Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-16
NOTES AND QUERIES.
The Preservation of the Scriptures
Up to Their Translation.
STORY OF THE HAYMARKET RIOTS.
Monetary Standard Of the Civilized Gov.
ernments of the World.
BITS OF CURIOUS INFORMATION

A correspondent puts question Of con-
siderable interest when he asks how the
sacred Scriptures were preserved, from the
time they were written by the prophets and
Apostles, till they were translated into the
English language in 1911, by order Of
James I. The books of the law were the first
books of the Bible to be collected, by the
priests and leaders of the Israelites; after
the law came the written history of the
people, in the fifth century B. c., the COL
lection Of the prophets by Nehemiah; and
from his time onward the collection of
hagicgrapha, the Psalms, Proverbs, Job,
| Canticles.
| All of these had been preserved by the
| priests, copied and recopied as occasion re-
quired, and circulated in manuscript, as of
course, all writings were circulated in those
days The dispersion of the Hebrews, and
their acquisition of other languages ard
loss of the Hebrew language, necessitated
the translation of the Scriptures into other
than the Hebrew; and previous to the
| second century B. c. what we know as the
| Septuagint translation, the Xxx, was COM
pleted in Greek, designed especially for the
Hebrews living in Alexandra and other
parts Of Egypt The Septuagint comes
from tradition that 20 scholars-72 actu-
ally-made the translation. TranslatIons
and recensions into the Aramaic were also
made; and these translations were copied
from time to time, SO that the oldest manu-
script of the Old Testament now extant is
only about ], 400 years old.
The case is the same with the New Testa-
ment; it was written again and again, until
now there are upward OF thousand manu-
scripts tor the gospels and as many more
for the rest of the New Testament The
oldest manuscripts are the Codex Sinaiticus
and the Codex Vaticanus, which date from
the fourth century A. D. So the books of
the Bible were handed down, the old cop
les always being renewed before they wore
out, the language being Hebrew, Greek,
and after A. D. 800, Latin. The latter, in
the translation adopted by the Roman
Church, and known as the Vulgate, because
commonly used in the Christian churches,
was the, first book printed, in 145O-55. AS
far back as the seventh century portions of
the Vulgate were translated into English;
and the early versions by Wickliffe and his
predecessors, by Purvey and others, were
translations from the Vulgate. Tyndale
used Luther's German translation of the
Greek Bible.
The authorized version of King James
was made by Al scholars and finished in
1911; the manuscripts, so far as accessible.
were consulted the translators not restrict.
ing themselves to the Vulgate, but going to
the Hebrew and Greek whenever they
could.
What was the date of the Haymarket riots
in Chicago? r.
The riots began on May 8, 1886, and cul-
minated during the evening of May 4. A
strike had begun on Saturday, May ], to OBJ
tain an ''eight hour day" the day passed
peaceably; but on Monday many of the Ia
borers who mad obtained that ''day" mobbed
the men employed in the Mccormick Reap
er Works, accusing them of not having in
sisted on the eight hour day. The police 1
were sent for, shots were fred, and dozen
of the mob were injured. The next evening
a meeting was held in the Haymarket, an
open place at the junction of Des PLANES
and Randolph streets, ''to denounce the
ing of our fellow orkmen." The rain made
the attendance slight; August Spies and AL
bert R. Parsons spoke mildly, but Samuel
Fielden made a violent speech, in the midst
of which the police charged the meeting.
Fielden got down from the cart which
served as the speakers stand, and said to
the police captain, "We are peaceable" At
that instant a bomb was thrown, falling
among the police, wounding 60 of them and
killing seven. The police fired, killing and
wounding many of the mob.
IL Oh =
June; three weeks were spent in getting a
jury, and the actual trial began on July Is.
The jury retired on August 10 and returned |
August 20 with verdict of guilty against |
Spies, Schwab, Fielden, Parsons, Fischer, !
Engel and Lingg, whom they sentened to |
death, and Neebe, whom they sentenced to |
Is years imprisonment. The case was ap- |
pealed; but on September IA, 1887, the Su-
preme Court of Illinois affirmed the con-
viction. Application was made to the Su-
preme Court of the United States for writ |
Of error; but it was refused unanimously |
Lingg, Engel, Fischer and Parsons refused |
to beg for their lives. but demanded their
liberty as right; Spies, Fielden and Schwab
asked for mercy. On November 10 the Gov
ernor of Illinois commuted the punishment |
of Fielden and Schwab to life imprisonment.
The same day Lingg exploded a illuminate
in his mouth, killing himself, and
On November II, 1887, Spies, Fischer, Engel
and Parsons were hanged.
What countries of the world have gold as
their monetary standard, and what coun-
tries nave sllverf j. B. =.
Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Egypt,
Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Norway,
Portugal, Sweden, Turkey and the United
States have gold standard-Austria hav-
ng changed from silver to gold within a
ew months; Argentine Republic, Belgium,
Chile, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Hol-
and, Spain and Switzerland have doub-
e standard, at least nominally; the other
South American countries and China, In
lila, Mexico, Russia, have silver standard.
France, Belgium, Greece, Italy and Swift
,erland form what is known as the Latin
Union," having coins alike in weight,
hough of different names. Originally, the
1nion had silver standard; but some lS
vears ago it ceased to coin silver, and now,
hough nominally bimetallic, is really on a
.Old basis ,Japan nomipallv on a himet-