THE CHARLOTTE MESSENGER VOL. IV. NO. 36. THE Charlotte Messenger 18 PUBLISHED Every Saturday, AT CHARLOTTE, N. C. In the Interests of the Colored People of the Country. Able and well-known writers will contrib nte to its columns from different parts of the country, and it will contain tlmjlatest Gen eral News of the day. Thb Messenger is a first-class newspaper and will not allow iiersonal abuse in its col umns. Itis not sectarian or partisan, but independent—dealing fairly by all. It re serves the right to criticise the shortcomings of all (public officials—commending the worthy, and recommending for election such men as in its opinion are best suited to serve the interests of the people. It is intended to supply the long felt need of a newspaper to advocate the l ights anil defend the inter sts of the Negro-American, especially in the Piedmont section of the Carolinas. SUBSCRIPTIONS: tAheays in Advance.) 1 year - - - *1 SO 8 months - - - 100 6 months - - 75 8 months - - - 50 2 months - - 35 Single Copy - 5 Address, W. C. SMITH Charlotte NC, It is now possible for a traveler to go direct by rail from the City of Mexico to British Columbia, a distance of 6,000 miles. This has been made possible by the recent completion of the California and Oregon railway. It is stated that the auditorium in Chicago will be completed before June 17, the date of the Hepublican National Convention. The seating capacity ol the hall will be 8,500. The Committee gn Arrangements has decided to raise #30,000 to be expended on decorations and conveniences for the delegates. No end of fun was made of Secretary Seward, records the Springfield liepubli tan, when he carried through his project for the purchase of Alaska. A glance at the commerce of that region last year, given in the report of Governor Swine ford. shows that the market value of its products was nearly equal to the purchase money. She sent to market in 1887 :fn furs, #2,600,000; fish, #3,000,000; gold, #l,- 350,000; lumber, etc., $100,000; total, #O, 050,000. The fur interest has already aken second place in the list, and it is quite possible that the fisheries will be pushed hard by the mines in a few years. With a white, creole and partly civilized native population of nearly 10,000 in a country so rich in nntural resources, the subject of some kind of a local legisla ture cannot long be safely dclayrd. Only a few people hold land there in fee sim ple, but hundreds of settlers are ready to prove their claims when Congress makes proper provision for such action. Chemists, the HI. Jamcn's Ornette says, have fora long time endeavored to find a good artificial subititute for quinine. Whenever war breaks out on a large scale the value of genuine quinine always rises very rapidly in the market. Many alka loids, possessing more or less of the properties of the alkaloids of quinine, have been artificially formed; but by far the best of these was, until quite recently, antipyrine, or, to give it its full chemical name.dimctbyloxyquinidinc. This alka loid, which was discovered in 1883 by Professor Knorr, of Erlangen, is a coal tar product, and was recently, in a letter to the London Timet, put forward by Mr. Watson Smith as a romedy for sea sickness; but its chief merit lies in the fact that it is a notable reducer of tem perature. It has of late met with a for midable rival in antifebrine, another product of coal tar. Antifebrine is not only a perfect substitute for quinine, •specially in cases of typhus and inter mittent fever, but alto amorecortain and less objectionable cure than salicylic acid for rheqmatism. Coal tar has already given us the most brilliant dyes, the rarest scents, the most powerful disin fectants, and saccharine, which is the sweetest of known substances. Yet -it# usefulness seems to be far from exhausted, and a Berlin professor the other day as sured hU class that from coal Ur he •ould brew as good a cup of tea as from tea leaves. . •_ J TELEGRAPHIC TICKS SOUTH CAROLINA* The prisoners in jail at Chesterfield broke jail, and all of them escaped. They had obtained a two-inch auger from some one on the outside, it is not known from who or how, and with this instrument bored two holes in the ceil ing overhead and one in the gable. They then tied blankets together and let them selves down to the ground. Sheriff King has been in search of the missing birds for two days, but. up to this morn ing had not captured any of them. The barns of Gen. E. Moise and Capt. W. It. Dclgar, at Sumpter, were destroy ed by fire. The horses were gotten out, but nothing else in the buildings was saved. The tire is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary. The steamer I’omonn, from Jamacia for New York, with a cargo of fruit and coffee, was towed to quarantine. She lost her propellor on the seventh, and was taken in tow by the steamship Ilaw sea, parted during the night and the steamship left the I'omone. She pro ceeded under sail till taken in tow by steamship New Nurk from New York for Galveston, which brought her to Charleston bar. She experienced stormy weather. Woman's Cry For Freedom. The International Counsil of Women was opened at Washington I). C., with religious services al Albaugh's Grand Opera House. The attendance was large. The Rev. Ada (’. Cowles, the Rev. An toinette Brown Blackwell, the Rev. Anna 11. Shaw and the Rev Amciida Deyo of ficiated. The subject of the sermon by the Rev. Anna Shaw was the “Heavenly Vision.” After referring to Si. Raul’s vision of truth, she said: “All down through the centuries God has been revealing in vision great truths which have lifted the race step by step, until to-day won anhood in this sunset hour of the nineteenth century is gather ed here from the east and west, north and south, the women of every land, of every race, of all religious beliefs, with divers theories and plans. But diverse and varied are our races, diverse and varied are our theories, diverse sis are our religious beliefs, yet we come together here, and now with one harmonious pur pose—that of lifting humanity, both men and women, into ahiger, purer and truer life. To one has come a vision of polit ical freedom. She saw how the avarice and ambition of one class with power made him forget tiie rights of another. She saw now unjust laws embittered both those who made them and those upon whom injustice rested. She recognized the great principles of universal equality and rights and saw that all alike must be free, not that men, not that black and white men, but that mankind, hu manity everywhere must be lifted up oul of subjection into the free ami lull air of divine liberty. Killed llis Father In Law. News has been received at Raleigh N. C., of the killing of a man named Col lins, by bis father-in-law, who is keeper of the poor house of Nash county. Some months ago Collins ran away with the daughter of the keeper in opposition to the wishes of the latter ami soon return ed with his w ife and took up residence with his father iu-law. Collins was idle and a drunkard. He lived at his father-in-law’s until the county commissioners notified the latter that Collins must be sent away and re fused to support him longer. Collins was accordingly given money and sent away. A few days ago lie returned and de clared publicly on the streets of Nash ville that he intended to kill his father in-law. That night he went to the lat ter’s house and attempted to force his wav in. It was very cold ami he soon quieted down and begged for admission. He was finally admitted, and as soon as he was warm he began cursing and threatening bis father-in-law , ami made a motion to draw’ a pistol, whereupon his father-in-law seizing his shot gun, fired and shot him dead in the presence of his wife and others in the family. The coroner’s jury rendered a verdict of justifiable homicide. A Glimpse of OiiUrrirs Ago. It gives one a little flutter of excite ment, hays a correspondent of the Lon don ikj’rrct\ writing about Oiec.vaca tions at Roinpeii, to look at a man, per fect in form and feature, lying just as he died on that November day exactly 1-(W years ago next November to sec his hands clenched and his teeth set, and the xery look of horror on his face l hot came there as he fell, fleeing from the doomed city fell to rise no more. And in another ca e Ims a beautiful girl of 1 ompcii, who died whither huh across her eyes, sh itting oul the sight of the swift death that was overtaking her. And near her lies a poor little dog who had died that dav. lie li’l wears t c collar and chain tint bound him to Hi kennel and prevented li s esc ape. 'J lie poor little J o npcian how wow, who | ved I MOO years age*, li; s upon his side his limbs drawn tog'tlnr in jivmi;, Id- Ups parted just us they w»‘i« when Hr *, gave the last dying wh inju r < f ’error uud de- WEST The Central Theatre and tin* Theatre Comiquc, in Philadelphia, were destroy ed by tire. Ex-Governor John T. Hoffman, of New York died of heart disease at Wels baden, Germany. A white farmer, named Joseph Gill was murdered near Savannah Ga., by a negro cow thief. William Milner, aged 05, residing near Winchester, Va. murdered his old wife and then killed himself. The business of the Burlington Road has been blocked again, the cause of the present trouble being the strike of the switchmen in Chicago. Mr Davis was presented and Senator Logan delivered the oration at the com mencement of the College of Alabama, in Mobile, on March 29th. The heaviest snow storm of the season is raging in Wales and the west of Scot land. Mrs. Thompson, wife of Col. R. W. Thompson, president of the Panama Ca nal Company and e\ secretary of the navy, died at Terre Haute, Ind. The steamship Iniziativa, from Gibral tar, which has arrived at New York is detained at quarantine with a ease of small pox in the storage. A German Widow in New York, craz ed by |H>verty, gave ln r three children rat poison, and watched their agonies until two died Hhe then informed the pol'ce of her deed. She was arrested and the surviving child, in a ho|R*lcfS condition, was sent to a hospital. The Chicago, Rock [stand and Pacific Railway iu Its answer to the bill of the Chicago, Burlington ami Quincy, c luirgi s the latter road with having instigated the engineers’strike, with the view of forcing all competing loads to join it ill the formation of a Trust. Goutl New-* for t/ie Tenant. L&udlord—“l've called to toll you, Bridget, that l aiu o*iig to ra.se your rent. ” Bridget—“ Glad to hear t, sor. Faith, I can’t raise it meseU.” —SifUngu A GRAND PALACE A LOOK AT THE LARGEST BUILD ING IN THE WORLD. The Czar’s Winter Palace at St. Petersburg—lts Immense Size and Gorgeous Interior Decorations. The Czar’s Winter Palace is the largest building in the world, says William E. Curtis in the Chicago News . It is about twice the size of tlie capitol at Washing ton, a square structure fronting on the Neva, contains 1,700 rooms, and, it is said, that in pldcn times as many as 6,000 people, including a guard of soldiers, have been sheltered and fed under its roof. The roof itself used to be the dwelling place of a large colony when it was necessary to keep watchmen against fire there, and men whose business it was to prevent the reservoirs from freezing by casting red-hot cannon halls into the tanks. These built huts between the chimneys of the great palace, had their families there, and even raised chickens and pigs and goats ninety feet above ground. But such guards are unnecessary now in the age of waterworks anti fire engines. The palaces of the Louis at Versailles, and of the German Emperor at Potsdam, arc much more chaste and noble speci mens of architecture. The Queen’s castle at Windsor is by far more pic turesque, tlie new building for the State, War and Navy departments at Washing ton surpasses the Winter Palace in beauty and simple elegance, while the new Palais of Justice at Brussels, the finest architectural work of this century, is grander, more graceful and pleasing in every respect; yet in none of these has so great an attempt at display been made or so much money expended. The present building was erected upon the site of one occupied by the high admiral in the time of Peter the Great, and bequeathed by him to Peter’s son. In 1751 that was pulled down by the Empress Anne, who commenced the erection of the present edifice, but left it to be completed by the Empress Catherine in 1762. Much of the interior was de stroyed by fire in 1837, but was rebuilt, and the whole was renewed in its pre sent form in 1839, at a cost of about 50,000,000 roubles. The palace has been occupied during the winter by ail the Czars till the present one, who will not live there, but keeps it for ceremonials only, while he resides in the much smaller and less imposing house which he occu pied while crown prince on the Ncvski Prospect, the Fifth avenue of Petersburg. The main entrance, which, however, is used-only on occasions of ceremony, opens from the banks of the river into a magnificent vestibule of marble, with wide stairways reaching to the several halls ami imperial reception rooms above. Tlie stairway is adorned by groups of statuary, and the long vesti bule, 200 feet by 60, presents an array of ideal figures in marble, as well as statues of the heroes of Russian history. The throne room is a magnificent apart ment of marble, so large that the entire White House at Washington might be erected within its walls, and here, upon New Year’s day, the C/ar receives the congratulations of the diplomatic corps, the high officers of the government and the army, and the nobles. The white hall is also fine and large, hut the most imposing room is the hall of St. George, 140 by 84 feet in size and 60 feet high, of marble, with a ceiling carved and gilded with pure gold leaf. There is no liner room anywhere, and it is used only for the assemblage and decoration of heroes with the Order of St. George, the highest the Czar can bestow, and, like the Order of tlie Garter in Great Britain, a distinction enjoyed only by tho«c who win it in the field or by some service to the State. Another fine room is the hall of the ambassadors, where the diplomatic corps assemble on occasions of ceremony, while another is the hail of field marshals, so called because the walls ore covered with the portraits of those who have com manded the armies of Russia. In these great rooms a multitude