Nebraska Newspapers

    The Sioux County Journal,
VOLUME IX.
HARRISON, NEBRASKA THUKSDAV, DECEMBER 17, 189(5.
NUMBER 15.
ft lOP
THAT was the way she was re
ferred to Id a general way "Joe.
Maker's gal" and there were
plenty of soldiers, teamsters and oth
er who did not know that her name
wan Mary. .Joe Maker was a hunter,
Indian fighter, scout, prospector and
miner, and be had a cabin and a home
up In the Three Butte of Idaho, to
the west of Fort Hall. Father anil
daughter were all alone he a man of
V) and she a girl under 20. We at the
fort knew him well, and we naw the
girl quite .of ten, but no one knew Joe
Baker well enough to question him
about the pasL For reasons of IiIh own
he. bail taken up hi abode beyond civ
ilization, and though the life was wild
and lonely and full of danger, the
daughter deemed to prefer ft.
A girl of about 18 when I knew her
slight, blue eyett. short, curly hnlr, a
strong face, dressed for climbing, rid
ing and walking, and one who coui
mandiil both admiration and reaped
the moment you laid eyes on her ahe
had a handshake for officer and pri
vate alike, and to u and all others
who came that way she wax a border
queen. We said to each other that It
waji a strange thing for Joe Baker to
make hi home among the danger of
the mountains, miles and miles from
the nearest settler, and to expose hid
daughter to the hardships, privation
and peril of a frontier life, but no one
qtloitioiied him or her. nor did either
volunteer any explanations.
The cabin was In a bit of valley way
up the Fast Butte, and was built most
ly of atone and contained three room.
There were day at a time, when Ba
ker was prospecting or acoutlng, In
which the girl must have been left en
tirely alone, but he rode, hunted and
fished, and now and then was the guest
of the colonel' wife at the fort for
two or three day at a time. The wom
an may hare found out more about
the girl than I have told you, but If so
the Information did not cross the pa
rade ground to the barrack.
For weeks the Indiana of Idaho had
been milky and milieu and threatening.
The force at Fort Hall had been In
creased by tlfly men, all wagon train
were doubly guarded, and every sol
dier or citizen who understood Indian
character felt that an outbreak was at
band.
One day, when Joe Baker was at the
fort consulting with the colonel the
latter advised hlm to abandon hi home
and take refuge among us. The old
man realized the situation, but said he
would wait and nee. He hated contact
with the world-even that Infinitesim
al portion represented by a hundred
people at a frontier post and the
daughter knew no fear. We saw hlm
two or three time a week, a he was
then scouting among the Indians and
bringing In reports, but we had not
Keen the girl for a month, when a ser
geant' guard was dispatched to Fast
Butte to cut and haul telegraph poles
for the line which was to conni-ct the
fort with the otitsde world. There
was danger that we might be cut off if
an outbreak occurred, but there was
also need of haste In completing the
line.
That was our Hist glimpse of the
cabin, as we went to our work on the
mountain-side, and Mary stood at the
door to shake hands all around and in
quire after those who were absent.
She anticipated an outbreak on the
part of the Indians, but expressed no
fear. Only the day before she had re
ceived a visit from three sullen war
riors, who demanded food and seemed
on the point of committing violence,
but she ordered them away at the
muzzle of her rifle, and had no thought
of leaving the place until her father re
turned and advised the step.
Two mile east of the cabin we made
our camp uud began work, but the In
dians were ready sooner than we had
planned for. On the second night of
our stay we were fired Into at midnight
and routed out of camp with the loss
of two men killed. We were falling
back In the direction of Baker's cabin
when we were joined by Mary. In a
rocky pass, crouched down behind
bowlder and being fired tipon every
moment by thirty Indians In our front,
the girl told her story and assumed the
command In place of the poor sergeant
lying dead.
Indians to the number of a dozen had
made it sudden rush upon the cabin
Just at sundown, but fortunately she
caught sight of them In time to close
the door. Theu began a fight wlileU
lasted for an hour, during which she
had killed twoand wounded another
of their number. The redskin had at
length drawn off, and the brave girl's
ttrst thought was of the aoidleni on the
mountain side. 8he hoped we bad
heard the firing and would come down j
RAk-PD'CJlAI A
to investigate, but as midnight came
without u she left her shelter and
headed for our camp, knowing at any
step she might run Into a prowling In
dian, but yet determined to warn and
save us.
We were soldiers and by uo means
novices In Indian warfare, and yet
none of us grumbled when she assum
ed the leadership and passed the word
to slowly fall back on the cabin. The
Indian pressed us every foot of the
way, and but for the darkness of the
night and the girl's familiarity with
the lay of the ground, not one of us
would have escaped. We were uo
sooner sheltered by the cabin than It
was clear that we must stand a siege
before the door could be opened again.
Baker's cabin, as I have told you,
was a pretty substantial affair. Its
walls being o rock and Its roof of
dirt. Here and there were loopholes
anil the door was heavy enough to stop
a bullet. In leaving the fort we had
been provided with liSJ pounds of am
munition per man. In our retreat
from camp the four of us had brought
off our carbines and cartridges. The
girl was armed with a rifle, for which
she had a bountiful supply of ammu
nition, and when we came to take
stock we knew that we could hold out
for a week, so far as having the means
of defense. It was the question of
food and water which made everyone
look serious. There wasn't food enough
to give the five of us a square meal
and not a drop of water Insjde the
walls. The spring from which It was
obtained, as wanted, was 200 feet
away, and It would be running the
gantlet of death to attempt to reach It.
"Well," said "Joe Baker's gal," when
we had canvassed our situation and Its
chances, "we must put up with things
as they are and do our best. The In
dians have encircled the cabin and
will be on the watch the rent of the
night, but they will make no move un
til daylight comes. Let us sleep if we
can."
She went to her room and the four
of us lay down on the floor and napped
until daylight came. The Indian
counted on us as a sure prize and only
needed to be vigilant, while night last
ed to see that we did not escape. There
was but little firing during the last
of the night, and none at all during the
first hour of daylight. From the loop
holes we saw the Indians moving
about, however, and It was clear that
they were all around us and in strong
force.
lu the larder there were about five
pounds of flour and two or three pounds
of bacon nothing else. The outbreak
might or might not be known at the
fort. Even if It was, the colonel would
hesitate before weakening his slender
garrison to send a column to our re
lief. He would rather expect us to
tight our way through or dodge about
and come In singly as fugitives. There
was no telling how long we should
be cooped up to live on those scant ra
tions, and by common consent we went
without breakfast.
The Indians cooked their morning
meal lu a leisurely manner, and It was
some time after sunrise before they
made their first move. It was a band
with "Chief Charlie" in command, and
he knew Baker and the girl even better
than we did. Baker had hunted with
him and on one occasion hail saved
his life, and he called at the cabin on
various iMrasions and had been hos
pitably received. lie was, therefore,
probably In earnest when he advanced
alone and unarmed to within a few
feet of the cabin and said to Mary:
"We are on the warpath against the
whites and we mean to kill, kill, kill
until all are dead or driven away.
Your father saved my life, and an In
dian never forgets. I do not want harm
to come to you, and you shall take
your horse and ride away to the fort
In safety."
"But what ubout the soldiers?" she
asked from one of the loopholes.
"They cannot go," he replied. "The
soldiers are here to make war on ns-
to shoot us down to make us obey or
ders we do not like. We have only
hatred for them. I know how many
there are in there four. They have
their guns and will fight, but we shall
kill every one. Come out, and we will
send you safely away."
"I shall remain here and help the
soldiers to fight you!" answered the
Kill.
"Then you will be killed with them."
The chief turned away and went
back to tits warriors and ten minutes
later there was a clrclo of fire all about
the cabin. The loopholes were the ob
jects alined at, and as every redskin
was sheltered from our return fire we
plugged the loopholes up and did not
fire a shot In answer. It was noon be
fore their fusillade ceased, and It waa
almost the lust bullet which pene
trated a loophole and struck one of
the soldiers in the groin. In half an
hour he was dead. From the minute
be was hit until the death rattle came
the girl sat beside him, holding his
band, but helpless "to do anything.
We had scarcely removed the body
when the Indians made a rush. There
were now loo of them. Some of them
carried a log to batter In the door,
some climbed upon the roof, some
fought with us for possession of the
loopholes. We fired up through the
brush and dirt and through the loop
boles,, and at the end of ten minutes
had beaten them off, but we bad lost
another man. A bullet had struck him
lu the heart and be bad fallen without
a groan. In return we could count
five dead Indians outside and see three
or four wounded crawling away.
As we bent over the man and knew
that he was dead the girl motioned for
us to lay hlm beside the other, and
when we had returned to the front
room it was to beg of her to accept
'Chief Charlie's" offer. If he still held
It good, and secure her own safety.
With only three of us left to guard
the cabin another such general attack
must overcome us. She replied that
she would not go, and we at once set
about reloading the carbines and mak
ing ready to defend the cabin to the
last. It was hours before we heard
from the Indians again, and we were
almost certain that they had drawn off,
when, an hour after sunset, and with
out the slightest warning, they rushed
for us as before.
We blazed away as fast as we could
through the loopholes, but I am sure
the cabin would have been carried but
for a lucky shot which killed the chief.
His fall created a panic, and Just when
the situation was most critical the at
tack was ceased. I did not knew when
they drew off.
The demons were on the roof and
battering at the door and firing In upon
us from some of the loopholes, when
things suddenly turned dark about
me, and when I recovered conscious
ness I felt a horrible pain In my side.
A bullet had broken a rib and passed
out behind the shoulder. Stretched
dead on the floor was my comrade and
sitting upon the floor weeping was
"Joe Baker's gal." She had fought
the Inst of the fight alone, and with
three dead and a wounded man in the
cabin It was no wonder her nerves had
given way.
There was no more firing that night
Consumed by thirst and racked with
pain, I remembered nothing except
that Mary spoke hopeful and sympa
thetic words now and then, and that
she had the guns distributed around so
as to cover as many loopholes as pos
sible in case of an attack.
When morning came the Indians ask
ed for a parley, and offered to send
her to the fort. I did not know It, be
ing out of my bead with fever. She
scorned the offer and for three hours
the cabin was under fire. A rush would
have followed the fusillade, but as they
were gathering for It a half troop of
cavalry from the fort, headed by Joe
Baker, came galloping to the rescue,
and the Indiana were routed.
It was ten days before I knew all
alsiut it. A grent Indian war was upon
the land, the girl had been sent hun
dreds of miles away for safety, and
when peace came again she did not re
turn. It Is like a dream to me three
dead men one grievously wounded
a white-faced girl moving about and
making ready to fire a last shot the
crack of rifles and the fierce war
whoops-but I know that It was nil
real, and a humble private soldier
whispers:
"i Sod bless 'Joe Baker's gal' wher
ever she may be!" I'lttsburg Tost.
Could Afford New Ones.
"I want to look nt some of your best
pa luting," said Mrs. Crewe Doyle to
the art denier, according to the New
York World.
"Ys, minium," replied lie. "You pre
fer landscaped, do you, or marines, or
shall 1 show you both?"
"I'd rather have a picture of country
life, I think, with cows and trees and
things like trwit, you know."
"Yew, madam. This way please.
Now here Is a very fine work by Rem
brandt." The customer surveyed the work crit-li-ully
and then said:
"This picture looks like a second
hand painting. Isn't it?"
"Well," said the dealer In a some
what surprised tone, "I supixme It
might be termed second-hand, but I
don't think I ever hard a Kembrandt
Hilled thnt before."
"Who Is Ilembrnndt? Where enn I
find his studio?" she asked.
"He's one of the old masters, mad
am." "H'm! Well, I don't want you to try
to sell second-hand pictures to me, for
I can afford to buy new ones. You may
Just tell Mr. Rembrandt to pulnt a pic
ture especially for me and have It
made twice the size of this, ph-nae,"
This order no astonished the denier
that he allowed Mrs. Crewe to stalk
out without putting down her name
and address and now he dosn't know
where to send the painting when Mr.
Rembrandt gets It done.
It tnuat be nice to be built like the.
grand daddy long legs, and have auch
long arms that one cau reach anywhere
to cratch,
ONE HUNDRED YEARS
REV. DR. TALMAGE PREACHES
UPON "THE DYING CENTURY,'
The Marvels of the Nineteenth Cen
tnrx The Money Power Labor and
Capital-Tbe Great Deliverer of N
tiona Vision of Ht. John.
Our Washington Pal pit.
Considering the time and place of its
delivery, this sermon of Dr. Talmage is
of absorbing and startling interest. It is
not only national but international in its
significance. His subject was "The Dy
ing Century." and the text II. King
IX., 1, "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine
house in order, for thou shalt die ami not
live."
- No alarm bell do I ring in the utterance
of this text, for in the healthy glow of
your countenances I hud cause only for
cheerful prophecy, but 1 shall apply the
text as spoken in the ear of llezekinh,
down with a bad carbuncle, to the nine
teentu century, now closing. It will take
only four more long breaths, each year s
breath, and the century will expire. My
theme is "The Dying Century." I dis
cuss it at an hour when our national
legislature is about to assemble, some of
the member now here present anil others
soon to arrive from the North, South,
Fast and West. All the public convey
aiu-es coming this way will bring import
ant additions of public men, so that when
on Dec. 7, at high noon, the gavels of
Senate and House of Representatives
glial! lift and fall the destinies of this
nation, and through it the destinies of all
nations struggling to he free, will be put
on solemn and tremendous trial. Amid
such intensifying circumstances I stand
by the venerable century and address it
in the words of my text, "Thus saith the
Ixjrd, Set tlmic house in order, for thou
shalt die anil not live."
A Ills Subject.
Kteruity is too big a subject for us to
understand. Some one has said it is a
great clock that says "Tick" in one ceo
tury and "Tack" In another. But we can
better understand old time, who has many
children and they are the centuries and
many grandchildren and they are the
years. With the dying nineteenth cen
tury we shall this morning have a plain
talk, telling him some of the good things
he has done, and then telling him some of
the things he ought to adjust before he
quits this sphere and pnsses out to join
the eternities. We generally wait until
people are dead before we say much in
praise of them. Funeral eulogium is gen
erally very pathetic and eloquent with
things that ought to have been said years
before. We put on cold tombstones what
we ought to liave put in the warm ears
of the living. We curse Charles Sunnier
while he is living and cudgel him into
spinal meningitis and wait until, in the
rooms where I have been living the last
year, lie puts his hand on his heart and
cries "Oh!" and is gone, and then we
make long procession in his honor, Dr.
Sunderland, chaplain of the American
Senate, accompanying; stopping long
enough to allow the dead Senator to lie
in State in Independence Hall, Philadel
phia, and hiilting nt Boston State House,
where not long before damnatory reso
lutions had been passed in regard to him,
and then move on, amid the tolling bells
and the boom of minute guns, until we
bury him nt Mount Auburn and cover
him with flowers five feet deep. What a
pity he could not have been awake at his
own funeral to hear the gratitude of the
nation! What a pity that oue green leaf
could not have been taken from each one
of the mortuary garlands and pu(, non
his table while he was yet alive-at the
Arlington! What a pity that out of the
great choir u ho chanted at his obsequies
one little girl dressed in white might
not have sung to his living ear a cm-
pliincntnry solo! The post mortem ex
pression contradicted the ante mortem.
The nation could not have spoken the
truth both times about Charles Sumner.
Was it before or after his decease it
lied?
No such injustice shall be inflicted usm
this venerable nineteenth century. Ib
fore he goes we recite in his hearing some
of the good things lie bus accomplished.
What an addition to the world's intelli
gence he lias made! I.ook at the old
school house, with the snow sifting
through the roof and the filthy tin cup
hanging over the water pail in the corner,
and the little victims on the long benches
without hacks, nod the illiterate school
master with his hickory gad, and then
look at our modern palaces of free schools
under men and women cultured ami re
fined to the highest excellence, so that
whereas in our childhood we had to be
whipped to go to school, children now cry
when they cannot go. Thank you, vener
able century, while nt the same time we
thank God! What an addition to the
world's Inventions within our century
the cotton gin, the agricultural machines
for planting, reaping and thrashing; the
telegraph; the phonograph, capable of
preserving a human voice from general ion
to generation; the typewriter, that res
cues the world from worse and worse
penmanship, and stenography, capturing
from the lips of the swiftest speaker more
thnn 200 words a minute! Never was I so
amnzed at the facilities of our time as
when a few days ago I telegraphed from
Washington to New York a long and
clalsirate manuscript, mid a few minutes
Inter, to show its aeuracy, It was rend to
me through the long distance telephone,
and It was t'fari down to the Inst semi
colon and coiiimo.
A Marvelous Ave.
What hnth Clod wrought! Oh, 1 am si
glad I was not born sooner. For the tal
low candle the electric light. For the
writhing of the surgeon's table Ood
glven unucsthetlcs, and the whole physi
cal organism explored by sharpest instru
ment, anil giving not so much pain as the
taking of a splinter from under a child's
finger nnll. For the lumbering itagn
coach the limited express train. And
there it the spectroscope of Fraunhofer,
by which Dur modern scientist feels the
pulse of other worlds throbbing with
light. Jenner's arrest by inoculation of
oue of the world's worst plagues. Dr.
Keelry's emancipation for inebriety. In
timation that the virus of maddened ca
nine and cancer and consumption are
yet to be balked by magnificent medical
treatment. The eyesight of the doctor
sharpened till he can look through thick
flesh and find the hiding place of the bul
let. What advancement in geology, or
the catechism of the mountains; chemis
try, or the catechism of the elements
astronomy, or the catechism of the stars:
electrology, or the catechism of the light
nings. What advancement in music. At
the beginning of this century, confining
itself, so far as the great masses of the
people were concerned, to a few airs
drawn out on accordion or massacred on
church bass viol, now euchantingly drop
ping from thousands of fingers in Han
del's "Concerto in B Flat," or (iuilmant's
"Sonata in D Minor." Thanks to you,
O century, before you die, for the asy
lums of mercy that you have founded the
blind seeing with their fingers, the deaf
hearing by the motion of your lips, the
born imbecile by skillful object leson lift
ed to tolerable intelligence. Thanks to
this century for the improved condition
of most nations. The reason that Napo
leon made such a successful sweep across
Kurope at the beginning of the century
was that most of the thrones of Europe
were occupied either by imbeciles or
proflgales. But most of the thrones of
Europe are to-day occupied by king and
queens competent. France a republic,
Switzerland a republic, and about fifty
free constitutions, I am told, in Kurope.
Twenty million serfs of Russia manu
mitted. On this Western continent I cau
call the roll of many republics Mexico,
Guatemala, San Salvador, Costa Rica,
Paraguay, Uruguay, Honduras, New
Granada, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Bo
livia, Chile, Argentine Republic, Brazil.
The once straggling village of Washing
ton to which the United States Govern
ment moved, its entire bnggnge and equip
ment packed up in seven boxes, which got
lost in the woods near this place, now
the architectural glory of the continent
and admiration of the world.
A Glorious Century.
The money power, so much denounced
and often justly criticised, has covered
this continent with universities and free
libraries and asylums of mercy. The
newspaper press, which at the beginning
of the century was an ink roller, by hand
moved over one sheet of paper at a time,
has become the miraculous manufacturer
of four or five or six hundred thousand
sheets for one daily newspaper's issue.
Within your memory, O dying century,
has been the genesis of nearly all the
great institutions evangelistic. At Lon
don tavern, March 7, 1802, British and
Foreign Bible society was born. In 1810
American Bible Society was born. In
1824 American Sunday School Union was
born. In 1810 American Board of Com
missioners for Foreign Missions, which
has put hs saving hand on every nation
of the round earth, was born at a hay
stack in Massachusetts. The National
Temperance Society, the Woman's Tem
perance Society and all the other temper
ance movements were born in this cen
tury, Africa, hidden to other centuries,
by exploration in this century has been
put at the feet of civilization to be occu
pied by commerce and Christianity. The
Chinese wall, once an impassable barrier,
now is a useless pile of stone nnd brick.
Our American nation at the opening of
this century only a slice of land along the
Atlantic coast, now the whole continent
in possession of our school and churches
nnd missionary stations. Sermons and
religious intelligence which in other times,
if noticed at all by the newspapers press,
were allowed only a paragraph of three
or four lines, now find thi columns of the
secular press in all the cities thrown wide
open, and every week for twenty-six
years, without the omission of a single
week, 1 have been permit ted to preach
one entire gospel sermon through the
newspaper press. I thank God for this
grent npiHirtunity. Glorious old century!
You shall not be entombed until we have,
face to face, extolled you. You were
rockul in a rough cradle, and the inherit
ance you received was for the most part
Itoverty nnd struggle and hardship, and
poorly coveted gnncs of heroes and hero
ines of whom the world hnd not been
worthy, and atheism and military despot
ism, and the wreck of the French revo
lution. You Inherited !!;e inlluciices that
resulted in Aaron I'cir's treason, and
another war with England, and battle of
Lake Erie, and Indian snvaT'-ry, and
Lundy's Lane, nnd Dnrtmo a- massacre,
and dissension, bitter and wild beyond
measurement, nnd African slavery, which
wns yet to cost a national hemorrhage of
four awful years nnd a million precious
lives.
Yes. dear old century, you hnd an nwful
start, and you have done more than well,
onsiilering your parentage and your
arly environment. It is a wonder you
did not turn out to be the vagabond cen
tury of all time. You had n bad mother
nnd n bad grandmother. Some of the
preceding centuries were not fit to live
in their morals were so bnd, their fash
ions were so outrageous, their ignorance
wns so dense, their inhumanity so ter
rific. Oh, dying nineteenth century, be
fore you go we take this opportunity of
telling you that you are the best and
the mightiest of all the centuries of the
Christian era except the first, which gave
us the Christ, and you rivnl thnt century
in the fact that you more thnn all tho
other centuries put together are giving
the Christ to nil the world.
Lnhor and Capita'.
But my text suggests thnt there are
some things thnt this century ought to d
before he leaves us. "Thus sailh the
Lord, Set thine house In order, for thou
shalt die and not live." We ought not to
let this century go before two or three
things are set In order. For one thing
this quarrel between labor and capital.
Tho nineteenth century inherited It from
the eighteenth century, but do not let this
nineteenth century bequeath It to the
twentieth. "What we want," say labor,
"tn set ns r'z'it is more strikes am' more
vigorous work with torch and dynamite."
"What we want," says capital, "Is a
tighter grip on the working classes and
compulsion to take what wages we choose
to pay, without reference to their needs."
lioth uroag a.-i biii. Both defiant. Until
the day of judgment no settlement of the
quarcl if you have it to British, Russian
or American jwilitics. The religion of
Jesus Christ ought to come in within tho
next four years and take the hand of cap
ital and employe and say: "You have
tried everything else and failed. Now try
the gospel of kindness." No more oppres
sion and no more strikes. The gospel of
Jesus Christ will sweeten this acerbity, or
it will go on to the end of time, and tho
firm that burn the world up will crackle
in the ears of wrathful prosperity and
indignant toil while their hands are still
clutching at each other's throats. Before
this century sighs its last breath I would
that swarthy labor and easy opulence
would come up and let the Carpenter of
Nazareth join their hands in pledge of
everlasting kindness and peace. When
men and women are dying they are apt
to divide among their children memen
tos, and one is given a watch, and an
other a vase, and another a picture, and
another a robe. Iet this veteran century
before it dies hand over to the humau
race, with an impresaivences that shall
last forever, that old family keepsake, the
golden keepsake which nearly nineteen
hundred years ago was handed down
from the black rock of the mount of
beatitudes, "Therefore all things what
soverer ye would that men should do, do
ye even so to them, for this is the law
and the prophets."
A DylnK Century.
Tell us, p nineteenth century, before
you go in a score of sentences some of the
things you have heard and seen. The
veteran turns upon us and says: "I saw
Thomas Jefferson riding in unattended
from Monticello, only a few steps from
where you stand, dismount from his
horse and hitch the bridle to a isjst and on
yonder hill take the oath of the presiden
tial office. I saw yonder capitol ablaze
with war's incendiarinm. I saw the puff
of the first steam engine in America. I
heard the thunders of Waterloo, of Se
vastopool and Sedan and Gettysburg. I
was present at all the coronations of the
kings and queens and emperors and em
presses now in the world's palaces. I
have seen two billows roll across this
continent and from ocean to ocean a
billow of revival joy in 1857 and a billow
of blood in 18U. I have seen four gen
erations of the human race march across
this world and disappear. I saw their
cradles rocked and their graves dug. I
have heard the wedding bells and the
death knells of near a hundred years. I
haveclapped my hands for millions of joy
and wrung them in millions of agonies. I
saw Macready and Edwin Forrest act
and Edward I'ayson pray. I heard the
first chime of Ixingfellow's rhythms, and
before any one else saw them I read the
first line of Bancroft's history and the
first verse of Bryant's "Thanatopsis" and
the first word of Victor Hugo's almost
supernatural romance. I heard the music
of nil the grand marches and the lament
of all the requiems that for nigh ten
decades made the cathedral windows
shake. I have seen more moral and spir
itual victories thai! all of my predeces
sors put ogethcr. For all you who hear
or read this valedictory I have kindled all
the domestic firesides by which you ever
sat and roused all the hulloos and rounde
lays and merriments you have ever heard
and unrolled nil the pictured sunsets and
starry banners of the midnight heavens
that you have ever gnzed at. But ere I.
go take this admonition and benediction
of a dying century. The longeRt life, like
mine, must close. Opportunities gone
never come back, as I could prove from
nigh a hundred years of observation. Tho
eternity thnt will soon take me will soon
take you. The wicked live not out half
their days, as I have seen in 10,000 in
stances. The only influence for making the world
happy is an influence that 1. the nine
teenth century, inherited from the first
century of the Christian era the Christ'
of all the centuries. Be not deceived by
the fact thnt I have lived so long, for a
century is n large wheel that turns 100
smaller wheels, which are the years, and
each one of those years turns 3i." smaller
wheels, which are the days, nnd each of
tlie Ulio days turns 24 smaller wheels,1
which are the hours, and each one of
those 24 hours turns 00 smaller wheels,
which lire the minutes, aud those 00 min
utes turn still smaller wheels, which are
the seconds. And nil of this vast ma
chinery is in perpetual motion and pushes
ns on and on toward the great eternity
whose doors will, nt 12 o'clock of the
winter night between the year 11)00 and
Hie year l'.Kil open before me, the dying
cenutry. I quote from the three inscrip
tions over the three doors of the cathedral
of Milan. Over one door, amid a wreath
of sculptured rimes, 1 rend, "All that
which pleases us is but for a moment."
Over another door, around a sculptured
cross, I rend, "All that, which troubles
us is but for a moment." But over the
central door I rend, "That only is import
nnt which is eternal." O eternity, eter
nity, eternity!
My hearers, as the nineteenth century
was Isirn while the face of this nation
wns yit wet with trans because of the
fatnl horseback ride that Washington
look out here at Mount Meruon through a
December snowstorm, I wish the next
century might be born at a time when the
face of this nntlon shall lie wot with the
tear of the litcrnl or spiritual arrival of
the Grent Deliverer of Nations, of whom
St. John wrote with apocalyptic pen,
"And I suw, and behold a white horse!
And he that sat on him had a liow, and a
crown was given unto him, and ho went
forth conquering and to conquer."
Calcutta, India, Is a great educa
tional center, one of the greatest In the
world. It has twenty colleges, with
three thousand students, and forty
high schools, with two thousand stu
dents. In the city there are alto
gether about fifty -five thousand English-speaking
and uon-Chrlstinn natives.