher prices were not the western receipts 4,101,532 bushels against 2,876,- 072 for the same week last year. The wonder is that the foreign demand for corn continues so heavy, 3,572,412 bushels having been exported in this week against 2,954,890 in the . same weeck last year. : The country-is on the upgrade and the men who expect it to take the downward road have yet some time to wait. There are no indications of the reaction which always follows a large and rapid business recovery and ex- isting conditions in the industries and in foreign trade by no means forbid the hope that the increase may con- tinue, as it did after the revival of 1879, for several years. Exports com- pared with imports continue to indi- cate an enormous balance in cash due this country and gold imports begin again. Failures for the week have been 243 in the United States. against 322 last year, and 24 in Canada, against 32 last year. The Connecticut supreme court has decided that the buildings of Yale col- lege at New Haven cannot be taxed.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers