The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-06-19

l y y
uttered in the auditorium is easily heard
in the rooms of the dwellings which the
wires reach. The first message from
the minister was from Scripture: "The
WORD is nigh unto thee" His word
runneth very swiftly"
When the Zulus rushed in on the
small British detachment of Col. Wood,
and while there was yet an open road in
one direction, Col. Weatherly, an Eng
lish cavalry officer, clapped his son, a
| boy of thirteen--who was with him, on
orseback-kissed him, and told him to
| fly for life. The lad jumped from the
saddle, striking the horse lash which
sent it galloping off, and said: Father,
| I'll die with YOU" The father handed
his revolver to the child just as the
Zulus reached, over British bodies, the
spot where they stood. Weatherly slew
| five Zulus before he fell, but the son was
killed at once.
Apropos to the inter-oceanic canal
across the isthmus of Darien, a corres-
pondent in Buffalo writes to the New
York Graphic, suggesting the construc-
| ton of an enormous railway across the
| isthmus, constructed and equipped to
carry ships of any tonnage. He would
| have the track at each end of the route
run down into water deep enough to
support properly built dock, so that a
vessel could sail into basin surround
ing this approach to the track, and then
be docked and drawn across the isthmus
on wheels. The writer does not profess
any engineering skill, and modestly ad-
mits that there may be difficulties in the
way of his scheme which he does not
see. If so, others will probably see
built for one-tenth of 5000, ,000, 900, the
estimated cost of the proposed canal.
The police statistics of large cities are
often more impressive than a long and
rhetorical sermon could be. Take those
of Chicago, for example. The annual
arrests number about 10000, one-half
for drunkenness, and of the total, 5000
are women, Without going into elabo-
rate comparisons of figures, it may be af-
firmed that Chicago is not greatly worse
than other large cities; it may not be as
bad as some others. At the best we OBJ
tain a glimpse of an incalculable
amount of crime and misery and
when we remember that the inf1u-
ence of evil examples spreads like con-
tagious disease, the subject is seen to be
one of terrible moment. Mere preach
ing to those whose surroundings alone
render virtue almost impossible on the
one hand, and mere attention to physical
wants on the other, will not meet the
eXigencies of the case. Nothing will
effect an immediate or general cure, but
there should be union of all the
methods which common sense and un-
common charity can devise.
Strange mischances with fatal results
are daily happening here and there. A
Boston butcher ran against knife that
lay on II block, severed an artery, and
bled to death. A Denver woman caught
her foot in railroad frog, and could not
get loose before train ran over her. A
| Vermont farmer sneeZed with a straw in
his mouth, drew it into his lungs. and
died choking. A horse kicked a Michi-
gan boy into a deep well, where he was
drowned. The shoe flew off the foot of
Il kicking mule, in Nashville, and frac-
tured the skull Of a baby. An Oregon
girl swal lowed her engagement ring, and
lived only a week afterward. While
standing on his head, on the top of a
high fence post, an Iowa boy lost his
balance, fell into tub of hot water, and
was fatally scalded. A stone, thrown
by a playfellow, broke glass from
which a St. Louis boy was drinking,
driving some of the pieces down his
throat. and he died few days afterward
in great agony. Looking up to watch
the flight of an arrow, a Nashville wo-
man did not see it descending directly
over her head, and the sharp metal point
penetrated her brain through one of her
eyes, killing her instantly.