Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-12-01

eral Assembly. He has also served the
Presbytery as trustee of Davidson Col
lege for the past twelve years, and has
been a member of the executive commit
tee of the board for the past six years. In
1880 he was the alumni orator Of David
son College. In the same year he was
elected to the Legislature, but at the end
of his Legislative term resumed the occu-
patton of farming, which is his principal
business.
THE POINT OF DEATH.
Although usually it is easy to tell when
dissolution has occurred, yet there are cases
which occur from time to time rendering
the matter one of very grave uncertainty.
The point at which the soul relinquishes
the body is among the most difficult things
to establish. Perhaps this uncertainty is
one of the reasons why there isso much
curiosity as to death-beds and last words.
We are anxious to know how affairs ap.
pear to those who are passing away.
They are undergoing the greatest change
through which every one must pass.
How does it look to them? Very little
more information is to be gathered from
the dying than from the dead. Certain
differences may be drawn from the sur
roundings- departing color, the cold,
deepening stare, the groan, the rattle in
the throat, the 9:iffening limbs; but they
are as likely to mislead as not. And the
same may be said of the death sayings,
They are as enigmatic as the declarations
of the oracles. We may take sometimes
half dozen meanings from them as, for
instance, Goethe's "More light" Was. it
the sense of earthly darkness growing
around him, or was it the breaking of the
eternal light upon his vision, or was there
yet some deeper significance in the excla-
nation?
Medical works show that people have
been resuscitated fifteen, twenty and even
thirty minutes after apparent death !;
Heldon, the highWayman, is said to have
been in three-quarters of an hour. His
body was cut down after hanging that
length of time, and was handed over to
his friends after thorough examination.
That night he was seen as well as ever
except for a stiffness of the neck. Pryce,
the Norwich miser was as dead as Cesar,
according to those about him, and until
some thoughtful person, distrusting the
warmth Of his hands, administered q
stimulant. He arose and lived years af-
terWard. Cases of mere trance are al
most innumerable. -
Supposed deaths from drowning show
that resuscitation may take place thirty
or forty minutes after life has apparently
left the body. The question as to what
becomes of the soul in this long interval
is one which puzzles many. But the chief
point of the matter is that the physicians
and friends should not too readily accept
appearances in the critical hour. There
may be, as in the Fraser instance, yet
some dark spot of life remaining. AS
DR.. Lackerstein claims, there is absolute
ly no reason why, with the resources he
employed at hand, anyone should die of
an overdose of chloroform or from shock
while undergoing a surgical operation.
AT THE HOME OF HIS CHILDHOOD
On the 22nd ultimo, at Fairview, on the
line between Christian and Todd counties,
KY, there was dedicated Baptist church
erected on the site of the building where
Ex- President Jefferson Davis was born.
The ground was purchased and given by
q party of gentleman to Mr.. Davis, who
in turn gave it for the location of the
church.
The Rev. Dr. Strickland, of Nashville,
preached the dedication sermon, and Mr..
Davis was present. There was an i'm
mense crowd, many of whom could not
get into the church and were forced to
leave, as it was raining hard. After the
sermon, Mr.. Davis was invited to the
pulpit, and, bent with age and supported to
the stand, he made few appropriate re-
marks, closing as follows:
"May He who rules in Heaven bless in
dividually and collectively this whole
community, and may His benediction rest
on this house forever. More than this it
would be improper for me to say"
Mr.. Davis then presented the church
with a service of solid silver. The church
is a handsome brick structure, costing
about $4,000. A finely polished slab of
violet-hued Tennessee. marble set in the
wall of the vestibule opposite the memori-
al window has this inscription in Roman
capitals:
jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was
born June 8, 1903, on the plat of this
church. He made gift of this lot March
10, 1886, to Bethel Baptist Church as a
thankoffering to the Lord"
After the church service the crowd ad-
journed to dinner spread in big build
ing near at hand, where all were bounti-
fully fed. Mr.. Davis left for Clarkville,
Tennessee, where he took the train for
home.
THE WORLDS GREATEST DESERT
One-half of the earth's solid surface Is
buried in the abysmal regions of the ocean,
and exists in undulating plains beneath a
watery covering from two to five miles
thick. On this land at the bottom of the
deep sea, the director of the Challenger
publications tells US, the conditions pre-.
sented are most uniform. The tempera-
ture, near the freezing point of fresh wa
ter, does not exceed seven degrees in
range, and is constant throughout the year
in any locality. Sunlight and plant-life
are absent, and, although animals OF the
large types are present, there no great va
riety of form or abundance of individuals.
Change of any kind is exceedinly slow.
At the greatest depths deposits are chiefly
red clay mixed with fragments of vol
canic matter, remains of deep sea animals,
cosmic dust, manganese-iron nodules and
zeolitic crystals. No analogous deposits
have been traced on dry land, although
the continents are mainly made up of
rocks which must have formed under the
sea near the coasts. Throughout all geolo-
gical time the deposits of the continent
bordering waters appear tc have been
forced up into dry land through the cons:
traction of the earth, while the abysmal
regions have remained the most perma-
nent areas of the earth's surface.
n6s. Rutherford B. Hayes is now the only
living ex-President and Hannibal Hamlin
and William A. Wheeler the only living
ex-Vice- Presidents. Fremont and Blaine
are the only living ex-Presidential candi-
dates of great parties, and Pendleton,
English and Logan the only living Vice
Presidential candidates. The ranks of
these distinguished gentlemen have thin
ned greatly by the death within eighteen