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.-v c -.--.. By P. M. HALE. office: FayetteviHe St., Second Floor Fisher" Building. RATK8 OF SUBSCRIPTION; IB II WW I I 1 ADVERTISING BATES. Advertisements will be inserted for One Dollar per square (one inch) for the first and Fifty Cent for each subsequent publication. Contracts for advertising for any space or time may be made at the office of the RALEIGH REGISTER, Second Floor of Fisher Building, FayetteviHe Street, next to Market House. One copy one year, mailed post-paid $& 00 One copy six months, mailed poet-paid... . 1 90 , . I. No name euterea wuooui payment, ana 1 TTvy T uo i.aper sent after Expiration of time paid for. V vJJLrf -Is RALEIGH, N. C, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1884. NO. 41. - , --T I 1 I 11 I II II II 1 II 1 II "W II III II 1 IMMORTALITY. Schiller. W'liat shall I do to be forever known " r Thy duty ever. TUfo did full many who yet sleep unknown. Oh, nevei never I Xhiuk'st thou perchance that they remain un- uuknown ' Whom thou kuow'st not 1 $- anirel irumps in heaven their praise Is blown ; ! Divine their lot. What shalLI do to gain eternal life?" - Discharge aright The simple dues with which each day is rife. Yea, with thy might Kre perfect scheme of action thou devise ; Will life be fled ; While he who ever acta as conscience, crieo, Shall live, though dead. ' ALCOHOLIC TRANCE. BY T. D. CROTHERS, M. t. Popular Scienee Monthly, December. I propose to describe in a general way a peculiar mental state following the toxic use of alcohol, which has only recently at tracted attention, and which promises to le a very important factoin the medical jurisprudence of the future. Morbid states of the nervous system, in which the mind seems to act automatically, and with out consciousness of the surroundings, and with 110 registration by the memory of these acts, are not new to students of mental and nervous diseases; but the fact that they are more or less common in in ebriety from alcohol, and may follow any excess, is a recent discovery. In 1879 I published a short paper "On Trance and Loss of Consciousness following Inebriety," which, as far as I .can ascertain, was the earliest study of, these cases ever made. The following are among the first, cases which attracted my attention to this sub ject. In 187? a patient was admitted to the asylum at Binghamton, with this inci dent in his history: A year before, while apparently sober, he purchased a trotting lmrse, paying a fabulous price. Two days after, he denied all knowledge of the transaction, and became involved in a lawsuit. On the trial it appeared that the m r chase of the horse had been discussed for manv hours, and that the buyer had exhibited great sagacity and judgment to avoid deception ; also that, although drink inr large quantities of spirits, he gave no evidence of other than good judgment, and perfect knowledge of his acts and their consequences. In the defence it was shown that the purchase of the horse was a most unusual act; that he never showed any interest in last horses, or racing, nor had he been on the race-course, and was in fact afraid of driving fast horses; and lastly, he had many horses-jn his stables, and needed the money paid for this horse, for a distinct purpose, which had been determined on before. From his own tes timony he had many blanks 01 nu-mory while drinking, and at this time had lost all recollection of passing events from the hour of dinner, during which he-; drank frtelv, until next morning, when he drank again and fell into, another blank which lasted thirtv-six hours. Other testimony indicated a gradual increasing dullness and abstractedness of manner during this time;' also apparent disinclination to fix his' attention on any one thing long. The suit went against him, and he soon after was brought to the asylum. Iu another case the president of a bank, a man of wealth and irreproachable character, forged - a large check, put the money in his pocket, and the dav after was amazed to find the monev and to account for it. In an inves tigation it was proved that he suffered from these blanks of memory after drink ing wine freely; that he had before done many unaccountable acts, apparently fully conscious at the time, and yet afterward disclaimed all memory of them,' a fact w hich was supported by their motiveless character. This mental condition may be described as a loss of memory and con sciousness of present and passing events, that is concealed and not apparent from a general study of the conduct; or, in other w ords, a state of the brain similar to som nambulism in respect' to the unconscious character Sf the acts, and all recollection of them. For the time being the sufferer is a literal automaton, eivmc little or -no evidence of his actual condition, and act in" from impulses unknown, and motives that leave no trace. The late Dr. Beard believed this state to be one of general lowered brain-function, in w inch the cerebral activity is concen J rated in some limited region of the brain, and is largely suspended in the rest. He alo urged that the plane of consciousness was below the point of.; remembering; hence these cases were conscious at the time, but the memory failed to record the impression. In confirmation of this, the late Dr. Forbes Winslow recorded a case of a somnambulist, who, while walking about, set his night-dress on fire, and with excellent judgment and coolness threw himself on the bed and extinguished the H imes, then resumed his walk, and awoke next mornins with no memory of it, and was greatly alarmed at the charred ap pearancc of his dress. Whatever the pathology may be, it is clear that this is a -t;ite of irresponsibility, and for the time ieing a form of dementia and insanity, aoout which there can be no question Careful study of these cases for many years lias indicated the startling fact that they are very common in inebriety ; also that in every case where alcohol is used to excess there are histories of loss of memory and nseiousness of acts committed while u.-injj spirits. These conditions are almost infinite in variety and complexity, and are considered mere freaks of memory by many persons. .Probably in a majority of cases in the earlv srages these blanks of con sciousness and memory are partial, and appear iu the delirium or stupor which follows excess of spirits, or in mental states iiiinroachinjT it. and clear ui) after 1 r - K recovery, or remain like a cloud for weeks, then from some little circumstances break auay and every act is lecalled. In other e.i-es only a dim, vague impression re mains of what has transpired in the past, v;hieh may or may not become clear with 1 line; or the blank may be total for the time being, and then break away. In 1 many of these cases there is apparent real ization of all his acts and words, in others a self evident unconsciousness of them. This is only the beginning of another and more pronounced stage, iff- which the I'lank of memory and consciousness is to tal, and during this period the acts and appearance of the person differ but little from, those of -usual health. In many cases 'he brain function or action, as seen in his acts, is fully up to the best state of health, even showing more than usual engin in some directions. In a such as inebriate automatism, inebriate insanity, inebriate unconsciousness all describing the same condition. The fol lowing may be mentioned as facts that are generally accepted as landmarks from which further study may be dated : 1. This trance state is a common condi tion in inebriety, where, from some pecu liar neurotic state, either induced by alco hol, or existing before alcohol was used, or exploded by this drug, a profound sus pension of memory and consciousness and literal paralysis of certain brain-functions follow. 2. This trance state may last from a few moments to several days, during which the person may appear and act rationally, and yet be actually a mere automaton, without consciousness or memory of his actual con dition. 3. This trance state may be noted by criminal impulses and by unusual thoughts and acta foreign to all the man's past his tory. In all these cases there are no ap parent disturbances of the nervous system, no convulsions, no premonitions to mark this state; at some unknown point, all un conscious, the eclipse begins, A compari son of the history of a number of cases will show three mental conditions quite prominent: 1. In which the mind in this state acts along certain accustomed lines of thought and action ; 2. In which the mind displays unusual ranges of thought and action, which in some cases can be traced to eertain mental states grow ing out of the surroundings; and, a. Where criminal impulses are promi nent, that have no apparent connection with the present or past. These condi tions may be illustrated in the following cases: A railroad conductor, who drank to excess every night after the day's work was over, would frequently, get up. m the morning, go out on his tram, perform all his duties correctly, and recover consciousness of himself suddenly on the road, and all the past be a blank to him from some point the night before. These blanks occasionally lasted twenty-rour hours, and he could never recall anything which happened, and he only knew by the money and tickets that he had made a trip on his train. After a time he would put down in a note-book events of importance in this state, which he never did other wise. The train -hands knew that he was, as they termed it, "memory-drunk" when he used his note-book freely, and seemed dull and abstracted. A pilot on a Sound steamer, after seasons of hard work, and exhaustion from loss of sleep, would use brandy to keep up, and have blanks of hours from which he would recover, hav ing no recollection of what had happened. He would act as usual, only be less talka tive, and dull in his manner. A skilled mechanic, who used spirits to excess, suf fered from blanks of many hours' dura tion, durinsr which he attended a dancer machine, performing all the duties paper read before the Medico-Legal Society of New York, in 1881, I discussed ' this con "litionjas a trance state followinginebriety ; s'nce that time a number of different names have been suggested by authors, requiring both skill ana judgment. A clergyman, 'who drinks wine, has frequent ly conducted service, and preached a ser mon without any memory of the fact, hav injr a blatik of ail surroundings for hours, A grocer,' after a period of great excess in 'the use of spirits, wil conduct hisbusiuess for hours without any consciousness of events, and only know by the books and statements of others what has taken place. These are only a few of the histories of a large number of cases which I have gath ered to illustrate the fact that in this trance state the mind may work along ac customed lines of thought and action. In this condition, the evidence of a mental blank is more or "less obscure. In the next division, the mind displays unus ual ranges, of thought and action, some of which can be traced to the surroundings. A physician, who drank constantly, and was a bitter skeptic, went into a revival meeting and professed change of heart, and took part in the exercises, and the next morning had no recollection of it. Later, while drinking, he heard the sing ing of the revival meeting, and, dropping all business, entered and took a very ac tive part, and seemed fully conscious of all the surroundings, yet, after a night's sleep, had no recollection whatever of any thing which had occurred. In this case the trance state was manifest in unusual deeds and acts, suggested from the sur roundings. A similar case was that of an editor, who, after drinking to excess, could always be found in temperance meetings, making eloquent appeals, and yet he gave no evidence of being under the influence of spirits, nor couidnc re member anything of what had occurred. Another case is that of a man of fortune, who drank wine freely, awoke and found that he had married his servant, and made an unusual disposition of his property, which was alLa blank to him. To his friends and others he seemed fully con scious of the nature and consequences of these events at the time. I think it will be found that inebriates brought suddenly into conditions of excitement are moved by circumstances and surroundings to which they are often really Oblivious. If the trance state is present, the influence of the surroundings can not be estimated. The last division, that of criminal imjndxe growing out of thu trance state, illustrates the subject of our paper more closely.' The following cases bring out the facts better than any description : An inebriate was repeatedly arrested for horse-stealing, and often punished. The crime was com mitted under similar circumstances, and no attempt was made to conceal the prop erty: on two occasions he assisted the' owner to hunt up the horses. When it was apparent that he was guilty, great was his astonishment, and he denied all recollection of any circumstances or events. This was confirmed by all the circumstan ces of his life, by hil inebriety and blanks of memory, and absence of motive and ob ject in the crime. He was fond of horses, and seemed at this time-to be governed by an impulse to drive and ride behind a good horse. A farmer of quiet, good dis position suffered from blanks of memory after drinking to excess. One day, in what seemed full consciousness of the sur rounding, he attacked a stranger and in lured him so that he died, lie had no recollection of the time, purpose, or any circumstances of the tragedy. A, periodi cal drinker, of wealth, .fired his buildings', and awaking w hen they had burned down, offered a large reward for the incendiary. To Ins great astonishment, the tire was readily traced to him; the circumstances and motive were all a perfect blank. A man of much talent and eminence, who drinks occasionally to excess, has on many occasions offered violence to his wife, whom he loves dearly. On these occasions he is apparently sober, gives reasons for his conduct, and after ward has not the slightest recollection of it. In a murder-trial recently, it appear ed that a drinking man drank early in the morning, then killed his wife, and went about his work in the vicinity, as if nothr ing had happened, all unconscious until arrested. He was sentenced for life, but has a firm conviction that he did not com mit thecrime, because he cannot conceive of a motive, and has no recollection of it. A clergyman committed a rape under the most extraordinary circumstances, and de nied all recollection of it; his drinking habits aad all the incidents of the case sustained his statement. A lawyer of rep utation planned the abduction of a lady he was going to marry. A man of a large family and happy domestic relations mar ried a notorious woman. A physician stole a large sum of money from a patient. A college graduate enlisted in the army. In each of these cases there was a history of drinking to excess, and each had -no memory of the event, and all the circum stances were so unusual and at variance with previous conduct that undoubtedly a trance state was present. These cases might be multiplied almost indefinitely from the records of criminal courts every where. Every day the papers record cases of crime, without motive or purpose, by inebriates who, in defence, claim to have no recollection of it; but, as they were not wildly delirious or stupid at the time of committing the act, they are punished as fully responsible. When the crime is of magnitude, and the defence is insanity, the explanation and theory are so far from the accepted views of experts as to confuse courts and juries, and be criticised and ridiculed by others. This defence oc curs most frequently in two forms of cases : One, of a chronic inebriate, who is all the time more or less under the influence of sprits, and who lives in a low moral at mosphere, in bad physical surroundings. Suddenly he eommits a crime, which is without motive, and seems a mere acci dent and result of unforeseen conditions. The second case is of a' man who may be a periodical inebriate, and of good character and reputation in everything except excess of use of spirits ; whose surroundings and general standing are good, and who com mits a homicide or some strange crime un der circumstances that are inadequate to explain or account for it. In both of these cases there is no recollection of any of the circumstances, and the defence is based on some specious reasoning and theories. There are evidently disorganized brain power, mental and physical incoordina tion, with defect and unsoundness of the reasoning powers, which can not be made clear to the court and jury. The preva lence of the theological theory, that all these strange, unaccountable acts of ine briates, who are not stupid at the time, or wildly delirious, come from vice and sin, is fatal to all scientific study and progress. This condition of trance, noted by absence of memory and consciousness, has been discussed by Dr. Carpenter, of England, under the title of "Automatic Cerebration,'' from which I quote the following sentence : "I have noticed some cases of drunken ness, in which such a suspension of mem ory and consciousness was noted, comint on unexpectedly, and then the patient was a victim to morbid impulses which he never realized or had any recollection of after." Dr. Hughlings Jackson writes at some length on mental automatism, follow ing transient epileptic paroxysms, in which this same condition is described at length as a form of sudden paralysis of the cerebral functions, or conditions of hy peremia and suspension of some control ling centres. The late Dr. Forbes Wins low describes ;a similar condition of trance and automatism where the person seeming ly acted as fully recognizing right and wrong, although consciousness was oblit erated. Dr. Hammond mentioned the case of a man who, after an attack of epi lepsy, went about for eight days in a trance state, doing business, and having no memory of it. Dr. Hughes has also mentioned similar cases. Abroad many eminent specialists, including such names as Drs. Bucknill, Clouston, Mercer, and Motet, of Paris, and others, have descriled this state associated with epilepsy, and following mental shocks in persons who are drunkards. These references are pre sented to show that the trance state has been observed by eminent men, although, not yet studied from the side of crime and responsibility. A large number of cases are constantly before the courts on trial for crime committed after and during ex cess in the use of alcohol crime that is purposeless, without motive or ob ject, and differing in the manner of execution, and effort to conceal after ward, from other crime of similar na ture in some cases noted for apparent coolness, without excitement, and cold heartedness or indifference to the nature of the act. In the defence, ' all recollection or consciousness of the event is denied, and many circumstances, seen both before and after the crime was committed, bear out this statement. These cases receive no study, and are punished, the result of which precipitates the victim into worse and more degenerate stages. Undoubtedly these cases are suffering from alcoholic trance, and have crossed the border-line of sanity and responsibility, and are as truly insane as the wildest maniac. In this trance state the jwrson is a mere automa ton in motion, either moving along cer tain fixed lines of conduct, or acting in obedience to unknown forces which may change or vary any moment. Some gov erning centre has suspended, and all re memberable consciousness of time and the relation of events has stopped. Changing thoughts and impulses, the suggestion of a disturbed organ, or the impression of a thought or desire felt in the past, may sud denly concentrate into action irrespective of consequences. Both subjective and ob jective states, influenced by conditions of health and brain-power, may develop into acts that will be unknown and unrecorded by the higher brain-centres. Clinical facts within the observation of any one will in dicate, without any kind of doubt, that in all cases of inebriety there are a defective brain-power and ability to recognize the natural gelations of life in all particulars. The sufferer is more or less incapable of healthy noraial thought and action ; he has opened the door for many complex nerv ous disorders, and the natural process of tearing down the structure is greatly ac celerated. If the trance state is found to be present, he has passed into the realm of practical irresponsibility aim unconscious-, ness of the nature and character of his ac tions. I believe the following summary will be found to outline the future recog nition and treatment of these cases: 1. Inebriety in all cases must be regard ed as a disev.se, and the patient forced to use the means for recovery. Like the vic tim of infectious disease, his personal re sponsibility is increased, and the commu nity with him are bound to insist on the treatment as a necessity. 2. Inebriety must be recognized as a con dition of legal irresponsibility to a certain extent, depending on the circumstances of each individual case. 3. All unusual acts or crimes committed by inebriates, either in a state of partial stupor or alleged amnesia (or loss of mem ory), which come under legal recognition, should receive thorough study by compe tent physicians, before the legal responsi bility can be determined. 4. When the trance state is established . i j 1 a. 1 : v. .. . . .1 i oeyonu uouui, uie person is uuiu jjujohji I ogically and legally irresponsible for his acts during this period. But each case should always be determined from the facts of its individual history. In the light of science the present legal treatment of inebriety is but little else than barbarism. The abject of the law, in punishment, benefits 110 011c, and makes the patient more incurable destroying all possibility of recovery and return to health again. Inebriety in any form may be no excuse for crime in a legal sense, but it is still less an excuse for punishment which destroys the victim, or makes him more helpless and hopeless. A vast army of in ebriates, hovering along these border lands of disease and crime, who are unknown and unrecognized, except "as vicious and desperately wicked," are a perpetual men ace to all progress and civilization, unless they can be reached and checked by ra tional, effective methods. A revolution of sentiment and practice is demanded, in which the inebriate and the conditions which developed his malady shall be un derstood ; then the means for prevention, restoration', and recovery can be- applied along the line of nature's laws. HUSBAND, WIVE AND CREDITOR. THE LEES. Reminiscences of Gen. Lee's Family. Whose Property are Wedding Presents! Are wedding presents the property of the wife or the husband? This curious question has been raised in the English courts. Mine. Mercier sued Mrs. V illiams for a bill of goods to the extent of five thousand dollars, supplied before the latter s mar riage. She recovered judgment and levied on Mrs. W Uliarns' jewels. 1 hey -were wedding presents and were claimed by the husband as his property. The case was tried before Lord Chief Justice Coleridge and a jury. He instructed the jury that in law the articles belonged to the hus band, and that accordingly the suit against the wife could not be maintained. An appeal was taken to the Divisional Court. The judges were equally divided. Then the Court of Appeal was called upon to decide the question. It held that loth the weddiug presents and other valuables owned by Mrs. Williams before her mar riage became the property of her husband, but that their ownership had been trans ferred to her by an ante-nuptial agree ment. This agreement provided that all property of the wife should be assigned to trustees for named purposes "except jew els, trinkets, ornaments of the person and articles of the like nature." These, it was declared in the agreement, should belong to her for her separate use. The case was then carried to the House of Lords, which has just given its opinion. It sustains the decision of the Court of Appeal that the jewels were the separate property of Mrs. Williams under the ante nuptial agreement. They were therefore liable to seizure by her creditors. The views of the House of Lords on the ques tion whether wedding presents become the property of the husband or belong to the wife do not appear iu the report of the opinion. The inference is that the House agrees with the Court of Appeal on this point also. KNOTTY' DIVORCE QUESTIONS In tbe New York Courts. A novel point in the law of marriage and divorce has leen raised in a case just argued before the General Term of the Supreme Court at Albany. The plaintiff sued the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad Company to re cover damages for personal injuries re ceived by his wife while a passenger on that road. The defence was that the per son injured was not the wife of the plain tiff. It was shown that she had been di vorced from her first husband in Massa chusetts aud it was claimed that she was prohibited by the statutes of that State from marrying again. Her marriage with the plaintiff took place in New Hampshire, and they have lived together as husband and wife for more than twenty years in the State of New York. The trial Judge held that they were not legally married, and gave judgment for the railroad company. The case was appealed to the General Term. The plaintiff contends First, that not withstanding the Massachusetts prohibi tion his marriage was valid by the law of that State, and, being good there, its validity must be recognized here; second, that living together as man and wife con stitutes a legal marriage in this State. The Court of Appeals at Albany has de cided that the prohibition in the New York statute does not prevent a person divorced in this State from marrying in another State and returning to live here in wedlock. Whether the same rule will apply to a person divorced in Massachu setts and subsequently getting married in New Hampshire may depend upon the wording of the prohibitory clause in the Massachusetts law, and also upon the stat utes of New Hampshire. There is no doubt, however, that if the marriage is valid by the law of the latter State it is valid in this State. If the New Hampshire mar riage should be held void, then an inter esting question is presented whether liv ing together makes the parties husband and wife under the law of this State. The opinion of the court of last resort in this case will doubtless prove an important contribution to the judicial discussion of the law of marriage and divorce. J. R. R. in New York World. At the recent opening of the Metropoli tan Museum of Art I saw among the many notable people there Miss Mary Lee, the second daughter of General Robert E. Lee. She is a plain-looking lady of thirty five, and, like her father, is altogether un pretentious. She wore a heavy cashmere wrap, and was in company with a lady similarly attired. Miss Mary Lee resem bles her mother in appearance more than her father. It is a remarkable fact that the only one of General Lee's children who at all resembles him is his eldest son, Gene ral G. W. Custis Lee, now the President of Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, Va. There are five of the Lee children three sons and two daughters. They were all born at Arlington, the old Custis homestead near Washington, where Mrs. Lee "continued to reside after her mar riage. The eldest daughter, Mildred, has travelled a great deal since the war, spend ing much of her time in Europe, but when here makes her home with her brother Custis at Lexington. Miss Mary, the next sister, also lives with him. Agnes, the youngest sister, died during the war at a health resort in North Carolina. None of the daughters married and Custis Lee is also single, but Runey Lee and Robert E., Jr., are both married and are both Vir ginia farmers. One of them only has chil dren, and the probabilities are that it is through him alone that the Lee family and the Custis family are to be perpetuated. Mrs. Robert E. Lee was the only child of George Washington Park Custis, who was the only son and heir of Martha Washing ton. It was from George Washington and Martha Washington that Custis obtained Arlington, which, at the opening of the war, was one of the finest pieces of coun try property of the South. It was the ideal Southern homestead. The Union forces took possession of it at the very opening of hostilities in 1861, and during the war it was converted into a national cemetery According to a proviso of the will of George Washington Park Custis the entire property was to go to the eldest son of Mrs. Lee. That eldest son was the present General G. W. C. Lee, and he obtained $125,000 from the Government in pay ment for Arlington last winter, there hav ing been a long contest at law about it. That money represents the bulk of the ! property now in possession of the Lee fam ily, and is but a trifling remnant of the magnificent estates they owned in Virginia before the war, not to speak of the hun dreds of slaves that belonged to these es tates. But the family has fared better than many others of the South that were equally wealthy before the war. General Custis Lee, though the legal possessor of the $125,000 he received for Arlington, has a big heart and makes the most liberal provision for his two maiden sisters. Though, as stated at the opening of this paragraph, Miss Mary Lee is a plain-looking lady, with no pretensions to beauty, she is gifted in intellect and is a most charming person. During the war she was most of the time in Richmond with her mother and sisters, and with them en dured many privations. I have seen a lit tle account-book in which there was a re cord of expenditures made on account of the little party that Mrs. Lec and her daughters messed with. It was seldom they had meat or rcoffee, and the most ex orbitant prices had to be paid for chick en or even green corn. The bulk of the diet was made up of rice, bread and such light articles, Mrs. Lee was one of the most patient and self-abnegating of wo men, and though a confirmed invalid dur ing the entire war in which her husband was such a prominent actor, never com plained, but was, in the face of constant misfortunes and threatened dangers, al ways resigned and serene. She maintain ed this character up to the very hour of her death. A touching story of which Miss Mary Lee is the heroine is that after one of the terrible battles near Richmond, just previous to the close of the war, she and some other ladies went on the field to render whatever assistance they could in the care of the wounded and dying soldiers of her father's army. One among those to whom she went to offer relief was a youth of not over sixteen, who had.been fatally shot and was ready to expire. She saw the poor fellow was going to die immedi ately, and being struck by his youth and neat attire asked him if he had any mes sages to leave behind. "Yes," said he; my name is , and my mother lives at : tell her. if you please, that I have fall noticed by several observers. An Eng lish scientist, Mr. E. Douglas Archibald, visiting the summit of Mount Washington on Septembers, at sunrise, noted, "in ad dition to the usual sunrise effects, a large circle of rosy purple haze situated above fifteen degrees above the horizon, and ap parently having no connection with, the yellow and red horizontal bands beneath it." Though this observer had witnessed the sun rising from various altitudes up to twelve thousand feet, he had never seen anything so curious as the sunrise on Mount Washington. His suggestion is that the rosy solar halo has of late become so conspicuous because, while the sunrise and sunset glows have exhibited a marked decline in duration and brilliancy since 1883, the halo has undergone no similar diminution of intensity, and thus attracts more attention relatively than it did at first. This explanation of the recent glows appears to be satisfactory as far as it goes; but astronomers will have to ex plain why, if the phenomenon is due to terrestrial dust floating in the upper at mosphere, it has been so rarely recorded in the history of their science.- THE STRANGE EPIDEMIC. THE "FRETFUL PORCUPINE" Frightening Dog and nan, Middletown, N. Y., Nov. 25. Porcu pines, which have been rarely seen in this region for many years, have appeared in large numbers in Orange and Sullivan counties and the Delaware Valley this fall. Coon hunters have had several en counters with these formidable and fierce little animals during the past few weeks, and many valuable dogs lave been dis abled by them. Isaac Fisher, of Carpen ter's Point, had a lively experience with a family of them on Friday. He was hunt ing along the Delaware below Fort Jervis, at a spot known as the Devil's Slide, when he discovered a large porcupine sunning itself on a rock. Fisher's dog attacked the animal, which lay dozing with its quills at rest, an apparently peaceable and harmless creature. At the first onslaught of the dog, however, the porcupine brought its sharp quills into play, and the dog beat a hasty retreat, with his head filled with quills, sunk deep in the flesh. The dog did not stop with his master, but kept on homeward, yelping at the top of his lungs, lhe noise of the short strug gle brought three more porcupines to the spot from somewhere in the brush, and the four rushed upon Fisher. He shot one of them dead, but the other three pressed him so closely that he was unable to load his gun, which he was forced to use as a club. Backing round and round the open suacc in the brush, he managed to keen 1 smther it the fierce animals from coming into close contact with him. but they kept up the at tack so persistently, managing to avoid all of his blows, that Fisher began to show signs of exhaustion. He was afraid to turn and run, as he did not know what the result might be if he did not keep the movements of his lively contestants under his eye. He finally began shouting loudly for help. Fortunately, a man who was hunting in the vicinity heard the cries, and appeared on the scene. He shot one of the three porcupines, and the remain ing two thereupon ran into the bushes and escaped. Elk mountains out of Sorts. Another Account of Its Ravages. The Louisville Courier-Journal recently sent a staff correspondent to investigate the reported ravages of the dread disease in Eastern Kentucky and Western Virginia. The correspondent sends the following from Williamsburg, Ky. : "W. C. Lester, a prominent attorney of this place has just arrived from Mount Pleasant, the county seat of Harlan. Mr. Lester has informa tion of the prevailing plague, principally from Harlan, Letcher, Perry, Leslie and Bell counties. He said that in Harlan it appears worse. It is most fatal and pre vails to the greatest extent up about the head-waters of the Poor Fork and Clover creek, in the mountains, and about 25 miles from Mount Pleasant. This large territory is being terribly afflicted, the people dying very rapidly. In one neigh borhood twelve persons died in a single day in the latter part of last week, and there were scarcely well people enough to make them coffins and bury them. On Brown's creek, which rises in Harlan and empties into the Cumberland river, in Bell county, the disease is raging with frightful fatality, and there is no means of keeping a record of the dead. All along the banks of the stream people are sick, and physi cians and medicines, outside of herbs and roots with whose curative properties the natives are acquainted, are unknown and unobtainable. The epidemic is rapidly spreading in Harlan county. In the dis trict covering the southern portion of Letcher and Perry, the whole of Leslie and the northwest portion of Bell coun ties, the plague has obtained a foothold, but the reports as to its violence are very conflicting. . "Mr. Lester thinks that the deaths run up into the hundreds, while the number of those attacked cannot be estimated. Mr. Lester says that no one seemed to know the exact nature of the pestilence. Most of the people called it 'flux,' and it is probably a very aggravated form of that disease. It begins with griping pains in the stomach, followed by a debilitating diarrhea and swelling of throat, and if not fatal in three or four days the patient, as a rule, recovers. All reports agree as to the cause of the epidemic, it being at tributed to the use of impure water by the natives. "The season has been unusually dry, the streams, as a rule, consisting only of narrow-threads of murky, foul-smelling and foul-tasting water. The corn crop in all the counties named above is good, and starvation and want only exist because the people can spare no time from the sick to No mills are running on the fingers and toes are regularly formed and perfect. The metatarsus bone (the bone from the knuckle to the middle joint) is ' perfect, the muscles are normal and the extra finger or toe is as serviceable as others; in fact, it is difficult to tell which is superfluous. A Fatal meteorite. New York Herald. An aerolite, according to a telegram from Hot Springs, Ark., instantly killed a farmer near that place Wednesday morn-";, ing. The report states that the meteorite-; descended through a tall tree, cutting the limb off as clean as a cannon ball -would have done. It is not often that fatal results follow from the fall of a sporadic meteor. The average weight of nine hundred and fifty such stones picked up and preserved in the Paris Museum is less than two and a half ounces, and it is in extreme Cases only that they penetrate the ground more than two or three feet. Fortunately, the stony masses which fly from distant space into our atmosphere move with a "demoniacal impetuosity," as Professor Ball calls it, to which the earth owes its safety. On the memorable night of November 12, 1868, the heaven was ablaze as with countless sky-rockets, and finally, as the swarm of Leonids came straight at the earth the meteoric tempest became really awful. But of all the myriads of shooting stars which then bombarded our planet not a single particle, according to the highest astronomical authority, has ever been re covered, the fiery masses having been sud denly reduced in the resisting medium of the atmosphere to harmless vapor. But this is not always the case with large, sto ny meteorites, which have, sometimes reached the earth's crust scarcely warm except on the surface, showing that their exterior may be melted by intense friction with the air, while the interior (the rigid mass being a poor conductor of heat) re tains something of "the cold of space." As the celestial projectile enters our lower atmosphere its velocity must be so much lessened that it would seem possible for a man watching its trail of fire and its line of flight to elude its fatal stroke. Elaborate Dog Jewelry. smaller streams. Will Blood Stains Wash Ont I Imports and Exports. just seen our splendid commander, General Lec, ride by, and that I am content to die." That was all. He never knew it was his splendid commander's daughter to whom he was confiding that final message. "Tbe Good Old Times." New Yoik Herald. The port of New York receives about two-thirds of the total foreign imports of the country, and sends out nearly one-half of its total exports. The returns for the month of October show that not for eight years have the exports from New York been so small in value, while we have only to go back five years to meet as small a total of imports as is here shown. It is not because wc do not have articles to sell that our exports do not grow. It has been shown again and again that the consuming power of the country is not enough to take what is produced. The widespread indus trial disturbance is a sign of this, for it is in a great measure due to excessive stocks for a limited market. The complaint is generally made that present prices do not return the cost of manufacture, yet buyers are not tempted to invest save for what their daily wants call. This is an abnor mal condition, and in one sense a healthy condition, for it marks an almost entire ab sence of speculative fever. But it is a question how much longer this state of af fairs can continue. It is certain that the country cannot much longer endure a se vere industrial depression and pay exorbi tant taxes out of productive industry without experiencing evils that may leave permanent and crippling influences'. Gone Farther Than to Canada. New York Tribune. The Rev. Dr. Talmage lectured last evening in the Thirty-third Street Baptist Church on the subject "Is the World Bet ter or Worse ?" In the course of his re marks he said: "I once asked my father, 'Is the world very much worse now than it used to be V 'Well,' said he, with a twinkle in his eye, 'the fact is that the world was never any better than it ought to be.' Laughter. People say, 'Look at the Church to-day !' Why right opposite the church in Somerville, N. J., there is a hotel, and here in former times, I was told, that the pastor and officers of the church would go in and refresh themselves before attending service. Laughter. The gaye ties and corruptions of to-day are nothing to what they were fifty years ago. It is said there is no royal road to learning. That was true, but it is not now. Astron omy is now as practical as agriculture. 'Think,' says Washington Irving, 'of the ministry having such men as Dean Swift and Sterne !' The world was much worse then than now. I don't see how our fa thers and mothers staid in it; although, ori our own account, I'm glad they con sented to do so." Laughter. J. T. S. Baird in Asheville Citizen. The morning" was exceedingly bright and almost ominously calm. At a point about due north of my home, and seem ingly just over the crest of the mountain, and at the hour above stated, there was what 6eemed to be a most terrific subter ranean explosion, followed by a very per ceptible jarring and trembling of the earth for miles around; and a heavy rumbling sound, as of the deep intonations of dis tant thunder, which came on with increas ing volume for several seconds. The sound proceeded with rapid undulating motion in an castwardly direction, follow ing the course of the mountain, and seem ing to traverse the deep bowels of the earth, until it reached a point on the hori zon of our valley about 45 degrees east from where it started, when it suddenly leaped forth from the bosom of the moun tain, and, lifting itself far above the hori zon, pealed out upon the ear like a mighty thunder bolt, and thus it ended as sudden ly as it began. I have conversed with one gentleman (Mr. A. E. Hemphill) who was on the top of the mountain in the immedi ate vicinity of where the first shock oc curred. He says that it seemed to be di rectly beneath him ; and the sensation was as though the whole mountain was tumb ling from its foundation with a fearful shaking and trembling of the earth. I learn that two other gentlemen, (Mr. Steve Munday and Mr. James Edwards) who were on the mountain some two miles farther east, describe the sound and the shaking and trembling of the mountain as most appalling and terrifying. I have seen other persons who felt and heard the shock many miles away. But what ren ders it really phenomenal was its recur rence about sunset on the evening of the same day. I Cincinnati Enquirer J To the present day the superstition is rife that blood stains cannot be washed out. During the French Revolution eighty priests were massacred in the Carmelite chapel at Paris, and the stains (called) of their blood are pointed out to-day. Sir Walter Scott, in his "Tales of a Grand father," declares that the blood 6tains of David Rizzio, the Italian private secretary of Mary Queen of Scots, who was stabbed in Holyrood Palace by certain Protestant leaders of her court, aided by her hus band, Darnley, are still to be seen. In Lancashire the natives show a stone called the "Bloody Stone," which was so mark ed to show Heaven's displeasure at some of Cromwell's soldiers' atrocities at Gallows Croft. In "Macbeth," act 5, scene 1 Shakespeare alludes to the idea: "Yet here's a spot." The truth about blood not washing out can easily be explained. In the first place, if that of a murdered per son, it is not often attempted. In the next place, blood contains oxide of iron, which sinks deep into the fibre of wood and proves indelible to ordinary washing. Thus it is true that stone of a porous na ture and wood not of hardest kind are susceptible to the stain of blood pro duced by the oxide of iron which the blood contains. But the blood of a pig is as, good as that of a murdered mau. Philadelphia Times. "What pretty silver bracelets," chat tered one of three young ladies looking into the show window of a Chestnut street store on Saturday .afternoon; "but they are so large." "Gracious me! they are dog-collars, Sue I" "So they are!" exclaimed Sue, in astonishment. "Let's go inside and look, at them." "There has been a new departure in dog-collars," said the clerk, after the young ladies had satisfied their curiosity and gone out. "A fashionable lady can also use her dog's collar as a bracelet, as the new collar has a eliding arrangement that allows of its being made small enough to fit the wrist. The idea was brought out by a very wealthy widow, one of our customers, who dotes upon-her Italian hound. She has had about a dozen com bination collar-bracelets made, both in gold and silver. The diamonds in one of them are valued at $600. When she is preparing to go out with the dog she gen erally lays the collar-bracelets in a row before the animal and he selects the one he is to wear. He is a very intelligent hound. Dog jewelry is becoming more elaborate and costly than ever, with gold plated leading chains, solid gold anklets, and blanket monograms." Frozen Kindness. Bill of Lading Agreements. The Republican nistake. The "Red Sunsets" of 1884. A defaulting bank cashier was shot on Wednesday at Monmouth, 111., by a man who had sustained heavy losses through the failure of the bank. New York Herald. The red sunsets which were so conspic uous a year ago have excited this autumn great attention in both hemispheres. The various theories propounded to account for the phenomenon, especially that which at tributed the sky glows to vast clouds of volcanic dust discharged at the eruption of Krakatoa in August, 1883, seem to have lost ground, and some new hypothesis is needed to clear up the mystery. The Eng lish astronomer, Mr. Backhouse, reports in Nature his observations of a red corona round the sun, which, he says, "is still Elainly visible in England." " It has been abitual," be adds, "for me to scan the neighborhood of the sun for halos during twenty-ffive years, and I never observed it previous to the date mentioned" Novem ber, 1883. The reddish halo to which Mr. Back house has called attention has been this LNcw York Sun. In political rights the white man and the black man stand on a level before the law and under the Constitution. 'If the the South had the power to take away suf frage from the negro, it is the very last thing that would be attempted. If the Republican party had the power to undo this privilege, it would be a part of their future platforms. The conditions have changed through differing interests. The negro is indispensable to the South for his labor, and he is 4mmensely valuable as a new factor in politics. The South has therefore the first interest in protecting the black man, not only for the reasons given, but because the increase of the col ored population will constantly re-enforce its representation in Congress, and corres pondingly in the Electoral Colleges. Mr. Blaine ought to have railed against the policy of his party, which he sustained throughout, instead of assailing the South, which had no part nor lot in bringing about the present condition of things. His defeat as a candidate for the Presidency was one of the fruits of that policy. The Southern States could not have mustered one hundred and fifty-three electoral votes if the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amend, ments had not been passed. New York Herald. 1 The opinion rendered by the United States Supreme Court last week in the case of Hart against the Pennsylvania Railroad Company settles a point of much practical interest to shippers. Hart had shipped five horses under a bill of lading which limited the liability of the company to two hundred dollars for each horse lost or injured through the company's negligence. In a suit to recover for the loss of the ani mals Hart alleged that they were race horses, whose actual value was far beyond the valuation stated in the bill of lading, and he claimed that the company was lia ble for the full value. The Supreme Court decides otherwise. It holds that where the conditions of the bill of lading are knowingly and willingly accepted by the shipper the company is not liable beyond the valuation agreed upon. The question is not what the actual value of the lost property may be, but what valuation has been mutually fixed in the bill of lading. Dr. Holland. The world is full of kindness that never was spoken, and that is not much better than no kindness at all. The fuel in the stove makes the room warm, but there are great piles of fallen trees lying on rocki and on tops of hills where nobody can get them ; these do not make anybody warm. You might freeze to death for want of wood in plain sight of these fallen trees if you had no' means of getting the wood home and making a fire of it. Just so in a family; love is what makes the parents and children, the brothers and sisters hap py. But if they take care never to say word about it, if they keep it a profound secret as if it were a- crime, they will not be much happier than if there was not any love among them; the house will seem cool even in summer, and if you live there you will envy the dog when any one calls him poor fellow. Does a Ulan Have Rights f Some Battles of the War. General William Preston. There were three battles of the late war, all of them greater than the battle of Wa terloo, Shiloh, Stone River and Chicka mauga. Each of them was most stub bornly contested, and the losses on each side considerably greater than at Waterloo. Shiloh I regard in many respects the great est battle of the world. It was practical ly the crowning glory of American 4valor. Here were two great armies of raw troops who met in the shock of battle and never flinched. It was the most stubbornly con tested battle of modern times. Once when Sir Garnet Wolseley, the present com mander of the English army, asked me at a dinner party at Montreal, if the South could not have held out longer, I replied : "As a mere matter of physical endurance, yes; but do you know, sir, that in the four years of war through which we passed, the South alone, with its few millions of people, lost more men than England did in all its wars from William the Conqueror to Queen v ictona ? Superfluous Fingers and Toes. Family Teeth. New York Tribune. A small boy rushed into the office of a Brooklyn dentist recently. "Say ! Doctor," he exclaimed, "moth er's false teeth ar botherin' 'er, an' she wants to get 'em fixed." "Why didn't your mother have the plate attended to when it was first made?" asked the dentist. "Well, because mother's been dead two years. Stepmother's wearin' the teeth, an' she says they grip 'er awfully." New York Herald. In an opinion just published the Gene ral Term of the Supreme Court in this city affirms the following principles touching the rights and liabilities of married wo men in this State: Firtt A married woman doing business on her own account may employ her hus band at a stated salary. Second The husband cannot enforce the payment of his salary by an action against his wife. Third The husband may assign his claim, and the assignee may sue the wife. Fourth A creditor of the husband may maintain legal proceedings against the wife to get possession of any, unpaid sala ry due him. Western North Carolina Progress. Albany Journal. There is a remarkable family living in the Sixteenth Ward. It has been natural, as far back as the wife's family can recol lect, for her parents, grand-parents and great-grand -parents, and their children, to be blessed with six toes on either or both feet, or six fingers on one or both hands. Of the 'present family, the mother has twelve toes, as has her father and nearly all others of her family. She has three children, two of whom have each twelve toes, and the youngest child had six fin gers, but one. on each hand had been suc cessfully amputated. What is most re markable in this family is that the extra New York Post. After a six weeks' sojourn in Western North Carolina, studying its people, ex amining its resources, and noting the vari ous smaller industries which it has now undertaken and is carrying on successfully, 1 I am satisfied that the Eastern and Pied mont sections of the State will soon be outstripped in that which is making the . real greatness of North Carolina, indus trial progress, and that they will be forced soon 10 yield the palm, not only in wealth and enterprise, but in all that goes to make a prosperous civilization, to this mountain region. The "Crying Necessity." Snow Hill Telegraph. There should be at least eighteen Su perior Court Judges and five Supreme Court Judges. Or shall the civil be di vorced from the criminal courts, and we have niae criminal judges at a salary of say $2,000, as criminal practice is much easier than civil? This is the crying ne cessity of the times, and the party in power which longer neglects to supply us with" these needed judges, or some other system' in their stead, will, it seems to us, fail to , meet the requirements of the times. Learning White Folks' Ways. A colored man of Round Mountain, Choctaw Nation, last week eloped with an other's wife; the husband pursued the Eair, blew out the roan's brains and brought ack his wife. 1 r L
The Weekly Raleigh Register (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 3, 1884, edition 1
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